Now these “scary noonas” seem to be everywhere. They’re taking over the K-Pop scene and they’re doing it big! These K-Pop “noonas” are gaining momentum, standing up for themselves, and kicking some major ass! But are they also scaring away their male fans while they’re at it?
For those new to K-Pop and Korean expressions, the word “noona” translates into elder sister. For polite purposes, people may refer to a female older than themselves as “noona,” which relays respect for that person. In this case, we’ll refer to successful K-pop females as ‘noonas’ since they’ve been in the industry for a while.
Symptoms of the scary noona syndrome come about when a girl group goes 180º from sporting a powerful, fierce, edgy image to taking on a more mellow, softer, sometimes cuter image.
Every major girl group from 2NE1 to 4Minute seems to be suffering from the syndrome. Others include Girls Generation, Kara, Secret, After School, Brown Eyed Girls… the list could be endless! So what are the symptoms of this syndrome that these groups simultaneously suffer from?
We’ll trace its history back to 2009, and how it’s affected the different K-Pop groups:
2NE1:
Fierce girl group, 2NE1 debuted in May 2009 with (arguably) one of the fiercest, scariest tracks a girl group has ever attempted to debut with. They brought that Fire to our iPods, and we couldn’t get enough of it! But what were these girls singing about? Their tracks put out messages that practically stated: “We’re here, we’re hot, and we’re totally independent females.”
In their next release, they told off cheating boyfriends in their award-winning track, I Don’t Care, and after that, they dared all their haters to Try to Copy them.
So with all this fierceness you’d expect the girls to cool it a bit right? Well, fast-forward to 2010, and the first track off their first full album, Go Away, was a diss to a misbehaving, (potentially violent) boyfriend.
After that, they released the video to a fun-loving but equally fierce track, Clap Your Hands, where they donned fighter and military-themed clothing. And to remind everyone that no one could “hold them down,” they made it clear in their next track, Can’t Nobody.
So where does all this come together? Perhaps the girls and their management, YG Entertainment, started to pick up that 2NE1 had developed the “scary noona syndrome,” because the group went on a mellower, more melancholic streak right after that. Their next release, It Hurts, was far mellower than any release the group had put out yet. But staying true to their character, the gothic-themed track relayed the symbol of the group’s ever-present fierceness.
Maintaining the streak, even with solo activities, main vocalist of the group, Park Bom, dropped another sad song, Please Don’t Cry. Then the girls came out with Lonely, their mellowest track yet.
2NE1’s Scary Noona Symptoms: This group arguably has the scariest noonas in K-Pop: Their last concept photos showed them flashing neon guns, and they’re popping hard-core machine guns in their latest video.
But, it seems like they realized they were being viewed as being extremely fierce and perhaps scary. Leader, CL admitted on the last episode of 2NE1 TV season one that the group was concerned about their image being too edgy and powerful for their male fans. And it seems like they really did scare off the boys with their fierce image. One male 2NE1 fan, William, on Yahoo Answers explained:
“Lemme put it this way… basing my opinion purely on image, not the quality of music… 2ne1 are the kinda girls that’ll kiss you goodnight, then jack ur wallet.”
And true to that comment, 2NE1 currently maintains a majority female fan-base. They’ve got the scary noona syndrome to the bone, and they seem to be having fun with it.
But they couldn’t keep their melancholic state for long. Their latest hit, I am the Best, has one of the fiercest videos in K-Pop girl group history to date!
Girls Generation:
As one of Korea’s biggest girl groups, Girl’s Generation (or SNSD) has been on top of the music scene since they debuted in 2007. Despite that, they seemed to pick up on the scary noona syndrome in 2009, but for them, the syndrome seems to be working in reverse order.
Girls Generation released their biggest track yet in 2009. Gee took the charts by storm, and was named “track of the decade” by Melon. But Gee wasn’t a fierce, scary track: It was a cute, catchy song.
After that came Tell Me Your Wish (Genie), Chocolate Love, and then Oh, which more or less relayed a slightly sexier, less cuter side to the group.
Guess SM Entertainment and Girls Generation picked up on the SNS trend, because soon the girls dropped their cutesy, coy image for an all-out, edgy-fierce image — they joined the scary noonas! Their track, Run Devil Run (essentially a warning to a sleazy love interest) became the most independently sought-out track the group had released.
Following that was their track, Hoot through which they threatened a cheating boyfriend. Girls Generation still continues to display symptoms of the scary noona syndrome, even in Japan with their title track, Mr. Taxi.
SNSD’s Scary Noona Symptoms: Earlier, Girls Generation released tracks that were on the cuter, girlier side, but their fiercest track yet, Run Devil Run, was the beginning of indications of the scary noona symptoms for the group.
However, the effects of the symptom do not seem to be doing the group much damage. Only time will tell though, how far (and how seriously) they’ll take this edgier image.
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