Hi! It’s Annie!
I think we can all agree that this most recent comeback is one of the best and most successful from ATEEZ. Not only was all of the music on the album breathtakingly amazing; but ATEEZ hasn’t stopped the hype since the promotion of this comeback began. It is absolutely impossible to become tired of any of the music here no matter how many times they perform it and they have also been on a streak of winning awards and breaking records. I can’t even begin to say how proud I am (and really all Atiny are) of them! This promotional tour for this comeback has given them some recognition that we all knew they always deserved. And while I could go on and on about how much they are owning this comeback; there’s been some problematic behavior to say the least when it comes to several parties in the way they’re treating ATEEZ. For a lot of Atiny, this comeback has been a constant struggle. And this has nothing to do with the boys. This has been all about protecting the boys. So if you’re not in the Atiny loop and wonder what I’m talking about when I say “Atiny Wars”, I’m going to go into the different things Atiny have been fighting for and against this comeback. And why they are entirely justified.
I-tiny vs. K-tiny:
This is probably the most problematic and prevalent Atiny war going on right now. And frankly, it is absolutely disheartening. If you don’t know what those two terms mean; I-tiny is international Atiny while K-tiny refers to the Atiny located in South Korea. And right now a lot of International Atiny are extremely angry at Korean Atiny. This has been a battle that’s been gearing up for a while and before this comeback I couldn’t have told you where I fell when it came to this. Some of the issues brought up by international Atiny seemed important while others, like the fact that most fan signs happen in South Korea, seemed superficial and entirely impossible to control. Like BTS; ATEEZ was a group that gained international fame before they got much fame nationally. I know that I-tiny have felt that they had to pick up the slack for K-tiny for several years. I have always been a fan that has voted and streamed, though probably not nearly to the extent of some other Atiny. I always make sure to give ATEEZ several votes and to stream their songs and MV whenever I get the chance; but I know part of me having the time for this is that I live comfortably and ATEEZ are my ult group. There are absolutely K-Pop fans who are multi-stans who are always working. And so I understand why some people say that they don’t necessarily have the time to vote and stream. I’ve talked in a different post how different fans interact with and support works in different ways. I’ve never really known where to draw the line between what’s the bare minimum and what’s something that takes a little more effort. Something that seems like a very little amount of effort for one person could easily be crushing to somebody else.
Until now. This comeback has shown us what the bare minimum looks like. And we know that because K-tiny haven’t been doing it. Bare minimum is the difference between streaming the song every once in a while when you get the chance and seeing the faces of your favorite idols fall on live television because nobody in their country was streaming their music. And now I feel like I’ve landed on the side of International Atiny, which I am, because the results at these award shows were beyond ridiculous. There are plenty of Atiny internationally who are busy, who are multi-stans, who can’t find the time to stream as much as they would like. And ATEEZ has still been charting in several international countries and has gotten countless streams from them. When the numbers at the award shows showed results that indicated that I-tiny were trying and that K-tiny couldn’t even be bothered to listen to the album more than once, I got angry. And maybe I wouldn’t have been so angry if we didn’t get to see ATEEZ’s reactions live. If we didn’t see our boys have the initial shocked and stricken reaction before they smiled again to accept their award. But we did. And yeah, it does make me a little angry that before one of the shows where national streaming markings were the lowest, they were outside doing a meet and greet in hot and humid weather. And that, at said meet and greet, there were several K-tiny breaking boundaries and touching their faces even though they weren’t supposed to. ATEEZ are human beings, they aren’t your dolls. It makes me a little angrier every time I have to say something like that on this blog. K-tiny have been railing back at this criticism by saying that I-tiny are racist and that we’re just jealous that we don’t get meet and greets. Do we want meet and greets? Yes. But that’s not the problem. Firstly, you don’t get to call a group of people racist that includes several races, cultures, and backgrounds (Including Koreans who live in other countries). Secondly, nobody is saying these things because we’re jealous. We’re saying these things because so many K-tiny didn’t stream or vote at all. Even a little bit would have been fine. We’re not asking for you to do something impossible. We’re asking for you to stream occasionally so that we don’t see our boys’ faces fall again. There’s literally nothing we get out of this other than to see them happy.
Where’s Jongho, KQ?/ KQ Treatment:
Now we come to the next battle going on; the battle to get Jongho screen time in literally anything. If you noticed, which I hope you did, Jongho didn’t get much screen time in their most recent MV. In fact, he definitely got the least and the amount of lines he had was also pretty scarce. The line distribution seems to be KQ attempting to test ways to even them out for some songs. For a long time they were accused of relying too much on Jongho and barely giving anything to Yeosang, so it felt a little like they were trying to balance that out this album. But too much. And Jongho should have at least gotten more screen time than that. Getting KQ to treat Jongho like the other members has also been a bit of a battle. We constantly see his merch sell out last or KQ cut down his time in videos. In a most recent behind the scenes, Jongho was pretty much just not in it. This happened once before when Jongho was sick. I addressed that then because it’s important for us to make idols feel like they don’t have to show up in every piece of media, especially when they’re sick. But, as far as we know, this has not been the case this time. Yunho has also suffered from this as the second to least biased. In this comeback there was a huge advertisement in South Korea that depicted all of their character posters; except it had San’s poster twice and no Yunho. But Yunho has been getting some more fans since ‘Imitation’ and ‘Idol Radio’ and so most of this behavior is directed at Jongho. I still have no idea why maknae, golden voice, sweet, and gentle Jongho doesn’t have more people who bias him. But seriously this has to stop. Jongho deserves so much more than what he’s getting right now. And the previous complaints about a lack of Yeosang did not mean that we wanted another member to be treated like that. All eight of them should be treated equally. This lack of Jongho is beyond disheartening and I hope that we get to see more of him soon.
Because KQ honestly hasn’t been doing the best lately when it comes to looking after ATEEZ. I know we’ve been told by Hongjoong that we shouldn’t worry because they like to work and prefer to work. But they don’t get any breaks. KQ just keeps adding tour dates and while I’m so so happy for the Atiny who get to see them live, having them tour all year can’t be healthy. Especially because we know they’re probably just going to start this touring circuit again come Fall. I really hope that they get breaks when they need them or that some sort of break is coming soon for them. All of the fourth generation groups have been constantly working with absolutely no breaks and this is not the kind of work culture I approve of or want for any of them. As much as I can’t wait to see them tour this new album, at this rate I think I would be even happier if they announced a break for a few months. Either way, I just hope that all of them are doing well. And that KQ actually treats them better in the future considering the fact that ATEEZ basically shot their company to recognition. But that seems like too much to ask for from KQ.
M-Net/Award Show Treatment:
It’s no surprise that award shows have been treating ATEEZ badly. I made an entire post about the grievances committed against ATEEZ by M-Net alone. And they only just seem to continue. M-Net not only sabotaged a show ATEEZ was supposed to get a major award on; but they have also been releasing horrible fan-cams for ATEEZ this comeback. And so have a bunch of other companies. Would you like to have a full fan-cam just for a camera man’s back? No! Especially not when it’s one of Yunho’s best fits for this comeback! The grievances just continue with award shows downplaying their achievements or, as I referenced before, the complete cancellation of a show ATEEZ was supposed to win on. Many Atiny had been voting for that show for weeks. And while they still won the award, they don’t get any of the streaming or publicity from the show. And I think it’s pretty clear why ATEEZ is being targeted in this way. For years, K-Pop was the big three. They were untouchable and they rather liked it that way. And then BigHit stepped in and we had problems because suddenly it went from the big three to the big four and then YG started losing money to the point where we’re pretty much at the big three again with HYBE taking the last slot. We also have the whole mess at SM happening right now with artists attempting to flee from them, for good reason, which leaves the entire K-Pop industry changed and shaking in their boots. I personally think that the reason why ATEEZ is being targeted is the same reason why JYP recently went on an unhinged rant about how listening to K-Pop when you aren’t Korean is a form of cultural appropriation. With worldwide interest in K-Pop, the game has suddenly become so much less predictable. They can’t seem to predict who international fans will like and many of the groups becoming popular are from smaller companies. Instead of having to deal with and predict several countries full of people, they suddenly find themselves tasked to try and predict an entire world’s worth of people. While I can’t say if eyes around the world is a good or bad thing for the industry, I personally feel like we’re seeing a bunch of huge conglomerates getting scared and lashing out in whatever way they can to keep things under control. And I definitely think we’re going to see groups from smaller companies, like ATEEZ, pay for that. I just hope that this change in K-Pop will shake things up enough to get groups from smaller companies the recognition they deserve and broaden the game. It would be nice to not just have three companies anymore. But this is all complete speculation.
I know it’s really easy to look at all of this and get discouraged. But I don’t think there’s a reason to completely despair here. While some people might not be giving ATEEZ and their accomplishments the recognition they deserve, we certainly can! We can celebrate with them and support them! We can keep fighting these battles and standing next to them. We can show them that we are here for them and that they have a community that will back them. And there’s a lot of good and a lot of hope in that. So let’s keep this going for our boys!
See you across the pond!
Sincerely, Annie
Oreos & Peanut Butter 