From Blackpink to Girls’ Generation to Brave Girls, K-pop girl groups have a lot to thank their female fans for

A Korean music and culture expert believes female fans are integral to the success of K-pop girl groups, and that this fact is being generally overlooked

The female audience is involved more actively in a variety of fan activities than their male counterparts, and at a much deeper level

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K-pop girl group Brave Girls (from left) Eunji, Yujeong, Minyong, and Yuna. They had one of 2021’s biggest hits in South Korea with Rollin’, released four years ago. They should thank their female fans for its success more than their male ones. Photo: Brave Entertainment

Published: 8:15pm, 8 May 2021Updated: 10:15am, 17 May 2021

Four years after its release, the song Rollin’ by K-pop girl group Brave Girls is one of 2021’s biggest hits in South Korea. Though much of the media narrative has been focused on how South Korea’s enlisted men have been supporting the band, that is just part of the story.

Professor Kim Jung-won, an ethnomusicologist and adjunct lecturer at South Korea’s Yonsei University, studies Korean music culture, K-pop, fandom, and gender studies, and thinks female fans are integral to the success of K-pop girl groups and this is being overlooked.

“The resurgence of K-pop girl groups and their old songs has been sparked by videos of their live performances their male fans took in local events and shared through social media,” Kim tells the Post, pointing to when EXID’s 2014 song Up & Down became one of 2015’s biggest hits after a fan-cam, recorded by a male fan, went viral.

“Once the fan-cams go viral, many viewers, including female audience members, get interested in the girl groups. Based on my observation of K-pop fandom, the ‘female’ audience has played far more important roles in promoting the girl groups and their music than male fans.”

EXID’s 2014 song Up & Down went on to become one of 2015’s biggest hits.

A similar instance happened with Brave Girls, when a video of their performances embedded with comments from audiences praising Rollin’ went viral earlier this year.