I had this thought when i first got into kpop around 2 years ago, and it has really held to this day.
I also should clarify that I am not speaking from the standpoint of EVERY aspect of a groups existence, like variety shows and interviews etc, I am primarily speaking to the music and the visual presentation of the groups.
I find it rare that a group has more than 5 members, and every single member is CRITICAL to the success of the group, or that some members are not getting lower spotlight. This is not to say that the extra members are not valuable, but that if they were simply moved to another group, or even made soloists, the original group would be better off. I promise this isnt hate in the slightest, but I feel like most groups could afford to simply shave off their members who are still minors or who are non-critical and be better off with the smaller numbers. Just from a numbers standpoint, Soojin leaving G-idle made sense, and im GLAD she is a soloist now! I dont think idols should lose careers over this numbers thing.
Regardless, there are a couple reasons for this in my eyes. Lets take a typical music track. The average length is approximately 3 minutes, some shorter, and some longer. If each member of a 3 member group like Viviz for example has equal feature time in the track, they get a minute each. That’s solid. In a 12 person group however, that becomes much less, equaling out to 15 seconds each, which is pitiful. Even a 6 member group struggles a little bit here, as they get 30 seconds each which is reasonable, but still not ideal.
One of my other reasons is that a lot of stylizing of members is a lot more generic on average in larger groups. There are many times outfits are nearly perfectly uniform, and its less common for that to deviate than with a smaller group that will typically get more elaborate and unique outfits. Think like Misamo stylization versus regular Twice stylization in MVs. Twice ironically is one of the groups that I feel gets away with having more members, even though (I will not cite specific members) I still believe if they debuted with one or two less members the group might have been more popular.
I think that individuality becomes a lot more pronounced in 5 member or less group, than it is for a larger group. Larger groups from my experience will make one or two members pop through a hair change or some other fairly unique stylization choice, and then will recede them back into uniformity to bring out another member.
This ties into the limelight issue, where groups with a lot of members will have one or two members that the group is known/popular for, at the expense of other members. Not saying smaller groups dont have that too, but that its less drastic of a phenomenon. One example is from one of my top 5 all time groups, IVE, where they had a track I absolutely love Kitsch, that has a single line from their lead vocalist Liz. Thats in a 6 person group, which should be able to include members easier!
This is a small point, but I find that from a choreography standpoint, odd numbers are usually best. Id personally rather see a 7 member group than a 6 because it means you can have one person in the center and the rest will be even on the sides, but also I do find it fun seeing the uniqueness of a 4 or 6 person choreography, so I do let them slide 😀
My final argument here, is that it would be less of a logistical headache to tour or otherwise travel anywhere with a 5 or less member group than it is to tour a larger group. As much as I know it’s likely just a matter of popularity that determines who tours when, I feel like a smaller group versus a larger group of the same popularity would mean the smaller group gets to go places more often.
Final note, a little while back I made a tier list of GGs, and I put Artms as one of my top groups. I had people there recommending me both Loosemble and Loona, but at the time I was aware of both, but didnt super enjoy Loona at all. I have since also gotten into Loosemble, and really like them too! I like some Loona tracks, but without the Loona dividing into those smaller groups, I wouldn’t have really liked any individual members as much as I am loving the Artms members!
Anyways, feel free to roast me for my bad takes lol, I am pretty open to changing my mind when im horribly wrong about something.
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