I would guess since there are so many soloists in the west and also a severe lack of popular/mainstream groups over there
Because the solo scene in Korea is not interesting.
Kpop soloists are fine, but I find singers like them in any market, they don't have a particular style that set them apart like idols do
The best part of it is the minor R&B scene from Heize, Crush, Dean, Epik High, etc, but they are minority. Most soloists only releases ballads and OSTs
I myself don't hate ballads but Koreans go overboard with them to a point it's unbearable to listen, when you go to Melon top 30 80% of the songs are emotional power ballads, which after a few listens start to look too generic for my taste
Anticipate IU5 comeback
I'm not the best to answer since I'm actually more interested in K-soloists than in K-groups.
I think that their music is not that appealing to the western audience, especially an younger audience. And we all know that it's the younger audience that drives K-pop. My parents liked IU and Taeyeon. My young friends, not that much. I myself have an older musical taste.
Also, soloists usually don't have the same fanservice appeal that K-idols, especially K-groups have. The most successful K-soloist internationally are former K-idols. Without the fan interactions, there's not much that differentiate them from western artists.
Also, some people pointed out something important. There are many soloists out there outside Korea. Groups, not that much.
We are international fans. We literally have hundreds of soloists in our own music industries. People go to kpop to find something they dont have at home.
And honestly, western solo acts for example make much more diverse and interesting music as a whole. I just dont see much of a reason to get into k-solo acts.
I think one of the reasons people become stans rather than merely causal listeners is the group interaction between the members themselves the comradeship if you will. Fans love the interactions between the members.
Its also why we have so many intra-group shippers.
And the amount of content available to groups through their own variety shows is also what keeps fans interested compared to soloist who don't have such interactions. Eg. BP House, Time to Twice, Run BTS
i am an international stan / kpop fan, and i love solo artists. i don't talk much about them because i love reality and variety shows, and most solo artists aren't very active in those kind of shows, but i love their music and content
my favorite solo artists (i don't stan them all, but these are my favorites):
gaho
ji jinseok
eric nam
Because kpop fill the void of girlband and boyband that hasn't been produced for the long time in west. Ifans want parasocial relationship with these kind of groups. Idols are specifically made for these kind of listeners.
But Kpop soloist is an artist, unlike idols which basically product of their company, they produce music and that's the only one they sell. They don't sell image, persona just like idols do. If you want to attach to the song, you need to understand the lyrics. Most fans don't understand Korean. it is difficult to build emotional attachment to the song and why kpop soloist will not be as famous as kpop group.
Display MoreBecause the solo scene in Korea is not interesting.
Kpop soloists are fine, but I find singers like them in any market, they don't have a particular style that set them apart like idols do
The best part of it is the minor R&B scene from Heize, Crush, Dean, Epik High, etc, but they are minority. Most soloists only releases ballads and OSTs
I myself don't hate ballads but Koreans go overboard with them to a point it's unbearable to listen, when you go to Melon top 30 80% of the songs are emotional power ballads, which after a few listens start to look too generic for my taste
agreed with you I enjoy the japan music industry creativity side (rock, hiphop, anime ed op, idols, metal, creative 2.5d music project etc)
im not always on kmusic side only and was previous from jfandom
until I saw EXO in XOXO era seem interesting 
It's kinda hard to give just one answer to this in my opinion, for me I don't think I would have found any of the soloists I enjoyed without knowing them previously, for example I came across the soloist from20 because of his former group BigStar, I came across Zico, P.O and Minhyuk because of BlockB, I came across Xiao Gui (who turned his concept on his head and loving living that rock star life which is so cool!) since being in the group Nine Percent alongside Zhengting, Adam Fan and others.
For Jpop, although I loved Black Iris, One N Only, JO1 (Ohira, Shiroiwa, Kimata and Sato espically), One Ok Rock especially for a long time, I was there when JO1 hit one of their first million views ever and after seeing a lot of success from their Asian Boss Episode.
I think personal taste and personal growth of discovering what music genres and artists you enjoy change over time and its really hard to keep up with all the content, social media postings all the time to.
I'm a Canadian international fan who loves many artists, sure I may not know everything about them or celebrate all achievements like birthday's etc, but I used to take part in big events and birthday ad projects like I did for B.A.P Daehyun and YoungJae.
I think it purely depends on the person themselves and what they are into, some love only soloists while some only like groups. And neither is a bad thing
I'm one of those people who stan a soloist from a group. I stan Sunmi from the disbanded girl group Wonder Girls.
I agree with BebeCarat-0 in that the answer is "personal taste".
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