Korean Music Discussion - Page 3395

1. The only thing we know for certain about the T-ara situation is that KKS and CCM are wholly incompetent and couldn't have handled this situation much worse than they did. Both the pro- and anti- T-ara sides are pretty outrageous and letting their fandom/hate get out of control. My guess is that the truth is somewhere in between, as it usually is. CCM created a potentially volatile situation by adding Hwayoung the way they did, and I wouldn't be surprised if both Hwayoung and the other members reacted badly to what was likely a very stressful and frustrating situation for all of them.

Keep in mind that these are young girls in a cut-throat industry, struggling not only with each other for the limelight but also with the ever-increasing number of competing idol groups out there, and who are constantly sleep/nutrition-deprived. That's not even considering the fact that these girls usually have no real friends and no true childhood due to their early training, and grow up in an artificial and unrealstic environment where they are adored as images and not people. It's a situation ripe for misunderstanding, cattiness, distrust, backstabbing, frustration, etc., as none of them are mature or well-adjusted socially.

2. The Hwayoung hate is unfair and misdirected in my opinion. People talking about how she "stole" lines from Eunjung and Hyomin need to remember that they were given to her by their management. People talking about how she came in after T-ara had already reached some level of success and was just riding their coattails need to remember that it was their management that decided it'd be a smart move to take what they had and change it when they did. I've seen no indication, and don't even believe it's possible, that Hwayoung forced her way into T-ara. What's more likely is that she, much like Lim in the Wonder Girls, was a trainee who had no idea if she'd ever debut, and jumped on a great opportunity given to her by her bosses. I doubt any trainees want to join an already existing group and deal with the backlash from the existing team members and fanbase, but they're also not going to turn down opportunities to debut that rarely come by.

The hate should be directed at CCM, if anyone. They're the ones who apparently did a terrible job of adding Hwayoung to T-ara by not making sure the existing girls were on board with the idea, and by apparently not making sure that everyone was getting along. They were the adults in the situation, they were supposed to be the savvy management making sure that their questionable move didn't hurt the group. Whatever happened between the girls, the management company clearly failed them and should be the ones receiving the criticism and dislike, not Hwayoung.

3. Hwayoung is not as unattractive as some of the more vocal members of this board are making her out to be. Is she the least attractive in T-ara? Maybe. But she's hardly below average when comparing her to female idols as a whole. Hating on her because she can't sing and isn't a great rapper/dancer doesn't make sense either when considering how deficient some of the other members of T-ara are.

4. As someone already said, this situation is entirely different from the Daesung or even Nickhun situations. In addition to being handled much better from a PR point of view by the management companies, those situations involved accidents with a clear victim who was not attacked by the offending idol or the management company. This T-ara situation is particularly ugly because of how CCM/KKS has handled itself so poorly by giving inconsistent statements which make the public distrust them (i.e. T-ara members accounts were hacked -> they weren't talking about Hwayoung) and by airing their dirty laundry and engaging in public mudslinging at Hwayoung.

Whatever people may think about Hwayoung, she is still just a young girl who was an employee of a company that had full control over her and was responsible for taking care of her, and having that same company's officials make personal attacks against her in the media will always paint them out as bullies. Unfortunately for the members of T-ara, their company's actions are going to taint them as well, and is likely going to permanently damage their status in the industry. While it's certainly possible that it could all blow over after a while (i.e. the DBSK split, the KARA fiasco, etc.), this situation could possibly lead to the demise of T-ara if CCM doesn't clean up its act soon. Considering how judgmental Korean society can be, particularly the Kpop idol fanbase, I wouldn't be surprised if they never let it go.