Posts by blueaqua

  • Official #1 groups of each year

    2015: BIGBANG/EXO

    2016: BTS/EXO, TWICE

    2017: BTS, TWICE

    2018: BTS, TWICE

    2019: BTS, TWICE / BLACKPINK

    2020: BTS, BLACKPINK


    2015 - BIGBANG dominated the digital charts that year in Korea with the MADE era. The only thing EXO had them beat that year was physicals but when it came to domestic popularity (Gallup) + digitals, it was definitely BIGBANG.


    2016 - EXO was still the best-selling boy group at that time but BTS had bigger hits such as Fire + BST. Although EXO had the most overall physical sales, WINGS was the best-selling album on Gaon with 750K+ sales (1st album to sell 600K+ on Gaon). BST was released in October so it didn't chart high on the year-end digital charts but it has surpassed 2.5M downloads and 100M streams on Gaon. BST is a bigger hit than any song EXO has released except for Growl.


    2017 - IDK why people think any other boy group should take this year. SD & DNA were the #1 and #4 biggest idol group hits on the Melon decade chart which proves how massive those two songs are. Plus, BTS were ranked the most popular male idol group on 2017's Gallup chart.

  • Why are BigHit Labels boy groups so successful in Japan in terms of fanbase and selling ?

    Quote from Flowercrew

    But wait, ain't Dynamite doing extremely well over there?

    Yeah. Dynamite is the biggest foreign hit in Japan since 2012ish with CMM by Carly Rae Jepsen and WWNGBT by Taylor Swift. It ended at #7 on Oricon year-end for streaming despite 4 months of tracking and top 20 on HOT 100. It has spent 23 straight weeks in the top 7 and will end in the top 5-10 on the year-end HOT 100 JP for this year as well. It is honestly a monstrous hit there at the moment.

  • Is EXO a top 5 kpop boy group of all time?

    Quote from girlgroupstan21

    i wonder sometimes...are most of ppl on akp new with kpop ?? like dont u witness how big exo was during their peak ?? first ikon and now exo . where have you guys been on 2013-2015 ??

    A lot of people know EXO was big during their peak and are still the #2 boy group for 3rd generation overall. The OP is just asking top 5 all-time in Korea along with H.O.T, GOD, TVXQ, Bigbang, and BTS. People might think to swap out GOD with EXO but some current K-pop fans don't realize how massive GOD were during their time. If GOD was still able to do well digitally and even win daesangs (MMA) a whole 15 years later after their debut, I think that shows how much public and fandom support they still have.


    If we are talking about the top 5 boy groups of all time domestically, then I would agree with the top 5 listed since those were the groups mentioned and voted by Koreans. If we are including international achievements, then I would definitely include EXO & SUJU along with BTS, BIGBANG, and TVXQ.

  • Official Digital Thread

    Quote from Ibby_Misoo

    I can't determine what GP likes after chart reforms. It used to be easy and we could predict which songs will chart well. With the new reforms, I have no freaking clue. Songs we bet on charting well fail miserably and those we least expect end up topping charts. We're even waiting for IU to see if she will make it or fail as well lmao

    There is no way IU is going to fail. As seen with her current songs, IU will probably benefit the most from the new chart reform with insane longevity. She might not get her usually 1.3M+ unique listeners anymore as before but she will probably be the only one that could surpass 1M in the future and she will probably get 700K+ with her new song. That may not sound like a lot but it looks like 700K is the new 1M mark on Melon. From the last 7 months of the reform, only Refund Sisters, SSAK3, and Dynamite managed to surpass that mark (700K). The thing about IU is that her usual ULs is way higher than others so I expect her to stay at #1 for weeks and her bsides (1-3) will probably chatt in the top 10 for a few days or weeks since the current ULs are very low.

  • Would BTS be on the same level as Twice & TVXQ in Japan in the future?

    BTS have surpassed TVXQ's best-selling album with their recent Japanese release in Japan and will most likely surpass it too with their upcoming Korean album. Their physical sales will continue to grow thanks to Dynamite and Stay Gold.


    Dynamite is a bigger hit than any song TWICE released there. It is the biggest hit by a Korean act since SNSD Mr. Taxi /Gee and Kara Jumpin/Mister (2010-2011).


    It will probably take a while for BTS to be on-par with TVXQ when it comes to the legendary status in Japan since latter have been active for nearly 15 years while the former only for < 8 years. TWICE and BTS are basically on the same level. BTS sell like 3x's more than TWICE physically per current release and they do the same digitally.

  • how big was OT5 TVXQ back then?

    They were MASSIVE. Their domestic fandom size was on par with H.O.T (1st gen) and BTS (3rd Gen). They completely changed the game for Korean acts and were the main reason (along with BoA) why the Hallyu Wave started in 2nd generation in Japan.


    I tend to watch Koreans reacting to DB5K on YouTube and if you look at the Korean comments, many people say that they were really popular and some even say that they were the 2nd generation BTS in South Korea during their peak before the split. The reason why they compare the two is because many young Koreans never experienced the popularity of DB5K first hand so older Koreans use BTS as a reference.


    When it comes to SM groups, DB5K and SNSD are pretty much their biggest groups ever in terms of revenue and sales among their male and female groups. TVXQ have been SM's main cash cow for like a decade now thanks to their touring ability in Japan.

  • Do you think we are currently in the 3.5 generation or 4th generation of K-pop?

    Quote from amalyas

    Arf, these 'generation' things were always strange to me. Like, even INSIDE a generation, we have groups separated by 2, 3 or 4 years, so it's just weird to just include them all in the same package.


    If we consider that BTS and BP are third gen, then this doesn't make sense to consider that we have moved on to the fourth gen until they started declining. Which probably won't happen before a few years, to be honest.


    This is my opinion anyway.

    There will of course be 1 or 2 groups still doing well from the previous generation with the new(er) one(s) like how we see with G.O.D. for 1st generation and BIGBANG/SUJU for 2nd generation but I think it is hard to transition to a new generation if so many groups are still doing well/dominating.


    I guess we won't know until a couple more years to fully confirm it. For example, 3rd generation wasn't really established/declared until 2016 when BTS, EXO, Gfriend, Blackpink, Red Velvet, TWICE, and Mamamoo were all doing very well and have already taken most of the spotlight away from the 2nd generation groups with hit songs and year-end award shows.

  • Do you think we are currently in the 3.5 generation or 4th generation of K-pop?

    I have noticed that a good amount of people believe that we are transitioning to the 4th generation of K-pop that consists of the following groups: TXT, Stray Kids, Ateez, The Boyz, ITZY, Aespa, (G)I-DLE, Stacy, IZ*ONE, etc... However, I kind of disagree? The current third generation groups are still thriving and aren't showing signs of slowing down any time soon such as BTS, Blackpink, Twice, Seventeen, NCT, etc... I think we are currently in the 3.5 generation where there are new groups debuting and doing well but they aren't on the same playing field as the top representative groups stated before. Some say that these newly debuted groups (2018 - 2020) can't be classified as a part of 3rd generation because they're "too" young compared to those that debuted earlier (2012-2014) or debuted much later but that doesn't really make sense since that was the case for 2nd generation groups (2004 - 2011) as well. I feel like the main reason why people, mostly new group fans, are classifying their rookie groups as 4th generation is because they want to claim the next top boy/girl group since those titles are already taken by BTS and BP/TWICE for 3rd generation.


    2nd Generation (2004 - 2009): Bigbang, TVXQ, Super Junior, Wonder Girls, SNSD, SHINee, Kara, 2NE1, f(x)


    2-2.5 Generation (2009-2011): Beast, Sistar, Infinite, Apink, Bock B, Girl's Day, T-ara, etc...


    In my opinion:


    3rd Generation: All the groups that debuted in 2012 - 2017

    3.5 Generation: All the groups that pretty debuted in 2018-2020/2021


    These 3.5 generation groups are doing well but they will continue to be "overshadowed" by the older groups (BTS, EXO, Blackpink, TWICE, Red Velvet, Seventeen) similar to how it was for the 2.5 generation groups and the main 2nd gen representative groups.