Fangirling Turned Deadly — Korea’s First Survival Group Disbanded After Horrific Fan Murder
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When you think of survival shows, usually the first to come to mind is Produce 101.
The show is regarded as Korea’s first large-scale survival program, featuring fan voting and weekly eliminations.
This is not entirely true — in 2001, MBC aired a program during its Saturday block called Akdong Broadcast Club. The show held auditions nationwide for high school-aged competitors, and ultimately sought to debut a domestic boy and girl group, and another overseas group.
The show was split into two sections: auditions, and then selected members going through a training camp to prepare for their debut. Viewers were involved in selecting the group’s name, Akdong Club, and their debut track.
At the end of the program, the five selected were given the ultimatum of placing in the top three on a music show, which they did 8 weeks after their debut. The album sold 149,019 copies, showing the group’s high popularity and helping them win Best New Artist at the 2002 KMTV Korean Music Awards.
During preparations for their second album, news broke out of a horrific incident involving members of their fan club. According to police, Ms. Hong (16) and Mr. Ahn (15) met at a concert, ran away together, and lived in a shared apartment. Mr. Ahn and another 16-year-old beat Ms. Hong to death in the apartment and hid her body in a kimchi fridge with the assistance of three other teenagers.
The publicity and connection to their name led Akdong Club to push back activities for their second album, which ending up only selling 39,509 copies.
This marked the beginning of the end of the group, with member Kwon Seeun’s 2005 domestic assault arrest and expulsion adding further discord. Beginning with the group’s leader Lim Daeseok’s enlistment, each member went one by one, leaving the group to cease activities in 2006.
Each of the members attempted continuing their careers to varied success, but the fanclub incident surely aided in halting what would have been a longer group career.
