By Kai

Okay well not exactly 100, I kind of exaggerated there a bit. But I think having a ton of members in one music group means each individual has to work like crazy to bring in the dough and to keep your position. So, what is my definition of too much? Well, if there’s more than 5 members then I consider that a packed group. And we all know where to find some of these gigantuous groups, don’t we? Of course, they exist only in Asia. Let’s check out some of the more popular ones:

AKB48 and all it’s sister groups. I believe I’ve stressed on their numbers in a previous post, but with the size of this group you can’t emphasize enough on how they actually manage to accumulate wealth, much less afford to eat. The truth of the matter is, like most idol groups, each member has to participate in various money making and popularity enhancement activities: television commercials, product endorsement deals, variety show appearances, television dramas, modeling, magazine shoots, and the list goes on. They basically have to be demanded on the market; if your group has 50 something members and you’re not staying in peoples minds then disbandment is likely in the near future.

Unlike these Jpop idol groups with 48 members, Kpop has maintained its balance of having fewer than 10. Unless you’re considering Super Junior who once had 13 members, but lately it seems they’re a head short as the days go by, so you can’t really count them in. SNSD has stuck with 9 since their debut, but After School keeps growing. The group is now up to 8 members, which is kind of interesting being that they started out with the average 5. Is this acceptable since they’re a project group with the option of graduating (getting fired for the lack of publicity) whenever you feel like? I think not. I would rather keep the number at 5 and create another group on the label. Is that so hard Pledis? However the case, both SNSD and After School have too much members, or should I say too much excess baggage.

Amidst the crowd there are a few wavering out there with 6 or 7 members. In my opinion, they’re not on the average or packed side, instead they’re just balancing in between. And even though seeing so many members dazzles me, especially since I can’t remember the names because they’re so many (and they often get cut off in photo shoots), the fact of the matter is it’s not about the size of the group, it’s whether or not they have the talent and charisma to keep me interested. I’m the kind of person that hates when a ‘so-called’ artist has no true talent whatsoever but is super popular because they’re cute. Why that is just beats me. However, if the other underappreciated members have what it takes then I’ll pay attention to them and disregard the unnecessary ones. No offense, but sometimes this industry needs to focus more on the singer’s natural abilities rather than their sex appeal because appearances don’t last forever.

This is just my opinion. What do you think?