I wonder if she had stared even longer if I had a poster of A-Peace on my wall.
No, look closely. They didn't just copy and
paste one guy's picture 20 times.
I guess I have been into K-Pop for so long, large number of members in a group no longer surprises me (thanks SuJu). But the extravagant amount (this to people who are only used to solo singers or groups with maximum number of 5 members) is always the first thing non-KPop listeners like to remark on (or plastic surgery but that requires a whole different post). Sometimes it is said in wonderment, sometimes snidely.
Ugh, look. There are like fifty guys in that one group.
I had had to explain over and over again to people about why K-Pop groups sometimes have more than the average 5 members. I finally decide to write the reasons down here so that the next time someone says this to me again, I"ll just give him/her a link and say: "Please, read." (Or if he/she says it snidely, I'll invite the person to sit in front of my computer and bash his/her head onto the keyboard every time he/she comes up with a snide remark~).
REASON 1: ABUNDANCE OF TRAINEES
Yup, most companies have way too many trainees than they know what to do with. Why? It's because most kids nowadays dream of becoming celebrities/ famous/ idols. (Look up Change the World 090315 - Korean talk show, I can't link 'cuz the video has been taken down). They flock the auditions and if they are talented and/or have an appealing look/personality, they are accepted into the company they audition for.
Of course, it's good for the companies to have so many fresh meat to choose from, to pick as their next big star. But having a lot of trainees means spending a lot of money in training them. So in order to get their profit back a.s.ap., they will have to have less trainees in training and more idols out working instead. What's an easier way to accomplish this if not by grouping specially chosen trainees and debuting them as one big group. I know for recent idols (by recent, I mean starting 2004), SM Ent. was the company that pioneered this 'Huge Group' Syndrome with the debut of its company's 12-membered Super Junior back in 2005.
Again. Not copy-pasted.
Though the idea was first met with criticism, other companies quickly picked it up and followed suit after seeing the success the group and company were getting. Since then, no one (accustomed to K-Pop) has batted an eyelid anymore when a group of more than 5 debuts. Ok, some still goes 'wtf' but most just say 'Yay,new group!' (Reactions may vary.)
REASON 2: IT'S THE TRENDYup, surviving in the world of K-Pop is all about following the current hottest trend. Sometimes. I mean when one company succeeds with a certain move, other companies will soon try to make that move their own as well. To gain more fans and in turn, fame and money. So when other companies saw that SM Ent. was going on strong with its big group years after the debut, not suffering from any lack of fan-love or capital lost, they decided that they wanted in on that game. Thus, the birth of many 6- to 7-membered groups we see nowadays.
But, those were just boybands. The idea for a huge girlgroup was again pioneered by the money-making geniuses at SM Ent. This time they cut it down a bit - to 9. One wouldn't say this was a success at first. It almost became a failure (fangirls weren't so accepting of girlgroups back then, especially one who actually had a chance to stand right next to/hold hands with their oppas) had it not been for SM Ent. constant promoting of the girls and the girls' charms themselves.
Well, after this girlgroup made it big, other companies started churning out their own many-membered girlgroups in the hope of making them the next SNSD.
It's like playing 'Guess how many candies are in the jar?'
Super Junior has several subgroups, one even sings in Mandarin instead of Korean. They've gone through a few - there's Super Junior H, Super Junior T, Super Junior K.R.Y. and Super Junior M. The reason for subgroups? Different genres. Each subgroup is assigned with the type of songs usually not carried by the original main group (SuJu T tackles trot) or is just assigned one type of genre to concentrate on (SuJu K.R.Y does ballads only).
This rakes in even more money since people who usually don't listen to the main groups' songs might listen instead to Super Junior T's trot songs, so they buy those songs. Or some fans want to listen to K-Pop sang in their own language, so they buy Super Junior M's albums since the songs are sang in Mandarin.
One girlgroup tries this out too (no, it's not SNSD), After School has the widely successful Orange Caramel and then later they divided the whole main group into two subgroups for the purpose of promoting two different kinds of songs at the same time (genius). A.S.Red carried the more upbeat 'In the Night' while A.S.Blue played with the more cutesy 'Wonder Boy'. By doing this, they are not losing out to either 'fierce' or cute groups. They are pulling off both concepts at the same time - somehing you can't do when promoting as just one group.
This.
When there are at least seven people in one group, there are definitely a few types of personality/ roles within that group. Mainly, for roles - we have the leader, lead singer, lead dancer, rapper and maknae. See, that's the typical 5-member group. If say, there are more than five, that means maybe two rappers, three dancers, five singers within just one group. By personalities I mean said group might have one moody rapper, one happy-go-lucky 'fake maknae', one charismatic leader, one quirky eye-smiling angel (I think I just listed half of Beast:P) - just members with different personalities which appeal to different types of people.
'Why is it so important to have different personas, anyway?' you might ask. Easy - to cater to the different types of crazy fans. The more personas you have in a group, the more fans you will attract since each persona pulls in their own type of loyal fans. Take Super Junior for example, that group houses sweet, sensitive guys (Donghae, Ryeowook) and rowdy,tempered guys (Eunhyuk,Heechul) and religious gentleman (Siwon) - to name a few. I personally love Donghae because of his sweet-natured personality and his fondness for kids (so when we have kids, he can take care of them while I go shopping ;D) while my friend prefers Eunhyuk because he's a funny guy who's also practically a dance machine.
So, yeah, different personalities, different fans. And once you've garnered tons of fans, this is what you get -
World domination. (^SMTOWN in LA)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So there you have it, the reasons why some K-Pop groups just have that many members. However, I wonder if you've noticed, most of these seem to benefit the companies more than the group themselves. I mean is it really that good to be part of such a big group? Because one of these two things are bound to happen:
1. Less profit - Say Group A has 5 members and Group B has 10. Both groups perform at an event and get the same amount of pay. Group A will only have to divide the pay by five, whereas Group B has to divide it by ten (let's discount the fact that they have to hand over parts of the pay to their companies as well, for the sake of this example). So now the members of Group A actually earn twice the amount of what Group B members earn. Then we have -
2. Being overshadowed - Let's face it, some members get more spotlight than the others in a group. If you're that prominent member, then you'll get tons of acting / modeling / singing offer. But if you're not, then people barely know your name and your road to success and fame is stretched a little longer. Let's take 4Minute as example. When they debuted, HyunA got all the spotlight. There was so much hype about her it was as if she was going solo and the rest were just her backup dancers. Most people only knew her name when 4Minute was mentioned. She wasn't the lead singer in the group, but she got her solo deals first before Gayoon (the lead singer - who still has no solo album till today). She appeared in TV shows and music videos. The rest? Not so much... They finally are getting some recognition nowadays but their road to fame / success wasn't as speedy as HyunA's. (Don't think I hate her. Well, used to. But now I adore this dorky girlXD)
Okay, wow, this was long... I'm gonna end with this~
Okay, wow, this was long... I'm gonna end with this~
HyunA's silly expression after
discovering G.Na's album in JapanXD
picture credits:dlkpopnew.net,smtownjjang.wordpress.com
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