Scatter_88mil

"Despite the hectic schedules in Japan, T-ara members said, "We're excited to have our comeback stage in Korea with 'Day by Day' since it's been a long time since we could meet our fans on stage." Define 'T-ara members', CCM. I doubt they would have said that so enthusiastically when theyr'e being worked like slaves. I wouldn't even think members like Boram and Qri would have said that. Honestly, I can't help but think that the rest of this year is only going to get more straining on their health. Last year, they had several trips to the hospital and injuries - Lord knows how many other possible similar incidents weren't reported and simply swept under the rug. I only fear the rate of injuries and hospital visits will increase this year. On the side note, it's even more sickening some people in Youtube even go as far to try JUSTIFY T-ara being overworked to the bone while claiming CCM is among the 'best agencies' out there in Kpop.

Is there even any point in delaying the release by several hours aside from wanting more attention from the public? I wonder if the guys in charge of the editing are even paid for this.

Well, T-ara would get the credit of course but then again, CCM would want to cast suspicion away from itself as much as possible. It's not like T-ara has much say in how things go around within CCM (because if they did, the member additions wouldn't have occurred in the first place, nor would they have worked to the point of collapsing and ending up in hospital).

Call me suspicious but....this sounds pretty fishy to me since CCM's the one that said this, not T-ara themselves. Their company certainly as hell didn't give a damn about what fans had to say about the member additions and KKS threatening the current members and now this? Publicity stunt once again? Something's a bit off here. It's as if they're doing this to nullify whatever the fans had to say about KKs, member additions and CCM in general by pulling this off.

Jiyeon already was casted in a drama earlier this year - one which also cost her very first vacation since God knows how long. Besides, promoting songs and filming for dramas simultaneously is a hideously exhausting job. Cut her some slack, guys.

@PrincessT-ara Couldn't agree more with what you said there, definitely. Generally, I don't have a problem if one gets in because of a friend or relative in the business or if they 'pay' their way through - so long as they're humble enough and can prove their skills. I've seen too many people like that at school and work as well but they weren't that bad to hang around with (most of them anyway). Though the sleeping thing is something I completely despise (up to the point I even see it as hardly any different to prostitution) and the showbiz is definitely not the only industry that has that. Sometimes I even question if any of the T-ara members had gone through the process as well, especially since the amount of promotions given individually is terribly one-sided. "@Guys, calm down. What's with all this unnecessary hate towards Dani? Her age shouldn't be a problem. Same for being casted on the street. She isn't only idol who casted on the street or debuted @ this age. I can list many talented idols who casted while walking on the street. These are some really stupid excuses." It's not just her age that's the problem. It's what she said to the press (though whether if it's actually her words or a publicity stunt remains unknown) that is particularly pissing off a lot of people. However, undergoing T-ara's schedule at such a young age is also a huge concern - do please note that T-ara's schedule is notoriously among, if not, THE most intense of all major Kpop groups out there - the fact that even the older members are having it hard themselves is enough to point out Dani wouldn't hold it out too well herself. Not to mention her training length hasn't even passed a year. Many other idols go through years of training before debut to hone their skills - and even then, they still lack at many or some fields in the entertainment industry. So Yeon and Hyomin can testify to that just fine since they too were trainees for some years under SM and JYP, respectively. By the way, street-casting in Korea is now a thing of the past. While there are talented idols who were street-casted, there are also hundreds, if not thousands more who were also street-casted but eventually became nobodies in the showbiz, many not even getting to debut. Do also note that being street-casted also increases the chance of being tricked by fraud companies - something the Korean police noticed over the years and began putting more attention to it.

Just months ago, 'no acting in 2012' TROLOLOL What a joke. 'No acting in 2012' apparently meant no acting in 2012 under CCM. No wonder the girls got put into a separate acting agency. CCM simply doesn't want more blame casted towards it, especially with Ji Yeon having gone through the experience of promoting and acting simultaneously before. But on August? I don't see that as a rather good timing for So Yeon considering they'd be busy promoting 'Day By Day' and have the solo concert to perform. It'd be more suitable if the drama aired somewhere during September or so. I'm hoping that So Yeon benefits from the new laws being proposed in regards to actors and actresses though because filming for a drama has a huge toll on both the stars and staff (that is if the new laws come into effect soon enough). I don't take this as exactly good news.

Ah thanks for the correction My memory on SNSD's pre-debut info sure is a lot rustier than imagined, being a former Soshi fan and all haha. Though I'm assuming the one who convinced her to audition at SM probably was someone her uncle knew fairly well lol. Good luck trying to explain that to a lot of the people here, since there's more than just her 'enthusiasm' (whether if it's from her own words or just a poorly-thought publicity stunt remains to be seen) that has peeved off the fandom here overall. Imagine if say, SM decided to add new members into SNSD or YG doing it to Big Bang. The response from fans would be no different - only that the scale of it would be over double the amount.

If memory serves right, barely six months or so, maybe slightly more. The only idol I can think of that went through such a short time period of training is SNSD's Sunny, who also had just six months but then again, her uncle is Lee Soo Man himself - and she was already a high school senior at the time of the group's debut plus it seemed like she already knew how to sing before her training years since she's one of the above-average members in vocals (though definitely not up to Tae Yeon or Jessica's level).

Ugh;; So much for 2330 - they could have at least made the bikes more futuristic *facepalm* Hell, we'd probably have hover bikes by the time it's 2330.

When I meant reassured, I was specifically referring to the idea of a boycott there since you gave out a solid argument on why it would be counterproductive, among others but I won't dwell too much further into it. Considering that the K-fans also don't seem to be doing much (at least to my knowledge), we also can't discount the possibility that the girls themselves even question the loyalty of their fans in regards to the incompetence of CCM and it's not like they have free time to surf the web to be fully aware themselves. Diadems itself is a small fandom alone and it's not like the T-ara members are fluent in English. Regardless of how much they want to pursue their careers, there's a clear limit on how much punishment a human body can tolerate (and in Boram's case, it looks like it's dangerously close than the others). Hell, I'd even say they lost more than gained in the long run than other popular female idol groups out there (GG, 2NE1, Kara, WG) in terms of health and stability - while these groups themselves are also overworked themselves, never did I recall any of them having a bigger rate of trips to the hospital due to being overworked more than T-ara. Frankly, I'd even rather see them disband or split up than have to work under such conditions any longer. Ultimately, I believe that the fans should be more concerned for the health, wellbeing etc. of T-ara (as well as the members' opinions themselves - honest ones at that) rather than soaring popularity as the latter is a highly double-bladed issue in their case - the unfortunate thing is (at least in my opinion), it seems to be the other way around with many.

@FreakyFlyBri - Thanks for the info and your discussion. It was highly appreciated Admittedly, my faith in the group had been terribly shaken off the cliff over time and moreso, I don't even consider myself a fan of T-ara anymore (that is until all hell breaks loose on CCM when that lawsuit occurs....whenever that will happen), plus can't help but be highly pessimistic of the issue here - up to the point I even thought the chances of a lawsuit occurring may diminish considering they likely don't even have the time to plan for one. Hell, I even rooted for other groups to beat T-ara in sales and awards (despite how meaningless some of those awards can actually be) at one point. Needless to say, you're words have reassured me a lot - though I would disagree Miss A and f(x) are potentially likely to overthrow T-ara's spot indefinitely (compared to being T-ara as CCM's flagship, Miss A isn't exactly a top tier group even in JYP when compared with the WG whereas f(x) is arguably the most least popular group in SM and even with Electric Shock, it's still too early to really guess they'd go up to T-ara's popularity) but that's a wholly different topic so I wont' dwell further into it. It seems like I've overestimated T-ara's staying power after all. Come to think of it, I think this may be the very reason why KKS deliberately prevented an official fandom of occurring for so long until this summer - I don't know about the K-fans, but looking at how the fandom here is torn apart, that's just what KKS would want - to nullify whatever possible organized effort can be taken from the fans themselves. If T-ara had its own official fandom much earlier, chances are fans would have taken much more definite and organized action and provided a major headache towards KKS - obviously, he doesn't want that. I don't know how many fans have lost their interest in T-ara but he clearly has an ulterior motive in having opening ceremony of T-ara's official fandom is this particular season. Hopefully the group itself will take action sooner or later as you say. The longer they stay in that pathetic excuse of a company (which goes to say, the recent 5dolls scandal makes it look like the internal affairs in CCM is pretty nasty), the more things are just going to get harder.

All things considered, I'd even argue that the girls don't even care much whether if this new album will be a success or not - they know their popularity is at its peak and frankly, it's likely in their best interest to simply get a long-deserved vacation before anything else. 3 years of tooth-and-nail work with only a single one-week-long vacation? I think it's pretty clear by now that they know what they want as first priority regardless of the consequences. Regarding Temptastic and YaYaYa, do also note that T-ara wasn't as popular back then compared to as of now - plus from what I recall, not many people were even aware T-ara was severely overworked at the time, considering that it wasn't until at least the Roly Poly promotions when a few eyebrows were raised. I'm not sure how they were forced to work harder during the months between Temptastic and the Roly Poly era (other than Eun Jung being in DH1, not to mention I don't watch variety shows) so some info on that is well-appreciated. If KKS does drive them to work even harder if this upcoming album sells poorly, it'll only just raise the chances of T-ara of taking legal action themselves - additionally, the Korean government itself has been intervening into the ent. industry lately ever since the Open World Ent. scandal became known - even as of now, there's laws being proposed and taken into discussion - such as limiting the amount of hours dramas are allowed to film per day and actors/actresses receiving compensations if such rules are broken - I'm not sure if this also includes idol actresses but it's a very likely case (Eun Jung, Ji Yeon and Hyomin would benefit from this) and following that, more laws taken to protecting idols are likely to follow sooner or later. Bottom line, a boycott will just accelerate things up a bit if KKS works them off even harder as a result of it - and raises the chance of a lawsuit coming out in the front paper. With the government intervention occurring as well, the timing can't be any better. Agreed that Kpop is indeed fickle but frankly, what other group is out there that can steal T-ara's place by now? The ones only above T-ara are SNSD and 2NE1 and with WG and KARA on the same tier (or somewhere around that though KARA is easily the top tier in Japan) - I'd call that relatively stable since neither of those 4 other groups are likely to lose their spot very easily to lower-tier groups out there - T-ara's also a certain case, regardless of how idiotic CCM has been lately. The only group at current that has potential to take T-ara's position is likely f(x) but even that's doubtful since SM's been pretty sloppy with them for a while, regardless how much of an 'upgrade' Electric Shock is from their previous tracks.

Areum isn't 14. The only way to make him listen to the fans if the fans themselves organize a boycott against T-ara's album next month - as much as it would put a huge damage on T-ara as a whole, it's the only way that can knock some sense into him. T-ara isn't going to be disbanded or become a huge flop over one album having bad sales as they're among the top tier groups in Korea so I'd say it's worth a shot. The main source of income is of course, from the fans - if the fans organize something of their own against him, then definite results occur.

The difference is that BoA debuted as a solo - not as a member of a group, not to mention SM had already been well-established with earlier artists before then AND overall, performs much better than CCM does, business-wise.

Publicity stunt much? If anything, the real damage that's being done is gaining more negative attention than good. The decision of adding her is highly controversial alone - why add more gasoline into the fire? Up till now, never have I heard ANY idol-to-be say anything like this so openly to the press. And it also brings up the question whose side the press is on - T-ara or CCM? By the looks of it, it seems like whoever's written the article is under the latter. Can't imagine how gutted the current members are feeling. There's a limit to how much idiocy and oppression a human can tolerate. T-ara's very likely to explode in the long run - the question is how much more can they keep it bottled, since they've been active for 3 years now.

Exactly - it's cases like this which makes KKS troll the fans to no end and no matter how much of a fuss is caused, in the end of the day, its the fandom as a whole that's taken as idiots and eat up whatever crap he gives. The same also applies to groups of other agencies but at least they're sane enough not to do something as drastic as this. @xkyelove - regarding Dani, I've talked about it with other peeps at AKF and seen comments at Seoulbeats as well and its not just the fans that are highly opposed to her addition. Sure, age is just a number but the deeper issue is that whether if she can handle T-ara's grueling schedules - which is going to get much worse since they'll be promoting basically 24/7 this summer to early autumn. Dani's only the same age as my youngest brother - and I sure as hell wouldn't want to see him work at such appallling conditions. There's also the concept issue - people, especially those over the age of 18, would be pretty disturbed to see someone her age pull off sexy dances - the group Chocolat in particular got some controversy about it not so long ago either. Do also note that her training length has been vastly short - other idols are known to have gone through years of training before debuting, others dropping out - Hyomin and Soyeon can testify to that easily. That is why I oppose her being added in.

2330 and I see a car used in the present day still - maybe I'll find an 18th century musket in a garbage dumpster then. Katanas? Couldn't they have gotten say, something like laser guns, nail guns like the ones from FEAR or somethin? Or maybe something like a lightsabre? The last time katanas were used for fighting was WW2 by the IJA's officers (and they were more used for beheading, stabbing and cutting civilians and POWs). Plus using katanas in say, close-quarters combat (especially indoors) is a tricky thing - there's a reason why soldiers use bayonets mounted on their rifles (and even that doesn't occur very often in today).

So much for CCM's claims of T-ara of having 'no acting in 2012'. What a joke. Does Hyomin even WANT to be in this drama?

Boram, So Yeon and Hyomin.....oh goodness, I think my heart skipped a few beats O.o It's really saddening to see them smiling there when behind the scenes, KKS is being a complete xxxx towards them....ahew.

*Facepalm* Funny to see people already look like they're accepting her as a member when they were going all bozo about the whole thing first. Oh the misery.

Hm, call me curious but when was that footage filmed? Considering Boram's health issues at current, it seems a bit off to see her performing so soon (on the side note, she still looks pretty as usual). Maybe I'm just crazy but seeing So Yeon wear that hat with studs and stuff sticking out keeps on making me think about Darth Maul from Star Wars Episode 1 XD. My imagination's gone wild again. Ugh. I digress.

This might as well be the first LD performance where I actually hear So Yeon's voice very, very, VERY clearly. Props to her since T-ara's hit tracks aren't really meant for live singing performances. Though I cannot say the same for Eun Jung and Boram....barely heard their voices and Hyomin sounded...ugh, a bit strained/tired?

It could be possible that whoever was in charge of directing/producing Roly Poly and Lovey Dovey was working with a very limited budget and with terrible time constraints. EMI probably had it the opposite way with all these other songs considering the album was only released just recently.

Or paid some reporter a huge bagload of money to write it for him. He probably would have fallen asleep half way through if he tried writing it himself.