Astro: The last of the old school Kpop idol groups

(Astro knocking the easy-breazy disco trend out of the park with “After Midnight”!)

I saw a tweet recently that said something like, “Astro didn’t get popularity by typical ways like a viral hit song (but that doesn’t mean they aren’t popular).” The context here is that Astro has been winning music shows against some other acts that certain sections of stan twitter consider more popular or important or something… more deserving, perhaps. 

The inner workings of music show awards hold very little interest for me but I was struck by the framing of Astro’s popularity as “not typical.” 

Astro (who I enjoy very much) are a six-member group formed under Fantiago in 2016. They debuted with an extremely peppy teen candy candy sweetie sweetie image that somewhat obfuscated their genuine talent at performance and ability to knock out my favorite genre of pop song: the stealth banger. They successfully pivoted to a more adult image once youngest member Yoon Sanha was old enough with “All Night” in 2019 and with that song finally (FINALLY) got their first music show win (just try not to tear up while watching).

From “All Night” through their most recent comeback before this one, “One”, Astro continued with this kind of artsy, adult image--think Arashi in their “Truth” era--but for this current comeback, Astro have given us their take on the disco trend with “After Midnight”... and it’s good! Astro-style disco! 

Astro are charming, funny, make engaging content, and are known for their excellent performances. Between members Moonbin and Rocky, they have one of the best--if not the best--dance line of the active groups right now and their choreography is always eye-catching. They have a great vocal line anchored by oldest member MJ and baby member Yoon Sanha and their main rapper (and leader) Jinjin--much like Winner’s Hoony--has an ear for a hooky phrase. That just leaves one member unaccounted for: Cha Eun Woo.

In the episode of the podcast I just posted, one of my guests says that, traditionally, one of the important elements of Kpop was the intertextual relationships. We see group members on variety and dramas and commercials and get to know them through these lenses, adding another dimension to our enjoyment of their songs and performances. These media appearances also bring in new fans to the group. When Arashi’s Matsumoto Jun won the hearts of women world-wide in Hana Yori Dango (2005), he also brought a new wave of fans to Arashi. The phenomenon was so widespread, international fans referred to it as “Jun-baiting.” I should know, I was Jun-baited.

Winner’s Mino brought new attention to his group with his work on rap competition show Show Me the Money as well as his appearances as a cast member on popular variety show New Journey to the West. 

This is a very traditional way for idol groups to become popular.

So, let’s circle back to Cha Eun Woo. He’s not a dance, rap, or vocal ace but he has something equally valuable to Astro--numerous and popular drama roles and brand endorsements. Cha Eun Woo is known the way idols used to be known. His extremely handsome face isn’t just some random idol on a birthday advertisement in the subway, it’s recognizable by normal people.

Cha Eun Woo is a huge asset to a group like Astro. His popularity not only brings new fans to Astro but also helps open doors for other members. “Oh, he’s in Cha Eun Woo’s group” is a much more compelling hook for the average viewer than “Oh, he’s in one of the dozens of idol groups I’ve never heard of and have no connection to and whose name goes in one year and out the other like a puff of smoke.”

I’ve written about this before but views, streams, physical album sales, etc. are transitory measurements. These numerics that the young generation of fans have been trained to see as the ultimate prize are just numbers. It’s understandable that fans are being encouraged to value numerics by the big Kpop companies because it keeps fans engaged on the fandom treadmill, buying and streaming and spending hours voting on music show apps like their lives depended on it. But it’s not all that valuable to the idols themselves--certainly not as valuable as having a member who is known by the general public for his drama roles and handsome face.

I don’t know where the idea that every group needs to have attention evenly divided or that one member can’t have solo work if others don’t have solo work entered into fandom but I have my suspicions. While there’s nothing wrong with fans advocating for their favorite member to have more solo work, I do think there’s something wrong with fans advocating to hold a member back as I’ve sensed has been the case from certain corners with Cha Eun Woo. The long term health and success of a male idol group in the mold of SMAP--which is what very much Astro is--depends on the members having strong individual images and brands outside of the group. The idea that the members have to do everything together at all times is unworkable in the long run just as the idea that a group can rely completely on the obsessive streaming and viewing and buying of a core group of fans is unworkable in the long run. 

This new generation of foreign fans has lost those intertextual connections. “KPop” has increasingly become isolated not just from old subculture spaces where fans mixed with anime and Jpop fans but even from mainstream dramas and variety shows and Korean show business, generally. It’s led to this odd bubble where the most popular groups among stans barely even have name recognition in Korea outside of Kpop fandom. It wasn’t always like this.

Astro’s slow climb through the idol group ranks may no longer be typical but it is traditional and that’s a good thing for Astro.