HIerarchy in Kpop is often hard to discern

In an era of debuts, redebuts and auditions, sometimes it is had to determine who is senior to whom.

The rule of thumb is who debuted FIRST at what time.

Generally speaking, child debuts are not considered to be a regular debut. Some KPop figures were child actors or child performers, but in Kpop their debut as children are not considered to be proper debut.

Huh Solji of EXID had debuted in 2006 in a little known ballad group called 2NB. Although it was an unknown, it appeared on the tv a few times. Still, although 2NB's footprint was tiny, because it had appeared on TV before Solji was considered to have debuted on 2006, which made her Senior to virtually all singers in Kpop when EXID hit the jackpot in 2015.

Sometimes, if a singer is significantly older than the lot, like Park Sojin of Girls' Day, although the person might have debuted later, other singers do not play a Seniority before that person if that person's act is reasonably popular.

Sometimes a singer is with an act for a short time and becomes a member of another act . If the person had appeared on a tv show as a member of the first act, the singer is considered to have debuted at that time. Which is why Hyuna is Senior to every SNSD member since her stint in Wonder Girls is not erased for this purpose.

One can redebut , or be selected in an audition , but in general the rule of the thumb is a person is considered to have debuted when the person first appeared on a TV show as an adult, in Korea or a different country, so the seniority starts then.

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Those who have received Lifetime Achievement Awards from a reputable award outrank everyone in Seniority no matter when they had debuted. First come , first served. So , those who received Lifetime Achievements from major awards, IU (from MAMA, 2014), BTS (from Gaon, 2019) and BoA (from MAMA, 2020), in that order, are considered to be Senior to everyone else regardless of their debut years, and since IU is the first person to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award in the Kpop era, she is considered to be Senior to everyone, including those who debuted before her or are older than her, in KPop, followed by BTS and BoA.

Quote from emanresu

IU Senior to BoA?

BoA was an industry vet and legend when IU was still a rookie.

That seems a weird setup that no amount of technicality can overcome.

Blame it to MAMA who gave a Lifetime Award in 2014

That made her Senior to everyone else in the KPop era.

In terms of Lifetime Achievement Awards, someone who received it earlier is more Senior, and because MAMA gave it to her to avoid her giving a Grand Prize , MAMA made her Senior to everyone else.

Quote from bbgc

IU is not senior to BoA, in the real world.

But the "weird setup" is the mind of WhyKnock . It is parallel universe or rather upside-down universe of its own.

Just enjoy the posts, don't ask for any logic in it.

For SM singers, BoA is more senior since she helped to found SM as we know it.

But for everyone else IU can say she is senior to everyone else.

Quote from Kreatin

Just because some random award show gives out a one time price that none cares about, doesnt mean they are more senior than anyone else.

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Didnt gdragon debut in like 95' or something in little roora? is there any active idol with more seniority than him?

It has to be an adult debut. Otherwise there are going to be too many outliers, making the seniority thing irrelevant.

Quote from Lulu_Key

if they go on a show together, it wont play like its playing in your head lol

Which might be why they never met to this day.

Quote from 2techs

If that's the case, then we can keep going back and saying Sobangcha was the first kpop group in 1987, not Seo Taiji & Boys.

Sobangcha is not active, their members all but forgotten

Quote from ZestyMochi

So if kid debuts which I'm assuming is minors debut isn't real when does it happen? When they turn 18?

Kwon Sohyun of 4Minute debuted as a child in a child's group.

But she deferred to Hyuna since her adult debut took place after Hyuna had debuted.

Jung Eunbi and Hwang Eunbi of Viviz had seen other members of Kpop back in 2007 as children but they could not claim seniority over Red Velvet.