Long story short, I feel like NCT as a whole might’ve benefited from being structured as entirely separate groups with distinct name branding, rather than all operating under one umbrella name.
To me, when a brand concept leaves a large number of people confused to the point where they have to actively research just to understand how it works, that’s already a barrier for casual listeners. It raises the entry threshold higher than it needs to be. Most casual fans won’t take the time to decode a multi-layered system before deciding whether they want to engage. And I can’t even count how many times I’ve seen people asking about how NCT works.
imo, the NCT brand feels overly fragmented. There are just too many projects tied to the same name:
NCT, NCT 127, NCT Dream, WayV, NCT Wish, NCT U, and the sporadic projects like NCT 2018, NCT 2020, NCT 2021, NCT 2023.
If you go on Spotify, there are so many separate artist pages and catalogs all tied together by the “NCT” tag. That’s gotta be confusing for someone who’s just trying to casually explore their music. That requires a lot of navigation.
They have good music and the concepts are generally different from one another. I just can’t help but think that clearer, more independent branding might have made it easier for casual listeners to connect without feeling like they needed a roadmap to understand the group structure.
A friend of mine even assumed NCT Wish was an older group simply because of the NCT name attached to it. That alone shows how the shared branding can blur timelines and identities. Maybe I’m completely off here and I’m sure this isn’t the only reason, but I just think their overall potential and growth may have been hampered to a degree by the vision SM had for the project that is Neo Culture Technology.
Again, I could be completely wrong with my take here lol Maybe NCT is as big as they are now mainly because of the concept and the branding they have. Feel free to share your opinions!
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