u/DinnerSolid6462

I think it is safe to say that for the past few days I have fallen through a T-ara rabbit hole. While I was scrolling through the comments I saw a post from back then pointing out that they only knew Hyomin, Eunjung, and Jiyeon. Of course one post doesn’t mean that it’s the case for everyone, but looking through a few posts of when T-ara was at their peak back in 2009-2012 that seemed to had been the case with a lot of people. I looked through their wiki and I was shock to find out both Jiyeon and specially Eunjung had quite the impressive acting career before they became members of T-ara. Jiyeon had a few roles before their debut but Eunjung had roles dating all the way back to 1995 when she was only 7.

Through their peak the three of them got a few acting roles and became ambassadors, Eunjung in particular also appeared in We got married. The three of them featured in a track with Davichi called Wonder Woman which was a hit and Jiyeon also appeared in a ton of OSTs that charted pretty well. They were also the three members that basically only appeared in T-ara’s film versions of their music videos. Hyomin in particular also seemed to have had quite the successful solo career in China from 2014-2019. Three of her songs charted inside the top 10 China’s hot 100 back when it was active with Sketch even going number 1 for eight weeks. While the three of them had an impressive career, Boram, Qri, and Soyeon didn’t really appear in much projects outside of T-ara. I kinda started to understand why not many people were aware of who they were since Eunjung, Jiyeon, and Hyomin seemed to had been massive.

Of course I know Wikipedia isn’t really much of reliable source nor a few comments, so I wanted to ask and receive an answer from someone who is aware of this topic. How big were Hyomin, Eunjung, and Jiyeon truly during their peak and were the other three members not really known?

I think its pretty safe to say that T-ara are one of the biggest what ifs in Kpop. After their debut with “lies” back in July 27, 2009, the group was met with instant success with the single reaching the top 10 in many korean music charts. From 2009 to 2012 before the controversy, T-ara was able to achieve 6 number 1 songs(Even tho gaon charts which would later be changed to circle charts wasn’t really a thing yet, TTL peaked at number 1 on every korean chart so I am including it), 13 top 10 hits, and 6 real time all kills. Roly poly in particular reached number 1 on year end and correct me if I am wrong, it’s the most downloaded track by a kpop female group in history. To get a clearer idea on how big they truly were, they still ended up getting two top 10 hits after the whole scandal and boycott.

Not only were big in Korea, but in Japan and specifically China aswell. Many sources go as far as to claim they were huge threats to groups like 2ne1 and Girls Generation at their peak. After the whole bullying scandal, unfortunately the group and the members basic faced a boyco and they quickly fell off. Even after finally getting their names cleared in 2017, it was sadly to late since the group was basically already 5 years passed their prime. Now for the pass few days I been wondering where T-ara would be right now if the whole bullying scandal didn’t take place or if they were able to get their names cleared right after the whole scandal took place. Do you guys think they would be placed on the same pedestal as Girls Generation and 2ne1?

A few days ago I decided to check out brown eyed girls for the first time after a friend recommended them to me recently. While I was watching one of their performances, I was surprised to see Gain who I instantly recognized since she appeared on Psy’s gentleman music video. Giving how Psy usually invites top female idols to his music videos like Cl, Suzy, Naeun, and Hyuna I was instantly curious about how popular she truly was at her peak since like I stated, I wasn’t familiar with brown eyed girls before. I wanted to ask this subreddit to get the response from people who might be more familiar with Brown eyed girls and Gain and have a clearer idea on how big they were back during their peak.

We are basically almost 4 months away from mama, and 2 months away for the tracking period to be closed. Wether you hate or not, every year it always becomes one of the top topics for kpop stans and is the most watched award show. As mama comes even closer its only natural for people to start making assumptions like who will perform, who will get nominated, and so on. So, I wanted to make a post asking for your guys early mama predictions.

I know it’s basically impossible to predict what will happen with mama. Wether an artist/group gets snubbed for an award or nomination and who ends up performing this is meant to be a fun post. So, who do you think will attend, your early nomination predictions, and so on.

I am pretty sure most of you are aware of the controversy surrounding Cortis and their world tour recently. Many people took issue with the fact that the members didn’t have any outfit change and the setlist. Now at first I wasn’t aware with the issue regarding the setlist, until I checked it and understood why people who attended the concert were quite upset. Now of course the members absolutely killed it like always. Their energy was amazing and they really did good with the material they were given. I honestly don’t see a. issue with the fact they didn’t change outfits, while I understand why some people might find it boring I am honestly don’t see anything with it. Of course the set list is a whole other issue.

At the moment cortis only has 2 EP’s and 12 songs in their discography. The concert lasted around an hour and 40 minutes, and they basically performed their whole discography twice. Not only that but they performed RedRed and youngcreatorcrew a whopping 5 times each. Now I think it’s safe to say that this is generally ridiculous, while it’s quite common for younger kpop groups to perform a few songs twice for the encore performing the same song 5 times it’s too much. They could replace some of the setlist with one or two cover songs or solo stages for each member. I also don’t think it should had been almost 2 hours long, It would had been fine if it was a little over an hour long. Not only that I think that big hit should had waited until their next release to even do a world tour since from my understanding they are already preparing for their next comeback. I know big hit probably rushed the tour giving the insane demand Cortis has worldwide and they wanted to capitalize on it, but there really isn’t any harm on waiting another 3 to 5 months to begin the world tour, they would have more material to work with.

Another thing they could had done to fill the time was perform games like some groups do except of repeating the same songs. I think it would had been a better idea of maybe doing a fancon/showcase tour first except of instantly jumping to the world tour. When you label something a world tour fans expectations instantly go up, with a fancon or showcase tour fans instantly now that the concert might not be that long as a regular concert in a full tour aswell as some fun moments like games. Plus it could help the members gain more experience so that they could be even better when they start their actual tour and it can even increase the demand. They could had kept the same dates, but like I stated labeled it a showcase tour at least.

I also have seen many people call the people that are not to happy about the setlist ungrateful. While some fans are taking it a bit to far, you also have to understand where they are coming from. Imagine going to the concert, and you literally hear all the same songs performed twice with 2 of them being performed 5 times. Of course I am not criticizing the members, they absolutely killed it with what they were given but hybe instea. They should had prepared it better it atleast waited a few months. They rushed this tour and didn‘t really planned it through so that they could capitalize on the hype.

It's pretty much a known fact that Nmixx absolutely have been killing it recently. With Blue Valentine being a huge smash hit in Korea and Heavy Serenade still being inside the top 20 after 2 months they are one of the best performing girl groups of the year. With award season coming up in a couple of months, I have been wondering what award shows Nmixx will attend this year. I mean from what I have seen besides their rookie days they haven't attended much award shows through the years. Of couse I know attendance usually has to do with nominations, but nmixx has been nominated for some categories throughout the years. Now that they pretty much killed it, I have been wondering if they will attend some award shows this upcoming season. 

Earlier today I decided to check some current predictions and unfortunately Blue Valentine and the album won’t be eligible for this upcoming Melon Music awards and Golden disk awards. Tho currently Heavy Serenade is predicted to win Millions top 10 on mma and if it continues remaining stable it has a fair shot at winning a digital bonsang at the gda I don’t see them attending any of the both. Even if Blue Valentine was eligible for tracking for the mma’s, they most definitely wouldn’t had attended. Jyp and Melon don’t have the best relationship ever since the controversy with Twice back in 2018, the last time a jyp artist attended was itzy back in 2019.

For mama I think this is the award show they have the most chances on attending this year. Tho it’s too soon to tell since there is still 4 months of tracking, they are currently second place for Song of the year, best female group, and best female dance performance. Tho there is a chance mama will nominate hwavy serenade over blue valentine. I remember Perfect night was a top contender for song of the year and best female dance performance yet they nominated easy over it. Even tho it won, Twice’s knock knock performed better then signal yet signal was nominated over it. Plus mama usually tends to not nominate artists or songs that are untop of the predictions, literally you can never correctly predict what mama will do. Tho jyp has a pretty good relationship with Mnet and mama is the award show their artists have attended the most, so let’s see. It’s literally to early to tell, a lot can happen in the next 4 month but if it remains stable and mama doesnt pull any funny business, then yea it can nominated.

I also see them attending the AAA and Kgma this year, and if they do they actually even have a fair shot of winning a daesang. I mean even tho it’s to soon to tell, I generally do hope they attend award shows this year. They absolutely killed it and deserved to be celebrated for their success. What award shows do you guys think they might attend?

Suddenly has reached number 1 in this week circle digital chart update with a total of 20,4755,958 points(the highest peak by a kpop act this year), officially becoming their second number 1 song on the chart. “I.O.I: Loop” also reached a new peak of #17 on the album chart with 15,000 albums, making it a total of 25,000 albums sold. Now correct me if I am wrong since I don’t really keep up with charts, but this is the first number 1 song on circle charts by a 3rd gen girl group since Dun Dun Dance back in May 2021, or atleast in a while.

I think it is safe to say nobody expected this, but I am not complaining at all. I remember when it was first released I was hoping for it to atleast chart and once I saw it rising I was expecting a cute top 50 peak on charts. From what we heard from the members also didn’t expect this kind of success at all, they came with the idea of giving a gift to the fans without making much profit or any at all (hence why they didn’t print much albums in the first place, until now). I am glad their hard work was able to pay off, they absolutely deserved this.

Now I am pretty sure you guys are all aware with the current issues regar Chai so I won’t really get into detail about that. Right now I currently only get 20 messages an hour which I am not going to lie is way to little and I am not going to buy a subscription. The current plan is currently $5.99 a week which is actually insane, if anything that or atleast $10 should be the monthly subscription price but I digress. Don‘t get me wrong I really like chai, I been using it for over a year but right now until things hopefully get fix I want to find an alternative app to use while things hopefully get better.

After searching for a while in the subreddit I saw FictionLab getting the most praised out of the chat ai apps mentioned tho it was pretty 50/50. Some people said that the ai had better memory then the chai ai but others said it was confusing and didn’t have much dialogue. Now before I actually decide to try the app for myself I wanted to make a dedicated post on the topic to learn people’s experience with FictionLab and if it’s a good alternative for the time being. Is the memory for the ai really better then chai’s ai, do the personas actually work, is there little dialogue, or are people just hyping it up to much? I would love to hear your opinion!