T-ara Mess
I was never a fan of T-ara (not my style of music). I only noticed them when Eunjung did a wonderful job with Dream High. I didn't even know how many members were in that group before last week's T-ara controversy came out. I thought there were 4 members...but now it's ~7? (edit: oops it was a 6 member group and was going to be 9 according to wiki). I knew T-ara isn't new, so it was a surprise to me that their management decided to add extra members to the group. I'm thinking they were going with something like the girl group "After School" (another group I don't pay attention to, but I know two facts: UEE is part of it and there are rotational members). Rotational members and kpop doesn't really flow that well (ie. Super Junior). Why did their management start having this concept after their group has been establish for a few years....and significantly increase the numbers?? Haven't they learned anything from Super Junior? (oh wait, that's probably a bad example. Kyuhyun joined late, but then....Kyuhyun is awesome). Why doesn't their lazy management just put the 3 extra members into a new girlband....instead of stuffing them into an establish group??
So anyways, tensions were high and rumors were flying around that they were bullying one of the new members (I think there were exclusions, which is again foreseeable since...the new members - including Hwayoung haven't establish a solid relationship with the old crew). If they were going to add members to an establish team, where a nice, friendly, and clean public image is a necessity, why didn't they see if they can get along first??? So the girls were a bit catty on twitter, and it got blown up into a "bullying" incident and now, T-ara has that awful image of bullying their new members.
Like I said, I was a casual observer. I dismissed those claims....until their CEO/management did a really stupid PR move - he terminated Hwayoung's contract, which escalated the rumors. Made the victim look worse. They must have panicked and thought if she goes away, the rumors would stop - but it made her look even more like a victim...it was adding oil to the flames.
To make it worse, the CEO realise that the netziens were sympathising with Hwayoung instead of dropping the issue, he explains that Hwayoung was not cooperative to the poorly paid and overworked staff (geez if they were poorly paid and overworked, pay them more and get more workers!!!) - that they had to do something with her because she's so disrespectful to the staff....
Petitions (netziens love these things) were being created for the disbandment of the group, expiring endorsement deals (mostly Eunjung) were not getting renewed. Tickets for their first concert were being returned. This is a HUGE PR mess...
And really, if the management made the members pretend to make up at a conference... or even waiting a month before terminating Hwayoung's contract for a few months...all of this could have been avoided. Netziens lose interest quickly. I think it also doesn't help that both Eunjung and Jiyeon's characters in Dream high were....i can't find a better word...bitchy.
Will they survive? Probably. Hwayoung's only a 20 month member....the other's have established the group - so there is a good chance that the combination of the remaining T-ara fans will outnumber Hwayoung's fans. Also, Eunjung's basically the face of the group. Except for one incident (some game thing, which netzien's attributed to bullying), she's pretty clean. I think lots of non-T-ara fans (including me) found these rumors and accusations quite juicy and were following it - so... I think T-ara will maintain most of their fans. Unless their management can think of something else to screw their group over.
Well I think the test will be when the new member joins in - the public will be watching to see what kind of group will come out of it. They have to at least put up a good front - at least when the cameras are rolling.