In the past few years, K-Pop acts have been dominating the global music industry, often surpassing overseas artists in their own markets. According to Spotify Chart figures, in 2020, BTS’s “Dynamite” achieved over 12.6 million streams on Spotify on its first day, setting a record for the biggest first-day global streams on the platform that year (Stassen, 2020). Data from Luminate shows that in 2024, eight of the top ten US CD album sales were by K-Pop artists (Stassen, 2025). Top stories across reputable industry sources like Music Business Worldwide and Billboard highlight K-Pop’s growing domination of the Western music business. Industry leaders such as Scooter Braun, Monte Lipman, Steve Barnett, and Rob Stringer have demonstrated interest in K-Pop’s massive success and the inner workings behind it, even incorporating similar tactics into their practices to elevate Western artists. While K-Pop has no doubt shown exceptional growth and global dominance, the question of whether their ultra-superfan-breeding sales strategies have any longevity must be considered.

K-Pop is divided into generations, typically five-year periods that segment artists depending on when they debuted. Each generation is defined by unique characteristics, including the kind of merchandise sold, popular aesthetics, and marketing strategies; when there is a noticeable shift in these properties, a new generation begins. The evolution of technology is also a frequent factor in determining generations. For example, the phenomenon of dance challenges and other heavy marketing via short-form content is a prominent characteristic of the fourth and fifth generations. Of course, acclaimed K-Pop artists like BTS and Blackpink transcend the end year of their designated sector, the third generation, and remain vastly popular but for most others, their lifespan as an act barely extends past their designated generation. 

My approach to assessing the lifespan of the average K-Pop versus Western act boiled down to a few main steps. I first decided to center my analysis around 2012. Among other reasons, 2012 is the year the second generation of K-Pop ended, which consists of artists accredited for the Hallyu Wave (the globalization of Korean pop culture) taking off in Asia. The year also marks the beginning of the third generation known for cementing K-Pop’s dominance overseas with global superstars including BTS, Blackpink, and Twice. To collect my data, I first identified which K-Pop and Western songs were number one on the South Korean and US Billboard charts respectively throughout 2012. For example, on January 21, 2012, “Lovey-Dovey” by T-ara began charting at number one on the South Korean Billboard chart while “We Found Love” by Rihanna held the top spot on the US Billboard chart. Focusing on the primary artist behind each chart-topping hit, I calculated the distance between those artists’ first and last top ten songs on their respective charts. It should be noted, however, that the South Korean Circle Chart, as opposed to Billboard’s K-Pop Hot 100, was used for data collection on the K-Pop artists rather than the South Korean Billboard chart due to complications with data collection. That said, the Circle Chart likely favors top acts’ chart longevity due to its focus on pure sales which traditionally swings in favor of older acts with existing fanbases. Put into practice, I found T-ara’s span between her first and last top 10 hit was 4 years (2009-2013) and Rihanna’s was 17 years (2005-2022). As described previously, this process was completed for the primary artist behind each American and Korean #1 song in 2012. Here are charts displaying the data for Western and Korean acts, with the average time span for each market shown at the bottom right.

Western acts:

Korean acts:

Comparison Between Western vs K-Pop artists’ Periods:

My collected data shows a higher average span for 2012 Western acts than 2012 K-Pop acts, at 8.83 years and 6.56 respectively. When collecting this data, I observed how the  American Billboard chart had many songs released by so-called “one hit wonders” like “Call Me Maybe” by Carly Rae Jepsen and “Somebody That I Used to Know” by Gotye. Perhaps due to the more consistently sizable artist investment in the South Korean music industry, South Korean acts who top the charts appear unlikely to have only one high charting song in their career. This stands in contrast to the United States where the aforementioned “one hit wonder” is a widely recognized phenomenon in the cultural conscience. 

With data revealing Western acts to have longer overall success periods, the question arises as to why this shorter yet aggressive lifespan exists for K-Pop artists–or more so, why do K-Pop companies curate their artists’ careers this way? I believe the rationale is connected to how the K-Pop industry develops artists, along with how acts are marketed to superfans. A major characteristic that differentiates K-Pop companies from their Western counterparts is a rigorous, multi-faceted artist training program where trainees are thoroughly coached in singing, dancing, and stage presence long before entering the public eye. In fact, the majority of trainees never debut. So why does this matter? Because K-Pop companies constantly have a new batch of fresh talent, longevity is unlikely to be as large of a priority. In addition, most K-Pop acts are chosen more so for their attractiveness than musical skill. As a result, most do not write nor produce their own songs. Thus, music released by these acts has a high chance of feeling inauthentic to audiences. To combat this perception of inauthenticity, K-Pop companies instead curate aesthetics, album concepts, and production-heavy photoshoots and music videos that heavily incorporate culturally relevant elements to attract consumers. Does this work? Yes! Any quick Google search on K-Pop’s current success will tell you that. But is there a downside? Yes, a lack of longevity stemming from the absence of timelessness, an attribute more often ascribed to Western artists.