It was in the late 1990s that KPOP girl groups debuted in earnest. As young women in their late teens and early 20s formed a group and debuted, the term girl group began to be used.
If there’s a girl group, is there a boy group? Of course, BTS, which you know well, is also a boy group. The origin of Korean boy groups and girl groups is a three-member boy group called “Seo Taiji and Boys.”
We will deal with this “Seo Tai-ji and the Children” separately later.
First Generation Girl Group (1997–2006)
Let’s talk about the first generation girl group that debuted between 1997 and 2006. The current type of girl group was ‘SES’, which debuted in late November 1997.
At the end of 1997, Korea was in a very difficult situation due to the foreign exchange crisis. Korea also received a bailout from the IMF.
Even during these difficult times, the SES became very popular, selling 600,000 albums. In 1998, SES’ rival girl group ‘Finkle’ debuted. From then on, the confrontation between SES and Fin.K.L. was formed.
In addition to these two groups, a group called Baby Vox enjoyed popularity by preoccupying sexy and girl crush concepts. Baby Vox pioneered the girl group market by expanding its scope to China.
In Korea, girl groups start with a pure girl image. It shows the process of growing up and becoming a young woman. You can say that you grow up with your fans. Of course, most of the girl group’s fans are men of similar age.
At that time, the ranking of music programs was decided by music sales volume, ARS voting, and side voting. Therefore, it was difficult to compete with boy groups with many female fans or solo singers with high record sales.
First generation girl group list.
SES
Fin.K.L.
Baby Vox
Diva.
Hans Band
Otto Four
Cleo.
Chakra (a chakra.
It’s papaya.
Jewelry
Suga
M.I.L.K
Two.
SWi.T
LUV
As the difficulties of girl groups continued, female solo singers made more debuts in the second half of 2000. The singer who debuted at this time was BoA. she was 16 years old at the time of her debut.
The popularity of the first-generation girl group, which was sensational, began to decline in 2003. After the exit of SES and Fin.K.L., many girl groups made their debut, but they failed to surpass the popularity of SES and Fin.K.L.So the period from 2003 to 2006 is called the girl group Dark Ages.
the Dark Ages
At that time, the teams that debuted at that time did not receive professional training, but often made their debut by recruiting them as pretty actors or models. All failed without leaving a strong impression on the public in terms of singing ability or performance.
If you evaluate this period now, it can be seen as a transition period from the first generation to the second generation.
At this time, the girl group did all the bad marketing. They promoted noise marketing through sexy concepts or through exposure or sensational choreography.
Large agencies did not rush to make girl group debuts during this dark period and had intensive training for several years. SM debuted the four-member girl group ‘Cheon Sang-ji-hee: The Grace’ by combining trainees and two previous girl group experiences during this period. JYP, one of the big agencies, has yet to debut a girl group at this time.
Taking lessons from the failure of this period, the girl group market will be upgraded from the late 2000s. Next time, let’s take a look at the 2nd generation girl group.
Reference
https://namu.wiki/w/%EA%B1%B8%EA%B7%B8%EB%A3%B9/%EC%97%AD%EC%82%AC
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