My 10 Year Kpop Group Bias History

I’m working on an article of my top girl groups of all time, but in the process this one was born. This is a walk through my bias groups, and a timeline on how long they remained at the top. I will note here that the end and start dates are mostly lined up with song releases and aren’t a hard stop or start, but are as accurate as I can be. So let’s delve into this list and see why groups are on top, and what’s changed in my group evaluation.

1. Kara (October 2012-March 2013, 6 months)

Kara was the group that got me into kpop fully, I had only been peripherally aware of the genre thanks to esports, and that was mostly just Bubble Pop by Hyuna. I biased Hara for the entire time Kara was my bias, and after as well. I really like the electric guitar coming from a rock background, it has that drama that is great in music too. I really consider them more of a gateway than a true bias in this sense though, I was still mostly listening to screamo like Alesana and Silverstein.

2. Girl’s Day (March 2013-July 2015, 2.5 years or Mar 2013-March 2017, 4 years)

Girl’s Day took me into my kpop deep dive with Expectation. I have two different date spans because while I biased them that whole 4 year span, they were functionally on hiatus and during that time I would say I had a different interim bias. I liked the diversity of Girl’s Day’s discography. They were known for sexy concepts, yes, but they also were fantastic at cute and fun concepts too. My bias has always been Yura, she still has my favorite laugh in kpop history, followed closely by Dreamcatcher Sua. During this time other groups I liked were EXID, Sistar, Apink and AoA. You will see that this is by far my longest bias counting the hiatus, and even without the hiatus they are still firmly in first.

3. Stellar (July 2015-March 2017, 1.5 years)

With the rise of 3rd gen I still found myself liking the older groups, which makes sense, the idols are closer to me in age. Stellar was one of the most uncomfortably oversexualized groups in kpop, but the music was really good, and the members talented and fun. The last song from them that ends this era is Crying, which was graciously far less oversexualized, which was great. We’re starting their timeline at Girl’s Day’s last song before hiatus, Ring My Bell, and Stellar’s Vibrato. During my time with Stellar as my top active group Jeonyul was my original bias but I eventually settled on Minhee. Coincidentally, their end at the top for me also lines up with Girl’s Day’s last song, I’ll be Yours, so this era wraps up neatly. Other groups I liked during this era were Twice, Red Velvet, Oh My Girl, Brave Girls and EXID.

4. Pristin (March 2017-May 2018, a little over 1 year)

Pristin was a group that I was all in on with 2nd Gen groups truly fading away at this point, they were the 3rd Gen group for me… except, of course, they only lasted a bit more than a year. This is also the last group where I truly depended on fan subs for being able to watch content, in 2018 it was becoming very common for all content to have English subs. I started out as a Rena bias but grew into a Yehana bias, in Pristin V, which didn’t have Yehana, I was a Rena/Roa/Nayoung bias. The rapid fade of Pristin left me drifting a bit between groups that I liked, Twice, Oh My Girl, EXID, Gfriend, and Fiestar.

5. Loona (May 2018-March 2020, a little under 2 years)

As 4th Gen rose up during the turmoil of the Pristin disbandment, my attention was grabbed by Loona during the yyxy era. Loona TV was such a great series to keep you constantly engaged with the group every day, and was English subbed. Admittedly, OEC eventually became my favorite subunit and I was a Kim Lip bias until I became a dual Kim Lip and Gowon bias. So What really lost me, and soon after its release I switched, marking the first and only group that I have moved away from despite no hiatus, disbandment or lineup changes. During this time I also like EXID, Oh My Girl, Gfriend, Iz*one, Dreamcatcher, Fromis_9, GWSN, Red Velvet, (G)I-dle and Itzy.

6. WJSN (March 2020-Present, a little over 2 years)

My wife and I took a trip to Korea which opened the floodgates for our collecting of kpop albums, and in that process I bought WJ Stay in Korea, then I bought another version of WJ Stay the next day, then I started buying every WJSN album. I had always been aware of WJSN and liked a number of their songs, Secret and Dreams Come True, and of course, La La Love, but they took off for me at this time. Notably, they are the first group that I have joined the official fandom of, and since then I’ve only done that for one other group. During these years 4th gen has really taken over what I listen to as 3rd Gen is starting to disband and fade away, Iz*one, Itzy, Aespa, Stayc, Everglow, Weeekly, Dreamcatcher, Oh My Girl, GWSN, Gfriend, and Fromis_9.

7. Fromis_9 (May 2021-Present, 1 year)

WJSN is still my number 1 bias, but as they get increasingly less content I have picked up Fromis_9 as a secondary. I liked them from their debut and then they lost me with Fun. before going on hiatus. Then Feel Good came out and they were back on my radar, and solidified themselves with We Go and Channel_9. Every week after work on Thursday (my last day of the work week) I get a pint of ice cream and sit down to Channel_9, it’s just become a part of my weekly routine. There is a real likelihood that WJSN disbands next spring, so Fromis will likely be taking that position from them. Also, as I alluded to in the WJSN section, this is the other group I am now an official card holding fan of.


And that’s it for now, just 4-7 groups depending on how I really want to count Kara, Stellar, and Fromis_9. How does your bias history look and how have your tastes changed? I went from the sexy groups of 2nd/early 3rd gen, into the ethereal elegant groups of 3rd and 4th gen, which makes sense considering sexy groups aren’t really a thing anymore. Let me know in the comments!