Recently, when meeting singers releasing full-length albums in the Korean music industry, they all say, "It took courage." In a music market centered around K-pop idol groups, most albums are mini-albums with 4-5 songs or single albums with one or two songs, or they are released as digital singles available only online.
As numerous groups debut each year and come back at intervals of 3-4 months to minimize activity gaps, it has become challenging to release full-length albums containing more than 10 songs. With the ability to listen to only the desired tracks on music sites, there has been a tendency to focus energy on working and promoting a single song with high hit potential rather than the entire album.
For idol groups debuting in such a system, releasing a full-length album has become a symbolic display of musical maturity. However, for existing singers, it is a difficult situation. As album sales or music chart rankings have become a measure of 'fandom power' rather than a 'popular singer,' they feel fear in producing full-length albums that require high labor and financial resources.
This fear is particularly greater for 'legend' singers who dominated the past. Kim BumSoo, w