My opinion (as a long-term BG fan) of why GG are selling so close to BGs nowadays

I always liked music from both GG and BGs, I've always found GG music and MVs to be much more likable compared to BGs. Still, my favorite groups and the ones I invested most of my time in were always Boygroups, with only Mamamoo and Red Velvet making my top 10 list of most listened groups the other being all Boygroups

I think it used to be fairly common to listen to several Girlgroups, but save most of your time, and investment and purchases for one, two, or three favorite boygroups. That's how I think most of hardcore pop fans used to behave

However there is a not-so-sudden increase in GG album sales. Yes I'm aware BGs still selling more. The world's biggest girlgroup can't sell 3 million yet, while the biggest boygroups either are selling 4 million or are going to sell in the near future

Still, the gap between GGs and BGs sales were never nearly as small as today since the 1st generation and we have several GGs outselling their males counterparts and generation friends. Kpop growth aside, one could expect BGs to outsell GGs by a comfortable margin still, as most of the new kpop fans come from outside Korea, and outside Korea BGs were always much more popular than GGs. So... what's changed?

This is a LONG post, so for people who don't like to read, here is the TLDR version:

1. Less Sexualization

2. More fan content released

3. Better live performances than during 2nd and 3rd generations

4. Boygroups no longer releasing enough good music to fill niches they used to in the past

5. GGs don't get sidelined because they release a flop song in Korea

6. Outside Korea and Japan people don't need to pretend to date their idols hence why gender matters way less

Now a little more detailed perspective of the points stated before:

And I think that's it. This has become a very long post, so discuss

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Quote from purepalette

BGs didn’t have way better live performances that’s just your biased 2nd and 3rd bg stan talking pls

Instead it’s just the level of dancing that’s changed, ggs do harder choreo

ggs like snsd sistar Kara 2ne1 completely ate their stages up compared to bgs like super junior or whatever

I disagree. It's not only about talent and skills, most of GG didn't have as much fancy production as BGs and definitely had way less space and time to perform. 2NE1 is actually the exception. Do you remember Red Velvet, Mamamoo or GFriend having big productions on Gayos and award shows? Because I honestly can't

Edit: Thinking about it again, EVEN if it was only a matter of doing harder choreo, then you can just assume choreo is the most important skill for an idol, because actually it is. Dancing harder becoming a selling point definitely helps a group to get attention and fans, even more so than any other talent we agreeing or not

Quote from SooYoung

NO

the only reason is that BG are lazy and they are just resting on what succeed that's why we only see BG doing teen concept or badboy type of concept

While GG have always try to push and try new concept to stand out from their other GG peers and from BG

There's so much pool of concept among GG recently,

teen crush/ Girl crush with Itzy

sci-fi girl crush with Aespa

Girl crush with Blackpink

High teen cocnept with NJ

Feminine/ elegant with IVE

cute with fifty fifty

and the list goes on and on

that's why Kpop fans are more attracted to GG now

because before in Kpop, GG used to only do Girl crush, cute or sexy

and these recent yeears they learn that they could expand this genre to something bigger by adding a twist to it

and it's something BG still didn't learn to do it

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Isn't this what I've said in point 4?

Quote from BlackpinkHouse

I dont think the point about BG music being bad or not diverse enough holds true. Maybe at a certain point when it was EXO/BTS/NCT/SKZ/MonstaX/Got7, it was literally all edgy EDM or EDM trap or hip hop. Hardcore choreo heavy songs with dark or darkish aesthetics.

But i would say since TXT and BTS' Boy With Love came out, things are a lot more diverse. In fact, there have been several diverse songs being put out by different groups over the past couple years. I think it's an unfounded stereotype now to claim BG songs arent GP friendly, i think there are plenty of retro concepts, cutesy concepts, rock concepts, out there to allow the GP to pick and choose what they like. It's just that they havent bothered to give anyone but BTS a chance, and with them gone, it now seems like Seventeen is getting a chance. To me, it's very curious how only one BG seems to be able to truly get GP attention at any one time. Starting with BB, then BTS, and now Seventeen.

Maybe there isvariety on BG side, but not among the tops groups and definitely NOT to the same extent as girlgroups

As I said, I used to be exposed to a variety of mid-sized boygroups, nowadays I feel like there is TxT, Stray Kids, Enhypen, Treasure, Ateez and Thee Boyz and the other groups are just so nugu that I cannot keep up with their release schedule

Also, for smaller groups the lack of money to release quality MVs and well produced stages can severely impact their appeal. During 2nd and 3rd gen kpop was a much more humble market, now every groups are releasing big budget productions, it's hard to nugu groups to compete

Quote from Daisy_Queen

I see your #1 and take it step farther by saying groups aren't catering to the male gaze anymore. Women have more buying power and that was a major factor in bgs dominating for so long

Yeah, I see that way too

Quote from Flowercrew

maybe ggs are just more endearing to gp?

We are talking about album sales here, so fandom size, not really GP

Quote from Freid

as a gg fan I'll say they are not.. its the same in every gen.

They are though? I mean, look at third gen we used to had even GFriend, Mamamoo and RV struggling to sell 100k a number that even mid tier Boygroups used to sell easily

We will soon have more GGs selling 1.5 million in 4th gen (Aespa, Ive, and likely New Jeans) than BGs selling 1 million (TxT, Enhypen and Ateez are the only 4th gen BGs who can sell that much). Hell I think we will have more GGs selling 2 million than BGs selling 1 million

Quote from HardcoreBLINK

Ain't nobody want to listen to k-pop boys singing that's why 💀

Okay that's a stretch

Stray Kids, TxT and Enhypen all have more than 7 million listeners (TxT has 9 and I'm sure next SKz will get than on 10 million)

That's Aespa, G Idl, and Itzy level. I'd go as far and say SKz can pull Ive numbers. Only New Jeans is untouchable

There is an audience for BGs still, only in Korea they are 100% nugu now

Outside Korea, BGs crowd did not get smaller, it was the GG crowd that got huge

That's why while I believe BGs hard certain part on this, they are not the main culprit for the rise in GG sales

Quote from Minazuki

My opinion is very simple. The only places K-pop used to be popular in the past, multifandom culture isn't/wasn't a thing. So since most of K-pop audience is women who stans boygroups as their priority, they bought their albums and listened to girlgroups casually.

K-pop expanded to multiple countries with a strong and solid niche of people, along with the access to K-pop albums being easily than It was on previous generations. Nowdays, you don't need to buy your one and only ultimate's album. You can buy the albums from your 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th etc favorite group. Despite selling millions, I think most of them aren't their buyers priority.

Look at Korea, for example. It's their culture to support one group. But you see Stray Kids, The Boyz, Treasure, TXT touring bigger than 99% of the ggs there nowdays, even If they have big hits.

That's insightful

Do you have any stats to support your point about touring? Because most of GG exploded after pandemic and likewise do not have solid touring power... yet

Let's see how Ive, NJ, LSRF and Aespa perform touring-wise

Quote from ISaidISaid

Hmmm but SKZ and TXT are all selling like 3 million probably can do 4 million with their next cb.

Has the ratio changed that much? I don’t feel so.

On average? They did A LOT

Sure TxT and SKz are far and away above every girlgroups but that's pretty much it

Enhypen having no big Chinese fandom to support them has little to no leeway to reach the same numbers, their next comeback will show that

Ateez can sell 1 million if they comeback once a year, but their fandom purchasing power is limited and honestly they are not making many waves anymore, I think they will keep growing but not enough to catch SKz and TxT, not even close

The Boyz peaked already, that's clear to me, their last album sold half million, their peak was in 2021

Treasure have two members leaving which really damaged their fandom their last album sold 600k which was an actual decrease. Will they be able to recover? I dunno, but they will soon be 3 years old and YG seem to have no fucking clue to what they will do with them

Maybe the next generation of BGs do better. Zerobaseone is pretty hyped

Quote from Freid

I think it's better if someone will post the difference in bg and gg physical sales for us to see if it is really the case. Top 10 latest album for 10 gg and bg will be good enough.

Okay, their LAST albums:

1. Stray Kids - 3.4 million

2. TxT - 2.8 million

3. Aespa - Almost 1.7 million so far, 2 million almost guaranteed

4. Enhypen - Close to 1.6 million

5. Ive - 1.5 million in its first month

6. NewJeans - 1.3 million

7. Les Serafim - 1.2 million on its first week

8. G Idle - 1.1 million pre orders

9. Ateez - 1 million*

10. Itzy - 1 million

I got them all from Wikipedia, so please @ me if any number is wrong or out to date

*Ateez last physical release was a single album that sold ~500k without much fanfare, I'm getting them 1 million from their July comeback only because I'm sure it was not treated as proper comeback, you can otherwise change them for Nmixx who sold 900k

Quote from Minazuki

If you think about It, all the mentioned boygroups exploded during pandemic too and It was their first opportunity to have a real tour.

No female group is doing KSPO Dome currently other than BLACKPINK, TWICE and now Red Velvet on their 9th year.

From 4th gen, aespa did 2 concerts on Jamsil Arena, IDLE did 2 concerts on Olympic Hall, ITZY did 2 on Olympic Handball Gym. The others will probably start from Jamsil/Olympic Hall before going to KSPO Dome too in some years.

Stray Kids, The Boyz, Treasure, TXT all made multiple dates on KSPO Dome. SKZ and TXT did 3/2 concerts on Jamsil Arena + 2 concerts on KSPO Dome in less than a year.

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I'm sure we cannot use Korean dates as GG touring power on SK was always abysmally low. I wouldn't be surprised if mid-tier BGs like Treasure are still outselling huge GGs in Korea even today

Quote from paradis

Are you counting the increase in versions for both bgs and ggs which feeds the buying frenzy even more? So both bgs and ggs are doing more sales than ever before cause they are selling gazillion versions, some even dirt cheap. The way increase in million sellers is directly correlated to increase in versions is a fact most Kpop stans refuse to acknowledge.

More sales are not necessarily an indication of more fandom but more about who has the most powerful C bars mass buying more versions.

There is a consumption chart on Hanteo (almost all Chinese sales count towards Hanteo) which displays which albums are less expensive. Overall last year Nmixx were the only group who sold their album cheap enough to justify an increase in sales (their album was on average 7,5k won when most of 4th gen groups sells their albums in the 10-11k wons range)

I don't know how much of those sales comes from Chinese bulk buying, I guess not many as most of Nmixx sales are post debut not by Chinese fans crowdfunding

Quote from Minazuki

I know, my love. It was just an example of It would probably be If the whole world had the same culture as Korea on that sense. Of just hardcore stanning/stanning one group and spending money on it.

I guess we just have to wait

If your theory is right, GGs will still have much less concern attendance and their sales are more likely to collapse after some years

Quote from Baeggi

Other than SKZ and TXT, 4th gen ggs are outselling the bgs. We have more ggs close or surpassing the 1m range, like aespa, lesserafim, idle, newjeans, itzy, even Nmixx is close too (850k last album). While for bgs, other than SKZ and TXT, we have enhypen and ateez and that's it. Maybe we gonna have more 1m seller bgs, with ZB1 and other predicted bgs from big companies debuting this year (pledis boys, zico group and sm bg)

BND is not showing much SNS power, so I wonder how much they will move initially. My impression is it will take a while for them to get big, unlike Enhypen, who was an instant hit group thanks to I-Land hype

I do believe SM new BG will smash hard. If NCT managed to sell 2 million with arguably the most hated singles discography among 3rd gen boy groups I have no doubt a full-fledged will be a huge success

Quote from paradis

Its not just expense, you picked one point from my whole argument

Because it was the only point I wanted to address

Regardless, Chinese bulk buying does not correlate with album versions because they are mostly not collecting the albums but instead using non shipping back nonsense to inflate the numbers. One version or 40, they will bulk buy all the same the cheapest version so to produce the biggest numbers

The number of versions correlates a lot with JP and SK fans, because they are collectors and generally do not pay insane amount of shipping fees