Is SM scared of IVE's success? aespa reveals label postponed their second 2022 comeback
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA: Competition has always been tight among rookie K-pop groups and it has been far worse when it comes to girl groups. So is the case for 2020-2021 rookies, aespa and IVE from SM Entertainment and Starship Entertainment respectively. Back when SM Entertainment launched aespa, they marketed as the biggest rookie girl group of 2020. Their debut single, 'Black Mamba' was an instant hit and they followed it with more hits like 'Next Level' and 'Savage'.
However, when aespa released 'Savage', it coincided with the debut of Starship Entertainment's rookie girl group, IVE which was composed of two former IZ*ONE members, Yujin and Wonyoung. IVE debuted with the single, 'Eleven' which was an instant success and broke many more records in comparison to aespa. Due to this, the two girl groups have always been pitted against each other and now rumors suggest that SM Entertainment is afraid of IVE's success which is making them push back aespa's comebacks.
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aespa reveals SM pushed their comeback to 2023
In a recent community post, a fan of aespa revealed that during a video call, members of aespa told the fan that they were supposed to make a new comeback after their first 2022 release, 'Girls'. However, the fan revealed that members told them that SM Entertainment had pushed back their second 2022 come back to the next year. After their successful first mini-album, 'Savage', aespa released their second mini-album, 'Girls' in July of 2022. However, the most recent comeback from aespa did not receive the same reception as their last after it was released.
Despite having amazing sales, it was noticed that IVE's recent releases like 'Love Dive' and 'After Like' did better on charts in comparison to aespa's newer singles like 'Girls' and 'Life's Too Short'. Many fans who have been comparing the two girl groups started assuming that the only reason behind SM Entertainment's postponement of aespa's next comeback is because of the constant comparison of the four-member girl group with Starship Entertainment's IVE.
'They expect aespa to chart like IVE'
One fan said, "If they're gonna make us wait that long then the comeback gotta be 100x better than Girls tbh. Girls was ok but after Illusion came out I had high expectations and it did not live up to that unfortunately." Another fan said, "I think SM is about to debut a new GG or BG this year and they're putting all their focus on that hence the delay for all their other artists. SM used to pump out amazing songs/group's very frequently but off late they seem to have lost their touch."
One more fan said, "Honestly I think because SM want to make the illusion that aespa is the one on top / 4th gen leaders mediaplay but IVE completely destroyed all their achivements and so they will only look stupid if they comeback now since their results will be compared to IVE. That's why SM postponed their comeback to next year. Snsd comeback can't even defeat rookies let alone aespa the group whose hype built off of mediaplays."
One fan defended, "They expect them to chart like IVE even though both groups peaked on the charts after viral songs. It’s insane to keep expecting them to replicate that. I don’t like their music but girls and illusion are doing fine for SM standards. Next comeback people will be changing their tune when their song charts higher." Another fan said, "New nct unit and 127 full album were always on the plans along aespa second cb. If anything SM probably think the world cup and year end award shows will clash with comeback promotions so they changed dates." Another fan said, "aespas management has just been terrible. They only got 5 new tracks in their mini-album, the rest were old singles like forever and black mamba. There was basically 0 korean promotion and the american activities were so poorly planned that the girls were getting sick from overworking."
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