Why does the West stan Blackpink but not Exo, who has better music, dancing, and vocals?

    Music is subjective but most people agree Exo make great music and has diverse concepts. Even now, Growl, Call Me Baby, Love Shot, Tempo,..are cited as classics. This video here shows Exo can put on great performance and live vocals. On the other hand, Blackpink is always bashed for rehashing the same Teddy formulaic tracks, bad vocal techniques, inconsistent stage presence. Comparing BTS and Exo is hard, but it’s clear Exo stomps on Blackpink on every metrics yet Blackpink blows up globally quickly while Exo can’t. Why? Does the West lack taste?

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    West doesn't lack taste, exo was never pushed unfortunately, blame sm. Kpop groups can't break it without companies push, I'm talking exo times, now it's little easier

    Why does this feel like a set up lol

    Cus Exo debuted and peaked before Kpop blew up in the west and SM never tried to promote them there. By the time Kpop hit big internationally SM had switched over too NCT

    "Better music" Is subjective op


    Looks like the majority disagree with you on who makes better music 🥺

    Girl Groups are an easier sell to a broader market

    BTS and to the smaller extent BP were pushed by their company after there were demand by the fans in the west. Exo obviously don’t have that many fans from the west. BTS and Blackpink charted in Billboard bubbling under way back in 2016, both with Monday releases, never promoted them. Exo never had that even though 2016 was supposed to be Exo’s reign. Exo truly is an asian phenomenon.

    I think sometimes fans exaggerate exo’s popularity in the west. They are very popular in asia no doubt about that.


    These are all ifs but I don’t think exo would have been as popular as bp even with the push. Aespa and to a certain extent nct 127 are pushed in the west especially aespa but they are nowhere as popular as bp there. Imo bp have better stage presence than exo. Individually they are able to stand out, can’t say the same for exo since they have way too many members.

    Quote from BLACKPINK in your area (234)

    BTS and to the smaller extent BP were pushed by their company after there were demand by the fans in the west. Exo obviously don’t have that many fans from the west. BTS and Blackpink charted in Billboard bubbling under way back in 2016, both with Monday releases, never promoted them. Exo never had that even though 2016 was supposed to be Exo’s reign. Exo truly is an asian phenomenon.

    This. People can argue all they want that it's because of the lack of promotion in the west but bts and bp could do it without any promo at all so there's no reason why exo couldn't as well if westerners liked their music.

    Not people trying to pass the whole company push for BP. BP first charted in 2017 and then in 2018, that without promo, then JUST in october 2018 they got an international label.

    EXO just didn't had a demand or the support.

    why compair exo with blackpink...like what did you smoke?

    if you want to blame someone for exo not being relevant on the us, blame sm, blame exo scandalls and blame bts//nct

    1. Sm manage exo so bad, specially their china line, that they lost their biggest income source: China.

    2. Because of point 1 Exo got less and less relevant. Also members started going to fulfill thier military commitment.

    3. Biggest rivals from Exo was BTS. Exo-L have a huge fight over many years with Armys, wich was fuelled with all the awards the Armys "claimed" BTS deserved more, and Exo won.

    4. When Exo started to decline and SM had their new toy NCT, they kind of forgot about Exo. Remember NCT debuted the same year with BP, so if you want to know who ruin Exo career on US, maybe you would have to point to NCT direction. Although NCT music is not even near to EXO music quality, and it will never be

    bp (and bts) can do it easily without having to push them. there is actual demand for them in us that is why it is them who are always invited there.

    Quote from BLACKPINK in your area (234)

    BTS and to the smaller extent BP were pushed by their company after there were demand by the fans in the west. Exo obviously don’t have that many fans from the west. BTS and Blackpink charted in Billboard bubbling under way back in 2016, both with Monday releases, never promoted them. Exo never had that even though 2016 was supposed to be Exo’s reign. Exo truly is an asian phenomenon.

    This is incorrect, Blackpink only charted on Bubbling under after releasing on Thursday.

    YG started targeting the West before having tangible demand.

    SM could and should have done the same but they withhold many opportunities from EXO

    SM's target for EXO was always SK/China and the Asian market, it's why they were initially created as a Korea and Chinese sub-unit group. They had no interest in pushing them west, even after the 5 dates of their 2016 American tour sold out in 0.4 seconds showing there was a demand for them over there. It was never SM's intent to push them elsewhere.

    Quote from Anons Citizen (874)

    This is incorrect, Blackpink only charted on Bubbling under after releasing on Thursday.

    YG started targeting the West before having tangible demand.

    SM could and should have done the same but they withhold many opportunities from EXO

    They charted in canadian hot 100 with PWF, there was a west demand YG simply followed it in a very implicit way with AIIYL.

    all those excuses😅. EXO just didn't have the demand. Periodt.

    Quote from YG Dungeon Dweller (490)

    SM's target for EXO was always SK/China and the Asian market, it's why they were initially created as a Korea and Chinese sub-unit group. They had no interest in pushing them west, even after the 5 dates of their 2016 American tour sold out in 0.4 seconds showing there was a demand for them over there. It was never SM's intent to push them elsewhere.

    oh yeah. heard about the 0.4 seconds🙃

    Quote from STAYC girls, it's going down (739)

    They charted in canadian hot 100 with PWF, there was a west demand YG simply followed it in a very implicit way with AIIYL.

    The user said It was for BB bubbling under so I corrected.

    I mean, still YG targeted US before there was any demand there, Canada is another different country... and just so you know, EXO also charted in Canadian Hot100 a whole year before BP even existed, that didn't guarantee any push in US of all places.

    BP got pushed before there was tangible demand, it is what it is

    unlike bts and blackpink, exo never had a company that fully supported them. Using demand as an excuse doesnt make sense because nct and aespa never had demand in the west but SM still keeps pushing them to the west. they never did that with exo.


    Blackpink also had the advantage that they didnt have to enlist while exo did. Exo never got to experience the kpop boom during the pandemic thus stunted their growth outside asia


    EXO did great for their time charting higher than any other sm artist and one of the first kpop groups to chart in the usa

    Exo’s music is not that great. I tried getting into them as they are one of the top groups. But their sound is not a vibe. Not a lot of people will click with it, especially non kpop stans

    Quote from RATATATA (38)

    West doesn't lack taste, exo was never pushed unfortunately, blame sm. Kpop groups can't break it without companies push, I'm talking exo times, now it's little easier

    And you guys will die on this hill too. Exo has been doing billboard interviews since 2013. They were just never meant to succeed in the west

    Quote from YG Dungeon Dweller (490)

    SM's target for EXO was always SK/China and the Asian market, it's why they were initially created as a Korea and Chinese sub-unit group. They had no interest in pushing them west, even after the 5 dates of their 2016 American tour sold out in 0.4 seconds showing there was a demand for them over there. It was never SM's intent to push them elsewhere.

    A 0.4 seconds record that was not recorded anywhere, not even in Guinness book record. BTS selling out a stadium in 20 minutes even got Forbes to write an article on it


    And you have to be very stupid to believe a concert can sell out in 0.4 seconds. Do you know even know how much time it takes to just click on the prompt to purchase a ticket??? Did you guys ever do science?

    EXO music is good but their company are messy and inflexible, they didn't know how to pivot to the western market when demand started to bubble up and missed their window. Then China fell through. Disaster careermakers

    Quote from Anons Citizen (874)

    This is incorrect, Blackpink only charted on Bubbling under after releasing on Thursday.

    YG started targeting the West before having tangible demand.

    SM could and should have done the same but they withhold many opportunities from EXO

    Sorry, I don't know much about how billboard charts work but isn't releasing a song on Thursday the worst day for bb charts? New tracking week starts on Friday, right? So you'd only have one day tracking. So that's actually incredible if bp could do that.

    EXO might have been in line for next big boy group but their fans ruined it for them.


    When 1D announced hiatus Exo-l's threw a party on their socials and announced EXO as the new biggest boygroup in the world. It made Directioners so angry that thousands of them started token stanning BTS out of spite. And then it snowballed. Exo-l's handed BTS a new fandom on a silver platter. We talk about the Stan Loona's sabotaging their fave's careers, but Exol's did a great job too.

    lack of demand. notice how bp and bts can chart earlier without us label during before they blew up so big? I did not see or read on that about exo…

    Because exo falla into the trope 99% of kpop is in the teen tween girl fantasy which is a turn off to the general public because they feel like they aren't wanted. So many people liked BigBang and later BTS because they felt relatable and approachable, you felt like you could be in the fandom or where's moat boy groups their music and image is usually about girls and boyfriend this romance vibe, you as a male fan of them almost feels offensive so you feel unwelcomed in their presence. You have very few boy groups who aren't like this who's image and music is relatable because they try to accept everyone from every walk of life and age into their influence. This is why the general public in the west has picked up BTS soo much and became fans the same is true for BigBang. Not many groups do this. And BP like most girl groups run this type of concept by default

    Quote from Jumping and Popping, We Jopping (795)

    Because exo falla into the trope 99% of kpop is in the teen tween girl fantasy which is a turn off to the general public because they feel like they aren't wanted. So many people liked BigBang and later BTS because they felt relatable and approachable, you felt like you could be in the fandom or where's moat boy groups their music and image is usually about girls and boyfriend this romance vibe, you as a male fan of them almost feels offensive so you feel unwelcomed in their presence. You have very few boy groups who aren't like this who's image and music is relatable because they try to accept everyone from every walk of life and age into their influence. This is why the general public in the west has picked up BTS soo much and became fans the same is true for BigBang. Not many groups do this. And BP like most girl groups run this type of concept by default

    this is a great point, EXO did lean way too hard into the Boyfriend image and it was harder for the GP to see the artistry or anything relatable beyond that

    Quote from Chogiwa (337)

    Sorry, I don't know much about how billboard charts work but isn't releasing a song on Thursday the worst day for bb charts? New tracking week starts on Friday, right? So you'd only have one day tracking. So that's actually incredible if bp could do that.

    AIIYL didn't enter Bubbling under that week, it entered the chart during the second week (if you must say it like that). In reality it lost a couple of hours but then it entered the chart because it got the entire tracking week after.

    Even BTS kept releasing on Mondays for longer before targeting Billboard unlike YG


    Honestly, its annoying to see blinks discredit EXO presence internationally at that time. They were not the nugus you are trying to paint them as...

    YG started to push BP for way less demand than EXO already had at a time.

    We don't know how far they could have gone with the proper push (maybe still not far but we don't know) because SM decided to stunt that grow. It didn't fit on their agenda, it was a company decision, we now can see they can push other groups for longer and without giving up too soon.


    Blinks here trying to push the "BP had demand and EXO were unknown" are doing too much. Even years later BP is underperforming for all the "demand" you all swore they have in the US.

    Lots of groups release new music on other days than Monday, that doesn't mean they're trying to chart on billboard. Mamamoo for example and don't lie and tell me they do it for billboard. The groups who release on Mondays just want to win as many music show trophies as possible. Your excuse doesn't really work.

    Lol, maybe it's you who lack of taste ...


    American likes Kpop mixed with west pop

    Your traditional boring Sm kpopish is not their type

    Quote from Chogiwa (257)

    EXO might have been in line for next big boy group but their fans ruined it for them.


    When 1D announced hiatus Exo-l's threw a party on their socials and announced EXO as the new biggest boygroup in the world. It made Directioners so angry that thousands of them started token stanning BTS out of spite. And then it snowballed. Exo-l's handed BTS a new fandom on a silver platter. We talk about the Stan Loona's sabotaging their fave's careers, but Exol's did a great job too.

    How long did it take you to come up with this fiction?

    Quote from Encore Stage Critic (563)

    And you guys will die on this hill too. Exo has been doing billboard interviews since 2013. They were just never meant to succeed in the west

    Lol do you think billboard interviews matter? If sm pushed exo as hard as they are doing with aespa they would be success

    byeee not yall acting like exo’s music isn’t the most kpop music to ever kpop. that on yyj guy or whatever is literally aging sm groups’ music with the noisy instrumentals, unnecessary high notes, and weird ass vocal processing. of course the west won’t vibe with it.

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