2011 was the year of girl group. Many girl groups from Girls' Generation, Wonder Girls, KARA, T-ARA to new groups of Dal Shabet, Nine Muses, A-Pink were active last year. But it seems year 2012 is a bit different with news of debut and comeback of boy band is leading a new wind.

In the beginning of 2012, new boy groups announced their debut. B.A.P had their debut with their showcase gathering 3,000 fans. Another new boy group NU'EST followed with their debut. B.A.P is the same agency as Secret. NU'EST is same with After School. SM Entertainment announced new boy group of EXO's debut both with Korean and Chinese speaking members, Cube Entertainment signaled a debut for BTOB as well.

Senior idol groups also announced their comeback Big Bang garnered worldwide attention with their 5th mini album 'Alive', SHINee returned with the release of their 4th mini album 'Shelock' on March 19, and Shinhwa the longest idol group greeting its 14th anniversary returned with their 10th studio album after a 4 year hiatus.

This new wave arose from the situation of overflowing with girl groups. There are more than 100 girl groups that are active currently in K-pop. It's not even easy for people to remember the name of groups that exist so imagine how more difficult it is for new girl group to get attention of public or even set a differentiated concept. Music representatives shared, “The girl group market was already saturated. Realistically a concept of girl group is cute, sexy, or boyish. However there are already so many girl groups that have similar concept, dance, and music which make the public become tired of it.”

Which is the reason why music representatives were anticipating for ‘era of boy group’ to return back. Moreover boy groups are more attractive for agencies as well. One entertainment staff mentioned, “Boy group fan base are more loyal, stronger and expands faster than girl groups. Also boy group is more favorable in earning profits as well. This is the reason why agencies are more attracted to release new boy groups.”

Then can the boy groups face up to ‘woman power?’ The majority opinion is that the odds are good enough.

There is no one ‘undisputed leader’ for girl groups. There are teams that have strong power such as Girls’ Generation, Wonder Girls, KARA, T-ARA that are focusing on oversea activities or other fields such as acting. On the other hand boy groups such as Big Bang, SHINee, Shinhwa who are top artists with an existing strong fan base has proclaimed their comeback. For them their comeback itself can become an issue therefore it should be easy for them to change the askew influence.

K-Pop now seems to be represented generally to the majority as idol groups so it will be interesting to continouly see the trend and flow of the groups activties. This is good news for fans of boy groups to have greater interest for K-Pop.