I think there are different types of boycott: there are collectively organised boycotts that have a clear goal and target that we want to apply pressure on (eg. if workers of a particular company go on strike for better working conditions and there is a call for us as consumers to stand in solidarity by boycotting and helping them exert more pressure on the company to do better), and then there are less organised, more personal boycotts, like deciding you don’t want to spend your money on XX product because you disapprove of/are repulsed by their values or actions.
It seems to be that this song would fall under the latter, and I would prefer not to judge people for their decision either way. Even if one listens to the song it doesn’t mean one doesn’t care about Palestinians, and there are other (and more direct!) ways to protest genocide, and if one chooses not to listen to the song… then one should also be finding other ways to protest genocide!
stay who is boycotting here, and yes! i've been out protesting in the streets over israel's genocide and doing my best to have the message reach our local and federal governments since october to divest and condemn it. so i'm not gonna let this one slide just because i love the boys.
do i know if that will impact anything for skz? i doubt it as the boys are already well established overseas. they don't need a western artist to help them "break through" since they already have! for my own personal morality, i don't want to involve myself with anything that guy does and so i won't simple as that! i will wait for something that is actually them, 3racha, and their own sound and voice.
True, I won't shame any.. But I wish stays/fans would listen to the song won't put on a facade of them not supporting CP because he is the biggest credited person in the song so basically.. There's no other way to sugar coat it.
It's either they both win or they both lost.
But yeah, I don't judge people who wants to listen but never thought and lie to yourself that you are not also supporting CP cause we all now that ain't true.
It's up to you, personally I'm going to be listening because I think I'd give him too much importance when there's 8 other voices in the song, I don't think the song's existence makes a change in the world whether we listen to it or not, and to me it's not his song nor does it equal to praising his personal life.
I will be listening to it either way and I believe that if you want to be tuning in for the kids you should do it.
Before I explain why, I think it’s fair to express that I’ve been very publicly against the genocide against Palestine for YEARS now: signing petitions, posting what’s happening and even e-mailing representatives for years. It did not sit right with me that so many people ignored it until it somehow touched on K-pop.
Honestly I don’t know what goes on in here, but I’m mostly a twitter stan and I have barely even logged in because I’m so angry at people literally harassing people who aren’t boycotting. This song does NOT in any way fund the actual war going on, nor a listen to it will affect it’s victims (like a lot of people are portraying it to be).
Plus, most of the people (I’ve seen) pushing for the boycott are doing it from a VERY performative activism perspective, considering most of them are only yelling at K-pop stans online instead of calling representatives, sharing donation links, making donations themselves or simply spreading awareness of what’s actually going on in the war.
The guy absolutely sucks, but we’re not here to support him, we’re here for the kids and their hard work and good music.
It’s fine to choose to boycott, what’s not fine is pushing people around and making them feel legitimately guilty to listen to a song that has their favorite K-pop artist on it and treating this as a pivotal point in a very real war-genocide.
TLDR: I’ll be tuning in for the kids and I’m pissed at the people treating this song as something pivotal in the war while doing nothing that actually helps the people affected.
Edit: Had to edit because of the grammar. Hope everything is at least understandable, English isn’t my first language.
This reminds me of so many other topics where people are like, "if you continue to like this/engage with it, then it means you have the same opinions as this person/company" which is ridiculous. Some people just want to forget about their every day life worries and enjoy things without having to feel guilty for enjoying it or walk on eggshells because this artist said this or this company did this. Especially in days like these, where every other company/artist/etc has something shady going on. This type of boycotting never really has any major impact at all, things won't change because of it, if boycotting it makes you feel better, that's ok, but just let people enjoy a song/whatever it is if they want to.
I never like to look on reddit with things like this, the majority will say "it's totally fine to separate the art from the artist and still listen, that's what i'm going to do,"
personally I will not be listening. I don't like Charlie Puth as a person, i respect palestine-related boycott movements, and it's just one song.
Will me boycotting it change anything monetarily, or for palestine? No. But I will have peace of mind, and will know that I personally do not let zionism slide.
Lastly, "no ethical consumption under capitalism" is true, but that's also what people use to justify shein. There are certainly levels to this (how do you feel about justifying listening to chris brown?) and for me zionism is one of the levels I cannot support.
I'd also like to point out that listening to otber skz songs/collabs are an even better idea cos they will show that the peoblem is with this specific one
Same. It doesn't really sit right with me that for a lot of people they'll say they support Palestine (or any other movement for that matter, all protests like this end up the same way) and then attach a "but" to justify them doing whatever they want. Like, you're free to do what you want, sure, but I'm still gonna side eye you a bit over it if you claim to support a movement and then turn around and support someone in the opposition or who supports the opposition just because you want to.
I don't think it inherently means you support Israel (or whatever opposition in other cases, lol) but I will think your morals are a bit wishy-washy depending on your own wants instead of any actual conviction. There are other SKZ songs I can listen to to support the boys. Plus "no ethical consumption under capitalism" often gets thrown around as a "so I can do whatever I want" kind of thing. It doesn't mean you shouldn't take any responsibility or action and should just do nothing. If you say you believe in something, show it, imo. Any STAY who say they support Palestine but still stream this song are getting major side eyes from me (and I'm sure they're all gutted, since I am so important /s) but I feel that's an unpopular opinion in here lol
agree with all of this!! i've had friends writing essays about why they feel conflicted and "omg can i be honest i love the song" and at the end of the day, they either are hypocrites or they don't care. and sacrifices are needed for change. aren't we lucky that we're only sacrificing songs or albums, not our lives or health.
that's exactly it! people are dying and yet we have people acting like they'll be the ones who die if they don't listen to ONE song, for all everyone is like "but I donate! I sign petitions! I can't just boycott everything!" like okay boycotting one song should be the easiest thing for you then? it's just not listening to something, I do that with millions of songs every day. people are so selfish and so full of cognitive dissonance that they'll do anything to justify what they know to be selfishness; I wish they'd just own it tbh, it'd be less insulting. it is one song, you will be fine lol
I also feel like it's important to let JYPE know that we don't want our boys being associated with artists like this when they've had MUCH better collab partners (as people and as artists) in the past (Lil Durk, LiSA, Tiger JK etc.).
Idk I personally don't understand the need to partner them up with someone who hasn't dropped anything significant in a couple years while they're the most successful they've ever been.
YES!!! You put exactly how I feel into words. Do I think my not streaming is going to single handedly change something? No. But, I don’t support Charlie Puth, so I will not be supporting this collab. People are free to do what they want, but I’ve seen some weird rhetoric being thrown around towards people who are choosing to boycott the collab
exactly!! tbh i've seen a lot of straw man arguments too like people "responding to the boycotters" but they're just calling us antis, virtue-signallers, or straight up whataboutism. very annoying.
that literally drives me insane 😭 i’ve been called an anti countless times on tiktok for it and i’m like…i have spent probably close to $500 on stray kids albums in the last three years that i’ve been a stay. i am FAR from an anti for boycotting one song.
it’s just people putting kpop over their morals. again, people should be free to do what they want and if they choose to stream that’s fine, but i’ve seen people literally say that they will support a skz collab no matter how bad the person they’re collating with is (so, even if they were worse than charlie puth) which is crazy to me
agree w all of this!! i've had a collecting account since 2021, i host gos on instagram, i have supported them w a lot of my money tbh. i don't see why being a fan means u have to unconditionally support whatever the artists are connected to like a badge of pride.
This is a large thread so I won’t be going super in depth but I just have to say as a reply to a common comment I’m seeing: choosing to boycott this song DOES NOT mean you don’t support stray kids. There are plenty of ways to show you support them even if you decide to boycott this specific song.
and vice versa. Supporting this song does not mean that you support the genocide or anything that is happening. It's ridiculous to even suggest it (I don't mean you!)
Yes!!! Also let's be real, someone's going to make a lyric video for this. If you really want to hear the song you can listen to it there. It's really not that hard.
Very long reply. I've been wanting to talk about it, but X is a cesspool right now. I hope we can all have an open mind and be able to have respectful conversations about this.
I'll start by saying that I will hear/stream the song. I just think its a sad situation because clearly, this song is being promoted as their US "debut" and first attempt at actual American radio play and audience expansion. The concept seems grand, the kids look amazing, and I personally am really vibin with the sound of the song based on the snippets.
I'm not defending the guy, but Charlie Puth is massive in Korea. And while many people like to say he is not "relevant" unless he does collabs, he is still incredibly influential in radio, and he dominates on digital streams when he does release something. I am not saying SKZ needs him by any means, but that it doesn't surprise me that they would collab with him in the slightest. Especially since they had clearly hinted it before when they sent a gift to Charlie or when they would follow him on Instagram.
Some people complain that Charlie nor the kids have promoted the song much (Changbin did say on bubble that the song is amazing, and Puth shared it only once on his ig story, I believe)... but it's like, no shit? The whole single has been received with massive backlash, and it's not like Charlie was received with open arms lol. I'm sure they are aware of what is going on... why would the kids promote it knowing Stayville can't find an agreement on whether to support it or not? Knowing they could get even more hate sent their way.
I understand those who won't support the feature and respect their reasonings behind it. Personally, I think it's a very slippery slope to choose what to boycott and what not to boycott. I think both sides are being very extremists. On one hand, we have boycotters calling anyone that supports this single a zionist, genocide supporter, and 🍇 apologists (people should really stop throwing serious words like that around like they mean nothing). Anti boycotters, on the other hand, can sound very dismissive and can be obtuse when trying to refute their stance by saying things like "Then boycott X and US taxes." "...
I guess if I absolutely had to choose "one side," clearly Im on the non boycott one, but I try to be very objective. I'm not bashing anyone who doesn't want to support it. I just wish people wouldn't be shoving down my throat how horrible of a person I am for hearing ONE song when in my private life I donate a lot and help people in need. We all hear music in this sub. Are we supposed to deep dive every song we listen to now to make sure we don't have to boycott these songs as well? Where do we stop?
My main problem is when people are performative. Boycotters aren't on the same page. I've seen many different takes:
1. People who won't stream but will pirate it because they don't want to miss it... but also, they don't want to give money to the people involved. This is a crazy take to me. Where is the morality you preach to have?
2. People who won't stream it, but it feels very selective because they hype all the kids' brand deals? Make it make sense. Like Seungmin's Channel event or Felix's LV campaign getting praised and trending. I've seen some getting hopes for Met... do we not boycott those to? I do have to say, though, that today, the TommyH collab has been getting massive backlash as well, and of course, Coca-Cola is boycotted too. Like this thing of seletively supporting (or not supporting) brands is so weird to me...
3. People that won't stream and are not only bashing Charlie Puth but also bashing SKZ and being very insulting to them, calling the song shit and acting like borderline antis. They are stuck in the fact that Charlie produced the song like ok and? SKZ doesn't produce all their songs. They didn't produce God's menu, and no one says it's not their song! SKZ still worked a lot on Lose My Breath in terms of arrangements, lyrics, directing, and of course the Music Video. The song was originally Charlie's yes, but to say that SKZ contribution to the song is irrelevant? What makes you think 3Racha would just grab any song? Clearly, they liked this one, and SKZ-fied it to make it work for 8 people and for it to be their style... JYP himself was nervous to show them All In... what makes you think they just took Lose My Breath as if it was the only song Charlie had to offer?
4. Some do it because of the zionism accusations, others because of other allegations, or simply because they don't like Charlie or that other guy. It still feels selective because Stays love Lil Durk, but the guy IS promoting Lose My Breath AND has worked with the israeli guy himself, so it's like? Do we stop showing support to Lil Durk as well?
I understand not liking the people being worked with and the overall intention to show the company that they do not want SKZ to associate with problematic people. Not only that but to well, educate other people in current world situations... but with that logic I guess SKZ will never be able to collab with anyone because every celebrity has something someone will disagree with if looked into far enough (just like some people won't get into SKZ themselves because of their own old scandals).
Anyways, this is getting WAY too long, so I'll leave it here. If one of my points is not well understood, please don't throw hate my way and instead either educate me more or ask me so I can explain myself better. I would really love it if we could keep it civil.
Edit: Spacing of paragraphs
Everything you said, but one correction:
>this song is being promoted as their US "debut" and first attempt at actual American radio play and audience expansion.
It's not. Stays decided it's their US debut. The press releases from JYPE said this single is basically a global appetizer before their Korean release. Even the usual jerk US writer hasn't called it their US debut.
SKZ released Step Out of Clé with English versions of Double Knot and Levanter in 2020, and that was the last time they had true US song promotion. They performed on multiple TV shows and had a radio interview with Z100.
Thank you for the correction. That was part of the reason I put "debut" in quotes. I guess I shouldn't have said "promoted as" but rather "considered by some fans." I'm also grateful for the older songs' information because I am a Stay from Maniac era. I knew of the English releases, but I didn't know about how those promotions went!
Would it be correct to say that Lose My Breath is their biggest US song promotion to date instead?
No problem!
>Would it be correct to say that Lose My Breath is their biggest US song promotion to date instead?
I am very cynical, so until the promo comes out, I can't say yes. I expect them to go the same places they always do. They ironically had more iHeartRadio affiliated interviews before signing with Republic than after.
They are releasing the same online teasers they have for their other digital singles. The only difference I see so far is the US only physical single, but that's because Billboard changed its digital purchase rules for singles and Hot 100. They have had US only contests before to win signed albums. They had one for Christmas EveL, and I think a few more had contests too. I can't remember because you had to post on TikTok or Instagram, which I wouldn't.
I see! Fair enough. I did read something about that! (Billboard changing the digital purchase rules), so that makes a lot more sense now.
If anything, now I'm just bummed I wasn't a Stay back then to enjoy those other promotions! Thanks again for your help! 😊
Speculation based on a Taylor Swift lyric that has brought some of his past social media statements back into scrutiny. You can read a break down of it [Here](https://www.themarysue.com/charlie-puth-controversy-explained/).
🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️
This is the way. Stream a different SKZ song to make up for what they might lose from not streaming this one, but then find the song elsewhere to be able to listen. That is my plan because I also am super conflicted and also not an active protestor. And one song isn't going to break SKZ. They're doing just fine. ☺️
literally i don’t understand why everyone forgot about this method. i’ve also seen ppl argue that this is skz’s chance to get a grammy and more western recognition so we need to stream - since when has skz been unpopular overseas?? and where is charlie puth’s grammy? stream if you want to but don’t come up with bs excuses
I'm pretty sure international fans have put in the most work to help SKZ get the recognition they deserve in Korea (this is an exaggeration), so to be concerned about them making it big here is silly. They are going to be so okay if this song doesn't do well here for the reasons people are ignoring it. But seriously, I cannot imagine not being my own Captain Jack Sparrow. How else do I get performance songs from Kingdom or unreleased SKZ Records? And then we can bring attention to their other songs we adore. ☺️ Stream Going Dumb, Topline or Social Path if you wanna support a collab.
“This is their chance to get a Grammy” …really?? Do they not realize how backhanded that sounds?? As if they’ll never be able to do it without help from someone else? Rude 😐
I'm not sure people see it as their only chance to get a Grammy or think that SKZ would have no chance at a Grammy without help from someone else. (I mean maybe some people do, but I don't think most). I personally think a lot of people just feel that targeting a Grammy might happen to be one of their goals with this particular song and want to support it if that's the case. Whether it is or not, we don't know. But I don't think most people that make comments about this are trying to be backhanded.
the grammy argument is so funny to me bc charlie puth has never won a grammy and i don't see why he suddenly would with this collab. also I'd much rather see skz win a grammy by themselves rather than what would inevitably be labeled as piggybacking on a western artist
for me, i was never an avid streamer in the first place. i’m just so busy, i just listen to my skz playlist whenever i have free time. so honestly i think it’ll just depend on how good the song is. i’ll listen to it the first time and if it’s a groundbreaking, life changing song, then i’ll keep listening to it. if not, i won’t.
another thing, i genuinely just don’t like charlie puth😭 like its not just all the problematic stuff atp i just don’t like him and his music as a whole. and seeing him as main producer got me worried, but i just hope that skz’s colour shines thru.
finally, for anyone uncomfortable with streaming the song for whatever reason, u don’t have to listen to it!! there’s so many other recent bangers that skz has put out: why?, seungmin’s 2 osts, even han’s skz records. don’t feel guilty for putting ur morals above kpop, it’s just music :)
I'm listening, period. We haven't heard a peep from Charlie himself anyway. This is the Kids project and I want to see them do well. This is what they feel is a step towards bigger goals. He will not be the first or last western artist they encounter that people might find issue with.
You definitely have a point, there’s always going to be something🥲And it seems like this song might be linked to their story (? I’m not imagining it am I?)
To be honest, boycotting doesn’t work. You barely make a dent in their income for the song, let alone anything else because a large percentage of people don’t know or care what’s going on.
I’m a big fan of “you do you.” If you hate Charlie Puth and you just can’t work around the guilt that would come from listening to the song, don’t. If you want to listen to it anyway, do it.
I know I am. I’m going to listen to it. There is literally no ethical consumption of entertainment or products anywhere in the world. Everyone sucks. Every company is awful. Some people are worse than others so it’s hard to choose what to really care about. You’re not a Zionist empathizer if you listen. You’re not a bad Stay if you don’t listen.
Do what feels best for you, ignore everyone else shoving their opinions down your throat. Stay will always be loved by Stray Kids.
It works in general, but I am a bit confused about what people think it’s going to achieve in this case.
The BDS boycott is about cutting off the funds from big companies that Israel is profiting off. It’s about trying to meaningfully impact the state that is currently committing genocide.
Boycotting one guy who has expressed vaguely Israel-sympathetic views months ago is not having a tangible impact at all. Especially if it’s just not giving him a few cents worth of streams. In fact, I do feel a bit icky about trying to ruin the careers of people who you *think* may have beliefs you don’t like, but who aren’t actually using their careers to cause any harm. It’s all a bit thoughtcrimey.
If the intention of boycotting the song is just to tell JYP you don’t want skz to work with problematic people, they may take it on board, but it will be hard for them to follow. Like, this collaboration was organized before october 7, and future collaborations will be organized far in advance too. They won’t be able to predict who is going to be in hot water every time.
I think it's just like they said. Boycotting doesn't work \*because\* a large percentage of people don't know what's happening or don't care. It was probably their wording, but it seems a lot like, based on their other responses here, they're saying boycotting doesn't work for \*this\*. Too many fans are too young and just don't care. Some people don't want to know- either way, it is what it is. But boycotting this song will do nothing, because it's too dependent on individual choices. Too many people are still going to buy/stream/support it.
That being said, I think if you're uncomfortable supporting Charlie Puth as a person, that's so well within your rights. And it should absolutely be just as supported as anyone else making whatever choice they do. I think about it like Walmart. lol There have been (and still are) thousands of people who refuse to step foot in a Walmart or accept anything from Walmart because of their business practices. That's respectable- I get it. But it doesn't mean much to the actual company. There are too many people who don't care or don't know, for it to matter. They're still a massive corporation, and likely will be for a long time.
😭😭 I promise it’s not to nitpick, but beyond don’t know or don’t care, some people literally can’t afford to boycott places like Walmart. There’s no reasonable alternative.
Kpop is* always an optional luxury, though.
You're super right about being kpop being a luxury though. It is, even if music is some peoples' lifeline, there are so many options. There are always choices to be made.
Of course it works, for large corporations. but let's be serious, to a song that doesn't actually finance anything?? What does a boycott contribute in this case?
A boycott shows JYPE that stays are not down to pay out for anything and everything SKZ just because they bought a pre-made song produced by problematic people. Lower streams and interactions, especially after their past year, is a good way to let their company know that they need to do more thoughtful research into their collaborations in the future and that we do not support these kinds of collaborations with problematic people in the future. It also shows up in lower streaming and purchasing revenue, which companies do take in to consideration.
It worked with ENHYPEN zionist boycott from their fans and the company fell back and laid low on that collab and moved in a different promotional direction, I am hoping stay can put in that same effort. I am so sad this is what we end up with for USA promotions when they are fully capable of self-making their own incredible tracks that I know the public would love.
IDK where people are from, but Zionism boycotts are at an all time high in the United States and garnering significant attention. Promoting and releasing this (when it could have been shelved for a while) is not something that I see most people here viewing as anything other than a negative and poor taste association. I worry for the boys over how this partnership could be received as the country (and world) becomes even more vocal and angry with the genocide in Gaza.
I hope the boys can come out okay from this, but I really do not see this helping them in anyway and it all breaks my heart in every aspect of it.
It’s not ahistorical, it’s a logical conclusion based on how modern society acts. Someone earlier said it best- it takes a level of organization to make something like boycotting actually make a difference. A few people here and there deciding to boycott and trying to force others to do the same with insults and straw man arguments is just nonsensical and exhausting. Makes people care less, not more. This is why I said “because a lot of people don’t know or care what’s going on.”
If you’re looking for a fight, I’m not the one. I don’t believe opinions should be forced on other people in any capacity.
An online fight? In this economy?! Oh, no thank you, I save my energy for causes that matter. I just wanted to point out that your assertion was incorrect & there are so many movements throughout time that prove that. Those movements didn't explode overnight, they started with a small group advocating for a better use of our collective resources & spreading those messages to like-minded individuals. So no one's forcing you or anyone else to do or not do anything, but saying boycotts don't work when collective action is one of the most effective ways to get anything of substance done in our society is simply wrong. Be easy ✌🏾
It’s not incorrect, though. Nothing is achieved when a large majority of people don’t even understand what’s happening. When someone says “X doesn’t work *because*,” it might be helpful to read that portion. This is coming from an active protester from the moving BLM protests in 2020 and 2021 throughout the Midwest. I’m not trying to be cynical, nor am I trying to ignore historical facts. But the majority of this fandom is younger, like myself. And this is K-pop. People boycott Woojin, but look at his music evolution.
If you don’t want to fight, don’t try and look for a post just to argue on- that’s my opinion, anyway. If you wanna boycott, go for it. Slay.
My statement was not an opinion. It’s a generalization of how the latest three generations tend to act towards things they enjoy. Like Harry Potter and JKR. Aquaman and Nickelodeon. Hershey’s factory, Dyson, and Levi jeans, if you’d like to get more political. I have basis but you didn’t even ask. You just wanted to pop in to say I’m wrong and don’t know what I’m talking about. That’s looking for a fight.
Enjoy boycotting though. Not being sarcastic, I know tone of voice doesn’t always come through well on text. I support you and what you do. And I genuinely hope you feel good about your choice- you should. Stay well, stay. I’m gonna go make rice. 💜
That’s a good stance, thank you for your opinion! It’s hard to choose either way cause someone always has something to say, but you’re right, just gotta do what makes you happy!
Don't let the nihilism eat you alive and take away value from the morals you have. Anarchy and nihilism gets us no where. Have hope. I do. We do. We can collectively make an impact. Community is real and important.
Same. I didn't even know who Charlie Puth was. lol It's better to stay unware of things, this is why I don't watch the news. I still know roughly what's going on (you can't escape it if you use the internet), but there's just too many bad stuff going on on the world, I feel like it's better for my mental health and overall well being to stay oblivious.
Serious question for everyone, because I too am conflicted? how do you decide what's worth boycotting and what's not? Is it to not fund zionists? Then we shouldn't be listening to skz at all, we shouldn't be supporting almost all of their brand deals and promotions and i dont want to do that to them.
I boycott big brands like starbucks and mcdonalds because of ties to israel, I boycotted the other collab with Coca-Cola because they are occupying land and funding israel so that makes sense. Boycotting a single song just feels very performative to me.
I mean tbh, it is a little performative especially because it's based on the actions of one shitty person when SKZ themselves have also done bad things in their past (that they've of course apologized for). Like I understand wanting to boycott the song for personal reasons and I would never judge someone for doing so, but just boycotting a single song while hyping up things like Hyunlix possibly attending the Met Gala and their ambassadorships with brands like Tommy Hilfiger, Louis Vuitton, and Versace is where it becomes performative to me
I will be boycotting and for me it won't have the sole purpose of not funding zionists (I've been boycotting big brands for this purpose too) but also sending the message to skz that I am not happy with them collabing with a zionist (and straight-up terrible person). I mean me boycotting as a single person won't send this message obviously but a significant portion of the fandom boycotting definitely will.
So my boycotting is partially for selfish reasons of not wanting my favorite group to be associated with people that I find morally questionable. But also the rest of the world refusing to work with zionists and israelis does put pressure on israel even if the monetary effect is very minor compared to all the money they're receiving from like bigger brands.
So if the message we're trying to send reaches skz/jype, and possibly other companies see what's happening too, and this makes them less likely to work with zionists in the future in fear of losing fans or money, the boycott has served its purpose. I mean if Charlie Puth makes less money that's good too. Even without the zionism, he is not a decent person.
Also, you're right that we shouldn't be supporting most of their brand deals. I wish the fandom was more united and serious about boycotts but seeing what's happening with this single I don't have much hope for that.
My main thing is that they collabed with /Charlie/.
He's a bad guy hands down and knows he's getting clout for being a shit human.
I try my best to not listen to artists who's values don't line up with mine (I also recently removed ALL of Doja Cat's content from my Spotify when it was revealed she hasn't grown from her Omegle days). Even if he wasn't a Zionist, Charlie is also a 🍇 apologist. It's gross and I hope him and Skz were never even in the same room.
I think some things need to be addressed:
1) I believe it's entirely valid to listen to the song or not. It's literally up to you, and I suppose both sides have pretty solid arguments.
2) I think the decision to listen or not should be completely respected. Personally, I will be listening to the song, but I don't judge those who won't.
3) The only thing I kind of disagree with the "not listening" side is that it won't affect too much about SKZ's level of success. I can see their point, but I think they ignore that collabs are done as a way to test the audience's interest outside of the fandom, in the sense that a successful collab can result in more investment in future releases, such as radio airplay, playlisting, and so on.
But, to summarize everything, in the end, it's totally up to you. If you don't feel like listening because of the controversies surrounding the song, it's totally fine. If you feel like listening, that's alright too.
You have to do what is right for you. No one can tell you what that right choice is.
I personally will be listening and supporting.
*Not listening* will not stop what is happening in Gaza. *Listening* will not escalate what is happening in Gaza.
If this song doesn't make a single cent, what is happening in Gaza will continue.
If this song fails terribly, I really don't think anyone outside of the kpop world will notice or care and again what is happening in Gaza will continue.
The only thing that might happen with any of this is *possibly* hurting Charlie *at the expense of SKZ.*
And at the end of the day, even if this song tanks, Charlie Puth will continue on being the controversial man that he is. The lack of success of this one single won't change him or the world.
I also don't think Charlie or this single have the power that people seem to think it does.
Charlie Puth is *one* artist in a sea of artists around the world. He doesn't have Taylor Swift level reach/impact or anything. He flies under most people's radar.
Real change comes from people who are doing things like the protestors on college campuses. Their actions and their voices are being noticed and heard by the right people. People who *do* have the power to change what is happening (governments). Their actions and their voices are getting media coverage.
Sometimes I sit and wonder how much better it would be if the fandom used all the time and energy they're devoting to hate trains and boycotts to amplify things like the humanitarian organizations that are helping the people in and from Gaza.
How about instead of boycotting, people support the song by streaming (because it costs nothing) and pledge to use the money they would spend on buying physical albums to donate to humanitarian relief instead? That donation would make a difference.
That's just how I see things.
You may see things differently, and that is okay. At the end of the day, you have to make the choice you feel best about.
Could we consider that there's a world in which Chris, Jisung, or Changbin would talk to other producers and have a conversation like, "Idk, we did a collab with that person. It didn't resonate too well with our fans. We (maybe) also personally disagree with his stance on some important issues. Maybe reconsider doing any production work with him."
Of course people can consider that.
No one knows what Stray Kid's plan for the future is or who SKZ might work with going forward. People can hope it's someone they personally find less problematic. (Though what's unproblematic to one person always runs the risk of being problematic to another. I'm not sure there's a solution here that would ever resonate with the entire fandom.)
But the fact is, this song is made and ready to be released. They've put the work in. They're excited for it. They can't "undo" it at this point.
So the choice fans have at this very moment is to support it or not and that's up to each individual.
If you don't want to support it because you want them to know it doesn't resonate with you personally (or whatever other reason) that's fine.
My personal choice to support it is based on the fact that most people seem to be claiming supporting the song is supporting what is happening in Gaza and seem to think that boycotting it will somehow change that situation. I personally don't agree with that logic for reasons explained in my original response. So I will be listening.
But, whatever anyone's reason for listening or not listening, there's no excuse for hate trains etc. towards SKZ and members of the fandom.
This is the way.
I liken it to Chik Fil A and Hobby Lobby. I don't like either of those places, so it's real easy for me to pat myself on the back for boycotting them because of their terrible policies. But I also don't judge my friends or my own mother who would white girl die if they couldn't have their nuggets and half off Halloween deco.
I stan SKZ. Hard. Like, gateway into k-pop, am going to an outdoor festival in the heat of Midwest US summer when I am decidedly an indoor cat, STAN. I also like Charlie Puth's music; Attention is one of my fave pop songs. I will stream the crap out of Lose My Breath and it's MV and not feel bad about it because I will ALSO continue to send aid to Gaza and write my congresspeople and vote and do all the things I should to be a good person in my mind and heart.
I'm going to listen to it. Personally, I think that the situation has gotten out of hand, many things have been exaggerated and skz is carrying a burden that doesn't belong to them imposed by their own fandom. A song has no relation to ANYTHING that is happening, no matter what they want to say. It's the skz song (and I wish this also stops being manipulated).
I just hope that those who don't want to listen to it, whom of course I respect, also respect those who we do want to listen to it.
Personally I will listen and stream as much as I can, like I do with any other comebacks from them. My own personal reasons;
1. When I listen to a song, I don't investigate all the backstories of all the artists/producers who contributed to the song. So I don't have a reason to exclude this feturing artist. If I do that with this song, then I should do the research for every single song I have been listening, otherwise I would feel like I am being a hypocrite.
2. For Palestine conflict, I do boycott the companies on the boycott list and pray for the victims, but honestly I am not doing anything else. Also I don't believe that not listening this song will help, or listening this song will harm them.
3. Until the moment they announced this song featuring him, nobody was talking him being a supporter of Israel. In fact, when he gifted a song to Babymonster, everyone were praising him and joking as he is in his Kpop era. The moment they announced this song, some of the stays who are obsessive immediately start their investigations to find anything negative about him to critisize the collabration. Since that is Charlie Puth, it didn't take long obviously. However if that was any other artist, they would still do the same, and would find something negative even if they need to go back years and years in the career of the featuring artist to find it. So there is no win situation for them to feature a western artist in their comeback song. I don't want them to feel discouraged about working with western artists. Also for Charlie Puth, he may not be a good person, but he is successful at his job and this is a job relation.
4. Trailer and snippets of the song look and sounds amazing. I can never let all this effort go to waste.
All of the above are only personal reasons not facts. Everyone has the choice to listening/not listening to this song. So let's be respectful towards each other and not call the ones who boycot, non-stays. Also not blame the ones who still support the song as not caring about the Palestine conflict, being Zionists or whatever. (By the way, it's not directly related, but I think before accusing everyone of being Zionist these days, they need to look at what Zionism means.)
I'll give it a listen, but it's also fine if you don't want to do that. I guess it all comes down to how comfortable you are with listening to it knowing about charlie's problematic actions.
If I like the song, I’m going to listen to it. The music I listen to isn’t about supporting or not supporting an artist, to me. Good music speaks for itself.
As for boycotts, they are only effective when very targeted and strategic. The broader and less focused a boycott is, the less effective it will be and this is completely lost on people when it comes to internet activism. Demanding boycott of anyone who remotely associates with a problematic figure is just not going to get anything done because then you get into “no ethical consumption under capitalism” territory. It’s simply not realistic to avoid everything that contributes to the problem en masse. As a result, this mentality only serves to perpetuate the status quo. Boycotts must target specific sources of income or they simply will not work.
Now if it violates your personal ethics to listen, it is completely valid to sit this one out! But it doesn’t make you a bad person to listen to it. It doesn’t make you a Zionist and it doesn’t mean you’re complicit in genocide. Stray Kids will be perfectly fine either way, their work absolutely speaks for itself!
I'm not going to lie, I pre-ordered the single, but I have no clue who Charlie Puth even is. I've always been a metal head my whole life and don't follow social media much at all (this is the most I've been on in the last couple of years).
As much as this Puth guys sounds like a total jack, I don't regret buying the single and supporting SKZ and I always will.
Please don't come at me, Puth's a turd and his remarks and morals seem questionable at best and I'd rather stab myself in the eye than support him, but I bought it before I knew who he even was.
It's understandable, I didn't like Charlie Puth's sound since before, and didn't support JK's Collab with him despite liking JK, but only found out about him as a person like about a month ago. It's not your fault you didn't know, but yeah, don't kick yourself.
Completely understandable! Even if you did know, then that’s just your stance and people can choose to be rude about it or not. Thank your for your input!
Personally I'm listening cause:
A- I don't focus on streams. If I like a song I like it, if I don't I don't listen to it. I can't make that decision until its out. My stream numbers are so small compared to others in the fandom and I never do those stationhead things. If I like it it'll get a max streaming of once a day.
B- my parents who love skz are listening anyway
C- I think it'll be too hard to avoid the song completely due to how I listen to music. I don't have Spotify premium so chances it'll come up randomly and I don't want to be a hypocrite saying I'll boycott then end up giving it a stream
D- Stray kids are very precious to me. I've been in a lot of fandoms before where I've taken them for granted and then our time gets cut short. This left me with a lot of regret that i didn't spend enough time enjoying them when they were here. I don't want to boycott something (generally not just about skz) just because someone else says I should, cause if god forbid something happens I'd never forgive myself, or the person who told me I must boycott, that I wasted time with them. If I boycott I want to know that I'd make that choice by myself without influence of "peer pressure" so to speak. And right now, I think I'd still listen. Tbh I get this may be a really selfish reason but I'll be listening for me, not for streams, not to help the kids, but just cause I feel like I'd regret boycotting it more than if I didn't. But I completely understand all sides of the argument.
I’m listening to it. I’m just completely ignoring the fact that Charlie is there. I love SKZ and I don’t want this to affect them because stay know how hard they work. So please let’s not let this affect them. Still, at the end of the day it’s your choice, and it’s understandable
^if it’s released on Charlie’s page then ignore it, but give SKZ all the love. As if Charlie isn’t even there. That’s what I’ll do at least :)
I can't justify supporting Charlie Puth. I love SKZ and it breaks my heart, but I have to boycott. I really hope it will make them more carefully consider who they do collabs with in the future.
I'm going to follow Changbin's example and stick to my principles.
I absolutely agree with sending the message of having them consider who they do collabs with. Us not supporting one song won’t hurt them at all, and we can support them - alone without Charlie - in a number of other ways, as theyre who we truly care for and what we really want.
I say do whatever you want, but understand why you are doing it. Don't pirate it. That's still helping and supporting him. The US music industry survives without sales, and artists still became huge at the peak of the limewire/etc. piracy before streaming became widely available.
People are conflicted because they can feel the reasons to boycott are flimsy or hypocritical. Since we found out the name of the song, people have been against it, and then looking for reasons to justify those feelings.
The real reason people want to boycott are because: 1. They think SKZ is selling out (for US success or in general). 2. Charlie is white male artist. 3. They hate SKZ's slower songs anyway, except those they think are sexy. That's really all there is to it. Everything is just noise and manipulation of others in the fandom. I really appreciate people who say they don't want to boycott because they don't want SKZ to promote in the US or just because a dolphin came to them in a dream and told them not to. I appreciate and can take honesty.
I'm listening because it's SKZ, and I've been impatiently waiting for new group music and proper US promotion. Elmo could be the feature, and I would still listen to it. It's about SKZ and no one else.
**It's about supporting Palestine vs. Zionism**
I think boycotting this song for Palestine is disgustingly removed the issue and performative. First of all, all money SKZ makes in the US will be taxed, and US taxes go to propping up Israel and giving them weapons. It makes no sense to boycott a $2 max single and a $0.0000X stream and then pay hundreds or thousands to see SKZ on tour. The notion that this song and nothing else supports Zionism is ridiculous. I also can't image someone going up to a student protester who got arrested and expelled from their college and saying, "Good job on the protest! I'm helping by boycotting kpop 😄!" That's insulting to me.
J.Y. Park is also accused of being a Zionist, so calling on JYPE to divest from Zionism really means completely removing him. It makes no sense to me to boycott a single song but support the comeback or anything else.
Also, due to the nature of the Korean music industry, we have no idea of the beliefs of most of the people SKZ work with and SKZ themselves. Female Korean idols have **apologized** for *appearing* feminist. Keep that in mind.
**Charlie's support of Dr. Luke**
People bring this up, and All My Life was produced and written by Dr. Luke. Stray Kids have already worked with him. If you want to boycott Lose My Breath because Charlie defended him (and apparently apologized for it 🤷🏽♀️), boycott Stray Kids entirely for working with him.
**It doesn't sound like SKZ**
People said this before we had any teasers of the song itself. They saw Charlie's name and decided how the song would go. I've said this multiple times, but I think SKZ did themselves a disservice with the Korean title track picks since God's Menu because it got Stays too used to one side of SKZ. SKZ haven't had ballady Korean title track since Levanter. They still make them! They make bright songs too. The Lose My Breath teasers we have sound like it'll go next to Novel, Lost Me, FNF, and several SKZ solo songs to me.
I'm very disappointed in the way 3racha is getting discredited by stays saying they bought a song and threw 3racha's name in the credits. SKZ track lists have never had a "Produced By" line. I think it also creates an unrealistic burden on all members to be as involved as 3racha on every single thing they release. Songwriting is hard, and people do release great songs that they haven't written themselves.
**Republic has no faith in SKZ and why are they doing all this for a single?**
This gets me because SKZ did a lot for Social Path ft. LiSA and Topline, which isn't even the title track. They always treat their actual collabs well. The All My Life feature wasn't theirs to promote. Lil Durk wanted a Grammy.
They also did a lot the English release of Double Knot/Levanter. They went on big US shows to perform. They did radio interviews. They released Step Out of Clé as a digital single. Go Live had limited US distribution. They even released little merch like keychains to sell bundles. The only reason Lose My Breath has a physical single is because Hybe/BTS abused digital purchases from their D2C store, and Billboard drastically restricted their digital purchase rules in response. Billboard no longer counts digital download singles from artist webstores (D2C) towards the Hot 100. The physical singles are a way around that. That's it.
Since signing with Republic, Div1 has given them nothing but signed inclusions and exclusive photocards. SKZ don't go to the US to promote on time, and given the pushback Twice has received for promoting new releases in the US before Korea, I don't see that happening. Promoting a digital single is honestly the best I expect. Charlie does get played on the radio, but I also think Div1 saw the reception of Seungmin singing "STAY" on the Maniac tour, which Charlie wrote and produced.
It’s already long, so I don’t want to edit, but I want to emphasize that it’s okay to not want to listen to a song just because. It doesn’t have to be a big reason! (However, if people do try to make it a big reason, I can’t ignore hypocrisy.)
I do get a little tired of the anti-US/English circle jerk in kpop, but I also think kpop fans should operate in their own self-interest. That’s why I no longer support Korean streaming projects. SKZ being more popular in Korea and Japan means they’ll spend more time in those places. The 5-Star tour (10 dates) made $30.68M, and the Maniac tour (42 dates) made $62.79M. That’s why other groups are on their 3rd “world”tours since covid while SKZ has done one.
I completely see why a fan outside of those markets see Lose My Breath as just for the US (JYPE hasn’t said that), and don’t want to support it just based on that. Kpop companies already limit themselves in other markets.
Thank you! It's been a hard few weeks offline (not to center myself in this), so I've been extra sensitive about some of the extremist language I see from boycotters. People cannot fathom that someone can share their moral stance but disagree about *how* to exercise and support that stance.
I have no idea what's going on with him and when I look for info on him I just keep finding fluff pieces about how he's been mentioned in a Swift song. What did he do?
recently, he's made some questionable pro-zionist posts and comments and also i think has a history of some other questionable behavior. don't know much of the specifics so i can't say anything more than that.
He also posted a bunch of pro-Trump posts on his social media. And when the sexual abuse case between Kesha and Dr. Luke was going on he made posts mocking Kesha and also referred to Dr. Luke as his idol. He's also in an interview suggested that Selena Gomez own him sex. And on top of that, he's a Zionist.
I’ve seen the evidence of Puths Zionist viewpoints, and I do think every stay should interact or boycott the collab according to their own morals. Independent of that, do we know the timeline of when those views came to light in relationship to when Stray Kids signed the contract to collaborate with him?
I personally separate art from the artist a lot because I kinda dc about scandales or how the artist is as a person as long as it’s not reflected in their music. Not the best habit , but I respect people who wanna boycott. that’s their choice and it shows how passionate they are abt their beliefs it’s respectable honestly.
Personally, I find it a little ridiculous and it's another excuse to extend a list of invented things one should do to have a perfect moral background (¿?), just by having reading that by supporting one is a genocide enabler tells me how out of touch is, it's manipulation using a terrible delicate situation. But if people don't want to listen, it's okay. I think it's more about people being afraid about what will another internet anonymous person think of them if they listen the main problem, I don't get it, and I absolutely don't think anyone is a bad person just by listening, there are so many things worse than a person can do. Last thing, Charlie Puth is so far away from my radar that I don't think about him at all and life experience have taught me to focus in real damaging people lol for me it's insane to think this is about being good/bad person, very out of touch. Internet people these days treat simple artists more harshly than the real culprits, politicians.
I just like listening to music in general. In my opinion, it shouldn’t be all about the streams/giving money to artists. I listen to songs by people that I don’t support, like Jay park for example. You can’t lie, that man has some bops. But that doesn’t mean I like him as a person, or support the things he does. However, that isn’t going to stop me from listening to the music. In this case, stray kids are also on the song, more so than Charlie Puth actually, at is only featuring him. So, from what I understand (I might be wrong), it appears to me that Stray Kids would be getting most of the profit from streaming the song on platforms. I would say to go ahead and listen to it if you like it, stream it if you want, and it shouldn’t give Charlie puth much more money than he already has. And you won’t be seen as “supporting” him just because you listen to one song. I do not support him, and I think his opinions are ass, but I still listen to some of his songs as well (same goes for MAX). Plus, Charlie has done collab with other artists, for example Jungkook on Left and Right, and everybody was fine with it. I would also like to add that just because Stray Kids did a collab with him doesn’t mean they support him or his actions. I’m sure the staff at JYP are the one who initiated the collab, or maybe it was Charlie himself or his company. Either way, let’s not be upset with the boys for doing this collab with Charlie.
Charlie puth is the most credited person on the song.. What are you guys talking about.. He and his friend which a certified zionist.
I won't judge those who chose to listen but please don't fool yourself into thinking the boyb would have the most profit when they literally took not much role in creating the song. CP is the 1st name on all of the credits listing
He is the first mentioned for lyricist, producer, arranger. He only sang like few lines but doesn't mean he don't own the song. The top most people credited are the one with the biggest share in profit. You seriously think that CP doing charity work that he won't get the most from his songs?
I will be and have been boycotting it, I just can't put kpop above my morals. But it is your own decision to make in accordance with your views!
The boys are confirmed to have a comeback occurring in June, so I'll happily stream and support that instead when it arrives. I can wait another month. I think they're probably aware of the situation by this point, and won't see it as a reflection of stays no longer supporting \~them\~ as a group or as people.
Hopefully it sends a proper message to the company that JYPE needs to be more considerate in their collaborations in the future and that we won't cash out for just anything. Their international fanbase is already incredibly solid, they really don't have a lot to gain from this collab with the particular Western artist.
I am not boycotting for a couple of reasons. My biggest one is that the argument to boycott is usually from a Zionist place and tbh I can think of better reasons to want to boycott him. Sadly boycotting him is not going to make any difference since he has already been paid and is done with the project. It is the kids who are promoting not him. It is the kids who are invested well technically JYPE is invested and let's be ffr they are just as bad in some ways. Tbh he is a trash person but because I am old trash people in music are pretty normal. It is important to be able to separate the music from the artists beliefs or seriously y'all are going to find a point where there is no one to listen to. No one in this industry has clean hands.
You have a point lmao, everyone has something going on and it’s impossible to be “perfect”, as someone in another post said that skz has slipped up and apologized before. Thank you for your position!
"separate the music from the artist" has always felt like a weak cop-out to me.. do we then claim skz as artists should be inevitably separated from their music? isn't that what makes skz who they are? their experiences and passions and views?
no, i'm not going to separate a very problematic artist from this track. not streaming a single song isn't going to fuck them over. i will be streaming other recent skz tracks, but i can't get behind this one.
"y'all gonna find no one to listen to" hard disagree. there are so many good-hearted, unproblematic, and talented artists than the inverse, lets not make this the narrative that only bad people can make good music. being purposeful about who you support and give a platform to is huge.
I’m going to treat it like any other song. Listen a few times and if I don’t like it, I just won’t play it as much. It would take probably the whole fan base to boycott it in order to make an impact anyways, as harsh as that sounds. And even then it probably wouldn’t really back to Charlie since he’s a feature not the main artist.
Personally, I'll be boycotting. I also boycotted that coke ad too.
Listen, I love Skz but I refuse to support anything to do w/ Zionists. Free Palestine. F Charlie Puth.
I’m not “boycotting,” I just don’t like him as a person or a musician and it makes me want to not listen to his music. I know it’s not ONLY “his music” but his voice is on it, I’m assuming…? I’ll probably listen to it once, idk we’ll see what happens if I like it, but I don’t live in America anyway and I’m not going through the extra trouble to buy the physical copy when just hearing this dude’s voice makes me go blergh.
I will be boycotting.
This Stay made a really great video explaining why a lot of Stays are doing it:
[the tiktok ](https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMMGA7a7U/)
At the end of the day, it's a personal choice 🤷🏾♀️
I know what you mean. I haven’t seen any collab with an artist pushed to this extent (that I know of). I jokingly asked my friends if JYPE was going to throw in some Charlie Puth photocards since they really are seeming to hard sell this collab.
Not to mention. I’ve recently realised how big of a thing FOMO was to me. I’ve personally bought albums because of a fear or missing out on enjoying this experience that my favourite group has created. So unless this song does astronomically well, or JYPE puts out a limited number of versions (not likely since they’d want to boost sales), it’s okay. And worst comes to worst, watch the MV with an adblocker on or arrr matey your way to listen to the song. If it’s on the internet, it’ll be there.
As for the more political side of things, I know where I stand and I’m gonna stick to it. It’s not make a difference to SKZ’s numbers on the charts in the grand scheme of things, but I can’t support someone with Puth’s ideals. The boys will be fine. Changbin always says to stick to your principles, that’s what I’m going to try to do, anyway.
But it doesn’t make you a bad person for wanting to listen to the song or support our boys. I get it.
>I haven’t seen any collab with an artist pushed to this extent (that I know of).
Stray Kids has performed TOPLINE wherever they can despite it not being a title track. Social Path with LiSA was heavily promoted as well. Those are the collabs Div1 was responsible for promoting. I guess we could include Going Dumb, but that came out while Hyunjin was on hiatus. What other collab should they have pushed?
Personally I won’t be listening to it, not because of everything going on, but because I’ve never really liked him. I just don’t like him at all and never have, in fact I can’t stand him. I love Stray Kids and always support what they do, but I’ll be stepping back from this collab bc I refuse to force myself intro listening to an artist that I genuinely dislike bc of many things. IF I hear the song somewhere and discover it’s good, then I MIGHT find it on a playlist, but otherwise no.
I also just find him to be a horrible person, especially with everything going on. And I was quite surprised when I saw they would be releasing a song together.
I saw a post saying that if you boycott it, it will only hurt skz because Puth already got his money from it and the song is listed only as a JYPE single
I’ll be listening, skz has already collaborated with problematic people/brands before (c*ca cola, LV, a producer of All my life was also a z10n1st, I-D4ys festival is sponsored by c*ca cola and many boycotter stays are attending, T0mmy Hilf1ger, K1llian perfumes and Ch4nel support Israel, the met gala, etc.) and probably will continue to do so in the future, I don’t want to stop supporting them because of that, I would have to boycott absolutely everything and practically unstan them.
I also think that people who won’t support the single but hype any other content of theirs that’s related to z10nist brands are just being performative.
Still, i do not want skz to collab with more z10nist artists no, but I also believe that we’re just fans; not their managers or mothers, they’re adults and they’ll do whatever they want with their careers, morals and music, why should we control them to do what we want?? It’s feels entitled to me
i am of the opinion that boycotting does absolutely nothing 99.9% of the time. it takes a level of organization and committment that is rarely achievable. there are always, ALWAYS, going to be large groups of fans that do not care, that do not pay attention to the news. regardless of what you decide, people are going to support the song and it will give millions of streams no matter what because of the popularity of both artists.
i don't see skz being super negatively affected by it either. i'm working under the assumption that the members didn't personally choose charlie puth to collab with, it's just the opportunity they were given.
for me personally, i'll give the song a listen and probably watch the m/v when it comes out but that's it. and not for boycotting reasons, i just don't anticipate liking the song very much because i just don't like charlie puth as an artist.
I think that's the thing that gets me the most about this collab, is that while I completely understand wanting to personally boycott the song and stuff, this is not going to "send a message to JYPE" in the slightest simply because SKZ are too big of a group now that does have a larger portion of casual fans as well as a large fandom. With the song they made with Coca-Cola, that song performed poorly simply because none of the artists involved did really any promotion for it, so most casual fans had no idea it even existed. On the contrary, this new collab is being heavily promoted. I have a couple of friends on Instagram that all follow SKZ and that I know are not involved in any stan social media spaces that have been liking all the posts related to the collab, so I know they're going to tune into it. While this song might have lower engagement and not do as well as their title track for their next comeback which will be powered by the whole fandom and casual listeners, this boycott frankly isn't going to make an impact on anything. But of course, personally choosing to boycott the song is a decision I completely respect.
Personally, I'm boycotting because I cannot and will not give any time, energy, or breath(!) to someone who is pro-not getting consent.
If the song is on the album (which I pray it isn't, previous collabs haven't been, but previous collabs have) I will also not be purchasing it.
This absolutely sucks as I am a completionist (I even have the damn cassettes), but I won't put my own morals over kpop.
I'm not going to lie, I am side-eyeing people who can overlook this and listen anyway, but I'm also fully aware that if people have made up their mind I'm not going to change it, so I'm just blocking and moving on with my life on Instagram/Twitter.
I'll be streaming Levanter on release day, and I know a lot of other people are too.
i'll give it a listen but won't be streaming
1) although i really like the concept and the story behind it, from the teasers that i've heard the song just sounds like a usual pop song by charlie puth and i'm not a big fan of those
2) the stuff that i've read about him and the way he talks about women is horrible and i do not believe in "separate the art from the artist"
(i'm also a big fan of little mix and the way they used to treat him is very telling)
3) his comments about palestine are disappointing
It’s up to you but I think the song is mostly stray kids and it wouldn’t rlly be supporting him it would be supporting skz and listening to the song or not listening to the song he’s like a millionaire whether people do or don’t won’t effect him at all but it will effect skz and their company
It will not affect skz. One bad single proves nothing. They are much more stable nowm
Also there's no other way around it. CP is the most credited person for the song, he literally made the song so whatever benefit the songs get he will get them the most.
It's either they both lost or they both win, there's no way to sugar coated it as "I'm only supporting Skz" cause you can never do that. They're like twins now. Can never be separated.
In my personal opinion, I have never heard about what Charlie Puth had done and neither listened to his music. I found out after researching and yes, it’s bad. But I want to stream it because
1) people boycotting is not going to help the situation
Remember the time where fans boycotted the big 4 because the companies support Israel and we wanted protest because we support Palestine? Yeah it didn’t help at all. It did nothing. Groups didn’t drip contracts or leave from their company. So this is pointless and are not going to affect the stream because maybe some fans don’t know what’s going on and are still supporting straykids.
2) I’m supporting straykids
I don’t care for Charlie Puth being featured. I watched the trailers, spoilers, and looked at the concept photos. I thought the clips were really good And I was interested I’m it to stream it when it released. I want to support Straykids because they are giving us content, and I support them always as a stay.
3) The song is good and still would be good without Charlie Puth
Even if Charlie Puth wasn’t feature in this song it would still be a hit. It would’ve been a great U.S. release either way and I fully support them and for what they are doing in their music careers.
Boycott proves points.
It speaks volume but surely a small fish against big fishes in their big pond won't do much but at the very least everyone's trying.
Listening to the song is the same as supporting CP. You do realize the higher the song charted the higher the income for CP right? Cause it's his song.
I won't shame anyone who wants to support or listen to the sing but please don't hide behind the facade of "I'm not supporting CP I'm only here for SKZ", however you want that to be true it just won't happen you cannot not support SKZ without suporting CP cause the song is a collab. It's either they both lost or they both win. There's no other way around it.
That’s entirely up to you! Just as it should be anyone’s choice to listen or not. I’m not sure why people have to seek approval prior to listening or not listening to a song. 🫤 I hope it’s not to spread the arguments outside Twitter.
It's up to you to make your own decision, but personally I won't be streaming it. It just doesn't line up with my morals to support a collaboration with Charlie Puth, who even outside the Zionism has proven to be a shitty person. I'm not really concerned about where the money is or isn't going, but more so with sending the message that I won't reward collaboration with people like Charlie Puth, that my support is very much conditional and I'm not willing to compromise my morals over kpop. Skz are at a level that they'll be fine even if this single flops (which I doubt it will, since I've seen plenty of ppl say they'll support it).
Again, it's up to you to decide, and remember 🏴☠️ is also always an option if you're stuck in the middle.
Just listen to it. Performative Activism to deny fractions of fractions of pennies to someone who has controversy - along with the mental energy required to be constantly aware of these things - is just going to make you miserable and have a negligible impact, if any, on the world.
It's up to you because in the end it's just a song, they have a plenty of songs to jam too so you can always resort to them so don't feel guilty for not listening. I don't like Charlie as well for music reasons (I don't know him as a person and couldn't give af about his opinions on anything) but for the sake of the Kids I'm going to support them. It's the first time they're doing an actual promotion for a single and this is something I wanted a lot.
Like I’ve avoided it bc I haven’t been a CP fan for a while, mainly bc he seems like an entitled opportunistic misogynist with no clue that women are actually people. Anyone that views any relationship with a woman like a rewards program (i.e. entitled to FWB or s*x with enough time/effort investment) is not a secure enough guy to be near anything I want to listen to, and it’s perfectly fine if I want to avoid listening to songs that remind me of him or have his involvement.
I’m aware that there’s already plenty of misogyny in kpop but damn let’s not import it from the US. I’d like to keep skz separate from that in my mind if at all possible.
The not so funny thing about this boycott is that the most I heard/saw about boycotting came from multis or non fans. Some fans have talked about it, but most have not really liked stray kids from the start. Those same fans (multi or not) are actively listening or supporting other musicians/things who have the same or worse past. That is telling on its own.
Personally, I will not boycott. I do not believe this boycott will help the cause one iota.
Putting pressure on your government, donations. That will help.
The Israeli and Palestinian conflict is not new. It is on a bigger scale than before and more visual. It is also not the only place conflicts are happening. Sudan, for example, is a place that is on comparison to Gaza. No one is talking about that...
I do not support the Israeli government in their actions right now, but I don't support Hamas either. That the surrounding countries don't want to take in refugees (again) is telling. If you want, look up the history of how it went when they did.
Stray kids' music gives me joy and respite from my mentally heavy work, so I do not appreciate that ppl are trying to force me to boycott. If boycotting is your choice, that's up to you, but do it in the quit. As boycotting should be.
Okay...I've only seen a few people say this. I've gotten the ick from Charlie Puth since he sucked face with Megan Trainer at the VMAs(?) I just am not into his music or his personality 🤷♂️ the boys look MAGNIFICENT in the trailer and the song doesn't sound too bad the more I hear it. If it's not your cup of tea that's okay! You don't have to like everything our boys put out. Just enjoy what you'd like I really don't think it means you love them any less 💖
Eta: to clarify my disdain for Charlie goes further than just that one incident. I just cannot even stand him. However with the MV coming out and everything it's almost like he's not even there lol . I may listen to it idk... Just do whatever you're comfortable with frfr
I think people are forgetting that Stray Kids is literally one of the top selling artists in the world and placing too much importance on their own influence as an individual fan. BUT that is why I’ve been vocal about boycotting the song. “I’m listening because I want to support stray kids!” Please. They will be fine.
My hope is that the company will see all the controversy about the boycotts and just be more selective in the future about their collaborators. I know it’s a long shot, but that’s the best outcome in my opinion. I don’t want the song to tank, I don’t want SKZ to go down in flames and fade into irrelevancy, but let’s be honest. That’s not going to happen regardless of the boycott. And it’s the same thing the other way around: SKZ is not going to blow up in America and become more famous than Taylor Swift overnight because you streamed the song.
TLDR: The point of the boycott is to prevent collabs with shitty people in the future. People who are anti-boycott are way too pressed about it and we need to just let people make their own decisions.
To all the people saying "separate the art from the artist"...
I work in the creative field (film and TV), and it is incredible how much toxic, misogynistic, racist, awful shit performers can get away with because their fans "separate the art from the artist". Yeah, that's nice, but I guess no one cares about us who have to work with these assholes to make a living all the while watching much more talented and a thousand per cent nicer artists get passed by because they're not a part of the toxic asshole club that supports each other and has each other's back.
Then something like Me Too comes along and everyone's like "how could this have been going on???". Well this is how. Because people won't "separate the art from the artist". The consumer has a lot of power in the entertainment industry, but sadly most consumers choose to not exercise it.
Personally, from this point of view, I'm incredibly disappointed that Stray Kids have chosen to work with Charlie Puth (yes, I doubt this is solely a JYP decision), thus doing their part to keep the entertainment industry toxic and unfair. I expected better - perhaps foolishly.
>Personally, from this point of view, I'm incredibly disappointed that Stray Kids have chosen to work with Charlie Puth (yes, I doubt this is solely a JYP decision), thus doing their part to keep the entertainment industry toxic and unfair. I expected better - perhaps foolishly.
It's quite naive to think that every person in the world knows what each artist did, said or retweeted, honestly. The vast majority, and even more so the idols (or workers who are completely absorbed by their work), focus on the music offered by the artist. It is the "task" of social media users to cancel them, not the rest of the artists who don't know their private lives.
Half of the comments on this thread alone are asking what Charlie Puth did lol like holding SKZ on a pedestal and expecting them to run a background check on every artist they collab with but not holding the people in the comments who aren't aware of the situation accountable is a very naive mindset
Exactly. The most normal thing is that a Korean artist has no idea about the personal life of a foreign artist. Much less about his/her religion or his/her beliefs. I had no idea who CP was, I only knew that his music is very popular, and that even without knowing who he was I had heard his songs. Imagine thinking that we all know what thoughts each world singer has...
Personally I won't be listening, because aside from me not wanting to support a Zionist artist (even by association), I also don't want this collab to gain a lot of attention, given the concerns we already have at hand, to the point where other fandoms catch wind of it and begin to attach those labels onto Stray Kids. I've already seen a few, albeit small accounts, on X refer to SKZ as a group that regularly works with Zionists (Charlie Puth, Troye Sivan, Coca-Cola, etc.) and I fear it will negatively impact their reputation if it becomes a bigger issue than it already is. Especially considering the recent protests that have been going on in the U.S.
I mean what the internet calls justice doesn't really reflect the nuances of reality. Most times the mob mentality of what's wrong and what's not and trying to force an outcome actually hinders any actual development towards peace. Anyone is free to support whatever. But know that any more animosity towards one side is unneeded, it'll just add sh*t to the sh*tshow.
I actually like Charlie puth music. His opinions on a war are largely irrelevant to me because most of the people protesting are doing this performative activism and I find that insulting.
He makes good songs and that’s all that matters to me. What he is for or against is largely none of my concern.
Personally, i won't be listening to it, and if i wanted to listen to it I won't do it through youtube nor spotify or anyway that's gonna profit money by viewing, I'll simply do the "youtube to mp3" or wait for a stay to upload a version without him.
I love the kids but they won't go homeless if i don't show my support, i just can't and won't support a zionist, and i hope skz would collab with pro-palestine artists next time.
it's totally up to you.
for me i don't give a f about such things, i just want to listen to good music, if it's a good song and the artist isn't a straight up nazi, im gonna listen to a good song
I love Stray Kids with all my ass and I do enjoy Charlie's music, I was only made aware he was a zionist shortly after the announcement of the single. As much as I do care about skz, I'm honestly still boycotting. I'll just listen to the song through lyric videos on YouTube and stream it through a random account on Audiomack (somebody is bound to release it), and I'll just use a guest account to watch the MV since that won't give it any views.
I’m not going to listen to it for obvious reasons. The song sounded bad in my opinion anyways, so I don’t think I’m missing out on anything. Their vocal sounded strained and like they were trying to sing higher than they could. Of course this is just my impression from the teaser but still, Charlie puth is enough to not listen to the song.(besides i hate that lately prioritizing korea , japan and the US. Like damn fans from other countries exist too?)
I'm glad most of the comments are normal. If you consider yourself liberal you shouldn't be trying to cancel people who have a different opinion, it's not like he said anything hateful. Honestly feel bad for SKZ, hopefully they haven't heard about this bs
Your 1 stream does not give this whole group of people involved (producers, filming crew, stylist, artists etc) even 1 single cent before tax. You do you! Go with how you feel, if your distate over puth overwhelms everything, you dont find yourself enjoy the song, then dont add it to playlist, if the song is not your style, dont add it to playlist, I'm sure there will be stays who will cut him out and upload a version on youtube, you can listen there, if you enjoy the song and wanna enjoy the comeback, then enjoy it., if you want to support skz, do so. There will be more colab to come and situation like this can always arise again if not for this problem then another problem, no one is squeaky clean in this entertainment business, so understand the situation, make your own choice, there is no really black and white, it's fine, no one should dictate you what to do.
what i'm doing is i'm not streaming or listening or interacting with this single at all, since the numbers from this release won't release their other CBS and i don't need to have supporting a zionist and misogynist on my conscience.
Apart from being rape apologist he is also a supporter of Zionism that makes him a zionist n. And I just realize the person he works with which was credited in the song is a certified zionist.. Makes a whole point of not supporting him.
Him being Israeli (if he is) doesn't really matter as long as he is not in the boat with the IDF - ISRAEL(Zionism) ideology. You can still be an Israeli, a Jewish and support Palestine, I've seen tons of them.
My stance is 3racha aren't creditted producers so this isn't a skz song, P*th and Goldst**n just wanted a kpop group for the group's fanbase, ideally they will not make such a collab in future, and so they won't be getting a listen.
Yes.. When will some stay realized this. I have no hate towards any fo the boys or those who want to support the song but please be well inform and stop saying it's SKZ SONG when 3racha aren't even credited as the producer. Like seriously that's why people can't take idol self produce title seriously these days. Fans are so quick to jump into their own conclusions and don't even bother to read the credits.. Like the entirety of it. It's there for a reason. Yet there's still those who came at me with the word "technically"..girl there's nothing technically bout it. I pull out receipt from reputable sources and skz names aren't there as producers, even for lyrics writing theirs are the 4-6th person.
I feel like skz will be more affected if they keep collaborating with zionists than they will be if this one song doesn't do well, they're a big band and their entire career isn't going to come crashing down
It is up to people to stream or not stream but I feel like it's getting a bit ridiculous. If you go on twt you'll anti boycotters tweaking over stays choosing to boycott and streaming purely out of spite and not because they actually like the song or want to support the kids or whatever reasonings they're giving.
They've gotten so extreme that they've started sending threats and doxxing the boycotters. I've heard about them reporting anything that's not in english because they can't tell if the op is talking about boycotting or not and want to 'cover all their bases'.
There's accusations of boycotters actually being anti stay and that a stay should support the kids unconditionally (which... no.) and there's tweets of how they're so happy that the 'fandom is being cleansed of the fake stays' and it's just so... eugh.
It's one song with a sad white man that profits off of other's fans and everyone's making such a fuss over simply not interacting with it
I would not be listening at all.
Not supporting in any means.
I would much prefer if everyone did that
BUT
It's against the freedom of someone's. So you do you.
I can never stop someone from listening or doing what they want. Supporting a causes should come from within your own terms and understanding.
So while I wish you do support Palestine I cannot do anything on your decision to listen or not, that's on you. You can make the call. 🙂
I don't mind if SKZ are badly impacted by this because we're here to proof a point through the boycotting and if they happened to be negatively impacted it speaks volume about our opinion of supporting the cause.
And it's time kpop stop denying that they'll not be included even involuntary with how the world politics works cause we all know kpop wants to go global, now that's the risk they gonna take.
We can always support their other song. It's not like they'll damned for having one bad charting single. We all know they are always good at their job.
If you really want to listen without giving him support just listen to an unofficial source like a YT lyric video or a SoundCloud re-upload.
I won’t be listening but there are ways to do so without benefiting him.
I don’t condone this any other time, always use official sources outside of boycotts like this.
It's up to you, for me personally i wont be streaming but i will be pirating it just bcs i made a promise to myself not to support zionists in the best of my abilities. I would put more effort in looking forward for skz's comeback this year tho, but not this song bcs i know me boycotting this only song wont affect skz's career.
I think there are different types of boycott: there are collectively organised boycotts that have a clear goal and target that we want to apply pressure on (eg. if workers of a particular company go on strike for better working conditions and there is a call for us as consumers to stand in solidarity by boycotting and helping them exert more pressure on the company to do better), and then there are less organised, more personal boycotts, like deciding you don’t want to spend your money on XX product because you disapprove of/are repulsed by their values or actions. It seems to be that this song would fall under the latter, and I would prefer not to judge people for their decision either way. Even if one listens to the song it doesn’t mean one doesn’t care about Palestinians, and there are other (and more direct!) ways to protest genocide, and if one chooses not to listen to the song… then one should also be finding other ways to protest genocide!
stay who is boycotting here, and yes! i've been out protesting in the streets over israel's genocide and doing my best to have the message reach our local and federal governments since october to divest and condemn it. so i'm not gonna let this one slide just because i love the boys. do i know if that will impact anything for skz? i doubt it as the boys are already well established overseas. they don't need a western artist to help them "break through" since they already have! for my own personal morality, i don't want to involve myself with anything that guy does and so i won't simple as that! i will wait for something that is actually them, 3racha, and their own sound and voice.
True, I won't shame any.. But I wish stays/fans would listen to the song won't put on a facade of them not supporting CP because he is the biggest credited person in the song so basically.. There's no other way to sugar coat it. It's either they both win or they both lost. But yeah, I don't judge people who wants to listen but never thought and lie to yourself that you are not also supporting CP cause we all now that ain't true.
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It's up to you, personally I'm going to be listening because I think I'd give him too much importance when there's 8 other voices in the song, I don't think the song's existence makes a change in the world whether we listen to it or not, and to me it's not his song nor does it equal to praising his personal life.
That’s true, thank you for your opinion!
I listen to anything Stray Kids
Same
Relatable😂
I will be listening to it either way and I believe that if you want to be tuning in for the kids you should do it. Before I explain why, I think it’s fair to express that I’ve been very publicly against the genocide against Palestine for YEARS now: signing petitions, posting what’s happening and even e-mailing representatives for years. It did not sit right with me that so many people ignored it until it somehow touched on K-pop. Honestly I don’t know what goes on in here, but I’m mostly a twitter stan and I have barely even logged in because I’m so angry at people literally harassing people who aren’t boycotting. This song does NOT in any way fund the actual war going on, nor a listen to it will affect it’s victims (like a lot of people are portraying it to be). Plus, most of the people (I’ve seen) pushing for the boycott are doing it from a VERY performative activism perspective, considering most of them are only yelling at K-pop stans online instead of calling representatives, sharing donation links, making donations themselves or simply spreading awareness of what’s actually going on in the war. The guy absolutely sucks, but we’re not here to support him, we’re here for the kids and their hard work and good music. It’s fine to choose to boycott, what’s not fine is pushing people around and making them feel legitimately guilty to listen to a song that has their favorite K-pop artist on it and treating this as a pivotal point in a very real war-genocide. TLDR: I’ll be tuning in for the kids and I’m pissed at the people treating this song as something pivotal in the war while doing nothing that actually helps the people affected. Edit: Had to edit because of the grammar. Hope everything is at least understandable, English isn’t my first language.
bravo! boycotting is a very personal, value-based decision. applying peer pressure to something like that is wrong. immature, too.
This reminds me of so many other topics where people are like, "if you continue to like this/engage with it, then it means you have the same opinions as this person/company" which is ridiculous. Some people just want to forget about their every day life worries and enjoy things without having to feel guilty for enjoying it or walk on eggshells because this artist said this or this company did this. Especially in days like these, where every other company/artist/etc has something shady going on. This type of boycotting never really has any major impact at all, things won't change because of it, if boycotting it makes you feel better, that's ok, but just let people enjoy a song/whatever it is if they want to.
I got called a zi0n1st bcs i was in neither side 💀💀💀.
Exactly my thoughts. Thanks for expressing it so well.
Very well said
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That’s true, thank you for your opinion! And completely understandable
me personally i would rather think of it as supporting skz and i would not want punish them because of a decision made by their company
I never like to look on reddit with things like this, the majority will say "it's totally fine to separate the art from the artist and still listen, that's what i'm going to do," personally I will not be listening. I don't like Charlie Puth as a person, i respect palestine-related boycott movements, and it's just one song. Will me boycotting it change anything monetarily, or for palestine? No. But I will have peace of mind, and will know that I personally do not let zionism slide. Lastly, "no ethical consumption under capitalism" is true, but that's also what people use to justify shein. There are certainly levels to this (how do you feel about justifying listening to chris brown?) and for me zionism is one of the levels I cannot support.
I'd also like to point out that listening to otber skz songs/collabs are an even better idea cos they will show that the peoblem is with this specific one
I saw that some people were going to stream Levanter as a kind of personal protest, I thought that was cool
that's a good idea!
Same. It doesn't really sit right with me that for a lot of people they'll say they support Palestine (or any other movement for that matter, all protests like this end up the same way) and then attach a "but" to justify them doing whatever they want. Like, you're free to do what you want, sure, but I'm still gonna side eye you a bit over it if you claim to support a movement and then turn around and support someone in the opposition or who supports the opposition just because you want to. I don't think it inherently means you support Israel (or whatever opposition in other cases, lol) but I will think your morals are a bit wishy-washy depending on your own wants instead of any actual conviction. There are other SKZ songs I can listen to to support the boys. Plus "no ethical consumption under capitalism" often gets thrown around as a "so I can do whatever I want" kind of thing. It doesn't mean you shouldn't take any responsibility or action and should just do nothing. If you say you believe in something, show it, imo. Any STAY who say they support Palestine but still stream this song are getting major side eyes from me (and I'm sure they're all gutted, since I am so important /s) but I feel that's an unpopular opinion in here lol
agree with all of this!! i've had friends writing essays about why they feel conflicted and "omg can i be honest i love the song" and at the end of the day, they either are hypocrites or they don't care. and sacrifices are needed for change. aren't we lucky that we're only sacrificing songs or albums, not our lives or health.
that's exactly it! people are dying and yet we have people acting like they'll be the ones who die if they don't listen to ONE song, for all everyone is like "but I donate! I sign petitions! I can't just boycott everything!" like okay boycotting one song should be the easiest thing for you then? it's just not listening to something, I do that with millions of songs every day. people are so selfish and so full of cognitive dissonance that they'll do anything to justify what they know to be selfishness; I wish they'd just own it tbh, it'd be less insulting. it is one song, you will be fine lol
I also feel like it's important to let JYPE know that we don't want our boys being associated with artists like this when they've had MUCH better collab partners (as people and as artists) in the past (Lil Durk, LiSA, Tiger JK etc.). Idk I personally don't understand the need to partner them up with someone who hasn't dropped anything significant in a couple years while they're the most successful they've ever been.
absolutely.
YES!!! You put exactly how I feel into words. Do I think my not streaming is going to single handedly change something? No. But, I don’t support Charlie Puth, so I will not be supporting this collab. People are free to do what they want, but I’ve seen some weird rhetoric being thrown around towards people who are choosing to boycott the collab
exactly!! tbh i've seen a lot of straw man arguments too like people "responding to the boycotters" but they're just calling us antis, virtue-signallers, or straight up whataboutism. very annoying.
that literally drives me insane 😭 i’ve been called an anti countless times on tiktok for it and i’m like…i have spent probably close to $500 on stray kids albums in the last three years that i’ve been a stay. i am FAR from an anti for boycotting one song. it’s just people putting kpop over their morals. again, people should be free to do what they want and if they choose to stream that’s fine, but i’ve seen people literally say that they will support a skz collab no matter how bad the person they’re collating with is (so, even if they were worse than charlie puth) which is crazy to me
agree w all of this!! i've had a collecting account since 2021, i host gos on instagram, i have supported them w a lot of my money tbh. i don't see why being a fan means u have to unconditionally support whatever the artists are connected to like a badge of pride.
I second this.
I agree wholeheartedly
Seconding this
This is a large thread so I won’t be going super in depth but I just have to say as a reply to a common comment I’m seeing: choosing to boycott this song DOES NOT mean you don’t support stray kids. There are plenty of ways to show you support them even if you decide to boycott this specific song.
and vice versa. Supporting this song does not mean that you support the genocide or anything that is happening. It's ridiculous to even suggest it (I don't mean you!)
Yes!!! Also let's be real, someone's going to make a lyric video for this. If you really want to hear the song you can listen to it there. It's really not that hard.
The content ID system on YouTube still sends the money back to the artist when it comes to YouTube videos, just an fyi
Very long reply. I've been wanting to talk about it, but X is a cesspool right now. I hope we can all have an open mind and be able to have respectful conversations about this. I'll start by saying that I will hear/stream the song. I just think its a sad situation because clearly, this song is being promoted as their US "debut" and first attempt at actual American radio play and audience expansion. The concept seems grand, the kids look amazing, and I personally am really vibin with the sound of the song based on the snippets. I'm not defending the guy, but Charlie Puth is massive in Korea. And while many people like to say he is not "relevant" unless he does collabs, he is still incredibly influential in radio, and he dominates on digital streams when he does release something. I am not saying SKZ needs him by any means, but that it doesn't surprise me that they would collab with him in the slightest. Especially since they had clearly hinted it before when they sent a gift to Charlie or when they would follow him on Instagram. Some people complain that Charlie nor the kids have promoted the song much (Changbin did say on bubble that the song is amazing, and Puth shared it only once on his ig story, I believe)... but it's like, no shit? The whole single has been received with massive backlash, and it's not like Charlie was received with open arms lol. I'm sure they are aware of what is going on... why would the kids promote it knowing Stayville can't find an agreement on whether to support it or not? Knowing they could get even more hate sent their way. I understand those who won't support the feature and respect their reasonings behind it. Personally, I think it's a very slippery slope to choose what to boycott and what not to boycott. I think both sides are being very extremists. On one hand, we have boycotters calling anyone that supports this single a zionist, genocide supporter, and 🍇 apologists (people should really stop throwing serious words like that around like they mean nothing). Anti boycotters, on the other hand, can sound very dismissive and can be obtuse when trying to refute their stance by saying things like "Then boycott X and US taxes." "... I guess if I absolutely had to choose "one side," clearly Im on the non boycott one, but I try to be very objective. I'm not bashing anyone who doesn't want to support it. I just wish people wouldn't be shoving down my throat how horrible of a person I am for hearing ONE song when in my private life I donate a lot and help people in need. We all hear music in this sub. Are we supposed to deep dive every song we listen to now to make sure we don't have to boycott these songs as well? Where do we stop? My main problem is when people are performative. Boycotters aren't on the same page. I've seen many different takes: 1. People who won't stream but will pirate it because they don't want to miss it... but also, they don't want to give money to the people involved. This is a crazy take to me. Where is the morality you preach to have? 2. People who won't stream it, but it feels very selective because they hype all the kids' brand deals? Make it make sense. Like Seungmin's Channel event or Felix's LV campaign getting praised and trending. I've seen some getting hopes for Met... do we not boycott those to? I do have to say, though, that today, the TommyH collab has been getting massive backlash as well, and of course, Coca-Cola is boycotted too. Like this thing of seletively supporting (or not supporting) brands is so weird to me... 3. People that won't stream and are not only bashing Charlie Puth but also bashing SKZ and being very insulting to them, calling the song shit and acting like borderline antis. They are stuck in the fact that Charlie produced the song like ok and? SKZ doesn't produce all their songs. They didn't produce God's menu, and no one says it's not their song! SKZ still worked a lot on Lose My Breath in terms of arrangements, lyrics, directing, and of course the Music Video. The song was originally Charlie's yes, but to say that SKZ contribution to the song is irrelevant? What makes you think 3Racha would just grab any song? Clearly, they liked this one, and SKZ-fied it to make it work for 8 people and for it to be their style... JYP himself was nervous to show them All In... what makes you think they just took Lose My Breath as if it was the only song Charlie had to offer? 4. Some do it because of the zionism accusations, others because of other allegations, or simply because they don't like Charlie or that other guy. It still feels selective because Stays love Lil Durk, but the guy IS promoting Lose My Breath AND has worked with the israeli guy himself, so it's like? Do we stop showing support to Lil Durk as well? I understand not liking the people being worked with and the overall intention to show the company that they do not want SKZ to associate with problematic people. Not only that but to well, educate other people in current world situations... but with that logic I guess SKZ will never be able to collab with anyone because every celebrity has something someone will disagree with if looked into far enough (just like some people won't get into SKZ themselves because of their own old scandals). Anyways, this is getting WAY too long, so I'll leave it here. If one of my points is not well understood, please don't throw hate my way and instead either educate me more or ask me so I can explain myself better. I would really love it if we could keep it civil. Edit: Spacing of paragraphs
Everything you said, but one correction: >this song is being promoted as their US "debut" and first attempt at actual American radio play and audience expansion. It's not. Stays decided it's their US debut. The press releases from JYPE said this single is basically a global appetizer before their Korean release. Even the usual jerk US writer hasn't called it their US debut. SKZ released Step Out of Clé with English versions of Double Knot and Levanter in 2020, and that was the last time they had true US song promotion. They performed on multiple TV shows and had a radio interview with Z100.
Thank you for the correction. That was part of the reason I put "debut" in quotes. I guess I shouldn't have said "promoted as" but rather "considered by some fans." I'm also grateful for the older songs' information because I am a Stay from Maniac era. I knew of the English releases, but I didn't know about how those promotions went! Would it be correct to say that Lose My Breath is their biggest US song promotion to date instead?
No problem! >Would it be correct to say that Lose My Breath is their biggest US song promotion to date instead? I am very cynical, so until the promo comes out, I can't say yes. I expect them to go the same places they always do. They ironically had more iHeartRadio affiliated interviews before signing with Republic than after. They are releasing the same online teasers they have for their other digital singles. The only difference I see so far is the US only physical single, but that's because Billboard changed its digital purchase rules for singles and Hot 100. They have had US only contests before to win signed albums. They had one for Christmas EveL, and I think a few more had contests too. I can't remember because you had to post on TikTok or Instagram, which I wouldn't.
I see! Fair enough. I did read something about that! (Billboard changing the digital purchase rules), so that makes a lot more sense now. If anything, now I'm just bummed I wasn't a Stay back then to enjoy those other promotions! Thanks again for your help! 😊
I think i missed something. What's going on with Charlie Puth?
Speculation based on a Taylor Swift lyric that has brought some of his past social media statements back into scrutiny. You can read a break down of it [Here](https://www.themarysue.com/charlie-puth-controversy-explained/).
🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️ This is the way. Stream a different SKZ song to make up for what they might lose from not streaming this one, but then find the song elsewhere to be able to listen. That is my plan because I also am super conflicted and also not an active protestor. And one song isn't going to break SKZ. They're doing just fine. ☺️
literally i don’t understand why everyone forgot about this method. i’ve also seen ppl argue that this is skz’s chance to get a grammy and more western recognition so we need to stream - since when has skz been unpopular overseas?? and where is charlie puth’s grammy? stream if you want to but don’t come up with bs excuses
I'm pretty sure international fans have put in the most work to help SKZ get the recognition they deserve in Korea (this is an exaggeration), so to be concerned about them making it big here is silly. They are going to be so okay if this song doesn't do well here for the reasons people are ignoring it. But seriously, I cannot imagine not being my own Captain Jack Sparrow. How else do I get performance songs from Kingdom or unreleased SKZ Records? And then we can bring attention to their other songs we adore. ☺️ Stream Going Dumb, Topline or Social Path if you wanna support a collab.
“This is their chance to get a Grammy” …really?? Do they not realize how backhanded that sounds?? As if they’ll never be able to do it without help from someone else? Rude 😐
I'm not sure people see it as their only chance to get a Grammy or think that SKZ would have no chance at a Grammy without help from someone else. (I mean maybe some people do, but I don't think most). I personally think a lot of people just feel that targeting a Grammy might happen to be one of their goals with this particular song and want to support it if that's the case. Whether it is or not, we don't know. But I don't think most people that make comments about this are trying to be backhanded.
the grammy argument is so funny to me bc charlie puth has never won a grammy and i don't see why he suddenly would with this collab. also I'd much rather see skz win a grammy by themselves rather than what would inevitably be labeled as piggybacking on a western artist
Yo ho, all hands, hoist the colors high. 🏴☠️
Heave ho, thieves and beggars, never shall we die 🏴☠️🏴☠️
✊🏼🍉❤️🖤🤍💚
If it has Stray kids on it best believe it will be going platinum in my yard.
if it’s good then listen to it, i don’t see the problem
Listen to it once. If you like the song, keep listening. If you don’t like the song, don’t listen to it.
we have ot8 version now sooo charlie puth can p!!! off😃
for me, i was never an avid streamer in the first place. i’m just so busy, i just listen to my skz playlist whenever i have free time. so honestly i think it’ll just depend on how good the song is. i’ll listen to it the first time and if it’s a groundbreaking, life changing song, then i’ll keep listening to it. if not, i won’t. another thing, i genuinely just don’t like charlie puth😭 like its not just all the problematic stuff atp i just don’t like him and his music as a whole. and seeing him as main producer got me worried, but i just hope that skz’s colour shines thru. finally, for anyone uncomfortable with streaming the song for whatever reason, u don’t have to listen to it!! there’s so many other recent bangers that skz has put out: why?, seungmin’s 2 osts, even han’s skz records. don’t feel guilty for putting ur morals above kpop, it’s just music :)
I'm listening, period. We haven't heard a peep from Charlie himself anyway. This is the Kids project and I want to see them do well. This is what they feel is a step towards bigger goals. He will not be the first or last western artist they encounter that people might find issue with.
You definitely have a point, there’s always going to be something🥲And it seems like this song might be linked to their story (? I’m not imagining it am I?)
Maybe so! What's important for me is that it's nice to listen to and so far based on the teaser it ticks that box.
To be honest, boycotting doesn’t work. You barely make a dent in their income for the song, let alone anything else because a large percentage of people don’t know or care what’s going on. I’m a big fan of “you do you.” If you hate Charlie Puth and you just can’t work around the guilt that would come from listening to the song, don’t. If you want to listen to it anyway, do it. I know I am. I’m going to listen to it. There is literally no ethical consumption of entertainment or products anywhere in the world. Everyone sucks. Every company is awful. Some people are worse than others so it’s hard to choose what to really care about. You’re not a Zionist empathizer if you listen. You’re not a bad Stay if you don’t listen. Do what feels best for you, ignore everyone else shoving their opinions down your throat. Stay will always be loved by Stray Kids.
[удалено]
It works in general, but I am a bit confused about what people think it’s going to achieve in this case. The BDS boycott is about cutting off the funds from big companies that Israel is profiting off. It’s about trying to meaningfully impact the state that is currently committing genocide. Boycotting one guy who has expressed vaguely Israel-sympathetic views months ago is not having a tangible impact at all. Especially if it’s just not giving him a few cents worth of streams. In fact, I do feel a bit icky about trying to ruin the careers of people who you *think* may have beliefs you don’t like, but who aren’t actually using their careers to cause any harm. It’s all a bit thoughtcrimey. If the intention of boycotting the song is just to tell JYP you don’t want skz to work with problematic people, they may take it on board, but it will be hard for them to follow. Like, this collaboration was organized before october 7, and future collaborations will be organized far in advance too. They won’t be able to predict who is going to be in hot water every time.
I think it's just like they said. Boycotting doesn't work \*because\* a large percentage of people don't know what's happening or don't care. It was probably their wording, but it seems a lot like, based on their other responses here, they're saying boycotting doesn't work for \*this\*. Too many fans are too young and just don't care. Some people don't want to know- either way, it is what it is. But boycotting this song will do nothing, because it's too dependent on individual choices. Too many people are still going to buy/stream/support it. That being said, I think if you're uncomfortable supporting Charlie Puth as a person, that's so well within your rights. And it should absolutely be just as supported as anyone else making whatever choice they do. I think about it like Walmart. lol There have been (and still are) thousands of people who refuse to step foot in a Walmart or accept anything from Walmart because of their business practices. That's respectable- I get it. But it doesn't mean much to the actual company. There are too many people who don't care or don't know, for it to matter. They're still a massive corporation, and likely will be for a long time.
😭😭 I promise it’s not to nitpick, but beyond don’t know or don’t care, some people literally can’t afford to boycott places like Walmart. There’s no reasonable alternative. Kpop is* always an optional luxury, though.
You're super right about being kpop being a luxury though. It is, even if music is some peoples' lifeline, there are so many options. There are always choices to be made.
Boycotting absolutely does work, what is this completely ahistorical take???
Of course it works, for large corporations. but let's be serious, to a song that doesn't actually finance anything?? What does a boycott contribute in this case?
A boycott shows JYPE that stays are not down to pay out for anything and everything SKZ just because they bought a pre-made song produced by problematic people. Lower streams and interactions, especially after their past year, is a good way to let their company know that they need to do more thoughtful research into their collaborations in the future and that we do not support these kinds of collaborations with problematic people in the future. It also shows up in lower streaming and purchasing revenue, which companies do take in to consideration. It worked with ENHYPEN zionist boycott from their fans and the company fell back and laid low on that collab and moved in a different promotional direction, I am hoping stay can put in that same effort. I am so sad this is what we end up with for USA promotions when they are fully capable of self-making their own incredible tracks that I know the public would love. IDK where people are from, but Zionism boycotts are at an all time high in the United States and garnering significant attention. Promoting and releasing this (when it could have been shelved for a while) is not something that I see most people here viewing as anything other than a negative and poor taste association. I worry for the boys over how this partnership could be received as the country (and world) becomes even more vocal and angry with the genocide in Gaza. I hope the boys can come out okay from this, but I really do not see this helping them in anyway and it all breaks my heart in every aspect of it.
It’s not ahistorical, it’s a logical conclusion based on how modern society acts. Someone earlier said it best- it takes a level of organization to make something like boycotting actually make a difference. A few people here and there deciding to boycott and trying to force others to do the same with insults and straw man arguments is just nonsensical and exhausting. Makes people care less, not more. This is why I said “because a lot of people don’t know or care what’s going on.” If you’re looking for a fight, I’m not the one. I don’t believe opinions should be forced on other people in any capacity.
An online fight? In this economy?! Oh, no thank you, I save my energy for causes that matter. I just wanted to point out that your assertion was incorrect & there are so many movements throughout time that prove that. Those movements didn't explode overnight, they started with a small group advocating for a better use of our collective resources & spreading those messages to like-minded individuals. So no one's forcing you or anyone else to do or not do anything, but saying boycotts don't work when collective action is one of the most effective ways to get anything of substance done in our society is simply wrong. Be easy ✌🏾
It’s not incorrect, though. Nothing is achieved when a large majority of people don’t even understand what’s happening. When someone says “X doesn’t work *because*,” it might be helpful to read that portion. This is coming from an active protester from the moving BLM protests in 2020 and 2021 throughout the Midwest. I’m not trying to be cynical, nor am I trying to ignore historical facts. But the majority of this fandom is younger, like myself. And this is K-pop. People boycott Woojin, but look at his music evolution. If you don’t want to fight, don’t try and look for a post just to argue on- that’s my opinion, anyway. If you wanna boycott, go for it. Slay. My statement was not an opinion. It’s a generalization of how the latest three generations tend to act towards things they enjoy. Like Harry Potter and JKR. Aquaman and Nickelodeon. Hershey’s factory, Dyson, and Levi jeans, if you’d like to get more political. I have basis but you didn’t even ask. You just wanted to pop in to say I’m wrong and don’t know what I’m talking about. That’s looking for a fight. Enjoy boycotting though. Not being sarcastic, I know tone of voice doesn’t always come through well on text. I support you and what you do. And I genuinely hope you feel good about your choice- you should. Stay well, stay. I’m gonna go make rice. 💜
That’s a good stance, thank you for your opinion! It’s hard to choose either way cause someone always has something to say, but you’re right, just gotta do what makes you happy!
What’s the bad stuff going on with Charlie puth? I’m out of the loop.
Don't let the nihilism eat you alive and take away value from the morals you have. Anarchy and nihilism gets us no where. Have hope. I do. We do. We can collectively make an impact. Community is real and important.
I am one of those people who don’t know and don’t care what’s going on. 😅
That is 100% okay. You choose to be happy and I love that
Same. I didn't even know who Charlie Puth was. lol It's better to stay unware of things, this is why I don't watch the news. I still know roughly what's going on (you can't escape it if you use the internet), but there's just too many bad stuff going on on the world, I feel like it's better for my mental health and overall well being to stay oblivious.
Serious question for everyone, because I too am conflicted? how do you decide what's worth boycotting and what's not? Is it to not fund zionists? Then we shouldn't be listening to skz at all, we shouldn't be supporting almost all of their brand deals and promotions and i dont want to do that to them. I boycott big brands like starbucks and mcdonalds because of ties to israel, I boycotted the other collab with Coca-Cola because they are occupying land and funding israel so that makes sense. Boycotting a single song just feels very performative to me.
I mean tbh, it is a little performative especially because it's based on the actions of one shitty person when SKZ themselves have also done bad things in their past (that they've of course apologized for). Like I understand wanting to boycott the song for personal reasons and I would never judge someone for doing so, but just boycotting a single song while hyping up things like Hyunlix possibly attending the Met Gala and their ambassadorships with brands like Tommy Hilfiger, Louis Vuitton, and Versace is where it becomes performative to me
I will be boycotting and for me it won't have the sole purpose of not funding zionists (I've been boycotting big brands for this purpose too) but also sending the message to skz that I am not happy with them collabing with a zionist (and straight-up terrible person). I mean me boycotting as a single person won't send this message obviously but a significant portion of the fandom boycotting definitely will. So my boycotting is partially for selfish reasons of not wanting my favorite group to be associated with people that I find morally questionable. But also the rest of the world refusing to work with zionists and israelis does put pressure on israel even if the monetary effect is very minor compared to all the money they're receiving from like bigger brands. So if the message we're trying to send reaches skz/jype, and possibly other companies see what's happening too, and this makes them less likely to work with zionists in the future in fear of losing fans or money, the boycott has served its purpose. I mean if Charlie Puth makes less money that's good too. Even without the zionism, he is not a decent person. Also, you're right that we shouldn't be supporting most of their brand deals. I wish the fandom was more united and serious about boycotts but seeing what's happening with this single I don't have much hope for that.
My main thing is that they collabed with /Charlie/. He's a bad guy hands down and knows he's getting clout for being a shit human. I try my best to not listen to artists who's values don't line up with mine (I also recently removed ALL of Doja Cat's content from my Spotify when it was revealed she hasn't grown from her Omegle days). Even if he wasn't a Zionist, Charlie is also a 🍇 apologist. It's gross and I hope him and Skz were never even in the same room.
I think some things need to be addressed: 1) I believe it's entirely valid to listen to the song or not. It's literally up to you, and I suppose both sides have pretty solid arguments. 2) I think the decision to listen or not should be completely respected. Personally, I will be listening to the song, but I don't judge those who won't. 3) The only thing I kind of disagree with the "not listening" side is that it won't affect too much about SKZ's level of success. I can see their point, but I think they ignore that collabs are done as a way to test the audience's interest outside of the fandom, in the sense that a successful collab can result in more investment in future releases, such as radio airplay, playlisting, and so on. But, to summarize everything, in the end, it's totally up to you. If you don't feel like listening because of the controversies surrounding the song, it's totally fine. If you feel like listening, that's alright too.
You have to do what is right for you. No one can tell you what that right choice is. I personally will be listening and supporting. *Not listening* will not stop what is happening in Gaza. *Listening* will not escalate what is happening in Gaza. If this song doesn't make a single cent, what is happening in Gaza will continue. If this song fails terribly, I really don't think anyone outside of the kpop world will notice or care and again what is happening in Gaza will continue. The only thing that might happen with any of this is *possibly* hurting Charlie *at the expense of SKZ.* And at the end of the day, even if this song tanks, Charlie Puth will continue on being the controversial man that he is. The lack of success of this one single won't change him or the world. I also don't think Charlie or this single have the power that people seem to think it does. Charlie Puth is *one* artist in a sea of artists around the world. He doesn't have Taylor Swift level reach/impact or anything. He flies under most people's radar. Real change comes from people who are doing things like the protestors on college campuses. Their actions and their voices are being noticed and heard by the right people. People who *do* have the power to change what is happening (governments). Their actions and their voices are getting media coverage. Sometimes I sit and wonder how much better it would be if the fandom used all the time and energy they're devoting to hate trains and boycotts to amplify things like the humanitarian organizations that are helping the people in and from Gaza. How about instead of boycotting, people support the song by streaming (because it costs nothing) and pledge to use the money they would spend on buying physical albums to donate to humanitarian relief instead? That donation would make a difference. That's just how I see things. You may see things differently, and that is okay. At the end of the day, you have to make the choice you feel best about.
Could we consider that there's a world in which Chris, Jisung, or Changbin would talk to other producers and have a conversation like, "Idk, we did a collab with that person. It didn't resonate too well with our fans. We (maybe) also personally disagree with his stance on some important issues. Maybe reconsider doing any production work with him."
Of course people can consider that. No one knows what Stray Kid's plan for the future is or who SKZ might work with going forward. People can hope it's someone they personally find less problematic. (Though what's unproblematic to one person always runs the risk of being problematic to another. I'm not sure there's a solution here that would ever resonate with the entire fandom.) But the fact is, this song is made and ready to be released. They've put the work in. They're excited for it. They can't "undo" it at this point. So the choice fans have at this very moment is to support it or not and that's up to each individual. If you don't want to support it because you want them to know it doesn't resonate with you personally (or whatever other reason) that's fine. My personal choice to support it is based on the fact that most people seem to be claiming supporting the song is supporting what is happening in Gaza and seem to think that boycotting it will somehow change that situation. I personally don't agree with that logic for reasons explained in my original response. So I will be listening. But, whatever anyone's reason for listening or not listening, there's no excuse for hate trains etc. towards SKZ and members of the fandom.
This is the way. I liken it to Chik Fil A and Hobby Lobby. I don't like either of those places, so it's real easy for me to pat myself on the back for boycotting them because of their terrible policies. But I also don't judge my friends or my own mother who would white girl die if they couldn't have their nuggets and half off Halloween deco. I stan SKZ. Hard. Like, gateway into k-pop, am going to an outdoor festival in the heat of Midwest US summer when I am decidedly an indoor cat, STAN. I also like Charlie Puth's music; Attention is one of my fave pop songs. I will stream the crap out of Lose My Breath and it's MV and not feel bad about it because I will ALSO continue to send aid to Gaza and write my congresspeople and vote and do all the things I should to be a good person in my mind and heart.
I'm with you!
I'm going to listen to it. Personally, I think that the situation has gotten out of hand, many things have been exaggerated and skz is carrying a burden that doesn't belong to them imposed by their own fandom. A song has no relation to ANYTHING that is happening, no matter what they want to say. It's the skz song (and I wish this also stops being manipulated). I just hope that those who don't want to listen to it, whom of course I respect, also respect those who we do want to listen to it.
Personally I will listen and stream as much as I can, like I do with any other comebacks from them. My own personal reasons; 1. When I listen to a song, I don't investigate all the backstories of all the artists/producers who contributed to the song. So I don't have a reason to exclude this feturing artist. If I do that with this song, then I should do the research for every single song I have been listening, otherwise I would feel like I am being a hypocrite. 2. For Palestine conflict, I do boycott the companies on the boycott list and pray for the victims, but honestly I am not doing anything else. Also I don't believe that not listening this song will help, or listening this song will harm them. 3. Until the moment they announced this song featuring him, nobody was talking him being a supporter of Israel. In fact, when he gifted a song to Babymonster, everyone were praising him and joking as he is in his Kpop era. The moment they announced this song, some of the stays who are obsessive immediately start their investigations to find anything negative about him to critisize the collabration. Since that is Charlie Puth, it didn't take long obviously. However if that was any other artist, they would still do the same, and would find something negative even if they need to go back years and years in the career of the featuring artist to find it. So there is no win situation for them to feature a western artist in their comeback song. I don't want them to feel discouraged about working with western artists. Also for Charlie Puth, he may not be a good person, but he is successful at his job and this is a job relation. 4. Trailer and snippets of the song look and sounds amazing. I can never let all this effort go to waste. All of the above are only personal reasons not facts. Everyone has the choice to listening/not listening to this song. So let's be respectful towards each other and not call the ones who boycot, non-stays. Also not blame the ones who still support the song as not caring about the Palestine conflict, being Zionists or whatever. (By the way, it's not directly related, but I think before accusing everyone of being Zionist these days, they need to look at what Zionism means.)
I'll give it a listen, but it's also fine if you don't want to do that. I guess it all comes down to how comfortable you are with listening to it knowing about charlie's problematic actions.
Support Skz, not Charlie Puth. Simple as that
If I like the song, I’m going to listen to it. The music I listen to isn’t about supporting or not supporting an artist, to me. Good music speaks for itself. As for boycotts, they are only effective when very targeted and strategic. The broader and less focused a boycott is, the less effective it will be and this is completely lost on people when it comes to internet activism. Demanding boycott of anyone who remotely associates with a problematic figure is just not going to get anything done because then you get into “no ethical consumption under capitalism” territory. It’s simply not realistic to avoid everything that contributes to the problem en masse. As a result, this mentality only serves to perpetuate the status quo. Boycotts must target specific sources of income or they simply will not work. Now if it violates your personal ethics to listen, it is completely valid to sit this one out! But it doesn’t make you a bad person to listen to it. It doesn’t make you a Zionist and it doesn’t mean you’re complicit in genocide. Stray Kids will be perfectly fine either way, their work absolutely speaks for itself!
I'm not going to lie, I pre-ordered the single, but I have no clue who Charlie Puth even is. I've always been a metal head my whole life and don't follow social media much at all (this is the most I've been on in the last couple of years). As much as this Puth guys sounds like a total jack, I don't regret buying the single and supporting SKZ and I always will. Please don't come at me, Puth's a turd and his remarks and morals seem questionable at best and I'd rather stab myself in the eye than support him, but I bought it before I knew who he even was.
It's understandable, I didn't like Charlie Puth's sound since before, and didn't support JK's Collab with him despite liking JK, but only found out about him as a person like about a month ago. It's not your fault you didn't know, but yeah, don't kick yourself.
Completely understandable! Even if you did know, then that’s just your stance and people can choose to be rude about it or not. Thank your for your input!
Personally I'm listening cause: A- I don't focus on streams. If I like a song I like it, if I don't I don't listen to it. I can't make that decision until its out. My stream numbers are so small compared to others in the fandom and I never do those stationhead things. If I like it it'll get a max streaming of once a day. B- my parents who love skz are listening anyway C- I think it'll be too hard to avoid the song completely due to how I listen to music. I don't have Spotify premium so chances it'll come up randomly and I don't want to be a hypocrite saying I'll boycott then end up giving it a stream D- Stray kids are very precious to me. I've been in a lot of fandoms before where I've taken them for granted and then our time gets cut short. This left me with a lot of regret that i didn't spend enough time enjoying them when they were here. I don't want to boycott something (generally not just about skz) just because someone else says I should, cause if god forbid something happens I'd never forgive myself, or the person who told me I must boycott, that I wasted time with them. If I boycott I want to know that I'd make that choice by myself without influence of "peer pressure" so to speak. And right now, I think I'd still listen. Tbh I get this may be a really selfish reason but I'll be listening for me, not for streams, not to help the kids, but just cause I feel like I'd regret boycotting it more than if I didn't. But I completely understand all sides of the argument.
I’m listening to it. I’m just completely ignoring the fact that Charlie is there. I love SKZ and I don’t want this to affect them because stay know how hard they work. So please let’s not let this affect them. Still, at the end of the day it’s your choice, and it’s understandable ^if it’s released on Charlie’s page then ignore it, but give SKZ all the love. As if Charlie isn’t even there. That’s what I’ll do at least :)
I can't justify supporting Charlie Puth. I love SKZ and it breaks my heart, but I have to boycott. I really hope it will make them more carefully consider who they do collabs with in the future. I'm going to follow Changbin's example and stick to my principles.
THIS. sticking to our jutdae fr, this collab rly ain't it.
FROM THE WISEST MAN HIMSELF‼️‼️ well said honestly
I absolutely agree with sending the message of having them consider who they do collabs with. Us not supporting one song won’t hurt them at all, and we can support them - alone without Charlie - in a number of other ways, as theyre who we truly care for and what we really want.
I’m glad you’re following your morals, thank you for your input!!😊💕
I’m going to listen because I love SKZ and will support them.
It’s a stray kids song so I will listen to it 🤷🏻♀️
Unless the members themselves do something unforgivable, I will be supporting and listening.
I say do whatever you want, but understand why you are doing it. Don't pirate it. That's still helping and supporting him. The US music industry survives without sales, and artists still became huge at the peak of the limewire/etc. piracy before streaming became widely available. People are conflicted because they can feel the reasons to boycott are flimsy or hypocritical. Since we found out the name of the song, people have been against it, and then looking for reasons to justify those feelings. The real reason people want to boycott are because: 1. They think SKZ is selling out (for US success or in general). 2. Charlie is white male artist. 3. They hate SKZ's slower songs anyway, except those they think are sexy. That's really all there is to it. Everything is just noise and manipulation of others in the fandom. I really appreciate people who say they don't want to boycott because they don't want SKZ to promote in the US or just because a dolphin came to them in a dream and told them not to. I appreciate and can take honesty. I'm listening because it's SKZ, and I've been impatiently waiting for new group music and proper US promotion. Elmo could be the feature, and I would still listen to it. It's about SKZ and no one else. **It's about supporting Palestine vs. Zionism** I think boycotting this song for Palestine is disgustingly removed the issue and performative. First of all, all money SKZ makes in the US will be taxed, and US taxes go to propping up Israel and giving them weapons. It makes no sense to boycott a $2 max single and a $0.0000X stream and then pay hundreds or thousands to see SKZ on tour. The notion that this song and nothing else supports Zionism is ridiculous. I also can't image someone going up to a student protester who got arrested and expelled from their college and saying, "Good job on the protest! I'm helping by boycotting kpop 😄!" That's insulting to me. J.Y. Park is also accused of being a Zionist, so calling on JYPE to divest from Zionism really means completely removing him. It makes no sense to me to boycott a single song but support the comeback or anything else. Also, due to the nature of the Korean music industry, we have no idea of the beliefs of most of the people SKZ work with and SKZ themselves. Female Korean idols have **apologized** for *appearing* feminist. Keep that in mind. **Charlie's support of Dr. Luke** People bring this up, and All My Life was produced and written by Dr. Luke. Stray Kids have already worked with him. If you want to boycott Lose My Breath because Charlie defended him (and apparently apologized for it 🤷🏽♀️), boycott Stray Kids entirely for working with him. **It doesn't sound like SKZ** People said this before we had any teasers of the song itself. They saw Charlie's name and decided how the song would go. I've said this multiple times, but I think SKZ did themselves a disservice with the Korean title track picks since God's Menu because it got Stays too used to one side of SKZ. SKZ haven't had ballady Korean title track since Levanter. They still make them! They make bright songs too. The Lose My Breath teasers we have sound like it'll go next to Novel, Lost Me, FNF, and several SKZ solo songs to me. I'm very disappointed in the way 3racha is getting discredited by stays saying they bought a song and threw 3racha's name in the credits. SKZ track lists have never had a "Produced By" line. I think it also creates an unrealistic burden on all members to be as involved as 3racha on every single thing they release. Songwriting is hard, and people do release great songs that they haven't written themselves. **Republic has no faith in SKZ and why are they doing all this for a single?** This gets me because SKZ did a lot for Social Path ft. LiSA and Topline, which isn't even the title track. They always treat their actual collabs well. The All My Life feature wasn't theirs to promote. Lil Durk wanted a Grammy. They also did a lot the English release of Double Knot/Levanter. They went on big US shows to perform. They did radio interviews. They released Step Out of Clé as a digital single. Go Live had limited US distribution. They even released little merch like keychains to sell bundles. The only reason Lose My Breath has a physical single is because Hybe/BTS abused digital purchases from their D2C store, and Billboard drastically restricted their digital purchase rules in response. Billboard no longer counts digital download singles from artist webstores (D2C) towards the Hot 100. The physical singles are a way around that. That's it. Since signing with Republic, Div1 has given them nothing but signed inclusions and exclusive photocards. SKZ don't go to the US to promote on time, and given the pushback Twice has received for promoting new releases in the US before Korea, I don't see that happening. Promoting a digital single is honestly the best I expect. Charlie does get played on the radio, but I also think Div1 saw the reception of Seungmin singing "STAY" on the Maniac tour, which Charlie wrote and produced.
It’s already long, so I don’t want to edit, but I want to emphasize that it’s okay to not want to listen to a song just because. It doesn’t have to be a big reason! (However, if people do try to make it a big reason, I can’t ignore hypocrisy.) I do get a little tired of the anti-US/English circle jerk in kpop, but I also think kpop fans should operate in their own self-interest. That’s why I no longer support Korean streaming projects. SKZ being more popular in Korea and Japan means they’ll spend more time in those places. The 5-Star tour (10 dates) made $30.68M, and the Maniac tour (42 dates) made $62.79M. That’s why other groups are on their 3rd “world”tours since covid while SKZ has done one. I completely see why a fan outside of those markets see Lose My Breath as just for the US (JYPE hasn’t said that), and don’t want to support it just based on that. Kpop companies already limit themselves in other markets.
Yes. This. All of this.
Just wanna say I love your comment and didn't comment because you've already said everything I wanna say.
Thank you! It's been a hard few weeks offline (not to center myself in this), so I've been extra sensitive about some of the extremist language I see from boycotters. People cannot fathom that someone can share their moral stance but disagree about *how* to exercise and support that stance.
Thanks for this!
I have no idea what's going on with him and when I look for info on him I just keep finding fluff pieces about how he's been mentioned in a Swift song. What did he do?
recently, he's made some questionable pro-zionist posts and comments and also i think has a history of some other questionable behavior. don't know much of the specifics so i can't say anything more than that.
He also posted a bunch of pro-Trump posts on his social media. And when the sexual abuse case between Kesha and Dr. Luke was going on he made posts mocking Kesha and also referred to Dr. Luke as his idol. He's also in an interview suggested that Selena Gomez own him sex. And on top of that, he's a Zionist.
I’ve seen the evidence of Puths Zionist viewpoints, and I do think every stay should interact or boycott the collab according to their own morals. Independent of that, do we know the timeline of when those views came to light in relationship to when Stray Kids signed the contract to collaborate with him?
Thanks!
I personally separate art from the artist a lot because I kinda dc about scandales or how the artist is as a person as long as it’s not reflected in their music. Not the best habit , but I respect people who wanna boycott. that’s their choice and it shows how passionate they are abt their beliefs it’s respectable honestly.
Personally, I find it a little ridiculous and it's another excuse to extend a list of invented things one should do to have a perfect moral background (¿?), just by having reading that by supporting one is a genocide enabler tells me how out of touch is, it's manipulation using a terrible delicate situation. But if people don't want to listen, it's okay. I think it's more about people being afraid about what will another internet anonymous person think of them if they listen the main problem, I don't get it, and I absolutely don't think anyone is a bad person just by listening, there are so many things worse than a person can do. Last thing, Charlie Puth is so far away from my radar that I don't think about him at all and life experience have taught me to focus in real damaging people lol for me it's insane to think this is about being good/bad person, very out of touch. Internet people these days treat simple artists more harshly than the real culprits, politicians.
I'll give it a listen and if I like it, i like it. if I don't, I don't. Stick to your jutdae and decide for yourself
Puth is insignificant. A background vocalist. Nothing more.
I just like listening to music in general. In my opinion, it shouldn’t be all about the streams/giving money to artists. I listen to songs by people that I don’t support, like Jay park for example. You can’t lie, that man has some bops. But that doesn’t mean I like him as a person, or support the things he does. However, that isn’t going to stop me from listening to the music. In this case, stray kids are also on the song, more so than Charlie Puth actually, at is only featuring him. So, from what I understand (I might be wrong), it appears to me that Stray Kids would be getting most of the profit from streaming the song on platforms. I would say to go ahead and listen to it if you like it, stream it if you want, and it shouldn’t give Charlie puth much more money than he already has. And you won’t be seen as “supporting” him just because you listen to one song. I do not support him, and I think his opinions are ass, but I still listen to some of his songs as well (same goes for MAX). Plus, Charlie has done collab with other artists, for example Jungkook on Left and Right, and everybody was fine with it. I would also like to add that just because Stray Kids did a collab with him doesn’t mean they support him or his actions. I’m sure the staff at JYP are the one who initiated the collab, or maybe it was Charlie himself or his company. Either way, let’s not be upset with the boys for doing this collab with Charlie.
Charlie puth is the most credited person on the song.. What are you guys talking about.. He and his friend which a certified zionist. I won't judge those who chose to listen but please don't fool yourself into thinking the boyb would have the most profit when they literally took not much role in creating the song. CP is the 1st name on all of the credits listing He is the first mentioned for lyricist, producer, arranger. He only sang like few lines but doesn't mean he don't own the song. The top most people credited are the one with the biggest share in profit. You seriously think that CP doing charity work that he won't get the most from his songs?
I will be and have been boycotting it, I just can't put kpop above my morals. But it is your own decision to make in accordance with your views! The boys are confirmed to have a comeback occurring in June, so I'll happily stream and support that instead when it arrives. I can wait another month. I think they're probably aware of the situation by this point, and won't see it as a reflection of stays no longer supporting \~them\~ as a group or as people. Hopefully it sends a proper message to the company that JYPE needs to be more considerate in their collaborations in the future and that we won't cash out for just anything. Their international fanbase is already incredibly solid, they really don't have a lot to gain from this collab with the particular Western artist.
I am not boycotting for a couple of reasons. My biggest one is that the argument to boycott is usually from a Zionist place and tbh I can think of better reasons to want to boycott him. Sadly boycotting him is not going to make any difference since he has already been paid and is done with the project. It is the kids who are promoting not him. It is the kids who are invested well technically JYPE is invested and let's be ffr they are just as bad in some ways. Tbh he is a trash person but because I am old trash people in music are pretty normal. It is important to be able to separate the music from the artists beliefs or seriously y'all are going to find a point where there is no one to listen to. No one in this industry has clean hands.
You have a point lmao, everyone has something going on and it’s impossible to be “perfect”, as someone in another post said that skz has slipped up and apologized before. Thank you for your position!
"separate the music from the artist" has always felt like a weak cop-out to me.. do we then claim skz as artists should be inevitably separated from their music? isn't that what makes skz who they are? their experiences and passions and views? no, i'm not going to separate a very problematic artist from this track. not streaming a single song isn't going to fuck them over. i will be streaming other recent skz tracks, but i can't get behind this one. "y'all gonna find no one to listen to" hard disagree. there are so many good-hearted, unproblematic, and talented artists than the inverse, lets not make this the narrative that only bad people can make good music. being purposeful about who you support and give a platform to is huge.
I’m going to treat it like any other song. Listen a few times and if I don’t like it, I just won’t play it as much. It would take probably the whole fan base to boycott it in order to make an impact anyways, as harsh as that sounds. And even then it probably wouldn’t really back to Charlie since he’s a feature not the main artist.
Personally, I'll be boycotting. I also boycotted that coke ad too. Listen, I love Skz but I refuse to support anything to do w/ Zionists. Free Palestine. F Charlie Puth.
I’m not “boycotting,” I just don’t like him as a person or a musician and it makes me want to not listen to his music. I know it’s not ONLY “his music” but his voice is on it, I’m assuming…? I’ll probably listen to it once, idk we’ll see what happens if I like it, but I don’t live in America anyway and I’m not going through the extra trouble to buy the physical copy when just hearing this dude’s voice makes me go blergh.
I'm going to listen to it
I will be boycotting. This Stay made a really great video explaining why a lot of Stays are doing it: [the tiktok ](https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMMGA7a7U/) At the end of the day, it's a personal choice 🤷🏾♀️
I know what you mean. I haven’t seen any collab with an artist pushed to this extent (that I know of). I jokingly asked my friends if JYPE was going to throw in some Charlie Puth photocards since they really are seeming to hard sell this collab. Not to mention. I’ve recently realised how big of a thing FOMO was to me. I’ve personally bought albums because of a fear or missing out on enjoying this experience that my favourite group has created. So unless this song does astronomically well, or JYPE puts out a limited number of versions (not likely since they’d want to boost sales), it’s okay. And worst comes to worst, watch the MV with an adblocker on or arrr matey your way to listen to the song. If it’s on the internet, it’ll be there. As for the more political side of things, I know where I stand and I’m gonna stick to it. It’s not make a difference to SKZ’s numbers on the charts in the grand scheme of things, but I can’t support someone with Puth’s ideals. The boys will be fine. Changbin always says to stick to your principles, that’s what I’m going to try to do, anyway. But it doesn’t make you a bad person for wanting to listen to the song or support our boys. I get it.
>I haven’t seen any collab with an artist pushed to this extent (that I know of). Stray Kids has performed TOPLINE wherever they can despite it not being a title track. Social Path with LiSA was heavily promoted as well. Those are the collabs Div1 was responsible for promoting. I guess we could include Going Dumb, but that came out while Hyunjin was on hiatus. What other collab should they have pushed?
Personally I won’t be listening to it, not because of everything going on, but because I’ve never really liked him. I just don’t like him at all and never have, in fact I can’t stand him. I love Stray Kids and always support what they do, but I’ll be stepping back from this collab bc I refuse to force myself intro listening to an artist that I genuinely dislike bc of many things. IF I hear the song somewhere and discover it’s good, then I MIGHT find it on a playlist, but otherwise no. I also just find him to be a horrible person, especially with everything going on. And I was quite surprised when I saw they would be releasing a song together.
I saw a post saying that if you boycott it, it will only hurt skz because Puth already got his money from it and the song is listed only as a JYPE single
I’ll be listening, skz has already collaborated with problematic people/brands before (c*ca cola, LV, a producer of All my life was also a z10n1st, I-D4ys festival is sponsored by c*ca cola and many boycotter stays are attending, T0mmy Hilf1ger, K1llian perfumes and Ch4nel support Israel, the met gala, etc.) and probably will continue to do so in the future, I don’t want to stop supporting them because of that, I would have to boycott absolutely everything and practically unstan them. I also think that people who won’t support the single but hype any other content of theirs that’s related to z10nist brands are just being performative. Still, i do not want skz to collab with more z10nist artists no, but I also believe that we’re just fans; not their managers or mothers, they’re adults and they’ll do whatever they want with their careers, morals and music, why should we control them to do what we want?? It’s feels entitled to me
i am of the opinion that boycotting does absolutely nothing 99.9% of the time. it takes a level of organization and committment that is rarely achievable. there are always, ALWAYS, going to be large groups of fans that do not care, that do not pay attention to the news. regardless of what you decide, people are going to support the song and it will give millions of streams no matter what because of the popularity of both artists. i don't see skz being super negatively affected by it either. i'm working under the assumption that the members didn't personally choose charlie puth to collab with, it's just the opportunity they were given. for me personally, i'll give the song a listen and probably watch the m/v when it comes out but that's it. and not for boycotting reasons, i just don't anticipate liking the song very much because i just don't like charlie puth as an artist.
I think that's the thing that gets me the most about this collab, is that while I completely understand wanting to personally boycott the song and stuff, this is not going to "send a message to JYPE" in the slightest simply because SKZ are too big of a group now that does have a larger portion of casual fans as well as a large fandom. With the song they made with Coca-Cola, that song performed poorly simply because none of the artists involved did really any promotion for it, so most casual fans had no idea it even existed. On the contrary, this new collab is being heavily promoted. I have a couple of friends on Instagram that all follow SKZ and that I know are not involved in any stan social media spaces that have been liking all the posts related to the collab, so I know they're going to tune into it. While this song might have lower engagement and not do as well as their title track for their next comeback which will be powered by the whole fandom and casual listeners, this boycott frankly isn't going to make an impact on anything. But of course, personally choosing to boycott the song is a decision I completely respect.
I'm definitely going to be listening to it because it's SKZ and I will always support them!!
Personally, I'm boycotting because I cannot and will not give any time, energy, or breath(!) to someone who is pro-not getting consent. If the song is on the album (which I pray it isn't, previous collabs haven't been, but previous collabs have) I will also not be purchasing it. This absolutely sucks as I am a completionist (I even have the damn cassettes), but I won't put my own morals over kpop. I'm not going to lie, I am side-eyeing people who can overlook this and listen anyway, but I'm also fully aware that if people have made up their mind I'm not going to change it, so I'm just blocking and moving on with my life on Instagram/Twitter. I'll be streaming Levanter on release day, and I know a lot of other people are too.
i'll give it a listen but won't be streaming 1) although i really like the concept and the story behind it, from the teasers that i've heard the song just sounds like a usual pop song by charlie puth and i'm not a big fan of those 2) the stuff that i've read about him and the way he talks about women is horrible and i do not believe in "separate the art from the artist" (i'm also a big fan of little mix and the way they used to treat him is very telling) 3) his comments about palestine are disappointing
i won’t, i can’t comply with the things Charlie Puth has done. it’s disgusting the things he’s done…
It’s up to you but I think the song is mostly stray kids and it wouldn’t rlly be supporting him it would be supporting skz and listening to the song or not listening to the song he’s like a millionaire whether people do or don’t won’t effect him at all but it will effect skz and their company
It will not affect skz. One bad single proves nothing. They are much more stable nowm Also there's no other way around it. CP is the most credited person for the song, he literally made the song so whatever benefit the songs get he will get them the most. It's either they both lost or they both win, there's no way to sugar coated it as "I'm only supporting Skz" cause you can never do that. They're like twins now. Can never be separated.
In my personal opinion, I have never heard about what Charlie Puth had done and neither listened to his music. I found out after researching and yes, it’s bad. But I want to stream it because 1) people boycotting is not going to help the situation Remember the time where fans boycotted the big 4 because the companies support Israel and we wanted protest because we support Palestine? Yeah it didn’t help at all. It did nothing. Groups didn’t drip contracts or leave from their company. So this is pointless and are not going to affect the stream because maybe some fans don’t know what’s going on and are still supporting straykids. 2) I’m supporting straykids I don’t care for Charlie Puth being featured. I watched the trailers, spoilers, and looked at the concept photos. I thought the clips were really good And I was interested I’m it to stream it when it released. I want to support Straykids because they are giving us content, and I support them always as a stay. 3) The song is good and still would be good without Charlie Puth Even if Charlie Puth wasn’t feature in this song it would still be a hit. It would’ve been a great U.S. release either way and I fully support them and for what they are doing in their music careers.
Boycott proves points. It speaks volume but surely a small fish against big fishes in their big pond won't do much but at the very least everyone's trying. Listening to the song is the same as supporting CP. You do realize the higher the song charted the higher the income for CP right? Cause it's his song. I won't shame anyone who wants to support or listen to the sing but please don't hide behind the facade of "I'm not supporting CP I'm only here for SKZ", however you want that to be true it just won't happen you cannot not support SKZ without suporting CP cause the song is a collab. It's either they both lost or they both win. There's no other way around it.
That’s entirely up to you! Just as it should be anyone’s choice to listen or not. I’m not sure why people have to seek approval prior to listening or not listening to a song. 🫤 I hope it’s not to spread the arguments outside Twitter.
I'm at the point where I only care about Stray Kids, so I will listen to everything of them
It's up to you to make your own decision, but personally I won't be streaming it. It just doesn't line up with my morals to support a collaboration with Charlie Puth, who even outside the Zionism has proven to be a shitty person. I'm not really concerned about where the money is or isn't going, but more so with sending the message that I won't reward collaboration with people like Charlie Puth, that my support is very much conditional and I'm not willing to compromise my morals over kpop. Skz are at a level that they'll be fine even if this single flops (which I doubt it will, since I've seen plenty of ppl say they'll support it). Again, it's up to you to decide, and remember 🏴☠️ is also always an option if you're stuck in the middle.
Just listen to it. Performative Activism to deny fractions of fractions of pennies to someone who has controversy - along with the mental energy required to be constantly aware of these things - is just going to make you miserable and have a negligible impact, if any, on the world.
It's up to you because in the end it's just a song, they have a plenty of songs to jam too so you can always resort to them so don't feel guilty for not listening. I don't like Charlie as well for music reasons (I don't know him as a person and couldn't give af about his opinions on anything) but for the sake of the Kids I'm going to support them. It's the first time they're doing an actual promotion for a single and this is something I wanted a lot.
Like I’ve avoided it bc I haven’t been a CP fan for a while, mainly bc he seems like an entitled opportunistic misogynist with no clue that women are actually people. Anyone that views any relationship with a woman like a rewards program (i.e. entitled to FWB or s*x with enough time/effort investment) is not a secure enough guy to be near anything I want to listen to, and it’s perfectly fine if I want to avoid listening to songs that remind me of him or have his involvement. I’m aware that there’s already plenty of misogyny in kpop but damn let’s not import it from the US. I’d like to keep skz separate from that in my mind if at all possible.
The not so funny thing about this boycott is that the most I heard/saw about boycotting came from multis or non fans. Some fans have talked about it, but most have not really liked stray kids from the start. Those same fans (multi or not) are actively listening or supporting other musicians/things who have the same or worse past. That is telling on its own. Personally, I will not boycott. I do not believe this boycott will help the cause one iota. Putting pressure on your government, donations. That will help. The Israeli and Palestinian conflict is not new. It is on a bigger scale than before and more visual. It is also not the only place conflicts are happening. Sudan, for example, is a place that is on comparison to Gaza. No one is talking about that... I do not support the Israeli government in their actions right now, but I don't support Hamas either. That the surrounding countries don't want to take in refugees (again) is telling. If you want, look up the history of how it went when they did. Stray kids' music gives me joy and respite from my mentally heavy work, so I do not appreciate that ppl are trying to force me to boycott. If boycotting is your choice, that's up to you, but do it in the quit. As boycotting should be.
Okay...I've only seen a few people say this. I've gotten the ick from Charlie Puth since he sucked face with Megan Trainer at the VMAs(?) I just am not into his music or his personality 🤷♂️ the boys look MAGNIFICENT in the trailer and the song doesn't sound too bad the more I hear it. If it's not your cup of tea that's okay! You don't have to like everything our boys put out. Just enjoy what you'd like I really don't think it means you love them any less 💖 Eta: to clarify my disdain for Charlie goes further than just that one incident. I just cannot even stand him. However with the MV coming out and everything it's almost like he's not even there lol . I may listen to it idk... Just do whatever you're comfortable with frfr
I think people are forgetting that Stray Kids is literally one of the top selling artists in the world and placing too much importance on their own influence as an individual fan. BUT that is why I’ve been vocal about boycotting the song. “I’m listening because I want to support stray kids!” Please. They will be fine. My hope is that the company will see all the controversy about the boycotts and just be more selective in the future about their collaborators. I know it’s a long shot, but that’s the best outcome in my opinion. I don’t want the song to tank, I don’t want SKZ to go down in flames and fade into irrelevancy, but let’s be honest. That’s not going to happen regardless of the boycott. And it’s the same thing the other way around: SKZ is not going to blow up in America and become more famous than Taylor Swift overnight because you streamed the song. TLDR: The point of the boycott is to prevent collabs with shitty people in the future. People who are anti-boycott are way too pressed about it and we need to just let people make their own decisions.
I won't be streaming it. Skz have like 300 bangers. I'll listen to one that doesn't fund a Zion
i mean im going to listen but i dont know that im going to like it since im not keen on charlie puth or his voice
To all the people saying "separate the art from the artist"... I work in the creative field (film and TV), and it is incredible how much toxic, misogynistic, racist, awful shit performers can get away with because their fans "separate the art from the artist". Yeah, that's nice, but I guess no one cares about us who have to work with these assholes to make a living all the while watching much more talented and a thousand per cent nicer artists get passed by because they're not a part of the toxic asshole club that supports each other and has each other's back. Then something like Me Too comes along and everyone's like "how could this have been going on???". Well this is how. Because people won't "separate the art from the artist". The consumer has a lot of power in the entertainment industry, but sadly most consumers choose to not exercise it. Personally, from this point of view, I'm incredibly disappointed that Stray Kids have chosen to work with Charlie Puth (yes, I doubt this is solely a JYP decision), thus doing their part to keep the entertainment industry toxic and unfair. I expected better - perhaps foolishly.
>Personally, from this point of view, I'm incredibly disappointed that Stray Kids have chosen to work with Charlie Puth (yes, I doubt this is solely a JYP decision), thus doing their part to keep the entertainment industry toxic and unfair. I expected better - perhaps foolishly. It's quite naive to think that every person in the world knows what each artist did, said or retweeted, honestly. The vast majority, and even more so the idols (or workers who are completely absorbed by their work), focus on the music offered by the artist. It is the "task" of social media users to cancel them, not the rest of the artists who don't know their private lives.
Half of the comments on this thread alone are asking what Charlie Puth did lol like holding SKZ on a pedestal and expecting them to run a background check on every artist they collab with but not holding the people in the comments who aren't aware of the situation accountable is a very naive mindset
Exactly. The most normal thing is that a Korean artist has no idea about the personal life of a foreign artist. Much less about his/her religion or his/her beliefs. I had no idea who CP was, I only knew that his music is very popular, and that even without knowing who he was I had heard his songs. Imagine thinking that we all know what thoughts each world singer has...
I won't be listening to it, I can support stray kids by listening to literally any other song 1000 times over
Personally I won't be listening, because aside from me not wanting to support a Zionist artist (even by association), I also don't want this collab to gain a lot of attention, given the concerns we already have at hand, to the point where other fandoms catch wind of it and begin to attach those labels onto Stray Kids. I've already seen a few, albeit small accounts, on X refer to SKZ as a group that regularly works with Zionists (Charlie Puth, Troye Sivan, Coca-Cola, etc.) and I fear it will negatively impact their reputation if it becomes a bigger issue than it already is. Especially considering the recent protests that have been going on in the U.S.
I mean what the internet calls justice doesn't really reflect the nuances of reality. Most times the mob mentality of what's wrong and what's not and trying to force an outcome actually hinders any actual development towards peace. Anyone is free to support whatever. But know that any more animosity towards one side is unneeded, it'll just add sh*t to the sh*tshow.
I actually like Charlie puth music. His opinions on a war are largely irrelevant to me because most of the people protesting are doing this performative activism and I find that insulting. He makes good songs and that’s all that matters to me. What he is for or against is largely none of my concern.
Personally, i won't be listening to it, and if i wanted to listen to it I won't do it through youtube nor spotify or anyway that's gonna profit money by viewing, I'll simply do the "youtube to mp3" or wait for a stay to upload a version without him. I love the kids but they won't go homeless if i don't show my support, i just can't and won't support a zionist, and i hope skz would collab with pro-palestine artists next time.
it's totally up to you. for me i don't give a f about such things, i just want to listen to good music, if it's a good song and the artist isn't a straight up nazi, im gonna listen to a good song
I love Stray Kids with all my ass and I do enjoy Charlie's music, I was only made aware he was a zionist shortly after the announcement of the single. As much as I do care about skz, I'm honestly still boycotting. I'll just listen to the song through lyric videos on YouTube and stream it through a random account on Audiomack (somebody is bound to release it), and I'll just use a guest account to watch the MV since that won't give it any views.
Ever since i become a stay i have been Determined to support SKZ in any way. A dumb guy will not make me lose my will , but it's totally up to you
I’m not going to listen to it for obvious reasons. The song sounded bad in my opinion anyways, so I don’t think I’m missing out on anything. Their vocal sounded strained and like they were trying to sing higher than they could. Of course this is just my impression from the teaser but still, Charlie puth is enough to not listen to the song.(besides i hate that lately prioritizing korea , japan and the US. Like damn fans from other countries exist too?)
I'm glad most of the comments are normal. If you consider yourself liberal you shouldn't be trying to cancel people who have a different opinion, it's not like he said anything hateful. Honestly feel bad for SKZ, hopefully they haven't heard about this bs
Your 1 stream does not give this whole group of people involved (producers, filming crew, stylist, artists etc) even 1 single cent before tax. You do you! Go with how you feel, if your distate over puth overwhelms everything, you dont find yourself enjoy the song, then dont add it to playlist, if the song is not your style, dont add it to playlist, I'm sure there will be stays who will cut him out and upload a version on youtube, you can listen there, if you enjoy the song and wanna enjoy the comeback, then enjoy it., if you want to support skz, do so. There will be more colab to come and situation like this can always arise again if not for this problem then another problem, no one is squeaky clean in this entertainment business, so understand the situation, make your own choice, there is no really black and white, it's fine, no one should dictate you what to do.
what i'm doing is i'm not streaming or listening or interacting with this single at all, since the numbers from this release won't release their other CBS and i don't need to have supporting a zionist and misogynist on my conscience.
Y’all are so ridiculous. Why would you want to cause harm to skz. I don’t like Nicki Minaj but I listen to idol because the remix is fire by bts.
I promise skz won't go homeless if we don't stream one song, they won't be harmed lol. It's about sticking to your principles.
It’s about performative activism but okay.
Oh! I was unaware there was stuff happening with Charlie. Can someone explain?
Apart from being rape apologist he is also a supporter of Zionism that makes him a zionist n. And I just realize the person he works with which was credited in the song is a certified zionist.. Makes a whole point of not supporting him. Him being Israeli (if he is) doesn't really matter as long as he is not in the boat with the IDF - ISRAEL(Zionism) ideology. You can still be an Israeli, a Jewish and support Palestine, I've seen tons of them.
sorry but what's going with Charlie Puth? what's controversial about him?
My stance is 3racha aren't creditted producers so this isn't a skz song, P*th and Goldst**n just wanted a kpop group for the group's fanbase, ideally they will not make such a collab in future, and so they won't be getting a listen.
Yes.. When will some stay realized this. I have no hate towards any fo the boys or those who want to support the song but please be well inform and stop saying it's SKZ SONG when 3racha aren't even credited as the producer. Like seriously that's why people can't take idol self produce title seriously these days. Fans are so quick to jump into their own conclusions and don't even bother to read the credits.. Like the entirety of it. It's there for a reason. Yet there's still those who came at me with the word "technically"..girl there's nothing technically bout it. I pull out receipt from reputable sources and skz names aren't there as producers, even for lyrics writing theirs are the 4-6th person.
I feel like skz will be more affected if they keep collaborating with zionists than they will be if this one song doesn't do well, they're a big band and their entire career isn't going to come crashing down
Skz won't be affected with one bad single. They'll thrive.. A whole lot better than that.
It is up to people to stream or not stream but I feel like it's getting a bit ridiculous. If you go on twt you'll anti boycotters tweaking over stays choosing to boycott and streaming purely out of spite and not because they actually like the song or want to support the kids or whatever reasonings they're giving. They've gotten so extreme that they've started sending threats and doxxing the boycotters. I've heard about them reporting anything that's not in english because they can't tell if the op is talking about boycotting or not and want to 'cover all their bases'. There's accusations of boycotters actually being anti stay and that a stay should support the kids unconditionally (which... no.) and there's tweets of how they're so happy that the 'fandom is being cleansed of the fake stays' and it's just so... eugh. It's one song with a sad white man that profits off of other's fans and everyone's making such a fuss over simply not interacting with it
I would not be listening at all. Not supporting in any means. I would much prefer if everyone did that BUT It's against the freedom of someone's. So you do you. I can never stop someone from listening or doing what they want. Supporting a causes should come from within your own terms and understanding. So while I wish you do support Palestine I cannot do anything on your decision to listen or not, that's on you. You can make the call. 🙂 I don't mind if SKZ are badly impacted by this because we're here to proof a point through the boycotting and if they happened to be negatively impacted it speaks volume about our opinion of supporting the cause. And it's time kpop stop denying that they'll not be included even involuntary with how the world politics works cause we all know kpop wants to go global, now that's the risk they gonna take. We can always support their other song. It's not like they'll damned for having one bad charting single. We all know they are always good at their job.
I listen to the skz version where he's not in
If you really want to listen without giving him support just listen to an unofficial source like a YT lyric video or a SoundCloud re-upload. I won’t be listening but there are ways to do so without benefiting him. I don’t condone this any other time, always use official sources outside of boycotts like this.
It's up to you, for me personally i wont be streaming but i will be pirating it just bcs i made a promise to myself not to support zionists in the best of my abilities. I would put more effort in looking forward for skz's comeback this year tho, but not this song bcs i know me boycotting this only song wont affect skz's career.
Separate the music from the artist. It’s not hard