Appreciation Explaining kpop generations (1 Viewer)

[looloo_2]

i always found kpop to be very interesting with its generations. for those who are new to kpop, kpop operates on generations to signify when new sounds, trends and huge structural changes happen in the kpop scene.

• 1st generation (1996-1999) is the very first kpop generation. the group that started this generation was SM's first group, h.o.t whom are credited as being the first ever kpop idol group in k-pop's history. they pioneered the concept of being an IDOL group. Such as, fandoms, merchandise, concerts, fan signature colors, and the concept of balloons (which would go on to become lightsticks in the future) h.o.t were a huge phenomenon back in korea in the 90s, with most of their albums selling millions of copies. to put this into perspective, they were arguably on the same level as BTS is in korea. They were basically every teenage girl's favorite group. you could not go anywhere in korea in the 90s without seeing teenage girls and even boys listening to their music and even copying their clothing style. they heavily influenced teenage fashion and music, setting the standard for what idol groups are. after them, we've had a few groups help define the 1st generation of kpop, such as s.e.s, sechskies, and finkl to name a few names.

• 1.5 generation (2000-2003) is the first ever transitional generation in k-pop's history. the generation with a .5 name in its title refers to a bridge between the past generation and a new one. for example, 1.5 generation is considered to the be "dark age" for kpop. this was when groups like H.O.T, sechskies, and S.E.S (to name a few) disbanded abruptly, leaving their fans in distress and in disbelief. this left a gap in the industry, as there weren't a lot of idol groups that could replicate the massive success of these groups. seeing the idol market dying meant that companies started pumping out soloists. 1.5 gen is also the years where soloists reigned supreme. we saw many iconic soloists such as lee hyori, Boa, rain, se7en to name some. who were massively popular in the 2000s. An interesting footnote in 1.5 gen history is the fact that illegal music websites were on the rise. this wasn't just a korea thing, it was a worldwide thing. Korea's main piracy website was Soribada" and worldwide, we had napster. as you can guess, this deeply affected physical album sales as many teenagers and people alike didn't have to spend money on physical albums. why do that when you have free music to listen too? the soloists from this era thrived not only in korea but in asia too. 1.5 gen is considered a precursor to the hallyu wave or the takeover of kpop and kdrama culture in asia, with boa for instance, being a major icon and influence in japan. keep in mind, this generation birthed some experimental groups from this era that sadly didn't last long. most of these groups seemed to ride the coattails of massively successful 1st generation groups in hopes of gaining popularity like their seniors. for example, we had m.i.l.k who were considered to be the "2nd s.e.s". debuting under SM entertainment in 2001. the group consisted of four members who had a similar concept to ses and a similar sound. they unfortunately disbanded due to one of the members abruptly leaving the group and among a few other things. if you search this group up, you'll see a familiar face in the group. A list actress Seo Hyun-Jin was an kpop idol in this group! m.i.l.k are just one of the many groups from this era that had the potential, but the landscape at the time wasn't interested in groups, more so girl groups who've struggled the most during this era. a lot of the groups during this era disbanded only after one album either due to a lack of success or other issues. some groups managed to survive more than one album but it wasn't a lot. the only group i can think of that even survived this generation had to be the girl group jewelry, who are actually considered to be the longest running kpop girl group in history, despite the line up changes they've had, they managed to stick around for three whole generations. that's crazy. here are some groups that debuted around this era: Shinvi, blackbeat, sugar, click-b, and k'pop (yes that is actually their name. their name stands for k'population). these groups along with many others leaves a "what if" scenario in kpop history.

• 2nd generation (2003-2009) are what many fans consider to be the golden age" of kpop. this is the generation that is known to be the start of the hallyu wave which is the conquering of kdramas and kpop finding success through out asian countries. the group that started the 2nd generation are TVXQ, a five member boy group under sm in 2003. they were originally an acapella group where their primary focus was their strong vocals. this was the group that brought the public's focus back to idol groups and they revitalized the idol culture. tvxq was among the first kpop groups to conquer the japanese market alongside their labelmate Boa. of course they started off small but climbed their way into being one of the biggest boy groups in asian music history. they ended up selling out big stadiums and had a big fanbase in japan just as much in korea, proving that kpop had an audience overseas. these years marked the debuts of some of k-pop's most legendary and historically important groups such as snsd, big bang, and wonder girls to name a few. this era also birthed a lot of legendary and equally influential songs such as Gee, Haru Haru, And Tell Me to name some. Another reason why this generation is held to such high regard is the presence of kpop idols being permanent fixtures on popular variety shows. back when network tv was still a thing, many people not just these groups' respective fanbases, watched these idols on shows like Strong heart or golden bell. this helped idols become more than just celebrities and allowed them to act like genuine comedians on these shows and further cemented their popularity among the general public (non fans) of them. which gave them a much stronger appeal and longevity, which is why these groups are legendary. it's also worth noting that SNSD's Gee is considered a turning point for girl groups as snsd were the main group to shift the public's focus back to girl groups after girl groups experienced a withdrawal. Before Girls generation, boy groups dominated physical album sales and were the ones who had huge fanbases. SNSD's immense success proved that girl groups were just profitable as boy groups were, and this started a small phenomenon called the "girl group renaissance" which was a time where kpop agencies pumped out girl groups and even new companies emerged with their own girl groups to supply the demand. Some of the groups that denier around these years were bigbang, snsd, kara, and shinee to name a few.

• 2.5 generation (2010-2012) is the 2nd transitional phase of the 2nd generation. this is what many fans, mainly international fans call to be the most underrated generation. During these years, the absolute titans of the 2nd generation were in their PEAK during these years. these titan groups were pulling in massive numbers and had huge amounts of popularity. these groups dominated aspects of everyday life and it was hard to not see this groups on TV. the 2.5 generation had groups from mainly small companies competing against the absolute titans. it may not be as competitive as it is today, but for the time, it was hard for these groups to be on the same level as the groups from the years before. Don't get me wrong, the groups from these years are very popular and are beloved and they even had some hits, but they stop short at being considered god tier as groups such as snsd or bigbang. oh, i should mention what makes this generation a transitional phase is the rise of digital streaming. Physical sales were at an all time low, with the best selling ones selling around 200,000 copies. in 2010, the gaon chart was introduced, this allowed companies to track digital streaming. you can also thank youtube gaining prominence in this era too, and how a lot of people were using it consume music! this is how a lot of groups were able to survive. these groups made ABSOLUTE BANGERS that deserve more appreciation and love. some groups from this era include block b, teen top, 9muses, sistar and apink to name a few.

• 3rd generation (2012-2016) this generation is kickstarted by SM entertainment's boy group EXO. When exo made their debut, they didn't hit one million copies right away but their album did do very well. their first full length album in 2013 titled "XOXO" shattered the record by selling over one million copies, making them the first boy group since g.o.d in 2001 to achieve this feat. selling that amount of albums meant immense fandom power for exo especially considering they were rookies at the time. if there's a few things the third generation is known for, it's for its pivot towards social media and digital platforms. Twitter for example became a primary source for fandoms to engage with each other and the launch of V-live, which allowed for idols to engage in live streams with their fanbase with real time subtitles, which further created a type of intimacy between fans. the 3rd generation is also known for bringing "lore" to kpop groups or just storylines that each album would follow! with exo, they had exoplanet which gave the members super powers such as fire, telekinesis, time control etc. which was featured heavily in the music videos. BTS had this ongoing storyline at first, starting with their HYYH era in 2015. their storylines focused on mental health, youth and time travel which caused fans to go haywire with theories and over analyzing music videos. Since this is where kpop started to go more global, companies issued subtitles on their original group content and music video releases for international fans to understand them! these groups act the years that kpop would soon become a global phenomenon. the groups that debuted in these years are seventeen, BTS, blackpink and twice to name a few.

• 3.5 generation (2016-2018) is the third transitional period of kpop. this generation bridges the gap between the explosive global boom of the 3rd gen and the tiktok takeover of the 4th gen. This generation produced survival show groups such as i.o.i and wanna one from the popular produce series. This era prioritized audience engagement and interaction. similar-to-Vlive but not quite, this era had the fans actually vote on their favorite contestant on the show, and of course, the ones with the most votes got accepted into a temporary project group. since these groups were temporary, fans had an obligation to go out of their way to heavily promote and support these groups as they were only around for a short time. these years was the biggest year for BTS as they weee the first group to win the billboard music awards in 2017 which was a huge achievement and the only group to get that much western attention was wonder girls with their song "nobody." this proved that non big three groups could reach an immense amount of success, which paved the way for BTS to soon become one of the biggest boy groups in the entire world. This was also where self producing groups such as idle and stray kids came into play. This era had an emphasis on genuine artistry rather than waiting around for companies to give them songs. some groups from this era are NCT, momoland, and pentagon to name a few.

• 4th generation (2018-2022) is well things get confusing as people have argued that there is no definitive group that started this generation or at least one that's many people can agree on. people argue that the boyz started this generation, itzy, txt is all over the place. i think one group people can probably agree on is stray kids...as they have started the "noise music" trend and brought performance heavy choreography to the forefront. This would soon become the standard for groups after them especially boy groups. still, there's no definitive group the started this era as it's still heavily debated. this era is categorized by its reliance on tiktok dance challenges and the like. These were the years the unfortunate covid-19 pandemic has taken a toll on society and completely changed how idols interacted with fans as touring was and live music shows had to put on a halt. instead of engaging with idols during in-person fansigns, idols had to interact with fans via online calls and virtual concerts. Thanks to the rise of tiktok, kpop choreographies became a widespread phenomenon on tiktok where dozens of fans would be recreating short 15 second dances made for vertical phone screens. Songs were measured by how well they on tiktok, groups became popular thanks to their viral dances. some groups from this era include ateez, ive, enhypen, and newjeans to name a few.

• 4.5 gen (2023-present) okay this is where things also get muddled. a lot of people seem to think we're in the 5th generation as this has been forced upon companies using it has a strategy to hype up their groups. my personal opinion is that we're not in the 5th generation, and that we're experiencing a transitional phase like the other .5 generations. it's clear that these companies to be the next big thing when in reality, they're just later additions to the 4th generation lineup. like mentioned previously, .5 generations happen when changes are happening, but they're huge structural changes. This generation focuses on easy listening trends and a heavy emphasis on y2k styled music. this era also focuses on short songs made for tiktok algorithms, being made under 3:00 minutes. groups such as ZB1 are credited as being the start of the 5th generation when they aren't at least to me. ZB1 are yet another group formed by a survival show and they were a temporary group. this is nothing new as we've had project groups before. the only thing about kpop that has changed is the usage of virtual idols like PLAVE for instance. plave are a 5 member boy group controlled by real life singers and dancers via motion capture. Despite the concept of virtual kpop idols sounding ridiculous, the group went on to achieve massive success and were able to perform at huge stadiums. which is crazy that a virtual boy group is able to pull in these sorts of numbers... we are arguably in a 2nd dark age as 4.5 gen has an obsession with fandom fatigue and album dumping. Which consists of companies releasing variations of one album with randomized fansign video call tickets where fans can get a 1 minute chat with their bias. they're essentially a one in a million thing where not all albums have these raffle tickets, which causes fans to go crazy and buy multiple copies in hopes of having these things inside them. they'll go as far as to dump the actual CD in the trash if there was no luck. this creates a toxic atmosphere where fans don't actually want the CD, they want the photocard or a random fansign ticket. crazy how companies are resorting to these tactics just to appease stockholders. some groups from this era are riize, illit, boynextdoor, and kiss of life to name a few.

 

[looloo_2]

i always write my ass off with these posts lol

 

[Abeamus]

I agree with your timings except for the part about being .5 generations as those have always just seemed pointless to me since the generations make sense when you tie it to the industry itself not if you tie it to any specific groups like 1st Generation is marked by massive physical sales while 2nd Generation didn't come close to those sales again due to stagnation in the scene and the rise of digital this carried on to the 3rd generation except physical sales were on the rise and groups were starting to outsell the 2nd generation then by the 4th generation physical sales exploded and digital was on the decline which is pretty much the point we're at now

 

[looloo_2]

I agree with your timings except for the part about being .5 generations as those have always just seemed pointless to me since the generations make sense when you tie it to the industry itself not if you tie it to any specific groups like 1st Generation is marked by massive physical sales while 2nd Generation didn't come close to those sales again due to stagnation in the scene and the rise of digital this carried on to the 3rd generation except physical sales were on the rise and groups were starting to outsell the 2nd generation then by the 4th generation physical sales exploded and digital was on the decline which is pretty much the point we're at now

yeah the .5 generations aren't actually real generations. their fan made generations. i just thought it'd be nice to include them since they make up a whole generation entirely.

 

[Bottles]

Thanks for the write up. The thing I have realised recently as a girl group fan, is the gens are built around the boy groups and as a result the girl groups don’t slot neatly into them.

3rd Gen for example commonly begins with EXO, but there’s a load of girl groups who debut around them (AOA, EXID) who get lumped into 2.5. 3rd gen girls groups doesn’t really kick off until 2014 with Red Velvet. But if you call 4th gen beginning in 2018, that makes it an incredibly stunted generation, and the girl groups from that era (Itzy, Loona, Izone, Idle) feel closer to groups like Blackpink than they do the post-Covid groups.

You can see how out of sync this becomes by the time Babymonster debuts. They are labelled a 5th gen group despite YG debuting them exactly as Blackpink began to wind-down. The idea that YG somehow missed a whole generation of girl groups just seems silly to me, and highlights how messy the gens apply to the girl groups.

 

[looloo_2]

Thanks for the write up. The thing I have realised recently as a girl group fan, is the gens are built around the boy groups and as a result the girl groups don’t slot neatly into them.

3rd Gen for example commonly begins with EXO, but there’s a load of girl groups who debut around them (AOA, EXID) who get lumped into 2.5. 3rd gen girls groups doesn’t really kick off until 2014 with Red Velvet. But if you call 4th gen beginning in 2018, that makes it an incredibly stunted generation, and the girl groups from that era (Itzy, Loona, Izone, Idle) feel closer to groups like Blackpink than they do the post-Covid groups.

You can see how out of sync this becomes by the time Babymonster debuts. They are labelled a 5th gen group despite YG debuting them exactly as Blackpink began to wind-down. The idea that YG somehow missed a whole generation of girl groups just seems silly to me, and highlights how messy the gens apply to the girl groups.

it doesn't surprise that girl groups aren't the main ones starting generations. boy groups seem to be the breadwinners here. yeah 3.5 gen is like a confusing generation for some people. it's like the time that kpop became more global which should've started a new generation but at the same time, it was a transitional period...it's like confusing but i think you get it.

 

[looloo_2]

i always found kpop to be very interesting with its generations. for those who are new to kpop, kpop operates on generations to signify when new sounds, trends and huge structural changes happen in the kpop scene.

• 1st generation (1996-1999) is the very first kpop generation. the group that started this generation was SM's first group, h.o.t whom are credited as being the first ever kpop idol group in k-pop's history. they pioneered the concept of being an IDOL group. Such as, fandoms, merchandise, concerts, fan signature colors, and the concept of balloons (which would go on to become lightsticks in the future) h.o.t were a huge phenomenon back in korea in the 90s, with most of their albums selling millions of copies. to put this into perspective, they were arguably on the same level as BTS is in korea. They were basically every teenage girl's favorite group. you could not go anywhere in korea in the 90s without seeing teenage girls and even boys listening to their music and even copying their clothing style. they heavily influenced teenage fashion and music, setting the standard for what idol groups are. after them, we've had a few groups help define the 1st generation of kpop, such as s.e.s, sechskies, and finkl to name a few names.

• 1.5 generation (2000-2003) is the first ever transitional generation in k-pop's history. the generation with a .5 name in its title refers to a bridge between the past generation and a new one. for example, 1.5 generation is considered to the be "dark age" for kpop. this was when groups like H.O.T, sechskies, and S.E.S (to name a few) disbanded abruptly, leaving their fans in distress and in disbelief. this left a gap in the industry, as there weren't a lot of idol groups that could replicate the massive success of these groups. seeing the idol market dying meant that companies started pumping out soloists. 1.5 gen is also the years where soloists reigned supreme. we saw many iconic soloists such as lee hyori, Boa, rain, se7en to name some. who were massively popular in the 2000s. An interesting footnote in 1.5 gen history is the fact that illegal music websites were on the rise. this wasn't just a korea thing, it was a worldwide thing. Korea's main piracy website was Soribada" and worldwide, we had napster. as you can guess, this deeply affected physical album sales as many teenagers and people alike didn't have to spend money on physical albums. why do that when you have free music to listen too? the soloists from this era thrived not only in korea but in asia too. 1.5 gen is considered a precursor to the hallyu wave or the takeover of kpop and kdrama culture in asia, with boa for instance, being a major icon and influence in japan. keep in mind, this generation birthed some experimental groups from this era that sadly didn't last long. most of these groups seemed to ride the coattails of massively successful 1st generation groups in hopes of gaining popularity like their seniors. for example, we had m.i.l.k who were considered to be the "2nd s.e.s". debuting under SM entertainment in 2001. the group consisted of four members who had a similar concept to ses and a similar sound. they unfortunately disbanded due to one of the members abruptly leaving the group and among a few other things. if you search this group up, you'll see a familiar face in the group. A list actress Seo Hyun-Jin was an kpop idol in this group! m.i.l.k are just one of the many groups from this era that had the potential, but the landscape at the time wasn't interested in groups, more so girl groups who've struggled the most during this era. a lot of the groups during this era disbanded only after one album either due to a lack of success or other issues. some groups managed to survive more than one album but it wasn't a lot. the only group i can think of that even survived this generation had to be the girl group jewelry, who are actually considered to be the longest running kpop girl group in history, despite the line up changes they've had, they managed to stick around for three whole generations. that's crazy. here are some groups that debuted around this era: Shinvi, blackbeat, sugar, click-b, and k'pop (yes that is actually their name. their name stands for k'population). these groups along with many others leaves a "what if" scenario in kpop history.

• 2nd generation (2003-2009) are what many fans consider to be the golden age" of kpop. this is the generation that is known to be the start of the hallyu wave which is the conquering of kdramas and kpop finding success through out asian countries. the group that started the 2nd generation are TVXQ, a five member boy group under sm in 2003. they were originally an acapella group where their primary focus was their strong vocals. this was the group that brought the public's focus back to idol groups and they revitalized the idol culture. tvxq was among the first kpop groups to conquer the japanese market alongside their labelmate Boa. of course they started off small but climbed their way into being one of the biggest boy groups in asian music history. they ended up selling out big stadiums and had a big fanbase in japan just as much in korea, proving that kpop had an audience overseas. these years marked the debuts of some of k-pop's most legendary and historically important groups such as snsd, big bang, and wonder girls to name a few. this era also birthed a lot of legendary and equally influential songs such as Gee, Haru Haru, And Tell Me to name some. Another reason why this generation is held to such high regard is the presence of kpop idols being permanent fixtures on popular variety shows. back when network tv was still a thing, many people not just these groups' respective fanbases, watched these idols on shows like Strong heart or golden bell. this helped idols become more than just celebrities and allowed them to act like genuine comedians on these shows and further cemented their popularity among the general public (non fans) of them. which gave them a much stronger appeal and longevity, which is why these groups are legendary. it's also worth noting that SNSD's Gee is considered a turning point for girl groups as snsd were the main group to shift the public's focus back to girl groups after girl groups experienced a withdrawal. Before Girls generation, boy groups dominated physical album sales and were the ones who had huge fanbases. SNSD's immense success proved that girl groups were just profitable as boy groups were, and this started a small phenomenon called the "girl group renaissance" which was a time where kpop agencies pumped out girl groups and even new companies emerged with their own girl groups to supply the demand. Some of the groups that denier around these years were bigbang, snsd, kara, and shinee to name a few.

• 2.5 generation (2010-2012) is the 2nd transitional phase of the 2nd generation. this is what many fans, mainly international fans call to be the most underrated generation. During these years, the absolute titans of the 2nd generation were in their PEAK during these years. these titan groups were pulling in massive numbers and had huge amounts of popularity. these groups dominated aspects of everyday life and it was hard to not see this groups on TV. the 2.5 generation had groups from mainly small companies competing against the absolute titans. it may not be as competitive as it is today, but for the time, it was hard for these groups to be on the same level as the groups from the years before. Don't get me wrong, the groups from these years are very popular and are beloved and they even had some hits, but they stop short at being considered god tier as groups such as snsd or bigbang. oh, i should mention what makes this generation a transitional phase is the rise of digital streaming. Physical sales were at an all time low, with the best selling ones selling around 200,000 copies. in 2010, the gaon chart was introduced, this allowed companies to track digital streaming. you can also thank youtube gaining prominence in this era too, and how a lot of people were using it consume music! this is how a lot of groups were able to survive. these groups made ABSOLUTE BANGERS that deserve more appreciation and love. some groups from this era include block b, teen top, 9muses, sistar and apink to name a few.

• 3rd generation (2012-2016) this generation is kickstarted by SM entertainment's boy group EXO. When exo made their debut, they didn't hit one million copies right away but their album did do very well. their first full length album in 2013 titled "XOXO" shattered the record by selling over one million copies, making them the first boy group since g.o.d in 2001 to achieve this feat. selling that amount of albums meant immense fandom power for exo especially considering they were rookies at the time. if there's a few things the third generation is known for, it's for its pivot towards social media and digital platforms. Twitter for example became a primary source for fandoms to engage with each other and the launch of V-live, which allowed for idols to engage in live streams with their fanbase with real time subtitles, which further created a type of intimacy between fans. the 3rd generation is also known for bringing "lore" to kpop groups or just storylines that each album would follow! with exo, they had exoplanet which gave the members super powers such as fire, telekinesis, time control etc. which was featured heavily in the music videos. BTS had this ongoing storyline at first, starting with their HYYH era in 2015. their storylines focused on mental health, youth and time travel which caused fans to go haywire with theories and over analyzing music videos. Since this is where kpop started to go more global, companies issued subtitles on their original group content and music video releases for international fans to understand them! these groups act the years that kpop would soon become a global phenomenon. the groups that debuted in these years are seventeen, BTS, blackpink and twice to name a few.

• 3.5 generation (2016-2018) is the third transitional period of kpop. this generation bridges the gap between the explosive global boom of the 3rd gen and the tiktok takeover of the 4th gen. This generation produced survival show groups such as i.o.i and wanna one from the popular produce series. This era prioritized audience engagement and interaction. similar-to-Vlive but not quite, this era had the fans actually vote on their favorite contestant on the show, and of course, the ones with the most votes got accepted into a temporary project group. since these groups were temporary, fans had an obligation to go out of their way to heavily promote and support these groups as they were only around for a short time. these years was the biggest year for BTS as they weee the first group to win the billboard music awards in 2017 which was a huge achievement and the only group to get that much western attention was wonder girls with their song "nobody." this proved that non big three groups could reach an immense amount of success, which paved the way for BTS to soon become one of the biggest boy groups in the entire world. This was also where self producing groups such as idle and stray kids came into play. This era had an emphasis on genuine artistry rather than waiting around for companies to give them songs. some groups from this era are NCT, momoland, and pentagon to name a few.

• 4th generation (2018-2022) is well things get confusing as people have argued that there is no definitive group that started this generation or at least one that's many people can agree on. people argue that the boyz started this generation, itzy, txt is all over the place. i think one group people can probably agree on is stray kids...as they have started the "noise music" trend and brought performance heavy choreography to the forefront. This would soon become the standard for groups after them especially boy groups. still, there's no definitive group the started this era as it's still heavily debated. this era is categorized by its reliance on tiktok dance challenges and the like. These were the years the unfortunate covid-19 pandemic has taken a toll on society and completely changed how idols interacted with fans as touring was and live music shows had to put on a halt. instead of engaging with idols during in-person fansigns, idols had to interact with fans via online calls and virtual concerts. Thanks to the rise of tiktok, kpop choreographies became a widespread phenomenon on tiktok where dozens of fans would be recreating short 15 second dances made for vertical phone screens. Songs were measured by how well they on tiktok, groups became popular thanks to their viral dances. some groups from this era include ateez, ive, enhypen, and newjeans to name a few.

• 4.5 gen (2023-present) okay this is where things also get muddled. a lot of people seem to think we're in the 5th generation as this has been forced upon companies using it has a strategy to hype up their groups. my personal opinion is that we're not in the 5th generation, and that we're experiencing a transitional phase like the other .5 generations. it's clear that these companies to be the next big thing when in reality, they're just later additions to the 4th generation lineup. like mentioned previously, .5 generations happen when changes are happening, but they're huge structural changes. This generation focuses on easy listening trends and a heavy emphasis on y2k styled music. this era also focuses on short songs made for tiktok algorithms, being made under 3:00 minutes. groups such as ZB1 are credited as being the start of the 5th generation when they aren't at least to me. ZB1 are yet another group formed by a survival show and they were a temporary group. this is nothing new as we've had project groups before. the only thing about kpop that has changed is the usage of virtual idols like PLAVE for instance. plave are a 5 member boy group controlled by real life singers and dancers via motion capture. Despite the concept of virtual kpop idols sounding ridiculous, the group went on to achieve massive success and were able to perform at huge stadiums. which is crazy that a virtual boy group is able to pull in these sorts of numbers... we are arguably in a 2nd dark age as 4.5 gen has an obsession with fandom fatigue and album dumping. Which consists of companies releasing variations of one album with randomized fansign video call tickets where fans can get a 1 minute chat with their bias. they're essentially a one in a million thing where not all albums have these raffle tickets, which causes fans to go crazy and buy multiple copies in hopes of having these things inside them. they'll go as far as to dump the actual CD in the trash if there was no luck. this creates a toxic atmosphere where fans don't actually want the CD, they want the photocard or a random fansign ticket. crazy how companies are resorting to these tactics just to appease stockholders. some groups from this era are riize, illit, boynextdoor, and kiss of life to name a few.

you guys noticed how sm entertainment pioneered three new generations? 👀 that's something i just realized omg

 

[Abeamus]

yeah the .5 generations aren't actually real generations. their fan made generations. i just thought it'd be nice to include them since they make up a whole generation entirely.

Yeah the issue is people just want to have their faves start generations and focus on that instead but the only reason they exist is to separate periods where you can't compare remotely fairly like the best selling album per year is over 1M until 2002 where it drops to 647k with it having been 1.6M for 2001 this is a massive decrease and it isn't until 2017 where another album would sell over 1M. Then for downloads you have less data to go on but still in 2011 T-ara got 4M with Roly-Poly and then Gangnam Style was 2012 which is an anomaly in itself but still sold 3.8M however the closest download data after that is Ailees I Will Go To You Like The First Snow with 2.4M so losing about 1M downloads on all 3 of the available years and that's the best one from 2013-2017.

There is less concrete data now as they have hidden a lot of the available data but from the data you can extrapolate as I think it's Gaon shows the downloads of the winners of the song of the months and such you could start to see the downloads took another hit at the start of the 4th generation while physical sales outpaced even 1st generation albums making a different metric for success from previous generations and hence the shift to a digital index instead.

 

[Chohee_nyang]

Wow you actually did type a lot, that's a lot of effort, how do u stay soo focused??

 

[TrinityJade]

Oh interesting!
I didn't know that there were .5 generations, but I suppose it does help explain the time periods better!

 

[looloo_2]

Wow you actually did type a lot, that's a lot of effort, how do u stay soo focused??

idk i guess i love writing sooo much. it was fun tho

 

[looloo_2]

Oh interesting!
I didn't know that there were .5 generations, but I suppose it does help explain the time periods better!

yeah, the .5 generations are just fan created generations and aren't actually real generations, but it's still good to know about them

 

[Selfmate]

interesting

nice write up my friend

given that most sources have the current gen as the fifth gen and those sources include not only the Korean kpop companies themselves and the likes of the Korean media and so forth - it's interesting you still consider them 4.5

 

[looloo_2]

interesting

nice write up my friend

given that most sources have the current gen as the fifth gen and those sources include not only the Korean kpop companies themselves and the likes of the Korean media and so forth - it's interesting you still consider them 4.5

yeah it's a personal take of mine. i'm not the only one who thinks we're not in the 5th gen. it's heavily debated though 😂

 

[Selfmate]

yeah it's a personal take of mine. i'm not the only one who thinks we're not in the 5th gen. it's heavily debated though 😂

understandable I can respect your opinion my friend

 

[Chohee_nyang]

idk i guess i love writing sooo much. it was fun tho

That seems you are intelligent, I also love writing bit only to an extent