There are two different scenarios to consider. In the first the only
change we make is that Hwayoung is not added. Areum joins in July 2012,
the Hwayoung crisis does not occur, and Dani is added a few months after
that. Kim Kwang Soo selected Dani for T-ara when he saw her in the
street. She is only 13 years old and joining a top group where the next
youngest is 18 and the oldest is 26, and who have just released a song
called Sexy Love. I am worried already! There's no way this is going to
work out well. T-ara's schedule is tough for the hardened professionals
who have been in the group for three years, and Dani is a child with no
discernible talent who is completely out of her depth and won't be able
to cope. It's going to end in disaster, probably before Christmas, and I
mean Christmas in 2012.
All of that is without even considering what we know about Areum, who
said that Hwayoung was a friend who took good care of her and that she
was hurt by the staff. That suggests Hwayoung's bad relationship with
the staff may have been more their fault than hers. It seems that they
didn't like new members, and Areum lasted a little under a year in T-ara
before she jumped ship (or was pushed overboard, it is not clear
which). If it was her choice the stress of being in a group accused of
bullying was surely part of the reason, but the loss of her friend
Hwayoung and the staff problem were likely to be part of it too,
probably more than the Hyoyoung incident.
The second alternative history is one in which no additions are made to
the group. T-ara's most successful period was when Hwayoung was a member
and she did help to attract new fans, but it is reasonable to think
that Roly Poly and Lovey Dovey would still have been very big hits
without her. The Budokan concerts would have passed without incident
but T-ara's excessive workload would have caused problems eventually.
Early in 2012 the members complained that they had not had a day off in
over a year. To achieve long-term success the management needed to keep
them happy and excited about they were doing and encourage them to work
together for the good of the group, but KKS responded by threatening to
replace members if he thought they weren't meeting his expectations.
That is a terrible way to manage them that was likely to make them feel
that they were in competition with each other and increase stress and
tension, and it was probably one of the reasons for the conflict that
led to the scandal.
Without Hwayoung the crisis would not have come when it did, but it was
the scandal that slowed down their schedule and without it they would
have kept working far too hard. Something probably would have gone badly
wrong eventually; whether that would be their mental health, conflict
within the group just a general loss of interest resulting in tired and
lacklustre performances I don't know. The last of those is something
they were criticised for even before KKS said he would replace members
who fell below the standards he demanded.
T-ara were so badly managed that they probably would have run into
serious trouble soon, with or without added members. From the position
they were actually in, if Hwayoung's injury had not happened when it did
they might have had a scandal about bullying Areum or Dani instead.
They did have a mini-scandal when Areum left, which was as fake as the
one involving Hwayoung. Because it was what people expected of T-ara it
didn't become a big thing and didn't affect their popularity, so there
was no attempt to demonise Areum, but what would have happened if the
Areum scandal had been the first? It would have been just like the
Hwayoung one, with T-ara hated for being bullies and Areum denounced as a
victim-playing snake by the "loyal" fans.
No comments:
Post a Comment