Mother Of God, Is This The End Of T-ara?
Jul. 30th, 2012 03:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
koganbotI don't have enough information to have an opinion* (which doesn't mean I don't), but I'm fascinated by how quickly public opinion — at least as evidenced by the outpouring of complaints on comment threads — has coalesced around a story that people can't possibly know is true, at least not yet. E.g.,
This doesn't seem so outrageous to me, but on the 'Net it was taken to be three hotshot, bitchy, jealous members of the group bullying the young one.** And maybe people who follow these things more closely than I do have good reason to buy into this narrative, and to consider Jiyeon a bitch. Or maybe such people are just making things up. (Hwayoung didn't join T-ara until late 2010. There does seem to have been a diminution of Eunjung's mic time since then. Eunjung has, imo, the best voice in the group. She sings only a few lines in "Day By Day," just the refrain, but in those few lines she brings the crucial emotion of the song.)
There's a counter narrative that says Hwayoung was set to perform with T-ara on Music Bank and then pulled out at the last second, leaving the group in the lurch. Eunjung (0:47) covered some of Hwayoung's lines, did so with aplomb; but Hyomin (3:14) was assigned to later in the song, fumbled, was obviously uncertain, looking at a prompter who was holding up the words for her, later may simply have been embarrassed, and to relieve her feelings went to twitter. [EDIT: No, the tweets were two days earlier, after the Budokan concert. See update below.] But again, we don't know if this happened in this way, except for what we saw onstage. Soyeon was also out, members having to take her lines too. I thought they all got through OK, and Hyomin sounded fine; so what if there was a mistake? —Hyomin having tripped and fallen onstage last week, she might already have been feeling extra exposed and self-conscious.
[This vid isn't on YouTube anymore, and in case Dailymotion kills it at some point, here's a link to this performance on mp3.zing. UPDATE: That's dead too; here's one on Vimeo and another on bilibili.]
This is what one commenter claims (reporting what she read elsewhere online):
I don't know the impact of the response, or the size. What I've seen so far is people overwhelmingly upset and ready to dump T-ara in the river. Those quotes up-top are typical, not extreme. But maybe they're only typical of people who leap forward and post online (5,000 comments in four hours to the allkpop article); going by the comments, I'd believe T-ara is in serious trouble with its fanbase. But again, I don't know.
Kim Kwang Soo, the Core Contents Media guy, seems to have a tin ear for politics. If the reaction really is as strong as it seems, he should have figured that he simply couldn't boot Hwayoung out of the group right now, simply couldn't. Not in the midst of the "bullying" narrative, not with everyone ready to sympathize with Hwayoung and blame Jiyeon and the rest, and not in such a way as to make it seem like he's tearing down Hwayoung further. He may be the boss, he may be utterly right in this instance (he has a reputation for being a ruthless bastard, but again, I don't know; and even ruthless bastards are sometimes right), but sometimes what seems logically right and best to you isn't actually for the best, given the situation. Sometimes you're just stuck. Apparently, he has no credibility (again, I don't know if this is fair; but even if it isn't, he has to recognize it's a fact, and work within that fact — in other words, I'm suddenly identifying with Mr. So-Called Ruthless Bastard as I'm imagining him, and feeling that I get why he did what he did, would possibly do the same if I were in his situation, not recognizing while I was in it that I was making the wrong choice). This from Wikipedia: "Core Contents Media responded to the whole incident by stating that the members' Twitter accounts had been hacked; however, because most of the members had tweeted on July 25th, the explanation did not add up." (Just 'cause it's on Wikip doesn't mean it's true. But if it is...)
*By "enough information" I don't merely mean "information concerning what happened this week" but also "what I'd know if I'd made an effort to follow the members of T-ara as personalities, as they act on TV and appear on talk shows and drop tidbits in interviews and say the right thing and say the wrong thing etc.," all of which is part of their job and part of the music so I'm not glad that I don't know this stuff. But one can't know everything.
**She's actually two months older than Jiyeon.
UPDATE (CORRECTIONS): Two mistakes in this write-up: (i) There seems to have actually been four members of T-ara who initially tweeted their disappointment: Hyomin, Jiyeon, Eunjung, and Soyeon. I'd said there were three. The allkpop article (which was translated and adapted from something called NewsPlus) only gives Hyomin's, Jiyeon's, and Eunjung's tweets, but shows a Webshot of a fourth by Soyeon, in Korean (the NewsPlus article is identical in this respect). Wikip adds Boram to the list, but the citation is to the allkpop article, which leaves her out. UPDATING THE UPDATE: Boram did tweet, but her tweet and Soyeon's weren't much more than general exhortations. (ii) The tweets came on Wednesday July 25, after the Budokan concert, but two days before the Music Bank show where Hwayoung was a last-second scratch. I'd initially thought they'd come after Music Bank. (Supposedly, with only a couple of others bands in the queue ahead of them at Music Bank, Hwayoung refused to or felt she couldn't perform. But I don't know enough to say that either of those are accurate interpretations of what happened. I don't think anyone who wasn't there knows. Maybe even the people who were there, including the principals, don't know.)
WTF? did not see this coming! i mean they are all bitches but srsly make the other members suffer as well for bullying her and shit but in return they make the victim leave the group!And
and BULLSHIT u prob asked ur staff to say all this shit u fucken piece of ass, "In deference to the complaints by T-ara's staff of 19 people (5 stylists, 7 hair & makeup, 5 on-site managers, 2 team managers), Hwayoung’s contract as an artist will be voided effective immediately with no conditions."
I call bullshit!!! They kicked her out because she wasn't the popular one and it's a mean girls thing the other members got bad attitudes...It's all bullshit...but I wish her the bestAnd
I don't believe a darn thing that ridiculous CEO says. Complaints from the staff to cover up the bullying by the members? Seriously? And why did he feel the need to list who the staff members were and how many of them were part of the 19 that supposedly complained against Hwayoung? It's unnecessary information.And
we apologize in saying that we could not forsake the arguments of the staff members. OH REALLY???!!... I didnt know staffs are more powerful then a CEO. CCM Please shut down your fucking company with all your lies and all your betraying all your artists.And
lol apparently its got to do with the staff. huh, thats funny, cause that is a obvious lie right there.And
Just read a article on CNN this week. South Korea #1 in bully related death (suicide). Read Seung-Min's story on CNN. The CEO should of been the adult in this situation. Ever heard of communication. As IDOLS they have so much influence. Bullying starts from the top (CEO) and works down (singers). It's all about $$$ for the CEO. All the K-pop groups are puppets!! They should all get together and fight the # issue in their country. BULLYING!!Hwayoung was just kicked out of T-ara. But the narrative had coalesced several days earlier: long-time members Jiyeon, Hyomin, and Eunjung had tweeted their disappointment about another member, saying she needed to show "determination." This was interpreted by Netizens as being aimed at Hwayoung, who, with a hurt leg, had failed to perform at one of the group's TV gigs, and at a concert had only partially participated. Hyomin: "The differences in levels of determination^^, Let us all have more determination. Fighting!!!" Jiyeon: "The differences in levels of determination ^^, Always be humble ^^ and sensible ^^ I applaud you, acting genius ^^" Eunjung: "A position can make or break a person, but determination can make a person too. Sigh, it's unfortunate. You have to know to take care of the people around you." (See article at allkpop. I don't vouch for these translations. Or the article.)
This doesn't seem so outrageous to me, but on the 'Net it was taken to be three hotshot, bitchy, jealous members of the group bullying the young one.** And maybe people who follow these things more closely than I do have good reason to buy into this narrative, and to consider Jiyeon a bitch. Or maybe such people are just making things up. (Hwayoung didn't join T-ara until late 2010. There does seem to have been a diminution of Eunjung's mic time since then. Eunjung has, imo, the best voice in the group. She sings only a few lines in "Day By Day," just the refrain, but in those few lines she brings the crucial emotion of the song.)
There's a counter narrative that says Hwayoung was set to perform with T-ara on Music Bank and then pulled out at the last second, leaving the group in the lurch. Eunjung (0:47) covered some of Hwayoung's lines, did so with aplomb; but Hyomin (3:14) was assigned to later in the song, fumbled, was obviously uncertain, looking at a prompter who was holding up the words for her, later may simply have been embarrassed, and to relieve her feelings went to twitter. [EDIT: No, the tweets were two days earlier, after the Budokan concert. See update below.] But again, we don't know if this happened in this way, except for what we saw onstage. Soyeon was also out, members having to take her lines too. I thought they all got through OK, and Hyomin sounded fine; so what if there was a mistake? —Hyomin having tripped and fallen onstage last week, she might already have been feeling extra exposed and self-conscious.
[This vid isn't on YouTube anymore, and in case Dailymotion kills it at some point, here's a link to this performance on mp3.zing. UPDATE: That's dead too; here's one on Vimeo and another on bilibili.]
This is what one commenter claims (reporting what she read elsewhere online):
its basically about the musicbank incident where hyomin forgot hwayoung's lines. in the rehersal hwayoung had to sit on a chair and do her rap but instead on the live stage hwayoung said she was too nervous and so eunjung and hyomin had to memorize it really fast. and then thats where their tweets came fromI like Hwayoung performing, love her dancing on "Lovey-Dovey" and her raw chicken squawk on "Roly-Poly." But my bias here is to want T-ara to continue to do well commercially and to continue singing songs by the likes of Shinsadong Tiger, Cho Young-soo, Kim Tae-hyun, Kim Do-hoon, the writers being at their best when writing for T-ara, the songs being at their best when sung by T-ara, I really haven't figured out why. So 'cause I want the group to prosper, my bias is to side with Eunjung et al. Assuming there is a side.
I don't know the impact of the response, or the size. What I've seen so far is people overwhelmingly upset and ready to dump T-ara in the river. Those quotes up-top are typical, not extreme. But maybe they're only typical of people who leap forward and post online (5,000 comments in four hours to the allkpop article); going by the comments, I'd believe T-ara is in serious trouble with its fanbase. But again, I don't know.
Kim Kwang Soo, the Core Contents Media guy, seems to have a tin ear for politics. If the reaction really is as strong as it seems, he should have figured that he simply couldn't boot Hwayoung out of the group right now, simply couldn't. Not in the midst of the "bullying" narrative, not with everyone ready to sympathize with Hwayoung and blame Jiyeon and the rest, and not in such a way as to make it seem like he's tearing down Hwayoung further. He may be the boss, he may be utterly right in this instance (he has a reputation for being a ruthless bastard, but again, I don't know; and even ruthless bastards are sometimes right), but sometimes what seems logically right and best to you isn't actually for the best, given the situation. Sometimes you're just stuck. Apparently, he has no credibility (again, I don't know if this is fair; but even if it isn't, he has to recognize it's a fact, and work within that fact — in other words, I'm suddenly identifying with Mr. So-Called Ruthless Bastard as I'm imagining him, and feeling that I get why he did what he did, would possibly do the same if I were in his situation, not recognizing while I was in it that I was making the wrong choice). This from Wikipedia: "Core Contents Media responded to the whole incident by stating that the members' Twitter accounts had been hacked; however, because most of the members had tweeted on July 25th, the explanation did not add up." (Just 'cause it's on Wikip doesn't mean it's true. But if it is...)
*By "enough information" I don't merely mean "information concerning what happened this week" but also "what I'd know if I'd made an effort to follow the members of T-ara as personalities, as they act on TV and appear on talk shows and drop tidbits in interviews and say the right thing and say the wrong thing etc.," all of which is part of their job and part of the music so I'm not glad that I don't know this stuff. But one can't know everything.
**She's actually two months older than Jiyeon.
UPDATE (CORRECTIONS): Two mistakes in this write-up: (i) There seems to have actually been four members of T-ara who initially tweeted their disappointment: Hyomin, Jiyeon, Eunjung, and Soyeon. I'd said there were three. The allkpop article (which was translated and adapted from something called NewsPlus) only gives Hyomin's, Jiyeon's, and Eunjung's tweets, but shows a Webshot of a fourth by Soyeon, in Korean (the NewsPlus article is identical in this respect). Wikip adds Boram to the list, but the citation is to the allkpop article, which leaves her out. UPDATING THE UPDATE: Boram did tweet, but her tweet and Soyeon's weren't much more than general exhortations. (ii) The tweets came on Wednesday July 25, after the Budokan concert, but two days before the Music Bank show where Hwayoung was a last-second scratch. I'd initially thought they'd come after Music Bank. (Supposedly, with only a couple of others bands in the queue ahead of them at Music Bank, Hwayoung refused to or felt she couldn't perform. But I don't know enough to say that either of those are accurate interpretations of what happened. I don't think anyone who wasn't there knows. Maybe even the people who were there, including the principals, don't know.)
no subject
Date: 2012-07-31 01:34 pm (UTC)Maybe people who don't normally post are now trying to weigh in, with cooler heads and more thoughtful attitudes.
Best scenario I can think of is that CEO becomes the focus of most antagonism and the "public," sentimental and witch-hunting as ever, chooses to blame him and decide the "girls" are blameless, or just being human, etc. So they continue to support the group and the music. May be too late for that. People's ideas are already set.
If I were suddenly hired as Machiavellian adviser to CEO, I would say, "OK, you shut up in public. Now, we'll engineer it like this: the remaining members of T-ara are going to hold a news conference where they will state, in defiance of you, that as far as they are concerned Hwayoung is still a member of the group. They might even be extreme and say that's their condition for continuing the group. And then you, the CEO, will reluctantly give way to them, the group, and reinstate Hwayoung. But it's got to look as if they are calling the shots, not you. Because anything you do is contaminated by the idea that you'll say or do the first thing that comes into your head that you think is to your advantage. And if Hwayoung is as bad as all that, you can always hope she doesn't rejoin. But if she does, you live with that. Just admit to yourself that you're not the boss of this situation."
But maybe I'm overreacting in thinking anyone has to do anything. I don't know the context, the culture. Maybe Core Contents Media should forget damage control and stay mum (or continue to leak things, or allkpop — and whomever allkpop reprints — makes things up on both sides of the argument [report I linked is prefaced with "According to an industry insider"; I mean, it seems as if they're completely willing to print rumors], including character assassination of Hwayoung). I really think this incident has put T-ara's commercial viability at risk — if not viability, at least their stature, the size of their audience. But I have no actual idea. I don't know Korea, I don't know the market. This may be way smaller potatoes than I realize. Maybe there's no real risk. After this blows over, they put out the next T-ara single and a repackage of the EP, Part 2 of the vid comes out, millions are enthralled, everything is hunky-dory, or lovey-dovey.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-31 10:37 pm (UTC)Disperding the shadows that are obscuring T-ARA is not easy at all, even for our Machiavellian adviser. I don't think that a "not guilty" declaration would be effective in this scenario. Tears are needed, and sincere repentance. Will they succeed in cleaning their image?
no subject
Date: 2012-07-31 10:56 pm (UTC)Putting back on my Machiavelli beret: sure, Jiyeon's a talented actress, she can cry. Give her an extra hefty bonus if she breaks down bawling in mid-sentence.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-01 06:52 am (UTC)"I'm going to say sorry to the boss now. I'm so sorry to our boss. They have treated me so well"
"After apologizing to the other members, staff, and fans and apologizing for breaking her promise and reflecting on her actions, Hwayoung burst in tears"
"The T-ara members also are saddened and shed tears over this incident"
"I talked frankly to all of them yesterday, and each of them shed tears"
A few hours earlier, CCM headquarter:
[DON CORLEONE MODE]Le faremo un'offerta che non può rifiutare...[/DON CORLEONE MODE]
(We're going to make her a offer she can't refuse...)
(^-^)
no subject
Date: 2012-08-01 04:39 pm (UTC)Not that something bad might not have happened, or that there might not have been bullying. And I wasn't following this story from the start (on Saturday night, which would've already been Sunday afternoon in Korea, I decided to catch up with Music Core and Music Bank, noticed on the YouTube sidebar a video of Hyomin falling onstage last week, did a search of allkpop to find out more about that, found this instead). But the way the "bullying" story developed seems to be:
(1) The tweets happened, which essentially were four people saying that another didn't show enough determination — which in itself hardly seems like bullying, though maybe it's bullying in the context of this group's particular dynamics that of course I wouldn't know about: but I think I can tell bullying from a hole in the ground, and it's generally when you tease or ridicule or threaten or deride someone in order to hurt or humiliate her and make her feel weak, not when you admonish or express your frustration at someone for not trying hard enough, or you urge her to do better.
(2) Netizens interpreted the tweets as bullying in and of themselves. So this isn't yet a rumor so much as an interpretation, a decision about what happened.
(3) The word "bullying" is such a gravitational force that thousands upon thousands are drawn to it: the story of four people picking on another, ostracizing her, victimizing her. For all I know this has to do with people's feelings about Jiyeon too, the roles she's played and so forth, people willing to think of her as a bitch. I don't know, haven't spent much time following that aspect of the group. But I'd say that the engine here is the bullying story itself, something in the culture (which culture? Korea's? the industrialized world's?) — that is, the bullying story doesn't arise from rumors about T-ara; rather, the appeal of the story is what inspires people to create the rumors, to let their imaginations go, the story affixing itself to T-ara in this instance. Ambiguous incidents in the past are "discovered" and given only one possible interpretation. None of which necessarily means that Hwayoung wasn't ostracized or bullied, just that the story of her being ostracized and bullied precedes anyone's discovery of evidence for it, the story rather than the evidence being the driver here.
By the way, two things that I haven't found, my being late to the dance: (i) What date the Music Bank performances were recorded (as opposed to the date they aired). If it's the same day as the broadcast, then it's two days after the original tweets. Whereas if it's before the tweets, the tweets make more sense. (The Music Core performance that aired the next evening, on the 28th, has all eight members, obviously recorded back before Hwayoung was hurt.) [UPDATE: Wikip says Music Bank is live. Not that I automatically believe Wikip, but it's usually right. Also, something can be recorded live but air later, and sometimes people use the word "live" for that. Ambiguous. But I suppose that, since Music Bank awards the week's top group at the end of the show, they have to genuinely do at least that live or the winner's name would leak.] (ii) An actual news report (as opposed to a Netizen saying something on a blog or in a forum), quoting the actual words Kim Kwang-soo used, detailing his claim that the twitter accounts were hacked (but the translations that get run are often so bad that I'm not sure I should trust them anyway). I'm painting a picture in my mind of Kim Kwang-soo being a total jackass, at least in his interface with the public (I mean, obviously he — or someone — was doing something right with T-ara over the last three years.) I don't want to make the same mistake as so many others, to believe that something said about this affair is true merely because lots of other people say so. But if Kim Kwang-soo did make that claim about the hacking, you have to wonder why someone doesn't remove him. Whom does he answer to at Mnet?
Also, where's Soyeon? Seems to me, if you're "leader" of the group, you need to (or get to) lead. (Naive question?)