[SBS Star] "The Industry Is Lacking Male Trainees" K-pop Trainer Tells Why the Future of Male Groups Is Not Bright

One K-pop trainer In Ji-woong shared why he is worried about the future of male K-pop groups. 

Recently, In Ji-woong updated his YouTube channel with a new video titled, "Why I Think the Future of Male K-pop Groups Is Not So Bright". 

In this video, In Ji-woong said that the image of male K-pop groups among youngsters has changed over the years, "Back in the day, there were many boy groups that topped the industry, like BIGBANG, EXO and BTS. And watching them, a great number of young people said that they wanted to be like them, because they looked cool. But the third generation boy groups pretty much reached the top, and the fourth generation K-pop groups are all about girl groups. Girl groups are appealing to the public much more than boy groups these days." 

He continued, "Even when I ask K-pop reporters if they could name five fourth generation boy groups, they struggle to come up with names. Some say, 'Oh, how about ATEEZ and Stray Kids?', but they're technically not fourth generation groups, as they made debut in 2018. This just tells us that it's not easy to name many well-known fourth generation boy groups. I'm not saying that it's the end of boy groups in the K-pop industry, because companies make much more money from them than girl groups due to their strong fandom. But if it stays how it is, I don't see a bright future." 

He added, "Since about 80 percent of K-pop fans are females, most companies will try finding ways to capture girls' hearts. Since girls can't really flutter the hearts of other girls, boy groups will use this technique to gain popularity, while girl groups will try to find other ways to grab their attention. Many K-pop fans are finding it difficult to be a boy group fan now though. They're tired of being their 'fake girlfriend', and it's also tiring to keep fighting with other fans and stuff." 
Since this is what the current situation is like in the K-pop industry, In Ji-woong revealed that the industry is lacking male trainees. 

In Ji-woong stated, "There are more than enough of female trainees at the moment. They say that Korea has the lowest birth rate, but there are thousands of girls who want to enter the K-pop industry. But boys? Not many at all. If an alright one had been discovered, his information will go around all the casting directors. Every casting director would try to bring him to their company. Not a lot of boys want to become a K-pop star, since male K-pop stars don't look very cool to them anymore. They know that BTS is just on another level and they were a unique case that made it to the top from a small company. When we ask young male students in Korea if they would be interested in becoming a K-pop star, the majority of them would say no." 

He added, "Seriously, the number of male trainees have gone down drastically. That's why a lot of companies tries to bring talented young boys from countries outside Korea. But lots of them will struggle to live and train/work in Korea. That's a problem with this. Companies currently put as much effort as they could to help them with their stay in Korea, primarily because it's hard to find Korean boys to join them." 
 
(Credit= '인지웅K-pop idol trainer' YouTube) 

(SBS Star)