1.
#parkchanyeol_come_out_and_talk
After 2020 clocked its time with a not-so-happy ending for the KPOP industry, many were expecting
that 2021 would welcome them with open arms and lots of good news.
However, that wish not only didn’t come true but also took a turn for the worst as
in February 5, fans and netizens altogether slammed Chanyeol’s reputation with the hashtag
#Park_Chanyeol_no more_silence (#박찬열 침묵 그만) and #Park_Chanyeol_Come_Out_and_Talk
(#박찬열 나와서 얘기해), asking him to speak up against the accusation where he
was claimed to have cheated on a three-year ex-girlfriend with ten other women, including
girl group members, YouTubers, DJs, and airline crews.
Actually when the incident broke out in October 2020, the reaction wasn’t that fierce as
many fans still stood in favor of Chanyeol.
However, since he decided to remain silent for so long and SM Entertainment also half-heartedly
handled the case by releasing statement: “We do not have any official stance towards the
post in question,” anger was triggered and Chanyeol ended up with the two hashtags that
demanded him to either speak up or withdraw from the group.
2.
#PledisStopNUESTMistreatment
Fast forward to the middle of that month, the KPOP industry was again flooded with barrels
of tea when many LOΛEs [loves] took it to Twitter and trended the hashtag #PledisStopNUESTMistreatment,
calling out the company to stop dungeoning NU’EST and let them work.
After the group managed to revive their reputation through the members’ attendance on Produce
101 Season 2, Pledis Entertainment still ignored them and unilaterally turned down all invitations
wanting to work with NU’EST.
Things all started after the MC duo Kim Sook and Lee Youngja called out the company for
ignoring their calls asking to have NU’EST on the show, leading to a huge outrage among
LOAEs.
Then, the company was also said to dungeon the group by ignoring the invitation of the
governor of Gangwondo for JR to be their provincial ambassador.
Then for NU’EST’s latest promotion I’m In Trouble, the agency also let it slide with
only two weeks of promotion and no social media advertisement.
3.
#ApologizeToSoojin
Needless to say, that February was the worst way to kick off 2021 because about the end
of the month, (G)-IDLE’s Soojin also got caught up in a huge controversy where she
was accused of bullying a highschool friend for years.
Not long after that, actress Seo Shin Ae was seen publishing some confusing statements,
implying that she was also another bullied victim of Soojin though various posts on Instagram.
After this scandal broke out, since Soojin and Cube Entertainment both tried to settle
these rumors by legal actions, not only NEVERLANDs but also netizens trended the hashtag #ApologizetoSoojin
worldwide, prompting the release of early investigation’s results and convincing others
of the opposite viewpoint to rethink their stance.
However, under fierce criticism, Soojin ended up leaving the group in August for the sake
of (G)-IDLE’s future promotions.
4.
#LightItUpBTS
Finally something with positive energy!
After February ended with three big controversies in a row, BTS and ARMYs brought light onto
the industry, literally, with the hashtag #LightItUpBTS an hour before Grammys and Hit
2 million Tweets.
As Grammys started another round in March, ARMYs were extremely eager to see if their
boys would amount to the things they’d deserved and made another history for KPOP.
However, because they also knew BTS had been used for clouts in the wild West and especially
by Grammys in the past few years, fans around the world had devised one of the greatest
plans for BTS, together trending the hashtag #LightItUpBTS to overwhelm the hashtag of
the event itself to prove how Grammys would need BTS but not the vice versa.
5.
#JacksonWangGobacktoChina
Then April kicked off with an old video of Jackson Wang where many people pushed the
hashtag #JacksonWangGobacktoChina viral to ask him to leave South Korea.
Basically, the video showed him waiting outside a Fendi store and when a girl greeted him
with “Annyeonghaseyo,” which was “Hello” in English, and Jackson replied with a straight
face “I’m Chinese, OKAY?”
While it’s hard to tell what his intention really was but as many people complained,
the fact that Jackson annoyedly put “OKAY?”
At the end of the sentence was a disrespect to South Korea.
Plus, since he was believed to amount to nowhere without JYP Entertainment, emphasizing his
Chinese origin while the girl was simply greeting him in Korean out of the belief he was a KPOP
idol was a clear sign of “biting the hand that feeds you.”
6.
#EXO_DESERVED_RESPECT
Then May welcomed KPOP fans with the hashtag #EXO_DESERVED_RESPECT where EXO-Ls believed
SM Entertainment was neglecting the group that once brought them great fortune.
After EXO came back with Don’t Fight The Feelings to thank EXO-Ls after a long hiatus,
many fans found this comeback a huge disappointment because compared to the huge budgeted MVs
that EXO used to released, it’s clear that SM only half-heartedly released Don’t Fight
The Feelings.
Some even said that the agency was sabotaging EXO, disrespecting them after their golden
era had passed and just let the group comeback to ease the anger of fans.
Besides the MV, other reasons leading to the trending of this hashtag came down to some
saying Don’t Fight The Feelings was ironically the weakest track in the album and SM’s
last-minute decision to change six different album covers to only one.
7.
#WhereIsHyunjin
Being in the KPOP community, there was probably no month that you could peacefully enjoy the
music of your favorite artists because as soon as June started, STAYs had trended the
hashtag #WhereIsHyunjin to ask JYP to explain about his four-month absence.
In case you don’t know, Hyunjin had two accussions about bullying his highschool friends
in February and March.
While JYP Entertainment initially denied both allegations and took legal actions against
all the people claimed to be Hyunjin’s victims, he still had to release a handwritten apology
letter, promised to reflect on his wrongdoings and took a hiatus.
However, because fans still believed in Hyunjin’s innocence and waited for JYP Entertainment
to update his status regularly, which they apparently didn’t, the hashtag #WhereIsHyunjin
took over Twitter in June and like magic happened, they immediately saw Hyunjin in StrayKids’
new album Mixtape: OH later that month.
8.
#blackpinkdisband
However, happiness didn’t come to all fandoms because also around the time, a weird hashtag
#blackpinkdisband was pushed to the top trending worldwide.
Fortunately, that was just a result of some hostile BLINKs who ganged up to start a feud
with ARMYs rather than a real disbandment.
Probably out of jealousy to BTS, these so-called BLINKs gathered on Twitter Spaces, made sexual
harassment against the boy group and pridefully went around to brag about them being fans
of the best girl group ever.
Sadly, this mindless action ended up backfiring them because after people found out about
this, they started to trend #blackpinkdisband to quickly gather the attention toward the
ugly attitudes of those so-called BLINKs.
9.
#BAYIYYIH_OUT
Magically, July passed by with no big scandals but right at the beginning of August, another
hashtag called #BAYIYYIH_OUT was trending on social media, especially Twitter and TikTok,
to ask Bahiyyih to leave Girls Planet 999.
So, did she do anything wrong?
Well, absolutely not.
But still, netizens trended this malicious hashtag because they believed her visual wasn’t
good enough to become an idol and also mindlessly blamed her for using her brother Huening Kai’s
fame to unfairly compete with other girls.
A few episodes into the show, a TikTok account was created to bring down Bahiyyih with the
hashtag #BAYIYYIH_OUT and quickly, the hate spread to Twitter.
However, she still made it to the second position in the line-up and seemingly, she understood
well how haters gonna hate regardless of what she did.
10.
#LIA_OUT
2021 wasn’t a good year for JYP because after Hyujin’s scandal, Lia was also dragged
into another bullying accusation in August.
Though the company denied everything, a lot of netizens still believed Lia actually bullied
her friend and just like that, the hashtag #lia_out was born to ask her to leave ITZY.
Moreover, as the police announced later that the victim was cleared of all charges JYP
filed against her but somehow Lia was still allowed to promote with ITZY, which was completely
different from Hyunjin’s action, the outrage grew bigger and as some said, this contributed
to the nosediving of ITZY’s reputation in South Korea.
11.
#LUCAS_OUT
About one week after that, KPOP fans, especially NCTzens, were terrified by the accusations
that Lucas had been a cheater and gold digger.
While people initially didn’t believe the whole beef because in the public’s eye,
Lucas was always a kind and cheerful idol, things soon took a turn for the worse as more
Lucas self-claimed girlfriends spoke up against him, leading to the trending hashtag #LUCAS_OUT
worldwide.
Things got so bad that SM even had to cancel his duo debut with Henry though there were
only a few days before the D-Day, his participation in Chinese Running Man was dismissed, and
even his biggest fansite in China was also closed.
That repercussion lasted until now as for the year-end album of NCT 2021, Lucas was
still absent.
12.
#GotARMYRightBehindYou
Fortunately, things were bright again with the hashtag #GotARMYRightBehindYou after BTS
delivered a speech at the 2021 SDG meeting.
As the group also performed their song at the UN headquarter, the thing that no people
had ever thought of because mostly only white artists were allowed to be at such important
events, fans took over Twitter with the hashtag #GotARMYRightBehindYou for a whole day.
The impact of BTS was so big that this event had a record-high number of engagement from
people, especially from the young worldwide.
13.
#YGLetLisaDoHerWork
Another month passed by and October started off with the hashtag #YGLetLisaDoHerWork.
Lisa’s fans believed YG was being shady because while all members of BLACKPINK were
allowed to attend various famous fashion events, Lisa somehow refrained from these activities.
As the CEO of BVLGARI, Jean-Christophe Babin, announced on his Instagram, this happened
because YG “prefers her not participating in events or shows” due to COVID-19.
While this was the matter between Lisa and YG, some Lisa’s akgae fans had to push things
further, dragging Jennie into the mess and paved the way for the next big hashtag of
the year:
14.
#ApologizeToJennie
A day after the news about Lisa being allegedly mistreated broke out, Thai Enquirer—a news
outlet in Thailand, grabbed Jennie by the hair and implicitly blamed her for the opportunity
that Lisa had missed.
Basically, this outlet posted a tweet to demand justice for Lisa but, “accidentally”,
added Jennie’s name into the hashtag.
After receiving huge criticism, the editor chief of this outlet even went on Twitter,
posted a sarcastic message saying “Jennie Kim is being oppressed by the Thai Enquirer!
Make them apologize!!"
along with the hashtag #ApologizeToJennie.
Though the hashtag was sarcastically used, it was still trending after that because BLINKs
felt Jennie deserved an apology.
So, was justice served?
Well, no but that didn’t matter because this incident was like a cheap attention bait
and Jennie apparently had no time for that beef.
15.
#WeWantMoreJhope
Then 2021 ended on a pretty negative hashtag where ARMYs asked justice for J-Hope by trending
#WeWantMoreJhope.
While many were excited to see BTS hold a live concert after two silent years due to
COVID-19, they were also disappointed to see JHope only had 4 minutes and 44 seconds of
lines during the 3-hour concert.
Apparently that sounded hard to believe because BTS rarely had problems with line distribution
but here, since song where Jhope had notable verses and solo performances were omitted,
fans couldn’t help but trending the hashtag though they knew the members wouldn’t be
happy about it.
So, these are the most popular hashtags in 2021 that I have compiled.
Should there be any other influential hashtags added to this list?
Comment down below to share your thoughts with us.
Also, don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe to BeBossTV for more interesting content.
Thank you for watching!