By 'Inter-company groups', I mean groups that appear to or work as their own company within their own representative company, a literal example would be Super Junior with the SJ Label, whereas a non-literal example would be Seventeen which mostly produces most of their their stuff by themselves despite not being under a separate label.
Recently, JYP was at a press conference where he explained his plans for 2019, something that is called, 'JYP 2.0', the concept of this is, that in 2019, he will debut 4 groups (One of them being Itzy) and they will have their own company, own marketing team, managers, representatives and etc. It sounds crazy and expensive to debut 4 groups in one year, and almost impossible to manage, it's also an idea that hasn't been done before. But JYP is confident about it, why? JYP goes on to explain that prior to this, he had experimented with the concept of a Inter-Company group to see how successful that would be, revealing that the group was Twice. Twice has become the biggest girl group of the third generation, continuing to thrive with each comeback, which shows how his little experiment didn't only succeed, but had outstanding results. This could pose a potential threat to other companies, but is this the first time that a Inter-Company group has existed?
Not really, as I mentioned briefly, Super Junior have their own label under SM which manages the group, it's individual activities as well as joint activities. The group isn't exactly in their prime anymore, but the world of KPOP and Korea's GP hasn't forgotten about them. The group continues to enter a new music market, and has been experimenting with styles for years. Despite being a senior group, they continue to release music and garner positive results from their comebacks. Obviously, this example isn't as intense as JYP's plan with having 4 separate groups under one label, but the idea of having such a large amount of trainees debuting under one name isn't something new.
Unlike Super Junior, NCT haven't got their own label, they're still under SM Ent directly. But I'm not willingly going to call, NCT Dream, NCT U, NCT 127 and now WavyV as 'sub-units'. For them to be called sub-units, they'd have to be a consistent body where the members are united as one group, last year, it could've been argued that NCT 2018 was that, but it can't be argued any longer with the addition of Kun, Hendery, Yangyang and Xiaojun. These 'sub-units' are the sizes of an average kpop group, and the whole concept of NCT behaves as it's own company, currently with 127 and WavyV being the only permanent 'sub-units'. I'd personally argue that Dream and U are more like pre-debut shows, they showcase the 'trainees', allowing them to perform and gain popularity before debuting into one of the permanent units. For Dreamies, they have to wait until they become of age, during this process, new members will be added and that's how the 'sub-unit' will continue to thrive. NCT U on the other hand, is for the members that ARE of age but there isn't exactly a unit available for them, they're put in the temporary unit to advertise and gain popularity until there is a place open for them in another unit (Eg. Jungwoo with his addition to 127). There are already 6 new rookies predicted to go into NCT and I doubt that this will slow down at any point. I believe that once NCT creates an established pattern for itself, since it's still in the experimentation stage, it will become a label for male trainees to go into and debut under one of the NCT groups.
I don't think that idea is far fetched especially since when Super Junior debuted, SM had the idea of a rotational group with no fixed members, this hadn't worked out in their favour as fans grew too attached to the lineup. So the experiment that Super Junior was meant to be, failed. However, they still had a chance to experiment with Super Junior, which was to make an independent label for them and learn from it.
So two Big3 companies are using this idea of Inter-Company Groups, JYP debuting 4 groups under one label and SM debuting an ambiguous group with multiple 'sub-units'. Could this be the future for groups? As each year, groups seem to debut with more members than usual to previous generations and some groups even creating clear distinctions between the rap, vocal and dance units (Eg. Seventeen).. I wonder what we're going to see this year
Recently, JYP was at a press conference where he explained his plans for 2019, something that is called, 'JYP 2.0', the concept of this is, that in 2019, he will debut 4 groups (One of them being Itzy) and they will have their own company, own marketing team, managers, representatives and etc. It sounds crazy and expensive to debut 4 groups in one year, and almost impossible to manage, it's also an idea that hasn't been done before. But JYP is confident about it, why? JYP goes on to explain that prior to this, he had experimented with the concept of a Inter-Company group to see how successful that would be, revealing that the group was Twice. Twice has become the biggest girl group of the third generation, continuing to thrive with each comeback, which shows how his little experiment didn't only succeed, but had outstanding results. This could pose a potential threat to other companies, but is this the first time that a Inter-Company group has existed?
Not really, as I mentioned briefly, Super Junior have their own label under SM which manages the group, it's individual activities as well as joint activities. The group isn't exactly in their prime anymore, but the world of KPOP and Korea's GP hasn't forgotten about them. The group continues to enter a new music market, and has been experimenting with styles for years. Despite being a senior group, they continue to release music and garner positive results from their comebacks. Obviously, this example isn't as intense as JYP's plan with having 4 separate groups under one label, but the idea of having such a large amount of trainees debuting under one name isn't something new.
Unlike Super Junior, NCT haven't got their own label, they're still under SM Ent directly. But I'm not willingly going to call, NCT Dream, NCT U, NCT 127 and now WavyV as 'sub-units'. For them to be called sub-units, they'd have to be a consistent body where the members are united as one group, last year, it could've been argued that NCT 2018 was that, but it can't be argued any longer with the addition of Kun, Hendery, Yangyang and Xiaojun. These 'sub-units' are the sizes of an average kpop group, and the whole concept of NCT behaves as it's own company, currently with 127 and WavyV being the only permanent 'sub-units'. I'd personally argue that Dream and U are more like pre-debut shows, they showcase the 'trainees', allowing them to perform and gain popularity before debuting into one of the permanent units. For Dreamies, they have to wait until they become of age, during this process, new members will be added and that's how the 'sub-unit' will continue to thrive. NCT U on the other hand, is for the members that ARE of age but there isn't exactly a unit available for them, they're put in the temporary unit to advertise and gain popularity until there is a place open for them in another unit (Eg. Jungwoo with his addition to 127). There are already 6 new rookies predicted to go into NCT and I doubt that this will slow down at any point. I believe that once NCT creates an established pattern for itself, since it's still in the experimentation stage, it will become a label for male trainees to go into and debut under one of the NCT groups.
I don't think that idea is far fetched especially since when Super Junior debuted, SM had the idea of a rotational group with no fixed members, this hadn't worked out in their favour as fans grew too attached to the lineup. So the experiment that Super Junior was meant to be, failed. However, they still had a chance to experiment with Super Junior, which was to make an independent label for them and learn from it.
So two Big3 companies are using this idea of Inter-Company Groups, JYP debuting 4 groups under one label and SM debuting an ambiguous group with multiple 'sub-units'. Could this be the future for groups? As each year, groups seem to debut with more members than usual to previous generations and some groups even creating clear distinctions between the rap, vocal and dance units (Eg. Seventeen).. I wonder what we're going to see this year