EXO's repackaged album (Growl) really has changed my view of the group. Not of SM Entertainment of course *not sure anything can really change my view on them!* I think I now finally see part of what EXOtics go crazy for.
If you're even remotely in the K-pop fandom, you'll be aware of the fanwars between BAP and EXO. Nothing to do with the groups themselves, but the fans. I was always strongly on BAP's side (if it came to it then I still would be...sorry guys). From my point of view, BAP were working really hard on their comebacks..they've had so many! Even within the amount of time EXO have been promoting their first comeback, BAP have had 3...I could never understand the fuss about EXO.
But enough about BAP because this is a K-talk about EXO!
Kai always caused so many issues in my brain. I joined K-pop through SM Entertainment groups. I've had a lot with them xD I've seen the groups come through, from Super Junior to SHINee and now EXO...the boys always have a similar look. Stick all of the people under SM in one room and I can sort every male into 3-4 categories ranging from Cute to Cute-Sexy to Sexy....(then the Comedy line - Onew, Shindong etc.) SM have a clear face.
In no way am I saying this is a bad thing. All companies have it if you look closely. YG have the same - 4 girl types and 4 boy types, I've narrowed it down to.
But Kai reminded me so much of Taemin that it was disturbing...it was like SM was saying "Hey, Taemin has grown up now but here's a clone of baby Taemin so we can do the whole thing all over again!!"
Kai being the face of EXO pretty much didn't make my dislike any easier! Sure I acknowledged the fact that he was an amazing dancer and had good vocals...I just couldn't look at his face. xD
And of course my issues with DBSK's situation. F(x)'s lack of promotion... SHINee's Taemin constantly being dressed up in girls clothing despite saying publicly that he wants to be more manly... SM have never been on my good side. But their artists are so talented that I have to put up with it.
I swore to myself that in order to stop the vicious cycle of me supporting SM groups, that after DBSK broke up I said to myself that the next group to debut under SM...I would just ignore them. I wouldn't watch the music videos, get the songs. I'd just pretend they didn't exist.
And BAM. SM comes back to me with this.
12 members. 2 nationalities. Crazed fans. .....And only one album. Wow.
SM sure know how to market. I'll give them that. EXO fans didn't stand a chance. From the amount of teasers (I still haven't finished watching) and the crazy wait between comebacks. SM have literally driven the teenage female population of South Korea completely insane. Yet they still don't have an official fan club.
I was very worried when EXO debuted for one simple reason. China. After Hangeng's incident, I wasn't sure how long the EXO-M half of EXO would last (I'm still not convinced). Sure foreign K-pop stars are everywhere now. We've got Nickhun, Sandara and Thunder, Jessica and Krystal, Fei.... they are everywhere really. But Jay Park, Hangeng (and Chocolat - yeah, remember them? Nope? That's because they were a girl group with 3 half-Koreans...notice the lack of publicity there!) show us that foreigners walk on a crazy thin tightrope. I was worried for the Chinese members that they wouldn't last.
Let's face it, Korea does focus on it's on half a lot more than M's half. I'm not sure about how China receives their EXO but I assume that it's alright...otherwise SM would have given up by now!
I just hope that EXO stand their ground. Growl was awesome. Full stop. That's what EXO needs. Not Pre-songs...not 50 million teasers. Not strange title sequences with bad English and trees.
I'll admit it now. I like EXO. I like EXO. Not SM. Just the group. Until one of them says something insane - along the lines of Super Junior's recent incident in which they announced that Henry has never and will never be a Super Junior member. <- not a good idea guys....especially because he's on more than you these days...
Sure this post has been a bit of an SM rant...but you guys should probably have expected that by now! If you're not a k-pop fan and you've sat and read this whole post...Firstly, well done! You've managed to get through all of that and probably had no idea what I was talking about. Secondly, I apologise for what seems to be a tangent!
All I want to say is that my annoyance has left me. I now watch Kai first when I watch live stages...I had EXO hit my top played artist of the week and I'm not ashamed... okay maybe a little.
But I'll always be team BAP. Until EXO all go blond that is.
So have a great day everyone, expect my schedule *Ha, what schedule* to get a little hectic because I'm moving out in less than a month now ^^ so I'm getting pretty busy! I want to try and figure out how much I can realistically post! Let me know if you enjoy the K-talk posts or any of the types because I'd prefer to make a couple of posts a week that people actually enjoy than trying hit or miss stuff every day!
