I think fans did a very good job advocating for the group on social media, I kept running into fans making edits or saying the group's debut was criminally underrated (it is). It wasn't until around the 6th or 7th video but I finally checked them out and ended up loving their music. I know I'm not alone in that situation, their fans were key to pushing the group on bigger platforms.
The tragedy is this group went down so quick they had so much potential and finally someone from a small company who had a smart marketing team which challenged the marketing teams of big companies. You are right about kpop stans now have a tendency to think only big company groups can have success and a small company groups getting success is somehow unworthy of getting their hard work rewarded and man do they use the most absurd things to just pull them down
The group isn’t done yet they are going to reorganize and I have high hopes especially since they have more money now!!! Also Keena the member that returned back to the company has already paid off her debts and has been getting paid Millions of Won for her participation in writing for Cupid and that’s only from the streaming alone!!!!😊
@@thriftskull5549 yes, but realistically it's very hard for a kpop group to make another song that becomes just as successful as their most viral hit, especially one like this that blew up all over tiktok and every social media app. Cupid going viral was lucky in a way and you can only create the same formula two times too many before fans get bored. Because of circumstances and what happened with Attrakt their company I think many people especially outside of kpop will see Fifty fifty as just a one hit wonder. It's very hard to create another viral song like they did with cupid. Wish the girls all the best though.
I still think that the parallel that the group had with Momoland makes me so sad. Like they had the big breakthrough and Kpop stans made their personal mission to DESTROY the group. Anyways, i'm wishing the best to the four members on their future endevours
It wasn’t kpop stans that destroyed them. I don’t remember seeing anyone bashing them. If anything, Fifty Fifty was being used by Kpop stans to drag certain groups.
It's not the exact same as the Momoland situation, but I definitely see the connection there. The legal battles caused a lot of media play that painted the girls in the worst light, but a lot of people (especially in Korea) spread the "selfish and greedy girls" narrative the media gave them without bothering to think a little further. Just a lot of messiness all around, but vindictive antis had easy bait
12:37 That's why I love the intro videos that Stray Kids do before each comeback. In fact, they released an entire video about the recordings of some of their songs on their 5-Star albums for the StayWeek, so we could see even more of their recording process (it's even more interesting because they are also their own vocal directors) Though I'm hoping for them to pull an docuseries with their entire process because I know it would be super interesting based on what we know and what we have been shown of that process
Spotify recommended me their debut album. I loved it tho I didn't go to their artist page or learn anything about them. Just listened to the EP. Login was my favourite song on it😂
As an ace and part of the aromantic spectrum, the whole "I see people falling in love left and right, but I have never felt that or understood what romantic love actually is" without the narrator expecting that but being frustated because is the "normal" thing speaks a lot to me. (imo, this is just my reading of the song's lyrics😅)
exact same here! the twin version lyrics are probably the thing that made the song hit so much for me, it’s so very aro and super refreshing to listen to after pretty much every song being about the love people feel.
It's funny, because it seems that you only ever do videos in this series on either songs that I love or songs that I hate, but I suppose that polarizing nature is endemic to viral popularity. And either way, it's always interesting to see why people enjoyed it even if I didn't. Alternate perspectives and all. Cupid is…absolutely not for me, mostly due to the reasons you mention (there's so little going on that I get bored way too easily, and even when I have music on in the background I want it to be interesting in some way, and the genre doesn't tend to be my style in general), but it is fascinating to hear you talk about why everyone else was obsessed with it! Probably also helped that I refuse to touch TikTok with a ten-foot pole. I fear no man, but that thing…that thing scares me. (More of a sidenote than anything, but while Higher is…decent on my list, and far more appealing to me than Cupid, I have to shout out a few debuts that stood out to me far more-firstly, ILY:1's Love in Bloom is a wonderful listen and stands amazingly well on its own, and secondly, LIMELIGHT's StarLight and Eye to Eye did a perfect job of both establishing their sound and just making some great listens in general. Cannot recommend either debut enough) Anyway! I think my favorite English version of a song has to be LOONA's Star (the English version of Voice), and although the pronunciation isn't perfect, the lyrics absolutely make sense. I'm not sure if it entirely counts given that the lyrics are changed a fair bit from the original and have a different spin on the narrative, but you know what, it's marked as "Voice English Version" on at least one site, so I'll count it. One of my top three songs on their discography for sure, and having that version of the lyrics that I can so easily connect to definitely helps, so I can see how it would be a lot easier to push out into the further reaches of the world. I'm absolutely with you on the behind-the scenes stuff, especially recording studio footage. We get so much content related to performing, and music-video behind-the-scenes content is practically the easiest thing to pump out alongside that, but I feel like there's such a massive gap there of letting fans see what it's like to actually record the album. The most in-depth I ever saw was when League of Legends Korea released a video of Miyeon and Soyeon recording their lines for THE BADDEST, and in a five minute video, maybe a minute of that was the recording process, and of that, maybe twenty seconds, maximum, for the actual vocals and not just the song playing over video of them recording. Even so, seeing the notes they got and the changes they made from them was absolutely fascinating, and maybe it's just because I'm a nerd, but it feels like such an untapped market, even from a marketing perspective. Especially with how often groups these days are lip syncing or have incredibly loud backing tracks, even when they're perfectly capable of singing live (cough, why must Jongho and and the rappers be the only ones who don't have to fight to be heard, have you SEEN Yeosang having to shout over the backing track in Bouncy just to be audible, please KQ I beg), it'd be such an easy method to let your fans see what good vocalists you have, no? You can still edit their worse outtakes so they still look near-flawless (looking at you SM), but it shows them working hard and it's not overdone content. Anyway, I saw your community post about smaller review videos, and I'm very much excited for those! Comeback season absolutely has me in a chokehold, and all I can hope is that Dreamcatcher's comeback doesn't absolutely murder me, because that WILL teaser…the lore…the *rock teases*…All I'm saying is the album can't come soon enough.
Gonna be real... Cupid isn't really for me either so I'm glad I was able to fool you 😂 But wow this comment is like looking in a mirror. I was obsessed with Eye to Eye when I found it and almost didn't believe it was a predebut track. I haven't dug into Loona much, but I did stumble across Star at some point (and it may or may not be one of those Kpop songs I sneak into English-only playlists). I've been begging KQ to release studio content ever since I saw their Pirate King recording process and the tiny bit of Answer we got. I literally will watch recording behinds of groups I don't even stan because I'm just so interested in it and so very starved. Glad to hear people like the review idea! I'm also in the comeback season chokehold and I feel like I need to apologize for the person I'll be for the next 3 weeks. Especially after finding out about the Ateez subunits today. Manifesting at least one rock song on there.
I remember Cupid showing up in my UA-cam recommended only a day or so after its release. This was a little before it started to really gain traction and I just remember getting goosebumps because the vocals were so smooth. If the group hadn't gotten messed up with all the legal stuff, they probably would have been the first group I really joined the fandom of
Cupid isn’t for me. I don’t see why it is so popular but I consider TikTok a virus so maybe that’s why. Having said that, I am very glad that Keena has returned to Attrakt, and as a smaller company, they can start afresh with new members, while the 3 original members are getting what they want and are released from their contract.
TBH, I REALLY HATE THIS SONG SO MUCH, I NO LONGER WANT TO LISTEN TO THIS SHIT ANYMORE NOW!!!!!!!! AND THE SPED UP VERSION SUCKS EVEN MORE!!!!!! I'VE HEARD THIS TRACK TOO MUCH IT MAKES ME ANGRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND SPED UP AUDIOS SUCK AS WELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Aaaaaah Fifty Fifty, the first (and only) girl group I’ve stanned 🥲 I have two additional reasons as to why Cupid went viral, the first being an addition to your lyric section, and one of the reasons I loved the song so much: it’s subversive. They’re not singing about the boy they’re crushing on, or their boyfriend, or the boyfriend of their dreams or hoping that cupid will find them a boyfriend etc etc. And there’s no typical whacky cupid shenanigans where ”oh no! Cupid hit the wrong boy with the arrow!”. Instead they’re insulting Cupid. And it works! Second addition is definetly Aran’s vocals and more specifically her vocal tone. I’ve read countless of comments about how her vocals give the feeling of walking on clouds or being equated to a marchmallow sound. Even if people can’t point it out, it’s there. (Other thought: omg that email. That stupid email that deleted everyones reading comprehension. It was infuriating and alarming to watch people *cough*armys*cough* take an email with no sender OR reciever, with no mention of fifty fifty OR cupid and a ”we’ll pay 50-350 bucks per video” for UA-cam SHORTS and use it as *proof* that the company spent 8 billion won on tiktok promo 😭 (there’s no proof of that number being spent either). I don’t doubt at all that money WAS spent, but the first sped-up sound was fan-created and it took Attrakt 1-2 months before they got the rights to it, and at that point Cupid had already started gaining popularity. Not Billboard level popularity, far from, but popularity nonetheless.) Lastly: Boycott Attrakt ❤
I think fans did a very good job advocating for the group on social media, I kept running into fans making edits or saying the group's debut was criminally underrated (it is). It wasn't until around the 6th or 7th video but I finally checked them out and ended up loving their music. I know I'm not alone in that situation, their fans were key to pushing the group on bigger platforms.
Taejiu has notifications on
i discovered them through a ktuber's intro lol
The tragedy is this group went down so quick they had so much potential and finally someone from a small company who had a smart marketing team which challenged the marketing teams of big companies. You are right about kpop stans now have a tendency to think only big company groups can have success and a small company groups getting success is somehow unworthy of getting their hard work rewarded and man do they use the most absurd things to just pull them down
The group isn’t done yet they are going to reorganize and I have high hopes especially since they have more money now!!! Also Keena the member that returned back to the company has already paid off her debts and has been getting paid Millions of Won for her participation in writing for Cupid and that’s only from the streaming alone!!!!😊
@@thriftskull5549 yes, but realistically it's very hard for a kpop group to make another song that becomes just as successful as their most viral hit, especially one like this that blew up all over tiktok and every social media app. Cupid going viral was lucky in a way and you can only create the same formula two times too many before fans get bored. Because of circumstances and what happened with Attrakt their company I think many people especially outside of kpop will see Fifty fifty as just a one hit wonder. It's very hard to create another viral song like they did with cupid. Wish the girls all the best though.
8:10 "Auditory shenanigans" is now my favorite musical term, thank you so much😂
I still think that the parallel that the group had with Momoland makes me so sad. Like they had the big breakthrough and Kpop stans made their personal mission to DESTROY the group.
Anyways, i'm wishing the best to the four members on their future endevours
It wasn’t kpop stans that destroyed them. I don’t remember seeing anyone bashing them. If anything, Fifty Fifty was being used by Kpop stans to drag certain groups.
@neb.9489 maybe you're not on twitter cause I saw a lot of hate against them.
It's not the exact same as the Momoland situation, but I definitely see the connection there. The legal battles caused a lot of media play that painted the girls in the worst light, but a lot of people (especially in Korea) spread the "selfish and greedy girls" narrative the media gave them without bothering to think a little further. Just a lot of messiness all around, but vindictive antis had easy bait
12:37 That's why I love the intro videos that Stray Kids do before each comeback. In fact, they released an entire video about the recordings of some of their songs on their 5-Star albums for the StayWeek, so we could see even more of their recording process (it's even more interesting because they are also their own vocal directors)
Though I'm hoping for them to pull an docuseries with their entire process because I know it would be super interesting based on what we know and what we have been shown of that process
Spotify recommended me their debut album. I loved it tho I didn't go to their artist page or learn anything about them. Just listened to the EP. Login was my favourite song on it😂
Higher, such a good song. REALLY good song.
As an ace and part of the aromantic spectrum, the whole "I see people falling in love left and right, but I have never felt that or understood what romantic love actually is" without the narrator expecting that but being frustated because is the "normal" thing speaks a lot to me. (imo, this is just my reading of the song's lyrics😅)
exact same here! the twin version lyrics are probably the thing that made the song hit so much for me, it’s so very aro and super refreshing to listen to after pretty much every song being about the love people feel.
It's funny, because it seems that you only ever do videos in this series on either songs that I love or songs that I hate, but I suppose that polarizing nature is endemic to viral popularity. And either way, it's always interesting to see why people enjoyed it even if I didn't. Alternate perspectives and all. Cupid is…absolutely not for me, mostly due to the reasons you mention (there's so little going on that I get bored way too easily, and even when I have music on in the background I want it to be interesting in some way, and the genre doesn't tend to be my style in general), but it is fascinating to hear you talk about why everyone else was obsessed with it! Probably also helped that I refuse to touch TikTok with a ten-foot pole. I fear no man, but that thing…that thing scares me.
(More of a sidenote than anything, but while Higher is…decent on my list, and far more appealing to me than Cupid, I have to shout out a few debuts that stood out to me far more-firstly, ILY:1's Love in Bloom is a wonderful listen and stands amazingly well on its own, and secondly, LIMELIGHT's StarLight and Eye to Eye did a perfect job of both establishing their sound and just making some great listens in general. Cannot recommend either debut enough)
Anyway! I think my favorite English version of a song has to be LOONA's Star (the English version of Voice), and although the pronunciation isn't perfect, the lyrics absolutely make sense. I'm not sure if it entirely counts given that the lyrics are changed a fair bit from the original and have a different spin on the narrative, but you know what, it's marked as "Voice English Version" on at least one site, so I'll count it. One of my top three songs on their discography for sure, and having that version of the lyrics that I can so easily connect to definitely helps, so I can see how it would be a lot easier to push out into the further reaches of the world.
I'm absolutely with you on the behind-the scenes stuff, especially recording studio footage. We get so much content related to performing, and music-video behind-the-scenes content is practically the easiest thing to pump out alongside that, but I feel like there's such a massive gap there of letting fans see what it's like to actually record the album. The most in-depth I ever saw was when League of Legends Korea released a video of Miyeon and Soyeon recording their lines for THE BADDEST, and in a five minute video, maybe a minute of that was the recording process, and of that, maybe twenty seconds, maximum, for the actual vocals and not just the song playing over video of them recording. Even so, seeing the notes they got and the changes they made from them was absolutely fascinating, and maybe it's just because I'm a nerd, but it feels like such an untapped market, even from a marketing perspective. Especially with how often groups these days are lip syncing or have incredibly loud backing tracks, even when they're perfectly capable of singing live (cough, why must Jongho and and the rappers be the only ones who don't have to fight to be heard, have you SEEN Yeosang having to shout over the backing track in Bouncy just to be audible, please KQ I beg), it'd be such an easy method to let your fans see what good vocalists you have, no? You can still edit their worse outtakes so they still look near-flawless (looking at you SM), but it shows them working hard and it's not overdone content.
Anyway, I saw your community post about smaller review videos, and I'm very much excited for those! Comeback season absolutely has me in a chokehold, and all I can hope is that Dreamcatcher's comeback doesn't absolutely murder me, because that WILL teaser…the lore…the *rock teases*…All I'm saying is the album can't come soon enough.
Gonna be real... Cupid isn't really for me either so I'm glad I was able to fool you 😂
But wow this comment is like looking in a mirror. I was obsessed with Eye to Eye when I found it and almost didn't believe it was a predebut track. I haven't dug into Loona much, but I did stumble across Star at some point (and it may or may not be one of those Kpop songs I sneak into English-only playlists).
I've been begging KQ to release studio content ever since I saw their Pirate King recording process and the tiny bit of Answer we got. I literally will watch recording behinds of groups I don't even stan because I'm just so interested in it and so very starved.
Glad to hear people like the review idea! I'm also in the comeback season chokehold and I feel like I need to apologize for the person I'll be for the next 3 weeks. Especially after finding out about the Ateez subunits today. Manifesting at least one rock song on there.
This adds to how much I love this song. 😂😂
I remember Cupid showing up in my UA-cam recommended only a day or so after its release. This was a little before it started to really gain traction and I just remember getting goosebumps because the vocals were so smooth. If the group hadn't gotten messed up with all the legal stuff, they probably would have been the first group I really joined the fandom of
Just found your UA-cam channel! In love with the analysis!
Hello! Thank you!
I still love them❤😢
Nice. Thanks
2:58 Lovin me was my top song on Spotify in 2023💕
Cupid isn’t for me. I don’t see why it is so popular but I consider TikTok a virus so maybe that’s why. Having said that, I am very glad that Keena has returned to Attrakt, and as a smaller company, they can start afresh with new members, while the 3 original members are getting what they want and are released from their contract.
TBH, I REALLY HATE THIS SONG SO MUCH, I NO LONGER WANT TO LISTEN TO THIS SHIT ANYMORE NOW!!!!!!!! AND THE SPED UP VERSION SUCKS EVEN MORE!!!!!! I'VE HEARD THIS TRACK TOO MUCH IT MAKES ME ANGRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND SPED UP AUDIOS SUCK AS WELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Aaaaaah Fifty Fifty, the first (and only) girl group I’ve stanned 🥲
I have two additional reasons as to why Cupid went viral, the first being an addition to your lyric section, and one of the reasons I loved the song so much: it’s subversive. They’re not singing about the boy they’re crushing on, or their boyfriend, or the boyfriend of their dreams or hoping that cupid will find them a boyfriend etc etc. And there’s no typical whacky cupid shenanigans where ”oh no! Cupid hit the wrong boy with the arrow!”. Instead they’re insulting Cupid. And it works!
Second addition is definetly Aran’s vocals and more specifically her vocal tone. I’ve read countless of comments about how her vocals give the feeling of walking on clouds or being equated to a marchmallow sound. Even if people can’t point it out, it’s there.
(Other thought: omg that email. That stupid email that deleted everyones reading comprehension. It was infuriating and alarming to watch people *cough*armys*cough* take an email with no sender OR reciever, with no mention of fifty fifty OR cupid and a ”we’ll pay 50-350 bucks per video” for UA-cam SHORTS and use it as *proof* that the company spent 8 billion won on tiktok promo 😭 (there’s no proof of that number being spent either). I don’t doubt at all that money WAS spent, but the first sped-up sound was fan-created and it took Attrakt 1-2 months before they got the rights to it, and at that point Cupid had already started gaining popularity. Not Billboard level popularity, far from, but popularity nonetheless.)
Lastly: Boycott Attrakt ❤
Love this comment 😂❤
Nope. 1st Boycott the Givers. Next Boycott ADOR MHJ.