2015 Preview

Netizenbuzz recently posted a summary from Instiz of the various plans the big KPop companies had for 2015, and an anon of mine from my Ask.fm wanted to get my thoughts on it. I've gone ahead and fleshed out my answer a bit and made it a full post on Kpopalypse's recommendation, so if you find this uninteresting you can blame him and not me. :D

LOTS OF PICTURES AND GIFS AHEAD! Let it load!!

Plans:

- A Pink will be focusing on concerts after their January concerts and will then spread out into an Asian tour
- They have a positive response in Japan so they will be focusing on international schedules as well
- Huh Gak comeback in the beginning of the year
- New boy group to be launched in the second half of the year

Meh. I'll probably get a lot of flak and accusations of "shit taste" for this, but I've never really cared much for A Pink. At all. Sure they've got some cute faces, but their style of music is completely uninteresting to me. Even though they've somehow managed to corner the market in aegyo oppa-pop, their consistent attempts to recapture the magic of pre-Genie SNSD is what keeps them solidly in the "ignore" category for me. Naeun is the number 1, if not the only reason I even have the slightest smidgen of interest.

All of it is moot anyway since it seems like they're going to just tour abroad most of the time. And don't let "international" schedules fool you, they'll probably just make one stop in New York, LA, or London. Maybe if you're lucky, they'll go to São Paulo, but I think they'll just stick to East and Southeast Asia.

None of their other acts interest me. Huh Gak is some boring ballad singer with nothing that really stood out to me before, and unless this upcoming song radically deviates from the norm, I will continue to ignore him. Boy group debuts tend to fall within 2 categories these days: "noona slayer" or "YOLO thugswag," none of which appeals to me at all. Without more information, I don't care about them either.

Plans:

- Will be focusing on their singers developing into musicians
- More focus will be put on 4minute and G.NA
- 4minute comeback in the beginning of the year
- New girl group CLC scheduled for debut

Right off the bat, I'm incredibly suspicious and skeptical of this "developing singers into musicians" bit. I hate myself for even suggesting this, but it seems like they're just copying the typical YG approach to their idols and trying to market Cube stars as multi-threat talents when I'm sure the majority of them can't be fucked to do anything other than they were originally debuted to do. If anything, the only one worth going solo at this point is probably just Hyuna or that one guy from B2ST that gets rave reviews from netizens about his acting. I don't even know that goddamn name, so that probably indicates how successful that'll be with the average person. But, I still hold out hope for my girl Jiyoon who's been languishing away in the dungeon with the other PoMinits.

Short hair Jiyoon is best Jiyoon.

And on that note, more focus on 4Minute probably means more than one comeback scheduled this year. I don't know about you, but I've always held a soft spot for them since Jiyoon and Jihyun won my heart with their hotness over the years, especially in Volume Up. Speaking of which, perhaps they will redeem themselves in the public eye for all the garbage they've put out since Volume Up. And maybe, just maybe, it'll be cool to call yourself a 4NIA again.

Plans:

- KARA to broaden their activities to China
- More focus on concerts
- 'DSP Girls' scheduled for debut
- Male idol group scheduled for second half of the year

KARA broadening to China doesn't sound very interesting to me. Poor Youngji will probably be super tired from all that crap if she doesn't get pulled from variety shows to focus on those promotions. That's terrible news for shows like Roommate who was practically revived from the brink of death by her crazy and adorable shenanigans with and without Jackson. I hope they do manage to squeeze in another comeback in there somewhere, but since MammaMia was so great, I'm not in too much of a rush to get more KARA.

Since I'm a broke bloke who doesn't even live in Korea, increased focus on concerts doesn't really affect me too much. I'll check out a fancam or two, but that's pretty much it unless something more interesting happens at one.

If "DSP Girls" means my girl Somin gets to debut finally, I'm all for it. GIVE US MORE SOMIN!!

Or DO I want her to debut... I want her to be in a better agency because DSP is the devil and no one should be subjected to the hell that awaits anyone who isn't the apple of the Korean media's eye at any given moment. Will anyone care about Hara 2.0 when Hara 1.0 still exists and is still totally relevant? #FREEMYNIGGASOMIN

Again, I don't care about most boy groups so this DSP guy group doesn't register much on my interest radar.

Finally, RAINBOW COMEBACK STILL NEVER, WHAT THE HELL DSP...! Only Rainbow could go through an entire cycle of fresh new haircuts and hair dyes to generate false hope in the 28 Rain-nous still left in this thrice damned forsaken fanclub WITH NO PAYOFF. It's like a terrible game of edging but you don't get to reach orgasm at all because COMEBACK FUCKING NEVER.

FUCK YOU DSP #FREERAINBOW

Plans:

- VIXX will be focusing on international schedules
- Sung Shi Kyung and Park Hyo Shin will remain in the ballad market
- Seo In Guk will focus on Japanese activities
- Girl group to be launched in the second half of the year

Who the hell is even in Jellyfish Entertainment? Before this news article, I didn't even know that they were a thing until I saw VIXX listed under them.

Like I mentioned before, "international schedules" means East and Southeast Asian over 95% of the time. Especially considering that this is probably a small company with very limited market share, I highly doubt VIXX will be coming to exotic locales outside of Asia so don't get your hopes up at all. With my recently generated interest in VIXX thanks to a couple of strong singles, I would have been pretty interested in their comeback. But if they're not coming out with any new stuff, I don't care about this company at all.

Ballad singers are snooze-able passes, Seo In Guk never appealed to me anyway so his Japanese focus will continue to go ignored.

If this upcoming girl group has an interesting set of teasers or concept or at least a good song, I'll be more than happy to give them a chance. Until we get more information closer to their debut time, it's probably not worth devoting brain power to remembering that they're going to debut at all.

Seriously, when was the last time JYP was a leader of anything?

Plans:

- Preparing for the launch of girl group Six Mix
- Also the launch of Five Live
- miss A, 15&, and Park Ah Yeon are preparing comebacks

Oh JYP... Ever since the collapse of the Wonder Girls and the exile of 2PM to Japan to do god knows what besides anything relevant, the company has been the butt of many netizen jokes regarding competence of their eponymous leader and whether JYP even deserves to be considered among the Big 3 anymore. The splash debut of GOT7 has gone a long way towards to recovering this lost public confidence, but we'll see if 2015 will continue the upward trend.

First of all, who the hell is Six Mix? The only information I can dig up from an admittedly cursory Google search tells me they're going to be a 6 membered group who plans to debut in April. And their name is supposed to be stylized as 6MIX in the vein of GOT7 and other upcoming group 5LIVE. JYP's last few debuts (with the exception of his soloists) have tended to be great or at least decent enough to survive until they get a good song, so I remain optimistic and interested in 6MIX at least.

5LIVE on the other hand... meh. I've said it a couple of times already, but I don't really care for guy groups too much. If JYP still has enough magic left in the plastic pants to give them something great like GOT7 got with A and Stop Stop It, they might have a shot. But unless the stars align, I don't see them getting out from under the shadow of Jackson's big wang, much less that of GOT7 as a whole.

The one thing that does give me a great deal of pure excitement is the Miss A comeback hype!! I'm very eager to get Suzy and especially the Number 1 Chinese Princess FEI back with new material (cum at me Victoria stans).

But if history is anything to go by, they'll be getting a solid lead promotional single with a better gem that goes unpromoted on their mini album. That's not bad by any means, but I do hope JYP chooses the right song this time around. At least we'll be seeing Miss A back on variety shows again, because Fei is a perfect goddess made human flesh. Seriously, who else has this level of talent and beauty all in one? Don't answer that, I know Jaekyung exists, but she's not in JYP so there.

Plans:

- Many new projects in the New Year with a new boy band + girl group
- Kim Kwang Soo is preparing a boy band like MC the Max/FT Island
- The new girl group will be completely different from T-ara in style
- T_ara will be promoting actively with solo projects

I have to admit, I didn't remember who MBK were until I saw Kim Kwang Soo's name with T-ara. THEN, I realized CCM rebranded (or reorganized or renamed or whatever the hell the justification was) itself. Just thought you'd like to know, I'm sure I'm not the only one. ADMIT IT.

Like I've said many many times in this article alone, guy groups don't really interest me so I don't care about this boy band crap. If their sound is going to be like FT Island, I could especially care less. KPop rock is just not that great to me, but I do like CN Blue for some reason. Maybe those guys just do it better.

I do have mild interest in this new girl group, though "completely different from T-ara in style" could turn out to be anything from utter shit or even a total lie. T-ara's formula, upbeat highly dance-able electropop bangers, is something that WORKS no matter how much certain translator sites or Korean netizens would have you believe. Why change what ain't broken?? Who knows, maybe they'll try something interesting but please, for the love of god, don't do aegyopop. In the end, I'm sure they'll just go back to the T-ara formula or face the shitshow that was Co-Ed School or whatever the hell that group was, Gangkiz, F-ve Dolls, and all the other flopped girl groups who tried to be "not T-ara."

Speaking of whom, no T-ara group comeback is a bit of a damper. But since we got Sugar Free last year, I'm not in too much of a dry spell without them. Let's all pray that "solo projects" means solo songs and not acting. I'll admit Jiyeon's solo was solid if not exactly my cup of tea, but Hyomin's was laughable. Let's see if a second go round would make things better, but drama projects do NOT interest me in the slightest.

Exceptions can be made if they do more schoolgirl outfits in a drama
or something like that.

Plans:

- Will finally unveil a big project they've been working on for four years
- Boy group Seventeen will debut in the beginning of the year
- Orange Caramel will promote actively to the point where they seem like a group on their own, no longer a sub unit
- After School will be going through a rebirth in the second half of the year
- Many projects planned in collaboration with China in not only music but concerts and beauty

I completely forgot who else was in Pledis because Orange Caramel completely overshadowed everyone else in the company. The fact that Orange Caramel essentially becoming its own group speaks volumes about the company's intentions regarding the group. I'm sure they've finally realized the magnitude of the golden goose they've got on their hands and are determined to see every egg fall into their hands. 2014 saw them have 3 whole comebacks, and that was when Pledis still considered them a "side-project." I shudder to think about how many they could possibly cram into a yera to be considered a fully independent group.

Smirk while you can, Nana. ;___;7 

With the effective liberation of Orange Caramel from the shackles of After School, Pledis realized there's nothing left in After School. Hence, "rebirth." I assume this means they'll either:

1. Force everyone to graduate and start fresh with a new class so to speak
2. Add in a couple of new members to replace Nana, Lizzy, and Raina
3. Keep everything the same but make UEE the new focus.

Regardless of what happens, I don't see UEE sticking around for much longer. Poor girl used to be the darling of Korea until all the fresh blood came in and she was relegated to the sidelines after Orange Caramel blew up. She probably regrets not accepting the offer to do the sub-unit shtick, huh?

I miss her.

Seventeen only catches my eye because I distinctly remember writing an article about them way back in 2012 when news of their creation? existence? was first media played. Long story short, it's a 17-membered group with an average age of 17 and all sorts of 17 numerology bullshit to make a SONE jizz him or herself with joy. Last I heard, they were going to split them up into 3 teams to market EXO style to Korea, Japan, and China simultaneously. Am I excited about them? Hell no. Do I anticipate full-scale fandom warfare between fans of this new group and EXO-Ls about the overlapping niche? Yes. Gimme the schadenfreude, baby.

I'm also rather intrigued about this mysterious 4-year project they've got ready to unveil. As far as slowburn debut hype goes, JYP's got them blown the fuck out with G-Soul's 14 year wait. Perhaps it'll be a return of a co-ed group? Pledis scooped up all the graduated After School members for some kind of project group called Post University? I dunno, I'm throwing random shit out there cause we know fuck all about it.

Plans:

- Will be focusing on solo projects to bring out new charms in their artists
- Jonghyun, Amber's solos
- BoA's 15th anniversary, EXO, Super Junior comebacks

Ok, to be honest I'm only interested in whatever they might do for BoA's 15th anniversary. BoA's had a rather quiet year in 2014 despite her efforts in Japan, but maybe that's exactly why. At any rate, we're more than a little overdue for some new Korean material. I know, I know, she had a solid comeback in 2013 and 2 years is not THAT long a wait if you look at the big picture. I personally found The Shadow to be a great song if you must know. But goddamn it I miss her anyway, and we can't have SNSD, I want BoA to explode back with a bonafide banger to reclaim her throne.

Speaking of whom, I'm assuming that SM wants them to lay low for a while to let the OT9 SONEs either die out or come to the realization that even SNSD themselves don't want Jessica to come back. Sunny is doing more than her part to speed along the process with her Instagram and other social media updates dropping slightly cryptic hints to the effect of "Fuck Jessica, we 8 now." Whether her efforts will bear fruit remains to be seen, but until then, Yuri remains the strange adopted kid no one really notices in the family despite her best efforts to either impress the foster parents or act out in a desperate plea for attention.

Yes yes, eat your vegetables, dear.

Despite my love for Overdose, I have no confidence that EXO will be able to replicate the success they had with that song in my eyes. It's better to go into 2015 with the expectation that they'll be utter shit as if Overdose never happened, this way we won't be as disappointed when they go back to shitting in our ears again.

Super Junior have become a joke without a punchline these days, and I'm fairly certain their glory days are long past. Most of their fans have completed the transition from ELF to EXO-L by now, and anyone left in the fandom are unlikely to command the same power they did at the height of the ELFish Golden Age (aka Sorry Sorry to maybe Mr. Simple when everyone realized they were probably just going to try to copy the Sorry Sorry formula until the End of Days). As such, I'll pay as much attention to their comeback as I did the last one. READ: absolutely none.

Red Velvet comeback never... I'm still waiting for them to give me a good song, Irene is a best in that group.

Almost because of the rapid disintegration of their marquee groups (SNSD, F(x), and EXO all in one year, goddamn), SM have decided to cut their losses and give everyone left in SM a solo debut in order to milk every last bit of cash their dwindling star power has left before they too inevitably bounce out. Jonghyun's already gone first, with Amber surprisingly upcoming next. Hey, if Henry can make it big as a Chinese-American boy in an unfriendly town, surely Amber's got just as much of a chance to fill those androgynous shoes.

Despite the new-found carte blanche to finally have their chance to shine in the spotlight free from the overpowering better-ness of their group mates, there are those who still (for one reason or another) will not make a solo debut of any kind:

• Yuri (for reasons already mentioned above)
• Hyoyeon (if Yuri's the neglected adopted kid, Hyoyeon is the WEIRD stepsister everyone feels super awkward to be around)
• anyone from EXO (they don't need to give any of those kids any more ideas)
• anyone in Super Junior (is there even anyone left in that group capable of going solo at this point?)

Plans:

- To focus on a more variety of projects like Soyu x Junggigo to cement their label name
- Preparing for the successful launch of their rookie boy group
- They've realized that SISTAR and Boyfriend are popular in China and will put more effort into their Chinese advancements

I honestly don't give a shit about whatever Starship has planned. SISTAR started sucking after Alone for me, and all the project groups have sucked since SISTAR19 and Mah Boi.

With the track record of their current stable of artists combined with the overwhelmingly forgettable nature of their existing boy group (Boy Friend apparently), I have zero expectation or anticipation for their new debut.

Whatever SISTAR does in China, I hope they bring Soyu back to her glory days.

If we could just get a Bora and Soyu subunit, that'd be great.

Plans:

- The focus will be on TEEN TOP's solo activities in solo releases, dramas, musicals, and composition.
- The group will more actively in Korea
- 100% to focus on domestic + international promotions
- Despite having two boy groups, TOP Media will be launching a new boy group (timing unconfirmed but within the year)

Don't care. Seriously. TEEN TOP may have piqued my interest at KCON, but they've done nothing noteworthy since then. Zero expectation for their comeback or solo projects.

Plans:

- Will continue to promote SONAMOO
- SECRET to focus on solo activities like acting and solo releases
- Currently looking into international advancements for Untouchable and SONAMOO
- Discussing SECRET's Japanese promotions + SONAMOO's Chinese + Japanese debuts
- Untouchable earned a positive response in Japan so they will officially start promos there this year

I honestly forgot SECRET even existed up til now. Seriously, I don't know if it's me being unaware of their activities or them dropping off the face of the earth in terms of relevance, but what the fuck happened to them?? The last I heard of them was Hyosung's rather forgettable solo debut. I'm willing to give her another chance in honor of the beautiful mammaries memories she's given us over the years, but anyone else (aka just Jieun) has to make something different from the boring ballad stuff I can only remember her doing.

Pls comeback soon, bb (and with that awesome short hair).

I do hope they give SONAMOO some better songs eventually, or MAMAMOO will remain queens of the MOO Empire. Their debut was hyped by some, but I thought it was kinda shitty. Oh well.

Plans:

- New girl group scheduled for the beginning of the year. Details unconfirmed but it will be a large group over 5 members.
- After Jinyoung's solo activities, B1A4 will go straight into preparing for their group comeback.

Don't care. B1A4 have a modest fanbase (at least from what I could tell at KCON, my only experience with them), and I've heard they're fairly decent guys from their fans. They were very respectful to the Muslim girls they called up to do fan service for when they did a show in Indonesia(?) the other day, something my Twitter timeline has been gushing about since. That being said, I never really got into their songs. They're pretty boring male equivalents to oppa-pop, so I guess that makes them noona-slayer pop. I'm clearly the wrong target demographic, so it's understandable I guess.

Their female group might be interesting, but I see them continuing in the same vein as B1A4 and being completely boring with oppa-pop songs.

Plans:

- Will be promoting INFINITE in a variety of ways, starting with INFINITE-H and Sunggyu's solo album.
- INFINITE is also preparing a group album so fans will have a continuous flow of INFINITE promos
- New boy group is also being prepared, scheduled for debut as soon as LOVELYZ makes a name for themselves
- Their biggest concern is how well LOVELYZ will do because their following projects are scheduled around that
- Woollim will also be building a special room for their fans in the company building

Can anyone clarify the situation of Woollim merging with some SM Entertainment subsidiary for me? I never really understood what happened and conflicting reports + fandom wars made the whole thing a shitshow.

Anyway, I'm glad to see Infinite is continuing to chug out material, but I hope it's still as consistently good as their discography has been so far. I don't think they've had a dud yet, and I don't want to jinx that for them going into 2015. With all the flurry of activity, those guys run the risk of burning themselves out like BAP allegedly did. Infinite crawled their way into my heart as the top boy group (after Big Bang) of Korea, so I only wish them the best of luck. I've only heard good things about Woollim and their management in the post-Epik High era, so they've hopefully learned their lesson about how to treat their talent well.

Their concern over LOVELYZ would just get solved by getting a better song. Their debut was kinda meh, so I want to see Jisoo(the alleged lesbian dom) succeed for maximum schadenfreude.

Give her all the lesbian fanservice too for maximum jimmy rustling because
no one will ever look at it with an innocent interpretation again.

"Building a special room" in the Woollim HQ sounds creepy as fuck though. It honestly sounds like some kind of brothel room where VIP fans (or ones who pay well) get to come in and touch oppa's abs or watch Jisoo dominate one of the poor trainees.

Plans:

- iKON's debut is the hot issue, scheduled for sometime early this year
- New girl group debut + Big Bang's new album are also scheduled
- Psy promised fans a full album, not a single, with him back to his colors

If there's anything that I've learned in my many years as a YG fan, it's that NOTHING IS SET IN STONE. Take everything with a massive mountain of salt until you see the MV on Youtube and the songs on iTunes.

iKON have been languishing in pre-debut hell for a while now (2013 when they were still Team B, til at least September 2014 when they were finally solidified as a roster), but the poster boys for the team have been doing more than well enough for themselves on the side. Do I expect that trend to continue until they actually get to debut for real? Yes. BI and Bobby are being played up as the next G-Dragon in every regard, so until they grow a spine and jump out from his swagfag shadow, GD's taint on YG and KPop will continue for some time to come.

Big Bang's alleged new album has me pretty hype, not gonna lie. But that shit has been promised for the past 2-3 years now. Do you remember their last real song? Pro tip: You fucking can't. It was Monster back in goddamn 20 fucking 12. Like I said before, until I see their MV on Youtube and their album on iTunes, I won't hold out much hope for it actually happening in 2015 let alone the first half of the year like some reports are saying.

NEW GIRL GROUP FINALLY? A man can dream because that shit has been media played to the point where its media play has been media played. Expectations are rather high for the second girl group to grace the banner of YG since 2NE1, so I hope they'll at least be able to give me a good song. As long as they keep GD far far away from them, we'll be fine. Maybe Epik High will bless them with a song or two, and they'll REALLY be the saviors YG needed. At the very least, I hope they'll be attractive so people can stop shitting on me for stanning a company full of uglies, even though EVERYONE seems to forget TOP and Yoo In Na exist.

SHE DOESN'T DESERVE TO BE LUMPED IN WITH THE LIKES
OF GODDAMN TAEYANG, OKAY

Psy's comeback has me mildly interested, especially since he's promising a full album without the fuckery that was him trying to recapture the viral magic of Gangnam Style. Say what you will about that song, the Gangnam Style mini album was pretty good if I do say so myself. I don't care about Psy accidentally creating another viral trend so much as I hope he goes back to making good bops like he was doing before all the fame forced him to ante up.

2NE1 are probably stuck doing nothing until CL gets back from what looks to be a horrific American debut. Besides, as much as we'd all like to pretend the Crush album never happened, 2NE1's had a fairly recent comeback with a full length. Comeback is unlikely to happen until the end of the year if at all, but we can keep the flame of hope alive for Minzy to free herself from the shackles of Bom's drug smuggling ring and make a solo debut or something. MINZY, YOU DON'T HAVE TO KEEP SHUTTLING BOM'S DOPE IN YOUR BRA, BABY GIRL. JUST SAY NO!! #FREEMINZY
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Remember, all of this is rather tenuous because most of it is unsourced. Until this shit actually happens, take this little preview with a grain of salt. Make your own predictions in the comments, and we can all take a look at how stupid we were later this year in December.