Female fans become driving force of K-pop girl groups

K-pop

Published: 12 Dec. 2022, 15:20 Updated: 05 Jan. 2023, 13:11

Female fans become driving force of K-pop girl groups

The JoongAng Ilbo, an affiliate of the JoongAng Daily, conducted in-depth surveys and interviews on 100 domestic K-pop fans in October. [AHN DA-YOUNG]

Fans are the heartbeat of the K-pop ecosystem. They do much more than simply enjoy artists' music; from merchandise to reality shows, they consume all the content that artists put out and voluntarily promote it to others. The number of fans is equal to an artist's power in the K-pop scene, which is why artists and their agencies pull out all the stops to secure a large and loyal fandom, both domestically and globally.

But who are these fans?

Without a census, there has been no way to pinpoint the gender ratio or age range of these fans, but the industry has generally come to assume that 70 to 90 percent of K-pop fans are female. This means that a K-pop artist's success virtually depends on support from women.

In the entertainment industry in general, female consumers are the core consumers. According to an analysis by Samsung Securities, female consumers share the following tendencies: They put an emphasis on their personal values and satisfaction, prefer two-way interactions, produce secondary content based on their fanhood and are willing to splurge on what holds personal meaning to them.

For decades, these yeodeok, Korean slang for female fans, have been mostly attracted to male artists, which is why girl groups relatively lagged behind in their number of loyal fans or commercial performances. This is still true to an extent; however, recently, women have gotten behind K-pop girl groups and have helped them skyrocket.

The JoongAng Ilbo, an affiliate of the JoongAng Daily, conducted in-depth surveys and interviews on 100 domestic K-pop fans in October.

Fans, mostly female, visit a themed cafe in central Seoul's Yongsan District in October, celebrating the birthday of NewJeans member Hanni. [PARK KUN]

Who are the yeodeok?

The survey outlined the average K-pop fan: women in their 20s who are employed and spend about one to two hours a day and around 100,000 won ($75) a month on fan activities for girl groups, for which they feel "admiration" and "maternal love."

These fans in their 20s were born between the mid-1990s and mid-2000s, meaning they grew up after K-pop idol groups had already established themselves a crucial part of mainstream Korean pop culture. They are "K-pop natives" who grew up dancing to idol groups' choreography routines since kindergarten. Among the female respondents, 46.5 percent responded that they started some kind of fan activity between fourth and sixth grade.

A female interviewee in her 20s, an office worker who wished to remain anonymous, told the JoongAng Ilbo that she spends on average 11 to 15 hours a day on fan activities. She is a loyal fan of the 13-member girl group WJSN. When the group released an EP this July, she said she spent a total of 3.5 million won to show support throughout its period of promotional activities by purchasing CDs, merchandise and more.

WJSN debuted in 2016. It is currently active as a 10-member group as three more Chinese members are active in China. [STARSHIP ENTERTAINMENT]

"Friendship and love," she said when asked what emotions she feels toward WJSN.

"The boy band that I liked in my teens was always riled with messy scandals," she said. "That's when I felt skeptical toward supporting artists and took a break from K-pop. But I came across WJSN later in my high school days, when it was gaining popularity in Korea and abroad through cool concepts and stage performances."

Why girl groups?

"I was looking for a photo to motivate me to lose weight, and then I was mesmerized by how they dominated the stage," said a college student who is a fan of Blackpink.

"Irene of Red Velvet was a model for a fried chicken advertisement when I was in the fourth grade," said a 17-year-old fan of the girl group. "My first fangirl moment was when I told my younger sister, 'This pretty eonni's [affectionate term for an older female] name is Irene.'"

Red Velvet has seen long-lasting popularity since debuting in 2014. [SM ENTERTAINMENT]

"I fell in love with how they always give their everything," said a woman in her 30s, a worker who identified herself as a fan of Le Sserafim, Girls' Generation and WJSN.

All of them are yeodeok of girl groups. Fans often remember the very moment they became a fan and have since formed a personal narrative within them; like watching a stage performance on one fateful day and falling into the fanhood rabbit hole, a process informally called ipdeok (entering the fandom) in Korean. Many shared that they admire their favorite girl groups because they are "pretty, talented and hardworking."

"Watching them perform on stage makes me happy," said a 30-something female fan of girl groups NewJeans, IVE, ITZY, Twice and (G)I-DLE. "When they do well on stage, I feel a sense of pride, too. At the end of the day, I'm a fan because they give me happiness like that."

NewJeans debuted in August 2022 and quickly became one of the most popular girl groups today. [NEWS1]

Many fans are willing to go so far as to break the bank to show their love. The highest amount spent among the survey respondents was from a man in his 30s who spent 10 million won in a single month when girl group Nmixx released its sophomore EP in September. A female college student in her 20s, a fan of Apink and WJSN, replied that she spends a monthly average of 5 million won on her fan activities. She said she spends the majority of her day doing fan activities, often staying up all night. The driving forces behind her all-nighters were "admiration and maternal love," she said.

During a one-on-one interview, a 28-year-old female fan of (G)I-DLE said "there's no specific reason for falling in love," while explaining how she discovered the girl group.

"I happened to come across its reality show on YouTube," she said, "and before I knew it, I had become immersed."

Girl crush

The way female fans viewed their favorite girl groups was multifaceted. They respected and admired them, while also wanting to protect and support them.

A fan of fromis_9 said that, for her, the girl group's members feel like "romantic partners in the monitor, sometimes like the children I've never had, and sometimes like comrades in arms taking on the same journey."

"[Fanhood] has that special something, different from what real-life social relationships can offer," she said, when asked why she became a fan. "Some people don't look at me favorably because I'm a fan of a girl group at my age, when society expects me to get married. But those people aren't going to be responsible for my happiness, so I don't care. As of now, I like fromis_9 more than the idea of dating or getting married."

fromis_9 was formed through Mnet's audition show "Idol School" in 2017. [NEWS1]

"You can't help but get mesmerized by a member who is a great singer and also has good looks," said an 18-year-old fan of numerous girl groups currently active. She majors in music and dreams of working with her favorite artist in the future.

"But even if I try to take a liking to boy bands, I don't like their music style, their atmosphere or the members. Most of all, I'm not able to relate to them, which is why I keep coming back to girl groups."

Overall, women entered girl group fandoms after becoming captivated by their performance skills, mannerisms, personality or backstory portrayed by the media. They also tend to remain loyal fans for a long period of time. Many also emphasized that they feel relieved as girl groups are less likely to become embroiled in scandals regarding misdemeanors or legal troubles.

Le Sserafim debuted in May 2022 and is known for its athletic performances. [SOURCE MUSIC]

Whatever the reason is, these fans spend a significant amount of time and money to show their support. They enjoy the sense of connection and interaction, regardless of how tangible it is, and are willing to pour unconditional love into it. In a way, they enjoy the "agreed inequality" of the relationship.

There have been many theories as to why women are more prone to becoming loyal fans of an artist compared to men. Some experts assert that back when women faced many limits on their social activities, being a fan was one of the few areas in which they could actively enjoy themselves with autonomy. While such an interpretation still leaves many questions, in general, women clearly show a tendency to assign high value to intangible experiences in other cultural fields as well. The live performance, publication and cinema industries all have women as their core consumer base.

Para-romance to para-parenthood

One key change from K-pop culture in the '90s till now is that the dominant sentiment among fans is no longer para-romantic. K-pop has often faced criticism that it is fundamentally based on selling virtual romance, while fans view singers as subjects of romantic feelings. Such preromantic sentiment was largely normalized, as seen in television shows depicting the era like "Reply 1997" (2012).

Blackpink was one of the first K-pop girl groups to become known for having a high ratio of female fans, as it focuses on an image of feminine confidence. [YG ENTERTAINMENT]

Nowadays, at least in the open, that culture has largely declined as more women became fans of female artists. Their positive feedback toward boy bands and girl groups alike is centered around their talent, good looks and personality. Comments that sexually objectify the members are highly frowned upon.

"Ever since the days of first-generation idols [in the '90s], the relationship set between singers and fans shows how the industry has progressed," said pop music critic Mimyo.

"First-generation idols were oppa [affectionate term for an older male] who came out of nowhere, and they were subjects of worship," he said. "Afterwards, we started seeing more idol groups get formed through reality audition shows, which completely changed the relationship between the groups and fans. [Even before their official debut,] fans already knew the entire narrative of those members: Who they are, where they're from and how they've worked toward stardom. Think Mnet's audition show 'Produce 101' series [2016-19], which really strengthened this kind of dynamic. Fans now get to choose their own idols with their own hands. Fans, who used to be followers, are now consumers and supporters."

Nmixx debuted in February 2022. [JYP ENTERTAINMENT]

One fan of Nmixx expresses joy on Twitter after receiving gifts, called yeokjogong in Korean slang, from the girl group. K-pop idol acts often present fans who attend their gigs with such gifts. In the post, the fan praises Nmixx members as "daughters with filial piety." [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Para-romantic feelings have transformed into parental feelings of essentially raising a virtual child. Fans call their favorite stars, often younger than them, juvenile nicknames like "my child," "my baby" or "godgi," a portmanteau of god and agi (baby).

"Korea's younger generation, in their 20s and 30s, tend to care less about gender roles," said psychology professor Lim Myung-ho of Dankook University. "In the past, the aspects fans felt attracted to were mostly based on fantasy, like unrealistic beauty or romance. Now, they are more drawn when they find the stars relatable with their reality in some way."

BY CHUN YOUNG-SUN, BAE JUNG-WON [kjdculture@joongang.co.kr]