Why are the big three debuting smaller groups?

With the exception of Twice, all of the girl groups that the big three are managing all have a maximum of six members. I'm especially looking at SM with Red Velvet and aespa having 5, respectively 6 members when SNSD was a 9 member giant.

I don't know much about YG considering they don't really have a history with big groups, but BP also has 4 members.

JYP debuted Twice in 2015 with nine members but their latest gg has five.

Is this a new trend or am I just looking into it too hard? Are smaller groups easier to manage than let's say, 9 or 12 member groups?

Quote from jinaland

Then YG who always had small to mid size groups suddenly debuting big group

I think they do have a substantial amount of female trainees so I'm hopping they do! A big YG gg would be something interesting to see!

Quote from kfan2021

BlackPink paved the way

Uh, BP's way was paved by 2NE1.

Quote from Haolat

in a gen only one of the big 3 GG is large

2nd gen (only 1 big GG)

[JYP] Wonder girls - 5

[SM] SNSD - 9

[SM] f(x) - 5

YG] 2NE1 - 4

3rd gen (only 1 big GG)

[JYP] Twice - 9

[SM] Red velvet - 5

[YG] BlackPink - 4

4th gen

[JYP] Itzy - 5

[SM] aespa - 4

i think it is YG's turn to debut a 9 member group

Display More

That's a really cool observation actually! Hopefully YG takes the turn and debuts a big group.

Quote from crystalblues

I mean originally SNSD was supposed to be split into two different sister groups, and then they rebooted it as the girl ver of Super Junior but the debut was cancelled.

Then the plan was changed to a smaller group again, so we got the 9 we have, after a few redirections/reassignments of trainees and prior to them all of SM groups were 5 or less members.

(f)X was supposed to be six at one point and then one of the girls (Heo Chanmi) was removed by SM for some reason. I think it depends on the feel of what combination of singers work best together. Not if the group needs a bunch of members. Example Momo being added to Twice because JYP felt she meshed so well with the other members that Twice felt incomplete without her.

Display More

I didn't know about this, but it does actually make a lot of sense. I'm glad things didn't work as planned in this case.