I was a huge fan of IKON and their music after the whole scandal I lost interest in the group.After that a while ago I listened to B.I's solo work and really enjoyed them..I hope his other song's get the same love as BTBT.

The Melon Daily Chart for October 15th was recently posted and it showed that A2O Lite's debut song "Neon" has reached the #1 spot. For those unfamiliar with Melon, the often referenced Top 100 chart is updated on an hourly basis whereas this Daily Chart is updated only once a day and heavily factors in the total number of unique listeners as well as the number of streams for a full 24 hour period.

The six songs from 5th gen groups that have reached #1 on this chart are:

Illit - Magnetic

AllDay Project - Famous

KiiiKiii - 404 (New Era)

Cortis - REDRED

Rescene - Love Attack

A2O Lite - Neon

There have also been multiple songs from 5th gen groups which have come close to reaching #1 on the Daily Chart, but just narrowly missed out:

TWS - Plot Twist (Peaked at #2)

AllDay Project - One More Time (Peaked at #2)

Illit - It's Me (Peaked at #2)

Hearts2Hearts - Rude! (Peaked at #3)

Rescene - Deja Vu (Peaked at #3)

It looks like 5th Gen groups as a whole are definitely gaining mainstream popularity and momentum overall within the Korean domestic market. There was only a single #1 hit each in 2024 and 2025, but there have already been four #1 hits so far this year.

Truly! Nothing makes me sadder than seeing the SMCU being used less. There were people complaining that it was just a tactic to bring older groups back into the limelight, as if people are ever going to stop being obsessed with Girls’ Generation, TVXQ, SuJu, SHINee, and EXO. I feel like the people who said that were genuinely newer fans who didn’t understand that 80% of all current idols were inspired by these groups in some way to become idols in the first place. Also, who can actually say the older or younger groups depended on each other for success? That’s so illogical.

In any case, I think SM was making money moves with the Kwangya stuff. I genuinely don’t understand how it became goofy. All I remember is that the older group members joked around a lot about the company finding them a role to play in the lore, but they were extremely short-sighted. For one, they got free publicity and attracted newer fans who wanted to check out how all the other groups fit into the universe. And two, it genuinely did them no harm.
A lore geek like me would be on YouTube for hours finding videos that explained how everything fit together. I especially liked theories by YeriPotter and neonpearls5340 on YouTube. I mean, for the most part, I think SM let everyone’s theories run wild, which was very fun.

The SMCU has been in the works since 2006! Say what you want about Lee Sooman, but that man viewed these groups as his passion projects. For the most part, the groups seemed to function individually up until NCT, which introduced concepts stemming from *Inception* and *The Matrix*. It was the first time groups that were somewhat separate worked under one core theory. Even though SM doesn’t make lore videos anymore, most SM MVs still have strong Kwangya-like visuals. The only group that truly threw me off was WISH’s concept because it’s an NCT group with no solid grounding in the main NCT concept, but their debut was also after LSM’s departure soooo… I digress.

The integration of all the groups’ lore made the New Year showcase concert thing all the more fun and gave their occasional full-company album a purpose, rather than just randomly making a company album. Ain’t this how we got ZOO and Hot&Cold? (I need to see Jeno, Kai, Seulgi and Karina perform that song one more time, like why are they holding out on me🙄).

I guess removing it, or stripping back a huge chunk of it, allowed some fans’ anxieties to subside, like the people who were afraid aespa’s lore would be unattractive in the West (as if SuperM did poorly in the West when they were calling themselves the avengers of kpop, like let’s be so serious). Ugh, what else? Idk, some people just didn’t want it, and their reasons really don’t make sense to me. Removing it robbed me of a real SM Game Shakers. They would’ve had a real incentive to do it properly instead of having one member from each group represent their group while playing guessing games on chairs🙄. I’m pained whenever I think of that.

My main gripe with the dismissal of the concept is aespa’s musical direction. aespa’s core musical identity shifted towards meaningless tracks made for hype. Popular tracks are fine, btw, but after the recent switch in sound, I can tell that not having a storyline gave SM no grounding for what the music should sound like. I can’t believe we went through years of not hearing proper SINGING😭. What are you doing making Winter whisper when she has pipes that could put most of the industry to shame? I just don’t understand. Frankly, I think the concepts have been gross. I understand doing dark things and incorporating horror elements, like Red Velvet’s concept is literally occult if you take away the fun sounds.

But for aespa, the switch felt unjustified. Why did it have to look and sound like that? If you told me the Black Mamba won and made them act that way, I would understand (I’d hate it, but I’d understand). But if I were to make an EXO comparison, the “villain” taking over in their story just led to banger title tracks that everyone’s favs still go crazy for. They never stopped singing and everyone still likes them and looks up to them. I don’t know if I can say the same for WDA, Armageddon, or Rich Man. Even Lemonade is weird, like I’m not listening to that on loop. I enjoyed Supernova and Whiplash, but everything after just puzzles me.

What did they do to my shayla?

And groups that debut after the removal of the lore will always kinda feel like regular old groups with nothing special to get into. Idk why people were acting like the concept was invasive in everyday life. It literally just played a role in their title tracks. No variety content or major promotional thing was impacted by the fact that people had concepts. Are you aware of how cool EXO was? Every comeback had a purpose. I especially loved how it added merch like comic books and the lore videos aespa did for one of their comebacks. Idk if anyone remembers this, but early aespa took OFF. The concepts did nothing to hinder their growth. I can’t say the concepts or the SMCU did any harm to any of the groups’ success. I know y’all remember NCT 2020. That was epic, and it was possible because of their concept and lore. Even *I* could admit that, and I was literally an NCT anti at the time.

Please let me know how you felt about the SMCU? If you didn’t like it, why? And would you rather have a group have no concept/lore? Why? If people can grasp and have love for the Avengers and others in the Marvel CU, why is SMCU so unbearable?

Mnet has officially revealed the second batch of performers for mama 2026. Now I would say this is pretty much all the artist who will perform, sure mnet MIGHT announced around 1 to 5 new performers before the ceremony since they haven't confirmed this as the final full line up and they have done this the previous years(who knows they might even announce a third line up). This are the list of the current line up of performers:

Day 1(November 20):
Allday Project 🆕
Alpha Drive One
CL(2NE1) 🆕
Babymonster
Enhypen
Hearts2Hearts 🆕
Illit
INI
Lngshot 🆕
Modyssey 🆕
Nct Wish
Rescene
Treasure 🆕
Street World Fighter: Director’s War 🆕

Day 2(November 21):
&Team 🆕
BigBang 🆕
Cortis
Hwasa (Mamamoo)🆕
Ive 🆕
Izna 🆕
KiiKii
KO1KEYZ 🆕
Le Sserafim
Nayeon(Twice)
Woodz 🆕
Zerobaseone

Now I would say that this are some extremely solid additions, I am actually excited. Making her grand return to the MAMA stage after a whopping 11 years since her last appearance, CL will be making her come back performance to MAMA. Like Nayeon, this will be Hwasa's first appearance at MAMA since her last performance with Mamamoo back in 2020. Lngshot, Modyssey, K01KEYZ, and Woodz(along with KiiKii and Rescene) will all be making their mama debut stage which is extremely exciting and I am happy for all of them. Overall I like this line up and I can't wait for the actual performances. Legendary acts like Big Bang, CL, Hwasa, and Nayeon which are considered "MAMA legends" by mnet are all performing which is already a huge plus compare to other years. Once again while it's not guaranteed, mnet might announce a few more performers as the days go by so let's see what happens.

Are you personally happy with this line up? Who do you wish was part of it and who are you the most excited to see?

NewJeans quickly became known for their popular lead singles, but over time I've found myself returning again and again to their quieter album B-sides. These songs often carry soft, nostalgic tones that give a fuller picture of their musical style, separate from the high-profile promoted tracks. It makes me wonder if other fans also think some of their most memorable work lives in those non-title songs.

Edit: This post compares the album-selling power of female western pop artists and kpop girl groups relative to their respective male counterparts.

When someone asks why girl groups in kpop usually sell fewer albums than boy groups, the answer is usually that fandoms of male idols are a lot more dedicated and willing to spend on their faves. What this framing ignores is that many female pop artists in the west have dedicated, album-buying fandoms very similar to kpop boy groups.

Here are the first-week pure sales for the latest albums by several top female pop artists in the US. These aren't the totals including streaming-equivalent units, but rather the number of actual direct purchases of the album.

These numbers are all higher than those for the top kpop girl groups’ latest releases in the US and (excluding Ms. Swift) on about the same level as top boy groups.

You might say, “But the market for western pop artists in the US is much bigger than the market for kpop. You’d have to compare these numbers to those of western male pop artists to see how well female artists are activating the total album-buying audience.” The difficulty with this is that the western music industry right now has barely any male pop artists of note. I looked up the pure first-week numbers for recent albums by western male artists you could vaguely classify as “pop” and compared them.

Of the male artists, only Harry Styles and Conan Gray are ones whose target audience is typical pop stans. If Justin Bieber had sold physical copies of his latest album in its first week, it would have helped establish a better baseline. Nevertheless, I think it’s already clear from the data that female artists are capable of activating album-buying from consumers as much as or more (in Ms. Swift’s case, much more) than men.

*****

So the limiter on kpop girl groups’ sales can’t simply be that fans are more willing to spend on male artists.

Women in western pop–especially Taylor Swift–have recently been using a very kpop-like bag of tricks to sell their product, including releasing large numbers of physical “variants” and making special content available only with certain album versions. The irony is that these tricks have been more effective for western female artists than for actual female kpop groups.

What could kpop girl groups do to convince fans to buy albums the way Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, and Sabrina Carpenter fans do?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhISxJD9oZc

사계연서 (Seasonal Love Letters) is the third track on Hawwah, the newest digital single by Dodree. It's a great listen and I just wanted to talk a bit about the lyrics. It's a love song, but I enjoyed the focus on how regional the description of the seasons is. While listening to the song, I could imagine an idyllic love progressing throughout the year, exactly as they sang it. The rural setting of the MV further enhances that feeling. The description of each season was so crisp and beautiful even when read through the translation, and I bet the wordplay is even better in Korean.

The other part of the song I really like is the description of the love letter as a painting with words, and that the letter itself is metaphorical. I love that the heart itself is the notebook one writes in. The ink being the condensed memories of your lover throughout the seasons that you use to write them into your heart, so that they can live within you is an inspired choice of lyrics. What a great song.

Also for folks who want more Korean in their kpop, the entire song is in Korean with no English additions.

I usually listen to CDs but now I'm outside so I use headphones

I listened to Billlie Trampoline and the song goes crazy wity all the instruments and voices coming in and out and it's very dynamic and full of details

I know it's probably true for most songs but you know other song like that; when you have to hear them with headphones to get the full sound?

For me, it's NMIXX “DASH.”

What I love most about the song is how every sound takes an unexpected turn throughout the song. But it doesn't feel try-hard or too much to me. It just feels so fun, fresh, and cool.

I saw a lot of Korean comments saying that the song is just on another level.

I really hoped that, kind of like aespa's "Next Level," it would become one of those songs that people are confused by at first but eventually fall in love with, and that it would become NMIXX's signature song. But unfortunately, it never quite got there.

IVE's "XOXZ" would be a close second for me.

I love it when a song makes me feel excited and kind of sad at the same time, and this is one of those songs. I don't know what other people would say about this claim, but this song has always felt like Tate McRae's music with just the right amount of sentimental. Like “DASH,” this one is still on my playlist, and I get excited whenever it plays. But sadly it didn't make the kind of impact I wanted it to in Korea and in the West.

I’ve spent the past few months building a tool for making random play dance mixes and talking to people who use it for practice and events. Along the way I picked up some things that seem to make RPDs go better, for dancers and for hosts. Sharing in case they’re useful.

If you’re hosting or making a mix:

• Cut on the beat, and leave a short gap. A clip that starts mid-move, or songs that run straight into each other, leave nobody time to get in. A countdown of a few seconds between songs makes a big difference.
• Check the ending of each clip, not just the start. A cut that stops in the middle of a move feels awkward for the people dancing.
• Spread out the groups. Five songs in a row from one group means most people stand around for five minutes.
• Mix difficulty and eras. A balance of recent releases and well-known older songs keeps more people involved.
• Have a backup offline. Outdoor events and weak wifi don’t go well together.

If it helps, the tool I’ve been working on handles the cutting, countdowns, and shuffling: kpopgenerator.cloud. It’s free and needs no sign-up.

What else would you add? I’m especially interested in what experienced hosts do differently.

Why do most if not all K-pop idols (Western celebrities also) change their phones YEARLY? Even my faves. I understand that they’re rich and have the money to do it but it promotes their young fans that if you don’t have the newest phone model you’re out. Which I find absolutely ridiculous. iPhone’s don’t change much if you buy them yearly. I feel like a lot of idols and celebrities influence people to buy them, which at the end of the day, it’s their job. But I still think it doesn’t make sense. If I had their money I would spend it on traveling.

Guys, anybody who listened to the slowed version?? Why is this better than the original version??!! This just brings out Lisa's deep voice more and she sounds badass. The rap part also sounds way better than the oirginal. This is definitely going in my playlist.

If anyone still didn't listen to it go to youtube and play it now, trust me it slaps!!

Hello friends! We are excited to announce another instalment of our Kpop gen rates, this time jumping into our first ever 4th gen rate, Early Gen 4 Girl Groups. Welcome to the EG4GG Rate! If you haven’t already, make sure to join r/kpoprates to stay tuned for future rate-related posts!

Quick Links:

• Ballot submission: Reddit PM // Ballot template (Google Docs) // Ballot template (Pastebin)
• Playlists: Spotify // Youtube (MV ver.) // Youtube (Audio ver.) // Youtube (Lyrics ver.) // Apple Music

Deadline: Sunday, November 9th, 11:59PM Pacific (Link to a timezone converter)

How the songs were selected: The initial locked and survey lists were decided through host discussion, using a combination of r/kpop's artist TTT results, as well as streaming statistics and general relevance. We then held a pre-survey campaign on the discord server, where server members could suggest songs they'd like to see added to the survey. Following this, we conducted our usual song list feedback survey.

Now, without further ado, let's introduce the 55 songs in the main rate (& the 7 songs in the bonus rate) that were selected for this rate, sorted by artist debut order:

fromis_9:

Glass Shoes

DKDK

Love Bomb

Feel Good (Secret Code)

We Go

DM

Attitude

Supersonic

i-dle:

Latata

Hann

Lion

Oh My God

HWAA

Dahlia

Tomboy

Nxde

Queencard

UNI.T:

No More

KHAN:

I’m Your Girl ?

Nature:

Girls

LOONA:

Hi High

Favorite

Stylish

Butterfly

So What

Star

GWSN:

Puzzle Moon

Night Aviation (The Interpretation of Dreams)

Bazooka!

IZ*ONE:

La Vie En Rose

Violeta

Fiesta

Secret Story of the Swan

Panorama

Sequence

K/DA:

Pop/Stars

More

DreamNote:

Ghost

Cherry Bullet:

Q&A

Love So Sweet

ITZY:

Dalla Dalla

Icy

Wannabe

That’s A No No

Not Shy

Loco

Untouchable

Imaginary Friend

Motto

Everglow:

Bon Bon Chocolat

Adios

Dun Dun

La Di Da

First

Pirate

Bonus Rate:

fromis_9 - 22nd Century Girl

i-dle - Uh-Oh

LOONA - Why Not?

GWSN - Tweaks ~ Heavy cloud but no rain

PinkFantasy - Tales of the Unusual

Cherry Bullet - Hands Up

ITZY - Cheshire

The Bonus Rate is optional and you do not have to submit a score for every song in the bonus list. If you do it, you can score none of them, all of them, or any number in between. You cannot give a 0 or 11 to any song in the bonus, as they are not part of the main rate. While it is optional, we hope you consider participating.

* Spotify Playlist

* Youtube Playlist (MV Version)

* YouTube Playlist (Audio Version)

* YouTube Playlist (Lyrics Version)

Rules:

• You must listen to and assign a score to EVERY song listed. If your ballot is missing any scores it will not be eligible and you'll be sent a message asking you to fill in the missing scores.
• Each song should be assigned a score between 1 to 10. Decimals up to one point are allowed but any further is a no-no – 6.9 is fine, but 6.99 is not. Don't use commas (i.e "8,8") to separate your decimals!
• You can use ONE 0 and ONE 11 for the entirety of the rate, for your least favorite and most favorite song respectively - they are optional but HIGHLY encouraged if you feel some type of way about any given song! Comments are also encouraged but not required for such scores (except if you give a song a 0). You can add them to any song by simply typing after the numerical score, like so:

Everglow - La Di Da: 9.9 Wow this song sure is fresh and new and exciting I cannot wait to see what the community thinks of it

• This is the ONLY correct way to format a comment. Please do not include colons (ex. 9: I stan!), dashes (ex. 3.3 - This song sucks), or any other symbol after your score/before your comment as it breaks the program.
• For this rate and most future rates, we have a ballot average minimum of 4.00. In addition, if your ballot average is between 4.00-5.50, you must leave comments on your lower scores (which we define as any score that's a 3 or lower). {Do not worry about having to calculate your ballot average, once you submit your ballot, we will tell you if you need to make changes to your ballot for it to be accepted.} ___

SUBMITTING A BALLOT:

Link to Reddit Chat to send in scores

As Reddit is (unfortunately) moving away from the private messaging system in favor of utilizing the Reddit chat system, we are forced to also adopt the Reddit chat system for messaging. You can make a copy of either the Google Docs or Pastebin ballot templates below, add your scores on your local copy/file, and send the link to your local copy/file in your Reddit Chat message to u/kpoprates.

Google Docs ballot template

Pastebin ballot template

• If the private message link is not working (or your private message exceeds the character count), please use the Google Doc template (make a copy of it to your Google Drive) for your ballot and DM it to u/kpoprates. If you message us a link to your Google Doc, PLEASE double check your permissions so that "anyone who has the link can view the document" (since the default is otherwise).

Alternatively, if you have Discord, you can message the link to your ballot to all of the rate hosts, \@aidshha (u/aidshha), \@yureves (u/snowswinters), and \@mkh.zo (u/zo142) (please message all of the rate hosts, not just one).

Google Spreadsheet you can use for calculating averages/trends and making predictions

You can also submit the top/bottom 5 prediction form at any time.

DEADLINE:

Deadline: Sunday, November 9th, 11:59 PM Pacific - This will be the FINAL deadline, no extensions will be given this time! (Link to a timezone converter)

REVEAL DATES (Reveals will take place on r/kpoprates as well as the KpopRates Discord: https://discord.gg/rkpoprates)

Day 1 - Saturday, November 14th, 8 AM Pacific (Time zone converter here)

Day 2 - Sunday, November 15th, 8 AM Pacific (Time zone converter here)

We also encourage you to participate in the ongoing 2022 in b-sides Rate! Thanks!

​For me, it has to be the Center, Main Vocalist, and Main Dancer.

​Center: A legendary position held by so many iconic K-pop stars (like Wonyoung from IVE, Karina from aespa, Wonhee from ILLIT, Ahyeon from BABYMONSTER, and Nayeon from TWICE).

​Main Vocalist: If we’re using a soccer analogy, they’re like the wingers or strikers. You could easily say they're the absolute core of the group.

​Main Dancer: I think this position is just as vital as the Main Vocalist.

For a few years now Mnet has been giving out an award to older kpop legends called the ”inspiring achievement“ awards. Now basically I would say this is Mnet’s own take of the Vma’s Vanguard Award, since it’s meant to recognized the artist and their impact in Kpop(Plus they perform a medley of their hits). Now PLEASE correct me if I am wrong since I am not so sure if this had already been a thing before, but this was first introduced back in 2020 and Boa was the first recipient. For some reason they didn’t give out this award until 2023 which was given to tvxq, than to Jyp himself in 2024, and the final recipient was Super Junior.

Something that I wound like to point out that this award seems to be given to acts that are celebrating their anniversary. Boa, Tvxq, and Super Junior were all celebrating their 20th debut anniversary when they were given this award, and Jyp his 30th. Also all this acts made a comeback before or after mama took place, so clearly like the vmas it also works as a way to promote their new music. Of course this might not be the case this year, hell they might not even award it all all. Tho if they do end up awarding it, who do you think will/should be given this honor this year?

And by that fan behavior, I mean the ones who would often spam fancams under tweets and say something like "stan (group)". This was probably at its peak in 2020. However, when did this type of behavior die down?

I genuinely really like A2O LITE. I was really happy to see the group debut, and I've been rooting for them.

However, there's been a controversy in China involving the parents of one of the members, Aijing.

Her parents reportedly run an education business and have been accused of failing to pay employees their wages and failing to deliver classes that parents had already paid for. There are numerous posts on Xiaohongshu (RedNote) from people claiming to be affected, including employees and parents.

I know some international K-pop fans are skeptical of RedNote and Chinese fan communities, but I really hope people won't automatically dismiss these complaints because of where they were posted. There are plenty of decent, ordinary people who deserve to have their voices heard.

What has made people particularly upset is the contrast between these allegations and the fact that Aijing has been able to debut in Korea and study in the United States, while some employees and families say they're still owed money or services.

Recently, her parents reportedly released a statement saying that their daughter shouldn't be held responsible for their actions. I actually agree with that principle. Aijing herself shouldn't automatically be blamed for something her parents allegedly did.

However, many people remain skeptical about whether the unpaid wages and outstanding obligations will ever be settled.

It's honestly a frustrating situation. I feel bad for the people who say they've been affected, but I also don't want to see Aijing or the other members suffer because of something they may have had nothing to do with.

I really hope the affected employees and families get what they're owed, and that A2O LITE can make it through this controversy.

I genuinely want to see these girls succeed.

If you had to assign one twilight character to each kpop idol, which ones? And why?

I don't know why but I just finished rewatching twilight for just about the 1000th time, and now this got sparked in my mind. I lwk just love the saga (the movies and books)

And does not need to be same gender or anything like that lol

I'll go first!(Some of these are interesting so you gotta here me out lol,)

------------------------------
The first that comes to mind is weirdly..

Emmett & Sunoo(en-)

Idk why it just feels right lol

Secondly..

Charlie and bangchan(skz)

Idk why but ykyk

Third (I'm not gonna add more for the sake of time. but like the more the better!/merrier!)

Alice & Lily(nmixx)

The vibes are just THERE!

-------------------------------------------

I don't know, but you tell me, that why I'm asking!

I recently went to aespa’s concert and first things first, it was an amazing show. This was my first concert where I had presale, when I was buying tickets I was debating if I should get Send off, Hi-Bye or just regular tickets, I ended getting just regular. I was very close to getting send off until I found out how it actually works.

On paper it sounds great, you get good seats and then get to meet the members after the show, but then I found out it’s basically all up to luck, there’s no guarantee that you will even be close enough to interact with them and over these past couple of days I’ve been getting videos from fans who got unlucky and ended up in the back and basically just stood there and watched others interact, get photos and signatures. I saw people saying maybe they should let each line/row go one at a time, but that doesn’t seem fair for the artists, I mean how long would that take, not to mention how tiring after a whole concert and on tour. The best suggestion I saw was cutting down the amount of send off tickets.

However, I’d be lying if I said a part me doesn’t regret not getting them lol.

I just noticed that K (&Team) is 1997-liner and debuted in 5th gen but he's the same age of some 3rd gen idols like Rosé and Lisa (BLACKPINK), Mina and Jihyo (TWICE), Jaehyun (NCT), Jungkook (BTS), etc

Disclaimer: This is not hate to the members, they are talented and worked hard for this, I'm only critiquing the company/adults in the making of this group.

The youngest member is 13. 13!? And three of the members are 13 as well. The oldest is 18. The maknae should at LEAST be 16 imo.

Maybe if the debut had been more age appropriate I would feel less uncomfortable with the group but the young members were wearing miniskirts and cropped tops. There are so many creepy people on the internet and if the company wanted to debut members this young they should have taken more actions to protect them from all the grossness on the internet. ​

also the AI thing is so disturbing and how the hell did the company approve of that?

The awards season is starting soon and I'm curious to see what everyone thinks. Most award shows start tracking from October 1st of the previous year to September 30th of the following year so it has to be a group that debuted within that time frame. Personally, I think on music quality and motion, I'd give it to Lngshot and if there is a second space, it would be up for debate but Lngshot deserves to be there either way. Their debut was one of the best ones I've seen and the album (shot callers) is peak as well. But what do you guys think? Who would you give it to and why?

i have always heard the influx of shorter songs is a result of the tiktokification of the industry but that has never made that much sense to me. surely if a song is longer then there’s a bigger chance it will go viral as theres more parts of it that can be clipped and potentially turned into a trend.

some of these might be wrong but you should still be able to see my point.

bts - dynamite (3:19)
blackpink - how you like that (3:01)
twice - the feels (3:18)
enhypen - polaroid love (3:04)
aespa - whiplash (3:03)
txt - anti romanic (3:35)

almost everyone else i checked had their most popular songs (tiktok) under 3 minutes - some were on the brink such as lsf, fiftyfifty, ive (2:50s)

if you were to ask me, the reason is much more likely linked to streaming rather than tiktok. if you guys have any other theories i would really like to hear them.

With A2O Lite coming out and already topping the Korean chart, I thought about how the group wouldn't happen if Lee Sooman didn't got forced out of SM, couldn't work in Korea for 3 years and had to establish his own multinational label. The fact that 6/9 members are not Korean and the group still does so well in Korea is pretty amazing, and everyone is praising them for a more Kpop sound with fleshed-out songs, bridges and high notes.

And then, you have ADP, who also had a huge debut, because Teddy had become independent from YG and decided to make a co-ed group while other big companies are all doing single-gender groups.

Or NewJeans who was created because Min Heejin left SM after working for almost 20 years to join Bighit, worked on transforming it into Hybe and created her sublabel there.

Also, Katseye (not Kpop but still Kpop adjacent) who becomes a relevant girl group in the West after a long time started as a first time collaboration between Hybe and Geffen. They started blowing up due to the controversial "brainrot" song Gnarly, which had become their brand.

Even Cortis, if people follow their journey, had a messy past in the Trainee A group who almost debuted but then got cancelled, and only James was retained to debut three years later. They also got a lot of attention and hate for their "underground, natural" image.

It does seem like to truly make an impact you really need to have some disruption/chaos and a fresh approach (even if controversial), otherwise it is easy to get lost in the competition nowadays.

There’s a lot of talk about this group, I obviously agree with what most people are saying about these girls being way too young, I also think the whole AI thing is weird as hell and LSM being involved doesn’t make any of this better but apart from the controversy there can be something nice to take in here:

The song seems to be doing extremely well and it’s very close to get RAK despite it just being released yesterday and promotion hasn’t even started which is insane.

Here’s what’s interesting to me and I feel could be a good sign for the future of K-pop music:

This is an actual FULL song that lasts over 3 minutes, it contains 3 full choruses, it has both pre and post chorus, has a bridge, has an outro, has a dance break section, has a satisfying ending, etc. which is something that has been missing from A LOT of K-pop songs lately.

People seem to enjoy this, people are praising the song because of this, it’s been a while since I have felt this satisfied with a song.

An issue I have with K-pop lately its the songs cutting short out of nowhere, just when I’m starting to vibe or when I’m starting to understand the song, the song is over, some songs literally seem to be missing entire sections just to keep it short cause according to labels this is what helps music to go viral faster which I think is pure bs… the ‘TikTokification’ of K-pop.

K-pop companies love to follow trends and copy whatever is trending for getting more sales lol so I hope they realize actual full songs are more enjoyable than short ones cause there’s way more to appreciate and sometimes you don’t get the song until you’re on the last chorus so I genuinely believe this could be a good thing, I REALLY hope this becomes the norm again.