#like maaaaaaaaybe kanye but also that's got a whole other part to it

[sanstropfremir]

you said before that there is more emphasis for 4th gen to do harder dance routines as their performances whereas for 2nd gen they had to be entertaining. and i know brave girls isnt technically 2nd gen but being one of the older groups at mama, gawd was there such a difference in energy. they were so fun!!! this might just be me being old because there was a recent article that pointed out there were a lot of good dancers from 4th gen but no one with star power (as opposed to the previous gens) and netizens were mad, saying that this is something only 2nd gen listeners will say (lol). like i wanna give these newer groups the benefit of the doubt - they're still relatively new and haven't had much experience performing in front of an audience (esp aespa) but idt they will last long enough that they would be able to develop themselves with great (or interesting enough) stage presence. majority of 3rd gen groups didn't make it even though when they disbanded they were at their peaks.

honestly part of it is me being old too, but also it's not like i haven't spent literal years training in performing arts so i'm allowed to have opinions in this instance.

obviously there is a sort of 'golden oldies' rose coloured glasses that second and third gen fans have, because the groups that have stuck around are the ones that had the staying power, and it hasn't been long enough for the fourth gen groups to get whittled down in the same way. i do agree with you that not all of them are gonna be able to hack it because truly, there isn't as much innovation in presence and power as younger fans think there is. and that article is right, fourth gen is lacking in people with real star power. and i know i've said this a lot before too, but star power absolutely requires training. to be good on variety and good at being an entertainer is a skill, and when these companies are running their idols like overworked racehorses just for dance training, who's got the time to teach them how to be good variety guests? and with the whole 'authentic' content thing, groups can just produce their own shows for youtube or for vlive and never actually have to set foot on a studio set where they actually gotta be funny or they'll get cut out of broadcast. vlives and ig lives and company produced youtube contents are great and really fun, but with the way that kpoppies are built nowadays, there's almost NO stakes with this type of content. idols probably still feel the pressure that they have to be entertaining but there's always gonna be that core base that will gas up anything they do regardless of how actually good it is. it's the whole thing i talked about with skz and kingdom; if you don't let things flop, artists have no way of tangibly improving because they don't know that they're doing anything wrong. and improvment comes from failure.

another take that's probably nuclear grade but i don't care at this point: artist and celebrity are mutually exclusive. if someone is deeply dedicated to being an artist, of any kind, they are not interested in being a celebrity. they may be fine with being a celebrity by proxy, but they are never doing the work in pursuit of the fame, they are doing the work for the sake of the art. take dance, for example. there are very few celebrity or famous dancers that are actually considered top of their fields. or contemporary artists; many of them actively balk social media. most truly good actors are deeply weird people and/or 'ugly' and would never make it into the hollywood sphere. i think people have generally forgotten because of his ubiquity and impact on the industy, but taemin was notorious for being horrible on variety shows. and honestly he still is; he's a weird gremlin who does and says weird shit constantly and has a very clear boundary of what people are allowed to see of his life, which is nothing. there are some idols that are good celebrities and good artists, but it's like one of those triangles where you can only pick two; you have to sacrifice on something. key is an excellent artist and a great variety star; is he as good a dancer as taemin is? no, but that's fine. that's not the type of artist he is, he's not interested in pushing the limits of his dance abilties, he keeps them sharp because they are a tool in which to help him achieve his other goals. but with these fourth gens, fans have inflated ideas of what their idols are capable of, because they're expecting them to be master of all trades, when the actual saying is 'jack of all trades, master of none'.