The first half of 2023 was a heyday for K-pop girl groups.

Their songs went viral on TikTok, and the hit tracks remained long in people’s playlists, sung by people of all ages. And the numbers prove it. Five of the Top 10 first week album sales by girl groups were achieved in 2023 by aespa, Le Sserafim, (G)I-DLE, IVE and NewJeans, coming in first, third, fourth, fifth, seventh and eighth place respectively. Only three songs have swept the top prizes at all six weekly music shows in the first half of this year, all of which were by girl groups: IVE’s “I AM” made the first sweep in April, followed by Le Sserafim’s “Unforgiven” and (G)I-DLE’s “Queencard” in May.

While each girl group differentiates itself through varying concepts, styles and charms, one theme resonates with most: Self-love.

Love is a universal subject for music all around the globe, where the classic boy-meets-girl-and-they-fall-in-love trope never fails to win hearts.

But the very theme of love — which almost all K-pop girl groups utilized, from S.E.S. in the ‘90s to Apink, Red Velvet and IZ*ONE in more recent years — has changed with the prominent girl groups these days. For the fourth-generation K-pop girl groups, as they are often classified, their love is no longer directed toward boys, but rather inwards, back to themselves, which resonates more with the listeners of today.

(G)I-DLE, one of the first girl groups to be classified as a fourth-generation idol, widened its musical colors and paved its own way under the lead of Soyeon, the group’s rapper and general producer. “I feel,” the group’s latest EP which released in May, proved that (G)I-DLE didn’t need a love story.

“It actually started as a song talking about love,” Soyeon, who wrote and composed five out of the six tracks in the EP, said during the album’s press conference in May. “But I realized that confidence was what I actually wanted to discuss. I was inspired by my fellow members.”

The album’s lead track “Queencard” talks about the importance of “self confidence and accepting yourself the way you are,” according to the members.

This is in line with the group’s previous releases, such as “Tomboy” (2022), in which the lyrics go “no matter if you like it or not, this is me,” and “Nxde” (2022), in which the group made the bold move to ditch the excessive makeup and flaunt their true selves, all sticking with the self-confidence concept.

Other members of (G)I-DLE have started contributing to the group’s unique colors, where Minnie and Yuqi co-wrote four B-side tracks in “I feel,” including “All Night,” which sings of the urge to party all night.

Le Sserafim, too, picked up its “Fearless” journey in its first full-length album “Unforgiven,” which dropped in May.

In “Unforgiven,” the girl group continued to seek and pave its own way, telling themselves to not care about the haters, and not asking for their forgiveness for their supposed wrongdoings — which are all “stories and messages the group wants to convey,” according to the group’s leader Chaewon during the press showcase.

Le Sserafim’s path was clear from its debut. The group name is an anagram of “I’m Fearless,” organized to look like "le(s) seraphim," which are the angels who tell people to “Fear not.”

The concept of believing in oneself and being confident continues throughout its discography: The debut EP “Fearless” (2022) sang in Korean that “If my blemishes are a part of myself, I don’t have fear,” while the lyrics of “Fearless” (2022) that go “I’ll go even higher, on to the top the world that I hoped, It’s okay to fall [because] I’m antifragile,” told of their determination to not give up and to aim higher.

The group also expanded its theme, branding itself as the “healthy idol” group. It all began with fans noticing its member Kazuha’s prominent abs during performances. Le Sserafim not long after earned a new nickname: Geun-sserafim — a combination of the Korean word for muscle and the group’s name. The group then released a series of athleisure outfits under the group’s brand.

IVE, as one of the most successful fourth-generation girl groups, focuses on self-love and confidence, and its first full-length album “I’ve IVE,” released in April, is proof of the group’s dedication.

Instead of talking about love, IVE focused on the theme of “living an independent life” to expand on the group’s self-love worldview, according to member Yujin, which is shown in its lyrics that say “Go your way, I go my way,” and proclaims that I, living a beautiful life, am “Who I am.”

The group’s past releases, such as “Love Dive” (2022) and “After LIKE” (2022), and the Korean lyrics from "Eleven" that go “I didn’t know someone would dare make me flutter like this,” may sound similar to with the classic teen love concept. But upon diving deeper, the lyrics such as “Narcissistic, my god I love it” from "Love Dive" and “Don’t you doubt my feelings … You know what my strength is? It’s that I’m honest,” all reinforce the group’s theme of self-love.

Even the girl group’s name, IVE — from the English abbreviation of "I have" — hints at the group’s ongoing theme to “show everything we have, confidently,” as the agency explained upon its debut.

The whole trend is about building up the group’s identity and musical colors to distinguish them from each other and attract the widening target audiences, according to music critic Jung Min-jae.

“There’s no point in dividing girl groups into the simple categories of cute, sexy, or girl crush anymore,” Jung said. “With so many groups out there in the industry, simply aiming for a simple concept won’t be competitive.”

According to Jung, girl groups like NMIXX, who have established their own sort of genre called “mixxpop,” and aespa, who focuses on the group’s fictional universe in the metaverse, are all examples of different ways where groups “show their unique colors in detail,” unlike girl groups from past generations.

But not all girl groups follow the same formula.

In “Cupid,” Fifty Fifty’s latest album that broke records and raised the group to global fame, members blame the mythological god of love, Cupid, for ruining their love relationship — a more conventional way of singing about love.

NewJeans, on the other hand, is in the process of paving its own unique path. “OMG,” the group’s January release, showed ambiguous lyrics, making it unclear whether they were singing about love, friendship, or even their fans. The group’s upcoming second EP, “Get Up,” is set to further solidify NewJeans’ unique path, as the pre-released single “Super Shy” sings the more familiar love story of wanting to “go out with you,” while “ETA” tells of the story of friends giving each other advice on their romantic relationship.

“I think the trend [of diversifying genres] signifies the advancement of K-pop music,” Jung said. “You can’t simply divide them into cute, sexy or girl crush anymore. […] Groups, instead of targeting one certain demographic, now aim to get a variety of people to follow them.”

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BY CHO YONG-JUN [cho.yongjun@joongang.co.kr]