Creating a successful idol group is no easy task — there are many little details to worry about and intangibles to factor in — yet more and more groups debut every year. Although the market is surely saturated, there’s always room for one more group (and one more bias in your heart).
And let’s face it, who hasn’t dreamed of creating their own idol group before? Heck, half of Seoulbeats’ readers would be better than the current management of some groups — *cough* JYP.
However, the process of actually creating an idol group is a difficult and daunting task. Luckily, Seoulbeats is here to help. We will walk you through this harrowing process in our guide to creating your very own idol group!
First up in our guide is how to choose the members for your future group. Obviously before you choose the actual members, you need to know how many idols you want.
Typical groups range from four to seven members with five tending to be the most popular number. For this installment, we’ll use five as the number of idols in our group.
Now comes the fun part! Assuming we have a decent batch of trainees, it’s time to viciously pit them against one another. Just kidding, this isn’t YG.
The selection for girl groups and boy groups is a little bit different due to the fact that K-pop fans allow males to have infinite flaws whereas females are only permitted 1.5 flaws each. Thus, we will discuss the selection of boy idols first.
Selection of boy group members
Main Vocalist: One of the most important positions in the group, you need a boy who can sing. His talent alone will be able to make up for the mediocrity of any other members. This position is especially important because the main vocalist needs to be able to sing ballads every now and then to capture the hearts of fangirls … and also their money.
Visual: It’s no secret that the majority of K-pop fans are girls so select for this position carefully. Talent really doesn’t matter because fangirls will excuse everything for male idols. The important of the visual, then, is to draw in new fans with his beautifully proportional face.
Rapper: There’s only one thing you need to look for in a rapper — swag. And not just normal “oh he’s cool” swag. I’m talking about IN YOUR FACE SWAG. Sw*ag so hot you can roast marshmallows off of it. He needs to live, breathe, and drink ~swag~.
On the off chance that you find a talented rapper who doesn’t exude *swAg*, you can still select him for your group. Just dress him up so hip-hop that he becomes uncomfortable at the amount of sWaG~ he is emitting.
Other positions you might want to fill include the position of leader and main dancer. Usually a leader will reveal himself so it’s not necessary to specifically choose a member just to be the leader. The main dancer, however, should be a specific pick if you choose to have one. But all your members should be at least somewhat talented in the dance department. Girls go crazy over that kind of stuff apparently.
Selection of girl group members
As mentioned earlier, fans are much less forgiving when it comes to female idols. Therefore, if you choose to create a girl group, your idols need to be flawless not just talent-wise, but in the looks department as well.
Luckily, if you find a talented but ugly girl there’s always the option of plastic surgery. In this case, it would be wise to include plastic surgery in the contract signed by trainees because no one likes a girl who doesn’t want to conform to the strict, virtually unobtainable beauty standards imposed by society. Amirite, folks?
Main Vocalist: This is a pretty easy position to fill — simply select the best singer out of your group of trainees. Unless you have a Ailee-like trainee, chances are that the public won’t really care. Therefore the main vocalist position for girl groups isn’t that important.
Rapper: Why K-pop is still producing females rappers who obviously can’t rap is beyond me. But hey, what the public wants, they get. Therefore, unless you have a trainee who specifically trained in rap, just choose a girl who can’t sing that well. Later on, if she does appear to be able to sing, fans will complement her on how well-rounded she is.
Money-maker: This is a difficult and extremely important position to fill. You’re looking for the next Suzy, the next Hyorin, someone whom the public will take notice of and subsequently land CF’s and endorsements to line your pockets. With this position, it’s wise to wait until after a few promotion cycles before starting to push the member down the public’s throats. Even if the public doesn’t take to her, bad publicity is better than no publicity.
Cute/Sexy Member: Every girl group needs at least one member who can either whip out the aegyo or transform into a sultry seductress — those are the only two forms to which boys respond to. If none of your members exudes either of these personalities, make them do it anyways. After all, who cares about them, you’re in this for the money.
Other positions you might want to consider are the leader and dancer. As stated above, the leader usually comes about organically although it may be necessary to assign one.
The dancer is even more important in girl groups because it will cause fans to lament how neglected the dancer is á la Minzy. All that lamenting will lead to sympathy and support for your dancer and by extension, your girl group.
Well there you have it, an easy guide to choosing members for your girl or boy group. The most important thing to remember is that boys need to be likeable and girls need to be perfect. Remember those two things and the easiest part of creating your own idol group is done!
Stay tuned for the next installment where we teach you to how to choose a name and concept for your group.
