Kep1er's debut video passed 140M views, and they have sold over 1M albums, so they have commercial success, if not as much as some of the other groups that debuted this year.
That said, I hope a boys planet 999 uses a different set up and system of both grouping trainees and members, unless there is an expectation of few Chinese participants given how C-group got treated last time.
Can't buy Lamborghinis with reviews.
I keep finding the attitude on this forum, which is made up mostly of non-Koreans, that somehow the most important thing is Kpop is the validation and support of the South Korean public, pretty weird, as we aren't part of that public, so who cares?
The point of a Kpop group is to make their company money. That is where it starts, and where it ends. As has been pointed out, Kep1er has sold very well, and recently they sold like 20,000 tickets to their events in Japan, which originally were going to be 2 nights, but got extended to 3. So, they are solid sellers, they have a nice fandom in the world's second most profitable music market, and their debut video did fine, breaking 100M views, which plenty of other rookies don't do. So, clearly they are profitable for their company globally - that is success.
On the issue of the "talent" of the trainee pool, it still amazes me how selective screen time still works so well as a tool of forming opinion. Most trainees from all the three groups got minimal screen time, and no real time to showcase themselves, with is being worst for J-group (which mainly received indifference), then C-group (who were expected to be the "antagonists"), and K-group getting the most attention. That people conflate this with talents is easy to understand, but still unjustified.
Kpop is a business (honestly, it is by far the most openly capitalistic bit of the music world I know off - I mean, people don't discuss share prices for companies in other music forums), and capitalism does thrive on consumerism, and people do like to move to new products.
That said, plenty of older products can remain highly profitable for many years with a steady market. Th big Gen 3 groups will still be making lots of money, and parleying their success into other careers. Music fans outside of Korea aren't used to the regularity with which Kpop groups put out music (multiple "comebacks" per year are not a thing), so they are comfortable with waiting for music and in the meantime enjoying their faves, so the successful Gen 3 groups are going to continue making good money.
I do fear that, given the success of Kpop's gen 3, there is now an oversaturation in the market with Gen 4, and soon enough the real winner from Gen 4 will be decided. The danger for them is whether we are in an age of faster turnout, when every new "Gen." will be coming out faster than before.
The only metric that matters in this business at the end is MONEY. When NewJeans makes it's company a significant fraction of the amount of profit that BP has delivered for its company, when we can talk.
She must be a Blackpink stan
She is a Blink, but what would that have to do with anything?
She has international dance sport competition experience, so honestly she was basically guaranteed to win unless she screwed up or fell.
Alchemy of Souls
Love the setting and the leads.
Foreigners are in kpop for businesses purposes period. Everyone knows this.
Yes, and if you are very talented in China, you will make far more money sticking in the domestic market than you will likely make going to South Korea. That certainly speaks to who from China might end up trying for a spot in the South Korean industry.
Ah, the normal crop of sinophobes....
Also, the so called "outrage" about the Olympic opening ceremony is classic insane nationalistic claptrap
South Koreans - Hanbok is our national dress and part of our heritage!
Ethnic Koreans who live in China - okay, that is what we will wear as our national dress in a parade of different Ethnic groups who live in China .
South Koreans- HOW DARE THEY! China trying to steal our culture!!!
Funny enough, there were Kazakhs, Mongols, Kyrgyz, and Tajiks in their national costumes, but I don't hear any outrage there.
The whole episode was really fun, and all the members have comedic potential.
Kep1er, the only GG where the Maknae is also the Sunbae of the group.
Xiaoting all the way.
MVSk is certainly the superior song and performance by the group.
