Current Event 21/03/26

---- [Current Events are bi-weekly writing assignments for my junior year history class. The instructions are to find a recent article, summarize it, and describe your personal opinion on it.]

https://www.soompi.com/article/1461235wpp/watch-upcoming-boy-group-omega-x-announces-lineup-of-11-members-from-disbanded-groups-and-survival-shows

 

(Yesterday, I had no idea what I was going to write about for this, and I almost did it on something insignificant and boring. Today, I know exactly what event I’m going to do. But first, I have to get through the dull article summarization part before my brilliant and fascinating opinions that I’m sure everyone can’t wait to hear.)

I’m going to assume my audience reading this (you, Mr. Patterson) knows nothing about K-Pop. That’s perfectly fine, this is just going to require a lot of explanation, so I’ll try to take this apart bit by bit for you and hopefully it’ll make sense (but don’t get your hopes up because nothing much I say makes sense).

Starting from the article, Spire Entertainment announced the official lineup of their new group OMEGA X yesterday. Before this, though, for the past eleven days, they have been dropping teaser videos for each of the members. The catch is that you couldn’t fully see any of their faces. And here is where I have to stray from the actual contents of the article and begin explicating.

A news article dropped a few weeks ago declaring that an eleven-member boy group called OMEGA X will be debuting with “all members having already debuted in groups or previously been on survival shows.” Needless to say, this caused a ton of commotion. They’re pulling members out of active groups? We will know all of these people since apparently they’ve all made appearances before, so who’s it going to be? The suspense!

Anyway, before anything else even came up, people were already making ridiculous theories on who it’s going to be--me being one of them--and that was a hilarious phase, not going to lie. Eventually, they began releasing proper teaser videos, but like I said earlier, you couldn’t see their faces clearly. Along with that came other hints such as their birthdays and handwriting. Most have been guessed before the final reveal (because we’re just that attentive and skilled of fans). This brings us right back to the article of which clarifies the members are Seven O’Clock’s Song Hangyeom; SNUPER’s Jang Sebin; 1THE9’s Shin Yechan; ENOi’s Han Jeonghoon (J-Kid), Yang Hyuk (Gun), and Park Jinwoo; SPECTRUM’s Kim Jaehan; 1TEAM’s Moon Jehyun and Lee Jinwoo; LIMITLESS’s Lee Hwichan (Raychan); and GIDONGDAE’s Kim Taedong. There we have it. It’s a motley crew of members of flopped groups. (And here we were, worried that it was going to be the X1 reboot.)

Opinion section? Oh. Oh, I have an unfathomable amount of opinions on this. I won’t bore you with them all, though; I’ve Tweeted most of them already anyway, so I’ll attempt to keep this as not-rant-y as possible. Well, my first thought when the original article came out was that they were getting worse and worse at naming boy groups. (What kind of a name is OMEGA X?) I lightheartedly made fun of it, but was honestly pretty intrigued on where this was going. You don’t get something like this everyday. I couldn’t say I was excited at first sight, more or less I was just very skeptical, but I was rightfully curious.

Before anything else, I would like to address the boys I already know: ENOi members, 1TEAM members, Yechan, and Taedong. Okay. Congratulations to them, and to the others, as well! I have heard of all of them but haven’t looked into the other groups. (That will change soon, thought, perhaps right after I finish writing this.) However, I am just admittedly confused and the slightest bit dismayed.

ENOi, 1TEAM, and Seven O’Clock all confirmed their disbandment shortly before OMEGA X was announced. GIDONGDAE are also safely assumed to have quietly disbanded. This got me wondering: was it because of this that they disbanded? I don’t know Seven O’Clock well currently, but I know ENOi and 1TEAM were both doing decently, and I saw unquestionable potential ahead of them. I did not expect those disbandment announcements. It was interesting because after ENOi disbanded, all of the members made personal Instagram accounts, except for the three that were revealed to be in OMEGA X; I suppose now we see why. But this still doesn’t answer the question of why they decided to join. I mean, they had to have trusted this company a lot if they made the giant, risky decision to leave the group they’ve already made a name for themselves and been in for nearly two years just to join this one. I have never heard of Spire Entertainment before this, so it perplexes me how they managed to persuade them like that. I mean, like, I didn’t think they were that desperate. Honestly, I’m just still in shock over ENOi and 1TEAM’s disbandment--especially 1TEAM; they’ve had some almost-hits, and I really thought their big moment was coming up soon. Now, we’ll never get to see if my premonition was correct. I’ll just have to listen to their ten total songs on repeat and watch their former leader Rubin’s journey to becoming a tattoo artist via his Instagram.

Taedong has a different story. He first stepped into the industry in 2017 on the infamous survival show Produce 101. Besides the main group that show forms, many project groups also come off of it, one of which was the ultimately successful JBJ. Taedong was originally going to be in this lineup, but because of crappy company complications, he never ended up joining. After that he had his second chance with GIDONGDAE, a small group with virtually no background besides Kiwon (another Produce 101 contestant who was in the project group RAINZ) and Taedong’s ever-fading Produce 101 fame. Unfortunately, after a mere predebut summer single, GIDONGDAE quietly disbanded before their real debut. To put it simply, Taedong has been chasing debut for four years straight, and now he finally has it! I’m insanely proud and happy for him. All the doubts I have for OMEGA X are subsided with this thought; it’ll be worth it, in the end.

1THE9’s disbandment had been inevitable, so I can’t say much about that other than the fact that I really expected more 1THE9 members in this group than just Yechan. I’m glad he’s employed now. As for the other four dudes, I don’t know enough about them to say, but I have made a promise to myself and whatever god you believe in that I will fully stan them and inform myself of their history before OMEGA X debuts.

Oh, don’t get me started on their new stage names in OMEGA X. What is a XEN?! And why would Park Jinwoo call himself ‘Kevin’. Come on, out of all the white boy names he could have chosen? With all due respect and love, I am never going to call Jinwoo ‘Kevin’.

I feel like I need a closer now. Well! I’m glad they’ve found a new opportunity in this and have a new, more well-grounded chance to stardom. Despite the event of some members joining this group possibly resulting in the disbandment of some previous ones, I’m truly wishing the best for them from here on; hopefully this will be the turning point of their careers! It better be. All I can do now is pray that their debut song is good. (A song called “Vamos” can’t be that awful right? It sounds alright in the teaser videos, I sure hope the rest of it holds up that quality.) Because I want this to be worth it; I can’t let my poor boys go down the flop road again.