How can we be in the 4th gen era when 3rd gen are still dominating?

[Corysilk]

I thought a new era started when the OG's finally die down and make room for the next generation.  Aside from Aespa I just don't see that happening with the other so called 4th gen groups.  Plus most of them are barely 3 yrs younger than the current dominating 3rd gen groups so wtf?  In my opinion 4th gen will start next year since the new idols will be young teens and they can reach a demo that 3rd gen can't tap into.  Actually Aespa can kinda count as 4th gen too since they bested RV.  They can be the grandma's of 4th gen just like RV are the grandma's of 3rd gen.

[good_morning]

My thoughts exactly. I think stans of newer groups made the 4th gen thingy to make their faves’ achievements bigger and to create another competition, i mean another level of it. Because 3rd gen groups like bts, seventeen, exo(?), got7 aren’t reachable in terms of recognition and sales, so do girls groups-twice, gfriend etc

[YeoChin Fairies]

If groups like GIDLE, ITZY, Aespa, STAYC, WEEEKLY etc are considered 4th generation, I have to say they are extremely lacking compared to 3rd generation in terms of recognition. Sure they have bigger fandoms and better physical sales in general but aside from Aespa, no one released an outstanding, HUGE hit which would put their names out there as a huge brand. People love to make it seem as if GIDLE or ITZY are digital monsters per say, but compared to 3rd generation girl groups who released hits : Twice, Gfriend, Mamamoo, Red Velvet, IOI, Oh My Girl... They barely have any digital power at all. Dalla Dalla is a hit but it literally spent as many days on MelOn as LOVELYZ' ah choo did (Yet hypocrite ifans would treat LOVELYZ like a nugu or smth) 

[iKnife BurnCat]

This is going so fast, in 2 years we will already have 5th gen

[deobizone]

I thought that a few years ago when ppl started saying it... But it makes more sense to me now or like.. No use in trying to figure out which is right. If kfans saying it too makes sense rather than ifans figuring it out... Which I assume they are but not sure 

[Shakey26]

I still feel like 4th gen is supposed to start 2021/2022 since I noticed the generation usually switches off after a decade. Like Seo Taiji and the boys were basically the start of kpop and they debuted 1991. Then the gen ends around 2000/2001 and starts up again after Rain and Wheesung's debut in 2002. 2nd gen ends in 2011 and 3rd gen takes off in 2012 with the rise of EXO and B.A.P's rookie battle. So naturally, it would seem like 3rd gen should end around 2020/2021 like the others have and 4th gen should be starting this year or 2022. It's always kind of been like that but now people are saying 4th gen started somewhere between 2017 and 2019, which leaves a really early cut off for 3rd gen compared to the previous generations since that means 3rd would of only lasted 5 to 7 years while all the other ones lasted 9 to 10 years. I don't know what's right or wrong but I feel like the new girl groups that are getting ready to debut kind of feels like the transition that's needed for 4th gen. I could be wrong with my logic but this is how I've been looking at the whole "generation" thing for the past 13 years and it always seemed fairly accurate.  

p.s Sorry for the long post. Really wasn't trying to create a whole essay but that's how it turned out