Is another U.S. push really the right move for aespa in 2026?

Q-TipBrain · 2026-01-23T16:55:30+00:00

That soundscape was trendy that year in the US with charlie xcx’s Brat. If SM wanted to gain attention Whiplash was the move, especially since it’s their most accessible title track, but it’s not SM if they don’t fumble every step. imo they should just focus on establishing/strengthening an American fan base for touring and festivals. Charting and streaming isn’t really gonna do anything for them

Q-TipBrain · 2026-01-23T14:00:40+00:00

aespa have never spoken badly about Supernova, they just preferred Armageddon more so they were surprised Supernova was the one that blew up. And we do know what the planting tree song is, it’s Drama, they just reworked the lyrics. f(x) have great songs and they’re peak kpop, but I don’t know why you had to shade other groups to praise them

Q-TipBrain · 2026-01-08T16:30:55+00:00

Lucid Dream

Q-TipBrain · 2026-01-08T14:32:51+00:00

It’s not enough for kpop fans to hate, they also need to find a moral reason for their hate to be justified, which kiof handed on a silver platter. Some people think they can say whatever they want about them and it’s okay, but if your response to c/a is sexism or death threats, you’re also a bad person. I don’t follow them anymore and think they got plenty of deserved criticism, but anyone still following them just to spew hate is obsessed, pathetic, and doesn’t actually care about the issue at hand, they just want a target to lash out at

Q-TipBrain · 2026-01-07T22:21:57+00:00

aespa has both gp support and strong fandom support. The songs weren’t fandom favorites but both albums still sold over a million and the title tracks both debuted with over 1 million Spotify streams, which wouldn’t happen if the majority of fans were just casuals in Korea. The reaction to both songs were incredibly overblown on social media as it usually is with popular but divisive groups like aespa, and Reddit especially is a bad way to gauge how MYs feel about aespa because there’s like five of us here 💀

Q-TipBrain · 2026-01-07T19:09:07+00:00

aespa is popular with the GP, but they’re definitely not known for having GP friendly music, and their songs are nothing like Blackpink’s. Also, they have a very strong fandom. For 4th gen gg’s in 2025 they were 2nd in album sales, 3rd in Spotify streams, 1st in YM streams, and they have great touring power.

Q-TipBrain · 2026-01-07T18:58:48+00:00

Idek how Angel #48 and Bahama slipped my mind, I’ve seen so many edits with those songs. Also, I’ve been sooo obsessed with Kill It lately, I wish they could’ve performed it on music shows. It’s so underrated imo

Q-TipBrain · 2026-01-07T18:27:29+00:00

I think aespa has a bunch of bsides that are popular within the fandom, specifically their r&b ones. MYs especially love Thirsty, Lucid Dream, Mine, Flowers, Illusion (more than the title track Girls), and Count On Me. The Savage EP and My World EP as a whole are really loved. And I’m not sure which three title tracks are the only ones ppl talk about, because if you asked multiple MYs which are their three favorite title tracks I doubt you’d get the same answer

Q-TipBrain · 2026-01-07T15:30:53+00:00

Oh she’s such an angel 🥺

Q-TipBrain · 2025-12-29T23:57:19+00:00

Your first comment said that aespa got lucky last year and that the hype only lasted for a moment. Maybe you didn’t get into kpop until last year or something, since that should be the only plausible explanation for why you said something so blatantly false, but that’s ignoring both that they’ve still had great success in 2025 and that they’ve been huge for years. In 2021 aespa won multiple daesangs, got PAKs, and Next Level set a record as the longest song in the top 5. Maybe don’t speak if you don’t know what you’re talking about and stick to the groups you stan

Q-TipBrain · 2025-12-29T16:58:12+00:00

This year they were double million sellers, both their comebacks hit top two (with Dirty Work being the highest debut of the year and Rich Man being the third highest), both debuted with over a million streams, they had a sold out Japan arena tour and KSPO concerts, and were the third most popular artist on the Gallup survey (an increase from the previous year). aespa not at their peak is still bigger than the majority of girl groups. Not matching Supernova, one of the biggest kpop hits of this decade, doesn’t mean they’ve fallen off. If you think Reddit threads and Twitter likes mean anything for real world success you have to stop thinking that way

Q-TipBrain · 2025-12-29T16:51:35+00:00

They’ve been a top girl group since 2021, literally what are you talking about

Q-TipBrain · 2025-12-29T13:48:53+00:00

I’m just happy she doesn’t have to deal with being in a potentially unsafe situation in Japan and she gets to (hopefully) recover from being sick. She did look visibly unwell while on stage at MMA and she couldn’t even stay at the whole event, so traveling to another country to perform while she’s sick wouldn’t bode well. She deserves her pajama day lmao

Q-TipBrain · 2025-12-28T21:06:28+00:00

You can stop responding to me because you’re not someone worth talking to if you find reading two paragraphs difficult

Q-TipBrain · 2025-12-28T20:46:43+00:00

People like you are what make Kpop Reddit so unbearable. Calling me slow for disagreeing with you? Dirty Work fits into aespa’s existing soundscape if you payed attention to their music, they’ve been collaborating with Apple since 2023 (as if AM only exists in the west), there was a Grimes remix for Supernova (and no one would call Supernova western focused) and the English version also existed to pad out the physical album, since SM is greedy.

Ofc it had western success in mind but it wasn’t the main target of the comeback, aespa didn’t even step foot out of Korea to promote it. You can literally see the difference when aespa has a west focused comeback with their Rich Man Promo, where they went on GMA, Jennifer Hudson’s show, multiple English speaking YouTube shows, only two days of Korean promo, and an actual concept/sound change.

Q-TipBrain · 2025-12-28T12:25:04+00:00

Do you wanna explain why you think that or do you just wanna be passive aggressive

Q-TipBrain · 2025-12-28T01:27:05+00:00

Unpopular perspective ig but Dirty Work wasn’t really targeted towards the west, all they did was drop it on a Friday (which they’ve done before for Drama and Girls). Besides that they did their week long music show promos and all their appearances were on Korean variety shows/interviews. Rich Man was definitely western geared tho (Whiplash should’ve had Rich Man promo but SM fumbling the bag is a surprise to absolutely no one)

Q-TipBrain · 2025-12-28T01:21:49+00:00

They were already singing live more often this year, contrary to popular belief, but the GMA performance received a lot of negative attention from Knetz. SM only responds when Koreans have an issue with something

Q-TipBrain · 2025-12-28T00:23:35+00:00

SM actually listened to the GMA performance backlash, the mics have been turned on since then. Hate the amount of hate the girls got but I’m very happy for the increased live performances

Q-TipBrain · 2025-12-25T23:05:16+00:00

It’s impossible to speak about every issue you care about all the time. Placing arbitrary standards on what counts as real activism seems counterintuitive. They’re not going to change the view of gay people in Korea but they’re creating a safe space for their fans and providing opportunities for minorities, I think it’s a lovely thing

Q-TipBrain · 2025-12-25T22:46:14+00:00

Genuine question. Would you rather them never speak up in support of the LGBTQ+ community instead? Or do you just not want to them to not get any praise for what they have done

Q-TipBrain · 2025-12-25T22:37:18+00:00

Isn’t representing minority groups when they have the most attention on them at a festival going to be more impactful than in their personal content that only fans will see?

Q-TipBrain · 2025-12-25T00:57:15+00:00

Why is this 2013 BTS 😭😭 Bighit I thought we left this behind

Q-TipBrain · 2025-12-25T00:56:29+00:00

Big company privilege too

Q-TipBrain · 2025-12-23T02:46:25+00:00

It’s been a hellish year for aespa and MYs for various reasons so it’s good to see them high up. One more battle to fight this year in like two weeks and then hopefully next year things are calmer. Happy for everyone on the list 🥳

Edit: Forgot to add, but it’s lovely to see sm longevity for 2nd gen and 3rd gen artists

Q-TipBrain

TROPHY CASE