109 replies to this topic

[hinachan]

MrP, on 25 January 2012 - 12:12 PM, said:

I'm pretty sure everyone wants BoA to do good, but complaining won't make it any better.

Burying your head in the sand will help even less.  What you call "complaining" is actually an astute observation.  Being that this is a BoA discussion forum, telling people not to discuss something related to BoA is ridiculous.

If you don't like the discussion, you're free to read other threads.

[MadeInTwenty]

Really strange and a big shame that the amount of promotion was not nearly this good for a full length album. Still, I'm not entirely sure how much of SNSD's target demographic watches either of those shows.

[Mashimaro-san]

happy!, on 25 January 2012 - 07:24 PM, said:

umm..sorry but i've got a question which might be quite off topic..did BoA signed to a  company called CAA or CCA (sorry i don't remember the name..) in th US? is their contract over yet?

Contract was over by 2011 I think. CAA doesn't list BoA's name anymore.

I remember during BoA's US activities there was this big press release poster from Arsenal Records and and it said that BoA was going to appear in an energy drink commercial, appear on TV shows, etc. In the end none of it happened. At the beginning there was even a press release (y'all remember that? there were reporters all over Asia, North America and Asia checking it out) and Bell Hughes himself, the owner of Bell Hughes Music Group, said they were working with BoA to establish her name, etc.

Basically broken promises. I think that is what really got the fans to be extremely critical, and frankly I don't blame anyone.

Edited by Mashimaro-san, 25 January 2012 - 10:58 PM.

[jakmehoff]

WeLuvUBoA-kiddo, on 25 January 2012 - 08:05 PM, said:

Ehhh, more like 70-30 (Seventy in regards  to promotion).  Timing sure, is one thing, but I say it sincerely when those promotions were just bad, they could of just stepped it up a little.  Not as grandiose as SNSD, but enough to show that they were putting effort into the event.  Also, you have to consider outside of the Kpop Box, and other examples of where promotion was an ultimate downfall.  Although Utada is in the Asian vicnity, strike that out since she's English fluent, and so forth, but she didn't get anywhere with her English album because of poor promotion and possibly (so-so) tracks..  And here in the US, we have countless examples of musicians and artists who are fantastic but aren't relevant at all, what are they lacking? Promotion. It's a big deal, that's why things like Letterman and Regis are whoah. If SNSD strode in just as themselves without that kind of exposure . . . no one would really care aside from Kpopfans, which doesn't account for an entire country.  It's the big gigs that get you noticed.

I guess you could say the reason why Mashi is kind of bent out of shape, is because even though a lot of us understand the predicaments, no one else takes this into consideration.  No one out of this fandom gets what went wrong, they just automatically point their fingers out and shout "Flop or Failure"  And we have to deal with it.

Well.. ok.  Something I forgot to add tho is that SM is not involved here with their promotions for the TV shows.  It's interscope records... they're the ones promoting snsd.. not SM.

[Mashimaro-san]

jakmehoff, on 25 January 2012 - 10:55 PM, said:

Well.. ok.  Something I forgot to add tho is that SM is not involved here with their promotions for the TV shows.  It's interscope records... they're the ones promoting snsd.. not SM.

I'm not quite sure but BoA is also under Arsenal Records, its Canadian-American music recording label. Its releases are distributed under Universal Records.

like I said before many were saying why didn't SM just let BoA get signed to Universal instead, she would've had a lot more chances.

Check out BoA under Arsenal Records.

I don't know anymore, in fact what agency is BoA under in the USA for films? SM again? Because if that is the case we're going to have to rely on Lionsgate and Derek Hough's staff to get the film promoted and possibly get BoA around...

Another possibility is for BoA to strike a record deal in Europe, the UK and German markets are virtually untapped by Asian artists (very large markets also, second only to Japan), BoA would stand out and get noticed easily. BoA could just speak English for promotions.

I'm just saying if the USA isn't viable there is always Europe, its still the West after all.

Edited by Mashimaro-san, 25 January 2012 - 11:13 PM.

[2boamystar]

Maybe SM did not have that well of connections to the US THREE years ago. That was Three years ago already. If BoA comes back to US, SM may be able to do something good for her this time...

[jakmehoff]

2boamystar, on 26 January 2012 - 12:06 AM, said:

Maybe SM did not have that well of connections to the US THREE years ago. That was Three years ago already. If BoA comes back to US, SM may be able to do something good for her this time...

Agree.. not everything goes the way we want it to first time around. We live and learn from our mistakes.

[noshadow31]

LOL I guess 10 years ago, S.E.S fans must have gone nuts saying "BoA gettng on Music Station is an insult to S.E.S".

(S.E.S is a 3-girl group that was very successful in Korea and was dispatched to Japan by SM 10+ years ago but got to appear only on obscure TV shows even though they released a lot of singles and albums. They were not signed under AVEX but rather to a much smaller company.)

Edited by noshadow31, 26 January 2012 - 03:00 AM.

[MOTOWAYohsixfive]

Mashimaro-san, on 25 January 2012 - 11:09 PM, said:

I'm not quite sure but BoA is also under Arsenal Records, its Canadian-American music recording label. Its releases are distributed under Universal Records. like I said before many were saying why didn't SM just let BoA get signed to Universal instead, she would've had a lot more chances.

Has it ever occurred to you that maybe SM tried, but couldn't get Universal Records to sign her? Foreign artist with minimal English, declining sales in her own country, lack of popularity in her own country, almost lifeless performances in Japan, etc, etc..
I'm sure IF THEY COULD, they would have gotten Universal Records because no one knows what Arsenal Records is. All the artists under Arsenal are indie and unknown, and I'm sure SM knows that (anyone can tell just by looking at Arsenal's website). As far as I know, SM didn't exactly beg Interscope to sign SNSD... Interscope learned of SNSD through their Japanese label and naturally, wanted the most popular group in Asia. If Interscope were asking to sign BoA, as they did SNSD, I'm sure SM would have agreed as well.

[yunapolaris]

MOTOWAYohsixfive, on 26 January 2012 - 03:33 AM, said:

Has it ever occurred to you that maybe SM tried, but couldn't get Universal Records to sign her? Foreign artist with minimal English, declining sales in her own country, lack of popularity in her own country, almost lifeless performances in Japan, etc, etc..
I'm sure IF THEY COULD, they would have gotten Universal Records because no one knows what Arsenal Records is. All the artists under Arsenal are indie and unknown, and I'm sure SM knows that (anyone can tell just by looking at Arsenal's website). As far as I know, SM didn't exactly beg Interscope to sign SNSD... Interscope learned of SNSD through their Japanese label and naturally, wanted the most popular group in Asia. If Interscope were asking to sign BoA, as they did SNSD, I'm sure SM would have agreed as well.

I agree on this.
We just saw that SM did a bad job on getting BoA into US, but we don't know the fact that if they DID try but fail. I still blame them for waiting too long to get BoA in US. And like I said before, I see they've learned from their mistake with SNSD now, they get them to overseas while they're still at their peak.
And, another thing, Kpop nowadays in US & Japan is WAY more popular than BoA's time back then.
Time has changed, a lot of thing has changed, thus we can't demand that BoA stays on the same spot like 5-7 years ago.

[2boamystar]

Yes. K-pop is perceived more positively nowadays, as compared to 3 years ago... Also, BoA was not at her peak so it was hard to get her good promotions although indeed she is still a legendary artist but not so popular in Asia....

[Baco__]

I guess it is a matter of timing, actually.

BoA always thank the 2002 world cup for her success and she is right, back in the day there was many cultural exchanges between both countries and BoA was one of the most lucky. Not saying she would never make it in Japan if wasnt for the World Cup, but I doubt a little. the same for SNSD. if wasn't for youtube there wouldnt be much exposure of them and they would remain in Asia or, who knows, even in korea...

[Zanarkand]

While I agree with the majority that yeah, this is sort of like a little slap in the face to BoA's American promotions; (and I do hope she will give it a second go 'round), I stick to my opinions in that even though "K-Pop" is getting some exposure (if you don't follow it periodically), you're basically indifferent to it.

Most of these groups are popular with young teens/pre-teens, so it's like Disney/Nickelodeon subdivisions. They are in no way "mainstream" pop acts. They have 0 to no chance of coming anywhere close to competing with Britney or GaGa or Rhianna, they're like foreign follow-ups to Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato, Jonas Brothers, Miranda Cosgrove, etcetcetc. And even if they are getting good gigs, I don't really see much of this "skyrocketing" their popularity. The U.S. isn't Japan and a bunch of "cute" asian girls don't necessarily catch the interest of many, much less reach their iPods with songs like "Gee", unless you're a Disney kid or one of those kids who's into cute bubblegum pop from Japan/Korea/China due to Anime and whatnot. While it may be "radio friendly" there, it's "Radio Disney" here. Two very, very different levels of "fame".

I do hope the best for their endeavors, but mostly, I hope that BoA re-vamps and gets her A-game on to get scouted by a huge American label, it'd be like a dream come true because she really is the full package.

[Uni]

Everyone is free to discuss the matter, but this is a warning to keep it civilized. We're not telling anyone to shut up and GTFO. Otherwise this topic will get closed.

---------

And everyone has to realize that it's not only BoA's U.S. career that failed oh so many years ago. So did Se7en's. Even Rain tried to make his debut in the U.S., except he went about it through movies instead of music and had a somewhat better results then the other two. In the last 2 years, K-Pop has really changed and has become more known worldwide then it was when BoA, Se7en and etc wanted to break into the business.

K-Pop has been getting recognized EVERYWHERE especially after SM Entertainment brought the SMTOWN concerts to Los Angeles in 2010. That concert, from my POV, brought on a massive amount of K-Pop dance mobs to YouTube with people all over the world, which finally made people in Korea realize, "Hey, there are K-Pop fans all over the world. (new market)."

CJ E&M set up M Live in November 2011 and is bringing K-Pop concert everywhere now. So far they've brought Korean artists to perform concerts in the U.S., Brazil, Middle East, U.S. (Los Angeles), Germany, etc. (I'm not including Asia cause they get a lot more than the rest of the world.)

American artists have also taken noticed of Korean music the last 2 years as well. It's not only Girls' Generation trying to move their way into the U.S., but there's 2NE1 (with the help of Black Eyed Peas' Will.I.Am), Wonder Girls (going to have a movie on TeenNick air in Feb), JQT (under Akon), and I can't think of anyone else at the top of my head.

At least, BoA can say she has the experience to try to jump into the U.S. music market again. Her English is tons better than the first time.

BoA's popularity has declined, but what senior singer in the Korean industry hasn't experienced that. With all the newer idol groups coming out, it's hard to go up against them. She can't just jump back into the "cute" concept and try and appeal to the younger audience (I feel like it's odd and forced if she even tried).

Meh, honestly, I think BoA should just take a break from work period. She's been working and promoting in various countries over the 11 years of her career.

It's hard being a solo singer is all I gotta say...Unless you're still riding your popularity wave like Kim Hyunjoong (SS501). He actually hit the 100,000 mark in 2 weeks last year with his 1st mini-album :x Can't say he hit it again on his 2nd mini-album though (released in the 2nd half of the year).

[miwako]

Zanarkand, on 26 January 2012 - 11:28 AM, said:

While I agree with the majority that yeah, this is sort of like a little slap in the face to BoA's American promotions; (and I do hope she will give it a second go 'round), I stick to my opinions in that even though "K-Pop" is getting some exposure (if you don't follow it periodically), you're basically indifferent to it.

Most of these groups are popular with young teens/pre-teens, so it's like Disney/Nickelodeon subdivisions. They are in no way "mainstream" pop acts. They have 0 to no chance of coming anywhere close to competing with Britney or GaGa or Rhianna, they're like foreign follow-ups to Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato, Jonas Brothers, Miranda Cosgrove, etcetcetc. And even if they are getting good gigs, I don't really see much of this "skyrocketing" their popularity. The U.S. isn't Japan and a bunch of "cute" asian girls don't necessarily catch the interest of many, much less reach their iPods with songs like "Gee", unless you're a Disney kid or one of those kids who's into cute bubblegum pop from Japan/Korea/China due to Anime and whatnot. While it may be "radio friendly" there, it's "Radio Disney" here. Two very, very different levels of "fame".

I do hope the best for their endeavors, but mostly, I hope that BoA re-vamps and gets her A-game on to get scouted by a huge American label, it'd be like a dream come true because she really is the full package.

MY THOUGHTS EXACTLY. I also do agree that it pretty much is a slap in the face to BoA. However, if you REALLY sit and think about it then you will realize that SNSD won't really be able to compete with singers like Rhianna, Britney, Gaga or Adele, etc. Yes they may be popular in Asia and have a HUGE fanbase( that even extends over into Europe and America) but that still doesn't amount to much. Hell, they could even be signed to a top company here in the US and go on all the late night talk shows they want but I don't really think they will be able to compete. The only reason they landed on the charts here is because of their INSANE fanbase. But have your average American listen to their songs and watch their videos and they'll look at you like you have crap on your face.