it's always women, it's always "Mia and friends", "Jennie and the backup dancers"
"Soyeon and Friends" it's always, always women. maybe you guys should just focus
on the fact that your groups are still promoting right now because you never
know when that shit's gonna end.. so today's video is super exciting because
we are going to be talking about favoritism in kpop so of course we're
going to talk about third and fourth gen examples but we're also going to be
discussing their second gen counterparts. I'm not really sure what I'm gonna name
it yet, but you will of course know before me because time isn't real! but
seriously I've been around the block... all of my favs have disbanded... everything is
fine... and as your second favorite kpop boomer I thought it would be a good idea
to give my perspective on the issue, I definitely think there's a lot to learn
about companies who push a certain member over the rest. whether it's more
screentime, more lines, more opportunities outside of
the group, sometimes a members favoritism is very obvious and sometimes it works
out fine but other times it ends disastrously...is that a word? and truthfully it's a
phenomenon that has been going on for a really long time and you guys have been
asking me to make a dedicated video ever since I released Everglow and Mia's
favoritism so here it is! so without further ado let's get started
actually I'm gonna stop you right there it's remaini to subscribe like comment
and share this video with friends you don't have also try to convince them to
join my channel memberships they're kind of cool, like you can get a Kevin emoji
beside your name, just saying. I feel like the big three are often quite mentioned
and that is Jennie from blackpink, Mia from everglow and Soyeon from (G)I-dle or
just Idle, does anyone even pronounce it just Idle anymore? or we all just
collectively decided that it's okay to pronounce the G? and these three idols
are probably third and fourth gen's best examples when it comes to favoritism and
their companies really pushing them as centers of their groups despite being in
a group, I think that's where a lot of the anger comes from
"how do you debut a group with many people and then blatantly decide to centre
one of the members" so let's talk a little bit about Jennie I mean Jennie is probably
the biggest modern-day example of this happening, back in the day she was really
accused of having the best outfits, she was the first one to get a solo and the
only member to get a solo might I add. people would accuse her of being YG's
princess and though I feel like those accusations have somewhat died down, I
feel like it just it just kind of sticks with her no matter what but what's
interesting about Jennie's case is that I don't particularly think that she
necessarily has more lines or way more screentime in fact the accusations of
her favoritism lie mostly in the fact that fans think that she has better
fashion which is actually quite subjective and I think the second thing
that people get mad when it comes to Jennie is the fact that she was the first
and only member to have gotten a solo and the fact that she got it so early in
her career, but honestly this is kind of a trend for yg
anyways, I mean if we do take a look at 2NE1 we see that BOM got her solo the same
year that 2NE1 debuted so I don't really think that Jennie getting a solo so early
in her career is that crazy of a concept to have in mind
but then again 2NE1 in Blackpink's treatment is very different because
though BOM did get her solo, CL and Minzy also got a subunit and released the song
"please don't go" and Dara also released a solo as well with "kiss" and all this
happened within this same year, meanwhile we're still waiting for a certain
promised solo but I don't feel like rehashing right now... "I rushed to put out
a prediction video for her solo like I rushed it was stressing me out cuz I
really wanted it to come out before her solo and I ended up just clowning myself
because that was five months ago" heartbreak aside I digress Jennie's
second gen counterpart was indeed CL and in fact I remember a specific event
where 2NE1 had to evacuate Japan and CL left first alone on
by herself and the three other members left together on a separate plane and I
do remember fans being very upset about this like why would you separate the
members like that? why is CL the one leaving all by herself?
and people were accusing her of being of course, being YG's princess and I mean among other
things she did get more duets, you know more opportunities to do musical things
outside of 2NE1 and she was the fashionista of the group but I mean quite
honestly we all know that Dara had the most standout fashion but oddly enough
she didn't receive as much hate as Jennie does for sticking out fashion wise
moving on to Soyeon I've made videos about this in the past if you'd like to check
them out after you're done with this what but I mean she's another Idol who
is accused of stealing the limelight because she takes such a huge part in
the production of gee idols music people are more quick to accuse her of wanting
to steal the limelight from the other members rather than saying like it's a
company thing when in reality Cube has been guilty of doing this
notably for 4minute, there's no doubt that she is talented however I'm
just saying that maybe it's more of a company issue rather than one girl in a
group trying to overshadow other members purposefully if that makes sense because
historically the data shows it's it's it's it's a trend! Hyuna from 4Minute's
favouritism did not go unnoticed and 4Minute for those who don't know was a
five-member girl group who were also under the same company, cube
entertainment. they released hits such as "huh" which I honestly thought they were
saying "say hyung" which is not the case and of course a "volume up" one of the
most iconic 4-minute songs in my opinion and Hyuna definitely had the most
opportunities out of all of the members, I mean before even joining for a minute
she had the hype of having been a former member of the Wonder Girls she did have
other solos but when she released bubble pop it absolutely blew up and changed
the kpop world as we knew it she also collab with Psy, she had a duet
with Hyunseung from beast and formed troublemaker
another super innovative project that you know...was innovative. she seemed to
have always been centered in 4-minute no matter what, there was no way that you
couldn't know about Hyuna and you know I was just a casual for a minute stan, I
guess you could say, I can only name two members.. but you see that's the
interesting thing about second gen kpop. it wasn't really a big deal back then if
you weren't an all knowing being about the group's you listen to, you could just
casually like a group casually quote-unquote Stan a group but now I feel
like there's a certain criteria and if you don't adhere to that specific
criteria, then you're a fake fan and you're not welcomed into the fandom
and you're not allowed to you know listen to the music. I just feel like
there's a lot of gatekeeping, like if I don't know every single member in order
of age, height or astrological sign then then I'm just not welcome in this
community! but I mean back to Hyuna's favoritism, kpop shake actually made a
video about 4-minute and their disbandment so if you want to check that
out, you know she does talk a little bit about Hyuna's favoritism as well and I
think she does a really good job at expressing you know the societal
animosity that people did have towards Hyuna and how they blamed her for 4Minute's
disbandment so I'll leave a link down below to that video if you're
interested in checking it out after you're done with this one of course and
then of course we have Mia which is the most a recent example as everglows
screen time and line distribution has come into question, and in my video we
did look into the line distribution and I mean of course it is pretty bad but I
also don't think it's the worst I've ever seen either, but that's just my
opinion definitely would be curious to know what you think! in all of these
examples we have a member who is seemingly pushed by the company as the
center of their group despite being in a group and people often argue "well if
you're going to only centered one member why didn't you make that member go solo"
and I think there's a lot to kind of debunk with that statement I mean first
of all groups are so incredibly popular and the more members you have in a group
I mean the more chances are that someone will connect
with one member more than others I mean it's just it's just science, I don't
know, it's just it's a little funny to me how we're all allowed to
have a bias in the group you know a member who we technically love more but
then if you're a solo stan, people throw a fit and I expressed this earlier in
the video that there is a lot more gatekeeping in 3rd gen and fourth gen then
there ever really was in second gen, kpop shake will agree that you don't have to
love every single member I mean some people are casual listeners some people
just literally don't care about much and that's okay, like I can say that I loved
4-minute, but did I know every single song? no. did I listen to their entire
discography? no, absolutely not but I did appreciate the songs that they did put
out and I did follow them you know casually and I think that should be okay
but I don't know let me know what you guys think in the comments down below
but pushing every single member equally in terms of promotion is not possible
and is not going to be beneficial for the company at the end of the day I mean
if you have one member who you see is more popular than other members
logistically it makes sense to capitalize off that shit and I don't
think that the company necessarily wants to be malicious but rather has a similar
interest as you and maybe it's more rooted in money but I do think they just
want to keep the group alive at the end of the day but it does become an issue
especially in a group like blackpink who has four members, I mean if you're
showing favoritism towards one or two members in a four member group, it looks
a lot worse and is a lot more noticeable. so the more we look into it
the more we can really see that these companies have done this before and
maybe these second gen examples are proof that it has been done before and
maybe it's a little bit of a consolation but at the same time every single, you
know, second gen group that I'm gonna mention have disbanded so maybe in that
sense as well it goes to show perhaps the future of our current faves and
another 2nd gen example is Tia from Chocolat! "You mean Chocolate?" CHOCOLAT! look I mean chocolate Chocolat
"you're not f***** French Pete it's called chocolate" they were pushed as you know
k-pops first biracial girl group and if you'd like to check them out I
definitely recommend the song black tinkerbell, it is actually the song in
the intro to my vlog channel which you should also check out and I love them so
much but it was no secret that they were pushing TIA as their Center, as their
main everything, she got like a contract with Lioele, her screen time was a lot
more than the other members, like you could definitely see the favoritism like
I didn't really care I still don't entirely care about favoritism but I
understand it is something that makes a lot of people angry
another example Suzie from Miss A who was also pushed in many other facets
including acting, does everyone remember dream high? *sings Genie* that was kind of good and again
I loved miss A just as much as the next casual stan but it was never really
anything that I noticed until people in the modern day started talking about
it and like I said maybe if you are a casual stan it is something that won't
really touch your heart as much as if you are a hardcore stand but then again
if I do go back to the groups that I stand hardcore like let's say 2NE1,
I can definitely acknowledge that sometimes the line distribution wasn't
the best but at the same time I didn't really care back then it wasn't
something but hurt me back then and and here's a little bit of advice from
someone who has gone through a lot of you know kpop disbandment maybe you guys
should just focus on the fact that your groups are still promoting right now
because you never know when that shit's gonna end but of course we cannot talk
about favoritism and kpop without bringing up a type of double standard
because I don't know if you noticed but every single example that I've given in
this video are women, you never really hear that a boy group is "insert idol male idol name and friends" it's always women
it's always Mia and friends, Jennie and the
backup dancers, Soyeon and Friends.. it's always always women but it doesn't mean
that certain members in boy groups aren't pushed to the forefront, aren't
pushed as centers of their groups, it just shows that you know
societal reaction is a little bit different for boy groups...when is it not?
at the end of the day this is something that companies do and I feel like they
do it because it makes the most profit for them if you see a member is really
popular you need to you need to capitalize on that and the biggest issue
when companies do this is that they inevitably paint their female artists in
the worst light possible because we never associate men with trying to steal
the limelight, with being you know fame-hungry, but we'll do exactly that in
a heartbeat for an idol like Jennie or Hyuna and I'm
sure if you looked into it like statistically and shit you'd also find a
correlation between the member who is the most pushed to the center and them
also being the most hated member of that group so yeah generally I really don't
care about favoritism and it's never really been something that I paid much
attention to historically because if you think about it if your group is still
together it is still promoting there's a lot to appreciate you know you can
appreciate the styling you can appreciate the fact that you're living
through the era as it's happening but if you're so focused on the little details
that ultimately in the grand scheme of it all doesn't mean much then you're
losing out on precious time you could have with your idols, that sounds very
delulu of me but I mean I'm in a mood right now but what I can say is that I
do take issue with favoritism when it comes to people's reactions to it
because most of the time these public reactions to the accusations made
towards these idols definitely do not paint them in the right light and it's
definitely most of the time majority of the time towards female idols but the
question remains do you think this is something that ultimately leads to the
downfall of the group? do you think groups like blackpink and (G)i-dle and
everglow are ultimately going to fail because of their company's consistent
need to center one of their members over the rest? or do you think third and
fourth gen is gonna find a way to overcome this? I'd be curious to know in
the comments down below so that's basically it for this video
thank you so much for watching don't forget to subscribe like comment share
with friends you don't have and join my channel memberships and now I'm not
unblocking markly spears from twitter bye