What it takes for a boy group song to become a hit in korea.

Quote from bestofworst

Listening to Pentagon's shine today and it got me thinking about how their song shine went viral. Also Winner's really really and ikon's love scenario. Also many bigbang songs that were hit. i think i've found out what makes a boy group song likely to become a hit.

- The singing should not be too melodic but more swaggy and "rough" (exception for idol ballad songs like btob only one or bts spring day). As seen from the iconic lines of these songs. Less importance to vocal techniques; more to style.

- Music should be easy and simple to listen not too many things happening musically. Compare it to NCT or stray kids.

- More rapping. Boygroup songs with more khiphop style rapping.

- Styling should be more casual or wild/ unconventional but not attractive like in suits or tight fits.

- Choreography should be very easy with a point dance. Complicated choreos are big no. No sexy choreo.

What are your thoughts?

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Fake Love has difficult choreo, verses are raps, styling is not casual (suits and leather harnesses), but the singing during the intro, chorus, and outro are all melodic. So you can't make a formula at all lol

a miracle

Star alignment

Seems about Right, you can add Growl to your list too

Quote from Hopkinz

Seems about Right, you can add Growl to your list too

Why do you think Korea likes hip hop based groups more?

I mean I'm looking at their top 3 all time. BTS, Seo Taiji and The Boys, Big Bang. All of them are hip hop based. Do they like that type of sound or they give more importance to lyrics? Because those are some of the common things in these groups.

Growl and Love Scenario are the only two "hit" songs i have seen from boygroups in my entire kpop stay that actually came out of nowhere

every other song was usually carried by a big label/group brand and dedicated fans

and those two songs were pretty generic feel good songs

so yeah, it doesnt take much

just

be relatable to a large audience

or win awards in america

A deal with the Devil

Quote from onlyfacts

Why do you think Korea likes hip hop based groups more?

I mean I'm looking at their top 3 all time. BTS, Seo Taiji and The Boys, Big Bang. All of them are hip hop based. Do they like that type of sound or they give more importance to lyrics? Because those are some of the common things in these groups.

I think Korea likes Korean hip-hop. Nothing too aggressive but easy enough to kinda rap along to with lyrics that arent too cringe.

Quote from unbannBLACPINK

Growl and Love Scenario are the only two "hit" songs i have seen from boygroups in my entire kpop stay that actually came out of nowhere

every other song was usually carried by a big label/group brand and dedicated fans

and those two songs were pretty generic feel good songs

so yeah, it doesnt take much

just

be relatable to a large audience

or win awards in america

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Nowhere? EXO had a huge fandom and SM was having on their best years ever (SNSD, SuJu, TVXQ, SHINee, and fx all had comebacks) when Growl came out.

Love Scenario is the only one.

Group name should be BTS

Quote from MassiveKpopFan

Nowhere? EXO had a huge fandom and SM was having on their best years ever (SNSD, SuJu, TVXQ, SHINee, and fx all had comebacks) when Growl came out.

Love Scenario is the only one.

exo had a huge fandom and very bad rep after the shitshow that was Wolf

enter Growl and unanimously loved song + spawned a couple more years of dominance

Quote from itiswhatitisss

tbh SHINE was more of a hit internationally than in Korea so I don't think that's a good example.

Whenever people bring this up I always bring up the fact that BigBang had that cool factor that automatically made them "hip" and "trendy" with every gender and age. Same with WINNER until recently and iKON earlier in their career. If you a guy listening to them you weren't seen as uncool or weird. So if companies want a hit for their boy group they should try to appeal to the male demographic, as someone said being more hip-hop based is a good way to start.

Releasing ballads is a good idea too, Korea loves a good ballad once in a while, they appeal to all demographics.

But honestly right now....you just need luck and right timing unless your name is BTS.

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If OP don't give you best answer right neow...

I was going to give a very cynical or nihilistic answer.

Why Korea doesn't like Boygroups? can someone give me a reasonable answer?

TXT releases this year seem like what will be popular in Korea and it didn't do well there.

pls, don't say it is because their music is bad. i am just thinking abt how people here say Savage sounds like an NCT song. I don't agree with that but let's pretend for a moment that NCT released Savage, will it reach Top 20 melon?

Quote from MassiveKpopFan

Nowhere? EXO had a huge fandom and SM was having on their best years ever (SNSD, SuJu, TVXQ, SHINee, and fx all had comebacks) when Growl came out.

Love Scenario is the only one.

No, actually. Wolf's reception was pretty bad, so Growl was definitely out of nowhere and it cemented them as the top group.

To break the biased flower boy image and be more hep with the ‘boys’ but that would mean not having as much a big a fandom ikon winner bigbang never had a big buying fandom. This is the try hard concepts that dude bros like. Again it’s not exactly the genre but the image you project. Yes hip hop lends itself to this image well. But the focus is still the image.

EXO is the maximum digital success you can get for a boy group and have a significantly big fanbase. Basically not National hits but they will make the gaon year end chart somewhere in the top 40. And their album digital will be like a billion digital points or so.

BTS are the exception that merely prove the rule.

Quote from onlyfacts

Why do you think Korea likes hip hop based groups more?

I mean I'm looking at their top 3 all time. BTS, Seo Taiji and The Boys, Big Bang. All of them are hip hop based. Do they like that type of sound or they give more importance to lyrics? Because those are some of the common things in these groups.

Top three of what?

In terms of overall sales Bigbang sold 4 mil and Exo almost 13 (and still counting).

Top 3 is bts, tvxq and exo

At this point only a miracle. If even nct with a massive Korean fandom + sm backing can't do it then I don't think anyone can. Not even yg boy groups can achieve basic charting anymore.

Quote from nahadoth

At this point only a miracle. If even nct with a massive Korean fandom + sm backing can't do it then I don't think anyone can. Not even yg boy groups can achieve basic charting anymore.

But they sell a lot.

Quote from Millano

Top three of what?

In terms of overall sales Bigbang sold 4 mil and Exo almost 13 (and still counting).

Top 3 is bts, tvxq and exo

Impact. Relevance in Korea. Legacy.

Quote from Haolat

Why Korea doesn't like Boygroups? can someone give me a reasonable answer?

TXT releases this year seem like what will be popular in Korea and it didn't do well there.

pls, don't say it is because their music is bad. i am just thinking abt how people here say Savage sounds like an NCT song. I don't agree with that but let's pretend for a moment that NCT released Savage, will it reach Top 20 melon?

If I may say.... I feel Koreans are sexist towards boy groups. They are not even willing to them a chance.

They have prejudice against kpop boy groups. Only those who break that mold are deemed worthy or otherwise you need to go viral. Like Growl.

Quote from onlyfacts

Impact. Relevance in Korea. Legacy.

Exo

Quote from Haolat

a miracle

What do oh my girls fans have to do with this?

Go viral

Quote from Haolat

Why Korea doesn't like Boygroups? can someone give me a reasonable answer?

TXT releases this year seem like what will be popular in Korea and it didn't do well there.

pls, don't say it is because their music is bad. i am just thinking abt how people here say Savage sounds like an NCT song. I don't agree with that but let's pretend for a moment that NCT released Savage, will it reach Top 20 melon?

Pann forum isn't the most representative of gp but there was a lot of praise indeed, especially for Lovesong but the promotions moved very fast to Magic and US shows (it was fast prolly for the billboard Charts).

Lo$er=Lo♡er unfortunately got its hype snuffed by their criticism of the styling and a lot didn't like the choreo too...

The promotion for it was more interesting with Jessi and MMTG but even shorter.

Like everyone says, a lot of chance and timing is needed as well as well planned promotion and it doesn't guarantee anything

LUCK

It isn't even solely because of male listeners. If you look at the Melon demographics, girl groups not only have more male listeners but also more female listeners. The problem lies deeper.

Quote from omnimorphism

It isn't even solely because of male listeners. If you look at the Melon demographics, girl groups not only have more male listeners but also more female listeners. The problem lies deeper.

Yes it’s not just male listeners the bias is across genders. The flower boy image is primarily associated with being liked with a young female audience and there are other women who don’t like to associate with such a demographic.

Quote from Tic_tac_toe

Yes it’s not just male listeners the bias is across genders. The flower boy image is primarily associated with being liked with a young female audience and there are other women who don’t like to associate with such a demographic.

In the end, it's very close from the rest of the world's pov

Sexism has a wide array of consequences that ends up impacting both female and male artists

Quote from daniel-cruz

No, actually. Wolf's reception was pretty bad, so Growl was definitely out of nowhere and it cemented them as the top group.

My main point was that the person I replied to said other BG hits were carried by fandoms as if EXO-Ls weren't one of the biggest fandoms of 2013. It's hypocritical.

Quote from MassiveKpopFan

My main point was that the person I replied to said other BG hits were carried by fandoms as if EXO-Ls weren't one of the biggest fandoms of 2013. It's hypocritical.

Yeah that's true. EXO-Ls were and still are one of the biggest fandoms.

I don't know. Maybe many songs like this below. Having a nice melody, singing tone and clear rap.

I think it’s not just about the music anymore because some boy groups have been releasing bops with gp friendly sounds and yet they aren’t charting as well still. Also aespa still slayed with a song that’s very far on the gp friendly spectrum so the music is definitely not the issue here.

its hard bcos korean men are scared to be seen as gay if they listen to boy group song. Girl groups have advantages as korean men are obsessed with them, and also women want to be them.

Quote from Afriyieau1

I think it’s not just about the music anymore because some boy groups have been releasing bops with gp friendly sounds and yet they aren’t charting as well still. Also aespa still slayed with a song that’s very far on the gp friendly spectrum so the music is definitely not the issue here.

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luck