PLOYSHINHWA

g.o.d is has aged too, kind of, but they’re in the same boat as SHINHWA. Less intl fans I’d bet as well, their music style hasn’t really kept up with the times. Put it this way, I have a very hard time finding other g.o.d fans.

SES did come back, but I felt like they were swept way under the rug. Might be wrong, but there is a decent bit of sexism concerning female groups. Especially since they’re moms. I can’t imagine that they gained many new fans.

H.O.T… Well. Especially with Heejun’s recent marriage there’s some scandal. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s not many of us that are new fans. And they’ve aged… A lot. Some would say badly, but. I’ll always love my boys.

Sechkies have a more upbeat style I think than the others, and have really played up fan service. They also signed with YG, So I imagine they got a lot of fans that way. They also have aged the best besides SES in my opinion, the curse of the Vampire looks good on them. Given that Seunghyun and Jiwon still look disgustingly youthful, I’m not surprised that they have a decent amount of new fans.

Given that allkpop is by netizens, and that it’s mostly international fans that use it, I can easily see Sechkies being voted to the top. Do I agree with it? No, despite my love for them.

If your definition of “older fans” is 30s, 40s, then no, Shinhwa’s fans are mostly in their 20s. They do comeback almost once every year to accommodate to our work/school lives, in the years when they don’t, each of them still has their solo activities. Yes, we do have new fans every now and then. I’m not sure why you mentioned BTS here but let’s move on. “Plus they’re ageing, and appearances matter in this industry”, that I have to disagree with. Shinhwa’s visuals are definitely up there, and we are talking about the whole group. Call me biased but they’ve aged better than most groups, literally like fine wine. A picture is worth a thousand words:

“g.o.d is has aged too, kind of, but they’re in the same boat as SHINHWA” No, they aren’t in the same boat, as I mentioned above on them aging like fine wine. “Less intl fans I’d bet as well”, Shinhwa has a fair share of international fans, more than g.o.d I would say, unless you’re comparing to groups like BTS, then that’s another story. On music, Shinhwa’s always coming back with jams and trying out new genres, new styles for every comeback. Unlike most 1st gen groups, they don’t milk nostalgia. And they definitely did not “reunite” like those groups, they’ve been in the game for 19 years, coming 20 years soon and more to come. To keep up in the industry as an idol group for that long of a time is truly a feat. So, no, they aren’t on the same boat as any of the groups you mentioned.

I can’t say for the other groups because I’m not a fan of theirs. But one thing I would like to mention is, a lot of fans don’t stan a group based on their looks, sure some might, but it isn’t looks that make a fan stay in a fandom, it’s their group dynamics/interaction, it’s their music, it’s their characters that make a fan choose to stay.

And FYI, it was a poll by DCInside, a Korean community site, not Allkpop (I mentioned Allkpop cuz they reported the article). So the voters would be Knetizens, not international fans. I still stand by what I answered. It wouldn’t be accurate to pick the best first generation group through an online poll voted by netizens, as it would be a popularity contest instead.