OpinionK-pop in 2022 so far: Le Sserafim chaos, WJSN’s Queendom 2 win confusion, concert tours missing stars – it’s been an up and down year

The scandal surrounding Le Sserafim’s Kim Garam, and a brewing one over WJSN, are examples of how the K-pop world is in a state of flux

Things are more positive in terms of music, with addictive recent hits like That That from Psy and BTS’s Suga, (G)I-dle’s Tomboy, and IVE’s Love Dive

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K-pop girl group WJSN at KCON Seoul 2022 in Seoul on May 8, 2022. A controversy is brewing over the group’s recent win on the popular TV series Queendom 2. Photo: AFP

Published: 6:45am, 8 Jun 2022

Almost halfway through 2022 and it’s hard to say where the year will lead K-pop.

By all quantifiable measures, such as streaming numbers, charts, record sales and so on, K-pop is having a great year, with many artists seeing success. Both international touring and local touring within South Korea have returned as Covid-19 precautions lift around the world, enabling live music events to return to a sense of normalcy.

But while there have been big songs and monumental moments, there hasn’t been that one event that has defined the year, as 2022 still seems to be deciding the mark it will leave on K-pop.

Beyond this, the industry is in a state of flux. As in 2021, change is in the air and recent occurrences have emphasised how, no matter whether for the biggest names or rookie acts, things feel slightly off-kilter.

For example, take new girl group Le Sserafim, who debuted on May 2 with their album Fearless. By the end of the month, one member, Kim Garam, was on hiatus due to allegations of bad behaviour as a student, and the group’s future as a six-member team is uncertain.

Will Le Sserafim continue as a six-member team after the controversy surrounding Kim Garam? Photo: @le_sserafim/Instagram

Managed by Hybe subsidiary Source Music, Le Sserafim had major expectations of being a big hit for the parent company, which is also home to the likes of BTS, Seventeen and formerly GFriend. But as Source scrambled to at first seemingly ignore, then later react to, accusations against Kim, it felt that the group’s highly anticipated debut roll-out – and the success of their single Fearless – had been obscured by the chaos, with no end in sight as yet.