Truly! Nothing makes me sadder than seeing the SMCU being used less. There were people complaining that it was just a tactic to bring older groups back into the limelight, as if people are ever going to stop being obsessed with Girlsâ Generation, TVXQ, SuJu, SHINee, and EXO. I feel like the people who said that were genuinely newer fans who didnât understand that 80% of all current idols were inspired by these groups in some way to become idols in the first place. Also, who can actually say the older or younger groups depended on each other for success? Thatâs so illogical.
In any case, I think SM was making money moves with the Kwangya stuff. I genuinely donât understand how it became goofy. All I remember is that the older group members joked around a lot about the company finding them a role to play in the lore, but they were extremely short-sighted. For one, they got free publicity and attracted newer fans who wanted to check out how all the other groups fit into the universe. And two, it genuinely did them no harm.
A lore geek like me would be on YouTube for hours finding videos that explained how everything fit together. I especially liked theories by YeriPotter and neonpearls5340 on YouTube. I mean, for the most part, I think SM let everyoneâs theories run wild, which was very fun.
The SMCU has been in the works since 2006! Say what you want about Lee Sooman, but that man viewed these groups as his passion projects. For the most part, the groups seemed to function individually up until NCT, which introduced concepts stemming from *Inception* and *The Matrix*. It was the first time groups that were somewhat separate worked under one core theory. Even though SM doesnât make lore videos anymore, most SM MVs still have strong Kwangya-like visuals. The only group that truly threw me off was WISHâs concept because itâs an NCT group with no solid grounding in the main NCT concept, but their debut was also after LSMâs departure soooo⊠I digress.
The integration of all the groupsâ lore made the New Year showcase concert thing all the more fun and gave their occasional full-company album a purpose, rather than just randomly making a company album. Ainât this how we got ZOO and Hot&Cold? (I need to see Jeno, Kai, Seulgi and Karina perform that song one more time, like why are they holding out on međ).
I guess removing it, or stripping back a huge chunk of it, allowed some fansâ anxieties to subside, like the people who were afraid aespaâs lore would be unattractive in the West (as if SuperM did poorly in the West when they were calling themselves the avengers of kpop, like letâs be so serious). Ugh, what else? Idk, some people just didnât want it, and their reasons really donât make sense to me. Removing it robbed me of a real SM Game Shakers. They wouldâve had a real incentive to do it properly instead of having one member from each group represent their group while playing guessing games on chairsđ. Iâm pained whenever I think of that.
My main gripe with the dismissal of the concept is aespaâs musical direction. aespaâs core musical identity shifted towards meaningless tracks made for hype. Popular tracks are fine, btw, but after the recent switch in sound, I can tell that not having a storyline gave SM no grounding for what the music should sound like. I canât believe we went through years of not hearing proper SINGINGđ. What are you doing making Winter whisper when she has pipes that could put most of the industry to shame? I just donât understand. Frankly, I think the concepts have been gross. I understand doing dark things and incorporating horror elements, like Red Velvetâs concept is literally occult if you take away the fun sounds.
But for aespa, the switch felt unjustified. Why did it have to look and sound like that? If you told me the Black Mamba won and made them act that way, I would understand (Iâd hate it, but Iâd understand). But if I were to make an EXO comparison, the âvillainâ taking over in their story just led to banger title tracks that everyoneâs favs still go crazy for. They never stopped singing and everyone still likes them and looks up to them. I donât know if I can say the same for WDA, Armageddon, or Rich Man. Even Lemonade is weird, like Iâm not listening to that on loop. I enjoyed Supernova and Whiplash, but everything after just puzzles me.
What did they do to my shayla?
And groups that debut after the removal of the lore will always kinda feel like regular old groups with nothing special to get into. Idk why people were acting like the concept was invasive in everyday life. It literally just played a role in their title tracks. No variety content or major promotional thing was impacted by the fact that people had concepts. Are you aware of how cool EXO was? Every comeback had a purpose. I especially loved how it added merch like comic books and the lore videos aespa did for one of their comebacks. Idk if anyone remembers this, but early aespa took OFF. The concepts did nothing to hinder their growth. I canât say the concepts or the SMCU did any harm to any of the groupsâ success. I know yâall remember NCT 2020. That was epic, and it was possible because of their concept and lore. Even *I* could admit that, and I was literally an NCT anti at the time.
Please let me know how you felt about the SMCU? If you didnât like it, why? And would you rather have a group have no concept/lore? Why? If people can grasp and have love for the Avengers and others in the Marvel CU, why is SMCU so unbearable?