SM Entertainment Joins The “Idiotic” 5th Gen K-Pop Discourse, Claims New Boy Group Will Be Strongest Of The Generation

It was recently announced that SM Entertainment will allegedly be debuting their new boy group, featuring former NCT members Sungchan and Shotaro, this upcoming September. The announcement led to a lot of excitement from fans who are eager to see the two idols finally get the promotion that they deserve, and people are curious to see what the other five members of the seven-member group have to offer the K-Pop industry.

However, a recent marketing decision made by SM Entertainment has some people rolling their eyes and criticizing the label for joining the “idiotic” discourse that has been the discussion about if and when the 5th generation of K-Pop has or will begin.

It was only yesterday that we wrote about netizens criticizing Mnet and WAKEONE for heavily pushing the narrative that ZEROBASEONE is the beginning of the 5th generation of K-Pop, when in reality, there doesn’t seem to be any real evidence that a shift in generations is happening. And it seems that SM Entertainment is jumping on the bandwagon, as evidenced by an article shared on an online forum post.

The article names the upcoming boy group as the “strongest of the 5th generation”, a title that seems far too early to claim.

“SM’s rookie boy group, debuting in September… The strongest idols of the 5th generation, the birth of ‘monster rookies’

“The debut of a new boy group from SM Entertainment is imminent.

As a result of Sports Chosun’s coverage, SM’s new boy group is preparing for their debut in September. They are currently filming the main video for their debut song in Los Angeles, USA.”

The post has received overwhelmingly negative responses from netizens, many of whom don’t even see the point in talking about the change in generations. Others are just excited for Sungchan and Shotaro to debut again, and couldn’t care less about what generation they debut in.

It will be interesting to see if other labels start to use the “5th generation” title in their own upcoming group debuts, or if the negative backlash will keep that from happening.