Oh CCM, what have you done to T-ara?
There’s no doubt that 2011 was an amazing year for the group – Roly Poly and Cry Cry cemented their spot in the second tier of Kpop girl group rankings (below SNSD & the like) and they made huge inroads into Japanese market with a No.1 single in Bo Peep Bo Peep. In the space of a few months, the good work looks like its unravelling.
Let’s just mention two things here to do with Kim Kwang Soo’s stupid-assed-ness: the decision to add two new members to the current line-up and the declaration in April that T-ara would hold free guerilla concerts if Jewelry Box sold 500,000 copies. The first is mostly irrelevant here, the latter a whole different (and wholly dumb) story.
To be honest, Jewelry Box is a fine album…if you’d never heard any of the original Korean versions, that is. CCM’s decision to stuff it full of Japanese remakes of past hits has backfired badly – after the novelty value of the silly nekomimi-centered promo tactics for Bo Peep Bo Peep wore off, the Japanese public has unsurprisingly been indifferent to anything the group has released.
First week sales for Jewelry Box were just past the 50,000 mark, nowhere near good enough to even entertain the thought of breaking the 200,000 sales mark, let alone half a million. Ominously, the only Kpop acts to reach that magic mark with a Japanese album are BoA, KARA and Shojo Jidai – not even Tohoshinki have gotten anywhere near so you don’t need half a brain to have worked out it always going to be an uphill task for T-ara.
Blame should be laid squarely at the feet of CCM; it is incredibly worrying when an agency boss spouts rubbish about the girls being ‘lazy’ when anyone with tunnel vision can see how overworked they have been (Eunjung’s injury and Jiyeon/Boram’s hospitalizations surely cannot be a sign of laziness?) this past year.
When I saw the girls during their special Christmas live last year, I was impressed by the professionalism and application they displayed, not to mention the incredible charm from their clumsy attempts at engaging the crowd despite their broken Japanese. In my heart of hearts, I really do want them to do well even if I don’t agree with any of CCM’s decisions. With a fanclub launching and a ‘new era’ coming with those two new kids, I can only hope better things are indeed in store for the 7 incumbent members. At the very least, I hope they stay healthy of mind and body as they gear up for yet another punishing schedule with the Japanese tour and three albums in 2H12.
Muzakally Inclined 