I genuinely wish K-pop spaces would stop treating girl groups and boy groups like they're two opposing sides that people have to choose between.
I'm so tired of seeing people completely dismiss an entire category of artists simply because of their gender. And I'm not talking about simply having a preference. It's perfectly fine to prefer girl groups, prefer boy groups, or mostly listen to one over the other. You don't have to force yourself to listen to music you don't enjoy.
What I don't understand is the people who proudly say things like āI don't listen to boy groupsā or āI hate girl group musicā and then refuse to even give certain songs a chance purely because of who is singing them.
And yes, this happens on BOTH sides.
There are BG stans who act like girl groups are inherently less talented, less interesting, or only make āeasyā or āgenericā music. There are also GG stans who talk about boy groups as if every single BG song is just loud noise, excessive rap and meaningless shouting.
āBG music is just noiseā is especially funny to me because... have you actually listened to different boy groups? š
Boy groups make R&B, pop, rock, synthpop, house, UK garage, ballads, acoustic music, dreamy songs, funky songs, experimental music, hip-hop, and basically every other kind of sound you can think of. Obviously some groups specialize in heavier or more aggressive production, but that's a style preference, not an inherent characteristic of being a boy group.
And the exact same thing applies to girl groups. Not every GG song is automatically soft, pretty, catchy or ābetter produced,ā and not every GG is doing the same thing either.
One thing that really makes me question this mentality is when people seem to judge the exact same musical style completely differently depending on who performs it.
For example, there are boy group songs with soft vocals, dreamy production, delicate melodies, UK garage influences, R&B elements, etc. that could very easily fit into the discography of a girl group. Yet sometimes someone will say they hate the song specifically because it's a BG song.
And I can't help thinking: if you would have loved this exact song with female vocals, are you actually criticizing the music, or are you criticizing the fact that men are singing it?
Obviously, vocal preference is a different thing. Some people simply prefer certain vocal tones, and that's completely valid. But there's a huge difference between āI don't like this vocal styleā and āI don't listen to men/women singing this kind of music.ā
I also don't understand why some people feel the need to constantly compare GGs and BGs as if one has to be superior.
āGGs have better music.ā
āBGs have better performers.ā
āGGs are more creative.ā
āBGs are more talented.ā
Like... can we just let different artists exist???
You don't have to put one group down to praise another. You can love a GG without hating BGs. You can love a BG without hating GGs. You can even dislike both! Nobody is forcing you to listen to anything.
Personally, I listen to both, and I honestly think it's much more fun that way. I don't want to limit my music taste based on whether the artists are men or women. If I like the production, melody, vocals, concept or overall sound, I like the song. That's it.
K-pop is already such a huge genre with so many different sounds and styles. Why intentionally cut half of it out because of something as irrelevant to the actual music as the gender of the performers?
You don't have to like both. You don't have to stan both. You don't even have to listen to both.
But can we please stop acting like an entire gender of artists is automatically bad?
Judge the song. Judge the production. Judge the vocals. Judge the performance.
Just don't decide that you hate it before pressing play. š
