Has GP-friendly music lost its meaning for 4th gen?

  • Some of the most successful songs with Korean public from 4th gen groups:

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    When these songs came out, people think they’re too weird for the public and would flop, but the opposite happens. So for 4th gen, GP-friendly music is no longer the way to go? Obviously, Stayc is popular too so maybe that’s not true.


    Addition: What I mean by GP friendly is if you think of 3rd gen: Cheer up for Twice, Whistle for Blackpink or Psycho for Red Velvet, no one said they are experimental or weird or no one was confused why they are popular. But for 4th gens, all songs above are said to be weird and are likely to flop, but they end up doing well.

    A further example, Aespa’s debut song, Black Mamba is way more “friendly” to the ears than Next Level, but it was Next Level that becomes popular. So I’m asking if the public has shifted their taste. People were saying Aespa is the female NCT, but the reason NCT don’t have hit songs is because they’re not “GP-friendly” and yet Aespa songs are popular?

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    Edited 2 times, last by bbb988 ().

  • Isn't like every single SMTM song in the top ten or something?

  • no gp hits from 4th gen so far in korea.

    nothing like 'cheer up', for instance.


    gp are older and have adult responsibilities - they don't care about kids trying to act cool.

    they usually want something fun and friendly to listen to.


    one 4th gen gg did have a massive nation-wide gp hit, however:

    niziu

    'make you happy' was the song of 2020 in japan.

    possibly even the most widely known pop song of the last decade.


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  • But Next Level was a hit tho? and people were doing the dances and everything

  • Imo, Dalla Dalla and Eleven are really easy listening and not weird. For Next Level, i think it's because this kind of song is really SM Performance style that has been existing since forever like TVXQ's Rising Sun (2005) for example. I've also read some comments that say NL reminds them of TVXQ and 2nd gen song, which may indicate the 'GP' is actually already familiar and used to this kind of song :/

  • i wonder by people who u are referring to akp? :pepewhat:

    akp, twitter, online forums, even if you read comments by Koreans in youtube or online, they say Next Level take them 10 or more times listening to find it cool, while Black Mamba they find the “ma ma ma mamba part” instantly addictive. not to mention the comments that said next level feels like 4 songs stitched into one.

    But even then if you compare Aespa “Next Level” to Twice “I can’t stop me” or BtsButter”, no one was saying anything about Twice or Bts song being weird, not to mention they are both on trend with the retro trend too, but Next Level ends up performing better than them both on the Korea chart despite the “negative” initial reaction.

  • But Next Level was a hit tho? and people were doing the dances and everything

    nl was definitely a hit among younger folks and kpop fans.

    but you didn't see middle aged office workers and grandmas dancing to it while seeing it on prime time tv shows all day every day.


    cheer up and make you happy were those types of hits with gp.

  • Cheer Up is absolutely a weirder song than the fourth gen examples.


    f(x) and Miss A were pretty successful

    And it seemed at the time that I Got a Boy was SNSD's breakout.

    But then maybe that's just my perspective based on the circles I hang in, because if you asked me I woulda told you Zimzalabim was probably Red Velvet's biggest hit :angryr:

  • akp, twitter, online forums, even if you read comments by Koreans in youtube or online, they say Next Level take them 10 or more times listening to find it cool, while Black Mamba they find the “ma ma ma mamba part” instantly addictive. not to mention the comments that said next level feels like 4 songs stitched into one.

    But even then if you compare Aespa “Next Level” to Twice “I can’t stop me” or BtsButter”, no one was saying anything about Twice or Bts song being weird, not to mention they are both on trend with the retro trend too, but Next Level ends up performing better than them both on the Korea chart despite the “negative” initial reaction.

    international fans and koreans don't have to have similar taste so most of the comments said by intl fans don't apply to koreans, next level is gp friendly cus i see lots saying the "i am on the next level" and "lala lala lala" etc parts are so addicting, also its dance went viral, if only I say something "sing talk" is new trend in ggs and gp seems to like it

  • Imo, Dalla Dalla and Eleven are really easy listening and not weird. For Next Level, i think it's because this kind of song is really SM Performance style that has been existing since forever like TVXQ's Rising Sun (2005) for example. I've also read some comments that say NL reminds them of TVXQ and 2nd gen song, which may indicate the 'GP' is actually already familiar and used to this kind of song :/

    But then isn’t NCT songs also that “performance style” since they are also multiple songs stitched together like Aespa? And if TVXQ, a boy group from Sm can have public hits with songs like that then won’t NCT have hits too?

  • Cheer Up is a weird song.


    At least to me as a Western listener it sounded weird and disjointed when I first heard it. Still don't like it much.


    Next Level has a lot of melodic shifts, which is definitely weird in terms of pop.


    Dalla Dalla and Eleven sound like classic pop songs to me. Nothing out of the ordinary. I do remember people on AKP calling Dalla Dalla messy when it first came out, but I didn't understand that. Nothing strange happens in Dalla Dalla and their is no unexpected shifts in the melody. People also called D4 messy, but I didn't understand that either. The only jarring part in that was Jennie's rap in the 2nd verse. Though that's also a typical YG feature.


    People throw around the term GP-friendly, but there is no real consensus on what that means. People just assume based on what they THINK the GP will like. I still cannot understand Korea liking Savage, but maybe that just means I don't know Korean taste. :pepestare:

    PGDPGT PRETTY GIRLS DOING PRETTY GIRL THINGS

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  • Eleven sounds super poppy to me so I don't even know why it's in this conversation, but I also think a lot of i-fans have a perception of what the Korean GP likes that doesn't match what's happening on the charts. Show Me the Money songs - all hip hop - top the charts, while songs like Next Level go viral. The GP may still like the next bright and poppy Gee song or romantic ballad, but it also likes aespa and Itzy songs too.

    ..............................................................................................................perfume

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  • Eleven sounds super poppy to me so I don't even know why it's in this conversation, but I also think a lot of i-fans have a perception of what the Korean GP likes that doesn't match what's happening on the charts. Show Me the Money songs - all hip hop - top the charts, while songs like Next Level go viral. The GP may still like the next bright and poppy Gee song or romantic ballad, but it also likes aespa and Itzy songs too.

    Yeah I agree but SMTM is kind of an exception because some hip hop songs from there always make the charts, but when the show isn’t on, most of the charts isn’t hip hop, so it seems hip hop don’t have that much exposure in Korea and needs these shows to expose to the public.

  • It's definitely a trend with some companies, but you also have songs like Weekly's After School that are the definition of public friendly, the title it's too much of a generalization

  • But the Weeekly song didn’t do well in Korean charts? Sorry if Im not getting what you’re saying.

    I was answering mostly your title, gp friendly is still pretty much in 4th gen and then you I read your point about charting and I was too lazy to edit my post :p

    Like I said, that's too much of generalization, Dalla Dalla is from 2019 and Next Level is from 6 months ago and Eleven is one week old, you have a almost 3 year gap with so many releases, your back up for this narrative seems too much cherry picked that's why I'd like to disagree with you :p

    I got this chart from twitter and I think La Vien En Rose and Latata aren't weird at all. It's probably pretty old and if anyone wants to correct me feel free.

    kpop charts (@4thGenOnCharts) / Twitter

  • I was answering mostly your title, gp friendly is still pretty much in 4th gen and then you I read your point about charting and I was too lazy to edit my post :p

    Like I said, that's too much of generalization, Dalla Dalla is from 2019 and Next Level is from 6 months ago and Eleven is one week old, you have a almost 3 year gap with so many releases, your back up for this narrative seems too much cherry picked that's why I'd like to disagree with you :p

    I got this chart from twitter and I think La Vien En Rose and Latata aren't weird at all. It's probably pretty old and if anyone wants to correct me feel free.

    kpop charts (@4thGenOnCharts) / Twitter

    Yeah thanks for the table. And thats why I add in the last sentence that GP-friendly is still in since Stayc is still doing well. But my question is more like should the definition for GP-friendly expand. Because a lot of songs in 3rd gen that hit big are songs that seem instantly catchy, whereas now you have songs like Next Level, Dalla where people said it takes them multiple times to get used to them and then get addicted. So the definition of GP-friendly should open up to include these kind of songs that are weird at first, but then make sense and become addictive after multiple listens instead of just instantly catchy songs like Dynamite or sth.

  • Yeah thanks for the table. And thats why I add in the last sentence that GP-friendly is still in since Stayc is still doing well. But my question is more like should the definition for GP-friendly expand. Because a lot of songs in 3rd gen that hit big are songs that seem instantly catchy, whereas now you have songs like Next Level, Dalla where people said it takes them multiple times to get used to them and then get addicted. So the definition of GP-friendly should open up to include these kind of songs that are weird at first, but then make sense and become addictive after multiple listens instead of just instantly catchy songs like Dynamite or sth.

    Depends on the context? If you want to discuss what truly is gp friendly you will never reach an answer since trends change all the time, something like Stay by JB can be considered gp friendly now but if released years ago everyone would find it weird, on the other side if you released something like everytime we touch by cascada people will find it dated despite it being extremely catchy when it was released. Maybe we're going through a phase were people are getting used to more disjointed songs or some years ago they'll sound dated too, who knows :/

    To avoid all this thinking I just refer gp friendly to pop songs that are very easy to listen to with structure and elements that were already used in other hit songs, like Levitating

  • one 4th gen gg did have a massive nation-wide gp hit, however:

    niziu

    'make you happy' was the song of 2020 in japan.

    possibly even the most widely known pop song of the last decade.

    i like niziu and all but damn ur rlly exaggerating.

  • But when it came out, reactions from people weren’t severe like Next Level. People even said Black Mamba was catchy right away. With Next Level, people said Sm lost its ways and the song was trash, only for it to end up doing better than Black Mamba,

    That was just pressed kpop stans talking about Next Level. As soon as the song dropped knets were talking about how it felt like old school SM and how much they liked it because it made them remember older music.


    International kpop fans love pulling random complaints out of thin air and act like Koreans only listen to ballads, but even trot music is weird and wild af a lot of the time.


  • I'm not following NiziU super closely or anything so I could be wrong but isn't this an over exaggeration? Last I checked make you happy sold around 300k in Japan, that doesn't sound like song of the year, let alone decade. I understand their debut did very well in terms of girl groups but do they really compare with Japan's top singers who are selling millions per release?

  • nl was definitely a hit among younger folks and kpop fans.

    but you didn't see middle aged office workers and grandmas dancing to it while seeing it on prime time tv shows all day every day.


    cheer up and make you happy were those types of hits with gp.

    Bruh so many comedians danced to it. Regular tiktoks of middle aged men dancing to it during vaccination. Military officers dancing to it too. Adult ass jazz and hiphop singers covering it casually?


    Wow, the narrative is rly shitty. First the “non existent international success” and then now a “faux gp hit”?


    Bothered af.

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