“Armageddon” by aespa, Wednesday, June 26, 2024

Singles and EPs are nothing new to the music industry, though, in the ‘90s and ‘00s before iTunes, the long-play album became the preferred medium for selling music. You could buy each song from an album and some of the songs were released before the album’s release, but most singles found a home on an album. As for EPs, many of them were limited promotional releases that superfans of a band or artist could collect, often offering limited edition tracks or alternate versions of songs on an album. Sometimes EPs were only available to purchase at the artist’s show. Unlike the American pop and rock music business, Korean pop is meticulously strategic with releases in terms of regulating how much media fans can get from their idols. Singles to “Mini Albums” to full-length albums seems to be the winning formula for K-pop today.

I’MMA BITE BACK. On May 27, aespa released their debut studio album, Armageddon. The SM Entertainment band is one of the leading active 4th-generation K-pop girl groups. Competing with groups like Ive, Le Sserafim, and NewJeans for listenership, aespa only just released a full album. Neither of the Hybe girl groups has a full album yet, and Ive released only one album, last year’s I’ve Ive. The release of Armageddon comes four years after aespa’s debut. Twenty years ago, American pop executives would release a full album from an obscure group, making a gamble on whether the group’s singles would be requested on the radio and cause fans to buy the group’s full album. Bands might record demos and singles due to low budgets, but these singles were nothing like K-pop debuts. K-pop is not the only genre today that follows the single to EP to LP trajectory. Many TikTok-famous artists follow this model, self-releasing singles and eventually releasing an EP and maybe someday releasing an LP. Conan Gray, Lizzy McAlpine, and many other artists I’ve written about have used this model. These artists, though usually start from DIY beginnings. K-pop on the other hand is maximalist, big budget, expensive studio production.


BORN LIKE A QUEEN, BORN LIKE A KING. Unlike the bedroom pop I’ve written about, which slowly builds hype online as the listeners bond with the artist and the artist’s song, K-pop releases are a textbook example of manufacturing hype in a new group. When focusing on singles, the record label takes fewer risks of a flop. Furthermore, by only releasing a few songs at a time, each song is separately marketed and streamed heavily by both devoted fans and passive listeners. Singles by aespa, NewJeans, TWS, and many others often got stuck in my head long before I blogged about them. The potential for passive fandom is greater when a K-pop group starts dropping singles. So four years after their debut, aespa is ready for a full album on related concepts. Before releasing Armageddon, the group released the lead single “Supernova,” and the title track has now become a single. By the time a group releases their first album, they are one of the biggest acts in K-pop. This is by design.

 




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