Ruby and Alter Ego, recent solo albums by Blackpink members Jennie and Lisa, each debuted at No 7 on the US album chart before dropping out of the Top 10 after one week, and neither album produced a single that peaked higher than No 68. Relative newcomers such as Tomorrow X Together, Ateez and Twice have achieved solid first-week chart positions, thanks to strong physical album sales, before facing precipitous drop-offs. NewJeans – a young, critically acclaimed new K-pop group who looked to be the genre’s strongest hope in the US after Blackpink and BTS – have been bogged down by controversies and legal dramas in South Korea, stopping them from capitalising on the success of their 2023 single Super Shy.
Even back home the genre is struggling. “K-pop has lost a lot of market traction in South Korea – the music is not being written to appeal to a Korean audience, but more to this homogenised, globalised audience,” says Sarah, the host of the Idol Cast podcast, who uses a pseudonym for fear of reprisal from K-pop fans. “It’s trying to be all things to all people, and ends up being sort of nothing to no one.”
Not a genre I've ever gotten into (ask me about trance from the turn of the century!), but it does seem as though this is self-defeating.