[MZ Dictionary] "A newbie called me SBN... It's not an insult, right?"

The Nickname Derived from the Initials of "Seonbaenim"... Penetrating the Workplace
The Rigid Honorific Culture in the Entertainment Industry Influences Its Birth
2020 "Vivaldi Seonbaenim's Four Seasons" Incident, etc.

"SBN~"

B froze for a moment upon seeing a KakaoTalk message from intern A, who he usually got along with well. He couldn't understand what the 'SBN' sent by the intern meant.

As time passed and no further messages came from A, B fell into confusion.

'What does this message mean?', 'Could it be... an insult?', 'Did I do something wrong?'

"Back in my day~", "Respect, sbn!"

The answer is that 'SBN' stands for 'seonbaenim,' a term even President Yoon Seok-yeol reportedly uses privately when addressing Kim Ki-hyun, the leader of the People Power Party.

'SBN' is an expression formed by converting the Korean initials ㅅ(S), ㅂ(B), ㄴ(N) of 'seonbaenim' into English letters.

It was a term used among idol fans about 3 to 4 years ago but has since become a commonly used term among the MZ generation.

In the entertainment industry, especially when appearing on broadcasts, idol singers have a culture of respectfully addressing senior singers as 'seonbaenim.'

If a junior singer did not refer to a senior singer as 'seonbaenim,' the senior singer's fandom often launched malicious comment attacks on the junior singer. There was even a girl group that posted an apology because of this.

New idol singers tried to thoroughly avoid the risk of being labeled 'arrogant' and ostracized by always choosing to address others as 'seonbaenim.'

Because they insisted on using 'seonbaenim' unconditionally, there were even cases where people who had been dead for nearly 300 years were called 'seonbaenim.'

In 2020, an idol singer shouted, "Vivaldi seonbaenim's Four Seasons!" while answering a quiz.

Most people laughed it off, but on the other hand, this was interpreted as a manifestation of the neuroticism junior idols have regarding the 'seonbaenim' address.

Many K-POP fandoms came to view the 'seonbaenim' term used by idol singers with a mix of affection and sympathy.

The soil that gave birth to the expression 'SBN' was the fans' concern for idols pressured by the rigid honorific culture.

Appearance of 'sbn' on idol YouTube videos

[Photo by YouTube, screenshot from 'Munyeongteukgeup' video]

'SBN' became widely known through Mnet's K-POP survival program 'Queendom 2' in April 2022.

Among the Queendom 2 contestants, the singer 'Hyolyn,' who was considered a senior in terms of experience, delivered an outstanding performance, prompting fans to comment, "As expected, Hyolyn SBN, here to set the K-POP discipline straight."

Following this, Queendom 2 uploaded Hyolyn's video on YouTube with the title "The arrival of Hyolyn sbn..." which helped popularize the term.

Additionally, the YouTube channel 'MUNMYEONGTEUKGEUP' (Civilization Express) solidified the term's status as a buzzword through a project video forming the group 'Black Punk.'

In that video, Sungjong, a member of the group Infinite, shared an anecdote from his Infinite days about a senior singer who cursed at juniors when they handed over albums. The video caption read, "Back in those days, if you gave an album to SBN..."

Beyond variations, diverse usage

Recently, the usage has expanded. Fans not only attach SBN when quoting idol singers or when idol singers refer to senior singers, but also use it to refer to their actual seniors, such as "Class of 2018 SBN."

Or they use it to respectfully address someone they admire even if not their direct senior, like "Son Heung-min SBN's amazing goal."

Some argue that in foreign companies, 'seonbaenim' is already familiar as 'SBN,' and 'bujangnim' (department head) as 'BJN,' suggesting these honorific abbreviations are not new.