Kpop Male Soloists

THat's hard to gauge for sure and the only answer I can give is hella bland being that "its just how current preferences go"

I hope someone else can give a more detailed answer haha

I think male idol soloists are less proeminent than female soloists for the same reasons boygroups are less popular among the GP than girlgroups.

The GP seems to not really be interested in male idols nowadays and they usually don't have big album sales to make up for it the way boygroups do.

I think solos from groups became alot more popular and they took up the market

There is no space for soloist to grow on their own

I don't think there's a lot of pure soloists, male or female, going for the "K-pop" style. Lee Young-woong, Lee Mujin, Kim Minseok (Melomance), the SMTM crew, etc., they all go for different styles.

Quote from Lulu_Key

I think solos from groups became alot more popular and they took up the market

There is no space for soloist to grow on their own

This is exactly what I was going to say. The soloists from groups have greater name recognition right out the gate..

Quote from bbgc

Hence I mentioned - Se7en, Rain, Psy - who is the successor to their style.

No one, I think the era is over. The male idols doing it survive on fandom support. Male soloists with public support are doing a different style.

bbgc Interesting thread, thanks. It is so tough for non-group soloists these days.

Back in 2007, my sole bias did debut as a soloist .. you can watch his old performances at the beginning of this video and at 33:18

Hwang Chi Yeul

I don't understand Korean so info here might be not that accurate. For his debut HCY was probably promoted as a ballad-singing Bboy. "Five Senses", his first full album in 2007 contained not just ballads but also upbeat songs.

Hwang Chi Yeul "Five Senses"

https://www.melon.com/album/detail.htm?albumId=352312

The above 2007 album was produced by Han Seong Ho and Oh Seong Hoon, who produced albums for artists like SG Wannabe, Seeya etc.

Not long after HCY debuted, his management agency failed and HCY was forced to go on musical hiatus for about 9 years. He earned a living by being a vocal trainer of idol groups like Infinite, NU'EST, Lovelyz, After School, Hello Venus, Golden Child hyung line etc.

In early 2015 when he was about to give up his dream of being a singer, his singing career was rebooted by his appearing as a mystery contestant on Season 1 Ep 2 of Mnet's "I Can See Your Voice".

Now he is not having an easy time at all in the ever-so-competitive Kpop industry, but he does run his own agency (his first signing is a contestant from S 9 of ICSYV namely Kim Chang Yeon) and so he can make the music he wishes to make. Personally I want him to do more rock ballads, more dance music (he did start out as a Bboy after all) as opposed to the farewell ballads he loves to release.

TLDR There won't be any non-group male soloists able to replicate the success of the three artists mentioned in the opening thread.

HCY - the only non-group Kpop male soloist in the top 20 :) Thanks to Korean Sales for the video.