Kim Sejeong.
She has both the star power, popularity, GP recognition and talents.
She's done OSTs for popular dramas like Legend of the Blue Sea, Mr Sunshine, Crash Landing on You, Record of Youth etc.
The only thing missing is she's doing many dramas now and hasn't had a comeback for more than a year.
Most groups outside of the Big 4 + and mid-tier companies like Cube and Starship etc. are rarely talked about and are treated as "nugus".
Billlie is a still a new group and I feel that their members are slowly getting more recognition. Kpop fans know Tsuki and Moon Sua is getting more known since she's Moon Bin's sister.
Kdrama fans aren't necessarily Kpop fans, and most of the time, they will not take interest in the group or other members.
This is so well put. Agree with all of it.
Only a small detail that's off. "the trainees were all mostly from no-name companies or small companies with idols who were desperate to debut and saw it as a last chance for a debut." This is not really true. While the first season had to build it's own hype there were a lot of bigger agencies participating. All well known mid-tier agencies were there like Starship, Cube, Pledis, FNC etc.
I know that there are trainees from mid-tier agencies, but the vast majority of contestants are still from no-name and small companies. Cube and Starship both sent 3 trainees each, DSP sent 2, Pledis sent the most with like 7 iirc. JYP with Somi was the only one from a top agency and out of the 101 contestants, the vast majority of 80+ leftovers are a mix of independent individual trainees, small companies and those from actor companies with little to no prior idol group experiences like Fantagio etc.
Compare that to season 3 PD48, where you have a mix of notable companies such as Cube, FNC, Pledis, RBW, Starship, Stone Music, WM, Woollim, YG subsidiary YGKPlus, Yuehua and all the Japanese 48 groups. The difference is night and day when you see how many recognisable labels have participated in the latter seasons of the show.
No but this has been asked a hundred times and the answer has always been that Iz*One and post-Iz*One had the most benefits and advantages compared to all the other seasons of Produce groups.
People always forget that for the first season, there was no "Produce hype" or "Produce privilege" or whatever you want to call it. It was the first of its kind and what got them attention was the large scale 101 contestants and their performances that went viral like Bang Bang etc. The trainees were all mostly from no-name companies or small companies with idols who were desperate to debut and saw it as a last chance for a debut. It wasn't like the second or third season where people knew it was a red carpet to success, and had all the built in hype.
And as a lot of people have already said, IOI's contract lasted for 8 months, and barely had time to build a fanbase. Wanna One was 1.5 years, and X1 didn't even get a chance. Iz*One had the longest time, had the built in fanbase from Japanese 48 groups with Sakura, Nako and Hitomi.
Everyone knows about all the shit contracts and what not, but no one talks about all the companies differences. Post-IOI companies had Jellyfish and Fantagio, both are acting companies with little to no idol group experiences (VIXX and Astro are the only groups), MBK was always shit, Pledis had After School and Seventeen, so they were promising but unexpectedly disbanded PRISTIN less than 2 years into the group. If it wasn't for Produce and IOI, they would have been one of those groups that no one ever know or hear about and quietly disbanded. Compare this to Iz*One where the groups are from HYBE, a BIG 4 company at this point in time and Starship who's previously managed Sistar and WJSN, both groups with hits esp Sistar and have always been stable in the mid-upper tier of girl groups.
And yes, I agree that people are kinda overhyping Iz*One success. IVE is doing fantastic, Lesserafim is up there too just because they're from HYBE, Yena had Smiley which did well, and she's always around in variety, but Smartphone did not find the same success.
The others are all a few tiers below that. They get good sales from their fanbases, but Yuri, Eunbi and Chaeyeon have essentially no presence in the charts, neither are they popular or well-known enough to be appearing on TV shows or having CFs. Hyewon is not even the main lead in her web-dramas and she's doing some YouTube thing, but are we really acting like that's doing great now? Minju is acting as a supporting cast at this point in time, and Nako and Hitomi are in Japan, so I won't comment too much on that.
People are calling all other Produce idols as flops, but they're doing just as well, if not even better. Somi, Sejeong, Chungha, and Daniel are all A-tiers. Jung Chaeyeon has no problem getting lead roles on TV dramas, Park Jihoon's drama just went viral and he seems to be the next big acting idol. Ong Seongwoo is booked for like 5 dramas and films, Kang Mina is consistently getting work in TV dramas. Jieqiong and Guanlin are both booking lead roles and variety shows in China as well. If anything, getting work outside of music and into other a more respected field of acting is a much greater success than the idol life
Sohye was recently confirmed as the female lead of a KBS drama, starring opposite Lee Sang-yeob who's fairly well-known from his appearances on Sixth Sense and Running Man and he was recently in a drama with Seo Ye-ji. I would say this is a real big step up for her and there would be a lot of eyes on this drama since he's a popular actor.
There's no reason for her to get into acting now. Her group is doing well, and it would be much smarter for Starship to continue investing into IVE.
Also, there aren't a lot of legit roles Wonyoung can play. The only realistic ones are students or maybe the younger version of the main lead - and no production team would be crazy enough to pay Wonyoung to play 1-2 mins of screentime when there's a lot more cheaper and better options out there with many young actresses.
The most likely drama role would be the School series if it gets another installment, but there's no need to rush her into acting when she's still very young and has her whole solo career ahead of her when her group eventually disbands.
Hellooooo, it is a KPOP section in a KPOP forum.... literally
Yes, they are Kpop idols, and there's a thing called idol-actors and idol-entertainers. Acting and variety are legitmate career pathways for idols, and you have idols like Seolhyun and Mijoo who aren't currently active as idols but have transitioned to something else. They are hosting and attending big year-end TV broadcast award shows and their "legacy"/career are much better than 95% of all Kpop idols.
People be shrinking the goalpost to only music success. Like there are things that exist outside of Kpop music like acting, variety, musical theatre, etc. You may as well erase all of Yoona and Suzy's "legacy" since it's all in acting right?
IOI and Wanna One members are starring in popular dramas. Sejeong alone was in two huge hit dramas just this and last year. Chaeyeon was in The King's Affection, a popular historic drama, and is leading another drama coming out with Yook Sung-jae. Mina has another drama coming out soon with Seo In-guk. Jieqiong has been booked and leading in all her dramas in China. The same goes with Wanna One members, everyone has big acting projects lined up.
Literally SNSD the most successful girl group in history only has two members that are actively doing music, and the other 6 are all doing a combination of acting and variety shows.
Chinese Kpop idols always go to China to "visit" or for short-term activities until they realise they get much more shine, treated a lot better and are a lot more comfortable in their own skin and speaking their own language. They may have gone there with the intention of a brief visit but most if not all always end up staying there for good.
A lot of them have also realised it's a legit career move to debut in a Kpop group before returning home to China for their long-term career. You can get the international reach of being a Kpop idol, gain your fanbase and fame. It's a lot easier than going with "normal" way in the competitive Chinese entertainment market. (Not exactly easy to debut in a Kpop group, but there are plenty of companies looking for Chinese members to break into the Chinese market).
One of the reason why public appeal for 2nd gen idol actress bit more because they are bit better than the 3rd gen. No shading here, I remember people criticize IU, Suzy and Yoona acting for their early drama but they have improved then. For 3rd gen, aside from fandom, I can only see Sejeong get more public support compare to the others.
For variety show, you know fandoms nowadays are too overprotective for their idols. They literally want their idols get treated like angels in variety show and criticize, mocking any shows that make a joke on their idols. For 2nd gen, they go through variety show like family outing, infinite challenge, running man, law of jungle, we got married, but their fans seems just okay with it
No, I agree with you. Regardless of whether their acting is criticised or not, the public recognition was simply a lot better for 2nd gen. People criticised the acting of IU, Suzy and Yoona, but they were still famous and well-known enough to get lead roles in dramas. And yeah, it took a while for their acting to be recognised and respected. People say IU is one of the best idol turned actresses, but literally right before My Mister, she was still hated alot for her acting in Moon Lovers just one or two years ago. Crazy how the optics completely changed after My Mister and Hotel del Luna.
Display MoreI am talking about right now.
Sejeong isn't doing much press.
Check the numbers on her Insta vs Bona's Insta.
And I am in no way or form dissing Sejeong.
I actually like her and her drama.
But Bona's numbers are higher.
I guess having a better agency does pay after all.
Lol what? I'm not one to dig too much into the numbers but..
Sejeong has 6.9m followers vs Bona's 1.4m.
Sejeong's posts averaging at least 1 mil likes, Bona's posts getting barely 600k?
What sort of numbers are you looking in here mate?
Not really. Bona has yet to take on the main lead in a drama, and 2521 was her first breakout role.
Sejeong has been taking on the main role since her first ever project, and has a number of hit projects already like Uncanny Counter and Business Proposal.
Couldnt it be the other way around, that youtube and other social medias rise have made the need for idols to try to get known via variety shows and acting jobs obsolete? Given even a small but dedicated fandom that watches the shows on yotube etc probably bring in more alot more money than any tv shows appearances could ever do.
For me it seems more like idols stopped appearing on variety shows when the companies realised they could do their own shows on youtube and actually be paid for it.
I disagree here. Acting and TV appearances definitely bring in a lot more money, combined with the CFs that come in when you get public recognition. If idols could guest on more TV variety shows, the companies would definitely send them on, it brings in a lot more fans, get their music known to more people, and more CF opportunities.
Most 3rd gen idols simply do not have the GP appeal that 2nd gen idols had back then. We've seen similar things in variety shows where less and less full idol groups (or idols in general) guesting in big variety shows. It takes a lot for an idol to "carry" a production's name on their back and if the public doesn't know them, why should production crews cast them as the main leads? People watch the drama because it has IU, Suzy or Yoona's names on them, and a lot of 3rd gen idols do not have that public appeal.
There's been a few notable 3rd gen idol actresses like Sejeong, Bona, Mina, Chaeyeon, Yeonwoo, Solbin, etc. but Sejeong's the only one who has been the main lead in their dramas. There's also been Joy and Jisoo who's been the main lead, but it's been rocky for them to say the least.
And I see Nara more as the end of 2nd gen, but she's been taking up a lot of support characters in big projects before breaking out as a main lead. My Mister, Itaewon Class, and then Bulgasal
tbh ive never tracked any kdrama stats so i dont know but in general 11% seemed on the below average side
maybe by kdrama standards that's good ( although not compared to 40% ) cause people have a lot of choices these days
Comparing Business Proposal's ratings to the past three dramas in the exact same Mon-Tues 10pm timeslot,
Business Proposal had little promotions, with a cast that were not exactly huge names. The drama started with 4.9% viewership rating at episode 1 with low expectations and breaks its own record every episode and now more than doubles its episode 1 rating at 11.6%. The drama is also consistently within top 2/3 in Netflix Korea, so there's that too.
Display MoreFair enough.
But it is "people want more to be written of her singing", rather than "people writing her off".
Yes failures in promotional strategies is definitely a major cause
Nevertheless ballads aren't the trend of the day and soloists have a even smaller niche with ballads,
Now that the drama has given a huge boost as a promotion, if they persist on the same style, it won't help much.
OSTs of course are a different dynamic entirely
As others have mentioned, it is also her choice.
I guess her "brand" is still ballad, but from her last album, only one song is a ballad track.
And in Plant, she didn't even want Plant as the title track, and wanted Skyline instead, but Jelpi wanted to go for a safer route. Interestingly, Skyline became the more popular song, so 
.
And maybe just me, but I have a lot of confidence in her music. She's still writing songs even when she's super busy with drama filming, variety, CFs, etc. and she's mentioned many times that she will continue singing in the future, and how much she misses the stage during her drama activities. The only thing that's missing is a lack of discography, but that will take time to build, so just need to be patient with it.
Lol some people already writing her off like c'mon now.
Plant was her first album after a whole 3 year layoff after Jellyfish buried her in Gugudan, and she's got a music show win from it.
Warning was literally her first comeback that was actually strictly under her name without the Gugudan tag, and her first after the resurgence from The Uncanny Counter. They didn't even have solo social media (Twitter, YouTube, IG etc.) established until like 3 weeks before the album release.
People always say give them time when it comes to newly debuted artists, but honestly this should also be applied to her here, because the way Jellyfish had fucked up the hype from IOI to Gugudan was like the worst in Kpop history. And of course, it will take time for her to build up a fanbase again.
And it's not like her music career has completely disappeared anyways. She's still had OSTs for huge dramas like Mr Sunshine and her own drama, and especially for Crash Landing On You, which was a legit hit OST.
Public recognition (Korean GP) has always been the most beneficial for idol groups. Plenty of options when a group disbands and you will always have CF opportunities. You can go acting, variety, radio shows, hosting, modelling, etc. These options aren't always gonna be there if only your international fans know who you are
well i think we all know the answer to that 🙃🙃
