K-pop in 2022 so far: Le Sserafim chaos, WJSN’s Queendom 2 win confusion, concert tours missing stars – it’s been an up and down year
- The scandal surrounding Le Sserafim’s Kim Garam, and a brewing one over WJSN, are examples of how the K-pop world is in a state of flux
- Things are more positive in terms of music, with addictive recent hits like That That from Psy and BTS’s Suga, (G)I-dle’s Tomboy, and IVE’s Love Dive
Almost halfway through 2022 and it’s hard to say where the year will lead K-pop.
By all quantifiable measures, such as streaming numbers, charts, record sales and so on, K-pop is having a great year, with many artists seeing success. Both international touring and local touring within South Korea have returned as Covid-19 precautions lift around the world, enabling live music events to return to a sense of normalcy.
But while there have been big songs and monumental moments, there hasn’t been that one event that has defined the year, as 2022 still seems to be deciding the mark it will leave on K-pop.
Managed by Hybe subsidiary Source Music, Le Sserafim had major expectations of being a big hit for the parent company, which is also home to the likes of BTS, Seventeen and formerly GFriend. But as Source scrambled to at first seemingly ignore, then later react to, accusations against Kim, it felt that the group’s highly anticipated debut roll-out – and the success of their single Fearless – had been obscured by the chaos, with no end in sight as yet.
While hopefully Le Sserafim and Source will figure out their future, whether as a five- or six-member team, the situation seemed like a microcosm of how many others in the K-pop industry are moving seemingly haphazardly forward this year, reactively rather than proactively.
Another controversy surrounding a girl group occurred with the recently ended television competition Queendom 2, a sequel to the hit 2019 series. While the show saw many of the acts’ careers reinvigorated, it also ended with questions over the validity of WJSN’s win.
What should have been a career-kickstarting win for WJSN has been clouded by these accusations, a complete turnaround following the success of the show’s first season.
The return of K-pop concerts has felt similarly blemished. While most tours have been successful, albeit delayed by two years, few have not seen Covid-19 cases erupting among their stars.
That has usually meant members having to sit out of some of the shows, like NCT 127’s Taeil, who was diagnosed with the coronavirus while in Japan ahead of the act starting their tour. Q from The Boyz, meanwhile, tested positive with his second bout of Covid-19 midway through the band’s US tour this week. Others tested positive after their tours had finished, like members of Twice.
While the coronavirus pandemic is out of the hands of any single K-pop star or management company, it adds to the growing state of unknown.
One thing that the coronavirus pandemic has shown us all is that things that seem up can come down and vice versa in a matter of moments.
The first half of 2022 has felt a bit rough for K-pop, but hopefully things will become more straightforward by the end of the year, both for the K-pop world and beyond.
