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Everyone from Everywhere on the internets asks
Simon and Martina, can you talk about the T-ara incident
and tell us what you think about it.
For starters if you don't know what happened,
we'll give you the very short run down
T-ara's company kicked one of the members of T-ara out of the group
There's a lot of controversy surrounding the event,
with accusations of Hwayoung being bullied by other members of T-ara,
on one side accusations of Hwayoung being difficult to work with
with stylist, makeup artist, and other members of T-ara didn't get along with her,
and it was a very sloppy public breakup
and as a result T-ara's public image has been severely damaged
VERY BADLY
Now the main reason people are so upset about this
is because a lot of people feel that Hwayoung was unfairly kicked out of the group
after being ostracized and bullied by the other members of the group.
n turn, now, T-ara fansites are shutting down,
petitions, and their images are being taken down from companies and sponserships
Now, about these rumours
To us, the bottom line is this
we don't know what actually happened
and we never will, and you never will either.
Not one of us
NO
Unless you're actually a member of T-ara,
you'll probably know what have happened
Probably
Hopefully
But if you're not one of them,
then you are probably guessing and looking up sites of rumor mills
So for you to take sides based on gossip on the internet,
tweets you saw,
and other unverifiable sources is really unfair to all the members of T-ara.
Like they are supposedly to have secret messages in the tweets
if you read vertically and you cover your eye
and you shake your head supposedly means something different
C'mon
C'mon guys
The only thing we can be safely be sure of is that
the relationship between the members was not ideal for a kpop group.
So what we want to talk about today,
is not about what side of T-ara we're picking,
or what rumor we believe in.
Instead, we want to talk about our perspective of what it's like being in a Kpop group,
also the Kpop industry,
and the potential difficulties that come with it,
and how all of this could have combined and led to the situation T-ara is in right now
For starters, let's start with a simple question, shall we?
Very simple
Do any of you guys out there go to school??
Have any of you ever had a job?
I had!!
I had them both!!
OH GOD!!!
If you have done either of these things
then you more than likely came across people you didn't get along with,
and in fact you might have hated some people
Maybe there are lot of people
that you wanna roll up in a carpet and toss off the bridge
In fact, you're really lucky if you end up with
two really good friends in your entire life that you get along with perfectly.
Making good friends isn't easy,
especially if you're put in a room with a bunch of people that you didn't choose to be with
and told to get along.
Like school!!
Just like school!!
We think that Kpop Groups should be thought of in a similar vein
Kpop groups did not start out as families and best friends
They are made by companies
They are employees working for a business with the intention of making money
It's their job
It's what they do
It's not that they started out as a bunch of friends that got together in high school
and started jamming out in their mothers' houses
Hey man I've got this really cool song, ready?
I want nobody nobody but you
That did not happen
There's no long history of friendship between all of them before they joined the group
When it comes to kpop idols,
we're talking about thousands and thousands of people
competing and auditioning to be chosen to be kpop idols.
These are highly driven, highly competitive, and highly talented people
And, once they're selected,
they're put into a group with a bunch of other likeminded and equally talented people,
who are equally talented as them
but people in the kpop group are not people that they chose to be with,
but people that their company chose them to be with
Kind of like a basketball team
Yeah, any sports team like tryout, when coach chooses you
Like I don't care if you don't get along well, but y'll talented!
Get along well~
Win me things~
And then they have to be with their fellows group members
ALL THE TIME
HAVE TO BE
HAVE TO BE ALL DAY LONG
They live together,
sing together,
dance together,
eat together,
and they sleep together!
WHAT?!
Sleep together? I'm not sure
Maybe not like.....
sleep together
But like in the same room sometimes
same dorms
And they have to go on TV shows and they must be happy and fun together.
Your the best!!!
Your the best!!!
You stole my computer last night but I'll smile and be amazed
HAHAHAHAHA
I'm really hungry but it's okay
love smacks!!
Go on stage, and they must perform in harmony together,
and then afterwards get in the car to the next thing,
and they have to travel for extended periods of time together
and repeat it all over together forever and ever
With little rest
I don't know, I just cannot be a pop idol
I have so much respect for them because I'm not a morning person
I didn't have coffee and I had to go on a show at 5 am
I would be like
And it's not only the stress of being friendly with each other all the time
There's also the added layer of criticism and competition with each other they face
because being in the public eye
Media constantly pits these members against each other
OMG this member has the best dancing in the whole band,
OMG this person has the longest legs
This girl has the prettiest makeup free face,
This person has the best abs
She has the best s-line,
The best airport fashion,
They have the smallest face of everyone
Faces like this size
LIKE THIS!!
LIKE SIZE OF MY FIST!!
LIKE THIS!!!
THIS SIZE!!
And even though they all worked hard together
to be recognized and to gain group popularity,
one member might be elevated above everybody else through solo works,
or sponsorship by commercial,
or working on dramas and movies
For example, be honest now
How many people call 4 minute Hyuna and her backup dancers?
Don't lie, the thought has crossed your mind
YOU KNOW IT
Why was Hyuna chosen to get the solo songs and not another members?
How often is Miss A as a group in the spotlight lately?
It's all about Suzy after she was on Dream High.
And of course, there are many more examples.
Now imagine how that would feel to you as the other members of the band
and imagine how that would effect your dynamic together in the band as both friends and co-workers.
It wouldn't be pretty
I wouldn't think
NO~
Can yo imagine that happened to us in real life?
Like one day you're 4 friends, and the next they in the newspaper they'll be like
This person has the prettiest face
and everyone's like
Hanging out with the ugly one..
That's not very nice
Not in a least, that could be in a mean place
Now of course,
we do believe that real friendship can occur within the groups
Spending so much time together can form a kind of genuine family relationship
Definitely
But the point that we're trying to get here is
that we don't think this is an isolated event that's only occurred to T-ara
Definitely not
We think that kpop groups have a lot more to deal with behind closed doors,
and they're professionals that do their best
to not show it when they're dancing on stage, looking pretty,
or laughing together happily on variety shows.
I understand that they have to maintain an image
I'm ok with that, I get that about Kpop
But we don't believe that that image is an accurate reflection of what they are actually like
The only way that you can know that is that
if you know these people behind closed doors
PERSONALLY
The positions that they're put in are highly stressful
and there's bound to be lots of arguments
OF COURSE
In the case of T-ara,
these arguments and disagreements have been made public,
but we believe that every group goes through this kind of stuff, just not in the public eye.
I don't think it's like
WHOOH~ Shameful deep dark secret
They are human, they are fighting like humans do
Even at your work place, I'm sure you have co-workers that you don't like
In this case, it got to the point that the members of T-ara and Hwayoung just obviously can't work together anymore
Sure, this was made sloppy and public,
and there are lots of nasty rumors floating around,
but we don't know what's true or what's not true
All we can say is, we understand that T-ara had a strained relationship,
and we personally expect that tons of other Kpop bands go through the same thing
As a result, the question of we'll we listen to T-ara's music in the future?...
if they haven't disbanded, then yeah, we will listen to their music
What happens between the band members and their companies doesn't interest us
It doesn't interest us in Korea
and it doesn't interest us in Canada
What we are interested in is music
We like songs and music videos, not idols and appearances
We didn't care about G Dragon's funny cigarette smoking incident,
nor did we care about Block B's bad interview in Thailand,
nor did we care about Jay Park's controversial old blog post while he was in 2PM.
The incidents that happen in people's lives are irrelevant to us,
because after all, they are just human,they make mistakes,
they fight, and they fart just like the rest of us
Can you believe that? Idols fart...
Idol farting
I bet you that even sounds like beautiful music
That actually make sense because B is Rain
Rain Rain Rain Rain...
If you just came in right now, we were farting to different Kpop songs
There is, however, an exception we'll make and this is for Chris Brown.
He's a woman beating d*** who should never get another award
or any praise for the rest of his life,
and we'll never ever listen to or support him whatsoever
So that't it for this week's TL;DR
If you have a easier question for us to answer for next week's TL;DR
please leave it in the comment section below
That question was so scary
It took us sooo long planning out what we were going to say
We have to be careful
They are just scary when they forget the word human
You are so scary guys
Please don't *** us with what we said
OR You could check out the questions that already asked
and you can thumb them up on the top and get our attention that way
And don't forget to subscribe for more TL;DR
so we can answer them next week if we haven't been murdered
I'm gonna go and build like a little igloo or like a fort out of the couch
I don't think we can build any igloos, it's too hot
I don't know, our freezer seems to be consuming itself ice at this point
and i'm thinking hack it off
Why do we always have broken fridges?