People say kpop is all about looks but SF9 and Astro are not the most popular groups what do you think really makes a group popular?

I mean Astro only had Eunwoo and SF9 only had rowoon. It was like a Suzy Miss A/ Hyuna 4minute situation.

Maybe they all have to be in line with beauty standards for them to be popular. Like there’s no visual whole in SM groups like EXO, NCT…

I say it all the time: visuals, talent, music, charisma etc is NOTHING without a great marketing team behind it selling well the right image for the group

I listen to both groups, first got into ASTRO when Breatheless came out lol but wasn't too much liking them at first cause I almost hated Eunwoo, mainly cause I didn't understood why people liked him so much in Korea. And I knew SF9 since MAMA MIA came out but I only got into them when they released Now or Never cause oooh boy Hwiyoung's part in the chorus (I also really liked when he had long hair back than. Now he grew to an full adult and it feels different looking at him o.o like he looks a bit more masculine than back at that time)

Fun fact Cha eunwoo isn't his actual name

Brand

When you look at the most popular group in the world, BTS, you can see that the most important attractions were the music and the members themselves. Because initially they didn’t have a huge label, they didn’t have the money to wear the best clothes or the best stylists, they didn’t have the best vocal coaches. But they have the drive and passion and sincerity which resonated with enough people that propelled them to the highest level. Bighit didn’t know how to promote them, majority of BTS’ early promotion was done by ARMY, it was a real grass root movement.

So yeah, having just visuals or just good vocals or huge label is not enough.

Adversities, marketing and budget to produce good music/mvs are required. Without that you will never hit big, period

However there is a threshold of how much money dump can help to make a group popular and once this threshold is achieved other things become more important

Girlgroups are popular mainly for looks, concepts, freshness, trendness and strong FOMO. The FOMO can be created by brand (Big 4 releasing a new GG, everybody needs to check out otherwise you will be left out of the party). Good and catchy songs are required, specially when the competition is tight. There is a limited mindshare for GGs. You will never see more than 5-6 GGs releasing hits at the same time. Which means that you need to be better than your competitors. Better songs, better looks, better MVs, better performances, anything counts as people will target whatever you a good at and say "I like GG xxx because they have good yyy".

Boygroups are popular due to narratives and emotional connection between fans and idols. BG fans develop parasocial relationships with their idols and they need to stick with whatever crusade they believe in order to defend their faves position. To create such sonnection you need to deep dive into the groups content. The groups need to gave variety in looks, personality and good social interactions. They need good variety and reality show content. They need to be relatable, composing their own songs helps here. The boys need to be good, not average they need to be EXCELLENT I can say for sure every TOP BG was exceeding in talent, not because people really care for talent, but because BG stans have big egos and they will be drawn to groups where they can actively believe they are there because of their faves BG talent. Good and catchy songs are not required, at least not always. BG fans are pretty lax in terms of deluding days (or even years) until they get used to the music. But most importantly you need to be consistent to your narrative, if your narrative is broken the magic will vanish. The most common and widely used narrative for koreans is their fave idols are their boyfriends, hence why the groups popularity degrade so quickly once a dating scandal start popping up.

MARKETING!

First they need to be from the big 4. If not, they need to be lucky.

Looks gets a person that is auditioning a second chance audition, so even before they become a Trainee, the selection based on Visuals is made. This is what is meant when talking about Idols being selected based on Looks.

Once an idol debuts, the Visual element becomes a level playground as other Idols have gone through the same selection process.

"personality"