Fans are always eagerly awaiting their favourite K-pop idol groups to make a comeback. As part of the promotional campaign, agencies often publish concept photos of the group members to tease fans about the overall theme of the album.
There have been many instances where a particular member’s concept photos have broken the internet due to their visuals, but in CRAVITY (크래비티)’s case, it’s for an entirely different reason. The group made waves online over the weekend, with K-pop fans divided over just how unusual their concept photos are. Full story here:
CRAVITY is currently preparing not only for a comeback but also for a rebrand. The group recently underwent a lineup change, with new leadership now consisting of the original members and Hyeongjun. As such, the concept photos for their upcoming album “Dare to Crave” are expected to reflect the boy band’s current journey.
On 14th June (Saturday), the group released the concept images, which depict each member, dressed in white, hatching and crawling out of an egg, covered in some sort of translucent fluid. As soon as the photos were published, many expressed shock and even disgust at the somewhat unsettling visuals. According to Allkpop, some fans have expressed disappointment with the creative team for portraying the idols in questionable poses and using unsettling imagery.
Fortunately, however, the majority of reactions have been overwhelmingly positive. Many came to the group’s defence, stating that the imagery of them hatching from eggs perfectly symbolises their rebranding — or in other words, their rebirth. Others argued that CRAVITY may have delivered one of the most interesting and creative concept photo sets by a K-pop idol group in recent years, especially given how similar most concept photos tend to be.
As for the members themselves, they too responded to fans’ reactions to the photos. Minhee admitted that he was the most shocked about the whole thing and that he wanted to go home during the shoot. “We would unintentionally shove the person next to us and say to each other, ‘Oh, god, I am so sorry’. Then, it all became so funny that we basically thought of ourselves as human curling stones. (It’s like we played curling with human bodies.) We tried to laugh it off as best we could. It was fun.”
Jungmo reassured that fans should look forward to the other concept photos, as they worked really hard on them. Taeyoung and Sungmin took the “experimental” concept photos in stride, saying that they were happy to be involved in the process. What are your thoughts on the concept photos? Did you find them refreshing or disturbing?
