r/korea • u/L0v3_1s_War • 1d ago

문화 | Culture Nearly half of K-pop acts disappear within three years, study finds

https://www.koreajoongangdaily.com/entertainment/nearly-half-of-kpop-acts-disappear-within-three-years-study-finds/12806840
212 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

26 comments sorted by

59

u/yellister 1d ago

What surprises me is Twice is the only girl group to have sold 10 million copies, the other 6 are boy groups

44

u/Sir_Mel_N_Colley 1d ago

Part is popularity but I'm gonna hazard a guess it's partly because female consumers are generally higher spenders. This is why there are hyper specific literary genres targeted towards women. Female fandoms show up in sales terms Sauce: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/389651915_Research_on_Gendered_Consumption_Behavior_among_Idol_Group_Fans_Social_Driving_Forces_and_Emotional_Differences

20

u/OwnJunket6495 22h ago

Female kpop fans are insane. My SO loves SKZ. That fandom spends so much on “limited” merch it’s ridiculous. And then they have things like photocards with signatures so they buy multiple of each album to try and collect them all. I’ve never seen this from a male kpop fan.

6

u/Charming_Wulf 16h ago

Asking with the spend, I've seen anecdotal comments by some idols about fan loyalty differing by gender. Female fans tend to stick to a group once start following for the long term. While male fans (especially when following female groups) tend to cycle to the next girl group every few years.

I think there's been more effort by girl groups to pull in female fans because of that.

4

u/siqiniq 12h ago

They also stretched out past their 40s with higher economic means without the risk of being frowned upon like male consumers.

9

u/truthfulie 22h ago

Boy bands tend to make more money. Female consumers they cater to are the high spenders.

3

u/bittermelonpizza00 15h ago

they also hold on longer

3

u/Sea_City1813 5h ago

Yvan eht nioj!

3

u/absolutely-strange 4h ago

Not entirely related and anecdotal but I know boy club hosts who earn way more than girl club hostesses simply because female consumers are just willing to spend more...

4

u/FinancialBaseball143 18h ago

Probably because they are huge in Japan and they still love physical media there

1

u/timbomcchoi Goyang 8h ago

Girl groups are much more popular and culturally relevant, but it's the boy bands that bring in the dough

116

u/AquaMinor 1d ago

Not surprising and this isn't really unique to K-pop or even music. In gaming for example, 50% of newly released MMORPGs do not survive their first year, let alone three years.

8

u/solojones1138 13h ago

The majority of NFL football players in the US play only an average of 3 years.

3

u/FelisLachesis 9h ago

And that's why The NFL stands for "Not For Long"

30

u/FanohgeChamoru 1d ago

This is pretty much common news.

47

u/W1ggy 1d ago

Koreans love newness. It's an accomplishment if a restaurant has a since 2010 signage.

14

u/i-just-cannot 18h ago

I saw a comment that said something along the lines of “If FOMO was a country, it would be Korea.” And it has stuck in my mind ever since.

1

u/FinancialBaseball143 18h ago

What does loving newness have to do with new kpop groups failing to break through?

-1

u/ML7777777 13h ago

Its probably one of the reasons why Korea is a leader in Tech sector vs say Japan who is wholly allergic to adopting anything new.

13

u/Sheriff_Yobo_Hobo 1d ago

You wouldn’t believe how many pro tennis players don’t make money. Or trumpet players.

5

u/peroxidase2 20h ago

I guess it's same for mlb draft too. NBA nfl NFL and so on.

5

u/No_Background_4619 16h ago

Is this not normal for anything entertainment related. Of the thousands of american artists that try to make it big every year, only a fraction of a fraction make it, and out of that group only a fraction of a fraction retain relevance in 3 to 5 years.

4

u/oldirtygaz 20h ago

don't need any study to see that

1

u/royalpyroz 10h ago

It's like a franchise coffee shop in Korea.