The heyday of girl groups is happening. Among 4th generation K-pop girl groups that have debuted since 2019, several teams stood out with their solid skills and unique individuality.
In the first generation, girl groups debuted after promoting that they were the younger sister groups of a successful boy group. A year after the debut of H.O.T and Sechskies, S.E.S and Fin.K.L in turn made their debut. However, the two groups began to promote the power of the female group by having as big fandoms as the boy groups. Baby Vox, which released hit songs such as “Killer” and “Get Up,” is also one of the representative girl groups of the first generation. Like S.E.S. and Fin.K.L, the group succeeded in differentiating itself by using the image of female warriors. Diva was also in the same group as Baby Vox. In addition, Milk, Sugar, Cleo, and Circle, which have innocent images, are also known as first-generation girl groups.
In 2007, when Girls’ Generation, Wonder Girls, and Kara debuted side by side, the era of the second generation of girl groups began. They greatly contributed to the expansion of Hallyu. Girls’ Generation and Kara were known as two major K-pop girl groups in Japan, and Wonder Girls entered the US Billboard’s main single chart ‘Hot 100’ for the first time in K-pop.
In addition, f(x), which is said to have presented the most progressive and experimental music among all girl groups, and second-generation girl groups such as Miss A, SISTAR, 4Minute, Afterschool, Secret, Girl’s Day, Apink, and HelloVenus, etc. drew attention by armed with various styles.
The fact that students at Ewha Womans University used Girls’ Generation’s song “Into the New World” for their protest confirmed that the contribution of idols, especially 2nd generation girl groups, are having a great influence on the society more than just being icons of popular culture.
This is the golden age of girl groups. Among all the 4th generation K-pop girl groups that debuted after 2019, many of them have become the center of attention thanks to their gorgeous visuals and excellent skill.
They outperform boy groups in terms of number. aespa, ITZY, STAYC, and IVE took the lead, followed by Kep1er and NMIXX, and other groups such as Everglow, Weekly, Cherry Bullet, Purple Kiss, Lightsum, Billlie, and H1-Key, all presented formidable performances.
In the case of (G)I-DLE and LOOΠΔ, both debuted in 2018 and have already solidified their global fandom, fromis_9, who was recruited by Pledis Entertainment, the agency of ‘Seventeen’ last year, is classified as the gen 3.5, depending on the classification criteria. They are also included in the 4th generation.
In addition, 4th generation girl groups, such as Le Sserafim, who will debut on May 2 as the first girl group of HYBE, the agency of the global supergroup BTS, also joined the race.
HYBE is about to launch a new girl group after Le Sserafim through the new label ‘Ador’ (All Doors One Room, ADOR). They will be active under Min Hee-jin, the CEO of Adore, who used to be in charge of concepts for Girls’ Generation and f(x). HYBE will also introduce a girl group through the label Belief Lab, a joint venture with CJ ENM, another big name in the entertainment industry. Season 2 of ‘I-LAND’, the survival show that created the boy group ENHYPEN, will be held as this new girl group’s audition. As many as 140,000 people has turned in their applications for this show. In addition, YG Entertainment, to which BLACKPINK belongs, is also preparing to launch another new girl group.
The 3rd generation girl group is symbolized by ‘TWICE‘, ‘Red Velvet‘ and ‘Black Pink‘. These groups form strong fandoms at home and abroad and attract passionate maniacs regardless of gender.
Twice and Blackpink are also raising their stock prices in the North American market, taking third and second places, respectively, on the US Billboard’s main album chart ‘Billboard 200’. Although Red Velvet has yet a good performance in the international market compared to the two other groups, the recently released album ‘The ReVe Festival 2022 – Feel My Rhythm’ has been praised for its various concepts.
In addition, the 3rd generation, including Oh My Girl, Mamamoo, Cosmic Girls, Brave Girls, Dreamcatcher, GFriend, Lovelyz, and April, each have a strong fanbase.
The 4th generation inherited the strengths of the seniors very early and built the fandom since they were trainees, and since their debut, they are considered to be almost ‘complete form’. As a result, groups like IVE quickly gained attention and topped music charts shortly after their debut.
aespa Karina and Winter, along with ‘Korean wave pioneer‘ BoA, Taeyeon and Hyoyeon of Girls ‘Generation, Seulgi and Wendy of Red Velvet form the project girl group Avengers’ GOT the beat‘, attracting the attention of global Kpop fans.
In fact, in the K-pop industry, the perception of girl groups was greater than commerciality. Each agency also paid more attention to securing company recognition through girl groups than in terms of revenue. But this is a thing of the past.
Like BlackPink, ‘million-seller’ girl groups that sell more than 1 million albums have begun to emerge. Blackpink is said to be the number one contributor to protecting YG during the hiatus of Big Bang.
In addition to BlackPink, the current popular girl groups can sell 500,000 copies of albums. They are not inferior to popular boy groups at all. In particular, Le Sserafim’s debut mini-album ‘Fearless’ has surpassed 380,000 pre-orders. It has surpassed boy bands in terms of music sales. Looking at recent music charts, groups like IVE, (G)I-DLE, Red Velvet, and aespa all have very good records.
Girl groups also boast of box office achievements through concerts. TWICE recently held a concert at Tokyo Dome, Japan for three consecutive days, attracting 150,000 people.
Large overseas music festivals are also sending love calls to K-pop girl groups. aespa recently stood on the main stage of the ‘Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival’, the largest music festival in the United States, held in Indio, California, USA.
Dreamcatcher, which is more popular abroad than in Korea for its unique worldview, will perform on the stage of ‘Primavera Sound‘ in Spain, one of the world’s largest music festivals in June. The girl band ‘Rolling Quartz‘, which is also attracting more attention abroad than in Korea, is also receiving offers from overseas music festivals one after another.
The culture of being attracted to girl groups regardless of gender and actively fanning them has already solidified. It means that they are attracted to and like the idol group itself, not the gender.
An office worker in their 30s, who is a ONCE (TWICE’s fandom name), said, “Fans tend to be more interested in female idols since they can follow the styles and use fashion items their idols introduced at the airport or on live broadcasts”, adding, “It’s also interesting to see the relationship between girl group members. I used to be a fan of male groups but after falling for the relationship between female idols, I now can’t get out of it”.
They said, “It will be different for each group, but female idols tend to take more care of fans than male idols. Since they’re also women, there are some points that they know better”, adding, “It doesn’t mean we should like female idols. That’s how I feel since the group I like is a female group. I don’t think gender matters”.
There is a newlywed couple who both love girl groups. The wife said, “I have always enjoyed listening to girl group music and doing covers of their choreographies since I was young. I always get excited and happy when I know someone who also likes the same member as me”, adding, “It has become something like my daily things since I have been with it since my elementary school days until now. My husband, who has seen me with that appearance since we dated, has now become my partner in being a girl groups mania”.
An office worker in Seoul (33 years old) has memories of picking out individual and group photos that cost 300 won per page because he likes both S.E.S and Fin.K said: “I still love the songs and performances of girl groups these days. I listen to girl group songs when I want to get excited and feel good on my way to work”.
“I feel their energy is being transmitted to me. When I listen to the song and watch the stage video, the stress is relieved, the energy I have lost is filled, and I unknowingly match the rhythm with my feet. Maybe it’s a small addiction in the hard days,” he said. He added that the song to be played repeatedly on the way to work is ‘O.O’ by NMIXX.
Park Hee-ah, a journalist specializing in pop culture, an ‘idol reporter’, said, “In the boy group market, it is difficult for a team to receive that much public recognition after BTS, so there are more cases where domestic and overseas reactions are sharply different. The girl groups still have good accessibility in terms of being relatively easy to understand both in terms of sound and performance.”
“Like IVE, some groups are gaining popularity by reflecting Generation Z’s identity in music and performance,” she said, “In the current situation, companies have good reasons to invest in girl groups as a means of consistently appealing to the public.”
