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"the upper management in kpop agencies make poor decisions" and "artists have enough agency within their orgs to influence the their releases/career" are two statements that co-exist & have to be examined together to establish the context for any idoling issue you want to discuss
like yes, agencies do have varying amounts of power in this equation but if we're talking exo specially–as a group or individually–it's really foolish to pretend they have no control over anything and are being forced by SM to do stuff against their will
time and time again the members have either told us (in official interviews, spontaneous lives etc) or shown us (in fanmeets, heart4u etc) how they personally took several decisions about their work. sometimes you may not agree with their decisions, but it is *their* decision
understand that disliking a certain type of work (solo, collab, group, whatever) is fine. You're human, they're human, you're not going to see eye to eye on everything. but you can't dictate what they should do instead or blame the company & strip the idol of their agency
a lot of this also ties back to fandom's addiction to performative suffering & complaining, sometimes simultaneously. you don't have to suffer publicly on Twitter dot com to be a Real Fan. the misery Olympics are the most joyless, soul-sucking things to ever happen to stan twt
and yeah, I get it. everything sucks, the world's upside down, 2020 was a wash before it even began, so it sucks even more when your idol does work you don't agree with. but misdirecting that anger just does more harm than good, both to you and the idol themselves sometimes
I don't have anything to end this thought on but tl;dr nuance is not dead
postscript 1/?: no one can really understand what a workplace is like if they don’t work there, no matter what/how much info you get. this applies to fandom’s knowledge of agencies—hearsay, complaints, comments by ex-employees/vendors etc., do not constitute the whole picture
the only reliable source of info is your idol. Claiming you Know Better because [nonsensical body language/word choice/whatever analysis here] is… something. EXO have been in SM for 9-15 yrs. do you really think they would’ve stayed if they felt they were being treated unfairly?
postscript 2/?: “EXO should leave!” is something I’ve been seeing a lot lately, but understand this is not the same as you quitting your job & moving to another company. they are public figures, the brandname & content are copyrighted. If they left they wouldn’t /be/ EXO anymore.
re: they wouldn’t /be/ EXO anymore, I’m not speaking from my feelings as a fan but as a brand strategist—they wouldn’t have the rights to their group name, stage names, their back catalogue, & maybe even any unreleased work they did while in SM. they might as well be a new group.
this also means they will lose access to their current network of contacts, brand deals, any future contracts they might have booked on the EXO name as well as the talented production, design etc. team at SM that /create/ the EXO experience with every release.
postscript 3/?: a common refrain is: “Junmyeon should just set up a new agency & take EXO with him!”
a. (see postscript 2)
b. this is an extremely selfish request to make of an artist who has clearly established he thrives on being onstage & making art
a. (see postscript 2)
b. this is an extremely selfish request to make of an artist who has clearly established he thrives on being onstage & making art
even if this were remotely possible (and let’s be clear, kids, it’s not), remember that Kim Junmyeon is a 29 y/o career idol. he is really good at many things and an incredible leader who goes above and beyond… but running a team efficiently is not the same as running a company.
demanding that Junmyeon sacrifice his dreams & everything he worked towards for 14 years IS selfish, and that’s that. at best, he would have to put his own career goals on the back burner to focus on the rest of the exos. at worst, he would have to go behind-the-scenes entirely.
postscript 4/?: a response to "artists can do whatever they want, but they must remember they're risking alienating us fans". no matter how you choose to justify this to yourself, this is a thinly-veiled threat. you're also interpreting an artistic decision as a personal attack
if a group/idol you like creates content that turns you off and you drop them, that's... fine lmao go find something else you enjoy, live your best life. there will always be a small number of drop-offs at every stage in an idol's career and in every era.
Reinterpreting a stranger's business/personal decision to claim their intent is purposefully malicious against you personally is so cartoonish I can't believe it's not satire. No, you can't use this as Qualifiers for the Misery Olympics because it's simply not true.
protip: if you want any artist (ranging from idols to artists in fandom) to keep creating content, treat them with love & support.
good content is almost always content that brings the artist joy to create. threats, entitlement & passive aggression burn people out so fast.
good content is almost always content that brings the artist joy to create. threats, entitlement & passive aggression burn people out so fast.
