It's easier for BG's to have good digitals than GG's to tour in South Korea

    This recent EXO/Twice chat and the defensiveness of some fans really highlights something for me.


    Firstly EXO only have above average digitals for bg's in a historical context, they are not on the level of g.o.d., BTS, Big Bang, Beast, early 2PM/2AM/Shinee/SJ etc. They can parade around Growl as much as they want but that one song does not make them a digital powerhouse, just like Ikon aren't for Love Scenario which is bigger than Growl despite having other songs hit number one. Shinee's Don't Call Me did better than Don't Fight the Feeling, EXO didn't release for two years and the public did not care when they came back. Twice are in their flop era and TTT still did much better then EXO's comeback after two years. They had two solo releases this year (maybe more?) including the solo debut of Xiumin and it made absolutely zero noise. They had an extremely dedicated fandom and SM behind them, that can't be denied. But they were never as big as a number of groups in South Korea outside of a large fandom which carried them to certain numbers.


    The talk around you can't compare gg and bg digitals and then to bring up touring in SK is asinine tbh, especially for EXO. The leading kpop group digital powerhouse in the first gen was g.o.d., in the 2nd gen Big Bang and the 3rd BTS. EXO existed in the time frame in which Beast and Shinee were still doing really well digitally, it wasn't just Big Bang as a bg, bg's in general were popular. BGs historically have consistently been some of the biggest digital acts, EXO just don't exist in that group with their grand total of zero Gaon certifications. Even KKB does not get mentioned in Gaons notes for 2017 whilst Twice have 3 songs with 2.5m downloads from that year alone.


    Touring on the other hand in South Korea, is a completely different market. Only one Korean female artist has toured in a stadium ever there and that was IU after a career of more than 10 years despite an unparalleled dominance of the market. Groups with no public relevance such as the NCTs can reach a stadium in South Korea in 6 years.


    The barrier to touring is clearly so much bigger for gg's than digitals is for bg's in South Korea yet people try and equivalate them. Makes zero sense. Twice's digitals and music reach being so far ahead of EXO is much more impressive then EXO's touring being bigger than Twice's in South Korea.

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    EXO had a great year digitally in 2016. But otherwise no.


    Top BGs do better digitally than top GGs, but non-groups like IU, AKMU, Busker Busker do even better.

    BB and BTS are pretty much the only consistent BG digimons. Wanna One also had a short stint.


    The trend is

    Digitals indicate GP popularity

    Physicals indicate fandom strength

    Concerts are kind of in the middle, but more towards fandoms.


    BGs definitely build far stronger and loyal fandoms than GGs - hence do better in touring.

    Is not like bgs are doing stadiums in Korea every other day, for the past 12 years only like what? 3 bgs had a stadium concert

    Is there a tour culture in Korea? Most of the time is one or 2 big venues and that's it. Bgs can fill up those venues but they might be too big for most ggs so it's not worth it.

    Why is this still an argument, bgs and ggs are so different it's even dumber than regular fanwars (signed a oncie)

    Quote from _____________. Why? (727)

    Is there a tour culture in Korea? Most of the time is one or 2 big venues and that's it. Bgs can fill up those venues but they might be too big for most ggs so it's not worth it.

    No.


    Hence why male artists can fill it out with large fandoms yet only one Korean female singer has ever done it, and it needed her to be the biggest artist in South Korea.


    Doesn't matter if you have female artists with huge titles or b-sides, one female artist ever is enough to show it's the way the market works. There's an inherent limitation with how fandom culture works between male and female artists in SK. Whereas digitals it's clearly not like that.

    Apink, Infinitie, SHINee, EXO, SVT are the only groups in top 20 without one.

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