SM Entertainment has been accused of favoritism with three of its artists.
On Jan. 7, Korean netizens gathered in a forum titled, Honestly, SM Has Been Way Too Focused On aespa, RIIZE, and NCT Lately. The forum claimed that the agency has been mostly directing its resources, time, and energy on the three groups among all artists.
While there are many well-loved names under the pioneering K-pop agency since 1995, the author felt that the immense buzz and consistent promotions for aespa, RIIZE, and NCT were signs that indicated SM’s “favoritism.”
“I feel like the company is just dedicated to those three teams nowadays,” the author stated.
“It feels like the rest of (the artists) are just being ‘given’ albums and are ‘allowed’ to promote for the sake of doing them a favor.”
The caption added, “They don’t care about the quality or investing into the other groups.”
Despite the author’s intention to call out the company’s neglectful tendencies, some netizens didn’t agree with the post’s mention of NCT. They also cited factors such as the groups’ strong fandoms and massive popularity.
“Since when did they care about NCT?” a fan commented.
“It’s because they’re the main cash cows,” another argued. “They have strong core fandoms, so they can do whatever they want.”
Meanwhile, international netizens were desensitized by this specific type of pattern from the agency.
One commented, “The tale as old as time is that SM ignores their old talent to focus on their newer groups.”
A second one shared, “It’s a pattern with SM, aespa will have the same fate as f(x) and Red Velvet when they reach their seventh year or when they debut a new girl group.”
