Breakdown Of Idol Group Member Characteristics

FEATURED K BITES ARTICLE

With the current flood of idol groups into the K-Pop world, this article breaks down the composition of an idol group – what
kind of members are typical throughout all idol groups and their
characteristics.

▶ Idols who are funny like gagmen… Variety idols

There is always that one member who will shine as the variety idol in idol groups.

For instance, we have 2AM’s Jo Kwon and So Nyeo Shi Dae’s Yuri who are nicknamed ‘Kkap-Kwon’ and ‘Kkap-Yul’ for their funny personalities. Also in 2PM, there is TaekYeon who showed his blur and silly side of him and even got the nickname of ‘Ok-kkaek’ and ‘Ok-elder’ on Mnet Wild Bunny.

There are also Lee Teuk and EunHyuk for Boom’s Academy and KARA Nicole with her charms in her own comical and silly way on variety shows.

▶ Outstanding looks, the face of the group… Flower idols

In every team there is the ‘flower idol’. These people help the group increase their popularity through
the early stages of their debut due to their outstanding looks.

There are the ‘Thai prince’ 2PM Nich Khun, ‘Boys Over Flowers’ JiHoo seonbae Kim HyunJoon, So Nyeo Shi Dae YoonA and Tiffany, Dong Bang Shin Ki Hero JaeJoong, WonderGirls SoHee, After School UEE, KARA Goo Hara, T-ara JiYeon, Super Junior ShiWon etc

▶ Are you a guy or a girl?… ‘Trans-idols’

Recently we have seen many cases of boyish members in new girlgroups.

For instance, there are f(x) Amber, 4Minute Jeon JiYoon, T-ara EunJung and WonderGirls YooBin. Because their concept is both that of feminine and masculine (?), they have won over the hearts of many fangirls.

We also see this in boybands – like G.O.D Son HoYoung who played the role of baby Jae Minie’s mother in MBC ‘Parenting Diary’, and also 2PM’s ‘mother role’ ChanSung, and how can we leave him out – Cinderella Kim HeeChul of Super Junior.

▶ Power sexy and charisma… Beasty idols

You cannot miss out the members who are proud of their sexiness and charisma, or we call them the ‘beasty idols’.

Some examples are 2PM JaeBum, Dong Bang Shin Ki UKnow Yunho, Big Bang TOP for boybands.

For girlgroups, there are also ‘beasty idols’, for instance there are So Nyeo Shi Dae HyoYeon, 4Minute HyunA etc.

▶ Talents over looks… Artsy idols

There are also members who may not be as outstanding in terms of
looks as compared to the other members in the group but are as talented
as or even more talented than anyone for their vocals.

We call them the ‘artsy idol’, and our representative idol members are G.O.D Kim TaeWoo and Fin.K.L Ok JooHyun.

For our younger idols there are 2AM ChangMin, SS501 Heo YoungSaeng, Big Bang DaeSung, Dong Bang Shin Ki JunSu etc.

These members are the voices of the group and are as important as
the ‘flower idols’ because they delivers good performances on stage.