I don't think Fifty Fifty's success will bring any permanent changes to the KPop Structure

  • A lot of industry insiders do not really give a crap about FF's success, since there is a very high chance that it will be a one hit wonder with little lasting effects.


    There are plenty of one-hit phenoms which simply faded away. FF's few fans claim their owner is a genius, a supreme planner, etc but given that he doesn't seem to know what to do after this success largely disproves this theory.


    Kpop system was found by Lee Sooman in 1990s, and is proven and successful. Larger outfits who will have enough money to promote their acts around Asia will have no reason to follow FF's model and won't.


    I cited the examples of Lorde and Billie Eilish. The latter does have a solid producer, her brother Finneas, so she will retain some of her popularity but won't reach her height again. Hardly anyone remembers Lorde now. The jury is out on Olivia Rodrigo but her next album will show her destiny.


    it is important that other than Jang Wonyoung, who is kind of an outsider in the KPop world herself because of her alleged Chinese ancestry which has never been proven or disproven, no one in KPop is so eager to cover FF and no one is willing to strike a friendship with them. Having watched how GFriend was shunned by fellow acts after its popularity began to wane (it has very few friends remaining now), I can understand why Kpop acts are shy trying to deal with FF since they have no assurance that FF would be around after the next promotion, which would be intensely attacked by IU and others.


    At the worst of worst, the KPop industry might just choose to shun FF altogether, considering it to be a Pop act, no different from Ann Marie and other foreign acts which became popular in Korea. In other words, Korean industry will simply not count FF's numbers, not award them anything other than some special award like what was given to Brave Girls.


    In my opinion, Aran's surgery last week, for whatever reason, was the decisive moment for FF. The owner having the graciousness, or maybe stupidity, to allow Aran what she wanted to do showed he was not serious about FF's success, a fact which would not be lost on its many enemies.


    In the end the FF craze will probably go down like the Gangnam Style craze. Psy is back doing events in bullshit K-O-R-E-A-N colleges. The lack of foreign experience of the owner and his hope to be recognized in K-O-R-E-A will prove to be its undoing. If he does sell his tiny company to Warner Music FF could be saved, but if not, hardly anyone will know who they were by 12 months from now.


    Basically, the whole ethos of KPop is selling not only the songs, but the members and the group. For FF, the hit song is famous but very few people care about the members. Which means when another viral song comes out from some other place, it will be easily swept away.

  • I think compared to fifty fifty, PSY had it much better. Even though he was also a one hit wonder, at least people knew Psy or the way he looks. I guess it helped that for Gangnam style it’s the video that went viral and not just the sound



    Also I don’t think kpop idols are shunning the group. Compared to Cupid making a lot of noise in the west, it’s barely doing that good in Korea and Japan (kpop biggest markets) so their impact may not be relatively felt


    It doesn’t also help that the group itself isn’t going viral because people aren’t interested in them enough. So most variety shows and other Korean YT channels aren’t taking the chances to invite them if they won’t bring in ratings.



    Who knows though? Maybe things will change for the better for them soon

  • And when the former Big 3 can actually produce a global hit song on the level of Cupid, they can have the right to feel superior. As it stands, no.


    Until then, maybe being an outsider within an outdated and insular industry isn't the worst thing when you're crushing it everywhere else in the world. 😏

  • The basic ethos seems to be 'wait and see' . Stations are not exactly jumping to invite them since they are aware that this might just be a short lived fad.

  • And when the former Big 3 can actually produce a global hit song on the level of Cupid, they can have the right to feel superior. As it stands, no.


    Until then, maybe being an outsider within an outdated and insular industry isn't the worst thing when you're crushing it everywhere else in the world. 😏

    They will simply ignore this until the next round. If the next round also makes a stir only then they will make a move

  • I think their company understands how important a good song is.


    Since they are successful now, they would have many songwriters sending them their song, and hopefully they will select a really good one for their next comeback.

  • the only possible

    permanent changes to the KPop Structure
    for me with 50/50 success internationally

    is just each company or artist
    should have a official English version of the song/MV

  • the only possible

    permanent changes to the KPop Structure
    for me with 50/50 success internationally

    is just each company or artist
    should have a official English version of the song/MV

    This. I know it's kpop but if they can released their songs in Japanese, why not doing it in English too? Their Korean released always much better than their original English songs.

  • They should schedule live performances immediately. Late night shows, performing in Universities, performing in festivals, etc to help the public familiarize with the group. What's SK reaction to the song? Aside from US, is the song big anywhere else? SEA? Europe? Maybe they can be an opening act for a pop act. They should go to Kcon too. Honestly, Digital promotions of the song without introducing the actual group will go to waste.

  • I agree

    Tbh for me they are just a lucky group


    I doubt people will really be present for their next comeback

    Most people listen to the song because it went viral but 99% of kpop fans wouldn't have listen to the song otherwise


    Most people doesn't even know the name of the members


    People are hype by the song

    Not by the group


    And nothing will change my mind until i see them comeback and be able to achieve the same thing than they did with cupid or at least maintain it


    But unless it happen for me their success will never change anything in kpop

    Because most of people listening to the song because it went viral on tik tok probably don't even know it's a kpop group singing considering that the song is in english

  • And tbh i think Kpop will never be successfull in the west among the GP

    until kpop group can taste the same level of success with a kpop song and not an english song sing by a kpop group


    Because for the moment the only 2 big song we had recently from kpop group who did some noise among the GP internationally

    Is Dynamite and Cupid


    And both songs are in english so i don't know if it's really helping kpop overall to target the GP if the biggest song internationnally are english song and not kpop song

  • Everyone is being so dismissive. Is there a chance it won't change a thing? Of course. But if they can capitalize one their viral song, then a lot could change, actually. It's way too soon to be counting them out. We won't be able to properly analyze this until we see it in RETROSPECT.

    We have the experience of Psy, GFriend and Momoland to compare.

  • I think their company understands how important a good song is.


    Since they are successful now, they would have many songwriters sending them their song, and hopefully they will select a really good one for their next comeback.

    The owner previously promoted HotShot and then Ha Sungwoon, one of its former members.


    They both went nowhere.


    He knows how to do a good song. But he lacks the ability to market it.

  • They should schedule live performances immediately. Late night shows, performing in Universities, performing in festivals, etc to help the public familiarize with the group. What's SK reaction to the song? Aside from US, is the song big anywhere else? SEA? Europe? Maybe they can be an opening act for a pop act. They should go to Kcon too. Honestly, Digital promotions of the song without introducing the actual group will go to waste.

    Instead of doing so the owner allowed Aran to have a surgery, which in my opinion is a very questionable move. aran doesn't seem to be 'hungry' for success and seems to be happy to settle for what cupid did, but the owner should have disallowed it and push them . Not doing so shows he doesn't know what he is doing, something which won't be missed by the industry


    He already wasted HotShot and Ha Sungwoon. There is no indication that he will not do it again

  • The obsession with FF needs to studied. They haven’t have a cb and y’all are already making assumptions.

    Let them growth however I agree they need to promote the group more especially in Korea.

    Their songs, very similar to Doja Cat's, won't really gain any traction in Korea since it is pop


    So they will never really be able to build a solid base in there

  • Their songs, very similar to Doja Cat's, won't really gain any traction in Korea since it is pop


    So they will never really be able to build a solid base in there

    Pop is one of the biggest genres. Why do you think IVE is smashing ???/&/

    They sold over 40,000 copies when they were selling less than 10k before Cupid. I’m sure with more promo they can gain a solid fanbase even if they don’t pull one million sales in a week.

  • Pop is one of the biggest genres. Why do you think IVE is smashing ???/&/

    They sold over 40,000 copies when they were selling less than 10k before Cupid. I’m sure with more promo they can gain a solid fanbase even if they don’t pull one million sales in a week.

    There are some differences between the genre of music popular in Korea and in the West, and the Doja Cat style, while having some fans in Korea, won't be dominant.

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