It is no secret that there are a lot of acts in music that have had controversies and sometimes their legacies would often be overlooked due to their scandals. This does not go for all acts in music as a lot of times an artist or a group tends to override their scandals and be remembered for their contributions to music. However, in K-pop, it tends to be a different story particularly in the K-pop Reddit community regarding the influential status of groups that have tainted images added to their legacy. Whether its controversies involving the group or scandals involving the members, it tends to take a toll on the group’s image depending on how big the scandal is. Here are a few examples that I have noticed regarding the images of groups and their legacies in K-pop.
Super Junior is considered one of the most influential groups in K-pop and have been dubbed “Kings of the Hallyu Wave” for their contributing acts towards the Korean Wave during K-pop’s second generation. However, some of the scandals that the members had gotten themselves into had rubbed many people the wrong due to that nature of these scandals being rooted in racism, misogyny, and homophobia. Whenever, Super Junior are mentioned, there tends to a distain for them due to their controversies leading to their legacy being viewed differently. It’s like people don’t want to know about their influence, impact, and legacy due to these controversies that the members are apart. I think their reputation amongst international fans is forever tarnished too due to the rooted nature of these scandals.
Blackpink is considered the “biggest girl group in the world” by many mainstream media outlets in the U.S./West and are considered as one of the key factors in K-pop’s journey towards a global expansion. However, the way their management company had promoted them, their image, strategy, and the aftermath of their 10th anniversary had caused a lot of people to become more distant in acknowledging their legacy in K-pop. For example, two weeks ago, a user on another K-pop sub had made a post discussing Psy breaking the door open for K-pop internationally and how BTS and Blackpink took it a step further K-pop with their accolades. However, almost the entire comment section was against Blackpink being mentioned as commenters had used other girl groups against them, downplayed their popularity, and mentioning their EP Deadline (2026) which had absolutely nothing to do with the post. I know that Blackpink aren’t extremely well-liked inside the K-pop Reddit community, however, I didn’t know that it would go so far to point where people would dismiss their legacy in K-pop.
I know that this is an early pick, but Newjeans had taken over the game with their Y2K concept, and their debut was considered fresh during the time the girl crush concept amongst girl groups were at an all-time high. From 2022-2024, Newjeans had took K-pop by storm and at one point was considered one of the leaders of K-pop’s fourth generation. However, with their lawsuits against Ador and loyalty to Min Hee-jin, their reputations had taken a hit especially amongst fans of girl groups like Le sserafism and Illit who had felt that Min Hee-jin’s words had caused both groups to receive massive hate trains online. People seeing Newjeans’ loyalty to Min Heejin had left a bad taste in a lot of K-pop fans mouths. Instead of focusing on what the group did achieve, their legacy is now reduced to being a “what-if” moment in K-pop. After seeing and researching, all of these examples, I think that, in my opinion, an image of an artist or a group do influence the view that people will have or do have on their legacies and influence inside of their respective industries. Do you guys feel the same, or do you have a different view on this topic?
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