Korean netizens discuss reasons why recent boygroups are not as popular to the public as girlgroups

Netizens on Korean online forum Pann are having a hot debate about why new boy groups are not gaining as much popularity as their female colleagues.

Recently, Korean netizens on Pann, a popular online community in Korea, are paying attention to a post about the reasons for rookie boygroups’ lack of popularity these days. The post mentions many promising new idols in the industry and has received countless comments from netizens, who give their own answers to this debatable topic.

The post and some of its comments are as below.

“Why aren’t male idols gaining popularity and public’s love these days?

Aside from their album sales.

Girlgroups like aespa, StayC, OH MY GIRL, etc., are well-known to the public, but I don’t think there are any boygroups that can do the same.

I don’t think there’s a boygroup that is as popular  (as the mentioned girlgroups) this year.

The situation wasn’t this bad in the EXO-BTS-Wanna One period, and it wasn’t like that before as well, but why is the dark age of male idols happening now?

[+403, -168] But for real, their songs are so bad. NCT is in their second phase but their songs are meh, including their new song “Sticker.”

[+299, -9] Cause there are many prejudices about male idols. Girlgroups have both male and female fans, but boygroups have overwhelmingly more female fans. I think these are the two biggest reasons.

[+270, -6] Regardless of the quality of songs, both men and women are interested in and listen to girlgroups’ songs, but boygroups’ songs are only listened to by their fans. (The public thinks that) when someone listens to a female idol song, they are listening to an idol song, but if it’s a male idol song, they become crazy fangirls. That’s why people are not listening to boygroups’ songs.

[+236, -10] Try listening to Sticker (NCT127) and Cooking (Stray Kids), then listen to Lies (Big Bang) and Fiction (Beast/Highlight), you’ll understand why they are not popular.

[+164, -3] This is a fact. If you want to make a living as a female idol, you have to make songs with as much quality as OH MY GIRL and IZ*ONE’s. All the low-quality groups are out. However, boygroups can be richer than Red Velvet even if they make trash songs. They can still survive even if their songs are lame. It’s not Why is there no popularity for male idols? But more of Why can only male idols succeed even if they are good or bad?”

What is your opinion about this matter?