The Wonders That Are: K-Pop Groups | Dying For Drama

Annyeong!

When I first started getting into k-pop, one thing that confused me the most is the whole “positions” thing. It confused me profoundly for a while until my friend finally explained it to me, so I thought I would help some of the k-pop newbs (is that a word?) who are just as confused as I once was. 

I’m going to take you guys through the various positions members of a k-pop group occupy.

Source

Leader

The leader of a group, in my head, is defined as “the middle man between the group and the management”. I mean, that’s not all they are, but it’s basically the biggest part of their job is to receive direction from the manager or the label and relay that to the group seeing as they are closer to the group than the manager or the label is. 

The leader is generally the eldest or one of the eldest in the group. They need to be mature and need to be able to be respected and get taken seriously by the group (though that doesn’t always happen - looking at you Sunggyu and Suho!). 

Maknae

From the eldest to the youngest, the maknae is the youngest member of the group. That’s literally it. They’re the youngest. They generally are the “cutie” of the group and is pretty much entirely responsible for the aegyo in the group - though there are some groups *looks emphatically at BTS* where they don’t need just the maknae to do aegyo!

Visual/Face Of The Group

I mean, you don’t really need my to explain this, right? It’s pretty self-explanatory, really. This is the member who’s considered the best looking or the most popular looks-wise. Also, I haven’t seen this anywhere but it’s pretty obvious, it’s also the sexiest member too.

Lead Dancer/Lead Singer

The best dancer and singer in the group. Lead dancers pull off all the best moves and generally will also do stunts like the backflips and that kind of thing. Lead singers generally do most of the singing and get the big responsibility of doing the all important “high notes” that k-pop groups bloody well love.

4D Member

This is basically just the one who doesn’t necessarily seem quite… normal. They’re basically in their own world and you don’t really dare question it (for reference see T.O.P (BigBang), Yesung (Super Junior) and Onew (SHINee)). Despite their oddness, they’re generally rather loveable and always bring light in even the most serious moments. 

I think that pretty much covers the basics, though for most groups members will have different positions at the same time. There are other types of positions but they're not quite as "official" but if you guys would like to do a post on them then let me know and your wish shall be my command. *waves magic wand excitedly*

Are there any other positions that I’ve missed? Let me know in the comments.

Fighting!

M x