Their concept. A lot of GGs that got more popular with i-fans after doing a cute concept, switched concepts beforehand.
I still remember the comments of i-fans swarming Twice and Gfriend's more mature concepts with how they prefer this to their "immature and cringe" previous concept.
Also, Apink was cute as well, but again the song tha got them popular internationally was when they changed concepts.
Of course, with the change in concept comes a change in sound and that might have appealed more, but it's hard to ignore all the "thank god they aren't cute anymore" comments.
I'm sure the scandals took a hit as well. Right around the time they started getting more popular on the korean side, I started hearing about Twitter going after them.
Hopefully their company starts gaining an interest in pushing more internationally as well, they don't seem to be pushing towards i-fans that much
EXID - B.L.E.S.S.E.D. Not a huge fan of their japanese releases in general tbh.
Everglow - First. Really liked it initially, but now I'm meh about it.
Oh My Girl - Sugar Baby
f(x) - So Into You
Dreamcatcher - Emotion
Gfriend - Sunshine
Saturday - In Your Eyes
iZ*ONE - Someday
Girl's Day - White Day
Purple Kiss - Ponzona. I'm on the fence about it, the chorus is fun and their vocals are still nice to listen to. I'm also excluding that commercial one.
There's way too many to list them all, but some of my top ones right now are:
BTS - Save me
Twice- Get Loud, Like Ooh Aah, Hell in Heaven
Weki Meki - Tiki Taka
Elris - This is Me
Weeekly - Afterschool, Yummy
Mamamoo - Gogobebe, Hip
GWSN - Pinky Star (Run), Miss Ping Pong
Purplebeck - Crystal Ball
WJSN - Pantomime
Hot Place - Kill You
Oneus - Eye Contact, Valkyrie
Vromance - Unlike
Astro - Moonwalk
ClC - Show
Winner - Island, Love Me Love Me
1. Stayc is from a small company and new so it's the most surprising.
2. Brave Girls just had a previous hit so more people will want to check it out the new release, but they did come out of nowhere beforhand so it's still interesting to see them do well again.
3. Oh My Girl got their hit a year prior to making another release, so it's cool to see them doing so well. However they've had hit songs previously, gained more eyes because of queendom, and b-sides charting so I feel like they solidified themselves enough that it wasn't that surprising to see them chart well.
4. Aespa is SM's newest girl group, it would be more surprising to see them not do well
Twice - members seem to get equal amounts of appreciation from fans. Whenever one member gets praise I see fans with other members as thier bias be as happy for them.
iKON - after all the ups and downs the fans seem to not want any more drama and prioritize loving all
Also EXID didn't have a huge amount of akagaes even with the huge amount of attention Hani got
