With A2O Lite coming out and already topping the Korean chart, I thought about how the group wouldn’t happen if Lee Sooman didn’t got forced out of SM, couldn’t work in Korea for 3 years and had to establish his own multinational label. The fact that 6/9 members are not Korean and the group still does so well in Korea is pretty amazing, and everyone is praising them for a more Kpop sound with fleshed-out songs, bridges and high notes.
And then, you have ADP, who also had a huge debut, because Teddy had become independent from YG and decided to make a co-ed group while other big companies are all doing single-gender groups.
Or NewJeans who was created because Min Heejin left SM after working for almost 20 years to join Bighit, worked on transforming it into Hybe and created her sublabel there.
Also, Katseye (not Kpop but still Kpop adjacent) who becomes a relevant girl group in the West after a long time started as a first time collaboration between Hybe and Geffen. They started blowing up due to the controversial “brainrot” song Gnarly, which had become their brand.
Even Cortis, if people follow their journey, had a messy past in the Trainee A group who almost debuted but then got cancelled, and only James was retained to debut three years later. They also got a lot of attention and hate for their “underground, natural” image.
It does seem like to truly make an impact you really need to have some disruption/chaos and a fresh approach (even if controversial), otherwise it is easy to get lost in the competition nowadays.
submitted by /u/illitnoise
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