In this article, we’re going to find out more about 2nd generation K-Pop fandoms that are still active and have continued to support the groups until the present day. Let’s check out the section below!
SHINee – SHAWOL
SHINee and SHAWOL are unity. SHINee is an idol and SHAWOL is a fandom for every SHINee fan. There is a song sung by SHINee titled “SHINee World.” There are also a number of songs sung by SHINee for their fans, for example, “Honestly.” This song is a symbol of SHINee’s gratitude to SHAWOL and SHINee’s appreciation because SHAWOL is always there to support them. SHINee itself means the recipient of the light or the person who shines and gets the spotlight. Shine means shine or light, while the second ‘e‘ in SHINee means receiver. SHAWOL is an abbreviation of ‘SHINee World’ which, when read as a Shiny World can be interpreted as a shining world. For SHINee, fans are their world so if there is no SHAWOL then SHINee will no longer exist either. SHAWOL, or SHINee World, has its own meaning, where SHINee and SHAWOL’s fans are in a world to support each other. SHINee has official colors named Pearlescent Sky Blue for lightsticks and Aqua colors on SHINee’s official balloons as well as being the official colors of their balloons. SHINee World is the title of SHINee’s first album. Not only SHINee is meaningful to the members but so is SHAWOL. The fandom itself has a different meaning for each member. For the leader Onew, “SHAWOL is a strength for me because I get strong when I get support on the stage.” For the bling-Jonghyun, “SHAWOL is my friend. Like a friend who can make me feel comfortable and understanding friend.” For the almighty Key, “SHAWOL is like a company to me and I must always be with him.” For the charismatic Minho, “SHAWOL is a sign of courage for me because they always support us.” For the maknae Taemin, the meaning of SHAWOL is like that of a girlfriend, “because we love each other.”
TVXQ – CASSIOPEIA
TVXQ’s fandom has the name Cassiopeia which was formed in December 2006 and has the fandom color Red. Cassiopeia is a beautiful queen from Ethiopia. One reason is that the letters on the key chords that have been marked in red lines where the letters TVXQ are drawn in a row into a constellation in the form of the letter ‘W,’ namely Cassiopeia. TVXQ’s fandom was recorded by the Guinness World Records as the biggest official fan club in the world with more than 800,000 followers. Cassiopeia was listed in the Guinness Book of Records in 2008 because 106,000 people were registered at the fandom club in just 2 days. These people made a club under the name VIEW (Volunteer In Everlasting Wcassiopeia) and went to help the poor and distressed. They volunteered to help the sick and support students who wanted to become famous singers like TVXQ. Aside from being a solid fandom, another obstacle Cassiopeia has experienced is the group split. Although the 2003 debutant group was so successful commercially, they experienced a great shock on July 31st, 2009. At that time, three DBSK members, Jaejoong, Yoochun, and Junsu, decided to sue SM Entertainment for the ‘slave contract’ given and leave all TVXQ activity. Clearly, this incident carved a deep wound on Cassiopeia, TVXQ’s fans. The band that seemed harmonious and had achieved success suddenly had to be divided and members had to part ways forever.
SUPER JUNIOR – E.L.F
E.L.F was announced as the name of the Super Junior fan club on June 2nd, 2006. Super Junior decided the name E.L.F (Everlasting Friends) as the name of the Super Junior fan club around the world. The name E.L.F itself is the idea of Super Junior’s leader, Leeteuk. The word E.L.F has a meaning related to fairies. Because of this, Super Junior fans have a special nickname, fairy. At every Super Junior concert, the location of the event is always filled with blue fairies that make up the blue ocean, or Sapphire Blue ocean. The history of E.L.F itself occurred after the great controversy between Super Junior fans and SM Entertainment after they figured out that there would be an addition to new member Henry Lau who first appeared in the “Don’t Don” music video. This triggered E.L.Fs to plan protest actions against SM Entertainment before official protests or demonstrations were conducted by many online petitions aka comments that have been made by both E.L.F Korea and E.L.F China so that SM Entertainment does not add the 14th member. They planned to boycott all SM Entertainment products, such as not buying cassettes, CDs, mini-albums, photobooks, and the like. But eventually, the E.L.F chose a path of a silent protest. On October 21st, 2007, more than 400 E.L.F sat quietly in front of the SM Entertainment building and held a supported signature for SUJU to only have 13 members. At that time, Super Junior was not yet confirmed by SM Entertainment as an official group, so every time there was a new member addition then maybe there were members who graduated. Because of that, E.L.F did a demo called ‘ONLY13’ which was followed by more than 1,000 fans to make Super Junior a permanent group without any reduction or addition of members.
