How the proliferation of trottists killed the digitals and started the new model of Kpop

In 2022, the following acts made more than 1 million first week sales

BTS, TXT, Enhypen, Seventeen, aespa, Lim Youngwoong, NCT Dream

BlackPink, possibly IVE and some others might make it to this illustrious list.

A girl group and a trottist making it into here means a tectonic change since even they can mobilize dedicated fandom who will push them over 1m first week sales at will.

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The companies are no longer going for a home run.

It might be more beneficial to aim to have enough fans to have arena tours (around 10,000-25,000) around the world, for the companies.

No more national hits. Look at Ikon, who had a mega hit, Love Scenario. They don't make too much money. YG is aware of this and is moving Treasure toward fandom-only act. Even they have abandoned the Big Bang approach.

Before this new model, Korean digitals were considered to be quite important. So having a national hit was more important back then. But this year hardly anyone cares what is the #1 song of the year (most likely Gidle's Tomboy, although Ive's Love Dive will have a strong claim), while everyone cares who sells how many albums.

What happened is that in the past a lot of acts derived their income from K-O-R-E-A-N events and local stuff.

However, the arrival of the trottists basically ended such possibilities.

Trottists basically got to dominate Korea's event market, killing any possibilities for acts which are weaker on physical sales and stronger on digitals, producing music good for the ear.

In a sense, the trottists appear to be a huge blessing in disguise in retrospect, since they ended the model of the digitally stronger acts and forced KPop groups to aim for foreign activities right from the start, eliminating the possibility of poorly constructed acts aiming for a quick buck in K-O-R-E-A (I can't think of a current act which does that recently.)

In turn, as companies shun away from national hits and emphasize albums which will sell, any influence Melon has had over the past years will disappear, and while some people will still watch the Melon charts, they will go into history , its death probably unmourned.

Quote from bartkun

some of this is right

but I think most companies debut groups and promote them in traditional way

that shift towards global market/fandom happens usually when group doesn't hit it big on k-charts in rookie period

Acts which are selling million copies are now not doing too well in the melon charts since hardly anyone cares

it will be nice but not too important as foreign fans pay more attention to the youtube and spotify, but most importantly how the acts are perceived in the overseas which lead to big album sales

Quote from bbgc

Interesting, but do you have data on the bookings for local events, year over year.

And accommodating for the pandemic?

My impression was that groups like Woo!ah survive a lot on local events. Even if they aren't anything big on physical or digital charts.

I don't think K-pop agencies however big, can afford to ignore any segment of the market.

It entirely depends on how the group is doing, and if the that particular market segment is responding. And of course cost-benefit.

Fandom siloes buying physicals of course is the most profitable. But to build those fandoms, is not easy, without being present in all sorts of events, local, TV, whatever.

It is like politics, one could be running for the President of the country, yet come elections, they have to press hands in all sorts of venues and mediums.

Can't be seen as neglecting one or arrogant about it.

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No one really keeps stats on local events but youtube has much less number of clips of bgs and ggs in local events and plenty of trottists and dancers (like street woman fighter) now.

That means one of the more important sources for mid- and smaller- size acts has dried out for ever.

Which means smaller acts like Wooah have to rely on some members having to find a niche elsewhere.

Basically it means more corporatization of KPop, with smaller outfits falling out since they can't really find a way to sustain themselves. With less number of events, there are less chance to winning a home run from fancams like EXID, GFriend and Brave Girls.

Your analogy of presidents is good, because to go anywhere near nomination one has to secure lots of funding. Without funding you don't go anywhere, and as seen in the case of Bernie Sanders, you also have to get the approval of party bigwigs which will be impossible without a base