I don't know if this has ever been discussed before, but I've checked out aespa's music releases since their debut, but I only just started checking out more of their content very recently and I noticed something interesting. Maybe some MY's can help me understand, or correct me if I'm just imagining things. But I feel like I can't be the only person who's noticed this.
It's well known that Karina is by far the most popular member. She has double Winter's IG followers who has the second most, and her Lee Mujin Service video was literally just released and already has as many views as Ningning's which was released months ago. None of that was too surprising to me.
What was surprising is that if I were to guess the members' popularity based on comments, and this is accross the board (Youtube, Instagram, Tiktok), I would guess it's Ningning. Like on average, it feels like half the comments are about Ningning. And I'm not talking about English comments (who are probably slightly more Giselle biased), I'm talking about Korean comments too, which was crazy to me because while I knew that both Ningning and Giselle seemed more popular in Western countries, I think we are all aware how Koreans tend to feel about Chinese idols(Don't get me wrong, I still I see plenty of Korean hate comments too).
I saw some of the music show and festival performances, and yeah, so many of the Korean comments are talking about how pretty Ningning has gotten. That led me to dig a little bit more and I noticed that the top 4 out of the top 5 viewed official aespa Youtube shorts have Ningning on the thumbnail. Is that a coincidence? And if not, why does her solo song have the least streams/low fancam view count, etc. Is it really as simple as her fans just loud but lazy? Or maybe she just is well liked, but doesn't really have a diehard fanbase?
To be fair, I do not consume much Kpop content outside of music, and I do understand that comments might not be the best determiner of popularity, but what I have seen of other groups is that it definitely feels more in line with what you'd expect. For example, NCT videos always have people talking about Mark and Taeyong, and of course they're the most popular. Red Velvet videos always have Koreans talking about Irene. Are there examples of other groups for whom this phenomenon exists?
Also, I feel like I should put this disclaimer for some reason, but I'm not commenting at all on who "deserves" more popularity or whatever. I don't even particularly have an aespa bias. It's just something I noticed and was wondering about.
Question about aespa members' popularity, or Ningning's more specifically
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I'm going to be honest here but I think you're basing your conclusions on a very limited set of data.
Karina is by far and away the most popular. Then Winter, then Ningning then Giselle. Not dragging anyone, it's just facts.
I think you'll find on English speaking platforms that there might be a bit less of a gap than across Korea and other parts of Asia which may somewhat explain the comments. Early on there was also lot of other group stans token stanning Ningning to downplay Karina's stage presence. Not sure if this still happens.
On those shorts, none of those top 5 are Ning by herself, despite the fact that she's the thumbnail. If you dig a bit deeper you'll realise that Karina will be in almost all of the most popular shorts, and this includes Tiktok. If you remove all the collabs with other artists it will be even more evident, and you'll find that the clips of the other members that are up there are the ones that they've generally gone 'viral' on.
Will be the same for Youtube and fancams, where she has like double the number of fancams with over a million views compared to the next person (Winter) and leads all of 4th gen (male and female). Go further in and her likes will be higher as well. If you take a look say a day after any music show performance, she will generally have the highest viewed and liked cams as well, outside of viral ones from others.
Then throw in Karina having the most endorsements and individual activities, social media engagement for Fashion week etc.
I think there's just a lot of people that like clips and move on and don't really feel the need to comment. I know that's how I primarily interact with kpop social media personally (I share the likes though).
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I think it's because Ningning is really popular among non fans, just casual listeners has specifically like her but won't stan.
Also I guess it could be that a lot of MYs like her just after their bias.
True for me, i dont really follow aespa music outside of main TTs but i love Ningning since debut.
My appreciation for Karina begun pretty late (last year) but I get her appeal now. She is charmingly cool + talented.
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I always thought Ningning would be the most popular, to me she is the most beautiful, suuuuuper talented and cute, but since the beginning sme pushed Karina/Winter sooooo much that I even find it unfair for the others 2, but it is what sme always do with their groups.
I do think she has the potential to be bigger, but she'll lose her "peak time" in sme.
But popularity wise is Karina, Winter, Ningning and then Giselle.
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I'm going to be honest here but I think you're basing your conclusions on a very limited set of data.
Karina is by far and away the most popular. Then Winter, then Ningning then Giselle. Not dragging anyone, it's just facts.
I think you'll find on English speaking platforms that there might be a bit less of a gap than across Korea and other parts of Asia which may somewhat explain the comments. Early on there was also lot of other group stans token stanning Ningning to downplay Karina's stage presence. Not sure if this still happens.
On those shorts, none of those top 5 are Ning by herself, despite the fact that she's the thumbnail. If you dig a bit deeper you'll realise that Karina will be in almost all of the most popular shorts, and this includes Tiktok. If you remove all the collabs with other artists it will be even more evident, and you'll find that the clips of the other members that are up there are the ones that they've generally gone 'viral' on.
Will be the same for Youtube and fancams, where she has like double the number of fancams with over a million views compared to the next person (Winter) and leads all of 4th gen (male and female). Go further in and her likes will be higher as well. If you take a look say a day after any music show performance, she will generally have the highest viewed and liked cams as well, outside of viral ones from others.
Then throw in Karina having the most endorsements and individual activities, social media engagement for Fashion week etc.
I think there's just a lot of people that like clips and move on and don't really feel the need to comment. I know that's how I primarily interact with kpop social media personally (I share the likes though).
I wasn't really concluding anything, and definitely wasn't "coming at" Karina's popularity. I already stated that I'm aware the ACTUAL popularities, I'm just wondering why the comments don't seem match up and are so heavily Ningning favored, and specifically the Korean ones. I'll give one an example of the first live performance that popped up on my feed. I clicked it and sure enough:
But you're probably right, in that Youtube, is still primarily an Western platform even though Koreans use it a lot, and most people don't ever comment. Still doesn't explain to me why the Koreans who ARE commenting, mostly comment on Ningning, by seemingly quite a disproportionate amount, when she is the least popular in Korea in pretty much every measurable metric. That's a discrepancy I haven't observed at all for any other group.
I think it's because Ningning is really popular among non fans, just casual listeners that specifically like her but won't stan.
Also I guess it could be that a lot of MYs like her just after their bias.
Yeah, this is the vibe I'm starting to get. I guess that has me wondering what causes someone to be well-liked vs stanned. Like what is that "stannable" quality? But that's whole other topic of conversation.
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I wasn't really concluding anything, and definitely wasn't "coming at" Karina's popularity. I already stated that I'm aware the ACTUAL popularities, I'm just wondering why the comments don't seem match up and are so heavily Ningning favored, and specifically the Korean ones. I'll give one an example of the first live performance that popped up on my feed. I clicked it and sure enough:
But you're probably right, in that Youtube, is still primarily an Western platform even though Koreans use it a lot, and most people don't ever comment. Still doesn't explain to me why the Koreans who ARE commenting, mostly comment on Ningning, by seemingly quite a disproportionate amount, when she is the least popular in Korea in pretty much every measurable metric. That's a discrepancy I haven't observed at all for any other group.
Yeah, this is the vibe I'm starting to get. I guess that has me wondering what causes someone to be well-liked vs stanned. Like what is that "stannable" quality? But that's whole other topic of conversation.
Hmm, soz if my post came off with the wrong tone. I just thought the sample size was a bit small and was just giving some examples of other data sets to look at. I didn't think you were coming for Karina's popularity (nor would it have bothered me even if you did)
To be honest I don't look at the comments of vids, I just like them, maybe drop an OT4 are queens type of comment and carry on so I've never really noticed it. Had a look at a few other vids and I can see what you're talking about though.
A few theories or recent happenings in Aespa land that might have some impact on this is;
- Since Supernova she's been getting loads of praise for her visuals, it kind of blew up from some uni festival a few months back where she wore a hat and white shirt/jeans and got compared to Hyori Lee.
- She's a great performer and so well rounded, looking through a few vids I notice she seems to get a lot more comments on the live performances so perhaps it's some appreciation for how she always slays her performances. I think most fans are split between her and Karina for best performer of the group and it seems like western fans lean towards Ning. I had a look at some of their MV comments and well and didn't notice this as much.
- IMO Whiplash has been her and Giselle's era and people are probably happy to see them get a bit more of the spotlight this time. They are both perfect for the vibes of the song.
- Both her and Giselle's fans might be a bit smaller in number but from what I've seen on Twitter, they do seem to be louder and really passionate in supporting them. Particularly because Karina and Winter do get a bit more of the spotlight (at least in Korea).
- There's been some unhappiness with her recent treatment as apparently she hasn't had any tiktoks posted for a bit. Or collabs, or something similar.
With regards to her song charting, IMO her first concert solo Wake Up was a bit better than Bored, so perhaps that could be part of the reason. With all the others it's the opposite.
Anyway, hope this helps. Maybe none of the above is relevant and she's just getting more popular which we love to see. For a chinese idol she definitely seems to be well liked and it seems easy for her to be scandal free. Personally I think it's because she's just very real, there's no fakeness and when she's being sassy, that's really her in that moment, and when she's being soft, it's the same. She has a really strong mindset as well which a lot of people seem to like and respect.
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Hmm, soz if my post came off with the wrong tone. I just thought the sample size was a bit small and was just giving some examples of other data sets to look at. I didn't think you were coming for Karina's popularity (nor would it have bothered me even if you did)
To be honest I don't look at the comments of vids, I just like them, maybe drop an OT4 are queens type of comment and carry on so I've never really noticed it. Had a look at a few other vids and I can see what you're talking about though.
A few theories or recent happenings in Aespa land that might have some impact on this is;
- Since Supernova she's been getting loads of praise for her visuals, it kind of blew up from some uni festival a few months back where she wore a hat and white shirt/jeans and got compared to Hyori Lee.
- She's a great performer and so well rounded, looking through a few vids I notice she seems to get a lot more comments on the live performances so perhaps it's some appreciation for how she always slays her performances. I think most fans are split between her and Karina for best performer of the group and it seems like western fans lean towards Ning. I had a look at some of their MV comments and well and didn't notice this as much.
- IMO Whiplash has been her and Giselle's era and people are probably happy to see them get a bit more of the spotlight this time. They are both perfect for the vibes of the song.
- Both her and Giselle's fans might be a bit smaller in number but from what I've seen on Twitter, they do seem to be louder and really passionate in supporting them. Particularly because Karina and Winter do get a bit more of the spotlight (at least in Korea).
- There's been some unhappiness with her recent treatment as apparently she hasn't had any tiktoks posted for a bit. Or collabs, or something similar.
With regards to her song charting, IMO her first concert solo Wake Up was a bit better than Bored, so perhaps that could be part of the reason. With all the others it's the opposite.
Anyway, hope this helps. Maybe none of the above is relevant and she's just getting more popular which we love to see. For a chinese idol she definitely seems to be well liked and it seems easy for her to be scandal free. Personally I think it's because she's just very real, there's no fakeness and when she's being sassy, that's really her in that moment, and when she's being soft, it's the same. She has a really strong mindset as well which a lot of people seem to like and respect.
It is definitely not precise data, but just something I started seeing gradually over time, which is why I was wondering if anyone else noticed it. It does seem to correlate with starting in the Supernova era and into Whiplash, so it is possible she is just getting more popular, along with Giselle.
I think no matter aespa's overall status since debut, Karina and Winter have always been very popular in Korea, so I guess now that they as a group are at the top of the industry right now, it makes sense the other members will be getting more attention.
It is also likely that knowing that she historically hasn't gotten as much love as the other members, people feel more inclined to comment on her, knowing that Karina and Winter are already so praised. -
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