Was Pristin Too Early For The Highteen Trend?

[Your Biggest Fan]

It's obvious that music is trending towards highteen for girl groups in Korea. One group highteen group that pops in my head is one that has already disbanded, Pristin.  Do you think if they had debuted last year or this that they would've been popular and considered rising stars? Listen and compare.

 

 

 

 

[seokii]

I liked Pristin but both of these songs are awful, no I don't think they would have necessarily done better today

[Hopkinz]

I think they would have done about the same.  Plus if too many people are doing this trend then they're not going to stand out.  

And I agree with @seokiithese songs are mediocre at best where as Weeekly and StayC's songs are really fun and catchy. 

[jeong jaehyuns boyfriend]

i actually liked both songs, i thought they were really fun and i still listen to them sometimes. i think pristin definitely built a lot of momentum with these 2 songs after their debut, and there was A LOT more potential for them. i dont understand why pledis just left them out to dry and i will never understand.

[GetRapper]

I'll defend Wee Woo and We Like all day. The OP is exactly correct, people would go gaga over these songs if they were released in 2021.

[soman]

They were popular and were considered rising stars tho. Then Pledis didn't give them any comeback for a year and by the time Pristin V debuted, people already lost interest.

[godblessdelulu]

it's because they have terrible title songs.

[hynapia]

Wasn't fresh/cute concept still popular back in 2017 though? It wasn't called "highteen" at that time but that cute and colorful aesthetic was definitely popular seeing how some of the most popular songs that year were upbeat and bubbly - Twice's Knock Knock and Likey, RV's Red Flavor, BP's As if it's your last etc. Pristin in fact started really well but like other people said pledis basically threw them away after the first or second comeback.

Also, sometimes it's not just the concept/style but having some luck. Just because highteen is the current trend it doesn't mean the GP is gonna like all highteen songs.

[Quinn the Brain]

It wasn't the songs, it was Pledis, they were doing great.

[lighterxx]

Their situation is weird because while their songs were good for me, there was obvious inter group issues as well pledis scheduling issues, which you can see it with Nuest right now. Nuest can handle it because they are a senior group with quite a patient older fanbase. Pristin was rookie it was impossible for it to handle, especially not with fandom size difference of members and member clashes. 

Pledis is usually good at for being people that can go along, but I guess they kept and observed girls for too little time, causing this situation. 

 

Edited May 29, 2021 by lighterxx

[Your Biggest Fan]

13 hours ago, lighterxx said:

Their situation is weird because while their songs were good for me, there was obvious inter group issues as well pledis scheduling issues, which you can see it with Nuest right now. Nuest can handle it because they are a senior group with quite a patient older fanbase. Pristin was rookie it was impossible for it to handle, especially not with fandom size difference of members and member clashes. 

Pledis is usually good at for being people that can go along, but I guess they kept and observed girls for too little time, causing this situation. 

 

Member clashes?

[lighterxx]

1 hour ago, Your Biggest Fan said:

Member clashes?

it is said members were cliquey and they couldnt get along in private. 

[Simpatico]

11 hours ago, lighterxx said:

it is said members were cliquey and they couldnt get along in private. 

This makes some sense to me. It's a bit sad since when they were together especially during their Vlives I felt they were so close and they had all trained so long together but you can just look at their respective instagrams to see the truth. The only ones who follows ALL of the other members are Kyla and Yehana. The others do not (Nayoung for instance follows all her IOI members but in Pristin only follows Siyeon, Kyla, Kyulkyung and Yehana - and pointedly not the Hinapia 4 or Sungyeon, who in turn follows everyone but Nayoung and Kyulkyung). Sad.

I still would lowkey love to know what went down though - Pledis not only gave up on them but went radio silence as soon as Pristin V promos were over and even purposely seemed to alienate the Pristin fanbase by ignoring them, never updating the group's social media (Twitter or IG) except on birthdays, and trashing fans' letters/requests etc. (that's not how you operate a business). Even if there were issues with individual members - it was a 10 member group, Pledis could have jettisoned half the group and carried on if they really wanted to.

As for the songs - Wee Woo has grown on me and I still listen to it, but I still think We Like was a B-Side quality comeback (even Tina from that album is more of a bop). Neither was terrible though and was on par with other girl group "average" comebacks. But neither showed what the group was capable of in terms of talent that we saw in their dance covers or Pledis Girl concerts. I largely blame Pledis who basically were too cheap to pay for songwriters (despite at the time being co-owned by Sony Music) and wanted Pristin to be a self-producing group ala Seventeen (but the songs weren't Seventeen level). 

[lighterxx]

6 hours ago, Simpatico said:

This makes some sense to me. It's a bit sad since when they were together especially during their Vlives I felt they were so close and they had all trained so long together but you can just look at their respective instagrams to see the truth. The only ones who follows ALL of the other members are Kyla and Yehana. The others do not (Nayoung for instance follows all her IOI members but in Pristin only follows Siyeon, Kyla, Kyulkyung and Yehana - and pointedly not the Hinapia 4 or Sungyeon, who in turn follows everyone but Nayoung and Kyulkyung). Sad.

I still would lowkey love to know what went down though - Pledis not only gave up on them but went radio silence as soon as Pristin V promos were over and even purposely seemed to alienate the Pristin fanbase by ignoring them, never updating the group's social media (Twitter or IG) except on birthdays, and trashing fans' letters/requests etc. (that's not how you operate a business). Even if there were issues with individual members - it was a 10 member group, Pledis could have jettisoned half the group and carried on if they really wanted to.

As for the songs - Wee Woo has grown on me and I still listen to it, but I still think We Like was a B-Side quality comeback (even Tina from that album is more of a bop). Neither was terrible though and was on par with other girl group "average" comebacks. But neither showed what the group was capable of in terms of talent that we saw in their dance covers or Pledis Girl concerts. I largely blame Pledis who basically were too cheap to pay for songwriters (despite at the time being co-owned by Sony Music) and wanted Pristin to be a self-producing group ala Seventeen (but the songs weren't Seventeen level). 

I think Pledis choose to let them go if they wished, without forcing contract on them because they could if they wanted to. Only few members remained afterwards, Kyulkyung Yehana, Sungyeon. That's why pledis got so angry when Kyulkyung tried to get out of the contract the second she had some success, because they already gave her opportunity to do so, but she continued so they invested in her. Then she cut the contact. It would piss me off too. For Yehana and Sungyeon, seems like pledis wants to grow them as composers, both are under Bumzu to my knowledge ATM. Basically pledis wants a Woozi out of them. The issue is, from the very start Woozi was not specially trained for this. Dude saw their debut getting postponed again and again, and decided to give composing a try on MacBook computer bandmate, not even a proper composition programme. To intentionally train that same desperation, idk it seems pretty hard to me? I am not saying they can't do it, but for Woozi he had to do it otherwise svt would get postponed to eternity, so it is a different mentality. Pledis even for svt, their most money making act, refuses to get composers, Woozi himself hires some to change songs a little bit at times, but otherwise Pledis fully depends on Bumzu, who joined because he became bff with Woozi, and prism filter, again Woozi's bff's. It makes me think the second woozi attempts leaving Pledis would have breakdown. I think Pristin was not ready to self compose, their songs were not at that level yet and honestly fans would be happy to have them as bsides, instead of titles. I like their songs don't get me wrong but I don't think they should have been title. 

But honestly everything, things I said, things you mentioned, was so unfair to fans. They could at least share there is contract disagreements therefore they will suspend group or something. To refuse everything and make fans wait that way, its just cruel. 

[schue]

It's more like Pledis suck at managing them

[Youahaen]

Can anybody explain to me what exactly is Highteen. I thought its just cute, girly , bubbly and colourful concept? Plus this is nothing new, right? Because if I'm not mistaken, I've seen this concept during 2nd gen.