A2K: JYPE's New Survival Show For American GG Premiering on YouTube July 13th

Quote from zylan

Thanks. I was hoping they would still hold auditions in the U.S

No problem! Unfortunately, seems like auditions are done for this group.

Were you thinking about giving it a try?

Quote from jimeous

Apparently they have already filmed Episode 6

I'm wondering if there will be others that identify themselves as female and bigger sized girls, although the current Trailer seems absent of both

I'm seeing an absence of diversity in general, which I thought would be slightly different given that the target audience is Western. But, I'm hoping I am wrong, and that's just the clips. Though, I wouldn't be surprised. Even though this is a Western GG, the people doing the casting are still probably playing on Korean beauty standards.

I would have hoped that Republic played a bigger role, and I'm sure they did behind the scenes. But, in the end, this is a JYPE group, which is a Korean company.

Quote from rubyjanes

If JYP puts money into this and actually goes through with this I'm curious to see how the West will receive it. From the trailer it sounds like they will be singing English songs but using the "kpop system" to train and chose members, but I could be wrong and they are going to sing in Korean?

If they target the Western market I'm curious to see how they will be received. Historically girl groups dominated Western music charts in the 50s/60s with vocal groups like The Supremes and then the GG market died until the 90s/00s when groups like Spice Girls, Destiny's Child, The Pussycat Dolls were successful. But ever since then the Western market is all about solos. Yeah recently Little Mix are popular in UK and Fifth Harmony had some buzz but other than that the GG market has been dead in English speaking world

I think they will have a fanbase because it's JYPE. Though, JYPE's fanbase is being divided infinitely thin with the addition of so many new groups, which is unsustainable without new fans filtering in.

But, this group doesn't have to sell a million copies to be considered successful in the West since most Western artists can barely sell 200k these days. I'm sure Republic is hoping for those KPOP sells/numbers, but even selling half of what NMIXX or ITZY sells would make them one of the highest selling acts in America.

Question is, where will those sales come from. I doubt Korea is going to be supporting this group like they support Twice, ITZY, and NMIXX to a lesser degree. I'm not sure about China either. Those two countries along with Japan are the bulk of KPOPs growing sales. So, if this group can't tap into that market, I don't know what the numbers are going to look like.

But then again, if they have JYPE's training (which is guaranteed to attract at least SOME of JYPE's fanbases in the countries I mentioned) along with Republic's connections and promotions, the group probably won't be a total flop. I think it'd be best if JYPE left the A&R and song curation to Republic though. I think that may play a big part in how well this group does since it's going to take a good song to guarantee this group sees some success in the targeted market.

Quote from zylan

really? I saw diversity in that vid you posted. White, black, brown, etc.

I saw diversity in the 1st round of auditions, but once we got to the later rounds where people were performing, that dwindled.

Quote from zylan

Where did you watch all the rounds? i thought it wasn't all broadcasted yet

If you watch the teaser, it shows you clips of each round. Since I watched the Nizi Project, I can tell the difference in each round based on where they are when they perform.

Edit: Also wanted to add that our interpretation of "diversity" may differ based on where and how we were raised. So, I can understand how some people may look at this and think it's diverse, especially when comparing it to a KPOP group. Also want to say that I'm not going to rag on the group or JYPE just because it may or may not fit my own idea of what diversity is. We've only seen clips so far. I do plan on watching the initial auditions at least. Maybe not the full thing cause I might get mad if my faves aren't picked lol (I've learned from the Nizi Project), but yeah, maybe my mind will change once I see more.

Quote from nana18

This group will go two ways:

Having mostly if not all members be asian decent and have moderate success or this group will be divers but will fail to capture loop fans attention hence ending up with just few comebacks and be forgotten by Jyp

Probably the 2nd one then lol. Some of the contestants have already been revealed, and only 1 of them so far seems fully Asian. There's another girl who seems half Asian, but the rest are either white, latinx, or mixed.