Are Korean fandoms important for KPop anymore ? I am afraid to say, No.

    Not too many people know this , although I have said this at least for the 1,344th time, but arguably the singer with the largest fandom in Korea is - IU.


    (I will exclude trottists like Lim youngwoong from discussion since they belong to a league of their own and are not relevant for this discussion.)


    Armies are still sizeable but most younger Koreans have moved on to newer acts, and about half, probably more than that of BTS events in Korea are attended by foreigners.


    When the number of fandoms are announced the companies do not really specify the percentage of foreign fans, but given the concert sizes of acts which sell millions of copies in Korea, the core number of Korean fans who do make to the concerts would be fairly small. Even BlackPink stays at the Gymnastics Arena, 11,000 capacity, with a sizable number of attendees being non-Koreans.


    Again the existence of Lee Jieun provides a benchmark. It is said that the recent Uaena (Lee Jieun's fan club), whose only benefit is preferential chance to buy Lee Jieun's concert tickets, was around 60,000. IU has few foreign fans who will attend her concerts.


    Wouldn't other industry insiders notice t his fact as well? If the best known singer in Korea can only muster 60,000 loyal fans, the acts which are less known in there would be mustering much less number of core fans.


    i wrote this last year


    Thread
    Three concerts at Chamshil, Sep 17-18, 2022 - Size of concert inversely related to album sales
    On Sep 17-18, 2022, there will be three concerts in the Chamshil Olympic Complex.

    The Handball arena
    5,000 seats .

    https://www.globalinterpark.co…dNo=22009002&dispNo=01003

    (1 US$ = about 1,300 KRW)

    22009002_p.gif

    First week sales of Manifesto album - 1,241,000

    Three Kinds

    ===

    Gymnastics Arena (KSPO dome)

    11,000 seats

    Stray Kids

    https://www.sportskeeda.com/po…c-seoul-special-unveil-11
    (Link, image not available yet)

    Their last album, ODDINARY, sold a total of 853K in the first week

    Three editions, normal, limited and jewel…
    WhyKnock


    Stray kids arguably sold the most albums in the world on 2023. The only contender is SVT, which is also less known - the only member who is kinda of known to the Koreans is Seungkwan since only he tends to show himself in variety shows. BSS tends to release songs more palatable to the Koreans, but SVT as a whole is more geared toward foreign fans. When SVT showed up in IU's Palette which is geared towards koreans only, out of 5 members who showed up 3 were BSS, another (Woozi) was BSS's producer and only one had little to do with BSS which is more geared toward its Korean fans.


    Stray kids have not really tried to appeal towards Koreans. They do maintain their Korean fans since JYP has other acts which do need Korea at the earlier stages, but do not really spend too much effort to get more love from Koreans.


    The Koreans think Fifty Fifty is finished because it will lose its Korean fandom. When did FF have a Korean fandom? They lose what they never really head, which means nothing. They don't give a crap about losing Korea.


    Ironically IU's activities revealed how unimportant Korean fandoms are; it is good to have, but not essential and if these acts have more appeal to the international fans, it is better to serve them and not make their fewer Korean fans to wag the dog.

    GYFEcjZb0AIp47U?format=jpg&name=4096x4096

    Edited once, last by WhyKnock ().

  • AllKill VIP

    It depends tho, if new group goes viral in Korea or charts well then it's also easier to get a push and boost of new international fans.


    If anything I would use here the album sales. For many younger ifans HYBE is the label that they get to know thanks to BTS. So it's not a surprise that 70-80% of HYBE album sales comes from foreign fans.


    Overall it's much complicated. H1-KEY is good example. Their song Rose Blossom went semi-viral in Korea due to lyrics. Then suddenly they've got tons of invitations to University Festivals, and then two of four members got casted to Queendom Puzzle. This basically gave them a chance to build themselves more not only in Korea but also outside thanks to MNet live global streaming on youtube with eng subtitles and deal with Rakuten Viki where episodes are available for free few hours later.


    I guess even nugus/mangdols have levels, as well as there are different levels of promotion and possibilities to be known. Therefore one group will grow thanks to "home" fans, and other one will grow thanks to international supporters.

    H1 Key's sole hit, Rose blossom, has 12m views, meaning foreigners are not really interested on it.
    It had an ambition to become an international act it had a Thai member named Sitala, who left after the group showed no promise . So it became all-Korean not by choice, but by an accident. (Sitala appears to be helping on H1 Key's song production since she still has contract with the company) Whatever it does in MNet will only help to promote individual members, not the group itself.




    The example of CSR shows the limit of domestic oriented acts. CSR even has a Japanese member, and is trying to do something there, even though it is not getting any international attention. It did everything (snatched a #1 from Music Bank, had a showcase in Japan with the sole Japanese member leading, etc) but that has not really done too much good.

    Majority of Seventeen's fanbase is situated in the classic trio of Korea, Japan and China.


    And the surplus of Seventeen's korean album sales are still predominantly korean.


    Your weird Korean Xenophobia doesn't bare out when sucha large factor gor one of the best sellers in the world is still based in their country of origin.



    And You still never acknowledge IU's very real massive fanbase outside of Korea. Because of course everything IU is korean only, according to you.

    tbh, kpop groups only need korea for the chart rankings. They don't need the delirious k-fandom of lyw for that. Just be little popular and that's more than enough. No need to fill concert seats either. They have got bigger duties exporting korean culture outside korea to bigger markets unlike IU.

    Of course, Korean fandom is very important for Kpop.


    They are literally based in Korea, why wouldn’t recognition in their home country be important. We’ve seen many cases over and over again, especially in 4th generation that even a small win on Music Bank means so much to them.


    Most their achievements are also celebrated in Korea. The Korean award shows are also catered specifically towards Kpop groups. Korean success plays a huge part in that success, as they are grouped within Korean pop music.


    (Also, just gonna correct a small statistic mistake - Seventeen is actually the best selling Kpop act this year with 5.5M albums sold on Hanteo and 5.8M on Circle Chart for FML.)


    In terms of Seventeen, they do not cater towards Western fans, but the famous trio of Korea, China, Japan, along with the SEA. Seventeen is very well known amongst the Korean general public and are well liked by them. Going Seventeen literally broke Naver a few times. Super and Fighting have both been very well received by the GP. Just today they had over 100k+ in queue for the only two dates at Gocheok Sky Dome in Korea, they were demanding them to upgrade to a Stadium (but unfortunately it’s under construction). Just a few months ago, Seventeen held a SVT Street for fans on Sebit Island in Seoul and it gathered near 200k fans just from Seoul itself. I think people underestimate the hold Seventeen has in Asia. The only boy group dominating the charts and competing with the GGs this year is Seventeen (and BSS - but still SVT). A lot of household names, such as Lee Jaesuk, Lee Hyori, Boa have praised Seventeen and said they are doing very well

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