Even in the second generation, when foreign idols were still a new thing in Korea and the trend had just started, we had Nichkhun, who was super popular, and Victoria, who was also being hype a lot among Korean netizens.
The peak was in the third generation, where we had Exo's Chinese line, Twice's Japanese line, Got7's foreign line, Lisa, Lai Kuan Lin, and probably more that I can't remember. All of them were incredibly popular in Korea, even if they weren't the IT girl or boy. Their presence was huge.
In the fourth generation, none of the current foreign idols have reached that level of popularity. Which is interesting for how the foreign idols have really great visual. I thought Kazuha would become a force because of how viral she went when she debuted, but for some reason, her spotlight has been getting smaller. Even Sakura, who was actually huge in Korea during izone is not as getting as much hype as she was back then anymore there. The ones being talked about the most among the new generation foreign idols now are probably Hanni and NingNing. I can't think of anyone else. I guess it's even worse for bg.
Why do you think this is happening? Why does it seem much harder for Koreans to accept foreign idols now compared to before?
