I-dle Intro Video Reaction

My comment is a bit late. I don't mean to step on another fan's foot but there is another meaning to their name not in the video. I will link an article below and will summarize here. The company originally had the idea of a wordplay between english and korean by using the word "idle" as in "to be idle" and the korean word for "ai" meaning children, but Soyeon was unsatisfied with it and thought it was a weird meaning. She changed the meaning to refer to the "I" as "Individual" - and the korean word "deul" is the plural marker (like the "s" in friends), thus the group name means "a group of 6 individuals" or "I-dle." the "G" was added by the company and Soyeon herself didn't understand why. Personally, i think this meaning makes a lot of sense to why they dropped the "G" and rebranded to "I-dle" or in korean pronunciation "ai-deul." And it makes total sense as each member in the group has very recognizable vocal tones, from different countries, etc. https://www.koreaboo.com/news/gi-dle-soyeon-thoughts-group-name-improved/ Minnie explaining the group name in english. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBoLcO_wBzQ&t=19s

Theory 2: And I also have a theory about the whole CUBE not having a debut song for them narrative. In the introduction video I also put clips from Soyeon's solo releases. In November 2017 'Jelly' and February 2018 'Idle Song'. Soojin is participating in both videos wearing the fox mask, that she dropped eventually in the opening of Latata, which was released in May 2 2018. In 'Idle Song' are already enough hints about the upcoming i-dle debut. The name of the song itself, the marking of April on the calendar (first teasers were released in April) and the six pins in the globe at the birthplaces of all six members. It is all in my introduction video. I just didn't bother explaining it there, because it would have been even more info to digest for Tim and it would have made the video longer and I tried to keep it considerably short. 😉 In order to debut a K-Pop group, it takes time. 6 to 12 months usually. So having Soyeon debut roughly 6 months prior to i-dle's debut without planning everything thoroughly would have been a logistical nightmare and the debut would seem rushed. I believe CUBE knew very early what a gem they had when they signed Soyeon. She proved her lyric writing capabilities on Unpretty Rap Star vol. 3 already. And I believe that CUBE supported her early on to also produce music. I have the theory that the debut song was already ready at least at the time Soyeon debuted in November 2017, if not even months earlier. So despite the often legitimate criticism of CUBE, I think we have to give CUBE's A&R division credit for coming up with the 'Soyeon pitched a song, because CUBE couldn't find one narrative' to emphasize the quality of Soyeon's song writing/producing capabilities. No company will undertake such a risk of having a group fail their debut, because they leave the creativity completely in the artist's hand. There is too much money involved by investors and what not. I do believe Soyeon already had a big say in the development of i-dle from pre-debut, but in the end the company has to give the green light. It is their money after all. If they would have simply said, the group debuts with a self produced song, it wouldn't have caught the public's attention as much. Sorry for nerding out on i-dle so much! 😊

Theory 1: I have a theory about the rebranding regarding the name and dropping the G (and 여자). When it comes to the group's name, what ever happened to the 'English/international' name is irrelevant. When the idea of i-dle was born, the international market was not the target market for CUBE. There is this rumor, that CUBE also intended to debut a boy group. The Korean name would probably be something like (남자) 아이들 (namja aideul). So they put the (yeoja) in front of aideul. Like I explained in my introduction video, a literal translation would sound corny at least, if not even off-putting. So adding the '(G)' in front was just sth to have it sound similar to 여자 (yeoja) and incorporate the meaning (female, girl) into it. G being short for girl basically. The 여자 and G was always in parentheses and was never intended to be spoken. It lead to a lot of confusion. Even in Korea. They were usually announced by others as "yeoja aideul" but never referred to themselves that way. You can hear it in their Korean greeting. I can't remember hearing them say once "Annyeonghaseyo, yeoja aideul imnida" only "Annyeonghaseyo, aideul imnida". Why they started to say "Hello, we are G idle" in their English/international greeting, I have no explanation for. Also in Soyeon's rap of the Queendom introduction from 2019, the last line even is "we are idle". If the G was important, she could have rapped "we're G idle" to have the same amount of syllables and leave the G in there. So imho the rebranding regarding the name, at least for me, is just sth to make it consistent in both languages and get rid off the confusion. I know they have commented on the rebranding in several interviews and why they decided to drop the G, but I mean, they have to tell the public something that has a deeper meaning than simply correcting a mistake they did when starting to say "G idle". But again, it is only MY PERSONAL theory.

I do have some additional theories about the name and the 'CUBE didn't find a debut song' narative, I didn't explain it in the video to keep it considerably short and not overwhelm Tim. 😉

Thank you so much for the video Norbert! You did a great job! 🥰 Using the Queendom intro was such a great move! 😁

It is more common on boy groups but on girls groups i-dle is a very rare group that writes composes and produce their own music maybe the other group is mammamo i am not sure

Regarding your question about the vocal work in the recordings, I think it depends on how the contracts are negotiated (but don't hold me to that as I am like, a surface level K-POP fan).

Thank you Norbert for continuing to advocating for more GGs! And thank you Tim for posting this and the KV. I've been waiting for this one patiently. Soyeon is by far one of the best producers/rappers/performers (my opinion) in K-POP broadly. She really is a phenomenon. Also, you did a great job on the intro Norbert!