Chapter 24 The Story Behind the Recommendation by the Japanese Senior + Sales...
It was actually quite a coincidence that a senior figure in Japan made the recommendation.
ETE is only known in Japan as a rookie group under the South Korean entertainment company YG Entertainment, and is labeled as another junior group of BigBang.
There were not nearly as many public opinion storms as there are in South Korea.
The pre-debut hype surrounding the senior group 2NE1 in Japan also drew some attention to the newly debuted ETE.
The music style of their debut album, "ek!", perfectly suited the tastes of Japanese fans.
In conclusion, ETE has a better reputation in Japan than in South Korea.
The senior artist mentioned ETE's debut on a Japanese variety show, which was also a way of referring to his daughter who was about to debut as a singer.
The focus was originally on the latter; expressing appreciation for the new group was just a side note. Although she genuinely liked the album's message, otherwise she wouldn't have mentioned it at all.
However, when the news reached South Korea, the public's attention was more focused on ETE.
The South Korean public generally holds a certain degree of romanticized view of Seiko Matsuda, the legendary Showa-era diva.
After all, Japan's idol culture predates South Korea's and has influenced South Korea's idol culture.
Now, overseas markets like Japan are actually more accepting of ETE.
Is ETE suffering any injustice in South Korea?
Is someone framing them?
Such ideas have emerged among the South Korean people and are subtly changing their attitudes toward ETE.
The idea that entertainment can revitalize a nation and that using idol culture to represent South Korea's image is something South Korea started doing in the last century.
Even Boa, a singer who achieved great success in the Japanese market in the early 21st century, had a very good reputation in South Korea.
YG executives naturally recognized the benefits this news could bring to the company.
Regarding the ETE group, most of the decision-making power is still in the hands of Director Jiang, at least on the surface.
How to leverage this event for marketing is also entirely the responsibility of the branch overseen by Director Jiang.
The news that a senior Japanese artist recommended ETE's debut album "ek!" began to spread in South Korea the next day thanks to the efforts of the branch.
At the same time, Director Jiang also asked the members of ETE to record a video thank-you letter that will be released on the official ETE account.
Several members of ETE received foreign language training from the company during their trainee period. Moreover, the Japanese market has always been valued by YG Entertainment.
Therefore, the company asked the members to record thank-you notes in two languages.
The Japanese version of "EAT EARTH," the title track of "ek!", has also been put on the agenda.
The company didn't expect the Japanese version to bring in much profit; it was just a statement of opinion.
The international trend had a reverse effect, and the original low sales were only due to the backlash at the time of their debut. Under the influence of these two factors, the physical album sales of "ek!" began to grow steadily, eventually reaching an astonishing 128,000 copies, ranking in the top 8 of the idol group album sales chart that year and in the top 2 of the girl group sales chart.
Second-generation idols are still very popular, so the emergence of ETE under such circumstances is already a miracle.
The senior group from the neighboring hat company broke the impression that "girl groups rely on digital music and boy groups rely on sales," achieving success in both digital music and sales and reaching the top.
ETE further proves that "girl groups can also achieve impressive sales figures."
They can cover both sales volume and music streaming.
Of course, ETE's instant popularity upon debut is also inseparable from their crazy schedule during their rookie period.
After recording a thank-you video in Japanese on the bus, the members were about to start another commercial performance after getting off the bus.
Although they have many commercial performance schedules, all their costumes are handled by the stylists at the branch, so there won't be any outrageous clothing styles.
For example, the super short skirt and tight leather jacket that are completely out of character for the songs in the "ek!" album.
All performances with similar requirements were rejected by the company.
In this regard, the company has indeed done its part to protect several members of ETE.
Whether during the group's rookie period or later, none of the group members were allowed to pursue a sexy image.
Besides the fact that the initial group members were too young and their clothing styles did not fit the group's image, the company later realized that most of ETE's audience did not like ETE because of its sex appeal.
Making minors do these things is not only immoral, but also illegal.
After becoming an adult, Han Sang-hee, the only member of ETE with the potential to follow this style, has gained a voice through her own abilities and clearly has no intention of going for a sexy style.
Since that's the case, the company went with the flow and abandoned its idea of dividing up the audience for the sexy style.
Of course, these are all things for later.
At this time, ETE was busy with her own commercial performance schedule.
They didn't even have time to read the public's comments after the Japanese video thank-you letter was released.
Moreover, the stage takes precedence over this matter.
This is a consensus among the members.
After all, idols always rely on the stage, no matter what.
Expressing yourself on stage is more important than expressing yourself elsewhere.
Zhihui eventually apologized to Shangxi.
Even during her trainee days, Sung Ji-hye clearly knew that her friend Sang-hee's abilities were superior to hers.
However, this gap became more and more obvious after their debut.
When getting off the bus to catch a ride, the name that comes up most often among the shouts is Sanghee, and during commercial performances, Sanghee's part also receives the most cheers.
Cheng Zhihui simply wants more people to like her.
She made a mistake while appearing on a variety show.
Her sense of apology deepened after she learned some of the truth from Lee Min-jin.
Cheng Zhihui never expected things to turn out this way.
Undeterred, she asked her family and received the same result as Min-jin.
"If we don't promote her, then should we promote you?"
The other person's rhetorical question seemed to be mocking Cheng Zhihui's naiveté.
Cheng Zhihui, not wanting to talk to the other party anymore, immediately hung up the phone.
Her personality wasn't bad to begin with.
With all these events combined, Cheng Zhihui's guilt towards her relatives and friends reached its peak.
Apologizing is something she should do, as it is her duty.
Lee Min-jin originally intended to mediate the tension between the two, but things went much more smoothly than she had imagined.
Han Sang-hee, this friend, doesn't seem to care about this matter at all.
When faced with Cheng Zhihui's apology, Han Shangxi did not ask why, but simply accepted the apology.
And then... that was it.
Indeed, after communicating with Director Jiang, Han Shangxi believed that the matter was over.
However, she was still somewhat surprised to receive an apology from Zhihui.
As for why?
Perhaps after listening to GD's story, Han Sang-hee felt that becoming a leader would inevitably bring some complaints.
Moreover, even though she hasn't been in the industry for long, she has already noticed this difference in popularity.
It certainly exists.
It's predictable that a popular member will emerge from an idol group, at least that's the case at YG.
Just like the popularity gap among GD in BigBang, the older members Bom and Dara in 2NE1 are more popular than the two younger members.
How to balance popularity is something the company needs to consider.
This has nothing to do with any of the members in the group.
Do we have to expect members to make mistakes in their stage performances and diminish their own stage presence?
Han Shangxi didn't have time to think about all that.
She's been very busy lately.
She wants to write the Japanese version of "EAT EARTH" herself. Director Jiang also supports this.
The usual schedule, the upcoming training exam, the Japanese version of "EAT EARTH"—everything is important to Han Sang-hee.
She still hopes to perform at her best within the limits she can achieve.
Managing the paracosm account became one of her few leisure moments.
Yes, she is still updating her promotional content.
Although Han Sang-hee has now debuted as an idol in Sanghee, she still hasn't given up on the Paracosm account.
What would happen if we were discovered?
Han Shangxi had not yet considered the possibility of such a thing happening.
Well, after all, there doesn't seem to be any connection between G-Dragon's fan Paracosm and ETE's leader Sanghee.
Surely no one would casually connect these two people, right?
Han Shangxi recalled the content she posted on Paracosm and realized that it had nothing to do with her real life.
To most people familiar with the Paracosm account, Paracosm has always been a hard-working individual, and a very busy one at that.
Sanghee, two newly debuted idols, are completely unrelated to Paracosm.
Furthermore, Han Sang-hee would never log into the paracosm account during breaks from her schedule.
Back in her dorm, looking at the content on her Paracosm account, Han Shangxi finally decided that she should continue updating it.
Otherwise, she felt that life would remain as monotonous as before.
She really likes this account.
Or rather, for Han Sang-hee, Paracosm was a different existence from the very beginning.
Han Shangxi looked away from her phone screen, quickly tidied herself up, and left the dormitory to head to the practice room to complete her practice for the day.
On their fourth day after their debut, the members of ETE filmed their first advertisement – a high school uniform advertisement.
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Author's Note: There will be another chapter updated tonight. This chapter is from last night's update [The author, who woke up at 2 AM last night, is kneeling in devotion.jpg].
Thank you so much, my lovely angels, for reading, saving, and commenting! [Thumbs up]
Thank you to readers "花开花落", "南知", "鹤球", "吴湖～", "白纸", "之瑶", "somnus薇", "四十是四十", "白衣小梨", and "青柠气水" for their enthusiastic support! [Sprinkling flowers]
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