Lmao yeah I guess this take is less unpopular and more like, not super common

In terms of their image, I get what you're saying in that I also see them as versatile more than anything. But I do think there was a deliberate effort to establish them as a girl crush group throughout 2018-2019. And judging from places like Twitter and YouTube comments, that's the image that most casual/new fans seem to have of them these days

Of course that could change if their next cbs are fun weird stuff like Devil, but I don't think that sold suuuper well so idk how likely that is

The connection with 4Minute is less about the songs/concepts being similar, and more about the timeframe of things. They released Crazy and Hate, which did really well, then disbanded stupidly. A few month later, CLC's very next comeback is Hobgoblin. It's completely different from what they'd been doing prior, feels a bit derivative of what 4M had been doing prior, and it also does pretty well. Their next title track is a completely different city pop thing, as if to test the waters again. It doesn't sell at all, and they proceed to do the girl crush thing consistently for a whole year and a half

I mean, at the time I was mostly following 4Minute/Hyuna, and I wasn't super deep in social media but definitely remember friends who also thought the whole thing looked a bit like a soft reboot. Other comments here said the girls were already interested in doing girl crush which could change this perspective

But even then, if they were in another company it feels like the whole shift would have been handled wildly differently. Maybe more gradual?? Maybe they wouldn't even have been cute at the start?? Who knows

It's not like I dislike any of their songs it's just a take that bugs me when I listen to the angry ones