Firestar

They just don't care is the answer. They assume, correctly, that the stans will buy anything they put out, support them in anything they do, and harrass anyone who writes anything negative, no matter if it is true. Also, it's mostly bad PR in Korea, and they've long past stopped caring about Korea, they're looking to milk the global market. If when they get their special military exemptions the Korean public turns on them... they won't care, they'll just promote internationally, they already are going heavy on English songs, written and produced by Western Artists to try and win a Grammy.

A nice reminder for people..... Other than IU (maybe BTS?) Trot is more popular in the Korean general public than idols.

I'd say it's two level... it's to: 1. encourage the most popular groups to do their shows, particularly when more than 1 big group is promoting at once 2. make sure that they don't end up with groups from small companies winning too often It's a two sided equation. KBS ensures that say BTS, Twice, etc. Will do shows every once in a while, in return, groups like La Serrafim, are almost guaranteed quick wins on their first release so they can push press about it.

Actually they changed the formula to make sales less important back in February

Broadcast score might as well be called "corporate bribe score" at this point, it's completely based on play, which is based on choices by KBS, which are obviously based on relationships with companies and favor trading. They changed the formula specifically so they could use broadcast score to make sure they could decide who won every week in favor of their partners. People make it sound like KBS is just an open mic, and anyone who wants to gets to appear on and get play on their programs, TV and Radio.... it isn't, they pick who they want to promote.

Honestly to me the best part about this books isn't getting to hear her side of the SNSD breakup... I honestly don't care. It's the descriptions of how K-pop company and group dynamics work from someone who was involved at the highest level a performer can be. The bits about contracts, exploitation, rich parent bribes, how the whole "the company is a family" and "the group is like a family" tropes are obviously untrue. I think it would be good for stans to read this (it's not exactly Shakespeare) in terms or recognizing, this is a job. The company is looking to wring as much money out of these performers as possible, and have as much control as they can. The performers and their families are trying to get as much money and fame out of it as they can. I would bet every group and major company is like this. Sure some are closer friends than others, but it's still a job.

Yeah it's all plausible deniability. Jessica gets to write a book and everyone knows it's about her and her past. SM won't get asked any questions by the SK press about it because "it's fiction", since it won't be some huge story in Korea, SM won't sue her because they haven't been defamed by "fiction". SM gets to pretend none of the stories are what really happened (even though everyone who reads the book obviously knows what it's about), Jessica gets to sell books without fear of a lawsuit... everyone is generally happy.

More confirmation of something everyone knew is that she has a scene where the "fictionalized" SM tells Mnet that they will pull all their artists from every Mnet program if they don't blacklist N&G (the fictionalized JYJ)

Torn on what I think they'll do. On the one hand, none of them have the kind of no doubt solo careers to turn to, and they almost certainly would have the most money/fame by keeping the group together. On the other hand, they don't have no doubt solo careers in part because JYP has done their best as a company to limit their individual success (limited solo work, almost no acting work, no personal branding like Instagrams, etc.), likely specifically so they re-new. And... do they really want to do the girl group thing for another 3-5 years at JYP where for better or worse they are expected to basically continually pump out content? Wouldn't be that surprised if at least a few of them choose to go the solo route, at worst they can open a personal Insta and rake in product money while they figure out their next move.

If you don't realize why Soojin was different that almost all bullying scandals you weren't paying attention. She made the mistake of pulling someone else famous into it. Most of the time the company threatens to, or does sue anyone who says anything and it gets buried under the power of the company. The only bullying scandals that go anywhere is where one of the accusers is also a celebrity (or I guess if they were a Chaebol or something and had power that way).

We don't know the full truth, but always remember... there is a reason they are called Stans, they have zero connection to reality, these are the same type of people who spend hours a day defending men who plead guilty to crimes, or tell you they "know him and he would never do that", when anyone rational realizes that you know almost nothing about any idol beyond what their company wants you to know. Idols are all actors playing a singular role, you know the real them no more than watching a drama character means you know the actor playing the character.

I have kind of always thought that outside a few girls who just can't hide it (the Ambers of the world) a lot of the most flirty girls are likely straight and the actually gay girls are likely the ones who are least fanservice focused because they are actually closeted. For straight girls there is no risk in being flirty, the fans like it, you aren't worried about being outed. I certainly think that basically any "intra-group" ships are bogus, that's for the fans.

Sadly the most psychotic and delusional group of all the gg shippers has caught wind and are spamming the hell out of deb's insta with hate so she's deleting stuff and locking down all her comments.

Mentioned it in the show thread, but BG is going to get sent home because of how Mnet set up the voting. Giving people 2 votes instead of ranking means everyone votes for whoever they stan and 1 other. Hyolyn is crushing because basically everyone who is a stan of another group is voting for her with their 2nd pick. What that means is that outside Hyolyn all the groups are basically getting ordered by how big a fanbase they already had, and BG has a small one. THey are also more popular with the Korean GP than they are with the kind of international stan groups that hammer voting. If they did rankings I bet some of the small groups would get 3rd and 4th place votes and some of the big groups would get 5th and 6th place votes, so there would be more drama in the rankings and it would probably be more accurate to performances. As it is... expect it to basically be the same order every time unless they change the voting mid-way through

Not sure why people were surprised. Nothing trumps company stans in K-pop, they were always going to buy this album, what the music sounded like, what the concept was, none of that was ever going to matter. There is very close to nothing that was going to stop this group from selling albums, the only question was going to be whether they cut a member loose or not. I mean that's what makes big business idol groups, big business idol groups, it's not about the music it's about the parasocial relationship and the transitive success.

That would be even worse, because then almost nobody is voting for who they think actually performed well, just "this is the group I already liked" and the performances don't matter at all, they should go to ranked voting, so you have to rank each group 1-6, that way sure the groups with a lot of stans will get a good boost, but then the groups with smaller fanbases will get scores based more accurately on their performance. So if say Brave Girls had a good stage, they might rack up 3rd and 4th place votes to offset having the least 1st place. Or say one of the popular groups has a bad stage... sure they'll get a bunch of stan 1st place votes, but they'll also get a lot of 5th and 6th place votes to even it out.

Brave Girls is in trouble. They haven't been the worst, but the way the voting is set up (top 2) you have to either have a big fanbase or get a lot of the "2nd" votes (like Hyolyn does by being amazing)... Brave Girls has the smallest fandom by a lot, and slotting into the middle of the pack in terms of performances means they'll finish 6th twice and get sent home. If voters had to rank 1-6 they'd be fine.

I think it's kind of funny that they are discussing exemptions for promoting Korean culture, and the criteria has very little to do with Korea. Like the song that could get BTS an exemption is .... all in English, written and produced by Americans (and a Canadian), there is really nothing Korean about it at all, except that BTS members are Korean. I would have expected them to be like most countries where in order to qualify for certain things (awards, funding, etc.) you have to have a certain level of involvement from the country at each level (so writers, or in movies directors, cast, etc.). Really what it would do is encourage Male Korean artists to immediately abandon anything Korean, and push into generic American pop in the hope something hits and they get out of service. I mean charts are unpredictable, but also kind of easy to manipulate, so there would be a big incentive to partner with American labels.

The bigger thing on athlete exemptions is that you can only get one for winning (or medaling) in certain amateur events while representing Korea. Like Son didn't get an exemption for being a super-star in Europe and the most famous Korean athlete, if he hadn't helped the National team win gold for the nation at the Asian Games he would have had to serve. It's a clear distinction of purpose, if you do this thing for the nation's benefit, not your own, you can get exempted.

Sure, but that's true of any person, no individual makes a difference to an army, but the system does matter. If you have mandatory conscription part of the way it works is saying "everyone has to do this, everyone sacrifices so everyone benefits" when you start saying "everyone sacrifices, unless they are rich or famous then they can get out of it" the system is undermined and starts to collapse. The optics of a bunch of rich men in great health and physical condition skipping out on serving so they can become even more rich is a tough one to sell when everyday people serve while in poor health, and sacrifice 2 years of earnings that they actually need. Basically the politicians are slow playing this as they gauge public reaction to see if having a big corporation in their debt (and a very popular group available to them for support) is worth the backlash from certain groups of voters (young men who have to serve, possibly mothers of men who have to serve, etc.).

The link in the article is to Yonhap, one of the biggest news and photo providers in Korea, reporting it directly from a press conference, but it's also on other major papers: https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2022/04/11/national/socialAffairs/Korean-age-Yoon-Sukyeol-transition-team/20220411183656952.html http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20220411000728

They could enlist at any time they wanted. What has happened is that they are pushing hard for a law change that will let them skip service, their oldest member would have already had to serve, but a past change applies to him (and others) letting them delay their last possible date by a few years, but that time is running out. Essentially the company is lobbying (ie giving tons of money to politicians for re-election) hard to get a new exemption for idols who "bring fame to Korea" so they don't have to serve, but there is pushback, because the only other similar exemptions are only for non-paid representation like winning Olympic medals or Gold at the Asian games, where you are doing something to the credit of the country without personal profit.

Hyolyn winning was a bit of a surprise I think. I mean, on pure talent, she's by far the most talented person on that show, but it's voting based and we've all seen enough reality shows to know that fandom size usually trumps talent in these things.

Lol, I had forgotten that their last girl group was GLAM,.... truly the worst managed/built group ever. Had to kick one member out for being a Saesang, then loaded $300k in debt on another so she ended up getting arrested for getting in on an attempt to blackmail an actor. By comparison this rollout has been smooth

Honestly usually I'd say it doesn't matter, but.... yes they have company stans, but something like this before debut? Even if the bullying isn't true, just the stuff there are pictures of are gonna give her the Iljin rep and that is tough sell for a lot of Koreans. Even if she didn't bully anyone, the short skirts, breaking school rules, talking about sex, talking about smoking etc..... that's enough to really hurt an idol's image. And since she's relying solely on company stans, having not built up her own fanbase yet...... This might be rare case where the company cuts her loose, it sure seems like Knetz are coming out strong against her. I get why they want to back her, they already have a ton invested in the debut, if they have to cut a member.... they might even have to re-set, re-name the group, change everything, that would set them back both money and a good 6 months to a year I'd guess?