Either Way, and the next era for IVE. 

it's the fact that ive has never sticked with one concept and is often switching into one visual into another, but their core message is practically done the same and executed in a elegant and posh type of way

I’m wondering what you think of ITZYS RINGO and this ongoing phenomenon in K-pop where sometimes a groups Japanese songs are significantly better than there Korean comeback counterparts, like why are some groups Japanese comebacks seem like they have more effort put into them?

I really appreciate your videos especially the ones on ive

IVE is an impressive group and Either Way is definitely my all time favorite release from them, its so beautiful and heartbreaking

I wish i had a fraction of the story delving brain you have, bro 😂 i want so badly to see the stories as clearly as you do in theae MVs. This breakdown felt spot on and definitely can at least empathize slightly more with what young people go through when getting sucked into such a crazy industry. Great work and thank you! 👏🤌

It makes sense that they are going a different rute now. The first 3 colors of ive were shown and finished with the white album now a pink, blue and yellow album must follow and finished off with a black cover I think. 😊

I really need IVE with their narcissistic concept so much. I think their concept hasn't really over yet

have you seem the ive summer film trailer I'm surprised you never brought it up in this video

Very thoughtful comments Taejiu👍. At one point you mentioned Netizens, and that you disagreed with them about something. You're on to something I want to expand on. Just today I watched a YT short that started with "Netizens say bla, bla, bla something negative, bla, bla." Really? Who said it, and actually how many of them? That seems to be the preferred way to bash someone with unsubstantiated, fabricated gossip. "Netizens say...?" What a joke.

OMG, so glad to see this video do so well for you wow! Deserved, it’s really good.

I don't even listen to the rest of their title tracks; they're fine, don't get me wrong and i even like the members, but I don't know, I just don't listen to them except for "I AM". And I have never been a fan of IVE but I have to say this song is amazing, it's a whole masterpiece and yes, it goes deeper into the identity of the group. Now it's not only "I'm fancy and rich" but "all of these hate hurt me but I'll keep walking forward no matter what" and I think that's even more powerful. All the members are so young and they have been going through a lot they do not deserve at all. Starship and, overall, the members are so brave for being this vulnerable and it is completely worth it. They're doing great, I'm happy for them.

Love it

The discord link in your about section says it’s expired. Can we have an updated link please?

To be on top ... Ive should focus on talent too ... like joining " the killing voice " or " the first take " program

I’m not here to hate on you but… You said bc fans “attacked” you, you “couldn’t listened to aespa” but you literally underestimated aespa to the point that even with Tokyo dome being sold out 2 times you said that didn’t “proof” aespa’s power and longevity But after spicy and my world u saw you were wrong and you accepted it I know you are clearly a fan of IVE, new jeans and most of hype groups but don’t come here and said “aespa fans attacked me and I couldn’t listen to their music” bc you attacked aespa first

Newjeans are bigger than ive and lesserafim btw

i can’t help but feel like the imagery in either way is a little bit inspired by the popularity of new jeans. like, the bare faces, the school setting, the color grading in the individual move in scenes?? i’m not accusing ive of copying newjeans but i think it’s just the natural effect of newjeans’ monumental success on the industry

Do you think the destructive negative campaigning by Kakao Entertainment (who owns IVE's company) against IVE’s main competitors (including the witch hunt against Garam from Le Sserafim using a proven false allegation) played a part in IVE’s success?

It’s crazy how this idea of going to the extremes of showing how supposedly “posh” they are to suddenly being more of a down to earth concept sounds bad on paper, especially regarding IVE. However, I think Starship was smart enough to realize how the outside perspective of IVE could correlate to it and WHEN to do such concept. I hope the rest of the EP is as good as this release and really catapult IVE even more.

This may sound weird but I always say that IVE is the ABBA of kpop. Hear me out for a moment: both make tightly made pop songs that tackle different things while still being recognisable as part of the group. I don't know if I'm making too much sense though😅

I am not a fan of ballads generally, but "Either Way" is an absolute masterpiece. Their vulnerability is so powerful. Thanks for discussing it! Also, a bit of trivia: The translation of "Gaeul" is "Autumn," so the selection of the dead leaves surrounding her solo scene was made with intention.

Another aspect of Either Way that you didn't cover much, but which I think is really important, is the role of friendship in the lyrics! The lyrics refer to the other members (sung by one member) oftentimes in a loving, friendship way. For example, in the pre-chorus where Yujin sings this: They say it's bеcause she's an "I" and you're an "E" Wеll, let's just do a "V" together then This play on words with Introvert (the I) and Extrovert (the E) shows separation and infers different social energy levels, but by becoming idols together (and as such doing things like V-lives and other idol typical activities) they have become IVE - not only idols, but also friends. People pretend that Ive don't have chemistry or friendship with each other, but I firmly believe that with such a line, they're trying to show that they are friends, even though each member is different from each other. There is also another line where Leeseo sings about a member, calling her a sister/friend, and how important she is to her despite the hate she gets. The imagery in the MV also goes on to show that they are all living a shared experience, but I do think the MV tried to emphasise the loneliness and their individual identities.

out of all the groups i follow, i think IVE is the most interesting and almost unknown when it comes to guessing what to expect from them. Every single member is so insanely talented, they have the ability to conquer literally every single concept imaginable and i dont see them slowing down any time soon

I like how their response to hate wasn't witty saying that their better then their haters. They acknowledge that they are hated and their sad about it, they don't want people to base their personality on small edited clips, but they know that most likely will always stay, but either way, their good.

I love this song so much. The visuals and the lyrics broke me, man.

I was hoping this would come out before the 6th when Off The Record drops and here it is. Thank you. You said how IVE dropping this after I AM was the perfect choice because of the complete juxtaposition and I have to agree. It’s very clear that Starship has somewhat of a plan with IVE, they don’t work comeback to comeback and they were not formed in a rush as a group, there are many hints that suggest that in their content, but also additional information that came out over the years that suggests a plan does exist, like for example, how we found out that I AM was selected year & a half ago & reworked for IVE. Liz also said once that they had multiple titles to choose from for I’ve IVE, so they do seem to have a stack of songs ready & a concept. However, I do think IVE’s hate train also started to influence their direction. My theory is that IVE’s concept is the journey from narcissism ( the illusion that being self centered is real self love ) to actual real self love. I also believe the cupid concept is going to be a recurring one, maybe they are fallen cupids or something. I also think IVE became a self fulfilled prophecy in the sense that, as you said yourself, the narcissistic image they created became the way people started seeing them, therefore the attacks. I find that very fascinating, it reminds me of Gaga’s commentary on fame and the downfall of the superstar and how she became exactly that during the mid 2010s or what I believe inspired some of her work which was Britney who used to sing about being overprotected & controlled just to become exactly that. I don’t know if these next 2 releases will tie into Either Way but DIVEs believe Off The Record might have something to do with Love Dive. Maybe their concept is too early to make sense of but it’s fun to discuss. All that we know is that the 3 titles are completely different sound wise, which we kinda expect from them, and that Off The Record might sample Memory from the musical Cats. I just want to add, when dives complain about the poor marketing IVE gets, it has nothing to do with the artistic & musical direction of the group. Our complaints are more so about the promotional aspect. I know it seems obnoxious to hear a fandom complain about promo for a group as big as IVE but the bare minimum such as a comeback schedule, releasing concept pictures in a timely manner before the comeback, utilizing their socials better such as tiktok, allocating bigger budgets for their wardrobe & photoshoots. etc, doesn’t happen and this is detrimental to a group’s success. To give you an example, we only got a few concept pics for I’ve IVE a few days before the album came out, and they were dumped all at once. Groups usually start this kind of promo a month or a month and a half before the comeback happens. Our complaints are about things like that because it’s very risky behavior, yes IVE is big, but IVE is also the most disliked 4th gen girl group right now in the west, promo is needed in order to create hype and expand their fanbase which all their peers are doing. Starship is a bit too relaxed and confident when it comes to IVE, all their other groups such as Cravity & Monsta X get proper promotional content & budget allocation for their comebacks but their biggest group doesn’t... it makes no sense. I hope this makes you understand better why you saw us complain and how it had nothing to do with the creative direction of IVE.

Either Way is by far their most vulnerable song so far, in my opinion. And the music video is stunning, in a down to earth way. Perfect way to address the haters.

Fr. Ive has never disappointed us. Their music is just so good. I've been following them since the beginning and yes I had questioned their sustainability at some point but they just keep coming back with more quality music like a slap in the face and IM LOVING IT! I hope they never stop this and continue talking about these topics on their mvs. Because life is not always filled with glitz and glam, it is mostly needles and thorns. And mvs like this help many teenagers to relate and love them even more.

If luxurious concept means that the members are spoiled and only care about the money then I guess dreamcatcher really live in a haunted hotel and terrorize innocent people like in Chase me MV hahah. Some kpop stans' stupidity is on another level smh

I think Taejiu is right. There's are only four groups right now who are leading the trend, and three of them are "rookies" (though after this year I think that title should go away - it's almost 2 years for all of them and they've been top dogs for a while now). Because of the success, some of the negative aspects has chased after all four of them. In IVE's case, I think fans defending IVE from the haters (which, can we all agree that people need to let Wonyoung breathe for five minutes), has turned into toxic white knighting. I believe, that just like with Blinks, the defense started off with good intentions, but grew into something insane. I don't want DIVE to be known as _THAT_ fandom that everyone else wants to avoid. It's not just DIVE. I'm a long term Neverland from the early days and I've personally seen (G)I-DLE's fandom grow after TOMBOY. So I can say with certainty that this elitist behavior coming from the Baby Nevies is a new thing. Since (G)I-DLE are self-produced, suddenly other groups aren't as talented according to these people. Now, (G)I-DLE is my main group, and while pointing out their accomplishments and abilities is fine, I really don't like how their talent has been weaponized to attack other groups. All I'm saying is that it's okay to have several groups winning awards, influencing the industry, and gaining popularity. In fact, that's preferable. K-Pop likes to follow trends, and if one thing takes off then other companies want a piece of the action. So with four big groups doing their own thing, that's four trends - aka more variety. Reflect on the popularity of TOMBOY, LOVE DIVE, ANTIFRAGILE, ad DITTO... All of those songs influenced the industry in one way or another and we've had a lot of new songs and concepts because of that. So I don't want one big dog, with everyone else trying to be that big dog. I'm greedy. I want variety. Right now, we're getting it.

This is such a good video! Along with everything that was stated, I think starship went this route with the music video to humanize the members which is much needed in my opinion. Because the group is so SO famous and successful now (especially Wonyoung and Yujin) and up until this point they have been presented with this very high glam image, I feel like they’ve become such a big punching bag because people feel like they’re “punching up” in a way. Like you said, in all of their other comebacks the concept has been very high glam, regal, very “we’re on a whole other level” that while it’s great to look at (it’s the concept that made them famous) it’s become too easy for people to lose sight of the fact that these members are still human beings. VERY young human beings at that lol. I was an Izone fan for their entire promotion as a group and it made me so emotional seeing especially Wonyoung and Yujin in this video because it made me realize even though they’ve both been in the industry for going on 6 years now and they’ve been through so much, most of their struggles we’ll probably never know, but they’re still so young! Only 19 and 20.

i love IVE soooo sooo much, the reason i love kpop now. i hope to see them get bigger and bigger

I actually love posh concepts more than girl crush

Stan Ive for good quality music😭>>>>i really loved this song tbh. Everything was perfect in that mv. The lyrics... Omg... 😭

In conclusion: Stan Ive

Love IVE classic elegant clean songs vocals and visuals. Their lyrics are always inspiring and positive. One of timeless ideal type of Idol groups.

I feel like their company promotional is lacking

The way they always constantly keep up being so good is very admirable. I loved either way so much. I am waiting for the entire album to come . Either posh concept or sad emotional sentimental Ive always gives the best . Everytime Ive released a song it's always on my top of repeated songs like every freaking time and either way is no exception. I have to admit I have some special softness (my favourite child??) Towards them one thing is their determination is admirable like if you know them if you watched them you know how good they are. Regardless of being one of the most popular gg of their time they are so humble and for me they are so real how they interact with one another everything and it gets to my nerves when I see People saying they are just coworkers I've consists of mainly I personalities and they were kind of shy at first not anymore 😂. Ive is the only group which I know since debut like wasn't a stan but I started listening to them earlier than any other group that I stanned. And they never disappointed me 💕 . Jusy wanted to add that coz I love them dearly ❤️ Give them a chance dont be prejudiced we have good music 🤷🏻‍♀️💕

Not only IVE made the best album of the year (among ggs for sure, and I hope they'll got MMA best album for that at least, cause MAMA's surely will go to some of bgs), they released FULL-LENGTH 11 SONG ALBUM. Each song is unique but with recognizable IVE trademark. No skip-songs, all songs are really good, with Cherish, Hypnosis, Shine with me personally for me being best songs from the album. So, not only they released this album. They actually SING GOOD. Have you watched their lives? WIth their posh and luxurious image, I expected LEAST OF ALL FROM THEM to be THIS good at singing live and even bothering singing live at all. Not only they sing, they're actually KPOP. They don't try to lean to Western genres, they don't try hard to market themselves in the West. Recently I came to conclusion, that IVE is probably my second-most-loved group in terms of MUSIC. That was really unexpected for me, because I usually like something marginal and unique, not just straight-to-the-face bops. But here we are in the situation where such bops are unique and marginal to some extent.

i'm mainly an aespa and lsf fan so i don't keep up with ive too closely, but i really do admire this direction they're taking with their music. i've loved pretty much every release of theirs, i am being the only title track i don't listen to regularly, and i'm very excited for what this new comeback will bring. i'm glad they've decided to highlight these specific struggles they face because as you've said, we're so used to the industry dehumanizing these idols. it brings something fresh to the current kpop landscape, especially wrt girl groups specifically. this level of vulnerability is something we don't see too often from them, whereas it may be more acceptable in music by boy groups. thanks for another good vid! sidenote, i'm really sorry you had to deal with such excessive hatred from MYs. as someone who's been watching your channel for a while, it's very clear to me that you never make videos as a way to disparage idols/groups and it's not fair that you were treated that way for so long.

As a Korean who is not really into Kpop, but IVE 's music beat and melody is very catchy.

I know the feeling. There have been days (and even weeks/months) where I haven’t been able to listen to Stray Kids’ music because it makes me think about how awful their fandom has been. I’m sorry that you’ve had to go through worse experiences at the hands of some of these fandoms. Toxic KPop stans seriously need to do some self reflection before they lose their humanity.

Off the record will be released less than 24 hrs 🙌

I think the biggest groups in ranking are : newjeans ive Le sserafim

small correction, dives do not complain about how ive is being marketed by starship but rather how they "promote" the group especially when they are active

they remind me of cupids/ aphrodite.

Dropping in to say that I really aprreciate your videos and that I really feel like I have found my community here on this channel of like-minded people who engage with K-pop the same way I do. I love the insightful and critical takes on the industry, its artists, and the music you provide, which I am oftentimes sorely missing on more "gossip / rumor" based channels and official channels of artists. I am sorry to hear you have had a hard time with the online hate you received from you aespa video, just wanted to let you know that there is also a huge (but maybe less vocal) of people who really appreciate you!

Ive>>>>

IVE to me represent design. A perfect design from Starship ent.

Even with Either Way, the mv still has somewhat of a luxurious feel to me, i just dont know why maybe its because of the props? The beautiful city scene? The amazing big party scene? Rei with the huge teddy bears? And the angles? Their outfits too?

I think the trailer of “IVE SUMMER” was a teaser to this turning point. I wanted them to go a little more emotional so this is exactly what i wanted

Great video Taejiu

i need u to talk abt what u thought abt off the record!!! cuz i loved it

IVE's 'Either Way' MV looks phenomenal. 🤯🤯🤯

Apparently, most of this MV was recorded on film, as opposed to digital, so that might be why it looks/feels similar to VHS.

October 13 is BADDIE so drop of EP

IVE WOLRD DOMINATION !! 💗

i dont know if you noticed but this is your 100th video currently up on your channel!!!

Either way is fucking beautiful

It simply crushes me hearing all the negativity thrown their way and to any idol group. IVE

I hope they’ll still be elegant like in all other songs

Loved the analysis! I’m not that invested into this group. So, this was a great deep dive into the group to me! And no, that pun wasn’t intentional lol

im loving ive more and more with every release!! 😭 i always liked their music but used to find them a little boring as a group. i was so wrong, boring is the LAST thing ive will ever be.

Hi!! This may not be the time or place, but I do remember you were going to make a video on aespa and their new mini album spicy. It’s been idk how many months and you haven’t made the video. I’m not going to demand that you make one, I would just really love to see that video from you. You talk a lot about I’ve and other groups but never really aespa. It would make great content, and I love your commentary. I hope your down for the suggestion. That I’m 100% sure you promised unless I’m having a Mandela affect moment. Have a wonderful day 🤗❤

IVE's 'Either Way' is great

It will be their coming of age album, completing 2 years.

In kpop and overall life, everything is so replaceable like new jeans and I've have replaced blackpink

you should talk about vcha. i'm interested on your thoughts about them 👀❓

wth is a dasaeng its daesang, also its rly not hard to pronounce it doe, it seems u pronounced it badly intentionally

Yooo when will you react again to xg? Haha im just hoping to hear your thoughts once again to them

As someone who likes and appreciates multi groups. Its a far fetched statement to say IVE will be unstoppable.... if this and that happens. The important thing in this industry is to stay humble and keep churning out great music and perfomances. Its a constant struggle to make this happen. I couldnt even imagine of the pressure and helpless anticipation. End of the day...could be just a matter of taste. Some fans only care about quality of music/performances. Some are die hard fans... where they will support the group/singer....no matter what. Its when these fans....heart turns dark and toxic. And want to sabotage or bring other groups down. Via bad mouthing ...social media etc. And the worst ....are the ones who think they are doing somekind of good deed for their fandom/group. Its petty level. Respect comes within 1st.

I agree with u

I loved the cinematography it was really beautiful and although the song hasn't hooked me right yet, inevitably watching the mv over I know it'll be stuck in my head I love videos like this

Nice video!

Newbie questions: How do people keep up with all the new groups?!? And with all the groups doing pop or hiphop-influenced pop, how do people pick their favorites? Especially when all the idols in the groups are well trained and stunning? How do you choose?

Hey cutie 🥰 miss me

Fav k-tuber what do you think about line-up of R U Next

You said that idols are being FORCED to leave their family, life , youth , to be an idols !!! , that true to some extend but let’s not forgot those young teenagers /idols , they CHOSE the way they live their lives. And eventho the hate online they live lavish life .

They just ride the nj "being relatable" concept waves

Good video. Except "forced" into moving together comment. These idols auditioned and hopefully knew what they were getting into.

Wonyoung missed middle school and meals... 😢

a dasaeng?? you mean daesang 😭😭😭😭

lol

I'm sorry but no way is Ive the biggest girl group right now. Blackpink, Twice, NewJeans, and Le Sserafim are still much more popular.

I dont like this era at all.

i wouldn't call them the biggest punching bags of kpop. every group gets hate like that unless if they're nugu and nobody cares about them.

"The biggest girl group out there" part feels debatable. On which criteria is based on? Fanbase or awards, etc?

Either Way is the weakest IVE song imo. Disregarding the Pepsi commercial song (which is the exact opposite of rich and luxurious concept).

Hey bro, i think you should’ve added that They also started a new Colour concept. As we all know Eleven is red Love dive blue After like green And combined, its white, which stands for I AM, now they are making a new colour and i think it also effects the concept. I heard somewhere that now they are moving into the darker toned colours so if im not wrong they are going to have more realistic or relatable concepts? Or just darker concepts. Lets see

I appreciate you Man, keep doing what you doing