Hearing the news that iKon is participating in Mnet’s reality program, Kingdom: Legendary War reminds me of my time watching their old survival shows. In the process, I noticed a unique trend between YG Entertainment’s boy groups. Asides from coming from the same label, Big Bang, Winner, iKon and Treasure all share one more similarity. It is that survival programs mark their introduction to the music world.
The company launched its first survival show in 2006 with Big Bang: The Beginning, a documentary show following six individuals’ journey in battling for a spot to form Big Bang. In the last elimination, YG dropped Jang Hyun Seung, a former member of B2ST, and Big Bang became a team of five. The group originally struggled to gather fame; however, this struggle doesn’t undermine the show’s success. As intended, YG selected qualified members for the team through the series. The synergy of the selected five members made the group become the most legendary group of the past decade. The multitalented members became the blueprint for the next era of K-pop as future idols, including BTS, claim them as their role models.
Promotional poster for WIN: Who is Next
Fast forward 7 years later, in trying to make the second Big Bang, YG pitted two groups of trainees, team A and team B in Win: Who is Next series. The premise is that the winning team will debut as Winner, and the losing team will disband or undergo member change. The show journals the teams’ effort to impress the judges and the audience with performances that highlight their singing, dancing, rapping and composing skill. Basing solely on viewers’ votes, Team A was crowned as Winner, allowing them to debut on August 17, 2014. The success of the show led to Winner claiming the title “monster rookie.” Not to mention the group swept domestic charts and year-end rookie awards, the quintet is also the fastest to win a music show in just five days after debut.
Shortly after Winner’s debut, YG made a surprise announcement to launch another survival show called Mix & Match. As promised, the show disassembled team B from Win: Who is Next. It is rare for companies to debut back-to-back boy groups, let alone in a span of less than one or two years. So, the show to me is a strategic move to optimize YG’s investment in the trainees. YG capitalized the fame team B acquired from the previous show and used Mix & Match to give them more exposure. Three spots in the group were reserved for Team B’s most prominent members B.I, Bobby and Jinhwan. The other three members along with three new trainees competed in a series of unit stages to complete the four open spots in iKon. Unlike Win: Who is Next, YG artists decided the final members together with viewers in a 3 by 7 split. Like Winner, iKon immediately found success with the release of their debut single “My Type.” The song achieved certified all-kill on Korean music charts and the group earned a grand rookie slam for winning rookie of the year in all major Korean music award shows.
Finalists of YG Treasure Box before performing
YG’s newest group, Treasure, is no exception to this formula. In November 2018, YG Treasure Box aired its first episode simultaneously on JTBC2 and YG official YouTube channel. The program witnessed individual and group battles between 29 male trainees, who were originally grouped in four teams known as Treasure A, B, C and J. Treasure A consists of YG’s longest and oldest trainees. Treasure B is a team of beginners between the age of 16 and 19, and Treasure C is the youngest group of trainees with an average age of 14.4 years. Finally, YG’s Japanese trainees composed Treasure J. The final members were selected 50% by in-house producers, 20% by online voters and 30% by studio audience. The 12 members Treasure’s path to debut suffered delays as YG Entertainment faced scandals after scandals that led to the resignation of its CEO, Yang Hyun Suk, and the retirement of Big Bang’s Seungri. After almost two years of waiting, Treasure finally made their debut on August 7, 2020. Although the group failed to do well on Korean digital charts, their debut is still considered a success. The loyal fan base they amassed from the show proved their dedication as Treasure achieved 100,000 pre-order sales in just two days for their single album. The group also entered Billboard Social Chart four times prior to their debut. The impressive accomplishments signal the benefit of survival shows and Treasure’s growth potential.
Unraveling the similarity, it is amazing to realize YG Entertainment’s persistency in the path that its boy groups take. Although 2NE1’s and BlackPink’s success without survival shows questions the need of these shows, if anything, it won’t be a surprise if YG launches another reality program for the next boy group.
Sources:
https://ulzza.com/ikons-amazing-achievements-surprised-new-k-pop-fans/
https://www.allkpop.com/article/2014/08/winner-dominate-charts-with-their-album-2014-s-s
http://www.thekrazemagazine.com/latest-updates/2018/4/7/history-of-k-pop-bigbang
Musings on K-pop by Duke Univ. Students 
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