Red Velvet, K-pops most colorful girl group, knows how to work an American crowd into a frenzy.
This trend marks a new chapter in Korean pop music.
Its been three years since a girl group toured the States, following Apink in January 2016.
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Resources for North American trips are generally allocated to male idols.
If youre a hardcore fan of only one group, its hardly a full concert experience.
Still, these moments have served as a testing ground for agencies to see how their artists fare abroad.
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Yet female idols were the ones to lay the groundwork for the K-pop crossover.
Wonder Girls was the first K-pop group to chart on the Hot 100, with Nobody, in 2009.
Earlier that year, BoA became the first Hallyu artist to hit the Billboard 200.
Then there arethe Kim Sisters, who got their big break in the 1960s.
The Korean-American songstress recently embarked on her first headlining tour across eight cities in North America.
The next item on her bucket list?
Young had, in fact, performed a concert in the States before going solo.
Back in 2011, Girls Generation along with seven labelmates at SMTOWN sold outMadison Square Garden.
Still, its peculiar the Nations Girl Group never toured the U.S. on their own.
Ive had the chance to step back, like, Why havent we toured yet in Girls Generation?
The U.S.-based concert promoters that specialize in K-pop rely heavily on the supply and demand determined by fandom.
It just so happens that demand has historically skewed in favor of boy groups.
The main demographic for K-pop has typically been young women.
you’ve got the option to see that claim reinforced by SubKultures engagement metrics.
Lee estimates that upwards of 90 percent of their social media followers have been women.
The same holds true for KCON, as ladies accounted for 81 percent of attendees last year.
Weve always tried to appeal to those girls by bringing boys over, he says.
In 2013, the Los Angeles lineup included seven male acts to the three female acts.
But the gender ratio of the lineups has improved over time.
However, most lineup ratios still skew toward men.
Their first Los Angeles date sold out instantly in a venue with a capacity of nearly 3,000.
We just havent figured out which groups would be tourable or not.
Still, the market for K-pop in the West continues to evolve.
To this point, its been male-dominated with BTS and even Psy, he says.
Adds Young, Its not just about one artist, one group.
Its everybody coming together.
Representation is very, very important to me.
I identified with a K-pop artist when I was a young girl too.
Now there are bilingual, trilingual K-pop artists.
We can represent Asian artists in general and Asian females in general.
