Girl crush is no longer what the general public (or most K-pop fans) want from the new girl groups, it’s just a fact at this point. Over the last couple of years the success of ILLIT, Hearts2Hearts, KiiiKiii, now Rescene (even though it’s a very unique case) have proven that. And it’s totally fine, trends come and go, that’s just how K-pop works, and we’ve had plenty of years in the past when girl crush and adjacent concepts were dominating the landscape.
And in my opinon YGE did a good job of recognizing that and adjusting their strategy for BabyMonster. The group was never getting the 2NE1 / Blackpink reception with debut songs immediately going #1, and the chances of them becoming GP darlings were also pretty low, so the label went after the next best thing – the loyal fandom.
Pre-debut “survival” show to give potential fans a glimpse into the girls’ journey that included a fairly detailed backstory on each of them was a really good start. There was most interest from the Japanese and Chinese fans, so they immediately capitalized on that. BabyMonster’s first fanmeeting wasn’t in Seoul, it was in Tokyo. And their first award show appearance was in Macau, China. Till this day the only Korean award show they have attended was MAMA last year (that was held in Hong Kong). And all the effort was nicely rewarded. They are performing for 2 nights at Kyocera Dome next month as part of their own tour, and the C-bars is a big reason why they occupy the entire top-4 of highest-selling 5th gen gg albums.
BabyMonster also established their own niche fairly early on, their entire thing is built on the “we are great live, come to our shows”, which is a rare approach among their peers. They don’t do a lot of variety content, their concepts aren’t particularly original, but they are extremely persistent at highlighting their strength – live performances.
If you’ve ever watched any of their stages at SBS Gayo or MAMA, there is no choreographed intro, no dance breaks, no special segment (all common with other groups). It’s always just them walking out and doing exactly what they would do at their own concert, including utilizing the band arrangement of their songs. It’s straightforward and it works.
For what it’s worth this strategy only works because they rarely disappoint and the girls themselves are pretty brave, not afraid of any challenges. It often becomes controversial, but you can always rely on Ahyeon deploying her high notes no matter the circumstances. It can be a random radio show appearance or a huge MAMA stage covering the biggest song of the year, she will do it. Does she always nail it? Of course not, but that’s the statement she and all other BabyMonter members are making. This is what everyone will get if they attend their concert, it won’t be perfect but it will be live, and they will put in effort.
Do I think the company need to work more on creating songs that will resonate with the general public? Naturally. And I do believe that members like Rora can do really well if given more opportunties as a MC or in variety etc. But they all are still really young and they will have more chances to grow the domestic presence, I’m just extremely thankful that YGE didn’t try the Blackpink way of managing their first few years, because it would’ve resulted in much more underwhelming results. At least now they have already secured a large loyal fandom which will be a huge boost to their career.
I hope Teddy and TBL also realize that soon. MEOVV girls arguably have everything to be more popular, including talent and visuals. They even have a Mandarin speaker on top of native Korean, English, Japanese speakers, yet they aren’t really making enough effort to connect with fans worldwide. They’ve had more Paris Fashion Week appearances than their own fanmeetings or concerts as a 2-year-old group, which is just insane. That strategy works only if you hit the jackpot right out of the gate (eg Blackpink, NewJeans).
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