Why does everyone care so much about generations?

  • People care about it beacuse it allows them to put an asterisk to achivements and make their faves look better and compare artists on a more level playing field instead of comparing a 2 year group with a 15 year old group etc..


    X is the best selling girlgroup* (4th gen)

    Y is the fastest artist to reach 2m likes* (4th gen boygroup)

    etc etc..


    its kinda dumb but it is what it is and i dont think it will ever go away.

  • 3rd gen dominated right from the beginning so it was easier to draw a line there between 2nd gen and no one questioned anything.


    Album sales skyrocketed. And EXO were winning daesangs in every award show right from the beginning of the era. Also other things like social media influence and international streaming took center stage.


    This is something that isn’t possible for 4th gen so they’re more prone to drawing arbitrary lines in 2018-19 etc. because that’s the only way some of these records have any relevance.


    There is no marked difference between 3rd (3.5) gen and 4th gen. Not musically. Not performance wise. And neither in metrics and records.


    There is no reason for 4th gen to currently exist other than for fans to feel better about their favs.


    But it is what it is.

  • My favorite post on allkpop in a long time. Nailed it.

  • Yep t totally agree the existence of 4th generation doesn't make sense these newly debuted groups are bringing anything new they just try to recreate what 3rd gen did the all follow the same concept and non of them has broke any record that was set by 3rd gen so i don't even know why 4gen exist, for an era to exist it should creat a whole new standers, album sales, concept, YouTube views etc....

  • I guess we're all passionate about whatever era we got into K pop in. For me it was second gen in 2011 and will always prefer the music of that era. There's so many iconic songs that imo the groups of today can't replicate. Even my playlist has mostly second gen songs.

  • centen

    Selected a post as the best answer.
  • How else are they gonna brag about their faves being the first 4th generation group to top iTunes in Turkmenistan with the whopping amount of 4 copies sold?

    The arbitrary awards thing drives me crazy too. "OMG, congrats to my boys by being the first album with six members and where members were wearing yellow on the cover to reach 20K preorders!!!" Like... was literally anyone keeping track of that metric?

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