NewJeans slips out of Top 30 Girl Group Brand ranks, fans blame HYBE; aespa leads the pack for 3rd consecutive week

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aespa members have graduated from their Next Level success to a Supernova-sized victory spell. The SM Entertainment quartet has raked atop the monthly Girl Group Brand Reputation rankings since June 2024. September celebrated their third triumph in a row as the leader of the pack.

With Starship Entertainment's IVE as their constant rival on the chart, aespa has again bested several other iconic girl groups in the mix by scoring a brand value of 5,062,660 from August 15 to September 15. The K-pop girl group seems to have cracked open the winning formula of the Korean Business Research Institute's cumulative analysis of consumer participation, interaction, media activity and consumer engagement indexes.

Earlier this month, the innovative group with out-of-the-box musical concepts made history as the first female artist to win the Grand Prize (Daesang) at The Fact Music Awards 2024, breaking the victorious record held by HYBE Labels' boy groups BTS and SEVENTEEN since the inaugural 2018 ceremony. In addition, the latest update for the Billboard World Albums chart for the week concluding on September 14 revealed aespa's first regular album, “Armageddon,” taking ninth place, continuing its 15-week streak on the chart.

NewJeans nowhere to be seen in Top 30 Girl Group Brand Reputation rankings

However, aespa's victory soon became an after-thought as ADOR's NewJeans was nowhere to be seen on the Top 30 Girl Group Brand Value rankings. The unprecedented shakeup comes amid the group being stuck in the middle of a complicated dynamic, deepening the rift between the parent label HYBE and ADOR's former CEO Min Hee Jin.

Fans quickly took note of NewJeans' unexpected absence from the roster and blamed the result on HYBE's mistreatment of the young artists. “NewJeans is clearly being sabotaged by hybe!” came a response on X, formerly Twitter. Yet another user responded, “NewJeans not being here is a crime... the hybe sabotage is real.”

Other Top 5 ranking girl groups this month

Girl Groups closing out the Top 5 ranks for September were IVE, LE SSERAFIM, (G)I-DLE and Red Velvet. Holding rank #2, IVE earned a score of 3,608,799. Meanwhile, LE SSERAFIM jumped up from last month's fifth spot to third with a score of 3,567,430.

(G)I-DLE also gained a boost from its 10th position to fourth with a brand value of 2,779,077. Lastly, Red Velvet rounded out the Top 5 list with a score of 2,752,242.