TripleS: The largest group in Kpop, 24 people crowded, fighting each other, fans are frustrated

TripleS is a rookie girl group that has just debuted in May 2024. With the debut when introducing the 24-member group, all Kpop fans fell on their backs in unison, shocked by the huge number, becoming the most crowded group in Korea.

The Korean music industry has just witnessed the official debut of the girl group tripleS. Unlike other girl groups, tripleS overwhelmed fans with the number of members up to 24. More specifically, fans are the ones who will decide who can be active.

It is known that tripleS is a girl group affiliated with the entertainment company Modhaus. Previously, the members were introduced one after another through various small groups, starting in 2022. The group is especially noted in Vietnam because it has the participation of Hua Niem Tu, born in 2003, currently using the stage name Nien. Hua Niem Tu has a father from Taiwan, a mother who is Vietnamese. She once participated in the Girls Planet 999 contest organized by Mnet but did not go far. She then joined Modhaus and made her official debut in TripleS.

In Kpop, the most familiar lineup is 4-9 people, or 12 members like Cosmic Girls, Loona, 13 people like Seventeen. NCT currently has 26 members, but this is actually considered a system with many small groups. They mainly operate into groups such as NCT 127, NCT Dream or NCT Wish and have never promoted with a full 26-member lineup. Therefore, the case of 24 members like TripleS is rare.

Each member in TripleS corresponds to a number from S1 to S24. Some members have been present since 2022 but this is the first time all 24 girls have gathered and performed as a complete group. The group's newly released album, Assemble 24, consists of 10 songs, including the title track Girls Never Die. The song was selected through voting by the official fandom, named Wave.

Due to the large number of members, TripleS's operation method has always attracted attention and discussion since its launch. According to member Yoon Seo Yeon, TripleS's strengths when having a large lineup are great performances and strong relationships with fans. "I accompanied the fans throughout the process of gathering 24 people. I think such stories will make the relationship with Wave stronger," the singer said.

But the disadvantages are not few. For example, they have to go to the location to do makeup, hair, and record earlier than other groups. They have too many members, which means that the preparation time has also increased exponentially. Therefore, in order to have enough time to prepare, TripleS even had to wake up early to go to the hair salon at 1 am. They often have to divide into small groups to do makeup, hair, etc.

They have to travel by bus or 5 Carnivals and the delivery person arrives at the dormitory constantly by members taking turns ordering food. The fact that there are up to 24 members also leads to too many opinions being given. For the convenience of work, they divided the 24 members into small chat groups. There will be a leader in each of those small groups and will be in charge of managing everything from living and eating to training.

And the biggest disadvantage is that the members have too few opportunities to express themselves. In the theme song Girls Never Die, each member only has a few seconds to show off their voices and take pictures. Therefore, many viewers admit that they can't distinguish anyone from whom when watching the MV. In the song, Nien's vocal duration is 1.3 seconds, while the most sung member is Dahyun with 16 seconds.

Nien is among the least sung members. Therefore, in both the MV and the performances, Nien is very faint, almost losing interest. When the group participated in TV shows, such as Weekly Idol, Nien and some other members did not have much time on screen.

The difference in popularity between members of the same K-pop group is inevitable. With a group with such a large lineup as TripleS, many members are not allowed to appear, that difference is definitely bigger.

Notably, Xinyu, a member of the group, recently expressed concern about the group's ranking system, which she said was very "cruel". Accordingly, all activities of TripleS - from the formation of small groups to stage names and theme songs - are decided by the votes of fans. Fans earn voting codes by purchasing photo cards called Objekts.

This model is quite similar to how the Japanese group AKB48 works. The more votes from fans, the more benefits a member receives, such as standing in the center of music products and performance stages.

In the case of TripleS, in the recent image, 24 members lined up in a V-shape. Fans speculated that this arrangement was based on the number of Objects sold by each member. The audience is even more convinced of the above speculation when they compare the members' standing positions with the semi-Objekt data. The girls who stand at the top have higher sales than the members at the back. In the picture, Nien stands in the 4th row.

After that, the message expressing member Xinyu's insecurities made fans believe what they speculated even more. Through an app that communicates with fans, Xinyu said that TripleS's current operating method reminds her of the traumatic experiences of participating in the survival show Girls Planet 999.

The audience thinks that with 24 people, TripleS inevitably has a member who is faint compared to other members, and has no opportunity to show their talents. In addition, the audience will have difficulty remembering the faces and names of each member, thereby reducing interest in the group.

"Will they be able to manage all the members at the same time?", "I wonder if all the members will be able to sing separately in one song, or will there be people who can't sing?", "24 members? The company has to spend a lot of money on the group", "I can't even remember the face and name of the group with fewer people" are some of the comments from the audience.