Streaming is all about loyalty to the artist
Plus new releases from Halsey and Suga, Newkidd, and MAMA 2019
Hello! Welcome to maybe if you stanned, a weekly dive into K-pop releases and fan culture. We’re news heavy this week with updates about the Produce investigation, some upcoming releases, Tumblr’s year in review, and a very very small MAMA roundup. Also, I’m tired of the “maybe if you actually streamed your favs…” discourse, but I break down why it’s so ridiculous.
ATEEZ — “Wonderland”
Why the ATEEZ image? I’m on an ATEEZ kick, and we’ll let the weak link between this TV wall and streaming slide.
News
The lineups of IZ*ONE and X1 were reportedly decided in advance of final voting
Currently, those who were intimately involved with production on the Produce series are facing charges for vote manipulation on Produce 48 and Produce X 101, the series that yielded IZ*ONE and X1, respectively. Recent reporting indicates that the final lineups of both groups were decided prior to the series finale. Producer Ahn Joon-young is also potentially going to be liable for manipulating vote counts for one member of Wanna One to ensure his debut.
Investigations have also revealed that there was collusion between production staff and entertainment executives; Ahn Joon-young was reportedly bribed to the total of 46.83 million won (approx. $39,340 USD) by five executives from four entertainment agencies in exchange for ensuring favorable editing and appearances for trainees on both shows.
Korean outlet Hankook Ilbo (per Soompi) reported that CJ ENM made a profit of 124.65 million won (approx. $104,710 USD) through text message votes on both series.
Soompi has been aggregating news of the entire affair from Korean outlets. I’d recommend checking out their coverage to stay up to date.
Stray Kids — Clé: Levanter
Stray Kids released a teaser today for their upcoming album Clé: Levanter, which was originally set for release on Nov. 25 but was delayed due to Woojin’s departure from the group.
Clé: Levanter will be released on Dec. 9.
Yukika to release a full album in 2020
Soloist Yukika is set to release her first full Korean album sometime in 2020, per a tweet from her entertainment label. She’s been promoting as a singer and actress for several years now, and was a contestant on YG reality show Mix Nine while promoting with idol group Real Girls Project. Since her Korean debut this past February with single “Neon,” Yukika has released one other single, “Cherries Jubiles.”
Tumblr’s Year in Review
Tumblr recently released its annual year in review, in which it highlights the most discussed topics, celebs, franchises, characters — anything in fandom, really — of the year on Tumblr. It’s a massive undertaking, and a great tool for understanding fandom trends year-by-year. There are two K-pop specific lists. The most discussed groups on the platform were mostly boy groups, with Blackpink clocking in at number seven and the only girl group in the top 10. BTS led the pack, both in K-pop generally and on the idols list, with the seven members of the group occupying the top seven spots.
Check out the K-pop list, the idols list, and the full year in review.
EXO tells us more about their freakish pre-debut
This isn’t news really in any sense, but my god, this is the second time EXO has talked about being naked on Knowing Bros: Kai revealed in a recent appearance that the group practiced in their underwear prior to their debut in order to get synchronized, an idea spurred on by the fact that dancing naked in the shower makes him feel uncomfortable as soon as he catches his reflection in the mirror.
It’s almost as good as Baekhyun announcing on Knowing Bros in 2017 that in order to get closer to the members of EXO, he would… break the lock to the bathroom and walk in on them in the shower.
MAMA 2019 was this week
And damn, if it wasn’t a blast. The awards show, which took place at the Nagoya Dome on Dec. 4, featured over-the-top performances from a variety of Asian artists. Awards wise, BTS had yet another Daesang sweep (Artist, Song, Album, and Worldwide Icon of the Year) after doing the same thing the Melon Music Awards last week. Labelmate Tomorrow X Together picked up the Best New Male Artist Award, with JYP’s ITZY picking up Best New Female Artist. You can check out the full list of awardees on Mnet’s MAMA website.
The true joy of MAMA, however, are the all-out performances. Here are a few of my favorites:
ATEEZ — “Wonderland” mashup
If you’ve been reading maybe if you stanned for a few weeks, you know that I totally loved ATEEZ’s “Wonderland.” The group’s MAMA performance mashed it up with BTS’ “Blood Sweat and Tears,” SHINee’s “View,” and miss A’s “Good-bye Baby,” and it ruled. I’m a sucker for a good, cohesive mashup, and giving maknae and main vocalist Jongho a full 30 seconds to power belt his brains out is nothing short of inspired. You might know him from breaking fruit in half while belting.
Mamamoo — “Hip” remix
In the weeks since Mamamoo released “Hip,” I’ve fallen in deep. This single totally rules, and the remix is mostly true to the original track with a neat vocoder intro and a killer dance break.
New This Week
SUGA’s Interlude
Leading up to her upcoming album Manic, Halsey released two singles: “Finally // beautiful stranger” and “SUGA’s Interlude,” a collaboration with BTS member Min Yoon-gi. The song captures the same kind of reflective melancholy that permeates a lot of Suga’s work, ruminating on what it means to finally achieve your dreams.
At this point, it’s no exaggeration to say that Suga is one of the best idol producers and rappers in the Korean music industry. In recent years, his work has tended away from the aggressive beats that make up early mixtape Agust D, producing singles like Suran’s “Wine” or Lee So Ra’s “Song Request,” on which he also features.
Overall, “SUGA’s Interlude” is a great track. I’m happy to see that the first BTS/Halsey collab post “Boy With Luv” is between Halsey and Suga — taking into account their personal songwriting and production styles, it feels particularly fitting. Another track to add to my small “Suga songs to cry to” mental list.
Newkidd — “Come”
Alright, this is where I admit to some of my personal biases — I have barely paid attention to the prolific number of rookie boy groups of the past year, with a few exceptions (basically… ATEEZ and TXT). I feel like there’s been almost a glut of new boy groups this year, many with a similar kind of safe, poppy EDM-fueled sound. Also, there’s the whole joke thatboy group namesall sound like WiFi passwords (sorry, AB6IX).
Anyways, this all a roundabout way of saying that I totally missed Newkidd’s debut last April. “Come” is their first release since debut, and it’s definitely an interesting one. Most rookie maintain a pretty cohesive sound within their first year (I think GWSN and ATEEZ are really great recent examples of this), but “Come” feels very little like Newkidd’s debut single, “Tu Eres.”
In fact, it’s almost VIXX-like in terms of concept (not that VIXX has a monopoly on chains and like, sensual neck touches), a sharp departure from the bright and poppy “Tu Eres.” For me, “Come” never fully connects, hampered by a weak chorus and pre-chorus. That being said, the group has a few unique voices, particularly on its rapline, and I’m curious as to how their sound will settle over the next year or so.
Streaming is more about the artist than the music
Another day, another debate about streaming. I’m going to keep this short since this newsletter is getting a bit long, but there’s been more discourse over on stan twt.
“oomf” — “one of my followers”
Couple things at play here:
Fan culpability: idols’ lack of success are at least partially a result of their fanbase not trying hard enough
Loyalty to the music is more valuable than loyalty to the artist
Streaming is the best way to demonstrate that loyalty
The accusation above is completely baseless for a few reasons, but mostly the fact that there are multiple factors which determine idol success. Now matter how zealous the fanbase, there’s only so much that can be done to overcome a lack of promotion, resources, or other obstacles. Take LOONA, for example: a few weeks ago, I wrote about how fans were fervently trending #SaveLOONA and streaming the hell out of their music in a bid to bring recognition to the group. LOONA hasn’t released music in over nine months (very odd for a rookie group), but fan efforts can only do so much to bring about actual action.
Most interesting here, however, is the idea that streaming is all about loyalty to the music. Frankly? It’s very little about the music and all about bringing recognition to the artist. That’s valid! That’s one of the many reasons BTS keeps making headlines, particularly when performing well on the Billboard charts in the US! Streaming a song or music video is demonstrating a strong commitment to an artist’s success. In turn, you’re bringing recognition to the music as well, but let’s be real: if one of our favs put out actual garbage, we’d all stream it anyways (more another time about the stan rite of passage of making yourself love bad songs).
Finally, this rhetoric typically gets thrown at fans of groups that have fallen inactive or disbanded, placing the blame on fans for any lack of success. It’s totally bonkers, and plays into the fact that some fans — particularly ARMYs — tend to frame their dedication in opposition to other fans in order to create a sort of hierarchy. It’s not productive discourse by any means, and stems from a sense of superiority. In stan culture, the successes of the artist become the successes of the fanbase, and vice versa. This is an instance of one ARMY leveraging BTS’ success as testament to the quality of its fanbase.
Ultimately — streaming isn’t about the music, but it shouldn’t become a metric for how dedicated a fanbase is to an artist. That’s not a productive line of thought, and it only serves to dredge up dumb drama like this from time to time.
Thanks, and until next time,
Palmer