Aespa still fall under the girl crush umbrella though. They just arent the same type of girl crush as Blackpink or Itzy. Would you say that a futuristic, experimental girl group that mostly has a palette of bright colors, have cute choreo with lots of point moves, sing more about love or friendship, and who's performances reley more on winks and smiles have the same concept as Aespa just because they both use futuristic imagery and have experimental music?
If that's the "umbrella" of girl crush, then it's too broad of an umbrella for me. The terms "cute concept" and "girl crush concept" have been so widely defined that using them no longer means anything. I prefer concepts to be more actually definitive.
It's like looking at some furry animal and saying "that's a mammal". While it may technically be true, it's not a helpful definition if I'm wondering what type of animal it is.
So, to me, Aespa is not girl crush. They are something more, something different, something special.
