Apink:
As their first girl group (Apink) was making their debut coming soon, the A-Cube company and entertainment/style news reporting site Trend E collaborated to hold a “girl group naming contest” back in February 2011.
The contest asked netizens to come up with a name for the upcoming girl group and give a reason why they chose that name. Unfortunately, the Korean public was already fed up with idol debuts (unaware that hundreds of more idol groups were going to debut from then up to 2016), and decided to troll the whole contest with the most outrageous and offensive choices being the top voted.
Here were the Top Choices that (thank God) were never chosen by A-Cube:
Group Name: LAST
Reason: Because this should be the last idol group.
Group Name: Dogs and Cows
Reason: Because even dogs and cows* could be idols these days.
*”Dogs and Cows” is a common Korean phrase meaning that a job can be done by anyone.
Group Name: Girl-Le*
Reason: Short for “Girl Group’s Legend”
*A word-play. “Girl-Le” sounds like “rag” which is the common Korean slang meaning “slut”/“whore”.
Group Name: Go Back To Where You Came From
Reason: Go Back To Where You Came From
….And so on.
This of course spread online and everyone was laughing at the creative and outrageous names while criticizing the K-Pop industry for more idol debuts in the already idol-saturated market.
And that’s why companies never ask netizens to name their groups anymore and that’s why Apink are called Apink.
Reason: Because this should be the last idol group.
Group Name: Dogs and Cows
Reason: Because even dogs and cows* could be idols these days.
*”Dogs and Cows” is a common Korean phrase meaning that a job can be done by anyone.
Group Name: Girl-Le*
Reason: Short for “Girl Group’s Legend”
*A word-play. “Girl-Le” sounds like “rag” which is the common Korean slang meaning “slut”/“whore”.
Group Name: Go Back To Where You Came From
Reason: Go Back To Where You Came From
….And so on.
This of course spread online and everyone was laughing at the creative and outrageous names while criticizing the K-Pop industry for more idol debuts in the already idol-saturated market.
And that’s why companies never ask netizens to name their groups anymore and that’s why Apink are called Apink.
Gfriend:
The group 여자친구 (Yeojachingu) has a very unique English name: Gfriend. A lot of I-Fans wondered why their name was stylized that way instead of the literal translation of “Girlfriend.”
One reason why is because a group named Girlfriend already made their debut in Korea more than a decade earlier. And they were subject of a huge controversy that GFriend wouldn’t even want to wish to be correlated to.
One reason why is because a group named Girlfriend already made their debut in Korea more than a decade earlier. And they were subject of a huge controversy that GFriend wouldn’t even want to wish to be correlated to.
Girlfriend made their debut in July of 2001 with the song Tonight. They were catching wind for their conga inspired song and the fact that a popular model of that time was featured in the song.
One month into their promotion cycle, their website put up an announcement saying that they must prepare their 2nd album and all of their activities, events, and TV show tapings were cancelled. Around the same time, a blind item went out on national news that a girl group subsituted professional singers to record their songs(Kind of like Milli Vanilli did in the United States back in the 90’s.) and caused a huge controversy in the entertainment industry. This group turned out to be Girlfriend with them acknowledging that they were lip syncing to other singers’ voices and that they have never sang once in their album except member Gayeon.
At first the group cancelled all recordings for MBC Music Camp (the live music show on MBC before Music Core) because the show started a new rule that all singers must sing live. Then after telling their manager the truth and that that’s why their live events were getting cancelled, the manager quit his job and told the group’s secret to a news agency. Though it was initially a reported as blind item, Girlfriend was eventually found out to be the fraud girl group.
Girlfriend members defended themselves saying that they were deceived by their producer who told them that “all big girl groups use substitute singers” and that he never gave them a chance to record on their own. The group disbanded before the release of their 2nd album which, according to the members, was actually fully recorded with their own voices. Gayeon, the only member that sang on the first album, returned to the K-Pop industry years later as a member for the girl group LPG. To this day this scandal remains as one of the biggest in the Korean entertainment industry and has lead to much more stricter laws and policies on lip syncing. However because the issue happened more than ten years ago, young K-Pop fans are not well-acquainted with this story.
One month into their promotion cycle, their website put up an announcement saying that they must prepare their 2nd album and all of their activities, events, and TV show tapings were cancelled. Around the same time, a blind item went out on national news that a girl group subsituted professional singers to record their songs(Kind of like Milli Vanilli did in the United States back in the 90’s.) and caused a huge controversy in the entertainment industry. This group turned out to be Girlfriend with them acknowledging that they were lip syncing to other singers’ voices and that they have never sang once in their album except member Gayeon.
At first the group cancelled all recordings for MBC Music Camp (the live music show on MBC before Music Core) because the show started a new rule that all singers must sing live. Then after telling their manager the truth and that that’s why their live events were getting cancelled, the manager quit his job and told the group’s secret to a news agency. Though it was initially a reported as blind item, Girlfriend was eventually found out to be the fraud girl group.
Girlfriend members defended themselves saying that they were deceived by their producer who told them that “all big girl groups use substitute singers” and that he never gave them a chance to record on their own. The group disbanded before the release of their 2nd album which, according to the members, was actually fully recorded with their own voices. Gayeon, the only member that sang on the first album, returned to the K-Pop industry years later as a member for the girl group LPG. To this day this scandal remains as one of the biggest in the Korean entertainment industry and has lead to much more stricter laws and policies on lip syncing. However because the issue happened more than ten years ago, young K-Pop fans are not well-acquainted with this story.
TL;DR:
A-Cube started a campaign of naming their new girl group back in February 2011. The K-Netz, tired of idols, decided to troll the poll with group names such as “Sluts”, “Dogs and Cows”, “LAST”, “Go Back To Where You Came From”...etc. The company decided to just come up with a name of their own: A-Pink.
Gfriend are spelled that way instead of Girlfriend because K-Pop already had a controversial girl group namedGirlfriend back in 2003. The group was found guilty of lip syncing to professional singers that their producer had hired. It even turned out that only one member recorded something on the album while the other members did not even participate. Eventually their fraudulent activities were told to the media by their manager and they ended up disbanding the same year.
A-Cube started a campaign of naming their new girl group back in February 2011. The K-Netz, tired of idols, decided to troll the poll with group names such as “Sluts”, “Dogs and Cows”, “LAST”, “Go Back To Where You Came From”...etc. The company decided to just come up with a name of their own: A-Pink.
Gfriend are spelled that way instead of Girlfriend because K-Pop already had a controversial girl group namedGirlfriend back in 2003. The group was found guilty of lip syncing to professional singers that their producer had hired. It even turned out that only one member recorded something on the album while the other members did not even participate. Eventually their fraudulent activities were told to the media by their manager and they ended up disbanding the same year.
No comments:
Post a Comment