u/Professional_Set2863

Just recently, Bigbang had released their single Biiig (2026) to celebrate the group’s 20th anniversary. The song had already climbed into the top five of the domestic charts just within hours after it was released I have heard discussions amongst fans surrounding the group’s grip on the Korean general public with their music compared to other boy groups in K-pop. How did the group manage to do this? Are there any other boy group that can catch the attention of the Korean public like Bigbang?

Back in October, GDA had released their “Powerhouse 40” List to celebrate forty influential acts inside the Korea music industry. These acts were chosen by at least fifty experts as these experts had chosen groups, soloists, songwriters, and CEOs that they felt had made an impact on the Korean music scene. Now of course the list did cause controversy due many fans feeling that certain acts were left out along with the list having an intense gender imbalance due to eight women being chosen out of the forty individuals only the list. So, if the award show had made another “Powerhouse” List, what predictions would you make?

My predictions are Twice, Super Junior(controversial I know), and 2NE1.

Throughout their career, the members of Blackpink had been repeatedly dunked on for not writing they're on songs in their music. This has caused a lot of nonfans to refer to the members as idols and not artists. When the members had left YG Entertainment, they had begun to dive in more into the songwriting process of the songs on their albums. As of 2026, Jisoo has seven songwriting credits, Jennie has twelve songwriting credits, Rose has thirteen songwriting credits, and Lisa has twelve songwriting credits in which in each album all the members appear first on the credits of their albums. Not only that but some 3/4 members have producer/executive producer credits in some of their songs on their recent albums that they had released in between 2024-2025. However, nonfans still call the members idols and not real artists despite preaching that one of the most important aspects of becoming an artist is writing your own songs. If the members of Blackpink are still not seen as artists, then what is considered an artist for you?

Recently, I had seen a TikTok discussing friendships in K-pop and how the lack of friendship can ruin the way a group operates. She had also discussed the way K-pop groups had operated during the 2nd and 3rd generation compared to now. While the creator did mention that not every K-pop group doesn’t need to be friends, she still thinks that friendship is important when things go sideways. The problem I had with her videos is the examples she had used regarding K-pop groups that give off genuine friendship compared to others that give off co-worker energy. For her friendship examples, she had cited Super Junior, Seventeen, and GOT7 while on the co-workers side she had cited Blackpink, AOA, and T-ARA. The problem, I have with these examples is that it showcases the stereotype of women not getting along due to being jealous and competitive. I am not familiar with AOA or T-ARA but I am a fan of Blackpink as she had mentioned that she doesn’t know if the members are best friends and while their 10th anniversary was indeed controversial, the members had expressed time and time again that they are a family and have supported each other in their solo eras. Not only Blackpink, but groups like 2NE1 had also showcased a strong sisterhood bond while showcasing their support of each other. The way members of girl groups are accused of not getting along when they have a disagreement while members of boy groups like Super Junior, GOT7, and Shinee have admitted to having fights and disagreements with each other gets pushed off as developing brotherhood is rooted in double standards and misogyny.

It is perfectly fine if you prefer to be a fan of a group that shares a close bond with each other. The problem lies within the way girl groups are often viewed as jealous co-workers while boy groups are seen as true friends showcasing brotherhood.

Disclaimer: I am not accusing the creator of misogyny as I had thought her examples (not her entire video nor her topic) had showcased a damaging stereotype of women. Please be civil and do not send any hate towards her.

Song of the Year-BTS (Swim) and Huntr/x (Golden)

Best K-pop- BTS (Swim), Blackpink (Jump), Lisa (Dream), Cortis (REDRED), Katseye (Pinky Up), Le Sserafim (Spaghetti), and J-hope (Spaghetti)

Best New Artist- Cortis

Best Visual Effects- Jisoo (Eyes Closed Ft. Zayn)

Best Pop- Lisa (Dream)

Best Cinematography-Lisa (Dream)

Best Editing -Lisa (Dream)

Best Choreography- Katseye (Pinky Up)

Congratulations to all the nominees of this year’s awards. More nominations may be released soon so I will update the list after the announcement of those nominations.

I think that Blackpink had changed the game when they had companies debut more girl groups with a girl crush concept after the global success of Ddu-Du Ddu-Du (2018). I know that Blackpink didn't invent nor trailblaze the girl crush concept instead they had somewhat revived it and had companies following the same concept to achieve global success for their groups. Another historic thing that the group had done, was becoming the first K-pop girl group to sell a million copies with an album which had opened a flood gate for more girl groups in K-pop to sell a million copies in K-pop with their albums.

Disclaimer: This post is not intended to general BG and GG fans as it is only trying to call out toxic fans on both sides when it comes to the hate that girl groups receive. I am well aware of the hate that boy groups receive as this post is not a way to downplay that hate but discuss double standards between girl groups and boy groups in K-pop. Please be civil in this discussion and don't bring any hate towards any act in K-pop.

Whenever the topic of double standards between girl groups and boy groups get discussed, a lot of fans attributed to factors like general public popularity and the competitive nature amongst GG fans. While both of these factors play a huge role in to why girl groups receive hate, I think toxic BG fans tend to get away with their degrading comments towards girl groups. BG fans always state that the hate that girl group gets is mostly from GG fans and that BG fans usually mind their own business. However, in a lot of these situations that is not true as there are many instances where BG fans send hate towards girl groups in both the past and the present. I am going to present you with a few examples, of toxic BG fans targeting girl groups over something silly.

In 2008, a rookie SNSD had received a black ocean by toxic fans of Super Junior due to allegations of their fans destroying fan made Super Junior materials by an ELF. Not only ELFs but toxic fans of TVXQ and Wonder Girls had also joined in with giving the group a black ocean due to the members of SNSD receiving accusations of being disrespectful and flirting with male idols which was never confirmed by way. The black ocean had lasted throughout the group's entire performance as the group had received zero cheers from the crowd which had hurt the members as they would discuss about the black ocean just years later. The members had discussed that they weren't aware about the boycott and that the stadium was so dark that it looked like no one was even there to see them. This is one of the highlights of how toxic K-pop fans were back in the 2nd generation and how silly rumors can affect a group.

In 2011, K-pop groups Dal Shabet and B1A4 had did a collaboration stage together at the SBS Music Festival. After the performance, toxic fans of B1A4 had targeted Dal Shabet by sharing fabricating accusations online about the group which had stalled Dal Shabet's momentum during their rookie years as a group. The rumors had gotten so bad that even the group's company Happy Face Entertainment had to release a statement for people to stop making damaging rumors about the members which had only made things worse. Toxic fans of BIA4 had hacked the group's website and sent at least 26,000 death threats towards the group on the website while also making another petition demanding the members to apologize which had a total of 5,000 signatures. In my opinion, this was one of the most intense incidents in K-pop as not only this the company come forward, but Serri (one of the members) had also released a statement begging fans of BIA4 to leave her alone.

In 2022, Blackpink was accused of sleeping their way to the top by toxic fans of BTS during their promotions of their album Born Pink (2022). Toxic Armies had made degrading comments about the members and started dating rumors between Rose and at the time Spotify's Global Head of Music Jeremy Erlich. Not only that but Spotify had made a mistake by showing that Lisa was the most streamed K-pop soloist when it was actually Jungkook which had caused Lisa to receive degrading comments from toxic Armies. Despite Spotify fixing the problem the damage was already done with Blackpink fans demanding Spotify to apologize to Lisa due to the mess that was created by them. Another weird thing I have noticed is whenever there are videos about K-pop groups/soloists "struggling", a lot of the groups mentioned are mostly girl groups or female K-pop soloists. Also, whenever there are videos of female idols being criticized for wearing bold outfits and doing bold choreography, toxic fans of BGs make comments like "this is the reason I stan boy groups" despite boy groups performing shirtless, grabbing their private parts, and dry humping the air/floor on stage yet there are no videos about those performances. I think the reason why BG fans are so quick to bury the hate that girl groups get from toxic BG fans is due to boy groups having a female dominated fanbase and the damaging stereotype of women being jealous of other women that receives attention from men. I think that is why it is so easy to call out toxic GG fans that sent hate towards girl groups since these fandoms are made up of both women and men.

All in All, no group male or female, deserves to receive hate nor degrading comments from either GG fans or BG fans. However, just as fans rightfully call out toxic GG fans for hating on girl groups should also call out toxic BG fans for doing the same.

I had remembered during the airing of Rollercoaster (2025), the news of Shelly and Pundao’s relationship had exploded amongst fans and non-fans online as what had went from a simple congratulations had turned into a full blown scale of hate and misinformation online. Their relationship was accused of being fake along with Shelly receiving accusations of being a “Zionist” due to being half Israeli. Not only that but she was accused of lying about her sexuality after an old clip of her and Thai rapper Ironboy was seen online as the two had did a TikTok dance together. On the other hand, Pundao was accused of having a secret relationship with someone else every day to a point where she had to speak out and had told people to respect Shelly because Shelly is the one that truly loves her. Their company Motion Minds Entertainment had to release back to back statements of taking legal action against online trolls that were spreading around misinformation about both actresses’ personal lives. To this day Shelly and even Pundao had faced “Zionist” allegations despite both of them responding to these topics and non-fans accusing them of using their relationship to promote their new series that they are currently working on together. How did this manage to get out of hand so quickly inside the Thai GL community?

After the events of the group’s controversial 10th anniversary celebration, fans and non-fans had begun to speculate the reason why the members had decided to renew with YG instead of just buying the trademark and rights for their group. Fans had cited how IKON and GOT7 had acquired their trademark and rights to their names and had figured that Blackpink could still do the same. In my opinion, Blackpink are not in the same position as IKON and GOT7 as the situations amongst all three groups are just different. While IKON had debuted under YG and experienced popularity, the group was extremely mismanaged and was rocked with the scandal of their leader B.I leaving the group due to his mariguana scandal back in 2019. During the next few years, IKON had somewhat faded into the background and would leave YG in 2022 with the company giving the members the trademark and the rights to their names. I think that if IKON was as popular as Blackpink, YG would not have given the group their trademark nor name rights as till this day he still has the trademark/names for Bigbang and 2NE1. Regarding GOT7, they were signed under a completely different company as the group had managed to acquire their trademark and name rights from JYP Entertainment. I also think that both JYP and YG are in different places as companies as JYP still has TWICE, Stray Kids, ITZY, KickFlip, and NMIXX while YG only has Treasure and Babymonster along with debuting a new boy group soon. Even though Bigbang is on tour celebrating their 20th anniversary, YG will not let go of the Blackpink trademark/name right as the Blackpink brand is way to valuable for YG to just give to the members like that. Even if YG does decide to do that, the members would have to pay a very large sum of money in which they might not want to do due to once again showing how valuable the Blackpink brand is towards YG. Do you guys agree or not?

The group I had chosen for this discussion is SNSD as their impact and influence on K-pop is truly undeniable in every aspect inside the industry. Another group that I would choose is Seo Taiji and Boys as they are basically the early pioneers of K-pop. What about you?

My favorites are Flower, Like Jennie, Toxic Till The End, and FUTW.

I have been an avid fan of Thai GL since 2024 with my favorite GL pairs being FreenBecky, LMSY, and ShellyPundao. One thing I had noticed is the way intimate scenes amongst characters in Girls Love are often discussed compared to actors inside the Boys Love industry. A lot of viewers had accused intimate scenes between GL actresses of appealing to the male gaze while intimate and even steamy scenes amongst characters in BL stories are often times praised. Why is that?

Edit: I did not mean to put are in between actresses and discussed. I apologize for the incorrect grammar.