From VIRALITY to SWITCH UP: STAYC vs Weeekly (era analysis) 

It didn't help that Weeekly went on hiatus after Ven Para was released. StayC kept trekking on after Run2U and especially Beautiful Monster (which got worse reception by fans than the former). By going on hiatus for around 1 1/2 years, Weeekly and IST Entertainment were essentially finding themselves lost among spectacular releases like Tomboy by (G)I-DLE (which was released 1 week after Ven Para) and Love Dive by IVE (which was under a month later), as well as debuts of popular groups like Le sserafim and NewJeans. By the time Vroom Vroom came out close to the end of 2023, most fans had already moved on to other groups. I only have IST to blame for mismanaging them.

i def think their biggest difference would be how smart high up's marketing team is and the amount of time and research that go into each of stayc's comebacks which can be seen before they even debuted. their attention to what's "trending" and popular and are able to put stayc's own flare on it making it draw attention for it's familiarity but keeps fans with stayc's level of talent and charisma. ie so bad had the retro future sound which was popular around their debut, asap had a quirky sound which wasn't very big at the time so it stood out a lot more esp on tiktok which EATS UP that sort of sound, stereotype went back to the the retro sound but with a more future nostalgia feel with the use of synths, then for run2u (my favorite of their title tracks) it touched a more mature sound that you talked about in the video paying homage to their debut, then beautiful monster was VERY smart as taylor swift was trending a ton this year with "taylor's version" (and seeing as their fan-base are called 'swifts') it's only right to see a contemporary/ country-inspired comeback which even though didn't sell as well as previous releases but cemented their first 4 korean comebacks... going into their biggest project ever, their japanese debut- probably the best japanese debut from a korean act i've ever heard (but that's a totally different story)

Not many people know, but Stereotype was meant to be STAYC’s debut song as they wanted to come out with a big hit, but bep decided not to due to them being a new group, which was genius, because it got the songs that weren’t the full “teen fresh” sound and made it their second comeback because he knew it would win.

the issue with weeekly is that holiday party had nothing in it that appealed to listeners who liked after school. it was just a weak followup song. and then their management changed, their playM team had a clear direction for the group but once IST took over, things got messy with them jumping onto the girl crush concept even though it was extremely outdated by 2022. weak song, weak visuals and most of the members didn’t suit it. i heard similar complaints from the boyz fans about the change in management too. stayc lucked out by going viral with their first comeback and gained a big fanbase from it. they also have the same producers working on their music so their sound is consistent and it never feels like there is a HUGE shift in sound or concept.

Wooha is currently going down the weeekly route. I think stayc took the first wave of vitality pretty smart but most people were disappointed by beautiful monster (not me tho), I was disappointed starting teddy bear, like also many others. I hope their next Comeback will be good.

One trivia is Seeun was actually training at PlayM along with the predebut Weeekly members but she eventually went to High UP Ent to debut in stayc.

Both groups have a lot of talent. I think the main difference is that STAYC has a renowned producer duo (Black Eyed Pilseung) who write all their title tracks and most of their b-sides, so they have their distinct music identity.

Weeekly passed by a very crazy journey in these last 2 years and all of this caused by the TERRIBLE MANAGEMENT and incompetence of ist ...

when after school came out i was obsessed with weeekly, they had a unique and defined concept that i loved and made it easy for me to get into the group since after school was my introduction to them. imagine my surprise when they announced a more girl crush concept for ven para, just when i thought i had escaped the girl crush wave... not sure if this was a deciding factor for any other former fans but when Jiyoon left the group I officially unstanned weeekly, she was my bias and a huge reason why i loved the group, she was involved with writing some of their songs too. having a member leave the group also kind of killed their "days of the week" theme as now there are only 6/7 days represented by members. honestly I haven't listened to their comebacks after ven para so i'm not sure what kind of things they're up to these days but i hope they're doing well. Jiyoon recently released a solo self produced song called Yellow Light and it's a song with a really bright concept!

The video was great as always ♡

I like how someone is making the comparison. I also made the comparison before since they debuted in the same year

Ven para was a release that created some trauma in the minds of K-pop fans. Whenever a girl group threatens a concept change, they bring up this isolated case. The rule in K-pop has always been to change concepts every comeback, especially because smaller companies do not have in-house producers, the songs are purchased.

From also what I heard before abt weeekly is that fans noticed how the promotion of weeekly just started getting bad, zigzag was poorly promoted and after school only got lucky to go viral on tiktok which solidified the fact how tiktok could be a useful tool in promoting songs. As I remembered from talking with dailees before, they noticed how the company was poorly promoting the group which I also do not understand why they would do this to the girls. I heard from some fans saying that they didnt feel the news of weeekly making a follow up after their viral hit, basically feeling how the company poorly promoted them 😢

High up has better visions for STAYC compared to ist. When after school as well as asap was released both got decent amount of popularity which made the gp tuned into their next move STAYC proved to be the gg the public should look forward to by releasing stereotype which is one of their best title track whereas weeekly failed to do so and their hype slowly went down. In my opinion, they started with a fresh school girl type of concept and they should have sticked to that until they create a decent fanbase. Changing their concept was not a good move for the group. And also their management sucks.

I'm not a fan of weekly and their old song but i love Ven Para, my favorite song of Weekly and i don't like After school and their other old songs like the "majority". I'm not a fan of StayC but i like their debut and i love their Run2you comeback and young love album, my favorite but then i don't like their others songs and comeback i don't like Asap, bubble, beautiful monster etc

Stan STAYC

It also seems stayc got lucky. I kind of feel bad weekly could’ve been huge but what was that van para crap ???

And i was happy Weekly changes their concept, i prefer Ven Para concept and song than their previous song, Ven Para wasn't their worse song at all but their best song!