Who's who in the K-pop world? The idols behind the musical phenomenon that sweeps

They pulverize record after record in the music industry, paralyze traffic wherever they go, drag a global community of followers that is counted by millions, turn every place they step on into a place of pilgrimage and brands raffle their presence in advertising campaigns. The furor for K-pop and its idols – as the artists who are the object of this fan phenomenon originated in South Korea are called – has settled in the West. But who are the most powerful names in K-pop today?

In South Korea, K-Pop began to gain relevance in the nineties of the last century. Each of the groups that emerged throughout these decades are categorized into different generations, divided according to their years of debut. Thus, the latest generation of K-pop, number four, is set from 2017-2018 to the present. Meanwhile, a fifth generation is in the process of being created. And it is that the machinery never rests, new songs are offered constantly and musical groups are formed again and again with which to keep the interest intact. The formations of the current K-pop are integrated by charismatic and talented young people, standard-bearers, yes, of a very limited ideal of beauty, where diversity is non-existent and everything is normative bodies and faces of snowy skin of porcelain aspect. Choreography studied to the millimeter, costumes in the latest fashion and a staging worthy of a Super Bowl intermission work as the perfect wrapper.

Learn moreK-pop, K-beauty, K-whatever... Journey to the origin of the furor for all things Korean

Currently, groups like the girl band Blackpink are at the top of this musical genre. The line-up has four members ranging in age from 26 to 28, known by their stage names Jennie, Jisoo, Lisa and Rosé. All of them are real celebrities beyond South Korea. Of course, not all are South Korean. Lisa is Thai and Rosé was born in New Zealand and raised in Australia. At the end of last year, the group was named by Time magazine as Entertainer of the Year, a recognition that came after the good reception that their second studio album, Born Pink, had. In April they added a new milestone to their musical career by becoming headliners at Coachella, with the name of Blackpink above that of other superstars such as Rosalía. But getting to where they are hasn't exactly been easy.

Blackpink's Lisa, Jisoo, Jennie and Rosé at the MTV VMAs on August 28, 2022 in Newark, New Jersey. Dimitrios Kambouris (Getty Images for MTV/Paramount G)

To become a K-pop idol requires years of preparation. The companies that represent the different groups (SM Entertainment or YG, the label behind Blackpink) bet on these potential stars when they are still unknown teenagers. Applicants must pass eliminatory tests before entering specialized centers where they will receive training for years, a kind of internship in which they undergo periodic evaluations to assess their progress. Thus, they spend a good part of their adolescence away from their family circle. Contracts with companies sometimes become shackles and the pressure to be the best can take its toll.

During their participation in James Corden's Carpool Karaoke program, the members of Blackpink revealed part of the process that all of them had to undergo for years before being chosen to debut with the girl band. "It's like a training system," Jennie explained of the tests that every aspiring idol must pass. For five or six years, they were trained as apprentices in disciplines such as singing, acting and different types of dance. Languages are also important, especially English, a language very present in the themes of K-pop today. Training days can be extended for more than 12 hours. "The competition is so strong that, somehow, I think we don't think about the things in our life that we could be missing," the singer added in the chat with the presenter.

In another interview published in Rolling Stone magazine, Lisa had already alluded to how hard it was to go through that process: "When was it going to end? Do we have to pass tests every month? I would call my mother in Thailand and tell her I wanted to quit and she would tell me to hold on for another year." Crowned as the queens of K-pop today, their popularity shows no signs of waning. In fact, Jennie has just made the leap to television with a supporting role in one of the most anticipated HBO Max series of the year, The idol, co-created by Sam Levinson, showrunner of Euphoria, and Abel Tesfaye, better known for his musical identity as The Weeknd, and starring him and Lily-Rose Depp. Already in 2022, his partner Jisoo showed his potential as a performer when he became the protagonist of the South Korean series Snowdrop, a production available in some countries through Disney+.

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The center of attention

The most famous idols of the moment actively feed their own fan phenomenon trying to be always present in their social networks, where they connect with a massive audience of global reach. Even the smallest of their routines can have an unparalleled impact. And if not, ask the owners of the churrería San Román de Banys Nous, in Barcelona. Jisoo shared a video blog of his time in Barcelona last January, giving clues to his fans of some of the places he had discovered in the Catalan capital. Like many other tourists visiting Spain, the singer was captivated by the churros and did not hesitate to share the establishment where she tried them, one of the most popular in the city. Now, the place founded in 1968 has also become a mandatory stop for Jisoo fans visiting Barcelona.

The ability of these artists to turn everything they touch into gold has not gone unnoticed by brands. The alliances between major Western fashion firms and South Korean music stars are redefining the strategies of firms seeking to approach Generation Z. "Who is Sana, the K-pop star who unleashed the madness in the Prada parade?" asked Voguelast September when this Japanese singer unleashed the collective hysteria of the thousands of fans who waited for her at the doors of the fashion show of the firm Italian in Milan. Sana may be unknown to the general public, but she is one of the veterans of K-pop and sweeps her group, Twice. So much so, that the girl band has achieved a new record with their latest album, Ready to Be, by selling more copies in its first week than the next 11 best-selling albums on the Billboard chart combined, according to Forbes.

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In the male field, the seven members of BTS, the first K-pop group nominated at the Grammy Awards, have no rival when it comes to achieving advertising contracts. Only in 2023, the signing of several of its members as global image of major brands has been announced: Jimin in Dior, Suga in Valentino, J-Hope in Louis Vuitton, Jung Kook in Calvin Klein or RM in Bottega Veneta. The potential audience is millions of fans around the world, a legion generating content that multiplies the visibility of everything related to BTS, be it a song, a video clip or a fashion campaign.

Members of the most successful boy group, BTS, on stage during the 2021 American Music Awards ceremony at the Microsoft Theatre in Los Angeles, California.Kevin Winter (Getty Images for MRC)

Fans, the great asset of K-Pop

Alluding to terms like "legion" or "army of fans" can be hackneyed when talking about a pop star's followers. But in this case, the military lexicon is quite accurate. BTS fans, for example, call themselves ARMY and number in the millions. They have a great presence in social networks and know perfectly how to organize themselves to support their idols at all times.

BTS is now in a moment of temporary separation – it is usual for these groups to take occasional breaks, among other things, due to the obligation that men have to fulfill military service in South Korea, with a minimum duration of a year and a half – but their community of fans does not lower their guard. Singer RM, who has just started his solo career, has tried to downplay the responsibility of having millions of people following in your footsteps. "You can't walk in the middle of nowhere without being recognized and weighed by the standards you're held to. But you have to mature and appease, not pity in plan 'oh, I just want to be normal!', he said in a recent interview in EL PAÍS, where he said that they even recognized him walking through the streets of Bilbao as he passed through Spain.

Jimin, of the BTS group, is also the new face of the Dior brand. Pictured, the singer at the entrance to the French firm's show during Paris Fashion Week, January 20, 2023.Edward Berthelot (Getty Images)

Distributed all over the planet, BTS's ARMY brings out all the heavy artillery when it comes to defending the group or any of the seven idols that comprise it. The program El Hormiguero could see it in first person a few months ago. In January 2023, the cut of a video where Pablo Motos was seen commenting on an image of singer J-Hope, whom the presenter referred to, in reference to a former collaborator of the program, as "the Japanese Flipy", despite the fact that the artist is South Korean, went viral on social networks. Some BTS fans understood that he had said "the Japanese geek," others dismissed the comment as racist and put their powerful machinery to work. In a matter of hours the score of the program that appears in Google went from having a majority percentage of positive reviews, around 80% according to the portal specialized in technology Xataka, to have only 17% of good comments, plummeting its valuation on the internet. Today, El Hormiguero accumulates dozens of negative opinions (valued with a single star), where the incident is frequently alluded to.

Something similar happened with the series How I Met Your Father. In one of the chapters, the group is mentioned in a joking tone and the fans returned to carry out this practice, known as review bombing (bombardment of reviews), to minimize the valuation of fiction in different specialized websites. The mobilization capacity of the k-popers is overwhelming, as they also demonstrated by boycotting a campaign rally for Donald Trump.

The band BTS caused a sensation at the 2022 Grammy Awards gala, hosted at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in its 64th edition. Axelle/Bauer-Griffin (FilmMagic)

Together with consolidated groups, such as Twice, Blackpink or BTS, the new formations that begin to stand out in the music charts and occupy the billboards of the big cities confirm that the great musical export of the Asian country continues on the crest of the wave. Some examples are the boy band Enhypen, formed from a South Korean reality show, or the artists of NewJeans, some still minors.

The shadows of the industry

Even so, you can't mention the K-pop phenomenon without alluding to the suicides of many of the song's stars in South Korea. On April 19, Moon Bin, real name of the artist Moonbin, of the group Astro, was the last to join this tragic list. The 25-year-old ended his life and revived the debate about the lack of mental health protection in a highly competitive industry. From the beginning, artists learn to be self-demanding, dealing with physical and mental exhaustion, to which is added the pressure to succeed and the exacerbated exposure to which they are subjected.

A South Korean man stands in front of a memorial altar honoring K-pop star Goo Hara at Seoul's St. Mary's Hospital, November 25, 2019.Chung Sung-Jun (Getty Images)

Every so often, the world of K-pop mourns the loss of some of its brightest stars, as happened in November 2019, when the authorities of the Asian country found the lifeless body of Goo Hara at his home in Seoul. The artist had tried to take her own life a month ago. Just a few weeks earlier, Sulli, a member of the girl group F(x), had also ended her life. And in 2017 the suicide of kpop idol Jonghyun shocked the entire country.