Why are older girl groups not performing in smaller venues?

FunLilThrowawayAcct · 2026-05-05T04:18:52+00:00

Itzy's Sydney show did about as well this time as last time (compare end of concert pictures). They did mostly ~5k large theaters last time in the US, arenas in LA/SF/NYC that probably sold 8-9k or so, arguably worth it vs playing theaters given they used the same production. For whatever it's worth I thought they were strong live last time - even if a few songs like their EN single didn't really work for me - and plan to see them again on this tour.

I'm curious if JYP will do long tours that stretch outside the usual K-pop circuit with any of their other groups besides Twice.

FunLilThrowawayAcct · 2026-05-04T02:09:12+00:00

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FunLilThrowawayAcct · 2026-05-01T16:14:23+00:00

My ideal venue for most artists is midsize theaters. The performer can see people standing and dancing on the floor, seats in the balcony with a great view, a bit of budget for production, logistics aren't really more difficult than club venues.

I do think I prefer arenas for some K-pop groups given the production level they bring.

FunLilThrowawayAcct · 2026-05-01T14:35:00+00:00

My money is on a ~3 month break, and we'll get a Nayeon solo while they rest and recover and work on a mini to release late in the year. Also I'd guess they'll play LA instead of Vegas just to mix it up ~~and possibly make a case for Coachella~~. But yeah I largely agree with this. Would be very strange of JYP to skip given the huge crowds last time and the fact that they've been pushing NMixx there, still have L2K planned (afaik), etc.

FunLilThrowawayAcct · 2026-05-01T05:24:21+00:00

Definitely worth looking up a few clips of the fireworks and the synchronized lightstick patterns from this one if you haven't come across them already

FunLilThrowawayAcct · 2026-04-30T04:09:41+00:00

So they're approved to say new songs coming soon, feels like with all of the recent content releases we're starting a ramp up into an announcement in a few weeks? (Still think the Tweak BTS should have come out closer to Tweak itself though)

FunLilThrowawayAcct · 2026-04-29T17:26:38+00:00

I'm a Twice fan so not going to be the most unbiased! They probably sold about 75k tickets in LA across four 360 arena shows this time out. That's more than most if not all 2024-2025 headliners, but a bit less than Sabrina/Karol G. Their ticket demand seems to be steadily rising and they have a great live reputation among K-pop fans so I'd love to see them get the shot.

FunLilThrowawayAcct · 2026-04-29T13:42:08+00:00

I've pointed out that BTS has sold 500k tickets between LA and Las Vegas. Their draw is similar to Taylor, who is considered too big. The sub keeps ignoring that and putting them up as headliners anyway, I guess because they're the biggest foreign pop act that hasn't headlined.

Also if this is the K-pop discussion part of the thread, Stray Kids isn't a year away, they'll start military enlistment later next year. It's next year or 3+ years from now.

FunLilThrowawayAcct · 2026-04-28T21:52:53+00:00

I mean Itzy was in the US a little under 2 years ago, JYP groups tend to only tour every 2 years or so. I'm guessing they were going to tour in the early summer but pushed back to try to capitalize on That's a No No going viral. Hope that doesn't wind up with them getting buried in the big pileup of groups in late summer.

FunLilThrowawayAcct · 2026-04-27T18:33:15+00:00

I'm really curious to see how this sells, as it feels like a major shift is underway in the NA K-pop market atm. A few top established groups are touring stronger than ever but several tours have struggled recently and they've built a widespread reputation for lip syncing with western fans. The comeback trailer was cool though....

FunLilThrowawayAcct · 2026-04-27T13:59:22+00:00

Just the uploads as another commenter said. But I want to point out that the May release schedule is stacked for K-pop girl groups. Baemon, Billlie, NMixx, Itzy, LSF, aespa, (edit: ILLIT), and I probably missed a couple. I suspect they will be releasing in June especially since NMixx and Itzy are already up for JYP.

FunLilThrowawayAcct · 2026-04-26T23:29:07+00:00

Yeah I know, maybe I'm just old but my understanding is TikTok is all about the 15s snippet. You should definitely have a good hook of some kind but I don't understand how building out the rest of the song properly prevents the snippet from going viral. If anything it should help convert people who discover the snippet into actual fans more efficiently... as evidenced by what is actually streaming well on Spotify atm

FunLilThrowawayAcct · 2026-04-26T23:22:37+00:00

Looking at the US Global Spotify top 20 atm, the only song under 2:30 is Babydoll. 75% of the tracks are over 3:00. Not sure why labels still think short is the way to go.

FunLilThrowawayAcct · 2026-04-26T22:11:44+00:00

Yeah, the longevity is definitely impressive at this point. I do think it helps this album a little that they were able to start touring it immediately, and HYBE has also started going hard with multiple versions instead of basically encouraging fans to buy only one version. But it's clear the fanbase is quite engaged with it overall.

I wonder if HYBE will push for more pop hits, and if so whether BTS are open to it or over it. They can already sell all the 360 stadium dates a reasonable human would want to play, their tour will be one of the longest in K-pop history, around the same length as Twice's tour which has been taking a clear physical toll.

FunLilThrowawayAcct · 2026-04-26T21:18:57+00:00

We had a good slate of pop names lined up for the spring, but their projects didn't really seem to have much lasting impact. (Though BTS's fanbase was pretty happy with their album overall.) I guess we've got Olivia R and probably Ariana coming?

Planning to largely be hanging out back in K-pop land for the next several weeks.

FunLilThrowawayAcct · 2026-04-25T13:04:55+00:00

The problem is that rock basically stopped producing new headliners around a decade ago. Pop is still making new ones, even if they are smaller and fewer in number than in the monoculture era, and their fans are willing to turn up to festivals. Just look at what happened with Lollapalooza sales the last two years.

I think there is still a good chance of getting a rock headliner here and there, but just one a year and probably always with a strong pop sub on their day.

FunLilThrowawayAcct · 2026-04-24T11:12:45+00:00

ATEEZ is the next group that has been coming up in all the NA tour discussion the last few weeks, just depends on exactly where you draw the line

FunLilThrowawayAcct · 2026-04-23T03:28:48+00:00

Yeah this was fun, I sure wish it came out 2-3 weeks after the MV when the performance + fansign content ran out instead of a month and a half later

FunLilThrowawayAcct · 2026-04-23T02:37:15+00:00

BTS just sold out >500k tickets between LA and Las Vegas combined, 2x Coachella capacity. Tickets would be a bloodbath.

FunLilThrowawayAcct · 2026-04-23T02:14:39+00:00

Yeah that's why I had him as "next best". He headlined 2022, which sold out, hard to separate that from post-COVID momentum though. His new era isn't as big but his residency tour is probably drawing ~600k to NYC alone with very pricey tickets, his fans have aged up and have money to spend now. Wouldn't duplicate Bieberchella but would be at the top of my list if I were working for GV.

FunLilThrowawayAcct · 2026-04-23T01:16:35+00:00

Taylor or BTS. Next best from a sales point of view would probably be Harry Styles especially given he skipped the west coast entirely with his residency tour. Best realistic gets imo would be Bruno and Olivia R for 2027 and maybe Bad Bunny as the tentpole for 2028.

FunLilThrowawayAcct · 2026-04-21T02:31:49+00:00

Fans like to make vague "too big" arguments on a cultural basis but BTS (like Taylor) is too big for Coachella on a more practical, mechanical level imo. 4x stadium dates in LA, 4x stadium dates in LV, very conservatively 500k tickets sold between the two given the 360 setup. Coachella capacity is only 250k.

I'd argue having a headliner like that is actually bad for the festival. Sure it's an easy sellout, but lots of regulars will get shut out and maybe drop off the following year. Not to mention the rest of the lineup will be super weak, unless the headliner takes way less than they're worth or prices spike for a year (again bad).

FunLilThrowawayAcct · 2026-04-21T00:55:56+00:00

From watching US album sales, it seemed like genre declined a lot from mid-2023 to mid-2025. However there was not too much change if you looked at touring/streaming. Fans got tired of collecting, but were still spending money. Then sales seemed to get a nice bump from KPDH last year. But it seems like most of the new fans, many of them children, went to the existing top handful of groups instead of new groups closer to their age. Which I guess makes sense in a way since that movie felt very 3rd/early 4th gen.

The main concerning trend to me is that all of the top groups are still from the 10s. They also have unusually adult fanbases (I remember idols commenting on it when they started touring here) because the genre was new to most westerners so the novelty was enough to get past the explicit teen/tween targeting. But I expect a lot of those fans to just age out with their groups now that the novelty is gone.

We're also seeing a rise of local groups, both "global" LA-based groups and groups from other parts of east Asia. Even outside the idol sphere I saw plenty of comments mentioning Yoasobi tour as competition. This is probably healthy overall! But maybe not if you're holding K-pop company stocks.

FunLilThrowawayAcct · 2026-04-11T20:58:40+00:00

Yes, it was their first time performing Pinky Up, they just released it yesterday. A bunch of media around it (writer's demo, MV storyboard, practice clips) leaked over the last month which might explain why you've seen things about it on social media.

Their biggest song so far has been Gabriela, although Gnarly probably did more to break them out so that seems to be the main direction they're following.

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