Mamamoo's company debuted a boy group last week and I really like their debut song.
This year will probably be a bloodbath for boy groups, since BTS' company is also debuting a new one.
12 million views in 4 days, those kids are already set for life.
VIXX's company also drop VERIVERY, and they have an old school pop R&B vibe that makes them stand out.
Two very strong debuts.
But g idle's name is pretty iconic. It is a pun to g idol (can be a reference grand idol, girl idol, greatest idol, you name it). The alphabet G is also pretty iconic itself because some singers use that alphabet like G-Sleazy. While clc.... i cannot relate with that name... like what is clc? What does it stand? Why are there too many consonants instead of combination of vocals and consonants (like AoA, or BoA, or Zia)?
It is still of course a theory, but if i were still in college i think i would have already done this research. What i am to say is i wonder if names (or maybe brand) can actually affect people's subconsciousn in a way that we do not realize
GIDLE killed it because the world was hungry for Blackpink and Blackpink adjacent was good enough. Luckily, they have the talent to back it up.
CLC needs a firm concept and a reason that you should pick them over TWICE, Lovelyz, Laboum, EXID, or whatever. Once you're successful, you can ride it, because popularity is its own engine: it really doesn't matter what BTS, EXO, TWICE, or Blackpink release, because their fanbases are built in. They can go up, but they'll mostly drop as a result of their fanbases aging out, and thus slowing down on album purchases and streaming.
K-pop (pop music, or commercial music in general) is a product. It's manufactured made and sold. To use a game example, we have Dark Souls. If you're not From Software, you can't just do Dark Souls again and expect to see the same success. You gotta add a spin. Ni-Oh is Dark Souls, but with a new aesthetic. Salt and Sanctuary is 2D. The Surge is Dark Souls, but scifi. You need to stand out to build an audience.
A bad concept can lead to soft sales or outright failure. BTS' original concept was this hard hiphop vibe.
It didn't really work. They took off once they did the The Most Beautiful Moment in Life songs: I Need U, Run, Young Forever, Save Me. That gave them a
mythology, the songs were good enough, but what matter is they grasped at deeper themes and they were connected.
Another example is Dreamcatcher. Most of the members of that group were originally
MINX. It didn't work. Nothing stood out about the concept. They added more members, and changed their songs to
a darker concept with almost j-rock songs. That's a novel concept. Much better sales.
Larger labels can side step this, because the trust and novelty has been built on previous groups. Take TXT, Big Hit's new boy group. They're getting more attention than they would from a smaller label, because BTS is already a success and built trust. Same with NCT. But even then, most go out of their way to differentiate their groups. BTOB and Pentagon, GOT7 and Stray Kids, VIXX and VERIVERY above; the newer groups have a different sound from their predecessors.
TL;DR: CLC lacks a firm, unique concept to really build their audience.