Is late 4th gen cq 5th gen seeing an increased attention and popularity of vocals and (technically strong) vocalists?

The 3rd gen era up to 4th gen was characterised by a lack of focus or maybe better said an indifference from K-pop companies regarding strong vocals and vocalists.

Aside from a few exceptions, there weren't many of the groups around that were praised or that were known for strong vocals and talented vocalists.

It just seems vocals were very low on the priority list of K-pop companies (bar a few like SM and RBW) when it came to selecting trainees and launching groups. And why would they, when the trend moved away from live performances to lipsync, backtrack and studio audiotune for performances and singing.

However, I noticed that there seems to be a break from that trend: to my surprise, among the more recent groups there seem to be more groups with strong vocals and talented singers, even with the most recent groups of companies where vocal technique and vocalists hadn't been a main priority in previous gens: JYP's NMIXX is known for having talented vocalists and the same applies to Babymonster.

My question: is this true, do we see an increased love and appreciation for strong vocalists and vocal lines, also from K-pop companies in the formation of their new groups?

Because if so, it runs counter to the development where as technology provides more ways to do less with more, as in not needing technically strong singers to still have superior vocals in songs.

Quote from Eldeweiss

Are we just speaking about the popular groups ?

Overall, they were way more technically strong vocalists in the third generation than the forth generation and fifth generation. During the 3rd generation, idols were singing live too. I noticed a shift around 2018-2019 and the COVID amplified that, why bother singing live when there is no audience. Now, post COVID, groups are singing live again.

Among the let's say top 10 groups, you actually didn't have that many strong vocalists or vocal groups in 3rd gen - at least when it comes to girl groups, I can recall many discussion pointing towards that lack in vocal strength among the top groups. There was Mamamoo and Red Velvet, and that was basically it - although you did have individual strong vocalists like Yuju and Shannon.

But among the more recent groups, there seem to be more - or maybe it looks like the companies launching them are giving strong vocals more the attention that it deserves.

Quote from Eldeweiss

The vocal line of Oh My Girl, CLC, WSJN, IOI, Gugudan, Dreamcatcher and Lovelyz (especially them in fact) are better than 95% of the late 4th generation/5th generation girl groups. And they were all receiving praise. The two most popular girl groups (BP and Twice) have average vocals but still better or around the same level as the popular latest groups like Illit, MEOVV, Le Sserafim, IZNA and more.

Only KIOF, NMIXX and Babymonster can be considered vocals groups.

Maybe it is because YG and JYP got more focused on strong vocals with their most recent groups, while in the previous gens, vocals just weren't one of the main trait priorities both companies had for their groups, that I thought the times had changed and more companies were getting more interested in strong vocal lines in their groups.

But if you say that outside of those few, the vocal lines of 4th gen and 5th gen are still average at best, nothing above that, then I'll take your word for it, I don't know all the groups that debuted the past few years that well

Quote from selfmate

you mentioned two groups from the big4

with all due respect OP - how can one generalize about the entirety of the 5th gen by pointing out two groups who have good vocals compared to the rest of the 5th gen GG

I had hoped it was actually a trend that was happening, if even YG and JYP were focusing on strong vocal lines for their groups where they hadn't before. But if those are just exceptions, then alas