Discussion: The Isolation of Boy Groups has killed their public relevancy

  • I will preface by saying this is not a perfect theory, and that for the most part it only refers to gen 4.


    Now the overall idea is that boy groups starting from gen 4(though you could argue for late gen 3) have become increasingly insular in their content. This is not saying that their music or variety has become worse or more self indulgent, but rather that Companies have increasingly geared boy group content to cater to the fanbase than to the public.


    Now one would argue that all group content is primarily geared towards the fandom first, and in certain respects you would be correct... HOWEVER the means of distribution is substantially different.


    It's no question that BTS is more or less the blueprint of social media engagement for boy groups. However, BTS' media engagement wasn't entirely just social media and company produced content. If you're an old enough army, you would remember the time when RM was the most known member of BTS due to his constant time on variety shows.


    And that is where I feel that a lot of 4th gen boy groups have been lacking. Their permeation in general Media is almost zero.


    A different example is how quickly DKZ member Jaechan absolutely propelled the group's overall interest through the roof following Semantic Error.


    Nowadays there's tons of Boy Group Reality Shows, Vlogs, and Variety specials... but almost none of it in general tv. Going back to gen 3 and especially gen 2, you could find countless male idols all over regular broadcast and film. You may be wondering, if that's the case, why hasn't it affected international fandoms? And the answer is fairly simple... we international fans have always interacted with kpop groups in this format. There's no fundamental change on our side of things cause it's always been via online video and social media that we've gotten this content.


    And I feel that ultimately is what has caused an erosion of Public interest in Kpop Boy Groups. It's not cause the music is too noisey or that boy groups are all the same, or that men care even less about other guys now. I posit that companies have essentially created a media bubble around their boy groups which has had the adverse affect of making them a mystery to the general populace who aren't going to go onto youtube dot com to look up boy group #765

    Edited once, last by Fluffers ().

  • Being well known among the public does not equate to anything except for being well known among the public. Cha Eunwoo is one of the most popular male celebrities in South Korea and Astro has only ever been mid-tier.


    You also act like the isolation is by their choice. Do you really think companies just aren't sending their rookie idols to variety shows? They aren't being invited at all and if they are, they're being fucked over. There was a bit of netizen buzz when the Running Man spinoff premiered on Disney+ because there were episodes were a bunch of male idols from newer, lesser known groups had to wear masks over their faces and if they lost a game, their group names would revealed, but they couldn't take off their masks and the show refused to identify them by name.


    Now how the hell are groups supposed to be well known when that's the offerings they're getting for variety shows?

  • Being well known among the public does not equate to anything except for being well known among the public. Cha Eunwoo is one of the most popular male celebrities in South Korea and Astro has only ever been mid-tier.


    You also act like the isolation is by their choice. Do you really think companies just aren't sending their rookie idols to variety shows? They aren't being invited at all and if they are, they're being fucked over. There was a bit of netizen buzz when the Running Man spinoff premiered on Disney+ because there were episodes were a bunch of male idols from newer, lesser known groups had to wear masks over their faces and if they lost a game, their group names would revealed, but they couldn't take off their masks and the show refused to identify them by name.


    Now how the hell are groups supposed to be well known when that's the offerings they're getting for variety shows?

    Actually scratch that... it wasn't even newer groups. SF9 and Pentagon debuted in 2016! And this is the offerings they're getting for fucking variety shows!


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  • Being well known among the public does not equate to anything except for being well known among the public. Cha Eunwoo is one of the most popular male celebrities in South Korea and Astro has only ever been mid-tier.


    You also act like the isolation is by their choice. Do you really think companies just aren't sending their rookie idols to variety shows? They aren't being invited at all and if they are, they're being fucked over. There was a bit of netizen buzz when the Running Man spinoff premiered on Disney+ because there were episodes were a bunch of male idols from newer, lesser known groups had to wear masks over their faces and if they lost a game, their group names would revealed, but they couldn't take off their masks and the show refused to identify them by name.


    Now how the hell are groups supposed to be well known when that's the offerings they're getting for variety shows?

    I never said it was a perfect one to one (edit: Hell in my first sentence following the preface I make note of gen 3). But you'd be really disingenuous if you'd say that Astro before and After Eunwoo's explosion in popularity were in even remotely the same place. They were struggling to hit 40k and nowadays they do 300k, and a large part of that is due to Eunwoo's popularity publicly.



    And I'm not blaming them, hell I feel it's not an either or situation. Which came first? The chicken or the egg? Did Companies restrict their idols more from variety or did Variety stop calling on idols. It's hard to say. I'm merely discussing a point of contention that I feel can be very obviously highlighted in this generation compared to previous ones.

  • I wonder if it's also just that they're considered an old trend and we know that Korea likes their rapidly changing trends. Also, the flooded market hasn't helped. Too many groups and probably overwhelming to the public.

  • I never said it was a perfect one to one. But you'd be really disingenuous if you'd say that Astro before and After Eunwoo's explosion in popularity were in even remotely the same place. They were struggling to hit 40k and nowadays they do 300k, and a large part of that is due to Eunwoo's popularity publicly.



    And I'm not blaming them, hell I feel it's not an either or situation. Which came first? The chicken or the egg? Did Companies restrict their idols more from variety or did Variety stop calling on idols. It's hard to say. I'm merely discussing a point of contention that I feel can be very obviously highlighted in this generation compared to previous ones.

    Astro selling 300k happened long after he became massively popular and was mostly due to the increased attention on k-entertainment via the pandemic.


    And it's pretty obvious that variety shows aren't interested in idols anymore... at least not the ones that air on TV. The only shows who still invite idols are Knowing Brothers (which tends to get absolutely terrible ratings when idols guest) and Amazing Saturday (which due to show format can only invite 2 members). Gone are the days were things like We Got Married or Hello Baby. Even Mnet doesn't bother with idol shows much anymore... they dump them on YouTube just like everyone else.


    Most idols who consistently get booked on television variety shows are well liked 2nd gen idols.

  • I had no idea about this... pretty damn sad and frustrating-
    :pepe-puddle:

    It's beyond crazy. Like come and work your ass off to promote yourself and your group, but we're not gonna tell people watching who you are. I remember hearing that a member of DKB was part of it which is why I thought it was all newer groups. I had no idea that people who would be considered veteran idols were part of it.

  • 4gen bgs go to variety it's just that the gp do not care for them even if they go, heck even most some 3r gen members go to variety constantly:kai, mino, seungyoon and none chart their music well


    It am bp has block Korea eyes so much that they do not seem to care for nobody else or the music just isn't it.

  • This is interesting. So you mean girl groups have more variety show appearances?


    And I want to add, I think because BGs appeal to younger demographics who barely watched television and prefer YouTube, their ratings on tv shows will always be low. YouTube will also give international fans easy access. So why bother sending them to tv shows? Well this is what I imagine the labels are thinking.

  • Only old people watch TV. The kids are on the Internet and that's where Kpop markets itself, through Internet based content of every imaginable type.

    I mean the internet content that's trending a lot are streamers and BJs which some kpop groups do emulate but I wouldn't say the vast majority. Like there aint really any kpop channels doing stuff like workman or Wassup

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