K-pop industry execs polled by Sports Seoul on … well, basically everything

Partially because it’s relevant to know how the people in charge of K-pop see the industry, but mostly because the mess that stems from stuff like this is amusing, Asian Junkie will cover the Sports Seoul survey of the industry done for their 33rd anniversary.

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Power People

1. BTS
2. Lee Soo Man
3. Bang Shi Hyuk
4. Yang Hyun Suk
4. WANNA ONE

Best Producer

1. Bang Shi Hyuk
2. Lee Soo Man
3. Park Jin Young
4. Yang Hyun Suk
5. Teddy
5. Black Eyed Pilseung

Best Boy Group

1. BTS
2. WANNA ONE
3. EXO
4. Big Bang
5. SEVENTEEN

Best Girl Group

1. TWICE
2. Red Velvet
3. BLACKPINK
4. MAMAMOO
5. GFRIEND

Best Male Solo

1. G-Dragon
2. Zico
3. Crush
4. Hwang Chi Yeol
4. Taemin

Best Female Solo

1. IU
2. Sunmi
3. Taeyeon
4. Heize
4. Chungha

Best Rookie

1. (G)I-DLE
2. Chungha
3. WANNA ONE
4. Stray Kids
4. NCT
5. The Boyz

Best Company

1. SM Entertainment
2. Big Hit Entertainment
3. JYP Entertainment
4. YG Entertainment

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The disparity between the popularity of WANNA ONE in Korea and abroad is notable — aside from the rookie thing which is likely because they won’t exist soon. Think the same could be said for IU, as she’s consistently seen in Korea as far and away the best female soloist but is generally not that talked about internationally despite K-pop fans knowing about her. Everybody probably knows by now that Chungha is legit, but (G)I-DLE seems to be on pace to be the next big girl group.

Anyway, fight in the comments or whatever.