As SM's Management Is Currently In Conflict With Lee Soo Man, SM Artists Who Should Only Focus On Making Music Have Become A Hot Topic Due To Being Mentioned In Internal Disputes.
Fans are disappointed with the current situation of aespa, whose activities must be hampered due to internal conflicts at SM. The 4-member girl group was scheduled to make a comeback on February 20 ahead of their first solo concert, but was not cancelled.
aespa debuted in 2020 and are currently in their 4th year of their career. As a representative of SM's 4th generation, aespa was created by SM founder Lee Soo Man and he even built a unique worldview for SM called "Kwangya" based on dAI's futuristic concept of aespa.
For Lee Soo Man, aespa's success is very important. The reason is, this group will be the foundation for Kwangya to determine the musical movement of SM artists in the future. Korean members Karina and Winter are each known for helping bring out aespa's AI visuals and adding uniqueness to their songs with their vocals.
aespa's name was also mentioned in a recent internal dispute over SM's management rights. On February 16, SM CEO Lee Sung Soo claimed that Lee Soo Man was using aespa as a means to continue his "smart music city" business. It is said that Lee Soo Man forced aespa to sing a new song with lyrics about "planting trees" to promote an ESG (environmental, social, and corporate governance) related campaign.
As SM's current management led by CEO Lee Sung Soo is in conflict with Lee Soo Man, SM artists who should only focus on making music have become a hot topic as they were mentioned in internal disputes. Due to this problem, aespa's musical activities were affected.
aespa is a group that once showed a strong presence in the K-pop girl group competition. However, for the last six months, Karina and friends have not released any albums. They have been in the industry for four years, but they haven't been able to express their musical style freely.
Meanwhile, their competitors such as NewJeans and IVE have been setting the trend and gaining recognition overseas, increasing their influence. In order to establish a foothold in the K-pop industry, aespa needs to release new music content as soon as possible. However, according to the comeback schedule circulating, aespa will only make a comeback next April. (wk/goddess)
