#you could tell me aespa is just one single girl copied 4 times based on their avatar and i would beleive you

[nako-doodles]

now that you mentioned it, what ARE youre thoughts on aespa?

hmmmm my thoughts are very complicated as im still digesting both the new song/mini album and my issues with the way sm are promoting the girls and the symptoms of the industry as a whole so ill leave everything down in the cut

as someone who has been listening to and supporting sm groups for nigh a decade now, aespa really was the logical next level (hehe), esp if you take everything since sm dropped snsd's i got a boy (all of the experimental genre mashing of f(x), shinee, red velvet, and nct's discography, as well as the alien/digital concepts from exo and nct). i like that sm is pushing the boundaries of the traditional kpop music formula and virtual music propagation/concepts and what we as an audience deem as acceptable and standard. mera does a good job in describing how theyre pushing the music composition, so im not going to rehash sthing someone else has said better than me. i will say aespa's music are purposefully polarizing and they challenge us listeners and i really appreciate it. yes this is coming from someone who a decade later still hates i got a boy 🤣🤣🤣. girls is actually growing to be one of my fave songs this year, next to love dive and quotation mark.

my love of the girls pushing the music composition in the industry aside, my major problem with aespa actually lies in their promotion and their concept even tho yes i did say i liked that theyre pushing virtual music forward. this was an issue that i had since sm announced the concept of their new girl group, and its the perceived perfection and accessibility of virtual avatars vs the girls.

even before they debuted, aespa was called the 'ugliest' of the sm girl groups which is frankly ridiculous bc all of sm (and really all of the industry) goes to the same plastic surgeons and trains girls w the same facial structures and intsy bitsy bodies because theyre being compared to their avatars. no human can or should be compared to digitally generated perfection; its simply asking for the impossible. its also doing the girls a disservice by reducing them down to simple empty avatars that fans can pile all of their fantasies upon. its 2022, not the mess that was early 00s j-idol. treat the girls like theyre actually humans please.

and also thanks to these avatars, sm has not let aespa really sing live at all. not once. i have not heard the girls besides maybe ningning on an odd note sing live. its all prerecorded and lipsynced. because theyre selling that aespa are virtual "perfect" avatars made flesh. god forbid they cannot have a bad day or an odd note out of key or a vibrato not modulating at the perfect even frequency. it creates an unrealistic standard for all girls and women, both in the industry and at society at large. yes pretty girls sing pretty is a trope as old as time, but this is literally the poster child of the problem. this is also a symptom of the industry at large for pushing vocalists to the side. it is no longer a requirement for idols to sing well. their companies can fake their vocal ability from debut to live to when they fade out of the public consciousness. call me old fashioned, but i miss the days where live performances were Actually live on occasion, and not prerecorded edited studio quality (im looking at you 'dingo live' 'its live') the girls sound great and im sure they can all sing well, even if maybe the studio versions are 943058902 takes zombied together, but i have no idea simply bc i dont have empirical evidence besides the fact that ningning can belt. sometimes. once.

my second issue w this concept is what it does to the parasocial relationship between idol and their fans. sm has already had a shitty track record of s*saengs harassing their idols and terrible security (dbsk's uknow accidentally drinking superglue, suju's car accident from trying to evade st*lkers, numerous breaking into hotel and dorms incidents, jonghyun's su*cide, joy's and wendy's cyberbullying etc...). now thanks to how available the girl's avatars are, im worried that this will further degrade the girls and their public personas and how much the public feels that they are entitled to the girls. im worried that their security and sense of self will be overtaken by these virtual representations of themselves. we all know sm cares more about money and brand than their artists. i can only hope they protect the girls as well.

tldr; aespa's music has been pushing the envelop since their debut and im honestly excited to how far they will take this and much they can turn the pop song formula on its head, but im worried that this virtual avatar concept will destroy the girls' body and self image and security, and perpetuate a hyperrealistic beauty standard that will literally be impossible to replicate.