Sex sells, and the K-pop girl group Stellar and their supporters know that it may be the only way to get attention in the K-pop world.

With many of South Korea's top K-pop acts making a comeback this summer, it's difficult for many less popular groups to make a name for themselves. For girl groups, the task is even more difficult, due to comebacks from major female players like Girls' Generation, Wonder Girls, Sistar, AOA, and Girl's Day. In order to shine, every act has to pull out all the stops, and Stellar did just that to gain attention.

Accompanying Stellar's "Vibrato" release came a conversation amongst netizens (Internet users) regarding the necessity for the sexual concepts Stellar has promoted for their past few songs, and how it compares to that of other groups.

Stellar's latest song, "Vibrato," is the girl group's third attempt at gaining the Korean public's attention with a overtly suggestive concept, a follow up song to "Marionette" and "Mask." With each song, Stellar got a bit of fame for a seemingly scandalous outfit or dance, and each time that success ebbed. Netizens pointed out that the market has made it necessary for Stellar to do what they're doing, whether it is their decision or their company's, and compared the attention their sexualized concept received to that of other idol groups.

"Why do people hate them so much?" asked KpopHunkTech. "Big idol groups used 'sex' in their music videos too. Semen, vagina, sex, etc. were used in BigBang's 'Bae Bae' and 'Loser,' CL went naked in 'Missing You,' Ga-In used sex. Yes, there are meanings in those. But 'Vibrato' has deep meanings too, including dissing haters. I don't hate these idols. I listen to their songs, but its so unfair that people are treating Stellar different. Just my opinion."

"[Stellar] could have toned it down," wrote Rattmaster86 on YouTube. "But then nobody would give a crap about them. What is a music video? It's a promotional tool. If they did some boring old, uninteresting MV that every other K-pop group does, nobody would bother checking them out. It's an attention getter. Which is absolutely necessary in today's diluted K-pop market. The MV needs to have shock value, so that the MV spreads by word of mouth, regardless of whether people actually like it or not, and views increase."

Commentators also questioned whether the sexualized concept was more honest than the cute concepts favored by many K-pop acts.

"Do you honestly think most 20-something mature women like acting like innocent little cute children?" queuried Kami Nana. "How about the boy bands being forced to strut their stuff for their crazy fangirls to ogle over? It's just par for the course to me, part of their job. If they didn't truly want it, they can object. And if the company doesn't listen, they can get out like the girl from 4L did [one member left the group]." 

Stellar's music video for "Vibrato" depicts the members in enclosed glass cases and highly symbolic images relating to the sexual organs of women.

--