The big three K-Pop agencies namely SM, YG, JYP Entertainments have been raining album releases of its groups since the start of 2015. Although they were appreciated by the music audience as showdowns and are greatly anticipated in actuality, observant eyes cannot help but notice the downside of such decisions to each group alone.
Starting with the biggest company SM Entertainment, the first quarter of the year has gone well with solo releases to let idols with potential shine on their own such as that of SHINee Jonghyun and F(x) Amber, and EXO comeback.
However, starting May and June, the promotions have started overlapping with SHINee's allegedly underpromoted album release not long after BOA has just started promoting herself in a long while.
Just a week and half later when SHINee has just started winning in music shows and even defeating BIGBANG, EXO releases their repackaged album giving their senior group less chance to win triple crowns.
June is also slated for Girls' Generation comeback which means that the girls will be facing off with EXO aside from the other big groups' promoting on the same month.
SM fans' problem is that their own group cannot shine enough because the agency is giving them too short of a time to enjoy their album promotions. This has an advantage though as this means SM Entertainment is getting team kills for the entire duration that its groups are promoting.
On the other hand, YG Entertainment gifted BIGBANG fans with series of album comebacks starting from May to September with two songs each release. While the biggest group in the agency is enjoying a long time of exposure, other groups who had not released any since January such as Winner, iKon who just debuted and actually needs some follow-up to get known, Akdong Musician, and probably even 2NE1, are waiting for their respective turns.
This is definitely a long line-up to be all stuffed in the last quarter of the year which is a really bad time to promote since they cannot gather enough points to make them win on year-end award shows.
YG Entertainment relies heavily on BIGBANG which will become a problem once the members started going to the army.
Meanwhile, the last of the big three JYP Entertainment, had a really good title track with Miss A and even topped on digital charts but coincided with EXO's promotion thus did not win any trophy on music shows.
As much as it wasn't bad enough, JYP himself overshadowed Miss A's album with his newest comeback in the music industry with guest star Jessica Ho from "Unpretty Rapstar."
Its supposedly biggest boy group representative 2PM could not win any weekly music shows either in its last two comebacks leading mainstream fans to believe that the group is sinking and is slowly being forgotten in K-Pop.
As if not putting in mind that the group could not even defeat subunit TaeTiSeo's mini-album last year, JYP has slated 2PM's comeback on June whom will be faced with currently bigger groups such as EXO, BIGBANG, and Girls' Generation giving its chance of winning very hard to imagine.
The big three companies SM, YG, and JYP Entertainments are currently on a roll holding showdowns with their respective groups' album comebacks against one another. Although this may make K-Pop at its most anticipated and heated moment, some fans thinking ahead cannot help but be concerned over each group's expansion, rationalizing that this so-called showdown might not be a good idea.
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