Popular Korean Idol Group’s Rule: Leader-Blood Type A; Maknae-Cute

Many Korean bands debut each year, and if you analyze how each of these idol groups achieved success, you will realise that there is actually a structure (like a perfect combination): With the group leader’s blood type being A, the group would be the most charismatic and stable; In a group, the youngest must be likeable; If their fans don’t have a representive name and colour, it means that the colour is not “fashion”.

Popular Idol Group Leader’s rule: Leaders are mostly Blood Type A

With the ‘war’ between korean boybands, in order to let each member show their own talents, the ‘leader’ has to be there. FT Island’s Choi Jung Hun, CNBlue’s Jung Yong Hwa, ZE:A’s Moon Jun Yeong, Super Junior’s Lee Teuk, DBSK’s Jung YunHo (UKnow), 2PM’s ex-leader Jaebum, 2AM’s Jo Kwon, Big Bang’s G-Dragon and B2ST’s Yoon Du Jun, the common point between these 9 leaders are that they are all of Blood Type A, and are all responsible, follow rules and like to service others. WIth groups having such sweet leaders, it is like they have something to lean on, and the leaders lead the group towards a goal.


Popular Idol Group Maknae’s (youngest) rule: Maknae must be cute; increase popularity

In Korea, respecting those who are older than you is very important. In korea’s boybands, there is also a special ‘Maknae’ culture: Like SS501′s Kim Hyung Joon, FT Island’s Choi Min Hwan***, Big Bang’s Seungri etc, because they are the youngest members, they are often teased, but their image is often cute and is loved by the audience. A manager of an idol group said, “when choosing the maknae member, other than that she/he must be talented, the most important factor is their skin and their looks, we will try to choose those with milky skin and who have baby face.” In a group, the maknae is often the one who has to help his brothers/sisters, for example 2PM’s dorm, although they have a helper to clean their dorm, the one who has to throw the rubbish and clean up the dining table after a meal is always the youngest member, Chansung. Beast’s maknae, Song Dong Woon, is the one who creates the atmosphere in their dorm, and when his hyungs are feeling down, he will cheer them up.

Since 2000, the leaders have been used to increase the group’s popularity; but now, its the youngest members. U-Kiss’s Dongho is an example. Dongho rose to fame through a KBS2 TV program, and managed to show everyone what U-Kiss was made up of. T-ara’s maknae Jiyoon also increased T-ara’s poularity through acting in KBS2′s “God of Study”. The most miraculous thing is, when creating an idol group, the youngest member is usually the last to be chosen. This was the case for 4Minute’s Kwon So Hyung and Beast’s Song Dong Woon.

4Minute’s management company said, “Staying with members, the youngest member must have a lot of patience.” and also, “Although they do not talk much usually, but when needed, a powerful sentence from them might decide the result.

“Popular Idol Group Member’s Rule: There must be one with “Princess’ illness” and “Alien”

In an idol group, there is often one funny idol who likes to admire herself/himself (“Princess Illness”)in the mirror. Like Shinhwa’s Shin Hye Sung and Kim Dong Wan, DBSK’s Hero Jaejoong, SS501′s Park Jung Min,Super Junior’s Kim Hee Chul. Kim Heechul calls himself ‘cinderella’ and his fans also call him “Princess”. His image is more extravagant than women, with red hair, golden hair, silver hair, long ponytail, pink jacket, rainbow shawls, Roger Rabbit’s large T pyjamas, pink school bags; his members said “he likes to show his collarbone more than women do”, “Because he is worried that it is not good for his skin, he doesn’t even drink carbonate drinks”. They also praised him –”his nickname is Cindrella, he is the little red spot in SJ, which is green.” Park Jung Min is even worse, he locked himself in the toilet once, and faced the mirror touching his face saying “this is so pretty, i really want to hang you up on the wall.”, and when he is praised for his looks, he says “i was born like that.” He also often gives himself names like “Park Charisma”, “Sexy Park” etc. As fir ‘Aliens’, there are ShinHwa’s Eric, DBSK’s Hero Jaejoong, SS501′s Kim Hyun Joong, Super Junior’s Kim Heechul, Big Bang’s T.O.P, 2PM’s Park Jaebum, 2AM’s Jo Kwon, they are called 4-dimensional, and tend to jump up with actions upon hearing certain words. Their actions often leave people wondering “Huh?” but at the same time finding it interesting, like Kim Hyun Joong’s first kiss scene, he asked the director, “Director..do i have to put my tongue in?” When asked who in “Boys over Flowers” is the most handsome, he would say “the colour of my hair is the most handsome” and weird answers like that. Idol groups with members with “princess illness” and “aliens” allow the group and members to have many things to talk about and laugh about, they are also well-loved, and are the ones in the group who lighten the atmosphere.Also, many idol groups have members who have animals as their nicknames, for example Shinhwa’s Eric is rabbit, Lee Min Woo is cat, Shin Hye Sung is fox; Click-B’s Oh Jong Hyuk is rabbit; DBSK’s Junsu is dolphin; SS501′s Heo Young Saeng is beaver, Park Jung Min is horse; Super Junior’s Kangin is racoon, Eunhyuk is monkey, Sungmin is rabbit and Lee Donghae is fish.

Popular Idol Group Fans’ rule: Each group has a representative colour

Every idol group has its representive colour, and they have special names for their fans. Super Junior’s representative colour is Pearl Sapphire Blue, and they call their fans “E.L.F” (Ever Lasting Friends) “ELF” is also used to refer to elves, so their fans are also called “elves” (more relevant for chinese fans) SS501′s representative colour is green, so when their fans hold the green balloons, they look like peas, and thus SS501 calls their fans “Pea Princesses”. Their management company also produced pea cups, pea earrings etc. FT Island’s representative colour is yellow, and their fans are called “Primadonna” (‘Female lead’ in Italian), otherwise known as “Pri”.Korea’s idol market has a very special ‘balloon culture’, as it is convenient to bring balloons around and they become big when air is blown in. This way, it is easy for singers to know where their fans are, and thus would interact with his/her fans more.

Credits: (source) Sina + (English Translation) fishyplankton @ Super-Legacy.com