I’m not hyper-focusing on idol names because this isn’t personal to them; honestly, it’s more about SM, their company. Everyone knows who I’m talking about, with the guns and the bird flipping and SAing serial killer shirts and extremely performative edginess that’s been on display in a (to me) hilariously concentrated, staged, LOOK AT THISSSSS way. Nor is this a dismissal of the idea that it’s built on a genuine more dark aesthetic that this idol might genuinely possess, the smartest PR-moves are based on real foundations.
But I’m sorry it scans so goofy to me, and painfully obvious, and just SM doing its Hammer-to-the-Head trying to break into the US thing AGAIN while getting it completely wrong.
This is based on the fact that we know, through business reporting and major partnerships, that SM is in the midst of a big push (again! worth repeating! they’re comically terrible & embarrassing at this! As an American I can’t believe how they still haven’t learned a damn thing!) to break into the US market using Aespa specifically. for the last 4 years SME’s made major partnerships with Warner, Kakao and SM merged their western operations in 2023, and Kakao is beyond insanely disparate to break into the US and list publicly and have failed epically continuously and embarrassingly. Which makes this whole thing the blind leading the blind into a market neither can even fake understanding of, but I digress.
BTW, I love a lot of SM music and groups, especially their older stuff, this is not a statement on their idols or music or content, this is a business rant, not a creative one. Mods, I tried really hard not to fanwar or be specific about actual clashes, but let me know if I failed and I’ll delete those parts!
SM/Kakao tried turning Aespa into a more US friendly pop group, with less kinetic music and videos full of AI imagery of cowboys and monster trucks and football. (Did they think… American kpop fans are also big into the NFL and rodeos?!) It was a lot.
And now there’s a member of the same group very performatively waving around guns – because friends never forget all Americans love guns haha! I’ve got my glock next to me right now! The AK-47s in the shop! – and flipping the camera off and that dumb shirt and it just feels like very much of the same hamfisted approach to scrounging for market share in the least organic feeling way possible. Like sure over time these things might show up for celebs who are legit into firearms and worshiping serial killers, but this absolute slam of edge-lording is not subtle. and the gunsssss why just why. It’s so DOOFY.
What they’re doing isn’t new, or fresh – it is an old ass tactic; been personally watching the rise of this in general pop culture for the last 3 years, links below on how it works, but pop music has been doing “the young star has GROWN UP and is now sexy and edgy!!!’ for literal decades. Britney and Olivia and Sabrina and Taylor and its a openly planned thing each time. These idols are already grown, but the ‘throw off the squeaky clean’ been around and discussed and SM really is awful at this because it’s not true edginess. She’s not dating handsome bad boys and partying all night with blackclad influencers who clearly partake in alternative substances. The actual line is held, she’s still an idol, just an idol who… is waving weapons at us.
But I’m not sure I blame them – overall kpop engagements seems seriously down in pop culture here? The major kpop reddits seem so slow compared to 4, 5 years ago and even more so recently, and there’s so much negativity. Needs must and all that. It’s a well documented fact investors are giving up and pivoting pretty fully to AI-related companies.
And man nothing proves endless rage isn’t the opposite of a problem more than BTS, and the kpop industry knows it – everyone screams BTSDISBAND for weeks, and *X member of BTS is the devilllll!” and thousands of people check them out bc why must they disband what did X dooooo?, and 200-500 of those people become real fans because they learn the aren’t disbanding, if X is the devil they’re an awfully intellectual, well-spoken one, and before you know it they’ve tumbled down the rabbit hole. New Jeans’ metrics are actually still shockingly strong for a completely inactive group because they’re an endless topic of conversation, and that a lot of it is angry or negative doesn’t matter. The international kpop hate industrial complex has done so much for Bangtan since 2016 and it’s gotten even more extreme in 2026, and the opposite for kpop as a ‘genre’ as a whole, by making them the main topic and the haters don’t even admit it to themselves because it’s baked into the discourse atp. But that rage converts to a certain amount of positive, money generating engagement formula ain’t subtle?
These kpop companies know, tho’, they’ve got the metrics, they’re watching extremely closely. Especially kpop companies obsessed with US market share. When you’re talking about someone, the algorithm doesn’t care if it’s negative, especially if it’s dumb surface negative like this – it just amplifies by nature, and people are drawn in. It feeds itself. It’s all built to feed itself. When you make someone the MC who isn’t actually a villain in fact, in 2026 you’re just making them the main character and minting fans.
So yeah I genuinely think there’s a good chance we’re going to see more of this type of thing as the investment band in kpop gets narrower. But I don’t seeing it going far, because it’s not a real, lived-in edginess, but who knows. We’re all bored and stressed, and if this idol becomes a vector for a new wave of disenfranchised blackclads then power to them. A t-shirt of a long-dead serial disgusting criminal isn’t going to hurt anyone, altho’ it does make a pretty funny thought experiment in watching outrage warriors scramble in the opposite direction.
Again, tho’, that’s the point. Kpop has become such a seething cauldron of bad faith rage, and it gets attention and boosts names in the alogorithm, and the companies are ready to exploit it. This isjust a theory, but nothing about this feels nuanced imo? All good-faith pushback welcome!
Reading fun about ragebaiting as a very successful tactic:
- How ‘Rage Bait’ Surged to Word of the Year in 2025 – UC San Diego Today
- The Monetization of Malice: Rage Bait in the Digital Attention Economy – Pettauer Net
- A Look at Rage-Baiting in Digital Marketing – PR ON THE GO
- Rage Bait as an Advertising Tactic – Mad Genius
- How Rage-Baiting in Marketing Rewired Emotion into an Economic Model – The Established
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