STAYC's founder explains the girls' ‘curtain hairstyle’, J says 'we want normal hair'
More than 100 groups debut every year in the K-pop industry. Unfortunately, only a few make it. Their strategies range from expensive promotions and involving notable artists to weird concepts and strange looks. The latter has also been incorporated by groups from huge agencies like SM’s NCT and SHINee. Once the act makes a name for themselves, they get more and more freedom to do what they want without worrying about their success. And this is what is going on with the current rookie groups like STAYC.
Quite a few rookie groups that debuted in the last year have become popular with an equal level of fame. We have girl groups like aespa, STAYC, Weeekly, and Purple Kiss causing quite a stir every time they make a comeback. With the rising popularity of K-pop all around the globe, it is becoming increasingly difficult to stand out as the bare minimum of fame is now easily achieved. And as STAYC’s founder and CEO explained, the groups can’t bank on just their talent anymore. This is evident from STAYC’s debut which was less than memorable according to netizens.
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STAYC during the 'So Bad' era
While their title track ‘So Bad’ is a fun song with the girls looking beautiful in the music video, the CEO feels that it didn’t make much of an impact. All of STAYC had dark flowing locks and wore pretty glittering outfits. But from their next comeback onwards, we had funky outfits, cheek-length princess bangs, and neon dip-dyed edges. Their label High Up Entertainment has also been going all out for their music video and promotional content to make it more eye-catching and quirky. While their current popularity is definitely on a larger scale than their debut era, the CEO doesn’t want to take any risks.
The CEO explains the weird hairstyles
High Up’s CEOs happen to be none other than producers and musical duo Black Eyed Pilseung. They have been in the industry since 2014, worked with the likes of Sistar, GOT7, and TWICE and hence know the inner workings. During an interview, Black Eyed Pilseung’s Rado explained that he knew fans and Knetizens hated the current hairstyles and missed the gorgeous concept of ‘So Bad’. Even STAYC spoke up about it at the interview. Calling it the ‘curtain hairstyle’, J said that she wanted them to have normal hair.
Rado then decided to give the reason behind their decisions, “Our girls are a team from a small agency. They needed to stand out in this competitive industry somehow. Even if that is by having weird or experimental hairstyles. Sure, the fans can complain and criticize the company. But we are trying to do what we need to do in order for our girls to be noticed.” And while he understands the girls’ and fans’ concerns, he says that he will not be stopping this strategy anytime soon.
Watch the whole interview below.