One reason they blew up is because the GIRL part in their girl crush is super prominent, they are trendy, super feminine, cute and elegant. But they also are fierce, badass, majestic, and have that swag and lager attitude.
In comparison to Blackpink, other groups that did gc back in 2nd gen had the CRUSH in girl crush focused on, the girl part in girl crush was a bit absent.
It reminds me of the fan wars between snsd and 2ne1 back in the day. Snsd were the more ’feminine’ and elegant group while 2ne1 was badass explosive and could smack you in the face with their charisma (well snsd too but you get what I mean)
Most young girls/teenagers face a kind of ’hardship’ where they feel like they either have to be only feminine or more masculine and not like other girls. When in reality most girls want to be girly and badass at the same time? People can’t be put in a box and sometimes you wanna be girly sometimes you don’t, sometimes you wanna be fierce sometimes you don't.
Which is why bp appeals to a bigger audience. People don’t have to choose whether they want girly or badass- Blackpink are both.
I wonder if yg ent figured this out/thinks this too because Blackpink’s whole concept is actually that the are badass and feminine at the same time, it’s what Black n pink mean in BLACKPINK.