The 3rd Gen began around 2012 and Exo's Growl broke out in 2013, poised to supplant the older generation.
But the ferry incident hit on April 2014, which killed the hiphop dominance in Korean pop. Hiphop would never take the center position in Korean pop again.
Exo spent 2014 fighting its own divisions, and also IU who put Exo to grave danger.
And Exo was defeated by Big Bang's resurgence in 2015.
It seemed the 2nd Gen was back to power. IU attempted a comeback in late 2015 but was defeated by f(x), another 2nd gen.
The 2nd Gen controlled the narrative again, and the 3rd gen was about to be squeezed to death by the older gen, then this occurred
This was the breaking moment of the 3rd gen, and Twice got into the crack created by GFriend, and so on. BTS was not that significant until 2016.
===
The 4th Gen advanced in 2024 but the New Jeans thing occurred, and that significantly weakened the 4th gen since NJ was the leading act and even had defeated Jungkook.
aespa, debuting in 2020, tried to fill the gap, but the 3rd Gen used foreign help, and APT. defeated Supernova in the end.
The resurgence of 3rd Gen was now clear, and only aespa and IVE, 4th gen acts which debuted relatively earlier, held their ground to some degree. Illit, the leader of the 4.5th gen, was smothered in the New Jeans circus, and the rest did not create a stir.
2025 was a continuation of this thread. All 4.5th gen , preferring to call itself the 5th gen, did badly.
All Day Project, with a billionaire in it, did rather well, but even Annie Moon's billions were no match against the global explosion of KPop demon hunters.
Huntri/x and Saja Boys are all composed by Korean-Americans , and Maggie Kang, who conjured up this concept, is a Korean-Canadian. None of them are Korean nationals.
The initiative of KPop has permanently passed into the hands of Netflix, and there will be no shortage of such shows in the future. Virtual idols and faceless singers are already mainstream in Japan, and now it has become mainstream worldwide.
The breakout moment for the 4.5th gen was stolen by Huntr/x, so the 4.5th gen would have no chance to supplant the earlier 3rd and 4th gens, Illit's magnetic seen in the same vein as Exo's growl, an attempt, not permanent.''
I think the true 5th gen will not arrive till after 2029 when the current fad on virtual idols passes.
Existing acts can feed on existing fans, but newer acts will have a quite hard time to strike a new ground.
