Amid SM Entertainment's announcements for their upcoming boy group, netizens have rolled their eyes with the agency's claims of the group starting as fifth gen.
Here's what people are saying.
SM Entertainment Receives Mixed Reactions for 'Media Playing' New Group's Placement As 5th-Gen
On July 12, local time, netizens made an open forum online, discussing SM Entertainment's new boy group which will include former NCT members Shotaro and Sungchan, as well as Eunseok and Seunghan from SM Rookies.
In the discussion, the author claimed that SM Entertainment has joined the "5th-Generation" trend in various Korean news reports, and even calling it "media play."
SM Entertainment has announced their plans to debut a new boy group, which caught the attention of both followers, non-fans, and media. This caught the attention of online communities, who noticed the articles written about the upcoming male act.
"SM's rookie boy group, debuting in September. The strongest idols of the 5th generation, the birth of 'monster rookies'"
The author wrote:
"Everyone and their mom are from the 5th generation now. No matter how many rookies you're releasing, you're not entering the 5th generation SM!"
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The discourse of fifth generation's start or its usage was further discussed in the forum. Netizens claimed that using the generational placement is usually associated for media play in order to gain appeal and that nothing's wrong with the procedure.
Read their comments below:
- "Male idols also used the title of fourth generation for media play too. Groups who debuted in 2017 like THE BOYZ all claimed themselves as fourth gen, so the fifth-gen title shouldn't be surprising for those who will debut in 2023."
- "It's hilarious seeing fans who hype their bias in the fourth generation get annoyed. They can't even surpass the results made by the third gen."
- "Meanwhile, they're trying to attract everyone using fourth-gen title, and now they're being petty because ZB1 and SM are going for fifth gen."
- "It's the same approach for groups trying to gain attention using fourth gen title, and there's nothing new about it."
However, some netizens countered the argument of fifth gen now starting its mark. They claimed that fourth-gen groups are just making their peak through their activities and tours. Netizens also mentioned how pointless it was to discuss generational discourse.
They remarked:
- "Fourth gen K-pop groups just started. What do you mean it's fifth gen already? COVID-19 literally paused the world for two years. Fourth gen is currently peaking and is far from ending."
- "It's not like there was a wear-out in the third gen when fourth gen group started debuting. These are just titles used for announcing achievements."
- "Discussions like generational discourse is simply idi*tic since it's all pointless and made up. It's something meaningless to argue about."
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