Boy groups music now vs boy groups music 2nd gen - are there any difference that decrease public interest?

  • People said music is to blame for 4th gen boygroups’ lack of Korean hits, because boy groups music now is too weird and noisy. But in 2nd gen, “weird” songs like Ring Ding Dong - Shinee, Bang Bang Bang- Big Bang, Hands Up - 2Pm or Mr. Simple - Super Junior easily became hits. So what exactly is the difference in the music of 2nd gen and 4th gen that leads to fewer hits now? for example, why isn’t Ateez/The Boyz getting the same love from Koreans like Big Bang? Is it just music or is the public discriminating against boy groups?

    2nd gen:

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    4th gen:

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  • 2nd gen stuff was just catchier. With a lot of like stray kids songs for example the hook is just *say title name* and then beat drop. With Hands Up, Sorry Sorry, and Ring Ding Dong those are all addictingly catchy choruses. 4th gen boy group songs aren't addictingly catchy imo.


    Also 4th gen choreo is too difficult. It's impressive to watch, but only serious dancers want to sit down and learn it. Everybody can do that Bang Bang Bang choreo

  • All the songs you called weird are catchy hook songs that get stuck in your head

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  • Super junior rose to stardom not with mr simple but with sorry sorry - a song that’s got a catchy hook and serviceable melody and not weird at all. Mr simple was more jarring maybe but it was still relatively successful due to the group’s brand by that time. Bang bang bang came out in freaking 2015, which was already well into 3rd gen and not very similar to pure 2nd gen’s music anymore. Check out lies, haru haru, last farewell - THOSE are the songs that made big bang who they are and they’re certainly very “traditional” pop music and not weird like the stuff 4th gen put out nowadays lol. And the biggest bg hits of 2nd gen: mirotic, lies, haru haru, sorry sorry, shock, etc. all have cohesiveness and catchy hooks to gain mainstream popularity. So your argument essentially falls short in every way :pepe-cringe:

  • All the songs you called weird are catchy hook songs that get stuck in your head

    Fair enough, but NCT has catchy hooks too and their songs don’t go viral yet?

    “I’m the biggest hit on the stage”

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    “My baby she wants to dance with a ghost, she wanna leave me uh”

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  • 2nd gen stuff was just catchier. With a lot of like stray kids songs for example the hook is just *say title name* and then beat drop. With Hands Up, Sorry Sorry, and Ring Ding Dong those are all addictingly catchy choruses.

    Ring ding dong ring ding dong

    Ring diggy ding diggy ding ding ding (오직 너만 들린다)

    Ring ding dong ring ding dong

    Ring diggy ding diggy ding ding ding (머릿 속에 울린다)

    Ring ding dong ring ding dong

    Ring diggy ding diggy ding ding ding (내 가슴에 울린다)

    Ring ding dong ring ding dong

    Ring diggy ding diggy ding ding ding

  • Super junior rose to stardom not with mr simple but with sorry sorry - a song that’s got a catchy hook and serviceable melody and not weird at all. Mr simple was more jarring maybe but it was still relatively successful due to the group’s brand by that time. Bang bang bang came out in freaking 2015, which was already well into 3rd gen and not very similar to pure 2nd gen’s music anymore. Check out lies, haru haru, last farewell - THOSE are the songs that made big bang who they are and they’re certainly very “traditional” pop music and not weird like the stuff 4th gen put out nowadays lol. And the biggest bg hits of 2nd gen: mirotic, lies, haru haru, sorry sorry, shock, etc. all have cohesiveness and catchy hooks to gain mainstream popularity. So your argument essentially falls short in every way :pepe-cringe:

    Fair enough, but even when comparing more “traditional songs”, Treasure, from the same company with Big Bang, cannot get a hit with “My Treasure” even when it’s as traditional as Haru Haru. Or Txt cannot get a disco hit with Blue Hour the way Bts get a disco hit with Dynamite. Yeah, I know I’m comparing to 3rd gen here too but I’m just essentially asking why when 4th gen boy groups release the same type of songs as 3rd or 2nd gen, it doesn’t seem to smash, is it due to discrimination against boy groups now.

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  • K-pop back then was sung choruses, even if the instrumental was EDM/dance. K-pop now is more focused on beat drops and fast-talking/rapping.


    One thing I wish is that Koreans would pay attention to when the current generation of boy groups do release the more traditional pop sounding songs. Songs like Blue Hour, Bloom Bloom, Levanter, and Wave are great songs that deserve more recognition.

    Is he.....you know?

    투모로우바이투게더 방탄
    레드벨벳엑소샤이니에이티즈

  • K-pop back then was sung choruses, even if the instrumental was EDM/dance. K-pop now is more focused on beat drops and fast-talking/rapping.


    One thing I wish is that Koreans would pay attention to when the current generation of boy groups do release the more traditional pop sounding songs. Songs like Blue Hour, Bloom Bloom, Levanter, and Wave are great songs that deserve more recognition.

    But Enhypen just rises hundreds of places on Melon with Polaroid Love tho, so it seems like it has to be the right song too.

  • Fair enough, but even when comparing more “traditional songs”, Treasure, from the same company with Big Bang, cannot get a hit with “My Treasure” even when it’s as traditional as Haru Haru. Or Txt cannot get a disco hit with Blue Hour the way Bts get a disco hit with Dynamite. Yeah, I know I’m comparing to 3rd gen here too but I’m just essentially asking why when 4th gen boy groups release the same type of songs as 3rd or 2nd gen, it doesn’t seem to smash, is it due to discrimination against boy groups now.

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    there are multiple reasons for this, idk if i can do them all justice lol. Essentially good music is only 50% of what’s required for any music artist to be successful; the rest relies on luck and timing. And timing rn is very shiet for bgs to smash lol. After years of big companies’ bgs terrorising the scene with “innovative” “weird music” around 3rd gen (bang bang bang is a prime example), many smaller companies started to copy the same formula, effectively saturating the bgs scene with that type of music and drowning bgs’ reputation with the public even further down the ladder, and now even if a bg has a different sound from the rest, there’s no one left that’s not their fan to listen to them and make them popular on a grand scale, so it’s a dire situation no matter what type of music a bg puts out. Idk what the solution to fix this problem is but yeah that’s just the reality now sadly

  • there are multiple reasons for this, idk if i can do them all justice lol. Essentially good music is only 50% of what’s required for any music artist to be successful; the rest relies on luck and timing. And timing rn is very shiet for bgs to smash lol. After years of big companies’ bgs terrorising the scene with “innovative” “weird music” around 3rd gen (bang bang bang is a prime example), many smaller companies started to copy the same formula, effectively saturating the bgs scene with that type of music and drowning bgs’ reputation with the public even further down the ladder, and now even if a bg has a different sound from the rest, there’s no one left that’s not their fan to listen to them and make them popular on a grand scale, so it’s a dire situation no matter what type of music a bg puts out. Idk what the solution to fix this problem is but yeah that’s just the reality now sadly

    This response has everything I wanted to say so I'm just gonna add to this.

    Because of the reason above people have stopped watching shows where k-pop groups promoted their music. Because they feel they are gonna come across something that they have already heard and is better so no one even bothers to check out these music shows or variety shows where these groups are promoting their music to discover new music. That is also why SMTM & Trot shows became popular in last few years because they offered something different to listen to. So people just listen to whatever's already in their playlist or only check out the music of their fave artists.

    This was always gonna happen with k-pop though and it is been happening since the beginning of k-pop. K-pop's popularity in Korea has only gone down since the inception. So it is good that k-pop found new audiences in Japan with BoA & TVXQ, SEA & LatAm with SuJu, China with TVXQ & BB, globally with BTS otherwise these new groups would have no one waiting for their music.

  • Also 4th gen choreo is too difficult. It's impressive to watch, but only serious dancers want to sit down and learn it. Everybody can do that Bang Bang Bang choreo

    This might seem small but I think is quite important. 2nd gen had a lot more 'point choreo' that are easy to learn and catchy.


    And this also kinda proves it a little for 4th gen. 'Next Level' with the iconic hand L shape choreo, 'Eleven' also has multiple catchy parts of the songs and the slow mo part. Brave Girls 'Rollin'.


    2nd Gen GGs and BGs have very memorable point choreo.

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