CronoDroid

Karaholic♥
  • Posts

    13
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Donations

    0.00 USD 

About CronoDroid

CronoDroid's Achievements

Newbie

Newbie (1/10)

0

Reputation

  1. OMG I just watched King of Idols and Seungyeon was so funny when she tripped up during her dance routine. I just had to spazz about it.
  2. It did affect me a lot, even though I am a Sone first, Kara is my second favorite by a pretty close margin. However, it mainly made me concerned about the entire Korean music industry in general. Most of us know that Korean idols have lower living standards than comparable American musicians while being paid less. Disputes over income and contracts could happen at anytime to any group, even SNSD in the future. I was really looking forward to seeing how Kara would do in 2011, because they are on the cusp of greatness IMO. Even though I prefer the hip-hop/R&B style of old Kara, I still like their current brand of music. Also, I like all the girls and think they're absolutely beautiful. I hate seeing them being put under this sort of pressure, it seems like the issue is a dispute between the lawyers and DSP while the opinions of the girls are being marginalized. My wish for a happy ending to this saga would be Kara remaining as five with a new contract (with whomever) that affords them full creative control and ownership of their music, and having input into the sort of promotions they conduct. They can still collaborate with their usual staff of composers and choreographers, but it seems like, similarly to other idol groups, Kara aren't given a whole lot of rights when it comes to their work.
  3. This is really messy. The Landmark lawyers said that they could not and would not compromise, and now what?! Hara isn't going through with it? That's just too suspicious, what the hell happened in the meantime? Also, the "other agency" tampering with Kara is just unbelievable, that sort of activity can be extremely destructive. There's no guarantee that Kara would've gotten a new contract if they terminated their current one with DSP, and signing a new contract in advance without the prior knowledge of DSP is definitely illegal. Additionally, if Hara was lured back with new terms from DSP, or blackmailed/threatened in some way, this case will turn sour fast. I also cannot understand why the five girls didn't come to a unanimous decision regarding their contracts before announcing it, especially since Hara reneged on that and Gyuri claims she had no idea, while her mother claimed differently. The timing of the announcement was woeful, it sounds like they had a great deal more negotiating to do before going all out and saying they're done with DSP. I mean, their reputation in the industry is hanging on a thread now, and there's no certainty regarding how the case will go if it goes to court. What if they lose? They could've ruined their entire careers for nothing. The fact that there was no statement on why Gyuri chose to not terminate her contract in the initial report is also extremely frustrating. Gyuri's mother also appears to be her spokesperson, but are the five girls not all represented by the same lawyers? What on Earth? Of course, reading these articles from allkpop is probably an exercise in futility, first off, they've been known to make errors in translation and words are the most important factor when it comes to legal proceedings. A single word here or there can change the entire meaning of the issue when it comes to contract law. Conflicting statements from all parties is definitely not helping, it merely confounds the public and the legal system when it comes time to litigate. I'm about to begin ranting here, so feel free to skip my post from here. This issue highlights one of the most concerning facets of the Korean music industry. Han Geng, DBSK and now Kara, all these legal battles have been caused by the way the industry is structured and bad faith on the part of the entertainment companies (SM, JYP, YG, DSP, etc). Unlike in the US, there are very few artists who have full or near-total control of their artistic direction and style, and probably fewer who have entered the industry on the strength of their raw talents alone. Yes, in the US, most big artists are signed to the big labels, but they are usually discovered by a label who wants to sign them, not the other way around like in Korea. In Korea, these kids audition for the big companies and if the company sees talent or potential, they sign them and then begin training them over a number of years. This is pretty much unheard of in the US, few artists over here are signed with a label for over a decade and receive training, instead, they're usually aspiring musicians who catch the eye of some A&R or other music big wig who then sign them. The point is, a lot of American musicians already have skills in singing, dancing, producing or songwriting that they can use to promote themselves, as opposed to being a blank slate that needs to be trained over a number of years. American artists usually don't sign the important contracts until they're much older than Korean artists, and the legal representation in the US is also much more developed and artist-oriented. Thus, aspiring American musicians can negotiate more favorable terms which include a greater distribution of income for the artist, creative control over their music and what-not. Now take a look at Korea, where these kids sign contracts when they're like 14, 15 years old and with poor talent management. Hell, I don't even know if they have A&R in Korea, people who scout artists they think will be profitable and/or popular. Instead, they train people from the ground up to fit a certain niche rather than finding people who will be ahead of the curve, creating music that will become popular. A lot of this has to do with the unfortunate fact that Korean idol music is largely derived from popular American music like rap, R&B and pop. So trends usually follow current US sensibilities, and thus the companies train new artists to fit this mold rather than finding unique talent that will define the Korean entertainment industry. Now bear with me when I say this but of course K-pop is not exactly the same as US-pop. Girl/boy bands are the norm for one. Ballads are also popular, and Korean tastes are different from American tastes (especially regarding cute and softer concepts). However, you still hear "rap" verses in most popular songs, autotune is pervasive and the usage of "Konglish" is widely accepted and probably encouraged. So the unique and talented individuals who can make their own music are often thrown to the wayside doing less glamorous work like songwriting and producing, while the pretty ones are formed into groups and forced to record the songs the label wants them to record. How many popular/idol Korean musicians actually write their own work? GD? CN Blue? I'm sure there are others but I know groups like SNSD, Kara, DBSK, etc. don't actually participate even 10% in the whole songwriting process. They're usually given lyrics, music and a dance and that's it, do it because we're making you famous and you would be nothing without our help. It's sad, and I don't usually like to talk about it, but this issue has really boiled my anger when a band I love is in the midst of self-destructing because of poor management and the nature of the Korean entertainment industry. I mean, what are they gonna do? Take for example someone like Yoona (I don't want to use Kara as an example right now, and everyone knows SNSD is popular). She joined SM in 2002, at the age of 12. When you're a child, you don't have a talented and aggressive lawyer, you don't know any better and your parents don't either, what sort of contract are you gonna sign with a big dog like SM? It's not like she can say "hang on a second, I'm beautiful, I can sing and dance and I'm writing hits left and right for popular musicians". She's 12, and nobody knows how she's going to turn out. If it turns out she sucks, then fine, you can be a backup dancer/singer or get a real job, but I'm happy just having a job in the entertainment industry and maybe I can do something later. If it turns out she's stunningly beautiful and talented, oops, you signed a slave contract when you were 12 for 13 years, leave prematurely and you're nothing, just another pretty girl in a sea of many desperate wannabes. Now wait, I'll stick it out till I'm 21, wow, now I'm incredibly famous, I have actual power, people love and respect me, I'm set with all my endorsements, my drama career, and I have SNSD on my resume, I'll always be famous. But why am I working 20-hour days, my schedule is up to the gills with events, shows, concerts, promotions and whatever else, and I'm being paid a meager wage when I'm raking in millions for SM? She has two options, stick it out till she's 25 and then find greener pastures (another few years of hell, psychological and physical trauma and making less money than a mid-level white collar office worker) or terminate/renegotiate my contract, possibly ruining my reputation (she's greedy, only in it for the money), crushing my career (look at SM vs JYJ), breaking up SNSD (fans start resenting her for destroying the band) and definitely having to go through a long, arduous and psychologically traumatizing litigation process (so why didn't I just stay with SM). Okay, maybe I won the case, the contract was unlawful, I even get damages from SM, but now what? Hell, let's consider four other Sonyuhs follow her, but 5/9 SNSD is NOT SNSD. We could easily apply this theoretical proposition to Kara's Seungyeon, Nicole and Jiyoung. I know it's not too late to re-negotiate and come to a settlement or compromise, but even then, what is DSP going to think of them? They're a liability now, and maybe they're greedy too. Let's promote Rainbow instead, Kara can be the B-team. A settlement? Okay, I got damages from the bad contract, but where am I going to go? After School? 4minute? Highly improbable, and I just don't see something like SNJ working out successfully, unless they get serious backing from a big dog like JYP, YG or SM, but will they trust them? Plus, what about their intergroup relationship? Is Gyuri going to treat them the same? Are they going to treat Hara the same? Something like civil litigation can very easily destroy a relationship. ----------- There's going to be no easy way out of this, I think the damage has been done. Even if they reach some sort of compromise and Kara remains intact, there are a lot of underlying factors that will remain dormant because of this announcement. I can only hope that things work out, but from my experience in legal matters and the entertainment industry, things like this very rarely have a happy ending. I'm not blaming Kara, DSP or any of the parties in this dispute. But I must illuminate the treacherous nature of K-pop, something like this was BOUND to happen, it's inevitable when the industry is structured like this. Most of all, this makes me scared for the other groups I love, like SNSD, Big Bang, etc. We know what happened with SJ and DBSK. We know the past history of DSP regarding SS501, FinKL and Sechskies. The industry cannot sustain this model, this is a problem that needs to be addressed at its core or we will see more breakups.
  4. Wow, Hara has a lot of younger (and young) fans on this forum! I'm older by a year.
  5. She doesn't look as much like Namie Amuro without makeup, in my opinion!
  6. I like her hair during the lupin promotions, even though it covers her face, she looks really fierce and sexy with that sort of hair.
  7. She must actually do a fair bit of dancing on her own time, she looks like she has a dancer's body. Therefore she should do more special stages and dance!!
  8. I liked her and Seungyeon's English pseudo-rap in "If U Wanna", but I voted for her to sing more English parts.
  9. Oh, her face is to die for, so adorable! I think she pulls off a lot of different looks depending on her hair and outfit, she did mature and sexy well in Lupin and Jumping, but she looks real cute with those pigtails.
  10. And she's only 16!!! She'll be really, really beautiful when she grows up, maybe she'll be over 170cm too if she's already 166cm. I hope she becomes the tallest female idol!
  11. I think I first noticed how hot Seungyeon was in the U Go Girl special, she really looks different compared to how she normally does (the rice cakes under her eyes were less apparent) so she had a mature appeal as opposed to a cute one. So I voted for that!!