Are We Past Peak K-Pop?

This post, originally started in August 2019, shows my age.

I saw Mamamoo and Chungha on the lineup for one night and decided to see these acts live. Chungha had visa issues and couldn't make it. One audience member I spoke with speculated that she bailed to work on a collaboration. Wheein didn't make it either. I expected the others to cover for her but they didn't. I also expected the 4 singles from the last year: "gogobebe", "Egotistic", "Wind Flower", and "Starry Night." "Decalcomanie" replaced "Wind Flower."

I'm glad I got to see Mamamoo perform live as they're in my top 3 and at the top of their game. Unfortunately, I won't get to see EXID perform live, as they are likely done with group promotions after a strong run with solid discography. I may get to see Red Velvet, though their latest singles leave me underwhelmed. I have yet to hear a single top "Bad Boy," and most of their singles to follow fall short. "RBB" or "Really Bad Boy" is terrible, "Zimzalabim" is awful, "Umpah Umpah" is just okay, and "Psycho" is pretty good. The group peaked in the first half of 2018, and it's a tall peak so it'll probably take some time before SM starts to neglect them as what happened to SNSD and f(x).

This makes me beg the question: Is K-pop past its peak?

2012 saw "Gangnam Style," explosively popular across the world. Around the same time, I learned of Brown Eyed Girls and miss A, and later Secret. They became my first top 3. Other successful groups at the time included SNSD, Shinee, Big Bang, 2NE1, Sistar, Wonder Girls, 2PM, KARA, and 4Minute. In the following years, Girl's Day joined their ranks and became a personal favorite of mine (though not enough to dethrone my top 3). After miss A and Secret stopped promoting (and later disbanded), I realized that by 2016 I had myself a new top 3 in Mamamoo, EXID, and Red Velvet. With some similarities, they seemed like a stylistic evolution of the 2010-2015 period into the 2016-2020 period: strong vocals and engaging choreography with ever-more stimulating visuals and audio production. Following them came WJSN, Blackpink, and LOOPD (LOONA but it's their fault for choosing Greek letters). These girl groups pushed the aforementioned stimulation to new levels, perhaps to the highest level. Meanwhile, BTS rose to global stardom at an exponential rate. Integral to their success are their lyrics, bringing K-pop songs with a higher dimension of meaning.

Right now, BTS is indisputably the peak of K-pop. Subsequent artists will appeal to younger generations, but for this old man, I think it's tapping out. The cultural gap will only widen as I get older. Unless some new artists do throwbacks to earlier genres and styles, the music will follow the taste of the young folks. As an example, Billie Eilish does not appeal to me. Is she talented? I can't say. Is she skilled? Yes. Overall, I'm just not a fan of the mumbling, murmuring vocals nor the filter-induced growl on "Bad Guy." Still, young people eat that shit up. Her popularity spreads overseas and influences artists in Asia. The new wave of K-pop songs and artists will likely sound like Eilish. That won't appeal to me so much.

Is K-pop past its peak? Really this question is a matter of age. For me entering my 30s, the answer is yes. There will be no substitutes for my two top 3 sets, though I'll keep my ears open to new contenders.