Disclaimer: This entire discussion and perspective is focused purely on girl groups and female artists since they are what I primarily follow and listen to (and yes, this means it is a girl group fan perspective only).
Hey everyone. I have been sitting with a thought for a while, and I wanted to put it out into a space where people actually like to dissect music trends deeply.
My ultimate group has always been TWICE. For the longest time, they sat comfortably at the absolute top of my personal food chain, with every other group trailing far behind in secondary interest. That was until NewJeans showed up.
There was something undeniably fresh, magnetic, and almost structurally different about how NewJeans entered the industry. From the exact moment Attention dropped as their debut song and very first music video (their very first release), it genuinely felt like they stole the room’s attention with zero effort. The magic of their tracks culminating in the absolute cultural phenomenon that was Ditto pulled you in purely through the music before you even had time to look at their visuals, lore, or branding. Ditto felt like a dopamine hit, and it was addictive in a way that very few songs ever manage to achieve.
Here is where my timeline observation comes in (and I know correlation is not always causation), but bear with me.
When NewJeans was at the height of their initial run, it felt like the entire K-pop industry caught a massive wave. It was not just them. It felt like everyone was leveling up and stepping into a massive peak of incredible, boundary-pushing music spanning right through 2022 to 2024. Just to clarify, I am not saying these were necessarily the absolute best songs each group has ever released in their entire careers. Rather, the point is that all of these groups seemed to be booming, dropping major hits, and peaking at the exact same time. It made you appreciate multiple groups instead of just being locked into a single fandom, turning you into a fan of K-pop as a whole. Look at that timeline:
NewJeans kept the momentum blazing with consecutive hits like How Sweet, Bubble Gum, Supernatural, and Right Now.
aespa delivered massive cultural phenomena like Spicy, Supernova, and the Armageddon album, along with packed b-side albums featuring gems like Long Chat, Live My Life, and Better Things.
(G)I-DLE was owning the charts with Queencard, Allergy, and the gorgeous I Do, continuing strong with infectious tracks like Wife and Klaxon.
IVE was dropping back-to-back anthems like I AM, Kitsch, Off The Record, Baddie, HEYA, and Accendio.
LE SSERAFIM had us all hooked with Easy, Smart, Crazy, Perfect Night, and Yunjin’s Stupid in Love.
TWICE themselves were still putting out amazing work like Moonlight Sunrise, I GOT YOU, and the With YOU-th album, alongside strong solo debuts from Nayeon, Jihyo, and Tzuyu.
Even other groups like XG, ITZY, NMIXX, Red Velvet, and STAYC were all serving consistent, high-tier music.
It felt like a fierce, healthy sport. One week NewJeans was dominating, the next aespa was winning, then IVE or (G)I-DLE took a turn. The playing field felt vibrant, and great discographies were not limited to just one agency or one dominant group, because everyone was firing on all cylinders.
Now, looking at the current landscape, it is hard not to feel a shift. A lot of the current releases feel a bit more repetitive, and the sheer momentum of that multi-year boom has cooled down significantly. Companies keep debuting new groups endlessly, but the cultural spark does not feel quite as electric.
I am not saying other groups are doomed, nor am I trying to start fanwars or attribute everything strictly to one group’s absence. Trends naturally rise and fall. But deep down, it is hard to ignore how much the energy of the entire K-pop ecosystem shifted right alongside NewJeans’ timeline.
Am I completely alone in this observation, or do you guys also feel like the industry lost a certain kind of communal peak compared to that specific era? How are you finding current releases compared to back then?
submitted by /u/SwimmingAdvance373
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