Our predictions for K-pop trends in 2023!

K-Pop Blog > News > K-Pop 2023

In the last few weeks we have been looking back at the year 2022. Which concerts took place in 2022? What were the best-selling albums in 2022? After dealing with such questions, it's now time to look ahead! What can we K-pop fans expect in 2023? Which trends from this year might continue and which new trends will emerge?

We've been thinking and would love to share our ideas with you!

• A year of boy or girl groups?
• These bands are still on the rise!
• The return of the second K-pop generation.
• These 3rd gen bands may be making a comeback
• More digital albums in 2023?

Will 2023 be a year of girl groups or boy groups?

We can all certainly agree that 2022 was a year of girl groups. This year saw the debut of several new girl groups that topped the charts and won all the Rookie Awards.

We're talking about Le sserafim and NewJeans from HYBE, of course, as well as NMIXX from JYP Entertainment and Kep1er from the survival show Girls Planet 999. And we can't forget Starship Entertainment's young girl group IVE , of course. This one debuted in late 2021, but has celebrated most of its first milestones this year as well.

NewJeans, Le sserafim and IVE in particular have also dominated Google Search Trends! We expect these groups to be with us in 2023 as well, even surpassing their previous records.

But 2023 could actually become a year of boy groups!

In the coming months, for example, a series of Survival shows are scheduled to air:

The survival shows are Boys Planet 999, Nizi Project Season 2 and Fantasy Boys. All three shows are the second seasons. The first seasons featured successful groups such as Kep1er (Girls Planet 999), NiziU (Nizi Project) and Class:y (My Teenage Girl). So the shows and the new boy groups will definitely get a lot of attention!

In addition, major entertainments like JYP, HYBE and SM have also announced new groups!

HYBE, the home of BTS, is planning two new boy groups at once, produced by different sub-labels. Pledis Entertainment (known for Seventeen & fromis_9) and Belift Lab (Enhypen).

Moreover, as recently as December, the nine-member boy group &Team debuted under the sub-label "Hybe Labels Japan". The debut of &Team was highly anticipated because the group had already been introduced by the survival show "&AUDITION - The Howling". The show itself attracted attention in advance because four former participants of I-Land (the show in which Enhypen was created) were to participate. All four are now members of &Team. The boy group's Youtube channel also already has 500,000 subscribers. We look forward to seeing more of the guys and expect them to make it big in 2023!

The JYP Entertainment also has big plans for 2023. The label will not only air Nizi Project Season 2 to create a Japanese boy group, but will also present a Korean boy group, a Chinese boy group, and an American boy group! We can't even decide which one we're most excited about!

And as if that wasn't enough, a new NCT unit is also finally scheduled to debut next year. Members include Seungchan and Shotaro, who were already introduced in 2020.

Will these new boy groups be able to hold up against IVE, NewJeans and co?

By the way, the girls will also get reinforcement, because the survival show I-Land 2, among others, is to start soon, in which a girl group will be created. Season 1 gave birth to the successful boy group Enhypen in 2020!

The new boy groups will undoubtedly shake up the K-pop scene, but we assume that the girl groups that won a lot of fans for themselves this year will not give up the top spot in the charts so easily!

Of course, the rookie groups aren't the only ones who will dominate 2023.

Some already established bands are also still on the rise!

These are the boy and girl groups that we suspect have a big year ahead of them. They are already successful, but have shown time and time again in 2022 that they have the potential to outdo themselves once again:

NCT, Seventeen, Enhypen, Stray Kids, TXT, Ateez, aespa, ITZY, Twice & Blackpink.

They all managed this year again, or even for the first time, to sell more than a million copies of an album. We would especially highlight Seventeen, Stray Kids and Blackpink, as well as NCT Dream and NCT 127, because they even cracked the two million mark. Seventeen and NCT Dream even celebrated this special success for the second time!

So these groups are not slowing down at all even two, four or in the case of Seventeen and Twice even seven years after their debut. If anything, they are just getting started!

Of course, we haven't forgotten BTS . But let's be honest, it goes without saying that the global boy band is far from done! In 2023, however, we will actually hear a little less from the boys, because after Jin, the other members will also begin their military service one by one.

Can we expect the return of bands from the second K-pop generation again in 2023?

This year, fans could enjoy the return of second-generation K-pop legends! The two girl groups SNSD and Kara celebrated their 15th anniversary with a new album. SNSD last released a joint album in 2017 and Kara in 2014!

In addition, Big Bang released a new single after four years and the girl group Sistar performed together for the first time since their breakup in 2017. Even 2NE1 surprised us at Coachella 2022 with a joint performance, for the first time in six years!

On the other hand, we are sure that some bands of the 3rd generation will be on stage together again next year after a long break!

This is because some idols will soon return from the military.

SHINee

SHINee's Maknae Taemin will finish his service in early 2023. With that, all four members of SHINee will have finally completed their military service! We assume that the boy group will celebrate Taemin's return with a new album! It would be the first since the Japanese album "Superstar" (June 2021). The last Korean albums "Don't Call Me" and the repackage "Atlantis" were also released in the first half of 2021.

EXO

The last comeback with all nine members was more than four years ago! "Don't Mess Up My Tempo", in fact, was released in 2018. Since then, several members of EXO have done their military service. In February, Baekyhun will finally be ready as well. The two youngest EXO members Kai and Sehun still have their service ahead of them, but no date has been set yet. So it is very likely that EXO will use the opportunity to record a joint album!

Day6

The rock band has been on a break since the middle of the 2021 year, as all four members have started their military service one after the other. Sungjin is already back and Young K, Dowoon, and Wonpil all finish their service in 2023, but since Wonpil won't be ready until November, we may even have to wait until 2024.

While some are coming back, others have to leave:

Most men must serve until they are 28, and Idols can delay starting until 30 at the most. Groups like SF9, Pentagon, and most recently BTS have already sent their first members into the military. And it's probably coming soon for a few other of our favorite groups, too.

We're thinking of NCT, Seventeen and iKon, for example. NCT's oldest member Taeil is already 28, S.Coups from Seventeen is 27 and Jay from iKon will even be 29 early next year.

More digital albums in 2023?

Digital albums are not new, but they are becoming more and more common. There is now a digital version of more than every second new album, anD the boy group Ateez has even released digital versions of older albums. We suspect that in 2023 they will become even more commonplace and there will hardly be an album without a digital alternative.


Those are our predictions for 2023! How excited are you for the new year?