GalacticTurtle on Nostr: I think with pop groups in general, you're going to see companies position them to ...

I think with pop groups in general, you're going to see companies position them to take on more or less defined characters that they're marketed as. I think the most blatant example would be the Spice Girls as it's baked into all their stage names (Sporty Spice, Ginger Spice, Scary Spice, Posh Spice, Baby Spice). While I've heard of "girl crush" as a group/individual concept (which I just equated to anything vaguely leaning in the tomboy direction, something very easy in something that is so deliberately hyperfeminine) typical official K-pop roles are...

- The Leader (typically the oldest member)
- The Visual (the prettiest one)
- The Rapper (self explanatory)
- Lead Dancer / Main Dancer (self explanatory)
- Lead Vocal / Main Vocal / Sub Vocal (self explanatory)
- The Youngest (self explanatory)

Without looking up Itzy's fandom profile, from what I've seen of them I'd break it down into...

- Yeji (leader)
- Ryujin (rapper)
- Chae...something (dancer)
- Lia (vocal)
- Yuna (youngest)

Groups used to always have just one rapper but since hip-hop is so popular these days now you've got groups that have more rappers than singers (like BTS). Vocalists used to get a lot more attention but in past years have been pushed aside as all the music programs now allow lip syncing and companies focus on giving their groups difficult choreographies which also means they're looking for strong dancers to cast in their groups. But once you start winning music shows and need to sing live for the encore, that's when vocal appreciation comes in and if a new popular group bombs their encore stages, there's usually a lot of criticism. Doesn't stop them from being wildly popular though. There's a group called Twice that sells out stadiums at home and abroad and basically none of them can actually sing.

I'm not in the know on "queer baiting" discourse but I can say that two K-pop idols only need to breathe the same air as each other once before some segment of the population will start shipping them together. And I don't think that's limited to K-pop either. I think I've gotten a hint of at least some of that in anything any notable amount of women become interested in. There's even fan fiction out there about Formula 1 drivers which I found out during my five second foray into Tumblr after choosing Formula 1 as an interest. But yes if a company knows that certain pairing of people are popular, they'd likely be more inclined to send them out together for a variety show appearance even if they secretly hate each other.

I think in the grand scheme of things, Itzy's entire concept was intended to be "girl crush" along with pretty much any girl group that wears pants more than skirts. One friend of mine who is more keyed into current K-pop was calling a different group refreshing because they "broke the girl crush trend." Meanwhile it would never occur to me to call a group that in the first place.