entertainment

Lesser-known K-pop bands struggling amid the pandemic

23 Comments
By JUWON PARK

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23 Comments
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They're pretty.

-11 ( +3 / -14 )

So they want to have easy life earning money and fanlove by moving their body here and there and singing other's lyrics and music? Some just eating and playing whole day becoming good earners and when things start to go off, then they make themselves pity that they are struggling? Over what? We all do during certain times.

Their Ahjummas worked hard diving into the sea collecting the shells, seaweeds and jellies, why can't these youngers?

5 ( +6 / -1 )

The members of Girls Alert said they initially chased glitz and fame just like other new K-pop acts. But they said that after their debut, they found that the reality of the business was far different from what they had expected.

the band had to take care of everything — outfits, dance training, hair and makeup — by themselves

Should realize that's how a lot of bands start (e.g. the "college circuit")

Gotta pay your dues in order to make it big

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Oh wait, WHAT?!? Work requires effort? Long hours, limited sleep and lots of practise? The copy-n-paste generation is going to find it hard to keep going once they run out of things to keep rehashing. Imagination seems to have been lost among the youth of today's instant gratification lifestyle.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Can’t sing, ancient dance moves, reminding me of a slightly younger version of 60th wedding anniversary family dances.

can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen and get a job.

most if these girls know exactly what they get into and what they sell. And it is not singing or dancing

4 ( +6 / -2 )

Around 200 to 400 K-pop bands have debuted in the past decade, according to multiple South Korean media reports. With a success rate of less than 1%, it’s already a risky game, and with pressure from the pandemic, some lesser-known groups like Spectrum and NeonPunch have disbanded this year.

This is a problem not just with K-Pop bands but an increasingly large proportion of work forces in the developed world. These tournament-style labor markets in which less than 1% are able to achieve massive success, while the other 99% get nothing are terrible for society as a whole.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

This is a misleading article.

Basically 90% of K-Pop business is in the boy band segment because 90% of K-Pop fans are women.

Hence it's very difficult for female K-pop singers to take off in the first place unless they can attract female fans, a feat only a handful of girl bands ever managed to achieve.

Since this K-Pop market skewing toward boy band problem is caused by the mostly female fan base, there is nothing anyone can do to fix it.

-10 ( +3 / -13 )

@Hillclimber

Drop two zeros to get a realistic figure. 

The number looks realistic.

It costs $1 million PER MEMBER to launch a fully trained band after 7~10 years of intense training, but this is worth it because a successful K-Pop band can bring in an annual revenue of $30~100 million per year from publicly available stock exchange filings.

However, the band described in this article is a minor agency band and $734K is a small sum by the Korean standard.

If you look at the backstage of a big name band you may have heard of, ie *BlackPink, IZOne, TWICE, NiziU, there are literally a hundred backstage workers doing everything from bodyguards, makeup, costume fitting, and on site performance rehearsal trainer. Hence it costs big bucks to start a proper K-Pop band regardless of gender and agencies that run them have a stock market valuation of a billion dollars or more.** It's an entirely different economy of scale compared to Japan's idol industry and needs a global sized market to support and sustain.

The girl band interviewed by this article isn't the proper major agency girl band; they are basically equivalent to "Underground Idols"(Chika-Idol) of Japan, with poor training and poor management and promotion support. They should have long realized they didn't have the talent to make it to the major agencies and quit trying, but are hoping against the probability. Generalizing them as the typical case deserving of sympathy doesn't help them wake up from fantasy and smell the reality.

-14 ( +0 / -14 )

K-pop acts are more vulnerable.... young performers spend nearly their entire adolescence — as long as 10 years — training and abiding by strict rules imposed by labels that often include strict dieting and rigid practice schedules.

Child abuse.

15 ( +15 / -0 )

A 1% success rate is probably higher than for drum'n'bass, metalcore, grime, .... If you want to make a living as a DJ, the best way is to play Abba and YMCA at weddings or on a cruise ship.

Success may not even change things. TLC went bankrupt one year after selling 14 million physical copies. These days, you sell a tiny fraction of that and get zero point more zeros then something per stream from Spotify.

https://www.beat.com.au/the-dark-tale-of-tlc-going-bankrupt-in-the-90s/

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Well, better get going on that social media then.

Do whatever it takes to get noticed. Whatever it takes. And you know, have TALENT.

People will notice.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

@kohakuebisu

A 1% success rate is probably higher than for drum'n'bass

It's not a 1% success rate for boy bands; more like 20%.

It's the girl bands that face the dreaded 1% success rate due to most K-Pop fans being women.

I remember seeing an old Girls' Generation interview recalling when they held the concert in Japan for the first time and was wowed by so many male fans, about half of total audiences. They hardly ever saw male fans back in Korea. So if so-called the greatest K-pop girl band ever had trouble attracting male fans, what chances do these nobodies have?

So why are Korean men not big fans of K-pop girl bands? That's a big mystery.

-14 ( +1 / -15 )

Aly RustomToday  07:50 am JST

They're pretty.

'The best thing you can say about the Spice Girls is that you can look at their videos with the sound turned down. Will they be remembered in 30 years? I doubt it' - GEORGE HARRISON 1996

He oughta know.

-9 ( +0 / -9 )

Around 200 to 400 K-pop bands have debuted in the past decade, according to multiple South Korean media reports. With a success rate of less than 1%,

Sounds they have it bad pandemic or not.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Boohoo

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Plenty of KPOP bands who made it big already. Famous worldwide.

We don't need another KPOP band that sounds just the same as the other 200. I want to see more Japanese singers, bands given the opportunity worldwide. S. Korea already made it.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

I want to see more Japanese singers, bands given the opportunity worldwide.

They have to know how to market themselves in many different places around the world without doing anything cringey

2 ( +2 / -0 )

lostrune2Dec. 16  09:00 am JST

The members of Girls Alert said they initially chased glitz and fame just like other new K-pop acts. But they said that after their debut, they found that the reality of the business was far different from what they had expected.

the band had to take care of everything — outfits, dance training, hair and makeup — by themselves

Should realize that's how a lot of bands start (e.g. the "college circuit")

Gotta pay your dues in order to make it big

Success and superstardom doesn't come overnight. Nearly all of the music stars and bands I've grown up with and have seen started out small and paid their dues - in bars, clubs, colleges, auto shows, fairs, warehouses, gymnasiums, churches, synagogues, YMCAs, etc.

Bruce Springsteen, U2, Ramones, Cheap Trick, ZZ Top, Def Leppard, Motley Crue, Rush, 38 Special, Motorhead, Daryl Hall/John Oates, Phil Collins, etc. began locally, Some of them released their first albums on their own labels and had to promote themselves before the bigwigs noticed.

The Beatles spent nearly 7 years sweating it out in the pubs before they became 'fab'. INXS, REM, AC/DC, Roxy Music, Duran Duran, Kool and the Gang all worked their way to the top. They started small. It was an uphill climb for even the ever present Rolling Stones. And they all became so big and legendary because they had talent, they worked at honing it and they were serious about it.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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