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I think you do have to split it out just to reflect it is a world of difference the globally focused, social media dominant world groups are debuting into. I can see the shift in the marketing approach just with the four year split between EXO and NCT, which reflects the shifts that began to happen. I also agree with the commenter who said you really have to look post-BTS success because that's a game changer in kpop. Groups that launched after that are entering a completely different world with different expectations.
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Cause if we follow the 10+ year rule, shouldn’t 4th gen just about to start rather than in 2017?
Because generations in kpop are not some scientific term, they're not based on rules, no one ever said they need to be 10 years. Especially because that's not what they're based on. Generations are based on commonly observed changes in ages, trends, the stage of globalisation, and vague benefiter-benefactor relationships between groups popularity-wise.
1st gen: experimental, lays the foundations of kpop. Based in South Korea
2nd gen: build upon formulas laid by 1st gen, but now with more intensive company-initiated promotion then before, primarily conducted through traditional and locally focused means: tv, radio, Korean sites, physical releases. Very popular in South Korea, but also has a considerable presence in Japan and China. Some groups begin experimenting with Western promotions with varying success but at the very least, kpop sets foot in the West which will help it expand it in the next generation. A big hurdle in international fans' way is to access content and albums.
3rd gen: While in the beginning 3rd gen kpop looks similar to 2nd gen, the concepts and music soon begin to distinguish themselves by a higher level of polish, less experimentation, and being more up to date with global music trends. China as a market is lost a few years after the generation started out, this meant groups with Western appeal or Japanese popularity could consider themselves lucky. Since the West was kind of uncharted territory (not fully but compared to Japan and China it was), the focus on appealing to Western tastes strengthened, in 3rd gen I would say one of the most egregious examples was the latin/tropical wave.
The popularity of social media rises. This has a lot of consequences: First, the relevancy of traditional promotions such as tv and radio decreases. This means it becomes much harder for companies to control the promotions of their groups, even for big companies, as tv and radio focus on adhering to what's already popular rather than perpetrating popularity on request. Second, the sooner a group establishes an accessible social media presence, the higher their chances are of increasing their popularity at a rate that was previously unthinkable for Korean groups. Social media was one of the most important factors in BTS' rise. Big Hit deciding to churn out easily accessible content online instead of fighting too much for domestic spots gave them a massive advantage in the end.
Gangam Style blows up early into the gen, with a non-negligible effect on 3rd gen's exposure to markets outside Korea, China, and Japan.
The paths for ggs and bgs—gp popularity or powerful fandom—began diverging more strongly than ever. It's not a surprise, the difference between the audience of female vs male pop stars has been visible for a long time. The gp is increasingly more picky with bgs due to toxic masculinity conflicting with many bg basics (such as many fangirls, flower boy styling, etc) Companies don't force gp popularity for bgs, but give in to the market, and focus fully on fandoms, which influences bg trends, which influences gp popularity for the worse again. Wanna One is perhaps the last blow to bgs in SK; many mid-size bgs never recover from the efflux of fans focusing on Produce and the following domestic stagnation, not even after W1 disbands.
4th gen: internet generation, so to say. They debuted to an already existing global online presence of kpop. At the same time, the market is more competitive than ever, especially domestically. A lot of 4th gen groups rely on international fandoms, they wouldn't have survived in previous generations because SK doesn't have the carrying capacity for this level of oversaturation, and because not all groups adhere to Korean trends. Japanese popularity is still relevant, but the West is the new shiny thing.
Bgs do have their viral moments and do have influence on the industry to an extent, but have a hard time gaining gp relevance beyond that. And the moment they give up their global online presence, they're done for. Since the SK gp focus is all on ggs, they're much more likely to get hits, perpetuating their popularity further. Gg fandoms now also have more women than previously, again, further perpetuating their popularity.
As much as some people here are denying it in this thread for no real reason, Stray Kids are the epitome of a 4th gen boy group in a way, not in the way most bgs are similar to them because they're not, but that they are thriving the most in the current circumstances. Very high western appeal: native English speakers and other English speakers, individualistic and rebellious image, self-producing, relatable songs, very good performers, charismatic both individually and as a group. They barely had a domestic fandom in their first years because of the decreased attention on bgs and jype not promoting them too much, but that never influenced their music. The song that changed the trajectory of their career could become so big thanks to viral twitter and tiktok trends, and because it appealed to ifans, without ever getting a win on Korean music shows. In fact, JYP (the man) explicitly said one of the reasons they're given so much freedom, aside from their skills, is that in the age of social media people can easily tell if someone or something is fake and pretentious.
TXT are also a good example if you want to see what it looks like when a company is very aware of the role of the US market in the current age and trends in marketing and actually tries to push the group. Look at their push on tiktok, distributing even jewel cases in the US, numerous collabs primarily with other UMG associated artists, sending them to every possible event (like bundling them with J-Hope to Lollapalooza).
As for ggs, I'd say Blackpink introduced something pretty new to the scene that became important now: the self-insert factor. It is no coincidence that every other Regina George wannabe on Twitter has a Wonyoung pfp. 4th gen kpop fans, especially gg stans, love achievements. This is one of the biggest reasons the international popularity of ggs mirrors Korean popularity more than ever. As soon as a gg no longer have their Korean hype even for a moment, the bandwagon stans move on to the next gg.
Lastly, company privilege was redefined this generation. Being from a big3 company no longer guarantees that you will be on the top internationally or domestically (see: Stray Kids' first years, Nmixx, Treasure). This is because one of the things that made big3 companies so powerful aside from money were their connections, which for instance allowed them to send their groups to variety shows on tv much more than non-big3 companies. Now variety content is mostly made by the groups themselves, because that's the logical response to a growing global demand to kpop. Connections aren't worth nearly as much as in the past, compared to a company having a shitload of money and being able to just buy anything in their way that they want. Due to this, Hybe privilege is much more prominent than the privilege at other big companies, (and also because post-2019 bandwagon stans of bts are more likely to be company stans).
I don't think I have summarised everything but I don't really care, this should be more than enough.
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3rd gen started in Jan 2011 and lasted till Dec 2017. That's a full seven years, the standard length of a Kpop contract it makes sense.
Dude, even AOA which debuted July 2012 and only really found success when they reinvented themselves in 2014 is broadly considered a 2nd gen group.
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3rd gen started in Jan 2011 and lasted till Dec 2017. That's a full seven years, the standard length of a Kpop contract it makes sense.
no it didn't lol most 3rd generation groups started in 2013/2014 some like to include exo but they were considered 2.5 gen by some back then like g idle and SKZ are now
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Because generations in kpop are not some scientific term, they're not based on rules, no one ever said they need to be 10 years. Especially because that's not what they're based on. Generations are based on commonly observed changes in ages, trends, the stage of globalisation, and vague benefiter-benefactor relationships between groups popularity-wise.
1st gen: experimental, lays the foundations of kpop. Based in South Korea
2nd gen: build upon formulas laid by 1st gen, but now with more intensive company-initiated promotion then before, primarily conducted through traditional and locally focused means: tv, radio, Korean sites, physical releases. Very popular in South Korea, but also has a considerable presence in Japan and China. Some groups begin experimenting with Western promotions with varying success but at the very least, kpop sets foot in the West which will help it expand it in the next generation. A big hurdle in international fans' way is to access content and albums.
3rd gen: While in the beginning 3rd gen kpop looks similar to 2nd gen, the concepts and music soon begin to distinguish themselves by a higher level of polish, less experimentation, and being more up to date with global music trends. China as a market is lost a few years after the generation started out, this meant groups with Western appeal or Japanese popularity could consider themselves lucky. Since the West was kind of uncharted territory (not fully but compared to Japan and China it was), the focus on appealing to Western tastes strengthened, in 3rd gen I would say one of the most egregious examples was the latin/tropical wave.
The popularity of social media rises. This has a lot of consequences: First, the relevancy of traditional promotions such as tv and radio decreases. This means it becomes much harder for companies to control the promotions of their groups, even for big companies, as tv and radio focus on adhering to what's already popular rather than perpetrating popularity on request. Second, the sooner a group establishes an accessible social media presence, the higher their chances are of increasing their popularity at a rate that was previously unthinkable for Korean groups. Social media was one of the most important factors in BTS' rise. Big Hit deciding to churn out easily accessible content online instead of fighting too much for domestic spots gave them a massive advantage in the end.
Gangam Style blows up early into the gen, with a non-negligible effect on 3rd gen's exposure to markets outside Korea, China, and Japan.
The paths for ggs and bgs—gp popularity or powerful fandom—began diverging more strongly than ever. It's not a surprise, the difference between the audience of female vs male pop stars has been visible for a long time. The gp is increasingly more picky with bgs due to toxic masculinity conflicting with many bg basics (such as many fangirls, flower boy styling, etc) Companies don't force gp popularity for bgs, but give in to the market, and focus fully on fandoms, which influences bg trends, which influences gp popularity for the worse again. Wanna One is perhaps the last blow to bgs in SK; many mid-size bgs never recover from the efflux of fans focusing on Produce and the following domestic stagnation, not even after W1 disbands.
4th gen: internet generation, so to say. They debuted to an already existing global online presence of kpop. At the same time, the market is more competitive than ever, especially domestically. A lot of 4th gen groups rely on international fandoms, they wouldn't have survived in previous generations because SK doesn't have the carrying capacity for this level of oversaturation, and because not all groups adhere to Korean trends. Japanese popularity is still relevant, but the West is the new shiny thing.
Bgs do have their viral moments and do have influence on the industry to an extent, but have a hard time gaining gp relevance beyond that. And the moment they give up their global online presence, they're done for. Since the SK gp focus is all on ggs, they're much more likely to get hits, perpetuating their popularity further. Gg fandoms now also have more women than previously, again, further perpetuating their popularity.
As much as some people here are denying it in this thread for no real reason, Stray Kids are the epitome of a 4th gen boy group in a way, not in the way most bgs are similar to them because they're not, but that they are thriving the most in the current circumstances. Very high western appeal: native English speakers and other English speakers, individualistic and rebellious image, self-producing, relatable songs, very good performers, charismatic both individually and as a group. They barely had a domestic fandom in their first years because of the decreased attention on bgs and jype not promoting them too much, but that never influenced their music. The song that changed the trajectory of their career could become so big thanks to viral twitter and tiktok trends, and because it appealed to ifans, without ever getting a win on Korean music shows. In fact, JYP (the man) explicitly said one of the reasons they're given so much freedom, aside from their skills, is that in the age of social media people can easily tell if someone or something is fake and pretentious.
TXT are also a good example if you want to see what it looks like when a company is very aware of the role of the US market in the current age and trends in marketing and actually tries to push the group. Look at their push on tiktok, distributing even jewel cases in the US, numerous collabs primarily with other UMG associated artists, sending them to every possible event (like bundling them with J-Hope to Lollapalooza).
As for ggs, I'd say Blackpink introduced something pretty new to the scene that became important now: the self-insert factor. It is no coincidence that every other Regina George wannabe on Twitter has a Wonyoung pfp. 4th gen kpop fans, especially gg stans, love achievements. This is one of the biggest reasons the international popularity of ggs mirrors Korean popularity more than ever. As soon as a gg no longer have their Korean hype even for a moment, the bandwagon stans move on to the next gg.
Lastly, company privilege was redefined this generation. Being from a big3 company no longer guarantees that you will be on the top internationally or domestically (see: Stray Kids' first years, Nmixx, Treasure). This is because one of the things that made big3 companies so powerful aside from money were their connections, which for instance allowed them to send their groups to variety shows on tv much more than non-big3 companies. Now variety content is mostly made by the groups themselves, because that's the logical response to a growing global demand to kpop. Connections aren't worth nearly as much as in the past, compared to a company having a shitload of money and being able to just buy anything in their way that they want. Due to this, Hybe privilege is much more prominent than the privilege at other big companies, (and also because post-2019 bandwagon stans of bts are more likely to be company stans).
I don't think I have summarised everything but I don't really care, this should be more than enough.
This is an excellent answer. I wish these types of discussions happened on main.
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