So if you’re on the same side of twitter as I am, you must’ve seen them, the comparisons people are making between Hearts2Hearts and A2O LITE. Most of them uplifting A2O to shit on H2H. I’ll admit that as a fan of H2H’s music, I might be somewhat biased, but I also just genuinely don’t see the need for these comparisons, they’re two entirely different groups.
I’ve seen their ages compared, and while I agree both groups debuted way too young, in my opinion there’s a difference between a group that debuted with an avg age of 16.95 and two adult members, and a group with an avg age of 15.48 and no adult members. I do realise that’s only a one-year difference, but in these circumstances I do think that makes a difference. Especially when the voices and faces of the members of A2O are being fed to AI to make chatbots. We already know how bad parasocialism is among kpop fans, this is only feeding into that.
I’ve also seen a lot of people claiming that A2O already has a much better vocal line than H2H. Which I think is crazy because we barely have any material from these girls. Now I’ve listened to NEON a few times, and I genuinely don’t hear those girls doing anything I couldn’t see H2H’s vocal line doing. People need to stop judging the girls based on one bad encore. They have so much material (school festivals, their second-week promotions on music shows, etc) that show they are more than capable of delivering stable live vocals. Yes, they don’t have a Taeyeon or a Wendy, and I’ll admit they’re a downgrade compared to previous SM groups, but this has been a pattern ever since Red Velvet.
People are saying that A2O LITE is what Hearts2Hearts would’ve looked like if LSM stayed in SM. Which we almost know for sure isn’t true. SM has been planning on debuting a larger girlgroup with a cute concept for almost a decade now. This is just my speculation, but we know Yeri was supposed to debut in another group as the center, with even younger trainees, so in my opinion it’s safe to assume that this was SM’s first attempt at that. That of course all fell apart when they decided to add Yeri to Red Velvet. We also know that aespa was originally a cute concept, until they changed the concept and decided to add Giselle. H2H was always meant to have the cute concept.
I’ve also seen a lot of people say that A2O is bringing back the “old sm” sound, comparing them to Shinee and F(x). But to me, and a lot of other people, H2H have always sounded like a blend of early SNSD and Red Velvet’s red side. I’ve seen people compare Style to Kissing You by SNSD, Lemon Tang to Red Velvet’s Red Flavor, and even Pretty Please to S.E.S.’s sound. So to say that they don’t have that “SM sound” is just objectively wrong to me. SM isn’t just experimental “noise music”. Even The Chase, which to me is a song that sounds uniquely Hearts2Hearts, still sounds like a true SM song to me, with the heavy bass, the vocal stacking, the members sharing lines, which really reminds me of 2nd gen SM.
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