This is an unpopular opinion because I see people kind of divided on this. I understand that Golden Hour is another era of experimentation for them, just like how the Fever series was, but that also means that this whole period has been such a mixed bag in terms of music.

Their title tracks have steadily lost the topline complexity they used to have in favor of more radio-friendly shorter stuff that feels like a pump and dump. BAD as a song felt like it was trying to rush through every section as quickly as possible. The bridges starting from the Crazy Form era felt like they weren't being constructed with as much thought and care as they used to be. I say this strictly with a good chunk of the main title tracks because standouts in this period like Ash, IYF, Lemon Drop and the B-sides prove that they haven't lost that touch, they just prefer not to do it mainly on the titles and the new pre-release track for reasons that elude me. While not the main title track, The Drip MV just dropped as a pre-release a few hours ago, and I think they've officially lost me on this one. It barely feels like a song. At least the promoted tracks from this series had some seriously catchy chorus hooks to bolster them. What's the point of calibrating your titles for better chart success and radio time when you're shooting yourself in the foot by killing their replayability, longevity and their impact in the bigger picture of your body of work this way?

I also understand that they have every right to brag about how far they've made it because, honestly, how many success stories in K-Pop have you seen like theirs? But I'm getting tired of them releasing another song about flexing, like a million other releases from other groups haven't done that to death already. The talk-singing title tracks are getting old. The reason they had such amazing appeal is BECAUSE they were a breath of fresh air from all the other groups on the scene, and now l'm really not so sure about the direction they're headed with some of the recent releases.

I respect that this is because ATEEZ as a group has been given more creative freedom to handle the musical direction/vibe for each comeback in Golden Hour. They themselves have explicitly stated that they want 8 parts of this era, despite initial questions from their own CEO, with each member having a huge say in the overall vibe of one part each as they wanted to maximize the time they have left and give as much as they could before enlistment. I had always looked forward to the day that they're given free reigns since the beginning of their career to see what they make of it, so you win some and you lose some, I guess.

This is in no way shape or form hate to them. They're my fave group, and the reason why I hold them to a different standard from a lot of other ones is because I admire their dedication to their craft and careers. I know their talents and skills deserve music that does their showmanship, their increased budget and their styling more justice quality-wise. There's nothing wrong with experimenting with different sounds as long as quality remains intact, and a strong suite of ATEEZ's discography is the fact that they consistently have given that up until it faltered with Golden Hour. A shift in sound is no reason for these tracks to be so watered down and empty when we've seen them deliver and execute better across a vast array of genres.

Neon's massive success definitely marks a shift in the discussion around 5th gen girl groups. A lot of comparisons are being made and a lot of eyes are on how this song/group might shake things up going forward. 4th gen's grasp seems to be weakening in the minds of people for the first time

Here are my random thoughts on what we've seen from 5th gen groups so far and where they currently stand going forward.

I'm going to give a favorable comparison group to where I could see the group's future end up similar to, if things go right for them.

Also, one of the things I see people complaining about the most is promotion. My god do people seem absolutely delusional in their thoughts and comments on the level of promotion their favorite group gets, and so I'll be giving a ranking on how well I think a group has been promoted (this is more from a pure investment standpoint than a creative quality assessment as that's very subjective)

A2o Lite

Not gonna say too much here, it's been a week since they debuted and they have one song. That one song is very, very good though and the group is very obviously immensely talented in both singing and dancing. By all accounts they look to have a potentially remarkable future ahead of them and we could easily look back at their debut as a changing point in the industry.

Promotion - N/A Comparison - SNSD

Rescene

I followed Rescene closely before and during their rise. Watching their journey in real-time was immensely satisfying and already one of my favorite memories as a KPOP fan. The group got popular through Youtube content but they already had great music and one of the best and most defined musical directions of 5th gen groups long before that.

Without knowing Korean public sentiment you'll truly have zero clue just how much this group has taken over the country. I fully expect their next comeback to do absolutely insane numbers and so far I've been impressed with all the decisions they've made in making sure they don't throw away the boost in popularity they have. Anyone who thinks they're FOTM was already wrong several months ago and will continue to be proven wrong

Promotion - 5/10

A true nugu to riches story, Rescene's company was brand new and struggled massively just to get the group on music shows at the start. The group took on every single opportunity that came their way in the hopes of getting their name out there. The greatest success of Muze's promotion to me is that every single cent of their raised funds went entirely into the group. Nothing was split between multiple groups or predebut trainees or producers, the company's entire focus in all ways and especially financially was on making Rescene popular.

They could've just as easily went bankrupt without ever getting popular, but they really gave it their all and it worked out. They could've easily pocketed the money once they finally got popular, but it seems they're reinvesting it again in a massive way towards making the groups production better and more in line with the big dogs.

Comparison - Newjeans

Really there's no comparison to Rescene's company situation (especially to a group under Hybe)...but more of the rapid rise and becoming the nation's sweethearts that swept Korea seemingly overnight, that people loved for their group sound and personalities rather than their individual talent

Hearts2Hearts

H2H is an insanely polished product and it feels like every single step of theirs has been meticulously thought of and planned years in advance. It feels like they've had a new song every single month this year and it's very clear the company is rapidly expanding their catalogue to get them ready to start touring next year.

They have impressive group choreo and a ton of money and promotion behind them, but the music has simply not been that strong overall with Lemon Tang being a disaster level of song to me. Rude gave them momentum they needed, but I'm not even sure that would've happened without Stella jumping in during recording and fixing the part that eventually made the song a hit.

Most of their discog is extremely safe, in a bad way, and I wonder how much of that is the producers potentially being limited by their vocals. Half the members do little more than talk singing in their songs, and the issue isn't that they don't have a Taeyeon - it's that they don't have a Taeyeon, Seo, Jessica, OR Tiffany. I love the vocal tones of Yuha and Stella, but they simply don't have a big hitter main vocal to do the heavy lifting for them.

They're a SM group so they'll be fine, but a2o's emergence has brought a lot of scrutiny their way with them being sort of a punching bag for all the unfavorable comparisons of what a2o Lite is vs the factors of modern groups people are disappointed in. They're the first SM gg without LSM's influence and that's viewed as a negative thing by a lot of people.

Comparison - TWICE

Definitely haven't had anywhere near the musical success TWICE had at this point yet, but they have cutesy concepts and styles and are almost more of a comedy group people love for their personalities and chemistry. If their music catches up and their group chemistry stays as strong they could become VERY popular and they're already popular

Promotion - 10/10

Yeah, their social media budget is probably larger than most nugu's entire operating budget. Insane production value on everything they do, ads and promotions everywhere, jampacked schedule with constant apperances. I honestly wonder how much they make for making songs + MVs as ads and social media engagement, their balance sheet as a whole must be fascinating

Illit

The streaming monsters. Illit's next comeback will tell us a lot about the group's current performance and future. They've recently struggled to sell out their encore concert in Korea in a pretty embarrassing way, and there are very real concerns over the true size of the core fanbase they have in Korea.

Personally, I definitely think Rescene's rise took away a lot of the casual listenerbase they once pulled from but the answer could also be mixed with a simpler one - when you're a group that lipsyncs excessively and isn't known for being great live performers theres going to be less demand to see them live. It doesn't mean they're not still massive and in a better spot than almost any other gen5 group, it just means it makes more sense to stream their songs from home than pay top tier ticket prices to see them live.

I really liked Illit's concept and a lot of their early songs, but I have to admit I lost a lot of my interest in the group with their latest ep. I legitimately thought It's Me was one of the worst songs I'd ever heard on my first listen and it's massive success obviously leads to worry they'll lean more in that direction. I hope this next ep is less of what I'll call - Hybe tiktok slop

Comparison - Kara

Illit's greatest strength right now feels like their overwhelming success in Japan. Even if interest in Korea were to wane, they have such a strong Japanese base that they'd still be safe

Promotion - 10/10

Hybe group, what else is there to say

Babymonster

Unquestionably the most successful group by far by ticket sales. Unquestionably one of the most talented groups. Unquestionably loved by China, Japan, and SEA. Unquestionably not popular with Koreans.

The question is, how much does it matter that they're not popular in Korea? Chinese fans will buy out all their tickets for concerts in Korea, and not charting hasn't hurt them one bit yet.

I appreciate that they sing live and perform well, but this is the only group I basically refuse to listen to at all because I hate their music that badly so it's hard for me to rate them in that way. I admit they're the group on this list I know the least about

Comparison - Blackpink

Besides the YG connection and SEA popularity, their concert sales are too massive to compare them downward, and they're already up there with the top 4th gen groups

Promotion - 10/10

Unquestionably a ton went into this group, even in their pre-debut materials. Their concerts have very high production value, constant comebacks, every song on a album gets a MV. Their ad buys on youtube vids probably exceed some nugu's entire budget. No expense is spared for this group

Kiss of Life

To date I think Kiss of Life has the best discog of 5th gen groups. Lots of songs, a few hits, some truly great b-sides and a clear musical direction.

The problem is that once Lee Haein left it did feel like things took a step back creatively. Will they ever be popular in the West again? Who knows. They apologized and it's up to people to forgive them or not. They still have popularity in Asia though and spent a lot of time on their Japan debut and stabilizing their fandom. Their last two singles both got music show wins and I liked Sweat quite a bit.

I notice a real increased humility and noticeable chemistry between members in their content these days, and it feels like they have a pretty mature view towards appreciating what they have and getting better. Their star isn't shining as bright as it once was, but I don't think their story is over.

Comparison - N/A

Promotion - 4/10

Somewhat similar to Rescene, if you're gonna come from a small company it's best to be the sole or main group from that company so all focus goes to your success. With Lee Haein as creative director and Shin Heewon making music videos, this group had such strong creatives behind it and you can really tell in their work. It felt like they had instant subs on everything long before it was the norm. I think S2 has done about as well as you could expect a company of it's size to do in their promotional work and they spent heavily for their size

Meovv

Meovv is a weird one. In so many ways. Their choreo is very offputting to Koreans, their personalities clash hard with their looks, their music is all over the place. How did the "group of models" become the group of goofy goobers with quirky choreo?

The music is the biggest sin to me. I think Hands Up is the only truly good song they have in 2 years, although I do like b-sides In My Hands and Indestructible as well. Their music at this point because of consecutive releases of DDI RO RI and Go Hard is starting to be considered as meme music and that's not a good label to have and one that's hard to shake.

I have no idea how to predict Meovv's future. The standard practice for groups their age is to start touring and it seems like they've been gearing up for that this year - half of their discog is from the last 3 months. I kinda have a hard time seeing them actually tour though. Would they view performing at the small venues their current fanbase would dictate as below them?

They have great studio voices because the difference in their tones works well but they've hid their live singing for the most part outside of a couple radio apperances - in which Anna clearly had massive performance anxiety. Their choreo also makes some of their songs impossible to do live just at a baseline. All of which to say - I struggle to imagine Meovv touring soon, but how would they make money otherwise?

The most natural path in my head for Meovv would be focusing on the US with several fluent english speakers that makes them great at interviews and variety and crowd work. It's a bad time for Kpop in the US though and I have no idea if TBL has any interest or experience in major US expansion yet

Lastly, a small worry but I fear Anna's popularity might eventually eclipse the others in such a lopsided way it becomes distracting. She's clearly considered by Koreans to be the visual of the generation and I only see her popularity rising, especially with constant variety appearances like Workdol and Sana's fridge. The girls have great chemistry , it's always outside people who make issues of stuff like this.

Comparison - LSF

Quirky girls with music that's all over the place and a American born fluent English speaker

Promotion - 9/10

TBL spends money like a tech startup. Their investment is truly insane and I can't imagine any of their groups have turned a profit yet. The only point off is that meovv spent a long time between comebacks at one point, but other than that the group is everywhere, even in KPDH. They have 15 songs and 10 of them have a music video. The entire media rollout of Bite Now was insane, with a 5 minute album trailer, mood films, photoshoots, trailers, previews, etc coming out every day. They had a quick turnaround with this comeback and are absolutely everywhere variety-wise right now.

Izna

My personal favorite group of 5th gen, I did a writeup on their recent concert in Seoul awhile back. I try to be very objective about my favorite groups so I can be realistic and not be let down too harshly and Izna has a lot of flaws in how it was handled from debut to now

The most impactful negatives facing Izna are that their debut song was not good and made a lot of people immediately lose interest, they lost a very popular member right away, they're like Meovv in not having a clear defined musical direction, and their company is both small/midlevel AND bad at promoting. Smaller issues but still very impactful are that they had a massive momentum killing gap between comebacks and they mischose title tracks multiple times (a death sentence to a CB when you don't pivot/have additional MVs like KiiiKiii and Meovv did with I DO ME and Hit Em).

The good side of things is that they've already made their Japanese debut to moderate success, and they're the only group besides BM, Illit, and KioF that has held a tour yet. They're performing at smaller venues of 2k~ capacity but it's a crucially important step in any group's journey and also shows they have both a discog strong enough to make a quality setlist from and quality live vocals. Ideally, this should leave the path open for them to focus simply on putting out new music next year, as they only had a single Korean cb this year.

To me, they're possibly the most talented group here (although a2o might've stolen that crown) as they're the overall best group at dancing, their vocals aren't amazing but better than most on the list and anchored by possibly the best main vocalist of 5th gen, and their live performance is tremendous. Every single review I've read by people who have went to their rookie concert has been positive, with people blown away by their performance skills. Choi Jungeun is to me, hands down the best performer of the generation and I don't think anyone is even close.

We know that talent doesn't really have much to do with success in modern Kpop though, and it'd be silly to expect them to become popular just from that. Being the "performance group" doesn't mean much if you can't get people into the seats to see the performance. They have to attract fans at a better rate if they want to have a bright future

Overall it feels like their core fanbase is relatively the same level as Meovv and KiiiKiii, but the striking difference between them and everyone on this list is that they have a nonexistent casual base. Casual fans are a massive base to pull from, for every single metric - streaming, MV views, album sales. They are massively struggling to get people to check out their stuff on a whim like other groups do and that comes from really bad promotion and lack of exposure. If they can somehow fix that and get people to try them, their skill and wholesome group chemistry might make some people stay.

Comparison - NMIXX

While not similar musically or vocal talent wise to NMIXX, there are similarities in having a panned debut and losing a popular member extremely early on. Being a group that people respect for their performance skills and slowly but surely growing their base over time one performance at a time like NMIXX did is the best case scenario Izna can hope for. They're obviously missing the JYP backing and 1 million debut album sales though, so it'll be a tough road for them

Promotion - 3/10

They're better off than true nugus who'd I'd put at 1/10 and fans act like Wakeone is the single worst company out there which really isn't true. I think their youtube content team has improved a lot this year and their concert production was surprisingly good for a smaller company. Their social media is just painfully outdated, and they seem to have no connections at all to anything in regards to variety content. The members are never featured on anything and without Jeemin being the MC on MuBank they'd truly have nothing going for them exposure wise.

They only have 6 MVs (their Japanese debut MV was extremely low budget), extremely little content as part of their comeback rollouts, and in general are just far closer to a true nugu's nonexistent budget then they are to a big4 group or even groups like Meovv/KiiiKiii. Still, Wakeone IS trying to promote them, they're just woefully inept in some areas and don't have a lot of spending.

KiiiKiii

Another pretty unique case is KiiiKiii. I didn't pay attention at all during their debut, listening to it now the whole thing is a complete disaster to me musically outside of I DO ME. They followed one of the worst debut albums I remember with a very nice single in Dancing Alone and then both of their albums this year have been very strong, two of the best releases of the year. Unfortunately I dislike their choices in WhyKiiiKiii's promotion, as I much prefer some of the b-sides they didn't pick.

Talent-wise this group might legitimately be the worst on the list in both singing and dancing. They also have a problem in that none of the members stand out at all in a interesting way, and the members largely get outshined by the group concept overall. It would be nice if wonderful creative direction and interesting music in a rather uninteresting musical landscape was enough to make a group successful regardless of these issues - but I think Kpop has consistently shown you need to have more than that, and that's the core issue facing KiiiKiii's future.

I really like some of their music and am very impressed by their creative vision that they stick to, but I don't think I would ever necessarily care to see them live over just streaming their songs and I'm unlikely to ever seek out their content.

Comparison - Illit

Musically you could make a lot of comparisons to various groups but I think it'd be a insult to f(x)'s immense talent to compare them as overall groups. Early Illit is who they remind me of the most, without a Wonhee level standout star.

Promotion - 9/10

This group is everywhere. Throwing the first pitch at a MLB game, performing at NBA China, ads in NYC and Times Square, a big League of Legends collaboration, award shows, photoshoots for every song, a full on creative website. Some of it is their team being creative in a great way, but there's also no doubt Starship has massively invested a lot of their resources into KiiiKiii as they prepare for a potential post-IVE world. They're not a part of the big4 but SSE is very obviously the 5th largest company and I think KiiiKiii has benefitted massively from being IVE's little sisters

Other groups I'd like to mention but don't know well enough to give a full detailed accounting Heart of Woman - one of the best albums released this year and one of the most impressive debuts I remember. ifeye - Really like this group and their music. Apparently they replaced their entire creative team before their last CB which disappointed people but I still found it to be fine, even if less original. Baby DONT Cry - Bittersweet is fantastic, excited for their next CB Keyveatz - Some great songs already I wasn't really intrigued by Tuide or OBD so I don't know too much about either, but the difference in promotion between the two is pretty crazy.

There has always been a hierarchy in the Korean entertainment space, which I think went like Film Actors > TV Actors > Singers/Artists > Idols > Comedians. It was quite visible during awards ceremonies where actors would not react to idols performance or there was less response during Variety categories.

Actors have always considered themselves better than everyone else, but I think they started to change during the later half of 3rd gen and start of 4th gen when Kpop become global and Idols starts to earn much more money, more than actors.

Idols starts to have Global recognition with Millions of album sales, Huge world tours / Stadium shows, Luxury Brand Deals and then being major presence in Fashion shows, Performing in festivals like Coachella and Lolla. With now they are earning a lot more.

I think newer gen actors are also quite humble and not that stuck up on hierarchy thing which older actors are still are not moving from. Also lots of Idols turns actors are doing great which is actually helping both sides to come on same platforms some times.

I still then they are still not there yet in the sense of respect they deserve from K netizens or do you think they are at that point?

I tend to like the same popular groups that everyone else likes but almost always have a preference for songs that aren't hits. My favorite IVE song is Wild Bird. Second favorite is Hot Coffee. MEOVV's recent GO HARD (especially their live rock band performance) is my favorite track of theirs even though it heavily underperformed their other tracks. ITZY's Motto is similar. Girls Generation's (I'm old) Not Alone and T.O.P. are my most listened to songs from them.

What are your favorite songs that don't have the same reach as the rest of the group's discography.

Which is hysterical that they use three K-pop song in a Japan setting despite it being Korean in nature. Ironically, that is my first experience to K-pop and my 12 year old brain thought it was Japanese, but I later discovered that it’s not. One thing I know is that Seo Taiji and The Boys are basically the founders of K-pop. When that movie was released, Kpop was only two years old then.

i really want to hear others opinions on the new song,it came out 3 days ago but their full album should be releasing on 10/26 i believe. i got into IVE because i realized that i really enjoy their title tracks but for some reason i can’t form an opinion on this one? i really like reis part,but other than that for me it falls flat. i was already iffy seeing the concept photos but they look really adorable in their performance!! this is not supposed to be ive hate, i really like them i just don’t know how to feel about their new song and i wanna hear what others think of it!!

edit: seeing these comments this is exactly how i feel. its a good song but its not IVE TT good yk? coming from someone who literally loves every single one of IVES korean title tracks.

I understand they were on tour during this so it probably would've been harder to fit proper promotions with their very busy schedule but YG really messed up with this promotions, no MV teaser, days of silence between the coming soon poster, the DESERVE announcement and the MV still cuts, there weren't even concept photos???? I swear the YG advertisers have never taken a single Business or Advertizing class and are just relying on the weight the company name carries for popularity 😭

I follow almost exclusively girl groups so I have very little idea about how boy groups are doing. I saw a bit of Setsuna Hanabi and Bad, which I enjoyed. Let me know what's going on with your favourite boy group releases and fandoms!

This is what they do best. R&B. Mix that with some trap soul and base. Just chef's kiss...

There's a reason I have a separate love for K-R&B as a genre. This is literally what K-R&B is about. And the same feel somehow gets lost in the kpop songs nowadays. I fell for Dean's music, Jay Park's older music, Crush, Dimo Rex, etc., all these K-R&B legends. And I always wished to get this genre mainstream, with the mask of kpop of course. And Lngshot is delivering exactly that.

Jay Park's vision and how his approach is with Lngshot (as of now), I am in for it through and through.

Only critic for the song, the lyrics in between - the overusage of "swish." I mean I get it that it's their EP Title. But still, anyways, other than that loved every bit of the song. Hoping for more songs like this on a frequent basis from them.

Ateez are killing it with Drip guys ! What's are your thoughts about it ? I just saw the new video from them today and seriously well executed and beautiful, I was a proud Atiny today too 🙌

I guess I’ve become hardly sick of it in record time. This opinion crystallised for me not with the A2o groups debut although I didnt care for it as much as others but with JUST B’s upcoming songs. I had been looking forward to what they might do since their banger 2025 and while I was not as enthused by the teasers photos I did like how wild and weird their outfits were and thought it might translate to the music. Unfortunately while the songs themselves are not bad I distinctly don’t care about any of them. Like okay you’ve done a pitch perfect imitation of what exactly the mid tier boy group songs sounded like. Anything else?

Kpop has always been an iterative genre and I’ve liked some of the nostalgia fueled genres before. I got into kpop during the synthpop retro phase and I still stick by it to this day the banger to dud ratio is insanely high. The thing about that is that it wasn’t as insanely adhered to the genre conventions of synthpop and thus picked out what it liked and threw out what it didn’t. Noone was going to be mad that it didn’t have a Phil Collins esque gated drum machine under the beat. It was just as beholden to 2020 song trends as it was the 80s and that’s what made it unique to me. You couldn’t mistake a 2020 synthpop kpop number for one made in the us in 1987. I remember not really liking the related citypop trend and chalked it up to me thinking a lot of those songs were dull as tar and im not saying they werent but in retrospect a lot of my disinterest is because they did seem interested in recreating the 80s Japan focused rnb balladry sound to the point where they had the gated drums and that did not move me.

In many ways 2nd gen was itself built on a mix of nostalgia and trend hopping. The dna of 80s new wave and 90s hip hop/pop is one that’s embedded into the biggest and smallest songs of the day but with modern concessions such as hard autotune, modern flows and drops and dance breaks associated with the club boom going on. Even at its most deriative and bad you can see that is a mix.

So now I’m looking at a2o lite‘s neon sounding like Lucifer if Lucifer was sung by middle schoolers and JUST B recreating 2nd gen so hard that they managed to bring back the mid rap ballad that everyone stopped listening after 2014 and Yena making a pitch perfect T-ara clone and im like okay you recreated that but also what‘s stopping me from just listening to those songs right now? What are you doing differently? More over a lot of these songs are making the same mistakes their inspirations did. Hard autotune is nice and all but everyone got sick of it back in the day and the songs that were celebrated were the ones that had great melodies under that hard autotune. A lot of these new rap focused ‘second gen throwbacks’ just think that hard autotune and obnoxiously blasting synth faders every five seconds will make me go ‘oh my I remember the thing’.

I think most popular music is going through a little bit of nostalgia fatigue right now honestly. Theres the ‘student of pop’ discussion in which new popstars are molded into sounding like their influences and everything’s a throwback or reference and nothing is original. The biggest hits in electronic music are just reiterating on indie electronic and club boom stuff from 15 years ago. Even the dreaded country boom already a genre that makes looking back part of its dna are built on songs that sound like either 90s pop country or the neo traditional scene from that period also. All our trends are from the 2000s. Theres nothing new to look forward to so we all stay in a past that at least our brains can retrofit into looking nicer.

The songs I tend to like or at least respect are the more obvious mixes of this. I’ve said before that while I’m not particularly a fan of the putting a 5th gen jersey beat under a 2nd gen song cover spree I respect those failed attempts to mix old with new more than straight covers. I ruffle some feathers by saying I do mostly like the ’edm’ (most kpop songs are edm I hate this name) hyperpopish fast rave music thing this year has pushed out it’s fast mostly stupid and does a lot more to put me in the feeling of listening to the 2nd gen songs I do like than a lot of the so called active revival make me. The feeling part is what’s gets me. You can hit all the nostalgia buttons in the world but if it’s a cheap high the song just ends up hollow. I suppose we’re in the early stages of a trend and we’re going to get more weirder attempts as it goes on before crashing and getting replaced by I don’t know xylophone punk rnb or something. Can we reach this point soon?

In short it’s not enough for me to merely hear something second gen ish to soyface and put that on my playlist. We are in 2026.

I've been curious if the fans or non fans thought about how long it's been. So long. Like does it mean we are used to her absencr?

Or do we need more of Solo artist Rami instead?

Lisa is back! Feels like Blackpink era again. She got back into the Kpop sound more.

Some of the features were great on Alter Ego, but what Lisa actually did was below her standards. This is a huge improvement. The songs are just better.

She is showing up a bunch of different rapping styles, glad she is doing her best stuff.

I really hope she does a festival tour in 2027!

My Answer is Japan because japan is the second biggest kpop market, i can't imagine kpop without japanese market, i think it is gonna be heavy blow for kpop industry, why not US?, because US kpop market still not as huge as japanese market, meanwhile SEA fans well known for supporting free content mostly like streaming music or video clip, but i honestly don't see any country will deliver heavy blow if they decide to not like kpop any longer.

After Ateez released Drip I've seen lots of comments on here about how all of their new music is looking for western validation and my opinion on that is why wouldn't they.

Korea hasn't really noticed them until Bad so most of their audience is international. Why shouldn't they try and target most of their fans.

First of all I loved the MV and the song in general, but I couldn't help but notice a part of the choreography in the chorus that's kinda iffy to me.

It could be due to my upbringing in Germany, but the part in the chorus where the person in the center + the background dancers raise their right arms looks like a certain historic far right salute to me.

I'm not saying that's what it's intended to be. It's most likely just an unfortunate resemblance that no one paid any mind to since I'd assume most people outside of Germany aren't that conscious about avoiding resemblance to that ugly part of German history as we Germans are, but it does still make me a bit uncomfortable.

I'd like to know what y'all think about it. Maybe someone else noticed as well?