A friend of mine and I were recently discussing the evolution of kpop throughout the years and found one of our main talking points to be this rise in conformity.
I found it particularly interesting because I think it contrasts with modern kpop music itself which imo is more diverse and interesting than ever. With such fierce competition, it seems like there is a new group that caters to almost any music tastes which we love to see.
Yet aesthetically, there is a major lack of individuality. Both in terms of styling and visuals. I am usually okay with distinguishing faces but I found groups like H2H and Rescene to be partially difficult to get down at first.
Now I don’t want this “they all look the same” argument to seem like it’s exclusive to the k-industry because it really isn’t. Think of the stereotypical ig baddie or southern sorority girlies looks. These aesthetics (and I use that term very loosely) also get a lot of flack for looking all the same.
IMO this conformity is very much intentional and goes hand in hand with how kpop in general is becoming a lot more inspired by nicher and nicher subcultures. Ex, KiiKii and their frutiger metro look or BDC and their rockstar gf vibe.
These aesthetics are a lot easier to sell when there is already conformity to a certain extent.