How popular is irene these days?

    I'm seriously just curious.


    Has SK moved on from her scandal? In a recent netizen thread they were praising irene for her leadership skills for not wanting to take off the mask.

    I've recently seen her being praised a lot by netizens, does that mean she is back to her old status? What kind of impact did her scandal leave one year later? Even their song queendom performed well.


    I'm a little surprised because korean gp are never lenient with idols who get into bullying/gapjil situations. Aoa jimin and g-idle soojin never recovered from their allegations despite not being 100% proven guilty. Their career is petty much over. But on the other hand although irene was exposed by an influential editor with evidence and even several other famous stylists confirming to have same experiences (so it's been pretty much a notorious fact among industry workers she had a bad attitude), it's been pretty much shrugged off these days. Although objectively, irene's case was much worse than most idol scandals where the only proof for them is "unknown person x claims this idol y bullied them, these idols never are forgiven.


    Irene even seems to still be openly loved and cherished by other idols, she was still voted in the popular idol poll ISAC as one of the prettiest idols in 2021, just a few month after her scandal.

    Nobody cares at all it seems, which I find suprising merely for the fact that koreans never forgive bullying and gapjil, no matter what apology the idols spit out and what hard times the idol goes through. What is different with irene that they forgave her with no serious consequence? Or am I wrong?

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    Quote from OP

    Aoa jimin and g-idle soojin never recovered from their allegations despite not being 100% proven guilty. Their career is petty much over.

    Wrong take imo. Honestly, Jimin has received only words of support for the last few months. She even started to update her instagram again. Yes she left the industry at the controversy's peak but who wouldn't? She was the Devil itself. Now that things have chilled down, I think she could come back. She probably won't for the time being though, for the mere reason that Mina is still out there like a ticking bomb.


    Soojin is a bit trickier since we don't have a definitive word on the matter but she has also received lately a renewed sympathy from a portion of the k-crowd. Lots of people changed their stance after the Jimin/Mina debacle. With the court case still pending, it's still too soon for anything though. But within a year or so? Who knows what might happen.


    For Irene I don't know. Red Velvet made a comeback alright, so I guess it's ok. It's not like she didn't face any consequences anyway. She had to go under the radar for a year and a half, something like that. So there comes a point you have to assume the person learned their lesson and move on.

    She never ranks high in brand reputation, her movie made no noise, and she has barely had solo work (CFs, etc) in the last two years. Prada definitely dropped whatever deal she had with them just before the controversy. I don't think she's hated, I think she's just past her it girl prime. Would have happened regardless of the scandal as younger girls with more interesting personalities continue to debut. Joy seems to the most popular RV member amongst GP now

    Not sure if thats the right take, like whats already said above.


    There have been idols that have been forgiven or where netizens stopped caring or stopped chain bashing idols involved in bullying cases (whether justified or not).

    Koreans in general aint Pann netizens and dont care about most of the drama stuff that Pann girls regularly care and explode about.

    Netizens arent a hivemind where everyone either hates or loves an idol. Some will forgive, some will forget, some will always hate no matter what, some will be indifferent or move on to other topics and idols to bash or defend or fight about.

    Irene has admitted guilt and apologized and kept herself in the background. On top of that, even the stylist that was the target stated they talked it out and that everyone should move on.

    There was an ISAC poll? No idea. But people can vote whoever they think is pretty or not.

    Quote from Breaded Honey Turkey (267)

    She never ranks high in brand reputation, her movie made no noise, and she has barely had solo work (CFs, etc) in the last two years. Prada definitely dropped whatever deal she had with them just before the controversy. I don't think she's hated, I think she's just past her it girl prime. Would have happened regardless of the scandal as younger girls with more interesting personalities continue to debut. Joy seems to the most popular RV member amongst GP now

    True on most accounts. Joy is the number 1 RV member on brand rankings right now. But Irene is actually number 2 and was 12 in this month's brand rankings. But brand rankings are questionable and might measure different things than people assume.


    Also yes about there always being new girl idols to replace former icons in status and popularity.

    Now that the 4th gen has almost fully replaced all 3rd gen idols in popularity except for Blackpink, it stands to reason that idols from the 4th gen are rising up to be the new it girls of 2022 and beyond.

    i confused the poll with another year.

    I thought there was one last year too but it was 2020

    I'm not sure if I can agree with the stance that irene is past her it-girl prime.

    I rather have a feeling SM is currently mixing the cards anew and trying to sort things out.

    SM let irene lay low for almost 2 years, now she is slowly making more public appearances again and she is getting more praises and support from the public. It seems like a media tactic to slowly but surely let irene get a foothold again to get back to her old status and imo it doesn't seem impossible. Korea was obsessed with Irene's visuals so maybe she'll eventually get back on top if she keeps behaving well and their next song does well.

    RV has always been a suprise bag. Kpop fans thought for the longest time RV was over but then they dropped psycho and it was a huge hit. If SM is smart and they soon make another song on psycho level quality, I can conclude there is a high chance SM is trying to reconcile irene with the it-girl status once again

    Quote from Breaded Honey Turkey (267)

    She never ranks high in brand reputation, her movie made no noise, and she has barely had solo work (CFs, etc) in the last two years. Prada definitely dropped whatever deal she had with them just before the controversy. I don't think she's hated, I think she's just past her it girl prime. Would have happened regardless of the scandal as younger girls with more interesting personalities continue to debut. Joy seems to the most popular RV member amongst GP now

    just wanna say brand reputation is the most unreliable thing EVER

    you’re talking about joy who wasn’t even top 100 two months ago bdjshdjsb

    Quote from Deep-Fried Sour Ostrich (490)

    True on most accounts. Joy is the number 1 RV member on brand rankings right now. But Irene is actually number 2 and was 12 in this month's brand rankings. But brand rankings are questionable and might measure different things than people assume.


    Also yes about there always being new girl idols to replace former icons in status and popularity.

    Now that the 4th gen has almost fully replaced all 3rd gen idols in popularity except for Blackpink, it stands to reason that idols from the 4th gen are rising up to be the new it girls of 2022 and beyond.

    pls stop using brand rep it’s incredibly unreliable

    seriously not telling of the popularity of an idol

    Quote from Deep-Fried Sour Ostrich (460)

    pls stop using brand rep it’s incredibly unreliable

    seriously not telling of the popularity of an idol

    Thats what I was saying. People think its a popularity ranking but its not.

    But Joy is still very popular, her personal projects do well and she's often in the news in a positive way.

    Quote from OP

    I'm not sure if I can agree with the stance that irene is past her it-girl prime.

    I rather have a feeling SM is currently mixing the cards anew and trying to sort things out.

    SM let irene lay low for almost 2 years, now she is slowly making more public appearances again and she is getting more praises and support from the public. It seems like a media tactic to slowly but surely let irene get a foothold again to get back to her old status and imo it doesn't seem impossible. Korea was obsessed with Irene's visuals so maybe she'll eventually get back on top if she keeps behaving well and their next song does well.

    RV has always been a suprise bag. Kpop fans thought for the longest time RV was over but then they dropped psycho and it was a huge hit. If SM is smart and they soon make another song on psycho level quality, I can conclude there is a high chance SM is trying to reconcile irene with the it-girl status once again

    Why would they?

    There's Winter and Karina now, and Taeyeon and Yoona who always score high in popularity and Joy too.

    Just saying that if they really were planning to push one of their artists to become an it girl, they have enough options, all persons that are very popular and do well with normal Korean public.


    Not that I think they are doing that, if it was that easy to make an it girl, all companies would be doing it.


    Yes sure, but I feel neither winter nor karina can get to the level that irene was. It seems as if SM has to put more effort in making aespa and their members popular, while with irene and red velvet as a whole their popularity came more naturally. I'm not trying to downgrade aespa in any way, but I think SM benefitted more from rv and irene, and the scandal was a huge slapback for SM. That's why they kinda try to get irene specifically back on top with smart but subtle tactics. Maybe the public doesn't even notice it but they might allow irene to become an it girl again.

    Quote from OP

    Yes sure, but I feel neither winter nor karina can get to the level that irene was. It seems as if SM has to put more effort in making aespa and their members popular, while with irene and red velvet as a whole their popularity came more naturally. I'm not trying to downgrade aespa in any way, but I think SM benefitted more from rv and irene, and the scandal was a huge slapback for SM. That's why they kinda try to get irene specifically back on top with smart but subtle tactics. Maybe the public doesn't even notice it but they might allow irene to become an it girl again.

    I dont know. You make SM out to be some master manipulators as if theyre some Illuminati or stuff like that. I dont think that any company can create it girls like that, and certainly not some smalltime Kpop company like SM. Kpop fans may see Kpop companies like BH, SM, YG and JYP as some huge corporations but theyre nothing compared with the real corporations that are often 100-1000 times larger than them.


    Irene is 30 already, and far past the normal average age of a girl idol. Probably already looking ahead to the next stage of her life (and career).

    If they really want to push one of their artists to become an it girl, which I very much doubt they want to do and even more doubt they or any other Kpop company is capable of, but if they would want to, then they'd do it with a Winter or Karina or Ningning. One of their idols that is new, upcoming and hot trending now and who could fill that role for many years to come.

    Irene still has the biggest fanbase in red velvet by a good margin from sales I have seen but for the cf aspect, Irene can wave it goodbye. Karina or winter will take over as sm cf queens. Sm is only keeping her because she pulls a lot for Red velvet but her public recognition or should I say like ability is close to zero. A recent film festival voted Irene and chanyeol won the worst actors of 2021

    Link : https://m.pann.nate.com/talk/3…6%B0%20%EC%B0%AC%EC%97%B4

    also her age(whether we like it or not, it’s a factor that affects entertainment ) she’s far older than all the 4th gen girlies

    she can't never recover from her initial popularity. She can't do successful solo jobs anymore

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