[2013.01.20] KARA's popularity leaning on each member


yuda

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For a music group that want to last long without any big discord or disbanding, it's good to have a popularity that not excessively depend on 1 member only. A group that only depend on the popularity of 1 member, he/she can maintain the group but it also possible to became a minus.

A member that relatively got less spotlight can feel deprivation and the member with high popularity can think "I'm the one who fed and make this group live". Even one of the way to prevent a war between nations is the balance of power. Even one particular nation get more military power the war risk will become bigger.

The fact that all 5 members of girl group KARA getting an equal popularity can be felt during the recent Tokyo Dome Concert. This is important because KARA was once facing the danger of disbanding, and the time left of their contract with their company was less than 1 year.

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Han Seungyeon have great contribution to prevent KARA from getting disbanded after their failure in KARA's 1st album and even revived after that. She is the one who wandered around on making appearance in cable TV and making people know the existence of KARA. However as time goes by both Nicole and Goo Hara also getting lots of popularity while making appearance in various variety program overrunning Han Seungyeon's popularity. Especially to the extent that some producer want to make 'Ant waist' Goo Hara doing solo.

People also thought that Goo Hara has exceptionally high popularity in Japan. But it's not as much as expected. On the day of Tokyo Dome concert, among the merchandise that being sold, the fan that have picture of each members on it are sold out. Instead, Japanese fans that holding fan with Han Seungyeon's pictures can be seen a lot.

On the concert, Han Seungyeon said in Japanese "I had a nightmare that there are no one who came to the concert but i'm really thankful that a lot of people have come today" and be moved to tears while getting great responds from the fans. On the other side, Goo Hara and Nicole confidently showed their existence through powerful choreography.

Park Gyuri showed her singing ability with her solo part which stands out the most between 5 members. However the response for 'cheerful girl' Kang Jiyoung's stage are bigger. They showed responses to each of Jiyoung's words.

Kang Jiyoung who wore pink sailor uniform and sang Japanese sports cheering song title "School of Heaven" said "everyone and us are like the two wheels of a bicycle that need both to be able to move forward. I hope everyone and us can keep on become a pair of wheel that running forward." The audience greeted her words with thundering applause.

The fact that KARA's members, 5 people gaining even popularity and receiving spotlight equally, it shows the promising future that this group will be able to last long.

Source: http://news.heraldcorp.com/view.php?ud=20130120000179&md=20130120142012_AN

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It is something that I've noticed about Kara in comparison to other groups, how all of the members seem to get almost the same amount of love and have about equal popularity. It is true that Hara was becoming more popular than the others a few years ago, but you can't really see that anymore.

And I mean I haven't been a fan of kara for long (about a year maybe?), but in all this time I haven't been able to really pick a favorite member ><.

(while reading the first paragraphs it felt like they were talking about miss a \o/)

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It's true that each KARA member has a strong popularity on their own. JiYoung who hasn't had many solo activities until last year just zoomed up in popularity to catch up. I still think Hara's popularity is the highest among the members but it's not something that DSP plays off too much to over-shadow the other members. It does make me appreciate the lack of media play DSP does hahaha

Yes, 2014 will come sooner than we hope. My wish is for KARA to be successful in their solo activities and maintain being KARA as a group. DSP doesn't have a good track record of keeping their idol groups, but KARA's a gold mine for DSP. Who knows, though.

For now, let's support every member in all their endeavors as we always have (biases aside).

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Wow, this is one of the few article of kara that i actually really like :)

gah, i love these girls so much!

i was actually thinking about this earlier too, how kara had the chance to promote all their members and how they actually have a name for themselves unlike a few groups that are just relying on one or two people. i feel bad for those other groups..but anyways

i love how all the members had their time to shine :)

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Yeah, each member has contributed equally in their own way, and their appeal are also almost evenly distributed. But that's not why KARA is still together. Even if they have different level of popularity, I would like to think that they would still be good friends to each other, rather than the superior one having the arrogance of being the one carrying the group.

For example, I've never seen Seungyeon brag, try to claim credit or make herself more deserving than the other members even when she was the one who worked so hard to carry the group during KARA4 to KARA5 times. Which is why they are still together, their kind and humble personality even to each other. Of course, even popularity is good any time. I wouldn't want to see one member being isolated because of lesser fans.

Edited by Redresonance
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WEll IS IS THE only sensible way to keep a group succesfull. And this is what apealed to me about Kara always. Btw I like Gyuri and Hammie the most but i always liked Kara as a whole.

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This is true.

This wasn't done in short period of time, it took a lot of hard work from all the members. Each girl has their own charming and distinct qualities which definitely helps the group over all. I was really proud last year when I heard all the members would be working on things outside of KARA, that tells you how much KARA has come and they deserve it. I remember Sweetune PD saying how the girls know they are stronger when they are together and they obviously live by that rule and it's working out great :D !

Thanks for the translations!

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This is truly one of KARA's advantages. the 5 of them have had their spotlight at some point, first Hammie, then Nicole in "Level with Me", Hara in IY, Gyuri with Shim Shim Tapa and "200 Pounds of Beauty" and our Jing with "IY2" etc.

It's almost mandatory, if you love a member of KARA, you'll love the rest of them.

Now, about that "Less than a year" thing.... :disappointed: I guess everything has to come to an end, even though I don't want to see KARA's end any time soon it is a fact that we must face...... :crybaby:

Let's enjoy while we can, hopefully our lovely girl would want to remain together a few more years....hopefully!!!!!!

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