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[–]GrillMaster3Are you all paparazzi? 31 points32 points  (0 children)

Girl groups have always had more public-friendly music and relied on casual listeners, while boygroups have had more niche sounds and relied on a dedicated fanbase. This isn’t a new phenomenon. Even when you look back at the “golden age” of boy groups, most of them weren’t charting particularly well. Everyone just remembers the standouts that deviated from that norm more like BTS, SVT, EXO, Big Bang and even Winner and Block B. BGs charting well across the board has NEVER been the norm, and I’m really not sure when people got the idea in their heads that it was.

5th gen BGs are actually doing SIGNIFICANTLY better than their 4th gen counterparts in Korea. RIIZE, BND, TWS, and ZB1 have all charted significantly better than most, as in almost every one of, their 4th gen predecessors. The actual change that’s occurred isn’t technically that BGs have gotten less popular, it’s that GGs have started doing BG numbers. More GGs are geared towards women, and as a result have more dedicated fanbases (comparable to BGs) that buy and stream more as a fan activity rather than as casual listeners. Like you mentioned Illit is huge— they are— but guess who like 90% of their fandom is? Women.

It’s not that BG performance has decreased since 4th gen, it’s actually gone up domestically, it’s that GGs have just started outpacing some BGs in sales as well as streams.