K-media has seen a decline in recent years.
With half of 2025 already gone, K-media has taken a moment to shed some light on K-pop girl groups.
Media outlet Hankook Ilbo recently reported a decline in girl groups, with only a few groups shining in the spotlight.
Most recently, rookie co-ed group ALLDAY PROJECT’s “Famous” ranked first on the Melon Daily chart, garnering much attention, as girl groups used to dominate the top ranks on music charts.
They reported that girl groups, aside from aespa and IVE, have not performed well on the music charts for the first half of this year. According to the digital charts, only four girl groups made it into the top 10 in 25 weekly charts from the beginning of the year.
The only notable performers were IVE’s “Rebel Heart,” which ranked first, and “Attitude,” which ranked seventh. aespa’s “Whiplash” stayed in the top 10 for the first half of the year, saving face for girl groups. Aside from IVE and aespa, other girl groups were either barely making it into the top 10 or not at all.
The slump in girl groups is huge compared to the girl group boom from two to three years ago. In 2023, groups such as NewJeans, LE SSERAFIM, NMIXX, aespa, IVE, and more competed fiercely on the charts, taking up more than half of the top 10 songs. However, despite the hot issues of new girl groups from mid to large agencies this year, they were not so noticeable.
Even in terms of album sales, the expansion of girl group fandoms has slowed down.
Experts have reported that political issues that continued throughout the first half of the year are causing the slump in interest in K-Pop. They evaluated that competition has died down as the main girl groups of each agency have reached a stable period, and the public’s fatigue triggered by the conflict between HYBE and Min Hee Jin also had an effect.
Popular music critic Jung Min Jae stated, “Popular girl groups have failed to gain public attention by releasing stable results. It also seems that the interest in LE SSERAFIM and ILLIT has decreased due to the internal issues within HYBE.”
There is also an opinion that we need to consider changing the cultural content paradigm that is causing the decline in interest in K-Pop.
“I think the overall interest in K-Pop may have declined as there is a lot of content that can replace It, such as OTT, short-form music, and sports.
On music platforms, people are increasingly listening to songs by bands or solo artists, while K-Pop is increasingly consuming short-form formats such as challenges. So, the overall music consumption trends may not be reflected in the charts.”
— music critic Im Hee Yoon
