There are various criteria for explaining a singer's popularity. Chart performance, concert attendance, broadcast buzz, advertising contracts, and fandom size are among the most representative. Lim Young-woong is a singer whose popular influence can be confirmed through these indicators.

However, one more aspect deserves examination here: the donation and volunteer activities sustained over a long period centered on his fan club, 'Hero Generation.' Rather than simply bundling this under the phrase 'good influence,' it needs to be viewed from the perspective of a change in fandom culture. Communities formed to support a star are expanding their scope of activity beyond album purchases and concert attendance into disaster relief support, sponsorship of vulnerable groups, and community volunteering.

In the case of Lim Young-woong and Hero Generation, it is also notable that these efforts have been repeated over several years. There are donations by the star himself and his agency, and separately, fundraisers and volunteering by the fan club and regional fan groups continue.

■ Recent case: 200 million won donated to heavy rain victims

Recent cases can also be confirmed. According to the Community Chest of Korea (Saranghae Yeolmae), Lim Young-woong, together with his agency Mulgogi Music (Fish Music), donated 200 million won on the 24th of this month for residents affected by concentrated heavy rains in the southern regions, including Geoje and Tongyeong in South Gyeongsang Province. The donation was made in the name of the fan club 'Hero Generation.' The funds are scheduled to be used for emergency relief for disaster victims, temporary housing support, and recovery of damaged areas.

Lim Young-woong has continued donating not only on birthdays and holidays since 2021, but also whenever disasters have occurred. The fact that his recent donation was also made in the name of the fan club 'Hero Generation' is a point that reveals the relationship between Lim Young-woong's donations and his fandom. The practice of combining the fandom's name with the star's individual social contribution activities has been repeated.

This is not the first time such a method has been used. When major wildfire damage occurred nationwide in March 2025, Lim Young-woong contributed 300 million won and Mulgogi Music 100 million won, for a total of 400 million won delivered to the Community Chest of Korea. At that time as well, the donation was made under the name 'Hero Generation.'

■ Fans also took direct action: over 600 million won raised independently

What deserves a closer look here is the fans' movement. Separately from Lim Young-woong's donation, Hero Generation also launched a fundraiser for wildfire relief. Through online fundraising, fans raised over 600 million won and delivered it to the Community Chest of Korea.

Therefore, this case cannot be explained by the star's individual donation alone. The star and his agency participated first in disaster relief, and around the same time the fandom independently joined in large-scale fundraising. From the perspective of the fandom's social activities, it is a meaningful case.

Generally, a fandom's collective action is concentrated on supporting the star's activities, such as music streaming, album purchases, concert attendance, and various votes. But in disaster situations, part of that organizational power shifted toward social fundraising.

This phenomenon did not suddenly appear in 2025 either. During the 2023 heavy rain damage, Hero Generation reportedly raised approximately 426 million won through its official fan cafe and delivered it as disaster relief funds. That fandom fundraising was repeated during natural disasters occurring at different times is an important point. This is because there are multiple confirmed cases of the fandom taking actual action according to circumstances, rather than a one-time event held on a specific anniversary.

■ Fandom activities are also dispersed into regions

Explaining Hero Generation's social contribution activities solely through large-scale fundraising is also insufficient. Another characteristic of the fandom is its activities by region and by subgroup.

One of the latest examples can be found in Geoje, South Gyeongsang Province. Yonhap News reported on the 24th, while covering Lim Young-woong's donation for heavy rain victims, that the fan club 'Hero Generation Geoje' delivered a donation to a local welfare foundation to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Lim Young-woong's debut, and that fan-club-level donations are continuing. It means that under the larger framework of a nationwide fandom, regional groups are carrying out separate activities in their own living areas.

The activities of regional fan groups differ in nature from campaigns uniformly conducted in one way from the center. While they share the common point of supporting the same singer, fans in each region find those in need in their local communities and act on their own.

■ Lunchbox volunteering in gosiwon neighborhoods continued 29 times

There are also concrete examples showing the continuity of fandom activities. According to a January 2022 report by Star News, the 'Hero Generation Band Sharing Group' visited the Catholic Love and Peace House of the Catholic Archdiocese of Seoul on Huam-ro in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, and carried out lunchbox volunteering for residents of the gosiwon (small rented room) neighborhood. At the time, it was already the 29th such volunteering session.

This group began its volunteer activities in May 2020 and has since sponsored 1.5 million won per month to the Catholic Love and Peace House. As of January 2022, its cumulative donations were confirmed to have reached 30 million won.

This is a form of social contribution different from large-scale donations. Rather than raising large sums at once immediately after a disaster, it is a form of repeatedly visiting a certain place and continuing sponsorships. This is why, when analyzing the social activities of a fandom, not only the donation amounts but also the continuity of activities must be examined together. In particular, the fact that activities continued from May 2020 to January 2022 and reached the 29th round of volunteering shows that, at least in that fan group, volunteering was not a one-off event.

■ Where does the fandom's cohesion point?

Putting these cases together, another criterion emerges for viewing Lim Young-woong's fandom: not the 'size' of the fandom, but its 'scope of activity.'

A fandom is inherently a community with strong collective action. People who share a love for the same singer exchange information online and attend concerts together. When a song is released, they listen simultaneously and participate in various votes. Such cohesion does not necessarily lead to social contribution.

However, in some of Hero Generation's activities, there are repeated confirmed cases of the fandom's organizational power moving beyond consumption activities within the entertainment industry into donations and volunteering. In disaster situations, fundraisers of hundreds of millions of won were carried out; regional fan groups made donations to local welfare institutions; and some sharing groups continued lunchbox volunteering dozens of times. At this level, there is a reasonable basis for seeing social contribution as having taken its place as one domain of fandom activity.

However, there are also points to be cautious about. It cannot be assumed that all fans belonging to Hero Generation participate in donations or volunteering. The activities of regional fan clubs and individual sharing groups should not be generalized to the behavior of the entire fandom's members. Moreover, neither large donation amounts nor a high number of volunteer activities can serve as criteria for judging the superiority of one fandom over another.

Therefore, rather than a value judgment such as 'Lim Young-woong's fandom is good,' it is more accurate to explain that 'social contribution activities are being repeatedly confirmed in some organizations within Lim Young-woong's fandom, and their forms range from large-scale fundraising to local volunteering.'

■ The interaction between star and fandom

So what relationship do these activities have with Lim Young-woong's popularity? Proving a direct causal relationship is difficult. There is no basis to conclude that donations increased Lim Young-woong's fans or that social contribution created his long-term popularity.

However, it can be confirmed that the actions of the star and the fandom are interconnected. Lim Young-woong has used the name of his fan club 'Hero Generation' in numerous donations. The 200 million won for heavy rain relief in August 2026 was also delivered in the name of Hero Generation. Conversely, fans form groups centered on Lim Young-woong's name and carry out donations and volunteering in their communities.

In other words, Lim Young-woong donates in the name of his fandom, and some organizations of the fandom engage in social contribution activities mediated by Lim Young-woong. There is no one-way direction here. An interaction appears in which the star includes the fandom in his social contribution activities, and the fandom utilizes the community formed around the star as a basis for social activities.

This can commonly be expressed as 'good influence' or 'a virtuous cycle of goodwill,' but described more objectively, it is a phenomenon in which the cohesion formed between star and fandom expands into a third domain: social contribution.

■ From cheering to social participation

Fandom culture has also changed with the times. If buying albums and attending concerts were the basic fan activities, after the emergence of online platforms, the scope of activities expanded to music streaming, voting, and content production and sharing. More recently, donations and volunteering have also taken their place as forms of fandom activity.

In the case of Hero Generation, this change appears relatively clearly. The gosiwon neighborhood lunchbox volunteering confirmed to have continued since 2020, the 2023 heavy rain relief fundraising, the 2025 wildfire relief fundraising, and donations by regional fan clubs are all confirmed at different times and places.

The star's own donations are also continuing. Lim Young-woong and Mulgogi Music have continued donations through the Community Chest of Korea since 2021, and as of August 2026, the cumulative donations amount to 2.5 billion won. Adding the 200 million won in treatment costs for low-income and vulnerable patients delivered directly to Korea University Medical Center this year, the publicly confirmed cumulative donation total is approximately 2.7 billion won.

Looking at these facts, rather than viewing Lim Young-woong and Hero Generation's social contributions merely as a few donation cases, there is room to examine them from the perspective of the expansion of fandom culture.

■ A phenomenon derived from popularity rather than a 'cause' of it

However, the phrase in the title, 'another axis of Lim Young-woong's popularity,' must be interpreted carefully here. There is no data to conclude that social contribution activities are the direct cause of Lim Young-woong's popularity. Rather, it is more reasonable to see it as a structure in which an already-formed large fandom with high cohesion expands into another domain—donations and volunteering—and in that process, the relationship between star and fandom is further strengthened.

A relationship between star and fan is formed through music, and based on that relationship, a fandom community is created. Then, part of that community participates in social contribution activities. As this process is repeated, the fandom no longer exists solely as a group that consumes music. At least in some Hero Generation organizations, it has become a fundraising主体 for disaster relief and performs the role of a social network participating in volunteering and sponsorship in local communities. It is precisely at this point that concrete grounds emerge for the expression 'the social expansion of fandom culture.'

To explain Lim Young-woong's popularity in numbers, indicators such as music charts, concerts, and broadcasts are needed. But to examine the culture formed around that popularity, one must also look at what the fandom is doing. Based on the confirmed cases alone, Hero Generation's scope of activity has not remained confined to concert halls and online fan cafes. Its domain has widened to disaster relief fundraising, community donations, support for vulnerable groups, and repeated volunteering. And Lim Young-woong himself continues donating in the name of his fandom.

There is no need to exaggerate this and define the entire star and fandom as a single value. However, the fact itself—that the cohesion of a fandom formed on the basis of popular appeal is expanding into social contribution activities—is confirmed through actual cases from multiple periods.

This is also why the fandom must be examined in Lim Young-woong's popularity. It is a question not only of how many people like him, but of how the community those people have created is changing over time.

The case of Lim Young-woong and Hero Generation is one example showing that today's large-scale fandoms can expand their scope of activity beyond being agents of cultural consumption into donations, volunteering, and community participation. That is the reason why the 'social expansion of fandom culture' among the phenomena surrounding Lim Young-woong's popularity deserves separate scrutiny.

[This content is an article highlighting stars who have been nominated for the Netizens' Awards. The Netizens' Awards is an online fan voting platform that does not sell voting rights and provides equal voting opportunities to all users. Rankings are determined by fans' voluntary and continuous participation rather than capital, and the cumulative 77 million votes are a record of pure fan spirit built up by each individual fan's choices. This article was partially assisted by AI.]