20150711_seoulbeats_9muses_ninemusesWelcome to Comments of the Week!

This week, in idols and music, we covered those SM idols who have had success since leaving the company, Playback‘s debut MV, Girl’s Day‘s “Ring My Bell” and Love and Nine Muses‘ latest with 9 Muses S/S Edition.

In fashion and TV topics, we took a look at our favorite performances from the previous week’s music shows, summer fun in photoshoots, the intriguing variety show, The Genius, the next episodes of Orange Marmalade, the first two episodes of Oh My Ghostess and the series, The Lover.

Our Sunday Social went Running Man in honor of SNSD‘s latest appearance.

This week we also started our Mid-year Reviews, covering our favorites of dance, MVs, comebacks, albums, debuts and dramas.

I’ve chosen a few of your comments to highlight:

Nahla on SB Mid-year Review, 2015: Dance’s Slim Pickings

I‘m in the 4Minute-Crazy choreography boat as well. It’s hands down the most memorable and coolest dance choreography among girl groups this year. Other than the fact that Jiyoon was awesome, I loved how fierce and confident they were. Among the boy groups, BTS is on the lead. I like how rough and complex their moves are. I have a feeling that their choreographer Mr. Son is probably prized by BigHit now.

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Also, she may not be from a group, but I just wanted to say I did enjoy BoA’s choreography from Kiss My Lips. I felt that it was really refreshing, age-appropriate, sexy enough, and lady-ish for BoA, whose dance execution, for me at least, are usually associated with complex, strong, and noticeably boyish moves. There were parts that she danced alone with confidence and her dancers were there practically for the aesthetics. I just loved it.

Spills on The Ones That Got Away: Success After SM

Hmm it seems a lot of people are misguided or misled to think that Luhan is immensely more popular than Yifan in China.. while that may have been the case two years ago, that isn’t the case now. Yifan appeals to the public more than Luhan (as evidenced by his Weibo followers.. he has 2 million more than Luhan which a lot of people don’t know). Luhan is presently sustained by his fanbase but even they are losing steam.. his most recent song isn’t doing that well and he needs to make an impact to the public and actually let them know him, because as it is his fanbase is only making fabricated hype — for example, that Matt Damon anecdote of him getting 400 flower arrangements.. that was meant to “show” how popular he is but it was a fan project meant to impress and give that impression. He only has two upcoming movies, none of which with the potential to give him breakthrough success. Yifan has 5 upcoming movies (4 of those being lead roles), he’s a regular in a variety show that’s about to start this month (alongside Fan Bingbing), he’s the media darling and well loved by industry seniors, everything he puts out becomes a success (both of his OSTs are hits and broke records), not to mention the fact that his appeal isn’t just in China.. he grabs the attention of internationally renowned industry people. He’s also the first male to grace the cover of Vogue China (I notice that tidbit wasn’t mentioned).

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Anyway.. a lot of their success also has to do with good timing. China was currently looking for fresh meats (what they call new up and coming actors) and they already had some popularity so that made it easier for them to join the industry (they’re prt of the group of fresh meats that include Li Yifeng, Yang Yang, William Chan, Lin Gengxin, etc). Tao left too late, I can’t really see him reaching the same success as the two or even close to it.

thekors on SB Mid-Year Review, 2015: Digging for Decent Debuts

The Ark and Seventeen both have stand out debut song. The Ark stood out to me as they clearly opted the different route when all other new girl groups went with cheerleader skirts and/cute concept. And Seventeen, again good debut song and amazingly they managed to highlight talent in a group that huge.

Cons: Aside from their debut song, I’ve only been stanning The Ark’s dance covers. they need more exposure. And Seventeen, bottomline it’s just hard to take a group with so many people seriously. I hope each and every of them talented ones to just hang in there and survive.

Thank you all for continuing to be our fabulous readers and participating in our content! As a special bonus, I’d also like to include this charming comment from our lovely Gaya:

I AM SO ANGRY AT STAR EMPIRE YOU HAVE A GROUP FULL OF GORGEOUS MODELS AND THIS IS WHAT YOU MAKE THEM WEAR WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU WHAT ARE THOSE THINGS EVEN THEY LOOK LIKE INADEQUATE PILLOWS DOUBLING AS NAPPY BAGS THEY ARE AN ABOMINATION BEING ON KYUNGRIS HIPS IS TOO GOOD FOR THEM THEY DESERVE TO BURN IN HELLLLLLLLLLLLL AND DONT EVEN GET MY STARTED ON THE STRIPED MONSTROSITIES HOW MANY SESAME STREET WORMS DOD YOU SKIN TO MAKE THEM YOU KNOW HOW ANGRY OSCAR IS GOING TO BE HE IS GOING TO BEAT YOU UP OH YOUVE GONE AND DONE IT NOW STAR EMPIRE I HOPE YOURE FUCKING HAPPY BECAUSE IM NOT

Cheers!

(Images via K Wave Magazine, Star Empire Entertainment, SM Entertainment and Vogue China)