A single YouTube video, summed up by the phrase 'Geoje, yahoo~!', propelled the girl group Resenne to the top of the charts. It all began with a video titled 'Learning Japanese from a Former Gyaru Japanese Person' posted on the personal YouTube channel of Resenne's leader Won-i, 'HelloThisIsWon-iNiceToMeetYou'. The video shows Minami teaching Won-i Japanese in gyaru speech before gradually getting drawn into a role-play scenario. As the video spread by word of mouth, a sequel followed two weeks later. Minami's offhand exclamation 'Geoje, yahoo~!' became a catchphrase of the first half of this year. The unfamiliar combination of a Japanese member energetically shouting the name of a small Korean city proved oddly addictive.

Attention soon shifted to their music. 'Love Attack', the title track of their first mini album 'SinDRome' released in August 2024, began to draw renewed attention. The song failed to enter the Melon daily chart's top 100 upon release, but on July 8 it climbed to No. 1 on the Melon TOP100, reaching the summit about two years after its release. It was a chart reversal in which a member's personal channel buzz translated into streaming success.

Resenne is a five-member girl group consisting of Won-i, Liv, Minami, May, and Zena. The group's name carries the meaning of recalling scenes (RE:SCENE) through fragrance. A group with little public recognition has, thanks to a single personal channel video, become a 'scene recalled' to the public, just as its name suggests.

What held the attention gathered by the gyaru content was the members' hometown dialects. Won-i visited her hometown of Geoje, went fishing, and spoke in her folksy regional dialect, and also released a video of a dialect showdown with Zena, who is from Gyeongju in North Gyeongsang Province. Comparing the different accents and expressions of two regions within Gyeongsang Province made the two members' characters distinctly clear. If Minami's 'Geoje, yahoo~!' was what introduced Won-i's hometown to the nation, the subsequent content served to expand that hometown identity into each member's individual character.

The fanbase broadened as well. Won-i said that after the chart reversal, fans of various ages, from elementary schoolers to people in their 50s, emerged. Listeners who had not previously sought out idol music first got to know the members through YouTube videos and then discovered their songs. Role-play and dialects, as material anyone can enjoy regardless of musical taste, lowered the age barrier. This trend extended beyond chart performance to a No. 1 finish on a terrestrial music show.

Self-produced content, livestreams, and fan communication apps have become key channels for small and mid-sized agencies to expand recognition at low cost. For groups with limited broadcast opportunities, their own channels are the most realistic window to meet the public directly. However, while less editing brings out the members' natural selves, it also means every word and action is exposed as is. In a structure where a short clip shared online immediately becomes the group's image, Resenne is a case of resolving that structure through approachability.

If YouTube videos served as the gateway for attention, fan communication apps and live broadcasts became spaces where incoming fans could converse directly with members and stay. As on-screen characters connected to real-time communication, the distance fans felt grew even closer. The experience of a member, previously seen only as a figure on screen, directly responding to one's own messages becomes an occasion for turning casual interest into steady support. Live broadcasts are where this closeness is most directly on display.

Viewed chronologically, Resenne's growth shows a clear pattern: scenes from personal channels spread across social media, fan reactions accumulate, and the group's image takes shape. The gyaru role-play drew the initial attention, dialect content built each member's character, and communication apps and livestreams narrowed the distance with fans. The music chart reversal followed as the result of this process.

In this process, the agency was not the only author of the group's image. Viewers who clipped and shared videos, users who created and spread memes, and fans who responded through comments and chats all shaped Resenne's image together. For idols growing around personal channels, the closer the distance to fans, the more how a single scene is shared and interpreted becomes the core of image management.

Resenne's case shows a process in which the members' everyday appearances, rather than a crafted image, create public opinion first, and that opinion in turn solidifies into the group's identity. This flow, where off-stage appearances lead to on-stage results, is establishing itself as a new path for small-agency idols to reach the public.

[This article highlights stars nominated for the Netizens Awards. The Netizens Awards is an online fan voting platform that does not sell voting rights and offers equal voting opportunities to all users. Rankings are determined by fans' voluntary and sustained participation rather than capital, and the cumulative 78 million votes are a record of pure fan dedication built from each individual fan's choices. This article was partially assisted by AI.]