SM Entertainment has been accused of favoritism with three of its artists.
On January 7, Korean netizens gathered in a forum titled: Honestly, SM has been focusing too much on aespa, RIIZE and NCT lately. The forum said the agency primarily focused its resources, time and energy on the three all-artist groups.
Although there are many well-loved names under the pioneering K-pop agency since 1995, the author felt that the immense buzz and constant promotions for aespa, RIIZE and NCT were signs pointing to SM’s “favoritism”.
“I feel like the company is only dedicated to those three teams these days,” the author said.
“It seems like the rest of the artists are simply ‘given’ albums and ‘allowed’ to promote them for the sole purpose of doing them a favor.”
The caption added: “They don’t care about quality or investing in other groups.”
Despite the author’s intention to expose the company’s careless tendencies, some netizens disagreed with the mention of NCT in the post. They also cited factors such as the groups’ strong fandom and enormous popularity.
“Since when do they care about NCT?” one fan commented.
“It’s because they’re the main cash cows,” another argued. “They have a strong fandom, so they can do whatever they want.”
Meanwhile, international netizens have remained desensitized to this specific type of modeling by the agency.
One commented: “The story as old as time is that SM ignores their old talents to focus on newer groups.”
A second shared: “It’s a common thing with SM, aespa will have the same fate as f(x) and Red Velvet when they reach their seventh year or when they debut in a new girl group.”
