Too many new K-pop idol groups debuting...my assessment.

[cronodroid]

Hey guys! I'm Crono. This is just a quickie regarding my favorite Meta topic: the K-pop industry. Mind dump warning…

Comments

Re: cont'd

[cronodroid]

This is true, and I wasn’t saying that Korean music is not also quite diverse, but like you said, it’s only the pop music that is getting out. This is the problem, I really don’t think the popular music being made is exceptionally groundbreaking at the moment, and most of the new groups that I’ve seen are doing nothing at all to advance pop music. If anything, they’re going backwards. The groups that are making either refreshing/good stuff usually (but not always) come from the Big Three. There are successes from the smaller companies as I mentioned, but it would appear the chances of creating a truly breakout group with a new start-up seems slim. Not that I have any real problem with people giving it a try, I’m just curious whether the cost of forming a new idol group actually pays off.
It may seem crazy that I’m arguing for consolidation rather than diversification (in terms of trainees joining SM/YG/JYP for a shot rather than trying to forge their path with a new company), but that is in my opinion the best course of action if the K-pop industry continues to employ its current business model.

Yes, it’s a crapshoot too, but again I go back to the differences between the Korean market and the Western (US) one. The US one is much, much bigger than the Korean one, not only domestically but also internationally, and the US record label system, while still monopolistic, allows much greater room for musical freedom than the Korean one. In Korea from my understanding, if you’re an idol, you sing what the company wants you to sing and rarely get to participate in creating the music. Now this in and of itself isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it’s very machine like in the sense that you have people to write the songs, people to market the songs, idols to perform the songs, choreographer to create the dance and managers to take care of the rest. It’s actually ideal for entertainment value since the idols can focus solely on performing instead of writing the music, and people who actually specialize in writing take care of that.

However, this machine like model doesn’t leave a lot of room for creativity. As I believe was mentioned somewhere on this site, companies are forced to choose between churning out pop-friendly hits rather than trying something more daring, and I believe the K-pop scene cannot truly progress to the next level without more musical freedom.

This doesn’t mean I want to see some awful avant-garde rock opera concept album from Soshi. Right now, K-pop is heavily derivative of American music, but I think K-pop has the ability to become a trend setter rather than a trend follower.

How does this tie back into my point about too many new groups debuting? If it wasn’t already clear, I think all the new groups coming out are adhering far too closely to the established business model in the hopes of making a quick buck instead of trying something new. And they have the audacity to claim they’re not just out for easy money but that they’re creating something new and fresh when clearly they are not (for the most part). I don’t fault them for trying but I think as long as the current system remains in place, the chances for a new group to truly make an impact is slim. Of course one must consider whether we want to risk destroying the current system with a proven track record of pumping out hits and good groups for something more akin to the American one but with no guarantee that it will be any good. Maybe I should just bite the bullet and proclaim loudly “EVERYONE SWITCH TO THE YG SYSTEM!!”