u/Personal_Damage6616

Outside of music preference, I genuinely think most groups don’t need more than 5 members. Historically, most successful music groups globally usually cap around 4-5 members anyway.

For Kpop, realistically:

• 1 vocal

• 1 rapper

• 1 dancer

• 1 visual

• 1 center (optional)

is already enough to build a functional idol group. More members = more investment, more line distribution issues, more scheduling problems, more profit splitting, etc. And if the argument is dance formations… backup dancers exist.

So which groups actually justified having more than 5 members?

For me (with some adjustments):

TW for anyone out there. Don't read or you'll be crying.

EXO made sense (but with 10 members). The original K/M concept promoting in Korea and China simultaneously was genuinely smart business-wise. Though honestly, I think 5 members per unit was already enough. My personal conspiracy is SM originally intended that too, but Baekhyun and Chen were too good to leave behind. stilltheycould'vebootedanother2membersout 🫣

2PM/2AM also made me think. 2AM had only 4 members as a ballad unit and functioned perfectly fine. Did 2PM really need 7 to function as hip-hop/pop unit? bootout2-3members 🤐

NCT is another interesting case (25 members are enough with their concept so far). I honestly think NCT U should’ve been the core/main unit instead. Something like Doyoung (vocal), Mark (rap), Ten (dance), Jaehyun (visual), and Taeyong (center) already sounds like a complete group to me, while their other units could still exist separately with 5 members respectively. lotsofnctmembersneedtobootout 😃

I’m not against large groups btw. I just think from a business and member perspective, smaller groups make way more sense. If I were training to debut, I honestly wouldn’t want to debut in a huge group either.

Btw, if you suggest a group, better prepare a great argument cuz I will fight to reduce your fav to only 5 members.

This is my personal ranking of my top 10 favorite Soty from MAMA, MMA and GDA.

10. Cheers Up by Twice (2016) [MAMA, MMA, GDA]

• Their first daesang and I get the hype. I hope they make songs like this again.

9. Love Dive by Ive (2022) [MAMA, MMA, GDA]

• Their first daesang and probably my most listened song in 2022 lol

8. Bang Bang Bang by BIGBANG (2015) [MAMA, MMA]

• Such a timeless and great clubbing song. The 3rd part of the song is literally the greatest thing ever.

7. Gee by SNSD (2009) [MMA, GDA]

• A cultural phenomenon. Such a girly song that I love to sing when I feel like cute hyper feminine. I sing this at every karaoke 😝

6. What is Love by Twice (2018) [MAMA]

• Their 2nd entrance in this list. Song keep viral cuz damn this song is so great.

5. Good Girl, Bad Girl (2010) [MAMA]

• Their only daesang but iconic for that. Winning a daesang like what, less than 6 months after their debut? With a great song like this, so obv. 💅 This song refuse to leave my playlist for years.

4. Spring Day by BTS (2017) [MMA]

• I used to play this song at every lunch during my high school and probably the first kpop song that I can sing all their lyrics.

3. APT by Rosé and Bruno (2025) [MAMA]

• Some of you guys probably tired of hearing this song but not me. Probably the greatest song to ever popular or viral in recent years.

2. Love Scenario by iKon (2018) [MMA, GDA]

• This is the 2nd 2018 song entry. 2018 has too many good songs, urghhh! I used to watch their dance practice religiously.

Honorable mentions: Lies by BIGBANG (2007) and Supernova by Aespa (2024)

1. Growl by Exo (2013) [MMA]

• The very song that catapults Exo to the phenomenon. Instrumental, especially the opening is just so, urghhh, tasty. I already declare this as the best kpop song I ever heard way before I like Exo and yes, I memorized all the damn lyrics cuz I tried. It's not easy I tell ya

Disclaimer: I have more kpop songs that I like more than this list. They just unfortunately never win the daesang 😭. In fact, most of the song here is not even my most favorite release from said group.

How would you rank your favorite daesang winner songs and what song do you think will win the major Soty this year?

Extended members here refer to members that never left but barely participate in the group activities every time the group has comeback.

I noticed almost every SM boygroups have extended members due to circumstances.

• Super Junior has Henry and Zhoumi, even Sungmin. Henry and Zhoumi are technically only SuJu-M members but they're basically SuJu members overall. Sungmin never officially left after his marriage so he kinda extended during his long hiatus until he actually FINALLY OFFICIALLY left SM and SuJu last year.

• Exo has Lay. Lay never left and has always made appearances in several Exo MVs ever since he started to barely join Exo in 2016.

• NCT has Winwin. Out of every NCT member that is not here anymore, Winwin is the only member who never officially left. He's technically still in the WayV lineup. His lineup in 127 still spark discussions among Nctzen whether or not he's a 127 member still.

So what other kpop group have this kind of extended member?

People always mentioned 1st, 2nd and 3rd gen kpop songs when talking about classic kpop songs.

But what 4th gen kpop song do you think would be classic?

I'm a fresh graduate and got my first big job 2 months ago. The job is overall okay but it's kinda miserable how I have no friend I can talk to.

Everyone in my department is 30-40s while I'm the only one in their 20s. Literally have no same/similar age co-workers. But the people here are super friendly and nice, it's just that I have problem with talking or connecting with older people. Like, I have no problem with new or younger people but older more experienced people intimidated me.

I'm super awkward and painfully shy. Due to having no one to talk to, it makes my job miserable and difficult and it's stressing me out.

Has anyone experience this? What is your advice for painfully awkward freshie here? 👉👈

When a group gets a lot of unnecessary hate, like BLACKPINK for example, I actually feel more curious and even defensive? It makes me want to check them out more or defend them.

But when a group is praised too much or treated like the perfect group, like SHINee, I weirdly lose interest. It’s like the hype sets my expectations so high that I just don’t even want to start, or I feel like I’ll end up disappointed.