What Is Driving The Hate Against LE SSERAFIM?

LE SSERAFIM was once one of the top girl groups in K-Pop. Then the trolls came for them.

LE SSERAFIM backstage at Coachella. Credit: Source Music

It might have been easy to overlook news from this week that LE SSERAFIM’s Sakura would be absent from the group’s scheduled activities in Japan. 

After all, the idol’s label Source Music announced the decision in the least colorful way possible. "Due to poor health conditions, Sakura will not be able to attend the serial number bonus fan sign scheduled for Saturday, April 27,” Source Music wrote in a statement that had the warmth and detail of a doctor’s note.  

But Sakura’s cancellation is on the heels of two major events that have rocked LE SSERAFIM. Two weeks after a heavily ridiculed performance at Coachella, ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin held a press conference that blew open tensions at Hybe, the conglomerate which Source Music is housed under. Min’s press conference was meant to push back at allegations of impropriety by Hybe that were aimed at the CEO. But she also used the conference as means to take the company to task for every instance which she believed her group NewJeans was mistreated. Her chief complaint was that ILLIT, a newly debuted girl group under Hybe, copied NewJeans. Another instance, she alleged, was that Hybe prioritized LE SSERAFIM’s debut over NewJeans. 

Min’s statements were akin to a bomb dropping off on K-Pop stan spaces like TikTok and Twitter. Social media is often where trolls congregate, but the tone is often far nastier where K-Pop stans fight. Sometimes the offense might be innocuous: A fan mistranslated a quote that went viral. But often times, the most popular Tweets are untrue. Min’s press conference, which named several girl groups, served as high octane fodder for fans who regularly pit girl groups against one another. LE SSERAFIM, who were already torn apart from viral videos of their Coachella performance, was an easy target for the lashings. 

Only one day prior, Source Music released a much more strongly worded statement that warned the public they would seek legal action against users who are sexually harassing and ridiculing the members. Without ever naming Min, the company also denied her allegations. 

It is not hyperbolic that LE SSERAFIM is receiving a vitriolic amount of abuse. Inside the group’s Instagram and TikTok comment sections, comments that reach thousands of likes dig at the members vocal and performance ability. Yunjin, particularly, has been accused of being “pro-Israel” for photos of her drinking Starbucks. This, too, is regularly brought up in comment sections and is used in arguments amongst fans. (Enhypen’s Jake and Jeon Somi were also criticized for drinking Starbucks. Jake later apologized.) 

In instances like calling out Starbucks’ support of Israel, it could be argued that there is value in the awareness that this provides users. But often the hate directed at LE SSERAFIM is uncomfortable to read. There is a vitriolic level of glee that users seem to have in dragging the members. The quips that go the most viral are usually funny and sharp. On a post that explored the stage outfits the girls wore at Coachella, one of the top comments read, “Queen of autotune and backtrack volume”. It received over 1,000 likes. These jabs are meant to provoke a laugh or the rise of an eyebrow – at the expense of the member being attacked. A sense of sexism permeates some of the nastiest comments.

For Sakura, a member who has been an idol since she was 14 in the J-Pop group HKT48 and later AKB48, this is the first significant absence she has ever taken.

“What does it truly mean to stand on stage? is it to present a a flawlessly polished image? To bring joy to the audience? Or is to to execute the performance flawlessly, without a single hitch?” Sakura asked on Weverse after the group was targeted. "No matter what anyone else thinks, I will believe in what I feel. That is how I came here. I will not betray myself and I will continue to belive in myself.”

One year ago, LE SSERAFIM was thought of as the bar that other K-Pop groups should meet for stage performances. 

At the 2022 SBS Gayo Daejeon Show, the girls presented an insane live stage that bordered on manic performance art. Chaewon, a standout member who used to be in IZ*ONE, dramatically chopped her hair off. Yujin, in an extremely dramatic moment, sang opera while Kazuha performed ballet. As the classical music morphed into trap beats, the girls began to break into frenetic choreography and, finally, their debut single “Fearless”.Even as recently as six months ago, the girls’ performances of b-side “Eye, Psyche, & the Bluebeard’s wife” repeatedly went viral. 

But the knives came out in March when the girls performed an encore stage at MCOUNTDOWN for “Easy”. Their shaky vocals veered towards off-key more than a few times, and within hours the girls’ performance was viral again – for all the wrong reasons. Within a week, the consensus had turned against LE SSERAFIM. They were no longer thought of as a group with unbeatable stage presence, but instead as a joke. 

The timing couldn’t have been worse: The group was set to make their U.S. debut at Coachella in April, and their performance would be livestreamed. Their inclusion in the festival was a strategic move by Hybe to follow in the footsteps of Blackpink, whose career was made the first time they played Coachella in 2019, and the recent inclusion of K-Pop groups in music festivals. Last year, Hybe sent TOMORROW X TOGETHER to headline Lollapalooza. NewJeans supported the group with a set that broke Lolla attendance records. 

But LE SSERAFIM seemed unprepared for the demands of Coachella, which requires improvisation and dynamic stage presence. Like on MCOUNTDOWN, their vocals were pitchy. Their energy at times flagged. Compared to the imaginative sets of Sabrina Carpenter or Doja Cat, theirs bare stage looked as if Hybe threw together their set on short notice. It didn’t help that ATEEZ, who are known for their incredible performances, nailed their set the night before with some of the hardest vocals and choreography in contemporary K-Pop. 

But the backlash against what was a mid performance felt more like a rebuke against girl groups in general. LE SSERAFIM’s only crime was seeming unprepared for a stage as big as Coachella. It wasn’t a great set – but that did not require the amount of hatred directed at the girls.

“While all fandoms are not immune to rumours, criticism and negative comments, I’ve noticed far more arguments revolved around girl groups—from the way they look, the way they sing and the way they dress,” Samantha Lui wrote in her analysis of the group’s takedown by fans. This all felt, she wrote, like misogyny.

Source Music did it’s best to course correct for weekend 2. Backing tracks were turned up louder and the group seemed looser. They performed less strenuous choreography so that they could focus on pitch and harmonies. But K-Pop stans largely did not care. What mattered was the viral Tweets that were still making their rounds. 

“Hybe and meejin [sic] created all this fake drama so people would forget about lessarefim’s coachella performance,” one user quipped. It has received over 27,000 likes.