Note: I do not intend to negatively attack any groups or soloists mentioned below.
The title is self-explanatory, but let me elaborate.
Let’s be honest here, the music industry, in itself, is formulaic. It’s show business. (Keyword: business)
I won’t sit here, write this, and pretend it’s never been this way. Was it obsessively safe, at least sonically? Yep, there’s no denying that, but labels took risks – not only for big acts, but for small acts as well. There was more to a soloist or a group than just sponsorships and the money they can rake in.
Over the past couple of years, though, both big *and* small acts have gotten repetitive in nature. Not just within a song, but within their discography as a whole. This extends to the visuals as well, not to mention the increasingly stale concepts lately. And I’ll support my point with a very risky mention…
Example: ENHYPEN – “Knife” (please don’t come at me y’all ToT)
This song is, so gratingly obvious in its “inspiration” (said inspiration being any Travis Scott lead single) that it passes as a Travis Scott leftover track that was later sold to HYBE. There is nothing new, there is no tangible evolution in the vampire concept that ENHYPEN has. What once made them ENHYPEN only makes me want to look at them as nothing more than a 2022 phase.
Now, let’s not pretend that there have NEVER, in the history of pop as a whole, been formulas that have stuck around for years on end. And yet, this feels like the worst cycle of formulas yet. There’s no grit, there’s no personality. For one good song that *genuinely* carves its own lane, there’s 5 more that do the *exact opposite* of that.
The lack of inspiration has hurt K-Pop discographies so much that I wouldn’t be surprised if SM decided to make aespa sample an old Red Velvet track (/sarc). From a business standpoint? It makes perfect sense. Streaming thrives on what sounds familiar and earworm-y, and formulas encapsulate that perfectly. And yet, Gnarly (mind you, not kpop) by KATSEYE managed to out-stream many competing singles at the time of its release.
Which brings me to my final point – building a legacy isn’t something labels care about anymore, at least *as much as they used to*, at least not when compared to having a more profitable business. Surprising? No…Disappointing? Definitely.
submitted by /u/bluetheguy
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