Twelve more girl groups are preparing to debut this year

If you thought the girl group rush was finally winding down this year, you’re in for a big shock, as 12 groups have announced that they’ll be making their debut in the second half of 2011!

On May 26th, SBS’s “One Night in TV Entertainment” reported on the girl group wave and introduced the arduous process rookie girl groups went through in order to get their name out to the public. One scene saw a group stick name tags onto themselves and stand in a row to greet every senior artist who passed by.

SBS’s research revealed that 10 girl groups debuted in the first half of 2010 alone. They also revealed that twelve new girl groups and five boy groups were waiting to debut later in the year.

A professor of sociology at Kookmin University commented, “The 30-40 age group is now taking part in cultural activities. Because they have jobs, their consumer power is greater than any other age group. Now that they’re standing at the center of pop culture, the market is turning to cater to them.”

The CEO of Starship Entertainment also added, “Girl groups achieve a bigger effect when they first debut in the industry. Boy groups are a lot slower in comparison, and I think it’s because of the images they choose to portray. It’s a lot easier to approach the public with girl groups than it is with boys.”

The girl group craze has reached a point where there’s now a horror film dedicated to the ongoing phenomenon. As previously reported, T-ara’s Eunjung is starring in “White” as one of the leading members of a fictional girl group.

Commenting on the line between reality and fiction, Eunjung revealed, “It’s a story about the jealousy and ambitions that surrounds girl groups, and I’m sure that a lot of people who see it will agree that this is how things really are.”

Directors also added, “We held a lot of auditions, but there weren’t a lot of people who could stand on par with real idols. Never did we imagine that there’d be so many girl groups, and even while researching them, many more began springing up everywhere.”