Why don’t these dumb kpop companies invest in solo artist and GGs for the western market!

It’s sus all the survival bg shows now announced for US and South America. I would’ve thought we’d get at least one show for a gg I assume a gg show will get the public attention more. But companies have their data so idk

Quote from wendii

LEAD singles and preferably an additional single before the album and then title tracks.. but their needs to be more singles AFTER the album drops.. never understood why in kpop they just drop albums and then don’t promote the other songs.

Interscope was going to do that with The Album but cancelled it at the last minute. They were trying to push Bet You Wanna as a radio single while having Lovesick Girls as the lead single but then ultimately pulled it like the week before it was supposed to impact.

Also just from your OP, Interscope clearly wanted to push Ice Cream as it had Selena and was mostly English because they won't push Korean singles to the same extent.

They all want to minic BTS's success. Solo artists won't be able to have the impact that BTS has.

If I am not mistaking BTS is the first "boy band" that debuted this century to be nominated for a grammy.

It is harder for boy groups to gain appeal in the west compared to gg but we all know these kpop companies want fast money and don't really care about gaining recognition or respect for their groups.

IMO it all still boils down to the music. Gg will still tank if the music is not appealing either. Most bg sounds now are too experimental and niche sounding, not really the kind of music that appeals to the public or mainstream

What kind of competitive advantage exactly would a kpop style solo artist have over western solo artists? What can they do that western artists cant and how do they appeal more?

For groups they have the advantage since pop groups are dead in the west. But yes, girl groups have the advantage in the west when it comes to the GP, since they face less prejudice. This has been talked about to death since BTS was nominated for their first BBMAs.

edit: there has been western push by big Asian solo artists. Hikaru Utada and BoA to name some. They didnt really achieve anything, even Hikaru Utada who was the biggest name in jpop and actually grew up in US.

Quote from wendii

What I meant was Interscope would of worked 10 times harder if they felt the song had HIT potential. YG ultimately makes the decisions so Interscope didn’t have much choice! They did the bare minimal in US promo. Western label execs are known to do that if they feel like a song it’s good or up to their standards. Rihanna has to pay out of pocket during GGGB for mvs because they didn’t like single choices.

Columbia told Beyoncé to her face her debut album had NO hits, and wanted her to redo some of it! Thankfully she didn’t and once CIL popped off and the album was doing numbers, they got their ish together.

They pulled the song from radio since it flopped on Spotify despite great playlisting.

Quote from wendii

I think it’s more beneficial to be a solo artist in the west.. and easier to breakthrough.

when you think about it just like how Pop groups are dead.. there are no FULL East Asian/SEA mainstream pop solo artist. Male or female. The closest right now are Bruno Mars and Olivia and to some extent Rina.

A solo artist can fit wider demographics and in the west solo artist are easier to connect too.

BTS is an anomaly, everything about them goes against the grain hence why they’re likely to never be replicated

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I just dont think the kpop system is anything that can easily produce someone who can be a big star in the west. The kpop system supresses individuality and creativity. It mostly strives towards mediocrity. With exceptions of course. And kpop system suffocates the rest of Korean music and gives it a bad reputation, making it harder for anyone outside of it to succeed. Its pretty telling that the big solo success (Psy) was outside of kpop and was a fluke, not someone pushed to the west.

I think its much more likely that someone from jpop/rock/hiphop side would blow up, the artists have more individuality and more character. Kyary Pamyu Pamyu even had her viral moment. Joji for example is already is bigger than any kpop act other than BTS, at least here.

I really feel like big companies like the big 3 and Big Hit really tried and it did work. Like its cool to enter hot 100 and its cool to have cfs in the west which will give you a lot of money but just charting in the west won't give you money. Being able to sell 1+millions albums in asia is a less risky and more guaranteed money by far.

Thats also why smaller companies don't do it, its a very risky market where if you don't release the right song you pretty much lost all your investment

Quote from wendii

Solo artist are OBVIOUSLY preferred over groups.

- Cheaper to producer

- Likelier to succeed

- Solo artist make more money in the west.

- easier for to write and produce music for

Also if they do make groups why not GG?

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I think thats an old narrative. And imo, before BTS blow up, all big Kpop companies have that same mindset as well. As you can see from 1st/2nd gen Korean artist that got pushed in the west : BoA, Rain, Se7en, Wonder Girls, SNSD (during the boys era kinda), CL, and post GS PSY maybe. Notice how all of them are either a soloist or GG. We barely saw SM pushing TVXQ or Super Junior in the west. The same with YG with Bigbang or JYP with 2pm.

So I think Kpop companies have the same opinion as you (back then), that Soloist and Girl Group have bigger chance of success in the Western market (tho none of them actualy worked in the end). Which is ironic imo, cause the first Kpop artist that finally have an actual career in the western market is a Boygroup that have a lot of member, wearing make up, and only have one English speaker.

cause they are dumb.

GG has less prejudice against them atleast in the country I live in.

For different reasons ppl here are most acceptable of korean ggs than bgs.

There is no competitive advantage to being Asian in the West. It is in fact, a distinct disadvantage, especially currently.

So Asian artists are going to have to stand out in some way with their music or performance to "make up" for being Asian, or grow a fanbase large enough on their own so that they cannot be ignored (BTS). There are many Western groups and artists who struggle throughout their careers without making it big. What do Asian artists bring that makes them more attractive commercially to the Western music industry?

I would argue that it is easier for a kpop boy group to stand out in performance (with athletic synchronized dancing) than an Asian solo artist, unless the latter has very amazing or compelling songs. I really don't think that there are any kpop songs that are amazing musically; some may be amazing lyrically but the language barrier makes it nearly impossible for that to be easily appreciated by the Western gp.

Quote from myaza

They pulled the song from radio since it flopped on Spotify despite great playlisting.

do you not get tired of spreading false information about a group you supposedly don’t like? I guess not.

They didn’t pull the song from radio cause it flopped. It was never sent to radio. It was planned to but they didn’t. The only BLACKPINK song sent to radio was Ice Cream, the highest charting song by a kpop girl group. Speak on what you know, not on what you think.