LE SSERAFIM kicked aespa out, BLACKPINK is just a name, looking at it makes you crave it

The Korean Business Institute has announced the October brand reputation rankings for K-pop girl groups. The rankings were determined through an analysis of the consumer participation, media coverage, interaction, and community indexes of various girl groups, using big data collected from September 13 to October 13.

The group LE SSERAFIM leads the Kpop race, surpassing many other groups.

LE SSERAFIM topped the list this month with a brand reputation index of 4,887,479 points, marking a 37% increase from September. High-ranking phrases in their keyword analysis included “Crazy,” “college festival,” and “career flourishing.” While the highest-ranking related terms included “overcome,” “liberate,” and “prove.” The group’s positivity-negativity analysis showed a 90.82% positive reaction score.

Meanwhile, aespa ranked second with a brand reputation index of 4,840,235 points. IVE followed closely behind in third place with a brand reputation index of 4,685,474 points, up 29.83% from the previous month.

Blackpink rose to fourth place with a brand reputation index of 3,894,967, up 87.67%. Finally, Fifty Fifty rounded out the top five after seeing an impressive 178.3% increase in their score, bringing their total score to 3,502,869 for October.

In September 2024, LE SSERAFIM was named among the top Kpop groups performing and winning awards at the American VMAs. This year, the group was favored by the company with many opportunities to "conquer" the international market such as going to Coachella, promoting on American television, and most recently, the VMAs stage.

LE SSERAFIM is progressing rapidly, but is not recognized by the public because of the lack of improved skills. In addition to the live singing controversy, LE SSERAFIM has recently been criticized for the foreign language skills of its members.

As an internationally oriented group, English is a factor that many people pay attention to. In the LE SSERAFIM lineup, the main vocalist Huh Yunjin is a true "American girl" and the Japanese member Kuzuha is a good speaker. Therefore, in every interview or on stage abroad, Yunjin and Kazuha always take on the role of helping LE SSERAFIM communicate and stir up the crowd.

At the VMAs, LE SSERAFIM was sought after by international media. As usual, Yunjin was the one who answered all the interviews. However, during an exchange at the VMAs awards ceremony, leader Kim Chaewon was embarrassed when she had to receive a question in English. She was clearly confused, not understanding even the simplest question.

Even when Yunjin "rescued" her by translating into Korean, Chaewon was still "embarrassed" and couldn't give an answer. Immediately after that, Kazuha had to answer for Chaewon. Meanwhile, the group leader made a "slay" expression to cover up her embarrassment.

This moment of Chaewon was spread on social media with many criticisms. People criticized LE SSERAFIM for lacking too many elements to promote in the international market. Chaewon's inability to understand even a simple question, to the point of making her teammates helpless, was criticized because the leader of LE SSERAFIM did not try to improve her skills.

Many netizens even compared LE SSERAFIM to other girl groups of the same era. Especially before NewJeans, LE SSERAFIM members' English skills were really weak. Besides Chaewon, the youngest member Eunchae also couldn't speak English fluently. Once again, Chaewon had an unforgettable embarrassing moment.

However, the group's fans also gave many arguments to defend the female idol. English skills can be learned and improved. Fans think that netizens have "double standards" with LE SSERAFIM when many Korean idols who are not good at English are still sympathized with, while Chaewon is criticized only because of existing hatred. To be fair, LE SSERAFIM is still a group that speaks English well, without needing an interpreter because there are 3 foreign members.

NewJeans showed disrespect to LE SSERAFIM, aespa was praised for 1 thing? Keng06:50:52 03/06/2024It seems that there will be little turbulence after the court issued a ruling blocking HYBE's dismissal vote against Min Hee Jin, but NewJeans is still in trouble. This time it was also related to LE SSERAFIM.