When it comes to Pledis, we are talking about a small company growing into less small.
We cannot even say ‘middle’ one, because they’re not there yet. But they came out from 1 to 5 and about to become 7, in 5 years, which ain’t that bad for such a small company that started without having an office.
.The company we are talking about, is one that makes things their own way and takes example on different companies that are mostly based in Japan and probably in the US. We are also speaking on the company that got the gutts to stand against Mnet even longer than other companies did (SM also got beef with them on 2009) and as a result, their acts got banned from their shows for a long time.
.We’re talking about a company who wasn’t even one of the big 3 but got there a couple of times because of Son Dambi. I see people nowadays love to claim how much of a fail she seems to be but, don’t get them haters wrong, even last release of Dambi did pretty well, considering the fact she didn’t won any mutizen. And even for such an average actress she is (she’s not that great, but ain’t that bad either, kind of improved), her last drama was successful enough to get extended a lot, and she even got another drama offer again (yet to see if this will be a flop or not, but she got one, indeed). Pledis even got her into Korean’s most adored sports-fairy’s reality: Kiss and Cry just for the sake to increase her TV-share time and popularity.
.We are talking about the company who gave a 28 year old back dancer the chance to start her own group, just because she happened to be good pals with the CEO and its first act (as well as her dance teacher for a few occasions), and Kahi pretty much got a lot of the stuff she wanted. Except for the fact her solo attempt failed a little (and she indeed took a lot of time and efforts for that, she even messed up with AS’ schedule for their come back in order to release her solo debut). And I bet it must be really hard on both, her and the company to figure out how to re-launch her on her own, since they couldn’t get any use of her role in Dream High 2 either, and she decided to graduate after Han Sung Soo and the management asked her to consider.
.Of course, we are also talking about the company who didn’t know how to support So Young’s aim to become an actress, because they were already dedicating their best efforts to pushing Uee further. And Pledis is also the company who never knew how to handle the hate Bekah had from K-netizens who used to call her fat and dislike her because she wasn’t that much Korean. Pledis never knew how to handle it, their idea of giving Bekah an extended two month vacation resulted a failure and them not including her on the Amuro Namie featuring song probably was a hint that she didn’t intend to come back for long. And NO. It wasn’t an AVEX thing, because AVEX doesn’t give a damn if one of their signed acts brings in one girl more or one girl less. AVEX just messes up with AVEX (you can see SweetS, DREAM and other own-created groups for that). But at the end of the day, it was their mistake to make, because, you know what? Neither of us founded the damn company. And I am sure they did regret Bekah’s case a lot, and probably So Young’s too.
.Then, we are talking about the company who signed Kim U-Jin, the girl who never made it as a Five Girls member, despite the girls had a good chemistry (and apparently strong bonds), because their company had some fund troubles. They took in the weakest member on dancing and singing terms, because they knew she had actress material and that’s what AS is all about: having a variety of talents in one group. So stating things like Uee has done a lot for Pledis but they never paid her back, allow me to say it’s complete bullcrap. For a start, Pledis backed Uee up from day 1, giving her more training, and pushing her forward with the group that (let’s not lie, they were popular, but they weren’t that much over other 2009 rookies) was getting some attention after their debut by putting her on the center of their second single song and promoting here everywhere possible. Apparently, to the trolls, this isn’t a good thing. But the fact is Uee got a lot of exposure over her group-mates from the beginning. She got into that 4Tomorrow special unit (and CM deal), she got into Queen Seon Duk drama she even got into a Mighty Mouth’s MV and she quickly got her first hit in a drama with her role on You’re Beautiful. She got all the things not any other new member has ever had in After School. You know what? Because it was Pledis determination to not put her talent to waste, and they have never stopped with that. But according to what the haters say, giving her her own van, excusing her from promoting a song with the group, giving her an MC in a popular music show, and backing her when her drama failed to be broadcasted, allowing her to sign onto any CM deals she gets offered because of her popularity or setting up her own Facebook page, is abusing Uee’s name. I see. Uee got where they did because she had a company backing her up all the time that didn’t lowered their head just because they weren’t a big one. Even if she was popular and called one of the Korea’s most beloved fairies and all, there was a time (a whole year) when she failed to be casted at any drama (one of her true passions) and she struggled a lot, but Pledis never left her or gave up on her (and she got a lot of criticism going on claiming she had ruined Birdie Buddy’s chances and that she wasn’t good as an actress). The fact she’s the one making more money in the company goes along with the consequence that she’s the one getting paid the most and enjoying the best privileges the company can offer her and, according to what other idols say publicly, Pledis treats well their debuted acts. Oh wait, even the rookies said so recently: ‘They treat us as princess’ now’
.Pledis is the company who knew how to polish rookie model Im Jin Ah, who came in earlier to cover for So Young’s graduation, into a more than acceptable singer considering her childish pitch. Pledis never stopped using her charms and allowing her to find her own deals and they even risked it including her into their first ever sub-unit that, coincidence or not, became a hit after they filled in for AS’ affected schedule during the beginning of 2011. OC had a lot of criticism for their image and sound, and nowadays it seems people had twisted it all around and claim they target a wider audience. Yeah, clearly, someone is lying, whether are the ones who claim their style’s too hideous and cute for the general listener or the ones who believe this is what general audiences like. And Pledis knew where to promote NANA the best, otherwise they wouldn’t even bothered pushing her into Tokyo Brand New Girl’s TV show or her appearences on the Catwalk (the rest had benefitted from that as well), because when it comes to fashion magazines, right now the whole group has got nearly the same chances to glow. Oh, and I don’t see Uee doing NANA’s work or NANA’s getting those deals just because of Uee. At first, Uee’s appearence in the drama You’re Beautiful helped them a little in Japan, but it wasn’t that much since they haven’t gone further than their fashionista-performer niche they’re in right now.
.They’re also the company who transformed that niche into something positive. Let’s not forget Samantha Thavassa’s CM deals bring in money for them, and those aren’t all about Uee either.
.They are the company who said, why not? Let’s make the first sub-unit like this! And took on the most hideous Hello!Project ideas and concepts and mixed it all in once container. Despite of the hate, they had faith, and they kept the three girls releasing until they got an unexpected hit that blew things out of proportion bewteen the sub and the main, but yet, that brought in money and some more deals for the sub. And Uee has nothing to do with that either.
.Pledis is also the company that risked choosing E-Young instead of Yoo Ara and another trainees, presented her like a blow up and then twisted the whole E-Young-badd-ass concept into E-Young’s sweet cute and shy, and we never got to see her guitar again. Well, not exactly, she got to play it for Son Dambi. But We all wonder what Pledis plans to do with E-Young. A LOT.Yet they keep us fans rooting for the girl, even if it’s out of pity. Probably E-Young’s waiting on the line for a bad reason, not a good one, it can be from lack of investors support to the fact they don’t want to mess it up by launching her alone or accompanied with other girls who can’t match her skills… the good thing about Pledis, AS and E-Young is that the group and the company provided her the space to grow up as a performer. Because you can watch how she was before and how she’s improved, and you can’t deny the group stages had allowed her that much already. It’s only a shame she’s still second last on the line that waits to shine.
.Pledis is the company who said ‘what the hell, let’s reverse the whole mirror thing’ and started developing a male group taking a female one as a model. From Pledis Boyz to AS Boys to Pledis Boys, the whole project is still surviving into SEVENTEEN’s developement but, so far it provided the first boy group of the house, and the boys ain’t that bad either. Haters will tell you they failed, but Pledis considers their sells good enough to take the boys everywhere. NU’EST got deals of their own and, taking the PB first project comes from, probably, 2010, it’s obvious they didn’t do that just with ‘Uee’s money’. Aside from what Uee provides for the company and herself, there’s other people providing as well as partnerships and investors. Pledis has their own business not-music-related and they also seem to have things covered for any new band not-AS related that create. Otherwise they would just stuck with AS as the main group concept suits a small company perfectly: it reduces the costs to train several groups appart and it allows you to focus into getting trainees cut just for one purpose only. The Boys even got a deal with McDonald’s so we shouldn’t worry about them needing Uee to feed them either. Not to mention the efforts the company’s put (probably with the help of some Japanese deals) to introduce the boys into the Japanese R&B-niche market.
.Pledis is the company that didn’t hesitate to partner with other companies. If the proposal to CUBE’s ceo never went anywhere, the one they did or may got from Fantagio seems to be working on perfectly. Oh wait, people rather claim Uee is paying for all the expenses to develope HV or that HV were a complete flop. It seems their sells were satisfactory, not to mention the girls got good promotion on their own as well as they have another company who takes care of them and treats them as the family they are to them. For a year that had a rookie debuting per second, HV managed to stand on their own and still enter 2013 promoting. Despite you don’t see them releasing that much, the girls have never stop attending fan-meetings and doing promotional shows everywhere. And you know, partnering not always pays you good, sometimes you can deal with someone that fails you or leaves you without your money… Also, HV seem to have their own potential girls to start landing as much deals as probably NANA has (or even Dambi and Uee, since Ara seems to drag in a lot of interest).
.Another thing this company’s done is to get Juyeon’s average acting floating. And no, Uee didn’t feed Juyeon either. They ended up together in Jeon Woo Chi but Juyeon followed her own route, not to mention she’s done her own modelling too. Believe it or not, Juyeon’s got her own thing going on and even if her acting is so so, she got into a drama that was popular enough (Reply 1997) with a not-so-long role but that probably helped the producers of Jeon Woo Chi to accept her. Such an ambitious production, let me doubt that they would just take anyone in for the sake of Uee. And probably Juyeon owes to So Young the most, because it wouldn’t be odd that a company that didn’t reach an agreement with one of the most charismatic members at the moment (yes there’s a reason why So Young got nicknamed as ‘Vitamin’) to support her acting aspirations reflected on their mistake and decided to not repeat it again once they felt they could start supporting someone else that wasn’t Uee or Dambi.
.Pledis is the company that realized they needed to push her main group main vocalist a little further because, despite they gave her all the music she wanted, the audience seemed not to like her that much. Even being a small company, Pledis got Raina into Immortal Song 2. She even had to appologize for complaining about how Uee got all the spotlight while she was the singing the whole shit (yeah, Uee feeds them all, she even feeds them lines). But this one’s a flaw on Pledis because people will keep hating on the girl and them, and ignoring the fact she’s one of the lyricist who’s most contributed to the group along with Kahi. And that reminds me that Pledis is the company that allows their acts to participate actively on the music they do, whether if it’s purchased or done with a korean or japanese producer. It seems that Kahi’s even trying to come out with actual music of her own and not only lyrics.
.Pledis is the company who also put Lizzy to work her ass. The girl had to wait for a while despite of quickly getting into OC, because Raina and NANA got preference to land lines before her, but since she had some charms, Pledis didn’t hesitate to put her into sitcoms. But I guess Uee’s the one acting for Lizzy on there as well. Uee did All My Love and is currently doing Rascal Sons for her. Oh wait, that was actually Lizzy… and you know what? Her variety charms actually brought in new fans and people willing to spend money on both, After School and Orange Caramel. She’s even starting to land her own CM deals… I guess Uee also got her into Teen Top’s debut MV???? Or it might be that Lizzy’s money is not enough to keep her well fed.
.They’re also the company who thought they rather push the new leader of the group to the front than keep on listening to people’s complains. They got Jung Ah into Reckless Family 2 when I don’t recall seeing her being that active into TV unless it was with the rest of the group. Jung Ah never seemed to care to be on TV as much as Uee, Lizzy, Dambi or Juyeon do, and Jung Ah’s cracking voice on life performance caused her to always lose against Raina and Kahi on the main vocal’s ad-libs’ fight, but yet, Pledis considered it was necessary to bring it on for Omma. But I guess Uee also arranged that, didn’t she?
.Pledis is also the company who’s probably partnered with some Chinese (or I rather bet Taiwanese) and Japanese companies in order to make SEVENTEEN a group that’s able to stand on their own, because, despite of what people believe, they’re not idiots who just launch their ideas without even thinking. I think we all experienced the amount of times they’ve rushed on leaking stuff and taken it back because they still had to re-work it like a thousand times more. As much money as Uee can make, I seriously doubt she’s providing for that. She will probably be used the same way Dambi and HV girls had been used to make people support the project, but she won’t lose her van, her right to not perform when her schedule conflicts with the group or her facebook site to that. You’re not that naïve to believe they would just start such an adventure with only Uee’s money, are you?
.Pledis is the company who cared that much about how they do things inside that even forgot they have a face to show to the world and their website became useless more than a year ago. They keep it all in the fan-cafés, but they’re that busy they even asked for external help to run those. there was an election on some of their fan-cafés to choose who would run the on-line and off-line clubs. But at least last year they got a couple of things right: how to work a youtube channel and how to work facebook. It’s a shame the youtube thing didn’t go as expected because companies such as MBC or SBS took down the performances they uploaded of NU’EST… ooops! It marked the path for how they managed HV’s channel too. You see how they consider the main acts in the house when you realize Dambi and AS/OC are the only ones who don’t have their own channel.
.They are the company that’s much aware of how small they are and that perfectly know where they come from and where they intend to go to that they took perfect note of how they can put their youtube channels to work and created some sort of webisode-diaries for their rookie groups. It’s a shame that Dambi and AS didn’t got the same though, but at least Pledis knows the best they can do is keep in touch with the real and current fans via selcas, videos and daily posts at their Facebook pages.
.They are the company that didn’t hesitate to invest their money (some people will still claim it’s Uee’s) into a café that provides churros as their trademark. It seems the café works just fine because it’s still going on. But with these type of business it’s hard to tell.
But at the end of the day, it seems it’s Uee providing them all the money and the food. Isn’t it unfair? Don’t they know how to work their salaries? Don’t they know how to get deals of their own?
You’ve seen how sarcasm increased with every bit I had to comment and highlight. Pledis may not be your perfect company, but the amount of disrespect they get is just enough. And when people go around stating things like ‘Kahi was dropped’ or ‘Uee feeds them all’ you make it sound as the people in there are just sitting on their broken assess, which obviously they aren’t. I bet it makes them feel superior or something, to constantly bash on them, joke on them to the point the joke’s not funny anymore, and keep complaining. It seems that a small company who quickly learns how to keep their money safe and take advantage of their best money providers as well as to keep figuring out what to do with the rest (I do recall E-Young getting pushed a little, despite it was just her face and not her real musical talent), because they are the first ones who don’t seem to want to keep basing it all in just 1 or 2 people. It’s really rude to say Uee is the only one making money. Honestly, really rude, and not because you’re going to hurt fans, delusional or not, but because when people say these things they’re actually demoting the work of the rest, like these kids don’t work hard their routines, stay up till late to get those right or accept any deal they can handle to get money on their own. Their frustration when they realize not everyone in the house is getting the same love and affection is enough, I think that Bekah and Raina illustrate the dark-side the best. And even with that, Raina still may get it better because she songwrites and she collaborates more than Bekah ever got to do (although some of the raps being her own, I bet she gets some royalties from those?). And then you people still wonder why they don’t do better. They don’t do better because there’s always people finding things to demote them. Be it their system (AS), be it the fact some get more attention from media than others, or be it the fact people just love to troll.
Pledis didn’t grow just because of Uee, or just because of Dambi, not even just because of Orange Caramel. Pledis grew because of the efforts of a lot of different people that tried their best to make the company go on.
