2ND Gen groups are still my favorite!!

K-pop is simply a business model that depends on debuting many new groups, making whatever music is trendy at the moment, and getting whatever they can out of it. Then, these groups reach their peak in a short period of time, people get tired of them, and they move on to newer, younger, and fresher trendy groups. The cycle goes on and on. None of these groups were necessarily created to stay around and build a legacy. No one wants to play the long-longevity game because it’s risky, and at the end of the day, it’s a business.

I just want to say that the study that Professor Kim Jeong-seop did ended in December 2025. As of August 2026, Ateez is now included in the list of groups that have sold more than 10 million copies -between 11 and 14.5 million albums depending on the chart/source. They're my ults, so I just wanted to add that little tid bit lol It's especially significant since they are not from a big 4 company. But yeah, anyone who doesn't care can just ignore my comment.

The number of groups is not the problem, the commitment issues companies have towards them after debuting them is...

With the way the economy is right now and people trying to prioritize their expenditures, debuting more groups now might not be the answer but we'll see how things play out for these companies.

At the end of the day, they are running a business and they will want to make profit however which way is possible for them

Finally someone is speaking about this topic. Yes, there are way too many groups.

It’s a business built on exploitation of the moment.  The executives want to cut cookies and bake them as soon as possible til they are burnt beyond use.  The they are discarded.  True artists are not always beautiful, think or stupid……

Isn't just how the Kpop industry have always worked constant debuting most  don't even pas/go beyond their debut year, those that do are halved again a couple years and hardly any go past the first 7 years?

And they always sound the same, no variety, no artistic difference, just a copycat of one and another...how boring.

KPOP idols did not get to learn how to be an ARTIST just being given a script and never learn to observe the situation so SAD

The only reason people think new groups are a problem is because we have a handful of 3rd gen groups that have pushed forward and prlonged their careers longer than they normally would have, this is of course primarily BTS, Blackpink, EXO and Twice. 4th Gen have a few more but still not heaps, Stray Kids, TXT, ITZY,  Idle and Ateez (and probably Enhypen, Aespa, LSF and IVE) are really the only 4th gen groups that stand a chance at reaching the 10 year mark. Which isn't a lot when you lay it out but it's way more than the prior generation. The thing is 2nd gen groups basically did not last, and 1st gen even less so, hence when the 3rd gen came into the market it felt like natural progression. But because these top 3rd gen groups never left the market and stayed relevant then 4th gen have to be measured up, now more 4th gen groups seem to be breaking through as well and not planning on leaving the market to fans 5th gen seems forced. The natural replacement  which makes new groups feel necessary is not there, when a 2nd gen group would disband and their company released a new group even if you liked the old one you could understand why the company needed the new artist. Now not so much, because yes while on paper this is a tiny amount of groups they easily make up a bulk of the industry, so fans think why does Hybe need another group they already have these massive titans of industry. And when a smaller group does it, why are they splitting the budget to manage even more groups. When in reality the new groups aren't taking anything away from anyone, the massive groups who keep renewing are

You missed a critical point- there were atleast 10- 15 promising 4th gen groups in 2019 . Yet a lot of the nugu companies were wiped out in 2020 when they couldn’t promote nor had the funds to push digital marketing like the big 4 . Even the ones that survived 2020 had to work overtime to re gain some of the previous momentum .

I think it's because ppl were still hooked onto the impact 3rd gen created that 4th gen couldn't create, nostalgia is a hell of a drug. and 4th gen was the time when covid came so ppl started liking kpop cuz they were bored/popularity + grps couldn't show their full potential and ppl were more focused on more 3rd gen grp acts

It's not just that having more groups under a company makes things better for the existing groups in terms of schedules, it actually allows them to take more artistic risks and expand their sound and style. I feel like a very common talking point in K-Pop for years, especially when it comes to promising mid-tier groups that never felt like they fulfilled their potential, was that groups were either getting stuck in a rut making the same song on a loop or that they were trend hopping so desperately they never found their own sound.
That sort of behaviour doesn't come from a company that trusts the group and their creative team to create an artistic vision, to me that sounds more like a bunch of executives who are scared the company is going to fail so they say "that last comeback worked, now do that again until the magic is stripped out" or they say "this sound or this image is trending right now, lets rush the next comeback out so we can do it too even though that'll alienate everyone who liked our previous comeback."
Multiple artists under the same company means they can all be their own artist because they aren't worried that one underperforming song is going to bankrupt them, plus as long as they aren't a copy/paste of their senior groups, their going to be aiming for an entirely different audience. I genuinely feel like K-Pop fans forget different genres and markets exist, they just boil everything down to cute/bright or dark/girlcrush concepts and forget that this industry is built on music not aesthetics.

Now this is a take I’ve never heard before. Interesting! Great video

Compare kpop to iPhone releases and it makes much more sense. Debut = release, group going = new updates, group is over = iPhone doesn’t receive updates anymore. And by that time there’s already a slightly different version you can get 🤷🏼‍♀️ and yes, I do think there are too many groups for the size of the market. I don’t have exact numbers but considering my experience: most kpop fans already stan 10+ groups. They already pick and choose where they spend their money. Surely the market is expanding, but weren’t there already statistics that kpop is already declining (if you count out bts)?

Thanks for a clear explanation.  I’m sure there are more details that need to be covered in a tooic of this nature.,

The problem is not that there are many new groups debuting, it's that there are many new groups debuting the same concept, music, content, etc. Like you said, the key is VARIETY.

Thank you ❤❤❤

The economy isn't condusive this year. And probably next year too.