South Korean singer Yeonjun of boyband Tomorrow X Together (TXT) has opened up about the realities of the current K-pop landscape.
TXT member Yeonjun recently made an appearance on the online talk show Bam House, hosted by GOT7‘s BamBam. During his appearance on the programme, the K-pop idol opened up about the difficulties he and his group face as a boyband as compared to girl groups.
During their conversation, BamBam spoke about how “it took quite a while for the K-pop generation to switch from the second generation to the third”, while pointing out that this wasn’t the case for newer generations of K-pop groups.
“It definitely wasn’t like that from the third generation to the fourth. It switched in the blink of an eye, didn’t it? How does it feel like to be active in the industry as part of the fourth generation?” BamBam asked, per SBS Star.
Yeonjun then opened up about how he feels that being part of K-pop’s fourth generation is “quite hard”, especially when it comes to boybands. “It just seems like boy groups are less favoured by the public. That leads to us not being as recognized as girl groups as well,” he said.
“If you take a look at all the Top 100 [songs on] music charts [of South Korean streaming services], you’ll see most of them are songs by girl groups, not boy groups,” Yeonjun pointed out. “I mean, their songs are great. I can’t deny that. But there are lots of good songs by boy groups too. That makes me a little sad.”
So far in 2023, only one K-pop boyband has topped the Circle Digital Chart, South Korea’s equivalent of the Billboard Hot 100. NCT 127 reached the peak of the chart in February with ‘Ay-Yo’.
Other artists that have topped the Circle Digital Chart this year are girl groups NewJeans (with ‘Ditto’ and ‘Super Shy’), IVE (‘Kitsch’ and ‘I Am’) and (G)I-DLE (‘Queencard’), sibling duo AKMU (‘Love Lee’) and trot singer Lim Young-woong (‘Grain of Sand’).
Meanwhile, Tomorrow X Together recently made their return with new single ‘Chasing That Feeling’, from their latest album ‘The Name Chapter: FREEFALL’.