It can be said that BTS's enlistment is a big turning point for not only the group but also the whole Kpop music scene. In the years BTS dominated K-pop, perhaps few boy bands can stand out and match their achievements.
Even when BTS announced the news of enlistment, people were so worried that the era of boy groups dominating Kpop was coming to an end and girl groups would "carry" Kpop in the future. However, contrary to those predictions, many netizens believe that next year will be the year when major entertainment companies launch many boy groups to take advantage of the opportunity to escape the shadow of BTS.
Here's what K-net is talking about these days:
If 2022 sees the debut of a series of girl groups as well as the unimaginable success of girl groups. From rookies like New Jeans, Le Sserafim, IVE, NMIXX,... to the big hits of 2022 all belong to girl groups.
There are many economic experts who believe that, when BTS is no longer the mainstay of Kpop, girl groups will begin their golden age and create the face of Kpop. Meanwhile, for fans, 2023 is predicted to be the year of boy groups, with many new boy groups predicted to debut.
Netizens have even named the upcoming new boy groups as '5th generation rookie groups', showing great expectations for the boy group generation change. According to entertainment industry insiders, 2023 is the time when the four major entertainment companies (HYBE, SM Entertainment, JYP Entertainment, and YG Entertainment) have more rookie group debut schedules than ever before.
It is expected that in the first half of next year, about 10 idol groups from these 4 big companies will debut in Korea, Japan, the United States and China. But it's worth mentioning that about 7 of them are boy bands.
HYBE has begun to signal that they plan to introduce new boy groups from their subsidiaries Pledis Entertainment and KOZ Entertainment. Meanwhile, JYP Entertainment will launch a boy group selected through the SBS audition program 'Loud,' a Chinese group under Project C, and a boy group version of the popular girl group NiziU in Japan.
Besides, SM Entertainment is expected to debut NCT Tokyo and a new boy group unrelated to NCT. Reportedly, YG Entertainment has no plans for a boy group.
Several audition programs are also planned, focusing on boy bands. Mnet's 'Boys Planet' and MBC's 'Boys Fantasy' will air this year. These are boy group versions of 'Girls Planet 999', which gave birth to girl group Kep1er last year, and 'My Teenage Girl', which released CLASS:y this year.
In addition, some small and medium companies in the K-pop industry are also planning to launch boy groups in the new year.
In the past two years (2021-2022), the number of new boy groups debuting is very rare. Specifically, if a year there are about 13-15 new groups debuting, only 2 of them are boy groups, including Japanese localized groups, debuted from the Big 4. For comparison, 2017 a total of 57 boy groups debuted and from 2018 to 2020, 4th generation boy groups were poured out from Big 4 companies.
It is also understood that, in an era where the reputation of boy groups is associated with the image of BTS superstars, it is very difficult to capture the market. Therefore, after a series of seemingly not-so-good investments in boy groups, they turned to girl groups and also had certain successes.
But, in 2023, the 4th generation of boy groups will promote for 4 to 6 years, so it's a natural time for a generational change. Moreover, with BTS taking a break for military reasons, the boy group market is expected to enter a new era and have more competitive opportunities.
A representative of the music industry said, "The boy groups that represented one generation are entering a hiatus due to enlistment in the military or dispersed due to contract renewal issues, and naturally transitioned to the next generation. A new idol generation will begin with the appearance of the 5th generation boy group since BTS will enter their military hiatus."
