Why are groups so much more popular in Kpop? (1 Viewer)

[PloryWinxyMYBlnk]

My assumptions ~
1. Groups have more variety of member biases/favorites fans can choose from, resulting in very large fan bases sometimes.
2. Whereas soloists, regardless of being separated from groups or debuted alone, have one specific fan base who consider them as their bias/favorite.

 

[velvet]

I always thought it was collectivism > individualism. Though people can like certain members in groups, it's when they come together the public values them more ig. Idk if that makes sense.

 

[Moguri]

the more the merrier

I guess as a IZ*One stan, you really mean it

Do you have a limit when a group becomes too big for you?

 

[izcream]

I guess as a IZ*One stan, you really mean it

Do you have a limit when a group becomes too big for you?

nah i was just joking LOL honestly even if all the members of iz*one debuted as soloists im sure i would have liked them as much, 12 isnt that many anyway

tbh i dont rlly have a limit when it comes to stanning groups but i guess i might reconsider stanning the group if theres more than 15 members

 

[Moguri]

I'm certainly not an expert, but I suspect it might have something to do with Korean society. I don't remember the exact name for them, but I watched a video on how every year there are these exams Korean students take, and literally, flights will be grounded, traffic will be diverted and teachers will wear certain shoes to muffle their sounds. It's literally a group effort on a mass scale just to ensure the students do well and don't get distracted. Plus, Korea has a pretty blatant social hierarchy with terms given to this group of people and that group and so on, as well as rules on how to address people who are older and younger than you and so forth.

K-pop idols don't solely make up the landscape of Korean music, but it's no wonder that there's such a huge market for them when group efforts and social structures are the norm in Korean society. It would make sense then that people would enjoy seeing groups succeed and work hard together, dote on their maknaes even if they're only, like, a year or two younger than their second-youngest member and rely on their leader to be the grown-up who takes care of all the grown-up things, like shopping expenses and whatnot.

It's also clear that the k-pop industry has a lot of government support since they're what gives South Korea the bulk of its soft power. So maybe the government wants groups to be the face of the Korean music industry in order to show the world exactly how the country's culture can mesh beautifully with music and entertainment.

Again, I'm no expert. And all of this is purely conjecture. But even in the US, where I'm from, isn't it sort of similar for music to be a reflection of society and for people to like that? I'm thinking of shows like American Idol and The Voice and just the fact that we have so many solo artists who come up through Disney or through other means. Here in the US it's all about 'picking yourself up by your own bootstraps', which can get pretty toxic, ngl (tbf, any societal structure can be toxic when taken to extremes), but people like seeing solo artists succeed because of this mindset, even if they're not consciously aware of it.

So I don't think it's too far outside the realm of possibility to say that k-pop groups work because they're also a reflection of their society.

But again, this is all just a theory.

I really need to stop writing essays, wth am I doing.

So you are saying kpop represent korean society as a kinda a microversion and thats why they like it?

But yeah I heared that part about the goverment too, it makes sense to market their happy and beuatiful groups all around the world to make the country look good. Also it seems to help a bit with the hostile relations some of the countries like Japan and Korea have

The only part that does not fit in with your theory, is people from other societies coming into kpop, also focusing only on the groups

eh but this is a forum, we are supposed to write essays!

 

[Moguri]

nah i was just joking LOL honestly even if all the members of iz*one debuted as soloists im sure i would have liked them as much, 12 isnt that many anyway

tbh i dont rlly have a limit when it comes to stanning groups but i guess i might reconsider stanning the group if theres more than 15 members

first you would have to get to know them all as solos / learn about them, thats probably where it falls apart

uhh.. 15 is like Twice + IVE combined, that sounds super extreme to me for one group

 

[PloryWinxyMYBlnk]

Following up ~
Case in point ~ Jihyo from Twice debuting as a soloist this August.
She will have her fan base who considered her as their main or additional bias member when being part of the Twice group, therefore supporting her.
But, a lot or the rest of the group's fan base will probably not purchase her music because she simply is not in their bias radar.

 

[izcream]

first you would have to get to know them all as solos / learn about them, thats probably where it falls apart

aint no way getting to know them individually as soloists and as members of iz*one are the same imo so it'd be perfectly fine

uhh.. 15 is like Twice + IVE combined, that sounds super extreme to me for one group

nct exists

 

[Abeamus]

I do think your OP didn't exactly convey the idea I was talking about as soloists are very successful digitally but a lot of that does not convey physically including some examples in your OP like Hyuna does not have an album over 15k and Sunmis highest album sales is 25k so while they have seen digital success however it has not converted into a fanbase.

This all coming back to how being a soloist is pretty hard to hit it off with which is to say that generally the path you want your favourite to take is digital success > building fanbase from that success > live off fanbase till disbandment however when you have digital success but the fanbase you build is relatively weak then that makes it harder and why overall I firmly believe debuting Chaeyeon as a soloist was a bad thing for RBW to basically force WMs hand with given it would be a harder sell for former IZ*One fans and well her album sales show that.

 

[Moguri]

aint no way getting to know them individually as soloists and as members of iz*one are the same imo so it'd be perfectly fine


nct exists

eh okay, I'm agreeing because of your knife!

yeah NCT is too much for little Moguris

 

[Moguri]

Yeah! That's a good TL;DR, haha.

And yeah, that's true, I think. I dunno. But that's good, if so.

Oh, that's true. There's lots of American, Canadian, Aussie idols, etc. And I know Blackswan is a thing, too. Like, their foreign line is literally the whole group. But I guess the thing about that is that those foreign idols are still Korean or at least East Asian, and they tend to be second generation Asian *insert country here* sort of people, so even though they were born overseas, they still know from their older relatives and parents how people from their mother countries act and what they believe in. I'm second-gen Chinese American and have had friends who were Korean and Chinese American/Canadian/British, so I speak from experience. And even with Blackswan, which has western members, I think, they both live in SK and know the culture, so I don't think it's an issue for them to fit in, really.

Haha, touché ! ><

Ohh I was talking about the western fans not the idols, that only care for groups too

 

[Moguri]

generally the path you want your favourite to take is digital success > building fanbase from that success > live off fanbase till disbandment however when you have digital success but the fanbase you build is relatively weak

Yeah but thats what I mean, why is the fanbase of the solos in kpop weak? Or at least a lot weaker, than those of groups

 

[Moguri]

Ahh, okay. I guess maybe it's because groups are the status quo and western fans just get used to that and figure it's an eastern thing? I dunno.

I'm not sure about the eastern thing, but you are certainly right, I think when most people think of kpop they automatically will think of whatver group they know and so everyone that goes into it, will also be looking for groups first and already be way too busy with that to even think of solos

 

[Moguri]

Yeah, that's fair. I sometimes wonder, though, if k-pop idols are seen as being worth less than a lot of western artists because they're in a group. I've read some comments from other sites about how k-pop artists don't hold a candle to western artists, and I wonder if part of it is the mentality that since they're in a group, they need the group to function, like they can't do it alone.

I'm probably just putting words in people's mouths, admittedly. But it's interesting to ponder.

nono I'm sure that is correct, regardless of the group, the high dependency on the agency is probably another reason.

But lets see, the rumors about many labels form outside of korea trying to sign BlackPink members makes me hopeful, that in the future the situation for the idols can imrpove and they are not all seen as replacable anymore..

 

[Moguri]

Oh, well I'm glad then ^^ And that makes sense, too. Oh well. It's just weird to see people even saying that Taemin or Kai are only good by 'k-pop standards', like what even— xD

I hadn't heard of that! But yeah, hopefully that'll be a wake-up call too all the companies.

People would say anything to demean an idol they don't like