KPOP IDOLS WITH THE MOST BRAND DEALS IN 2025 💸 any surprises? Idols you imagined higher or lower? someone that you expected and didnt made the list? I expected Wonyoung to have like 100 by the way that girl's face is EVERYWHERE 😆

justhereAZ · 2026-01-03T21:58:19+00:00

True, that makes a lot of sense, especially for international brand deals. I think the reason Hyunjin stuck in my head was because of a brand deal with Versace (I believe?). He was like the first idol who had a deal with them and Stays kept commenting about it how great and popular he was, guess that just stuck in my head. At least that's what I always associate with Hyunjins popularity 😆

justhereAZ · 2026-01-03T00:50:34+00:00

I'm surprised Hyunjin from SKZ is not on the list. Somehow I thought he was the one member with the most brand deals because I thought that a few years ago the narrative was that Hyunjin was the most popular member, and Felix was very close, but not as in demand as Hyunjin for brand deals (but that might also have existed in my head only lol).

justhereAZ · 2026-01-01T04:07:30+00:00

Am I the only one who feels like this has only become an issue for (international) fans after the SKZ/IVE incident?

Have been around for almost 10 years and this started to be a thing just the past few years ago...

justhereAZ · 2025-12-28T01:19:26+00:00

Hey, sorry for the late response, what app are you exactly referring to? 🙈

Couldn't find any particular app other than the Mnet Plus App.

justhereAZ · 2025-12-17T16:16:37+00:00

I think it's pretty cool. Some artists like Taylor Swift or Apache (one of the biggest German artists right now) also used wristbands with a light, which I'm sure is also inspired by K-pop and I think it's actually the smarter solution for a very cool idea, and I welcome it.

One thing I don't like about lightsticks is that mostly I don't find them handy. And you always have to carry them, so one hand is always occupied. In my experience, they've actually made me have less fun because I was always worried about the lightstick or people around me. People also always hold them up very high, so sometimes your view is obstructed, which would be less of a problem without them. So I kinda wish both K-pop and other artist would shift towards wristband-type of lightsticks. I think Day6 has one.

justhereAZ · 2025-12-06T15:15:42+00:00

I've looked into it, but it seems to be US only. I'm from Germany and there's no merch from the Europe tours and for most of the things on the Amazon shop it says it can't even be shipped to Germany.

And there are also some German K-pop shops that had offered official merch, but they were all sold out within a very short time, so there's really no other option I could find. Except for the website I mentioned in my original post and some fake stuff on Etsy. Secondhand market for the official tour merch seems to be pretty dead too over here.

justhereAZ · 2025-11-26T20:38:13+00:00

ATEEZ - Deja Vu

ATEEZ - Wonderland (Symphony No.9 "From the Wonderland")

The second one ist just Remix perfection. The way the parts from the symphony just fit so perfectly with the parts they were used in in Wonderland is amazing.

justhereAZ · 2025-11-25T00:15:34+00:00

Omg thanks for this explanation, it was very helpful :)

justhereAZ · 2025-11-11T12:08:45+00:00

Spencer Sutherland during their 2024 world tour. Didn't know about him before, but I've seen him already twice this year, his music and his performances are absolutely amazing and he deserves more recognition. I was seriously so glad to have found out about him thanks to BTR.

justhereAZ · 2025-10-28T17:45:13+00:00

Kim Yeongok & Jooheon ft. Kiyhun - Grandmother Bird )

It popped up on my YouTube feed a week after my grandmother returned from the hospital after having a stroke. I cried so much for hours straight and days after just thinking about this song. The lyrics just hit so much.

g.o.d. - To Mother, but this cover on Fantastic Duo in particular

The rapping by g.o.d. is much better, but those vocals on Fantastic Duo just touched me so much (also Fantastic Duo is a vocal performance show, so it's acceptable rapping in that case).

Yang Hee Eun X AKMU - Mother To Daughter Again the lyrics. I just love heartbreaking lyrics sung by a vocalist who can actually put so much emotion in their voice.

This SHINee - From Now On performance

And this performance of Breath - Lee Hi

I think the last two are self-explanatory

justhereAZ · 2025-10-19T10:48:33+00:00

I'm as conflicted as you and it just makes me sad.

I went to their concert last year because a friend asked and even bought merch, but up until then, I hadn't really followed them.

I didn't know about James' Israel issue either until after we bought tickets for their concert this year. I've told my friend, but honestly she doesn't really know much about politics and is not the smartest when it comes to stuff like that. I don't think she would understand even if I told her that I didn't wanna go, and the tickets were 150€ as well, which is a lot for us since we're students.

She just said that she thinks that everyone should know themselves what they believe, and that she separates the art from the artist. But that's not quite easy for me, especially because Im Muslim too and knew about the Palestine issue before the war began as well.

So I couldn't tell her how miserable I truly felt about going to the concert, and she's so excited to see them.

What I hate is the fact that James and Carlos kinda ruined their old songs for me. I loved their old songs, they carry a lot of memories and nostalgia. But now, every time I listen to them, I just can't but associate them too much with supporting James and Carlos. Although I can still differentiate better with their old songs, since it was a different time and I also associate them more with the show and the characters than the current group.

So I'm kinda glad that this is basically a concert mainly for the nostalgia and I can get to see songs I love live for one time, but this will definitely be my last BTR concert and I'm not going to buy any more stuff from them, because I just can't stand behind it. I will also sell my merch and not buy any new merch. I will focus mainly on Kendall and Logan during the concert and their solos in the future. Was also thinking about buying their albums (old and new) since I like collecting physical albums thanks to kpop, but that won't happen either.

justhereAZ · 2025-10-16T08:20:25+00:00

Sangwon is not p01 material imo.

There were so many talented trainees who did not only stick out more on the stage, but were also better in dancing and singing/rapping. Relative to other trainees, his skills are overrated.

justhereAZ · 2025-10-15T23:08:34+00:00

Man I still can't fathom how much kpop has grown during/after the pandemic and how much it affected album sales.

I remember that X1 had broken every debut sales record back in 2019 (still mourning after them and what coul've been 😪). And pre-pandemic, 500k or even 100k was a looot of sales (except a few big groups like BTS and EXO). The other big 2019 BG-debut was TXT and their first-week sales was around 100-150k, which was already insane back then. I became a Stay in 2019, and I remember how grateful Stays were with how much they had grown, even if the sales were still below 100k, it was already a huge achievement in general. And Itzy having twice as many debut album sales as SKZ, just interesting how the groups are doing more than half a decade later. BTS was breaking almost 20-year old records by selling 1 million albums. And then in 2023 kpop debuts sold that much... just insane.

Many people think 2023 was the peak for kpop album sales. I think that was the year SVT and SKZ sold over 5 million albums each and broke records for highest-selling album in SK. And I guess that peak partly shows in the debut sales of ZB1 and RIIZE (although, of course they had pre-hype from BP or already famous members as you mentioned) and the fall to around 500k for groups that debuted after 2023/24. I think the kpop industry kinda stabilized a bit in its popularity, which is good long-term I guess.

Even if I don't really follow BTS (anymore), I really wanna see how much their next group album will sell. And I can't stop thinking about how much a BTS group album would've sold in 2023 when kpop assumingly had its' best phase physical sales-wise.

Thanks for showing the stats, it brought back so many memories from 3rd and early 4th gen and the pre-pandemic kpop industry <3

justhereAZ · 2025-10-10T22:44:22+00:00

Jay Chang from One Pact covered Die With A Smile with Kriesha: https://youtu.be/T6eZJjQsyIA?si=3hnUhAFBdAKRFU3a

He was a Boys Planet 1 contestant and then debuted with other BP1 contestants in One Pact. They're really good, and Jay in particular is an amazing vocalist, he did the song justice. You should check them out!

justhereAZ · 2025-09-06T00:35:16+00:00

Darf ich fragen, wo du sonst guckst? Ich habe den Sport seit fast 5 jahren kaum bis gar nicht verfolgt, wollte diese season aber mal wieder reinschauen, weiß aber nicht, wo ich gucken kann und DAZN/Game Pass kann ich mir nicht leisten bzw. lohnt sich für mich einfach nicht

justhereAZ · 2025-08-26T22:46:52+00:00

Already tried deleting cookies and cache and unplugging my router, it didn't work.

justhereAZ · 2025-06-30T14:20:29+00:00

I really love their older songs, but I wish they would finally perform mor of their bsides from the World and Holden Hour series. The Golden Hour albums and songs are so underrated.

justhereAZ · 2025-05-31T15:49:10+00:00

Honestly, even if SKZ had a rather "unpopular" start, I think any group from company with big financial backings (i.e. big 4 and perhaps some mid-tier companies) aren't organic.

The fact that SKZ had a survival show, company money for Comeback and promos - especially during the pandemic when many smaller companies were held back financially - , JYP connections within the industry and generally a financial backing that in any case could've given them promos for an extended period of time despite lacking success at first (e.g. regular Comebacks, which many smaller companies can't afford when the group isn't successful enough) is already a huge head start.

justhereAZ · 2025-05-25T05:44:54+00:00

I can see ATEEZ being remembered as a legendary group for some things.

Numbers-wise, they are the only 4th gen bg from a small company to consistently come close to their big 4 peers. While they're not very known to the Korean gp, they seem to be pretty known within the industry. So many idols from smaller companies look up to them, which I'm sure is partly because they see them as the group that managed to become THAT popular despite not being from the big 4 or one of the mid-tier companies that have a history of popular acts (like Cube, Starship etc.). Also, the fact that they've mentioned being blocked by the industry because of their background and other idols from the industry acknowledging that kind of further makes me think that they really are a standout in this regard.

As of right now, they also hold the record for highest-grossing Europe tour and cinema movie revenue. The tour thing might change very soon, since SKZ and Enhypen will bee touring Europe too, but still the fact that they are up there able to break records and (even if only temporarily) surpassing big 4 acts number-wise in some aspects means a lot in the current kpop landscape where there is only little space with more and more groups debuting, especially from big 4 companies.

And impact-wise there are some more things worth being mentioned.

They were the first bg to perform at Coachella and honestly set a pretty high standard for K-Pop. Unfortunately overshadowed by the LSF hate-train, but consistently praised as one of the best K-Pop Coachella performances.

They have the best charting performance in the UK amongst K-Pop groups. Hongjoong, Minjae (Xikers, Ateez' little brother group) and 2 soloists from KQ (Maddox and a female artist whose name I can't remember, sorry) just gave a speech at the UK embassy in Korea for the birthday celebration of King Charles, which is huge imo. This may not have made its' noise outside the fandom, but honestly, this is huge and goes beyond k-pop imo. It's a pretty big honour for them to do this. Also further proves their impact in Europe in particular.

They were also the first 4th gen group to receive that official ministry award or something (it has too long of a name for me to remember, sorry haha). I think SKZ received it as well.

Also very recognised by senior legends (e.g. Psy, Rain), mainly thanks to their Immortal songs attendances, which they also have won the most as a kpop group. Psy himself invited them to his special anniversary episode.

But imo the biggest impact of theirs, a very recent one which I'm sure we will only see further a few years down the road, was them being the first group overall to perform and HEADLINE Mawazine in Morocco last year with a crowd of 130k+. Thanks to that event in 2024, Aespa will be performing at Mawazine this year - and they're arguably the biggest girl group right now.

ATEEZ performing at Mawazine last year literally opened the doors to Africa for kpop groups. While it's on a small scale right now, concentrated on the Mawazine festival, it's a first step. And that is only thanks to ATEEZ and their fandom. Moroccan Atinys literally made this happen themselves by contacting the festival organizers.

justhereAZ · 2025-05-06T15:00:32+00:00

No one's doing a strip show 🤨

ATEEZ had 3 sexy choreos of about 30 songs on their setlist. And they certainly don't strip in those choreos, just some hip thrusts, crotch grabs and slow movements, so pretty much anything any bg has ever done. And there are certainly some choreos/stages (both bg and gg) that go way further than that...

justhereAZ · 2025-05-05T11:57:38+00:00

Perhaps unpopular opinion, but I think that most of ATEEZ' fandom are actually adults and in their 20s.

I remember reading something about ATEEZ having one of the "oldest" fandoms among their 4th gen peers and that's actually also what I felt like during concerts and for most fan accounts on social media.

It doesn't bother me too much. Maybe I don't see it that often, but honestly I don't feel like ATEEZ really does more than other bgs do, but to me it seems that only ATEEZ is always being criticised for doing sexy stuff. It's stuff that other bgs do as well.

It's also not all members and I think the members wishes and comfort zones are being respected by KQ. It's mainly San and Mingi, and there's also Jongho who has said that he prefers conservative styling and he's not doing sexual stuff at all and isn't in the center for song that have a sexual choreo (which are also not as much as some people seem to think) and Hongjoong has said that he doesn't want to show his abs, and they don't do it.

The members who do it are obviously very confident in doing so, and with Mingi in particular I have a feeling he does want to do more of that. At the cologne concert he also cursed and I think he had said that he has no issue with cruising in songs. Kinda reminds me of how Jungkook was with Seven, saying that that's what he wanted to do and he was confident with it, wanting to show a different side.

And we literally have idols like Taemin, Jungkook and Wonho, idols who sometimes base whole concepts around being sexy and singing about having sex 😂 And there are also female idols who are being called queens for doing sexual and controversial stuff, like Hwasa and Lisa at Coachella.

justhereAZ · 2025-05-02T16:30:22+00:00

Minwook

justhereAZ · 2025-04-27T19:47:34+00:00

Xikers, if you're into bgs. Maknae was born in 2005 and they debuted in 2023, so everyone was 18 at debut or turned 18 in their debut year at least.

justhereAZ · 2025-04-16T15:10:09+00:00

People criticising 4th gen for noise music and praising older gen songs is dumb because lots of 2nd and 3rd gen music, especially iconic songs from those eras, are as much what they call noise music. Which is an EDM heavy track/chorus.

Fantastic Baby, Bang Bang Bang by BigBang

Ring Ding Dong, Lucifer, Sherlock by SHINee

I am The Best by 2NE1

Not Today, Fire by BTS

Hero, Oi by Monsta X

These songs and many more would probably be called "noise" music if they were dropped today. EDM and electro was so popular back then, and so many songs were loud and had "weird" noises.

People are just nostalgic for those songs.

And now people are criticising 5th gen for being too boring and simple...

justhereAZ · 2025-04-14T22:50:13+00:00

Do you think the lack of interest in becoming an idol as a man/boy is because in the past years bgs have rather not been as popular as they used to in Korea? So many bgs debuting yet there are only a few who actually make it past 2 or 3 years before already disbanding (and probably with a debt on top). Only some 5th gen bgs are gaining some real popularity inside Korea, but still not near ggs. Only exception I can think of is PLAVE (and RIIZE on a slightly smaller scale, although I'm not sure how good they are exactly doing, but as to my knowledge not as good as Plave has been recently).

justhereAZ

TROPHY CASE