Power dynamics in G-Idle (3 Viewers)

[Moguri]

I’m sure they’re close friends and great co-workers and all, I know Yuqi has done a song on the Nxde album (idk if she did everything but still)

before creating this thread I actually checked who works on their songs and apart from Soyeon, Minnie and Yuqi contribute the most to writing and also composing some of the songs!

you can check here:

List of songs recorded by I-dle - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[centen]

For anyone wondering why she might be hated it has to do heavily with line distributions within the group. She as a leader should be taking into consideration that she has a group of massively talented individuals and instead of using her ability as a composer, writer, choreographer, and leader to help those members shine more she uses it to center herself.

She also already has a solo career. You'd think she'd actually use her members more effectively within their title tracks but she doesn't.

That is where a lot of the dislike comes from in regard to her and I say this as a NEVERLAND.

(G)I-DLE is my #1 group, and this is very fair. Like, I liked Nxde, but Minnie gets a unique opening set, and otherwise, the four singers rotate singing the same lines, while Soyeon opens and closes the song and gets two rap verses. And I think it's a bit frustrating even for Nevies, because the others are individually talented as well. Yuqi knows how to take something given to her and make it unique and fresh and listenable, as evidenced by her many, many covers that are just her playing around. Minnie is a talented songwriter in her own right, but despite coming up with what are honestly some of the strongest songs on their respective albums (e.g. Moon, Change, Sculpture, Already), her songs are always relegated to the B sides. Miyeon is a beautiful lyricist (as evidenced by her own solo, Rain), but she's never gotten credit on a main group album, and it was a bit frustrating seeing her get so little time in Nxde when she fit that concept like a glove. And Shuhua isn't the strongest, but it's basically a joke at this point how much she's been backburnered until she finally got a couple of the cool points in Tomboy and Nxde. Like I'm not even sure if it's that Shuhua can't vs. that Shuhua is not combative and it's been easy to relegate her to the back.

So I think a lot of Nevies appreciate Soyeon and how much she's elevated the group and provided great direction, but it's not like the others are just riding around on her coattails and don't have their own skills to contribute too.

I'm kind of thinking now compared to, say, Bang Chan. He controls a lot of the direction on SKZ's songs too, but he rarely has the most lines and sometimes has the least. So I think you're spot on with how just noticeable it is that Soyeon centers so much of (G)I-DLE on herself rather than taking everyone's talents into consideration and elevating each member when they suit the song and concept the most.

 

[Lovely_Cornchips]

(G)I-DLE is my #1 group, and this is very fair. Like, I liked Nxde, but Minnie gets a unique opening set, and otherwise, the four singers rotate singing the same lines, while Soyeon opens and closes the song and gets two rap verses. And I think it's a bit frustrating even for Nevies, because the others are individually talented as well. Yuqi knows how to take something given to her and make it unique and fresh and listenable, as evidenced by her many, many covers that are just her playing around. Minnie is a talented songwriter in her own right, but despite coming up with what are honestly some of the strongest songs on their respective albums (e.g. Moon, Change, Sculpture, Already), her songs are always relegated to the B sides. Miyeon is a beautiful lyricist (as evidenced by her own solo, Rain), but she's never gotten credit on a main group album, and it was a bit frustrating seeing her get so little time in Nxde when she fit that concept like a glove. And Shuhua isn't the strongest, but it's basically a joke at this point how much she's been backburnered until she finally got a couple of the cool points in Tomboy and Nxde. Like I'm not even sure if it's that Shuhua can't vs. that Shuhua is not combative and it's been easy to relegate her to the back.

So I think a lot of Nevies appreciate Soyeon and how much she's elevated the group and provided great direction, but it's not like the others are just riding around on her coattails and don't have their own skills to contribute too.

I'm kind of thinking now compared to, say, Bang Chan. He controls a lot of the direction on SKZ's songs too, but he rarely has the most lines and sometimes has the least. So I think you're spot on with how just noticeable it is that Soyeon centers so much of (G)I-DLE on herself rather than taking everyone's talents into consideration and elevating each member when they suit the song and concept the most.

YOU WORDED IT PERFECTLY!

omfg, I felt like I was fumbling with my words but that's it exactly. There is so much talent in Idle and it doesn't get to shine.

 

[Moguri]

(G)I-DLE is my #1 group, and this is very fair. Like, I liked Nxde, but Minnie gets a unique opening set, and otherwise, the four singers rotate singing the same lines, while Soyeon opens and closes the song and gets two rap verses. And I think it's a bit frustrating even for Nevies, because the others are individually talented as well. Yuqi knows how to take something given to her and make it unique and fresh and listenable, as evidenced by her many, many covers that are just her playing around. Minnie is a talented songwriter in her own right, but despite coming up with what are honestly some of the strongest songs on their respective albums (e.g. Moon, Change, Sculpture, Already), her songs are always relegated to the B sides. Miyeon is a beautiful lyricist (as evidenced by her own solo, Rain), but she's never gotten credit on a main group album, and it was a bit frustrating seeing her get so little time in Nxde when she fit that concept like a glove. And Shuhua isn't the strongest, but it's basically a joke at this point how much she's been backburnered until she finally got a couple of the cool points in Tomboy and Nxde. Like I'm not even sure if it's that Shuhua can't vs. that Shuhua is not combative and it's been easy to relegate her to the back.

So I think a lot of Nevies appreciate Soyeon and how much she's elevated the group and provided great direction, but it's not like the others are just riding around on her coattails and don't have their own skills to contribute too.

I'm kind of thinking now compared to, say, Bang Chan. He controls a lot of the direction on SKZ's songs too, but he rarely has the most lines and sometimes has the least. So I think you're spot on with how just noticeable it is that Soyeon centers so much of (G)I-DLE on herself rather than taking everyone's talents into consideration and elevating each member when they suit the song and concept the most.

thank you for your insights, thats all very intersting to me

By checking the line distributions for all their songs, I also found it quite strange that Shuha has so little compared to everyone else and I think she is also the only member that has no contributions to songwriting / composing?

regarding Bang-Chan, I do not know SKZ well or how they work, but just from what I know from the Girl Group side of JYP, its hard to imagine an JYP artist having even a fraction of the control Soyeon seems to have in Cube

 

[hxney_jun]

as far as i know she has the normal leader role? i would imagine its something similar to bangchan?

 

[Lovely_Cornchips]

as far as i know she has the normal leader role? i would imagine its something similar to bangchan?

You'd think that, wouldn't you.

 

[chiefchilly1]

as far as i know she has the normal leader role? i would imagine its something similar to bangchan?

I wish the normal leader role had to do with music production lol very rare that it does. Bang Chan and Soyeon are very special cases

 

[hxney_jun]

You'd think that, wouldn't you.

i take you're not a huge fan of how she runs things lol

 

[hxney_jun]

I wish the normal leader role had to do with music production lol very rare that it does. Bang Chan and Soyeon are very special cases

yeah i phrased that weird lol.
they are.

 

[Lovely_Cornchips]

i take you're not a huge fan of how she runs things lol

Personally, no. I do agree she is a big part of why (G)I-DLE is so successful which is great and amazing and I firmly believe she is a force to be reckoned with but I hate that most stuff within the title tracks center on her. I hate even more that my fellow Neverlands use her position in the group as a reason why she deserves to take all the lines.

She doesn't deserve all the lines just because she composes/writes/produces a lot of their music. A leader should lift up the other members in their group not center things on them. I don't hate Soyeon by any means but I do have beef with the way she runs things personally. The other members in the group are talented too.

 

[hxney_jun]

Personally, no. I do agree she is a big part of why (G)I-DLE is so successful which is great and amazing and I firmly believe she is a force to be reckoned with but I hate that most stuff within the title tracks center on her. I hate even more that my fellow Neverlands use her position in the group as a reason why she deserves to take all the lines.

She doesn't deserve all the lines just because she composes/writes/produces a lot of their music. A leader should lift up the other members in their group not center things on them. I don't hate Soyeon by any means but I do have beef with the way she runs things personally. The other members in the group are talented too.

i can understand this :)
i hope she's able to come to that understanding.

 

[Lovely_Cornchips]

i can understand this :)
i hope she's able to come to that understanding.

Same. But also I know she isn't a bad person so I don't want anyone to misunderstand me. I think she's an integral part of the group and beyond talented.

 

[hxney_jun]

Same. But also I know she isn't a bad person so I don't want anyone to misunderstand me. I think she's an integral part of the group and beyond talented.

no yeah. i think sometimes people don't even realize that's happening because they're so busy trying to handle things and take on the role they have. which i do imagine would be quite stressful- even more so after a member leaves.

 

[Selfmate]

I'll add a bit of background as well as a Gidle fan

Gidle did not debut conventionally - in fact it was Soyeon who produced Latata and basically forced the higher ups to debut them
Yes She has a lot of power but is that wrong? everything she's done has been for the benefit of her group and ultimately cube...
her power comes from history and making the right decisions (for the most part) - if her TT were shit Gidle would be in a much different situation now
also look at the GG right before Gidle and right afterwards (I'm not sure of the success of Cube's BG so I'll only comment on the GG)...CLC and Lightsum - with all due respect to them from a company's perspective they obviously weren't bringing home the bacon so to speak

now if you have a track record of producing good songs and being successful you get some leeway to do whatever you want

in terms of group dynamics they all respect her as the leader and producer - hell even the higher ups respect her (because she is making them $$$$) - sure shuhua gets the least lines (she's also the "weakest" in the group) but I've never heard shuhua complaining one bit and neither have the other members

both minnie and yuqi write their own songs as well albeit as bsides - and all of miyeon/yuqi and soyeon have released solo songs as well

and if one sees the group dynamics through their various bts videos and whatnot they seem to (at least on camera) get along very well and yes they bicker a hell of a lot but that's Gidle for ya lol

 

[Lovely_Cornchips]

in terms of group dynamics they all respect her as the leader and producer - hell even the higher ups respect her (because she is making them $$$$) - sure shuhua gets the least lines (she's also the "weakest" in the group) but I've never heard shuhua complaining one bit and neither have the other members

This is a really bad example of why it's not an issue. Most members don't speak out against things they don't like publically. They'd get ripped to shreds if they did.

 

[Selfmate]

This is a really bad example of why it's not an issue. Most members don't speak out against things they don't like publically. They'd get ripped to shreds if they did.

then how do we judge a group's dynamics other than by what we see and read in public - sure they can all hate each other's guts in private but we don't know
and from the group's body language and even "trying to read between the lines" it seems the group is happy

 

[Lovely_Cornchips]

then how do we judge a group's dynamics other than by what we see and read in public - sure they can all hate each other's guts in private but we don't know
and from the group's body language and even "trying to read between the lines" it seems the group is happy

A lot of us are basing our opinions on what we see because idols won't flat out say anything and if they do it is normally scripted. For me personally, they obviously don't hate each other but there is a weird dynamic given that Soyeon is essentially their boss without being their boss. That naturally will create a weird uneven dynamic between her and her group members even if they do get along just fine.

Nothing wrong with it-that's just how it is. (As someone who has gone from being colleagues with someone to being their boss I know the weird dynamic shift personally and hate it.)

 

[Selfmate]

A lot of us are basing our opinions on what we see because idols won't flat out say anything and if they do it is normally scripted. For me personally, they obviously don't hate each other but there is a weird dynamic given that Soyeon is essentially their boss without being their boss. That naturally will create a weird uneven dynamic between her and her group members even if they do get along just fine.

Nothing wrong with it-that's just how it is. (As someone who has gone from being colleagues with someone to being their boss I know the weird dynamic shift personally and hate it.)

the way I see it is by looking at other group's whose leaders are also primary or often produce songs etc etc like Bang Chan who was mentioned previously but also G-Dragon
in fact she reminds me a lot of GD in terms of her rap abilities (I'm not comparing the qualities of each of them merely the fact that they both rap very well lol) and producing abilities - I've read that Soyeon was called the female GD at one point

 

[Lovely_Cornchips]

the way I see it is by looking at other group's whose leaders are also primary or often produce songs etc etc like Bang Chan who was mentioned previously but also G-Dragon
in fact she reminds me a lot of GD in terms of her rap abilities (I'm not comparing the qualities of each of them merely the fact that they both rap very well lol) and producing abilities - I've read that Soyeon was called the female GD at one point

The main difference though is that Bang Chan and GD at least let other members shine. Of course, there are always going to be members with the least lines but Soyeon takes singing and rapping lines. She could easily give some of her singing lines to the other members.

 

[Selfmate]

The main difference though is that Bang Chan and GD at least let other members shine. Of course, there are always going to be members with the least lines but Soyeon takes singing and rapping lines. She could easily give some of her singing lines to the other members.

so the issue is line distribution huh? interesting
I have nothing against that - I guess I don't really care personally but I'm sure some people do
(I actually don't know the breakdowns of Gidle's TT in terms of distribution lol)