CEO Kim Kwangsoo answers "Why are 5dolls and Gangkiz not as popular as T-ara?"

"Midas Touch contradictory name report"

T-ara's new song "Day by Day" is dominating music charts one day after release. Once again, this proves the strong power of T-ara's agency, Core Contents Media's CEO Kim Kwangsoo.

When it was announced that T-ara's new song swept the #1 spot on music charts, CEO Kim Kwangsoo said he could relax and smile again. Despite Kim Kwangsoo's production of T-ara and their ambitious and growing success, T-ara is not his only girl group. Gangkiz and 5dolls are showing far less results compared to T-ara.

5dolls and Gangkiz are not under T-ara's current agency Core Contents Media, but part of GM Contents Media. GM Contents Media's CEO is Kwon Sibong who worked for Kim Kwangsoo for a long time. Kwon Sibong was placed as the CEO of the newly created company, but Kim Kwangsoo still exerts a powerful influence as the content producer for the company.

◇ T-ara, music site/sales jackpot 

T-ara's new song "Day by Day" was released on music sites on the 3rd and swept the #1 spot on the charts. Today (the 4th), T-ara are still on top everywhere including Mnet, Bugs, Olleh and Soribada.

With the big success on the music charts, Kim Kwangsoo has established to be a strong competitor in the music industry. T-ara's "Roly-Poly" was the #1 song of 2011 on Digital chart sales, beating out all other Korean singers, something which Kim Kwangsoo is proud of.

"Roly-Poly" isn't T-ara's only song ranking high in the digital charts, because currently "Lovey-Dovey" is the #1 song so far this year. T-ara's previous songs "Like The First Time" and "I Go Crazy Because of You" also had a longevity on online music charts and topped them as well.

With the trend of electronic dance music, "ppongi," amongst girl groups, T-ara's distinctive and addictive melodies with retro beats are always solid in their songs and lead to their popularity.

◇ 5dolls and Gangkiz poor results.. Why?

After T-ara's success from their debut in 2009, CEO Kim Kwangsoo decided to unveil a new group, 5dolls, in February 2011. Prior to 5dolls, Kim Kwangsoo made an ambitious decision to debut a mixed group with male and female members in 2010 named Coed School. After poor reactions, he put aside the female members of the group to debut in 5dolls instead. Last year, they revealed "It's You" and "Like This or That" one after another, but since then they have disappeared.

Gangkiz debuted in May of this year with "Honey Honey". Actresses Hwang Jihyun and Lee Haein as well as CF model Choi Sooeun were some of the members who boasted good visuals for the group. Their debut seemed like it would be a big success when the members went to Italy and Switzerland with T-ara to shoot their music videos, but their song's popularity was less than expected. T-ara's same style of music, "ppongi" was used on "Honey Honey" but with a trot twist and fun dance. Because of the lack of success of "Honey Honey" they decided to follow-up with a more powerful image with "Mama" but they also did not get much reactions.

T-ara's CEO Kim Kwangsoo who is also known as the "Midas Touch" in the music industry debuted two girl groups after T-ara who received poor results: 5dolls and Gangkiz. In response to why this happened, he responded.

"The groups both had a reminiscent style of songs similar to T-ara, and what was missing was an 'ace' to officially represent them. T-ara is unique in having a lot of members who can be the 'ace.' Jiyeon, Hyomin and Eunjung have unique individual looks and personalities which lets them shine in various fields of the industry. 5dolls and Gangkiz both had one member to represent them as the 'ace,' but they were unable to stand out."

Another problem is that T-ara already has their own individual group color (retro dance), while 5dolls and Gangkiz don't. In response to this, Kim Kwangsoo said, "5dolls and Gangkiz's song have the same 'retro' feeling as T-ara. A lot of girl groups stand out from the other competition, but it's hard to differentiate both the groups (5dolls and Gangkiz). Rather than the two groups standing out, the problem is their songs are too similar to T-ara's hits."