Idol music vs Korean music

    It’s a well known information that Korean pop is not very popular generally in Korea except for few groups. Kpop artists are hard carried by their fandom mostly while general public doesn’t intensely follow or like kpop that much in Korea with a exception of few. But if kpop is so limited in SK, why do companies keep producing groups after groups? Saturating the industry. Koreans seem to prefer Korean music like ballad, trot or rnb,hiphop more. But do these artists do well physically like kpop artists? They seem to be doing well only digitally with a exception of few.

    Physical sales and tours > digitals


    Kpop even though most groups are mediocre and aren’t popular with the GP.. the niche is big enough not only in korea but globally to get HUGE profits.. while many other korean artist even when they do well digital struggle to turn REAL profits.


    Streaming services like MelOn have been stealing money from artist for years and there’s no real concert culture in Korea like Japan so many artist can’t sell out arenas or stadiums and are stuck with just performing in small theatres.


    It’s just like the Teenybopper era in the late 90s/early 2000s. These artist like Britney, BSB, *NSYNC etc.. were able to sell albums like hot cakes... breaking sales record, and outselling everyone and having HUGE TOURS and everything but they wasn’t able to continuous get hit songs in radio.. a lot of their singles chart success was frontloaded and quickly fell.

    When I moved to Korea I was shocked how little kpop merch I find. I couldn't even find one store selling kpop albums in an average proportion just like one store selling 10 albums or so, but like all the hip and trendy shops have idol models, play kpop music. It is there but just not dominant, and more popular with the younger audience.

Participate now!

Don’t have an account yet? Register yourself now and be a part of our community!

Register Yourself Login