Gender and Concepts

The cheongsun concept is often taken up by young artists. Apink’s average age when they debuted was 16, with the youngest member, Hayoung, being 14 years old. However, it is common for such groups to later explore more mature concepts. More recently, groups such as NewJeans and Illit are renewing the cheongsun concept through playful images of female camaraderie, transcending the male viewership traditionally associated with this concept.

Girlcrush is a concept that highlights women’s empowerment. Whilst groups such as 2NE1, F(X), and Mamamoo have developed this concept, it became a staple in K-pop following the domestic and international success of Blackpink, who debuted in 2016. Visually, girlcrush is expressed through charismatic postures, ferocious fashion, fanciful sets, and quirky props. Influenced by the bombastic substyles of EDM, songs in this vein feature hooks with hard-hitting beats. Instead of offering stories of falling in love with a man and seeking to get his attention, lyrics tend to focus on self-love and self-worth, with little care about what other people may think. As a famous line from Blackpink’s ‘DDU-DU DDU-DU’ (2018) goes: ‘I give it to them straight, I don’t care what people think’. Female fans tend to find girlcrush more appealing than its cuter counterpart, as it puts emphasis on female idols being role models for female fans, rather than objects of physical attraction.