Nicole and Jiyoung are no longer in KARA. SoHee is no longer in Wonder Girls. KARA and Wonder Girls are two of the highly popular girl groups that sweep away the awards, so this can be both a good thing and a bad thing. It's a bad thing because they've both been around for a considerable period of time and so they're really popular, so not only are they disappointing friends all around the world, they're ending the "legacy" of the groups.
The good thing would be that the countless number of rookie groups may have a chance at gaining more recognition. It's true that their very existence itself is not noted by Koreans, because frankly there really are way too many of them and they all look the same. Pushing through that number of competition in itself is pretty darn close to impossible but there are those certain, older and more loved groups sitting on the thrones of K-pop that are in the way. So the fact that some of these first-place hoggers are not doing so well sheds some streaks of light called hope for these "nameless" newbie groups.
But here's something that may blow your mind: does all this tight competition, in the end, create no competition? So it appears that first-place hogging, impossible to beat senior K-pop groups are going down one by one but what does that leave? Just a bunch of first-place-thirsty rookies, who will all be beating each other up for that top place. The kings and queens of K-pop (TVXQ, Lee Seung Chul, Girls' Generation, SHINee are a few more) are still sitting on their thrones, so K-pop groups who have been around for FOUR years still hold rookie status. Wonder Girls and Girls' Generation made it big within just two years since debut, and this is not only because of their personal successes, but also because they had far less competition back then. The same goes for SHINee who also rose to the hierarchy of K-pop ladder in years since debut. That was year 2009 for them and that year marks the start of the crazy K-pop "boom".
Even with the fewer competition in the pre-2009 times, there was still competition among the existing groups and of course, with the notable solo artists. Yet that competition actually took those groups of the pre-2009 time period somewhere. Now, there's just too much competition that there's hardly even competition. As long as a K-pop group is not one of the groups who had started some kind of trend or laid some kind of foundation, then chances of taking first place is slim. For example, B.A.P and EXO had successfully captivated many fans all over the world even when they both debuted in 2012, definitely when competition was high, and this is due to the fact that B.A.P brought a new "flavor" to the K-pop music industry while the 12-member group EXO has at least one person who will be liked by someone. Of course once a trend starts, then the rest are just copy-cats. Competition has been extremely tight and will this trend of group members quitting go on or will actual competition arise? In the short period of time since Dongho quit U-Kiss, lots have changed and we still need more time to see how things will unfold in the K-pop world.
(564)
No comments:
Post a Comment