I have to start this discussion because I honestly find many comments in this thread appalling. Many of the posters seem to hold the belief that Europe and North America are the gold standard for global popularity, even though together they only consist of 18% of the world population.

I am not even familiar with the Asian girl bands mentioned in the thread, let alone be a fan of them, but it is beyond dispute that they are extremely popular in the largest continent in the world that has 60% of the world population. Yet many posters seem to have the attitude that they don't even belong in the discussion, because they are not famous enough outside Asia.

On the other hand, many of them believe that the American girl band that is the subject of that thread is, naturally, the biggest girl band in the world, despite the fact that they are barely heard of in the largest continent in the world. and the fact that their record sales are nowhere near that of the Asian girl bands mentioned in the thread.

Mathematically, 60/100 of course trumps 18/100, but that seems to hold very little weight here. So one has to wonder, why is that?

I am sure that on a korean forum or a chinese forum pop girls like Selena or Megan T are less relevant then their asian stars, same applies here. This forum was made by a north american and majority of us are europeans/americans, and for us those continents matter bcs of a coultural simillarities, language etc... + most of us are gays and they tend to be dramatic, so

Wrong. Japan surpassed the US in 2013 as the largest market for record sales in the world.

Because we're in the western world, and ATRL barely knows much about the Asian music industry unless you're a K-Pop fan. But ATRL pays dust to all non-western continents. I mean don't even get me started about Africa

The majority of posters here are based in America & Europe so no surprise here.

but yeah, Girls Generation is the biggest girl group in the world that debuted this millennium #FactOnly

Asian excellence has them pressed

No that's AKB48 silly

If you've grown up in the western world, you may believe it does. From a realistic standpoint, it matters just as much if not more. Asian markets are more stable, not nearly as trend-based, and haven't seen the rampant amount of one-hit-wonders like the US is experiencing.

If anything, to a pop music fan, Asia should be a market you try to gain a following in the most because when the US and Europe get tired of you, Asia will still pull through as it has for many pop girls.

this is true, US gets tired of their stars quick, Europe not so, but in asia you are always a star, they are diffrernt they respect legends...