Yes I agree
well
- Aespa have won bonsang, awards and Daesang : nobody did it since 4th gen started 3 years ago
- They have a national hit, they're the only 4th gen artist to have one
- They got a RAK, CAK, and PAK which is something no 4th gen artist did
- They surpass top artist in longevity on melon and other charts
- And today "Savage" become the best selling album for a 4th gen GG on Gaon surpassing Iz*One
So yes Aespa is leading 4th gen and nobody can deny it
sm girl crush concept is on the next level
Aespa is killing it and yet it's just the beginning for them, they'll have such a bright future and are definitely already legendary because they set the bar higher for both girl and boy groups in their debut year.
Which group is doing better internationally?
it's couple of groups actually,only boy groups come to my mind. they still have much better charting internationally, much higher sales, much bigger popularity and bigger fandoms internationally. aespa is doing well internationally but they need to surpass those other groups to be considered 4th gen leaders overall imo
Not surprising but yes.
it's couple of groups actually,only boy groups come to my mind. they still have much better charting internationally, much higher sales, much bigger popularity and bigger fandoms internationally. aespa is doing well internationally but they need to surpass those other groups to be considered 4th gen leaders overall imo
But to be fair we still have to wait for Hybe and YG to release their girl groups before we can say anything (that is assuming YG will actually give that girl group any comebacks). Also another thing is that they had a viral hit with Next Level so there next comeback is bound to do good. Give it a year and if they are still charting like this on Melon then for sure. Not saying they aren't leading 4th gen for now but it is important to be cautious.
Yes!
When someone says "leaders" I take it as in being better than everyone else. That's why I compare them to both boy groups and girl groups. If we talk about who is the 4th gen leader out of girl groups that's definitely aespa. If we have to pick two 4th gen groups (bg and gg) then aespa will be included. But if we talk about the group, regardless of the gender, that's biggest of them all, aespa isn't it.
Just like you can't say Blackpink are leaders of third gen when bts is ruling. You can say that they're leaders for ggs and one of the leading groups overall
I think most people don't take BTS into account when they talk about sales or charting in kpop. In second gen SNSD had the same sales as any boy group out there. For third gen BP has the same sales as any boy group that isn't BTS (I'm sure they can hit about 2-2.5 M sales if YG will actually give them another full album comeback). Kpop is one of the few industries that you can actually place female acts on the same level as male acts if your talking about leaders in the industry. Even Twice is selling where some top 3rd gen boy groups are selling. I think they sold 700k+ and the only boy groups that are beating that in 3rd gen are BTS, NCT, EXO, and Seventeen. The criteria in 3rd gen to be a top boy group is around 500k which twice definitely exceeded. Now it's 1 M for 4th gen.
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actually this aespa needs another comeback their fans are so fast pace next level to savage seems like public is just hype for their new song and didn’t love it the next comeback might not recieve well and the fans think they’re the number one already when itzy is towering them in the west and in japan
I agree, I think it will be hard for any kpop girl group to be as popular in the west as boy groups are, the fan bases are different. In Korea it seems like frequently young girls are the most loyal fans of boy groups, and boys are the most loyal fans of girl groups. Not that you don't find the reverse, but it seems to be a lot of people who both enjoy the music and also have a crush on the members. That's why they freak out when they find out about idols dating.
In the west it's different, I've never had any straight male friends who were big fans of bubblegum, true pop music. Not saying it doesn't exist, but the main market is women and gay men. Young teen girls in the west will be extremely loyal fans to boy groups like BTS and 1D, and kpop groups survive on loyal fandoms who buy every record and all the merch even when a particular release isn't a huge mainstream hit. When western girls do stan a female singer, it's typically because they aspire to be more like the dominant, aggressive artist (think Rihanna, Megan thee Stallion, etc). This type of persona doesn't do quite as well for female idols in Korea, so it's tough for girl groups to balance appealing to both markets. Blackpink is managing to walk that tightrope pretty well so far.
I think most people don't take BTS into account when they talk about sales or charting in kpop. In second gen SNSD had the same sales as any boy group out there. For third gen BP has the same sales as any boy group that isn't BTS (I'm sure they can hit about 2-2.5 M sales if YG will actually give them another full album comeback). Kpop is one of the few industries that you can actually place female acts on the same level as male acts if your talking about leaders in the industry. Even Twice is selling where some top 3rd gen boy groups are selling. I think they sold 700k+ and the only boy groups that are beating that in 3rd gen are BTS, NCT, EXO, and Seventeen. The criteria in 3rd gen to be a top boy group is around 500k which twice definitely exceeded. Now it's 1 M for 4th gen.
When someone says "leaders" I take it as in being better than everyone else. That's why I compare them to both boy groups and girl groups. If we talk about who is the 4th gen leader out of girl groups that's definitely aespa. If we have to pick two 4th gen groups (bg and gg) then aespa will be included. But if we talk about the group, regardless of the gender, that's biggest of them all, aespa isn't it.
Just like you can't say Blackpink are leaders of third gen when bts is ruling. You can say that they're leaders for ggs and one of the leading groups overall
agree
Never enough.
the similar threads showing up are just proving my point aswell 
Display MoreBTS still falls on the boy group category at the end of the day regardless of their achievements so same logic applies here. Let's also not forget the fact this is Aespa's first album and their already breaking records for it. Selling 1M for their next cb is highly possible at this point so saying they don't have the title bc their sales or charting internationally aren't upto par to the boy groups of their gen yet is a lie
Okay a few points
a) If you want to say BTS is the standard for being the leaders of kpop good luck with that. Most people exclude BTS because it is realistically not possible to accomplish what they have.
b) My point exactly, this is Aespa's first album so it's a bit too early to be calling them the leaders of 4th gen. We are still waiting for YG and Hybe to debut their girl groups. They just had a viral hit with NL so obviously their album sales and streams will be high. The question is whether they can capitalize on it and build a solid fanbase.
c) I have no idea about their international charting but I do know that itzy, stray kids, and txt have better spotify numbers. Even Enhypen who debuted at around the same time as aespa (i think), have better spotify numbers with fever.
To sum it up, no one is arguing about aespa's popularity in sk. They are definitely the number one 4th gen group there. International records are something they still haven't caught up with.
Agree on this— aespa is definitely the leader for 4th gen gg in Korea but overall (bg, gg, internationally) not yet. Korea is just number 7 in global sales. That could change as well when the new gg from YG & Hybe are officially launch.While the boy groups are not doing that well in digitals in SK but they are doing better internationally both in physical sales, charting & merchs . If you want to have longevity , you need to establish strong fandom , & international charting/streams . So for now there is no leader in 4th gen overall. It’s up for grabs perhaps we’ll clearly now next year after comebacks. I would say in bg for now, ( in alphabetical order) top 3 is Enhypen, Straykids & Txt based on album sales, spotify streams, and charting internationally - US, Japan & Europe. For girl group, aespa is a clear winner for now.
Okay a few points
a) If you want to say BTS is the standard for being the leaders of kpop good luck with that. Most people exclude BTS because it is realistically not possible to accomplish what they have.
b) My point exactly, this is Aespa's first album so it's a bit too early to be calling them the leaders of 4th gen. We are still waiting for YG and Hybe to debut their girl groups. They just had a viral hit with NL so obviously their album sales and streams will be high. The question is whether they can capitalize on it and build a solid fanbase.
c) I have no idea about their international charting but I do know that itzy, stray kids, and txt have better spotify numbers. Even Enhypen who debuted at around the same time as aespa (i think), have better spotify numbers with fever.
To sum it up, no one is arguing about aespa's popularity in sk. They are definitely the number one 4th gen group there. International records are something they still haven't caught up with.
Okay a few points
a) If you want to say BTS is the standard for being the leaders of kpop good luck with that. Most people exclude BTS because it is realistically not possible to accomplish what they have.
b) My point exactly, this is Aespa's first album so it's a bit too early to be calling them the leaders of 4th gen. We are still waiting for YG and Hybe to debut their girl groups. They just had a viral hit with NL so obviously their album sales and streams will be high. The question is whether they can capitalize on it and build a solid fanbase.
c) I have no idea about their international charting but I do know that itzy, stray kids, and txt have better spotify numbers. Even Enhypen who debuted at around the same time as aespa (i think), have better spotify numbers with fever.
To sum it up, no one is arguing about aespa's popularity in sk. They are definitely the number one 4th gen group there. International records are something they still haven't caught up with.
I think most people don't take BTS into account when they talk about sales or charting in kpop. In second gen SNSD had the same sales as any boy group out there. For third gen BP has the same sales as any boy group that isn't BTS (I'm sure they can hit about 2-2.5 M sales if YG will actually give them another full album comeback). Kpop is one of the few industries that you can actually place female acts on the same level as male acts if your talking about leaders in the industry. Even Twice is selling where some top 3rd gen boy groups are selling. I think they sold 700k+ and the only boy groups that are beating that in 3rd gen are BTS, NCT, EXO, and Seventeen. The criteria in 3rd gen to be a top boy group is around 500k which twice definitely exceeded. Now it's 1 M for 4th gen.
You can't really place them on the same level because on average boygroups always have better physical sales and a higher number of hardcore fans, this is just the way it is because Kpop in general is more popular among females (who mainly stan boygroups).
Ohh.. average is definitely boy groups. Like it's not really impressive for any boy group to get 100k sales because that's what mid tier boy groups get. However, it is really impressive for girl groups to hit that in 3rd gen. I'm not really talking about average when I say girl groups should have the same album sales. Like I mentioned previously, the number 1 gg of every era tends to have similar album sales to the number 1 or 2 boy group while they're at their prime. GG have digitals and BG have physicals, that's not changing. But the number 1 boy group Big Bang had about the better digitals than most girl groups and SNSD had better physicals than most boy groups. My point was more so about how leaders of the generation were able to compete in both digitals and physicals regardless of if they were a boy or girl group. That holds true for 3rd gen excluding BTS.
Display More•They are indeed the standard and needs to be included. •Their already breaking records left and right. I don't see anyone taking that anytime soon so yes to sum it up, they already earned the title.
Okay this person summed up every thing I wanted to say.
Agree on this— aespa is definitely the leader for 4th gen gg in Korea but overall (bg, gg, internationally) not yet. Korea is just number 7 in global sales. That could change as well when the new gg from YG & Hybe are officially launch.While the boy groups are not doing that well in digitals in SK but they are doing better internationally both in physical sales, charting & merchs . If you want to have longevity , you need to establish strong fandom , & international charting/streams . So for now there is no leader in 4th gen overall. It’s up for grabs perhaps we’ll clearly now next year after comebacks. I would say in bg for now, ( in alphabetical order) top 3 is Enhypen, Straykids & Txt based on album sales, spotify streams, and charting internationally - US, Japan & Europe. For girl group, aespa is a clear winner for now.
And also, you want to make BTS the standard. Then in 3 years I expect Aespa to have a song like Spring day that has over 7 M ul on Melon since GG are better at charting.
actually this aespa needs another comeback their fans are so fast pace next level to savage seems like public is just hype for their new song and didn’t love it the next comeback might not recieve well and the fans think they’re the number one already when itzy is towering them in the west and in japan
Nope, it takes aespa only 2 digital singles comebacks and one mini album that reached x2platinum and.l those grant them daesangs while other has released how many album now and havant got any daesang. Noted that aespa just turned 1 year old and already achieving these feat 
Lmao that's where your logic ends At the end of the day, all of this groups mentioned are still kpop, their core market is still their home country bc who would support their careers in the long run? So you see doing well back in their home country are still gazillion better than charting on Billboard
And that's where your logic ends too.
Korea stopped being kpop's main core long ago. When the gp cares only about 2-3 groups it can't be the core for everyone else. That's why you have companies desperately pushing their artists into the west, promoting them more on US shows than on korean ones. Nowadays kpop companies want their groups to have the international popularity. Of course, if they're popular domestically it's awesome too and a great bonus but other than that, it's the international market kpop groups, companies care more about.
And that's where your logic ends too.
Korea stopped being kpop's main core long ago. When the gp cares only about 2-3 groups it can't be the core for everyone else. That's why you have companies desperately pushing their artists into the west, promoting them more on US shows than on korean ones. Nowadays kpop companies want their groups to have the international popularity. Of course, if they're popular domestically it's awesome too and a great bonus but other than that, it's the international market kpop groups, companies care more about.
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