TWICE As KPOP fans,
obviously you know the thrills when hearing your favorite group is preparing for a comeback, right?
However, looking back at the six years active of TWICE and the amount of their activities,
fans have been more worried than happy. Since each comeback would drain idols out,
which also explains why most acts will just have one to two, or maximum three, comebacks per year,
TWICE went way beyond that number and not only promoted in South Korea,
the girls must also travel back and forth to Japan nonstop.
While you already know that TWICE was and has always been overworked by JYP Entertainment, do
you know exactly the amount of work that they had to deal with over the past six years?
Apparently most of the answers are no but fortunately, you don’t need to do
the calculations because recently, a ONCE gathered all the information and found out they had up to
30 comebacks throughout only six years into the industry. Actually till this point, this number
is 33 because the statistics was done before JYP Entertainment announced three other ones:
Taste of Love, Perfect World, and the First Full English Digital Single.
If you use a bit of Math, you’ll see they have on average 6 comebacks per year,
which is twice or sometimes three times more than most groups, and because the
preparation for each promotion lasts around two months, they obviously had no time to rest.
After the fan base-building phase in 2015 where the group had just debuted, JYP Entertainment
started to drain out the group from then on. The peak of this whole thing was the stage from 2016
to 2018, also the golden era of TWICE, where they constantly promoted in both South Korea and Japan.
2017 witnessed the first unbelievably packed schedule of the group
when they had up to four promotions: Knock Knock, Heart Shaker, Likey, and Signal in South Korea,
not to mention another named One More Time in Japan. As if that wasn’t crazy enough, the number
was then pushed to seven in 2018 where TWICE had four comebacks in Korea and three in Japan.
With this amount of work, resting is a luxury and apparently TWICE were in
the middle of promotions for one comeback and would have to start preparing for their next.
The saddest thing is that, if you factor in appearances at music festivals,
awards events, variety shows, photoshoots, radio interviews, shooting ads, and more,
you’ll see the overwhelming pressure that TWICE had to take was not something everyone can endure.
Reacting to the post compiling all comebacks of TWICE, besides comments admiring the hard-working
of all members, lots of them were criticizing the exploiting attitude of JYP Entertainment.
According to fans, JYP was treating them like some mere money-making robots
rather than humans and some also believed because of such greedy strategies of JYP,
many members suffer from both mental and physical illnesses.
If you follow the recent promotion Alcohol Free, you’ll notice how Jeongyeon couldn’t
take it anymore despite her effort to return. Because for each comeback, TWICE had to not only
prepare for music shows but also tons of other activities, Jeongyeon obviously couldn’t catch up
with all that and the proof is how she tried hard compressing the pain while performing on Inkigayo
Recently, she was again announced to have
gone on the second hiatus due to panic and psychological anxiety.
So do you think this alarming signal would make JYP second-guess about their overloading schedule
for TWICE? Well, definitely not. Despite the announcement about Jeongyeon’s critical condition
and the complaints of ONCEs over the past months, the company still went ahead with their plan.
G-FRIEND Initially debuting from a small company,
it’s actually nothing much of a surprise when G-FRIEND had to work super hard to get to where
they are right now. The thing is, while the group should have been allowed to rest a little
bit after building themselves a solid fanbase and earn Source Music a bunch of money, their schedule
was even more packed when the company realized how much more they could get from the girls.
Recently, amid the heated debate where fans speculated that G-FRIEND disbanded for individual
sake, a BUDDY took to Twitter and said if people want to know about the real reasons, just watch
the interview between G-FRIEND and MMTG. Here, all members were reflecting on how hard they had
to work and after Yerin shed tears, Yuju went on to explain there was a long period where they were
literally drained out of all energy
Things were so bad at that time that Yuju had to opt for the last resort,
pulled out her wisdom teeth and underwent a huge amount of pain just to get some rest
Following the story, other members also expressed how much they related to Yuju’s exhaustion
and revealed they had to get up so early to practice that they always
woke up in the morning feeling kinda triggered.
Back in 2016, SinB made headlines for collapsing right on stage
and in 2017, Yuju was also rushed to the hospital after fainting in pain at their own fansign.
Though G-FRIEND didn’t comeback as many as TWICE, they were probably just as overworked with other
activities outside the music career. Back in 2019 when they released the full-length album
Time For Us, a BUDDY went online and complained that Source Music should have let them rest
instead of draining them out. She noticed how all the girls suddenly sounded bad and shaky
at 28th Seoul Music Award and especially for Yuju, she somehow couldn’t hit any high notes
Moreover, some were also upset at the way Source Music managed G-FRIEND because there
was a time Yuju lost 6kg and looked so thin that even fans had to question what was going on.
Under another discussion of Allkpop asking about the real reason for G-FRIEND’s disbandment,
netizens also commented that the girls were so overworked
that disbanding was kinda the last resort to rest and balance between work and life.
NCT’s Taeyong While NCT is a group with up to 23 members,
that doesn’t mean SM will promote them equally and not overwork some certain ones.
While there will be three members who have names on the list, let’s start first with
the well-rounded leader of NCT—Taeyong. While NCT is divided into five sub-units,
Taeyong is already in three of them. This along with how he is the leader and always has to
carry a literal mountain of responsibilities on his shoulders, he never really got to rest.
Besides being a member of NCT, Taeyong is also part of SuperM, one of the costliest
projects of SM Entertainment to penetrate further into the West.
So basically, adding all those activities together, all the schedules across borders
and that was not counted how he was recently chosen to be the judge on Street Women Fighter,
it’s hard to not admit how Taeyong’s capability to endure is just as great as a superhuman.
While working hard to build a solid fanbase is a must considering how confusing the concept
of NCT system is to the public, fans still find it hard to accept how he even risked his health
to perform. If you’re NCTzens, for sure you remember the time Taeyong’s disc injuries
turned worse but he still had to perform, right? During that period, fans were super furious
since though he was reaching the limit, continuously limping and holding his waist
when travelling around, SM Entertainment still made him accomplish the schedule in Japan.
In fact, fans have been throwing hands at SM Entertainment all this time because they not only
overworked Taeyong but also covered up his health problems for the sake of making him work more.
For example, there was a time fans could only find out about Taeyong’s condition through Doyoung’s
Bubble message and for another time, they found out SM lied about Taeyong’s hiatus when in fact,
he was preparing for two huge comebacks at the same time.
NCT’s Mark
Similar to Taeyong, Mark was also the member made to overwork by SM Entertainment
and at this point, some must stop hating these boys and understand being two most famous members
of a twenty-three-person group comes with hefty prices that not everyone can afford.
As of now, Mark is the member of three sub-units, NCT U, NCT 127 and NCT Dream. However, to be
more exact, if you also count SuperM, NCT 2020 (aka the big project comprising all the members
debuting), and WayV, Mark is basically a member of all fourth-gen groups that SM set eyes on.
So, do you think with this overwhelming workload, he can ever have a proper rest?
Obviously, the answer is no and even worse than the situation of Taeyong,
Mark has never taken a day off since debut.
For example, in 2021 only, Mark had one comeback in Japan,
five in Korea, and one more for SuperM aiming at the Western market.
His condition is so bad that fans have multiple times spotted him lifeless at the airport
and according to some, Mark has always been homesick
since he hasn’t come back to Canada for four years.
Mark’s schedule has always been so packed that whenever a topic of “overworking KPOP
idols” pops up, his name is always there on the top. Even non-fans noticed this
and ever since Mark was just 17, people were already shook by the way SM made him overwork.
Some even wondered how he managed to be alive with that hectic schedule and even when he’s physically
strong enough to handle that, they believed his mental health must have been suffering a lot.
Besides these names, do you want to add some others onto the list?
Comment down below to share your thoughts with us. Also, don’t forget to like,
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