Netizen hate of T-ara makes no meaningful impact as "Five Fingers" falls & "Sexy Love" booms

Netizens are still trying to find whatever angle they can use to hate on T-ara, but their disdain for them must stop with digging up inane shit to find faults with, as the ratings for “Five Fingers” are plummeting while viewership of “Sexy Love” is booming.

Let’s start with the delusional netizen hate of the day though — as if last time wasn’t enough — because T-ara are now being accused of plagiarizing Wonder Girls and SNSD.

When the video hit the airwaves, many netizens expressed the familiarity of T-ara’s concept, bringing up the Wonder Girls and Girls’ Generation. They commented that T-ara’s black outfits and silver boots had the same cyber-like feel as the Wonder Girls’ in their music video for “Like Money.” Towards the second half of the video, the girls are seen wearing different colorful outfits while they express a doll-like charm through their facial expressions and stiff body movements. Many compared this to Girls’ Generation’s doll concept for their extremely popular music video “Gee.”

You know what’s awesome about this? Their hatred for T-ara can get them to subconsciously admit shit that they would deny to the death under normal circumstances.

Me

Yeah, but K-pop is derivative just like J-pop and all pop music, really.

Normal Reaction

FUCK THAT! K-POP IS ORIGINAL! UNLIKE DIRTY JAP MONKEY MUSIC AND SLUTTY VIOLENT DIRTY YANKEE SHIT!

T-error Drugged Reaction

FUCKING RIGHT! LOOK AT THOSE T-ARA BITCH SLUT WHORES COPYING EVERYTHING SNSD & WONDER GIRLS DO! THEY COPY EVERYTHING!

I’m just grateful that this T-ara shit has got them to own up to it, even if they don’t know it yet.

—–

Of course, the international fandom isn’t immune to rampant stupidity either, as they flipped the fuck out with joy when the drama “Five Fingers” saw a rise in viewer ratings after it was announced that Eunjung would be replaced by some irrelevant chick.

According to the AGB Nielson, the third episode of ‘Five Fingers’ that aired on the 25th, recorded 14.1%, which is a 1.4% increase since last week. The pilot episode aired on the 18th recorded a rating of 11.2% while the second episode saw its numbers jump to 12.7%.

It is not certain whether the increase in ratings is due to the controversy around the replacement of Eunjung or the building story line of the drama itself. However, in the end, despite the dispute, the drama is off to a strong start at already over 14% with its third episode.

On the other hand, MBC‘s ‘May Queen‘, ‘Five Fingers’ competitor, recorded 11.3% for the pilot episode, 10.8% for the second episode, and 12% for the third, putting ‘Five Fingers’ into the lead.

Of course, it would have been prudent if they would have at least waited until the next day ratings were released before they started to declare the “FUCK EUNJUNG” movement (or whatever) a success, because … uh … well you have a look and tell me what changed after August 25th.

Oops.

—–

Then there’s the fact that T-ara’s newest release (which even I thought was shitty timed), “Sexy Love“, is seeing a boost in viewership, not a regression.

In the last 24 hours, T-ara released the teaser, drama version, dance version, making-of version of “Sexy Love,” as well as the ballad music video for “Day and Night.” Since their release at midnight on September 3, all of those videos attracted slightly over two million views on YouTube and Gom TV.

Reminds me of Howard Stern:

Researcher: The average radio listener listens for eighteen minutes. The average Howard Stern fan listens for – are you ready for this? – an hour and twenty minutes.
Pig Vomit: How can that be?
Researcher: Answer most commonly given? “I want to see what he’ll say next.”
Pig Vomit: Okay, fine. But what about the people who hate Stern?
Researcher: Good point. The average Stern hater listens for two and a half hours a day.
Pig Vomit: But… if they hate him, why do they listen?
Researcher: Most common answer? “I want to see what he’ll say next.”

So haters, way to validate everything Kim Kwang Soo and Core Contents Media have done to manipulate the situation. You guys are goddamn geniuses.

=====

All of that brings me to my main point, which is of course that Internet furor is so fucking overrated, especially when it pertains to the angst of a bunch of tweens regarding pop music controversies.

We’ve already seen evidence of this before when a T-ara anti-cafe of 300,000 or whatever could only muster a 20-person protest at Core Contents Media headquarters in real life and had to eventually cancel because their parents wouldn’t let them outside due to fear of embarrassment. So it’s not like it’s anything new even pertaining to this specific case.

Welcome to the generation of “Click Activism“, where we’ll all read about some shit, be outraged, click “Like” on Facebook or “Retweet” on Twitter, and then never do anything about it ever again. It’s bad enough of a phenomenon when it involves adults and there are actual important issues at stake, but mix in the K-pop fandom and disposable music and the level of meaningful impact probably couldn’t get any lower.

77 comments

  1. What a bunch of idiots. Anyone play LoL?

  2. Last paragraph is so tru, so on point I’m going to print it, put it in frame and hang it on my wall.

  3. Ummm yeah if T-ara copied SNSD and Wonder Girls, every K-pop group ever copied every K-pop group ever.

    I see you posted the comment of a familiar troll.

  4. I knew the ratings for Five Fingers would start plummeting after they kicked Eunjung out. It was just a bad PR move for SBS to kick her out so late into filming.

  5. T-ara also had all top ten spots on GomTV (basically Korea’s YT for music videos) when Sexy Love came out too. https://p.twimg.com/A1z1XdxCIAA9zGa.png

  6. Netizen confirmation bias at work again.

    Trying to create a cause-and-effect link between episode ratings and anything else is silly.

    K-dramas that don’t have any cast changes at all experience similar ratings fluctuations. Same with American shows. Even the best shows on TV like Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad have sizable ratings fluctuations between episodes.

    Completely meaningless, statistically – at least from a cause-and-effect standpoint.

    • I do think you are right to an extent. It’s still way too early to judge the ratings, but SBS put itself in a bad position by removing Eunjung.

      With K-dramas, there are fluctuations, but they’re usually small. The ratings for Korean dramas usually have an up trend in ratings, while Five Fingers has already started to slide. The comparison with US TV doesn’t totally work since a lot of US shows tend to be episodic, so there isn’t the “need” to see every episode as it comes out. I have yet to watch a Korean drama that is episodic.

      Lastly, these are the only two dramas on at that time slot. KBS doesn’t air a weekend drama during the same timeslot as MBC and SBS.

      But as you said, we can’t specifically draw to the drop in ratings directly to Eunjung’s removal, but I’m sure it has something to do with it, because Five Fingers has a quality cast and a decent writer and director. The first two episodes were pretty good, so the ratings would normally be going up, but the viewers are switching over to May Queen. But who knows, maybe Kim Jae Won, Jae Hee and Han Ji Hye have enough star power to take viewers away from Five Fingers.

      • Both American examples I used are non-episodic shows. Both shows have experienced large ratings fluctuations from episode to episode.

        Could the ratings have fallen because of Eunjung’s departure? Sure – it’s possible. But I doubt it.

        The possibility that the ratings decline was caused by existing Five Fingers viewers boycotting the show due to Eunjung’s removal is just as unlikely as the possibility that the ratings boost immediately after her departure was due to antifans ending their boycott of the show.

  7. with all these happenings around T-ara and hating most of the netizens forgot that the opposite of love is not hatred but indifference … nevertheless is really hurtful and sad to see the amount of “rampant stupidity” on-(and) offline
    why can’t people be happy with the things they love and not the things they hate???!

  8. I’m really tired of hearing about t-ara drama. It’s like, they’re just another stupid manufactured girl group, why get so worked up about it? =.=” But then, I don’t pay much attention to girl groups anyway. *shrugs*

    • What’s really annoying is when fans of other girl groups are like “seeing the t-ara scandal really makes me realize how close ____ is”

      They all pretty much hate each other too. The shit that happened with t-ara happens in every girl group, sometimes worse with fist fights and really bad ostracizing. It’s just that t-ara posted stuff on twitter

      • Yourbiasisshit

        I have always been saying that fans need to stop eating up the whole “we are like brothers/sisters <3" shit that EVERY idol group tries to show.
        Before everything, those people are freakin coworkers.
        Not to mention a great portion of them are teens or in their early 20s (and we all know that they aren't the epitome of maturity).

        Pointing fingers at somebody without real evidence is not good.
        But thinking that all is ~rainbows and unicorns and everybody is friends and respects each other~ is beyond delusional.

        Some fans seem to agree with this tho….unless you mess up with their bias group because "shut up bitch, they ARE close and flawless". LOL

        • I also don’t think they’re as close as they claim. I think one ejaculates on the other while he’s asleep – either out of hate or horniness.
          I am sure Taemin takes all those cocks like a man.

        • @Yourbiasisshit

          Exactly. I don’t even watch variety shows anymore because I know that I’m being given bullshit to shine these people in the best possible light. If these groups are as close as they claim to be, why is it necessary to film for hours (star king can go for eight hours) to only use an hour? Also, those shows are often scripted and definitely edited.

          All of these dumbass fangirls are convinced that their celebrities are stuck-up and awful while Korean celebrities are supposed to somehow be immune to that. Nope. They’re not. They party, have sex, have rude behavior just like any other celebrity. Just because on a show they say how pure and innocent each member is doesn’t matter. Just because an idol has a camera following him/her around to give out gifts to staff doesn’t mean that he/she treats staff well off-camera. Shit is as fake and manufactured as the idols themselves

          @No_Min

          Don’t forget Siwon. I know that cam-whore Leeteuk will squirt on our alter boy out of jealousy.

          It’s just that Siwon would actually like it

      • I’m an SNSD fan, and when the T-ARA story broke out there were a ton of people on my tumblr who were saying how “PROUD” they were of SNSD because they “never fight and are like sisters.”
        (-_-’)
        I just had to laugh. I know some of the girls are good friends with each other, but there’s no way the “Soshi Bond” is as strong as SONEs make it out to be. I mean, Taeyeon pretty much ignores Jessica all the time.

        • May I love you? Please- ill even include No_Min. Lots of fun right there

          Yeah, there’s lots of shit in every band, even SNSD. It’s not like there hasn’t been fights-verbal or physical-, jealousy, etc. with SNSD or any other group. Bands seem close on screen, but off is a whole different thing

        • Rofl. Does she?

          :o

        • Ooooo say more about this Taeyeon indifference to Ssica. I SMELL RIFT. I SMELL A SCOOP

  9. I think it’s just funny how everyone in T-ara just seems to not give a shit anymore. Half of the Dance MV you can’t tell who’s singing the chorus b/c Soyeon and Hyomin don’t bother. Qri messes up at 3:12 and everyone else doesn’t seem to move their mouths. Did Boram even sing?

    And this MV gets ridiculously popular.

  10. Sometimes I want to ragequit the kpop fandom.

  11. a wonderful social-psychological study could be written about the kpop-fandom.

    • ERMAHGERD YES

      not that like that bullshit about Kpop fans “being the strongest people EVVVAAAARRR”

    • You have to reconsider the demographics included in this “fandom.” The cultural attributes of Korean haters differ from that of Mericun or other international fags

  12. I think it’s still too early to say that the T-ara scandal and resulting netizen hate has had “no meaningful impact”.

    The netizen hate is the primary reason why T-ara members have been dropped from TV shows and lost numerous sponsorships. Companies don’t want to be associated with anyone who has that much negative attention.

    T-ara was popular enough before the scandal that they still have a sizable fan base remaining that will buy their music. But music sales are a minor part of making money in this business. It’s almost a means to end – the “end” being sponsorships and TV roles.

    And music video views contribute almost no income. A third of the views from the Sexy Love MV on YouTube were from haters according to the Like/Dislike meter – not people who are going to make T-ara any money.

    T-ara needs to somehow repair its badly-damaged public image if they ever hope to get back to where they were. Judging from the huge number of negative comments I still see about them, they still have a long ways to go.

    The “netizen hate” may not be enough to form street riots, but potential sponsors and TV producers obviously pay attention to it, as they have demonstrated so far.

    • They profit off it whether it’s negative or positive views.

      Besides, the point is that there’s no need for the overreaction, because when it comes down to buying stuff or brand image, none of the netizens who are outraged will do a damn thing in real life.

      • The money made off MV views is peanuts. It’s more of a promotional thing.

        If the person viewing their MV doesn’t end up buying the song, then it’s not really making them money. Literally thousandths of a penny per view.

        Overreaction to negative attention is standard operating procedure for companies that depend on a celebrity’s image for promoting their brand or product.

        The potential upside of sticking with them is dwarfed by the potential downside. It’s just easier to disassociate themselves from anything negative and find someone else to promote for them.

        Thus, T-ara’s problems will likely persist until they repair their image. I think they will still sell a decent amount of music, but like I said – the real money is the ancillary revenue.

        • They already sold well during the scandal.

          Eunjung got dropped from her show and has the backing of the union and it’s now tanking. They have lost a total of one advertisement, verbally at least, in “Tony Moly”.

          How much of that it netizens and how much of it is just SOP during scandals?

          For a scandal of their proportions, they haven’t even been pulled from variety shows and they are already making a comeback. Despite all the outrage. Personally, I thought KKS was an idiot, as I expressed before, but facts thus far show different.

        • If T-ara pulls out of this mess, it won’t be due to KKS – it will be in spite of him.

          Remember this mess was basically caused by him in the first place? The shit hit the fan when he fired Hwayoung. If it wasn’t for that, the little tweeting incident would have been forgotten in a couple of days.

        • He’s certainly not likely to help them along. :o

  13. Exactly why I roll my eyes at “RT this in support of poor little belieber Amy, struggling to go through her surgery and blah blah blah.” and it trends worldwide…. Why? It doesn’t cure her cancer.. it does nothing. All because she likes some 10-year old looking boy, people suddenly decide to care and if you don’t retweet you’re heartless? Pfffttt.. If people aren’t gonna actually get off from in front of the computer, actually donate money or do marathons or something to make a real difference, they should bite their tongues on what kinda crap and angry opinions they spew because it’s all digital typed words with no real backup (that Kony thing was annoying too)

    Anywho…. like wow… I get annoyed when delusional Sones act like everyone is trying to copy off SNSD in general so… this makes me shake my head -__-. It’s called ‘concept’ for a reason anyway.. People need to get dictionaries before they yell out big words they really dunno the definition of.

  14. Personally the whole doll thing reminds me of nsync it’s gonna be me. But thats a personal opinion. Otherwise I don’t care if they did copy anybody else. Kpop is a big copy within itself anyways.

  15. I think it’s a bit premature to say whether or not there’s been an impact. I’m sure most people who watched the MV came to see how many dislikes it got, or add likes/dislikes of their own.

    Besides, MV views don’t mean that much, and T-error don’t exactly get tons of MV views on YT anyway.

    Wait for the chart rankings and we’ll see whether as many people hate T-error in Korea as it would appear.

    As for myself, I watched the MV once to see if they released some amazing track that instantly turn me into a T-error stan, but nope. Same old trash.

  16. really ? are you this desperate ? netizen you are just retards !!! you must get a life ! and saying that our T-ara is a copy cat won’t change the fact that we are still and real QUEENS and we must protect our T-ara !!!!

  17. Pretty amazing. Somewhere in my heart, I did want antis to succeed in killing T-ara’s success, not because of T-ara themselves but because of that idiot Kim Kwang Soo. It’d be wonderful if he was knocked down a few pegs. As someone else mentioned, the key isn’t hatred but indifference. Haters are still invested in the idol/artist in some way, whether it’s watching MVs/listening to the music/watching their shows/going to their showcases to find something “incriminating” so, in the end, the idol/artist still wins. Case in point, 2PM.

    Now~ here’s to hoping Block B gets an increase in attention when they return next month.

  18. mybiasbeatsyourbias

    I don’t watch k-drama. I’m not an emotional basket cases who needs to watch the same shit over and over again. I try getting into kdramas. The spanish ones are so much better.

    The mv for “sexy love” seem odd to me. Yet it was far more creepy than “gee” or “like,money”

    Anything doll like creeps me out. Takes me back to my child hood to my step-aunt’s house. She collected porcelain dolls and kelp them in a room. I had to sleep in that room. With their freaky black eyes staring at me. I was frighten and disturbed and felt like they were watching me. Doesn’t help I watched the puppet master. They remind me of those doll.

  19. Hm, but I wonder. Is it confirmation bias if we claim that netizens are fucking retarded and use this bullshit to support our claim?

    • you’ve got a pretty mouth, boy

    • Facts tend to eliminate confirmation bias. The problem generally comes when people jump to pre-determined conclusions based on a lack of information. Not seeing the issue here.

      Plagiarism? K-pop is built on it, you could do similar things with all pop music. Ratings? That was proven false literally the day after that article. Stunted interest? “Sexy Love” is thriving despite me thinking it was way too soon for a comeback.

      It could change, who knows? Maybe KKS does something dumb or people just start making an actual difference and ignore them instead of proving themselves stupid. If it changes, I’ll write about it, but until then … they’re being dumb because the information available shows that’s the case.

      • i’m leaning on “people are getting intelligent”. makes me think there’s hope for humanity

      • Show me where I’m wrong and I’ll relent. You can’t.

        I wasn’t even the first person to bring this up, as I saw the ratings idea from AKFG and the popularity of their latest release from The Prophet. I just combined it all into one article mocking stupid netizens and their self-importance.

        • Maybe I misunderstood you, but I thought you were implying that the ratings drop was due to Eunjung getting the boot.

          If that were the case, it would be just as silly to attribute that as the cause as it was for the T-ara haters to attribute the earlier ratings boost to her departure.

          However, as I re-read this article, I realize that you could have simply meant that the T-ara haters were wrong (without implying causation for the ratings dip). If that is all you meant, then you’re right and I apologize for the misunderstanding.

          Maybe the fact that I knew you had a Eunjung bias and the way you referred to her replacement as “some irrelevant chick” affected my interpretation of it.

          As far as the “no meaningful impact” claim goes – I posted about that above. They’ve clearly been impacted by the netizen hate.

          I think people will still buy their music, but that’s just a small slice of the pie. I won’t even be surprised if ‘Sexy Love’ gets an “all-kill” or whatever. It still doesn’t change the fact that their image has been tarnished and will take a lot of effort to repair before they get the endorsements and TV roles they were getting before.

        • I replied to that type of stuff later in this comment section.

          “Where did I link the ratings drop to T-ara or Eunjung in the post?

          I simply pointed out that they were wrong and they were.”

          If you look at it, I don’t attribute Eunjung leaving to a drop in ratings, just that netizens jumped the gun.

          I said “some unknown chick” because I have no idea who she is and she’s not famous.

        • I think they’ve been impacted by the scandal, but I think you’re mixing the scandal impact and the netizen hate.

          I honestly don’t believe this phenomenon of netizens nitpicking at every detail and making articles out of it has done anything.

          Considering scandals of equal proportions, they haven’t even taken a few months off like others.

          Like … nothing has happened, comparatively.

  20. we all got trolled by KKS

    seriously, the rating dip on five fingers may seem to indicate other factors to it. one factor to it is eunjung’s forced departure but i don’t that thinks that’s enough for that dip. may queen may have given viewers something new considering the story line for five fingers has been used before (music prodigy stories line have been used before)

  21. funny. do these people really think t-ara case has something to do with the rating? these dramas never target those viewers to begin with (well maybe when they put eunjung in it), they’re classic makjang aimed to older people who probably never know that these idols ever exist before.

  22. Idk why but after listening to Sexy Love I feel pissed off at them…Like want to break a bat on their bodies pissed off…

    Must be the helium voices, I have a certain disgust towards Chipmunk singing :/

  23. Your analogy of linking the ratings drop in Five fingers to Eunjung is just as shitty as those you are making fun of for linking the ratings increase to Eunjung…..Don’t you think so? cos i do…..

    Oh and i’m guessing that any drama that has a drop has to be linked to a controversy outside the show and not the story line or competition…..If you watch both May Queen and Five Fingers you would know why the ratings dropped and why it rose in the first place…..

    Oh and i’m guessing the drama Faith that had a 2.4% drop in ratings in their last episode is linked to the drama PDs replacing an actress….Oh wait, there’s nothing like that going on……

    • Where did I link the ratings drop to T-ara or Eunjung in the post?

      I simply pointed out that they were wrong and they were.

    • Someone seems to fail reading the entire article. The purpose of this entry is the same as what you’re whining about.

  24. FUCKWHATYOUSAY

    all of the three groups sucks anyway…

  25. I am still having seizures from watching T-ara’s Day by Day dance video.

    • Maybe netizens can get data on epileptic seizures with correlation to Hyomin’s involvement in the MV so they can validly attack her?

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