Netizens are deeply unsatisfied.
Netizens are furious at Starship Entertainment for the supposed decline in IVE‘s comeback quality.
Recently, a post went viral on Nate Pann, criticizing the company and pointing out the many issues the OP (original poster) had noticed in the group’s current releases.
The first critique was against the music itself. The OP claimed that since IVE’s third album, the music has consistently dropped in quality. “No matter how hard Jang Wonyoung and Ahn Yujin work to raise IVE’s status, Starship always disappoints with low-quality songs and concept albums,” the OP snapped in the post.
The post also criticized the overuse of AI in IVE’s more current music videos. The OP essentially accused Starship Entertainment of cutting corners with the entirety of IVE’s production value, diminishing the group’s image in the process.
The post has since attracted over 129,000 views on Nate Pann, with hundreds of comments agreeing with the OP’s analysis.
- “Even ‘Attitude’ was f*cking trashy. It’s an IVE song, but it only got attention because fans made that ‘Rei going wild’ meme. That dolphin high note? Totally unnecessary. The rap part? Super cringe.
And to the fans saying this is fine — think about ‘I AM’ and ‘Kitsch.’ Does this even come close? LOL. They need to drop the whole double title track thing and just put all their effort into making one solid, high-quality song.”
- “To be honest, ever since ‘I AM,’ all their songs feel like they’re focused purely on being catchy— and there’s this weirdly outdated, slightly tacky vibe to them.”
- “If they keep treating IVE like a low-budget group this comeback, it’s game over. Make it feel like money. And seriously, get rid of the choreographer and stylist — the choreo is downright painful.”
- “Just look at the music video views — up until ‘I AM,’ they were hitting 200 to 300 million views. But after that? It’s dropped by half, barely hitting 50 to 60 million. ‘I AM’ was clearly a song the general public loved, but since then, they’ve drifted away from mainstream appeal and have been relying heavily on their fandom to keep things going.”
IVE’s last comeback was in February this year, with their third EP, IVE EMPATHY. The album had two title tracks: “Rebel Heart” and “Attitude.” The former became the group’s fifth single to achieve a Perfect All-Kill on Korean music charts, standing testament to IVE’s unshakable popularity.
But is the quality of IVE’s releases taking a hit? What do you think?