Just here to tell you your rants are on point. That's what I always want to say when somebody comes to me talking crap about SJ, or when they try to convince me SJ the "most promoted" by SM. It just makes me so mad. I could never put it into words the way you did
Oh man, I can’t believe you read all five. I have the tendency to ramble when I’m getting angry, and SM/other fandoms’ treatment of SJ drive me insane. Like, I am so sick of hearing people who honestly should just care about their own groups tell SJ to disband. They are literally doing nothing to anyone else (hell, you have SJ members promoting rookies and other rising groups and lesser known groups all the damn time for basically nothing, since few of these groups are even returning the favor), so I don’t understand why people care about their existence. Let them make music if they want; let us enjoy their music if we want. I saw an argument the other day that was like, “SJ should just disband and give other groups a chance.” Which was what people were initially saying when SM deliberately failed to nominated them for GDA. But hearing that now just made me beyond frustrated because SJ doesn’t have to give anyone else a chance, SM is already making sure they’re not at these awards and barely promoting them, they aren’t winning all the daesangs and making it so that no one else can - they are literally slaying silently, what more do they want from them? Also, SJ disbanding wouldn’t make their fandom suddenly support all these rookie groups, it’s not like SJ detracted from any other groups’ ability to sell well… The entire argument is so stupid, and once again, we return to, please like what you like and let us like what we like, SJ is doing nothing to you so stop pretending you have the right to have an opinion on how long they continue being idols.
I’ve heard that “SJ is the most promoted” argument too, and it’s bullshit. People think SJ is most promoted or even decently promoted because they still release so many albums if you count all their solos and subunits together, but that is actually the reason why they’re least promoted. They release so many albums and get basically no advertisement or recognition for it from their own damn company. These albums, even subunits, are still selling more than 80% of other kpop groups alone. SJ is selling more than 99% together. They’re doing all the concerts, getting nearly full attendance everywhere, and then all the individual stuff and CFs and variety… It’s a proportionality thing. If a top earning group is getting treated like they’re still those misfits SM threw together to make one group they were going to disband in like three years, then they are most definitely neglected. And SJ doesn’t even have a lot of production fees, they are producing so much of their albums themselves, and 2/3 of their mvs last year were directed by Shindong and choreographed by Hyuk, and a lot of their non mv songs are choreographed by Hyuk, they did SS6 almost entirely themselves, they don’t have as many people from SM working on their stuff in comparison to any other SM group. For a group that slays so much, you would think they’d get at least an ounce of recognition. It’s not promotion to release all the albums - that’s SJ being worked hard, or choosing to work hard. What good is releasing a thousand albums anyway if no one is going to know they’re out there. People can scream about SJ’s songs not being publicly friendly all they want (granted, that rep comes from songs SM chose as their titles even though I like most of them), but SJ’s songs were nearly all “public friendly” this year and if SM had promoted them, people wouldn’t have judged the song without listening to it for being released by a member of SJ (the bias Korea has against SJ is soooo frustrating, and again, if SM were promoting them, they’d have at least tried to fix it).
So yeah, it sucks that some other SM groups no longer exist or are in forever hiatus or don’t have a fandom/solo con (which, okay, SM should have done for f(x) by now), but it’s incomparable. SM’s treating SJ as if they really are a flop, while taking all the money SJ brings them, and that’s why they’re least promoted, that’s why they deserve better, and that’s why fandom and even media outside Korea get frustrated and angry. It’s hard to watch, especially when it keeps happening over and over again.
I realize some of this was off topic and once again, I’ve written way too much. But thanks for your comment. I doubt my rants will change the mind of anyone who thinks otherwise, but I’m glad others feel the same way I do.
