Does DSP Hate Rainbow?

Like most Rainbow fans, I was waiting for what seemed like an eternity for Rainbow’s comeback. When the teasers finally appeared, the wait seemed like it was going to be well worth it. I felt that DSP was finally going to put some effort into Rainbow. Maybe this would be Rainbow’s big break.

Nope.

This is really a shame, since Rainbow worked hard to remove the poor response they received after debuting with “Gossip Girl.” “A,” “Mach,” “To Me,” and “Sweet Dream” were good songs and it seemed like Rainbow was on the rise. However, DSP then threw Rainbow in their dungeon and shipped them off to Japan. It’s easy to look back in hindsight and say that was a disaster, but I’d predicted that Rainbow wouldn’t do well in Japan before they even debuted there. There is a high correlation between a group’s popularity in Korea and their popularity in Japan. Rainbow wasn’t popular in Korea, and groups who debuted in 2010 and 2011 are more popular than Rainbow is now. Rainbow should have been promoting in Korea while all of the other girl groups flooded Japan in 2011.

Well, Rainbow did come back in Korea in early 2012 with a subunit called Rainbow Pixie. I like to pretend it never happened.

When the teasers came out last month, they were sexy, giving off the illusion that their comeback would have a sexy concept. As new teasers came out, I started to worry. Rainbow was in fact coming back with a cute concept. They were going backwards in terms of developing their name. Normally, as you know, girl groups start off cute and then branch out. But Rainbow had given off a sexy, chic look in “A,” “To Me,” and “Sweet Dream.” DSP seems to be trying to rebrand Rainbow. It may work since a 20-month absence in the Korean music scene is an eternity, but it still feels like a major setback to longtime fans.

In my opinion, this is really the only redeemable part of “Tell Me Tell Me.” The song reeks of lazy production, as the same basic pattern repeats itself throughout the entirety of the song. Whoever produced the song didn’t even try.

Rainbow is just another example of how bad DSP is as a company. Kara is keeping them afloat for now, but DSP has really blown their chances with Rainbow, AJAX, and Puretty. Kara isn’t going to be around forever, so DSP needs to put effort into its other groups so that they don’t fade into obscurity. Here’s hoping the butt-shaking in Rainbow’s “Tell Me Tell Me” makes Rainbow popular enough to have another comeback so that they don’t get thrown back into DSP’s dungeon.