This is where the story takes a turn for both Popteen and the music industry which in turn had long influenced Gyaru fashion. There are definitely groups that inspired the Gyaru market:

• Mihimaru GT felt like a pop r&b but cuter version of the group Move
• AAA felt like the Japanese version of the co-ed British pop group SClub7, which made a debut with songs that were Eurobeat based, such as “Blood of Fire”.

It’s intriguing to also think that “Red Soul” and “Let it Beat” might have also been an attempt at other reviving Eurobeat tracks that ended up not being popular or going anywhere. Mind you there was a slight gap given that Namie and Ayu had Eurobeat tracks whereas Koda Kumi did not. So AAA was an attempt to go back to Avex roots. AAA’s direction afterward, took a very swift turn towards the route of J-Pop, with songs like “Q” and “Get Chu!” possibly being popular with the amekaji crowd given their upbeat sound and the members’ styles in the music videos for them.

However, there was yet to truly be a fourth reigned Avex queen that would happen to also be a solo artist, but this is where the story gets strange: Technically, there was a fourth queen that heavily influenced the Gyaru market just as Koda Kumi was slightly phasing out in rabid popularity; She was featured in Popteen with distinct fashion and vocal style. Her songs were often heard in the background of Gyaru-branded photoshoots where behind-the-scenes videos were recorded for the internet. Her name was Kana Nishino and she was signed under Sony’s own music label, thus, she is not an Avex queen to take on the throne next to the other three. Regardless, it would be careless not to mention her influence as an artist given her popularity in the late 2000s and early 2010s.

Kana Nishino had a sweeter edge to her fashion sense and vocals that had possibly not been seen since the days of Ayumi Hamasaki. Similarly to Ayu, she was discovered through singing at a karaoke booth where scouts were insistent on having her. Regardless, unlike the Queen of Jpop, Kana had a distinct music style of not only pop but r&b with collaborations with artists such as Wise, Nerdhead, and Verbal from m-flo. This may be why she was so popular among Gyaru and was discovered by them. Her collaboration happened to be with known artists who already were listened to by the Gyaru crowd. So there stood Kana Nishino, with bleached blonde hair and a mature himekaji style look full of florals and romantic boho silhouettes that were becoming increasingly popular. It’s without a doubt that her tracks were absolutely a part of Liz Lisa’s flagship stores’ playlists as customers entered given that tracks such as “Aitakute Aitakute”, “Best Friend”, and “If” felt like himekaji anthems around that time. Kana Nishino also was a featured artist in Popteen magazine and had been granted a couple of cover shoots for it. Popteen had long before had become sweeter before the rise of Kana but suddenly, Popteen was becoming as soft as it was sweet. This made Gyaru fashion shift incredibly and in a way that would eventually slaughter what was known to be a Gyaru boom.

Kana Nishino shouldn’t be to blame for the shift in Gyaru fashion and the dynamic of such a large magazine such as Popteen; There was an unavoidable transition going on within pop culture as a whole during this time:

• Celebrities were slightly losing traction compared to previous years thanks to the internet.
• Big music labels or modeling agencies were not needed for someone to become popular among the masses.
• Bloggers were becoming increasingly notable in the pop culture space where fans often followed their lives through the means of social media.
• Gyaru Fashion magazines and many other music artists also hopped onto this trend by making blogging a huge market.
• This market also lead to reader models becoming mainstay models in magazines based on their relatability and popularity.
• There was even a point in time when gyaru bloggers had collaborated with Decolog or other cosmetic brands to create products.

That’s how far the industry pushed for a new era of gals; They had a massive influence that had never been seen before.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAn9ni-drZw

Alongside this, YouTube was also becoming incredibly popular on the internet. Many artists and models have been found via the means of YouTube. For example, CREAM who has featured the Reiwa era Egg models before in their music videos were found on YouTube as they made covers of very popular songs from both the West and Japan; Most notably, songs from m-flo and Utada Hikaru. Additionally, they also covered Big Bang and 2NE1, which also leads us onto the massive K-Pop boom that shook the world internationally…

The Hallyu Wave had long taken Japan by storm in the 2000s with acts such as BoA and TVXQ having dual language singles for both their Korean and Japanese audiences. BoA undoubtedly broke the barrier for K-Pop artists to be marketed outside of South Korea with the popularity of boyband TVXQ immediately following afterward, creating immense interest overseas. TVXQ in particular stands out because this low-key shows a struggle between the J-Pop and K-Pop industry as well as the Ulzzang and Oniikei boys. How so, you ask? Because more so often than not in the late 2000s, TVXQ was often put up against the infamous Johnny’s group KAT-TUN. Johnny’s groups, in general, have always been extremely popular and influential towards fashion. Nobody can deny that hosts weren’t either trying to look like bandmen or Johnny’s idols. Most hosts and Gyaruo that were going the oniikei route were trying to look like Kamenashi Kazuya or Akanishi Jin from KAT-TUN because that is what girls were into at the time. However, TVXQ was briefly stealing their thunder right until SM fucked over their own boy group that was a part of their success. Regardless, SM had loyal fans who would easily go on to follow something else.