Hi, long time lurker, first time poster—I’ve hashed this out on twitter in the past, but no one wants to hear it over there, my bad if it’s already been talked about here before :) I really think excessive album/song variants in k-pop has really spoiled the prestige of Billboard achievements. It’s been ongoing for a few years now, and obviously it’s not exclusive to k-pop either, but k-pop is certainly the worst offender. Back when I got into k-pop, each group sold maybe 2-4 versions of an album, dropped one remix, and that was that. Assuming most western acts at the time were selling both CDs and vinyls—this was well within reason, and selling 100k+ was truly impressive. At that level most fans, even the most dedicated, would be buying one copy of each version and calling it a day. Maybe they’d stream the remix once or twice, maybe they wouldn’t. But the numbers genuinely reflected the audience (to a degree). But around mid-2023, I feel like we totally lost the plot. I feel like the year started off well enough (I’m just using a group I’m familiar with as an example, no hate to anyone) back when TXT’s “Temptation” took a BB200 #1 and a “Sugar Rush Ride” a Bubbling Under #2. There were four versions of the album (8 if you count each member version on its own) and no remixes. This was genuinely reflective of a song/album that had the attention of the american k-pop audience, and the charts reflected as much. But as the year continued, groups suddenly began dropping more and more versions—suddenly we had compact versions, groups with 8, 10, 12+ member versions, extra jewel case versions, etc., and by the time we got to 2024, groups were dropping merch versions, postcard versions, blind box versions, hell—some are straight up just a Pokémon pack of photocards at this point. At the same time, groups went from one remix (like an english version), to 4, 8, 12, random remixes and some even started selling “albums” that were just their title track and remixes as a physical item too. Now it seems like the average fan went from buying 2-4 versions to buying double, or triple that. Fans are running campaigns to “cheat” the billboard 4 per person rule, fans spread infographics explaining spotify filters to “mass stream effectively”, and fans are crowd funding internationally so the same people can buy 10+ copies of the digital singles/albums. Don’t get me wrong, it works—they get their headline, and the fans RUN with it. Fanwars are FUELED by who has what number, where, when, and how many times…But do we not feel it’s a little shallow now when you hit a BB #1 with 20+ versions? Or when the fan campaigns end and groups fall off the chart completely in just a week? Or breaking into the Hot100 mid-chart for one week just to drop off completely the next? These epic highs and lows don’t earn these groups radio play or general public recognition (outside of BTS/BP), and it really just feels like these companies are selling the illusion of popularity at the expense of the same fans at this point. Idk I really just have mad respect for groups that have stuck to smaller variant runs, or limited (or delayed) remix releases nowadays. submitted by /u/OuterFreakinSpace [link] [comments]
