Author: Mac Turija

It seems that this (the 4th) generation’s batch of boy groups are more defined by their looks and dancing skills and not so much by their vocal strength. Whether that is true or not is still up for debate and so while the jury is still out on that one, let’s take a look at three still-active boy groups with vocal lines that has raised the standard of K-pop fans:

EXO’s Chen, Baekhyun, and  D.O

When you’re an idol group produced by SM Entertainment, the expectations of your vocal talents are quite high. After all, this is the entertainment company that has produced idols like KangTa, BoA, Changmin, Jaejoong (former TVXQ), and Hyesung (Shinhwa was formed in SM, after all). The company has earned a reputation through the years as the entertainment company that prioritizes vocals over everything, leaving the other companies to get their own specialties – JYP for performance and stage presence and YG for the “swag” and overall expensive aura. Thus, it comes as no surprise that the company’s representative third generation boy group is the renowned for its stellar vocals. For members like Kai and Sehun to be considered as having the weakest vocals in the group is quite fascinating, right? I mean, should the two have not debuted under SM, they could have easily been middling lead vocalists at the least, definitely not in the vocalists bottom rung!

Anyway, I digress because, come on, when you have vocal king Chen and two other main vocalists Baekhyun  and D.O, you naturally have to step back. Chen is, after all, considered not only one of the best vocalists of the third generation of idol groups but generally of K-pop. Chen basically doesn’t know what a bad pitch day is. He has the best vocal placement in the group and sings with the least tension in EXO. On the other hand, D.O is well-known not just among members of his group, but in the entire K-pop scene as being the most agile male vocalist. Meaning, listening to him is such a pleasure because he can quickly, easily, and smoothly move through his vocal registers. Finally, Baekhyun beats even the two when it comes to singing in the upper register, with that falsetto that seems so relaxed and effortless. The breath support Baekhyun has when he sings makes it sound like he doesn’t struggle when singing high notes, at all.    

Fortunately, for all of us, SM Entertainment has blessed our ears with solo releases from all three EXO main vocalists. Chen has released three EPs, all topping the Korean charts when they were released. Of course, when asked which Chen song is the best, aside from the pun of answering Best Luck, his contribution to the It’s Okay, That’s Love OST, many will definitely answer Beautiful Goodbye, his first single from his first EP April, and a Flower. For D.O, it’s Rose from his first EP Empathy, which has both Korean and English versions, although his Spanish track Si Fueras Mia, also from Empathy has people amazed at his impeccable Spanish singing, which a lot of Latinos think is native-speaker level (although die-hard EXOLs would be quick to point out EXO-K sang Sabor de Mi in a Musicbank in Mexico concert). As for Baekhyun, fans readily swoon to Candy, although we are still reeling from Dream, the perfect duet he had with Suzy in 2016.     

Super Junior’s KRY – Kyuhyun, Ryeowook, and Yesung 

Speaking of SM Entertainment vocalists, basically, Super Junior’s KRY walked so that Chen, Baekhyun, and D.O can run. This vocal line of Super Junior practically cemented SM Entertainment’s reputation as the company that harbors premium vocal talent. I mean, when you have your label (that houses some of the best voices in the industry) give you the stage name Yesung which is derived from the Korean phrase literally meaning vocal cords of an artist and can be translated as an “art-like voice,” that surely is some huge boost in confidence, yes? 

That of course, refers to Yesung, who was born Kim Jungwoon (he later had it legally changed to Kim Kanghoon). Yesung has one of the more unique voices in the group, but in the whole of K-pop, with what could only be described as a heady mix of deep, smoky, and airy tones that make it so distinct you can almost always pick out in any given Super Junior song. But then, Yesung does not hold the monopoly for that distinct voice as Ryeowook, the R in KRY is unmistakable in his high notes. Like his voice per se is already high-pitched, so there’s really zero effort when he does runs and ad libs. And the best thing about Ryeowook is that he doesn’t overdo his vocal runs and instead practices total control over his instrument. 

Finally, when it comes to Super Junior‘s maknae Kyuhyun, no other description can fit it better than smooth. He just sounds like butter when gliding into even the most powerful ballads but also amazingly great sounding when he has lines that require him to belt. Even Yesung and Ryeowook have said in interviews that singing a song in Kyu’s arrangement is so difficult his voice is so midrange that it can easily go high and low with so little effort while the two have to adjust their voices to reach a satisfying high for Yesung and a legit low register for Ryeowook. 

As for their signature songs, Yesung’s textured voice feels like an assuring but happy embrace in Pink Magic, which sounds a tad more upbeat than his usual ballads. The Little Prince, Ryeowook’s solo debut, provided him with the high concept he deserves, although those goosebump-inducing vocal runs in the live performances of Hiding Words (look for the Yoo Heeyeol’s Sketchbook performance) are also an absolute treat to the ears. Finally, Kyuhyun’s iconic At Gwanghwamun proves that his voice can also do power ballads, not just the regular OST-sounding tracks he has until that time been typecasted in.  

BtoB BLUE: Eunkwang, Hyunsik, Sungjae and Changsub

For obvious reasons, the vocal line of BtoB has to be on this list. After all, when things went almost nowhere for Cube’s then-upcoming group, they made singing vocal-heavy ballads and mid-tempo songs their bread and butter. At a time when EXO, BTS, WINNER, iKON, and GOT7 were all about singing upbeat dance tracks and songs that need that all-consuming “beat drop”, BtoB took things to a different direction and finally met success.  

While the group did find considerable success with the fast-paced Beep Beep more than a couple of years after their debut, Cube decided that BtoB still wasn’t at the level of success they expected them to be, at least not at the fast climb to success the company experienced with their representative group, Beast. So, they suddenly took things slow with more ballad-oriented tracks like The Winter’s Tale, It’s Okay, Way Back Home, Remember That, and Pray (I’ll Be Your Man), one after the other, all power ballads, and all finally putting BtoB in the single digits of K-pop charts. But then, not only did the group finally give them a niche they dominated (and still are dominating) for years, but these songs also shone a spotlight on the group’s very impressive vocal line. Not that Ilhoon, Minhyun, and Peniel didn’t carry their weight in the team; in fact, the strength of their rap members also further brought attention to how fantastic their vocalists are. Eunkwang, Hyunsik, Sungjae and Changsub bring four different vocal flavors and colors that has made BtoB a well-recognized vocal group in K-pop. 

As THE main vocalist among rather vocally accomplished members, Eunkwang stands amongst the strongest of the strongest main vocalists in K-pop. Despite being in the industry for already more than 10 years, including his trainee period (when we could only imagine was more tiring and challenging for him), he has been able to keep his voice quality in sterling condition. And with all those power ballads BtotB and BtoB BLUE (the vocal line sub-unit), the fact that he has continued sounding strong all these years is proof that Eunkwang has made it his business to take care of his voice. 

On the other hand, Changsub started off as someone with a wider range compared to Eunkwang, but seems to lack discipline and control that the former has. He tends to insert adlibs and vocal lines when they’re not absolutely necessary, not to mention he almost always sounds like he’s “winging” every performance as opposed to the group’s leader. The majority of the time, Changsub ends up sounding glorious, but there are other times when he really sounds all over the place. Well, he has been known to not constantly practice, and it shows with the cracks and strains (and at times, even screaming) in a number of live BtoB performances.   

But then, if we’re speaking of range, nothing can beat the group’s constant song composer, Hyunsik. He can match Eunkwang and Changsub when it comes to belting some lines, but there have been instances, more than a couple in fact, when he brings out that husky baritone that can make Melodies swoon at a drop of a note. Have a YouTube visit and look for the song Beautiful Pain where he starts off the song on a rather high pitch and repeats more or less the same lines but in a very low pitch towards the end of the song. Now tell me if those images and sounds won’t live rent-free in your brain for weeks, if not months! 

Last but not the least, we have our idol-actor Sungjae, who at one look, will almost always fool anyone into thinking he’s first and foremost an actor than a boy group member. But show them a live performance of Remember That, and those opening lines sung in our maknae‘s baritone will surely send ’em hearts melting.  At the start of the group, particularly on the days when they were still singing a lot of fast songs, Sungjae didn’t shine that much and only sounded more confident as they slowed down their repertoire. Maybe because he thought his deeper voice suited the ballads more? Maybe he had less confidence in his dancing skills? Maybe he got more confident as got more recognition as an actor? Whatever the reason may be, his overall sound and stage presence notably improved during BtoB’s ballad era.    

INFINITE also brought us Woohyun and Sunggyu; Pentagon has Hui, Junho, and Kino; and the SEVENTEEN vocal powerhouse duo of DK and Seungkwan can never be denied. But today’s list only allows for three and for sure, we’ll be shining a spotlight on other vocal lines in the future, so make sure to stay tuned for that.    

Featured Image: A Still of Chen from EXO Official Twitter account.

With a majority of K-pop groups fading from the limelight (read: getting disbanded) after only a few years and even the most durable of idols totally shifting their careers into acting or TV hosting, you may wonder if there are personalities who started off their careers as singers and are still going strong mainly as K-pop idols up to now. There are two, actually, and it just so happens they are also still connected to the country’s representative music company – SM Entertainment. Let’s look into the everlasting careers of KangTa and BoA.   

KangTa

When we talk about idols who have stood the test of time, nobody pretty much comes close to the level of KangTa. Originally named Ahn Chil Hyun, KangTa is a first-generation idol and has kept at it for decades, and is one of the few, if not the only, “senior” idols who are still active in the music industry as idols. Most of KangTa’s contemporaries have diversified their careers by getting into other ventures such as acting (e.g., Shinhwa’s Eric) or variety show hosting (e.g., KangTa’s groupmate Moon Heejun). But not KangTa. He achieved immense popularity as one of the five members of the legendary boy group H.O.T. and up to now, has continued his career in music close to three decades later. 

As an SM Entertainment trainee, KangTa was actually getting side jobs already but as a backup dancer, not as a singer. When he was finally included in a group with Moon Hee Joon, Jang Woo Hyuk, Tony An, and Lee Jae Won, they were called H.O.T, short for Highfive Of Teenagers, which eventually became the blueprint for what we know today as the k-pop boy band. 

You know that theory that Koreans adapt trends from other countries and mold them into distinctly Korean (and arguably vastly improved) concepts? That’s what H.O.T practically was. With the group explosion in the ‘90s from New Kids on the Block to N’Sync in the US and E-17 and Boyzone in the British Isles, the Koreans (SM Entertainment to be precise) took this “voal group” idea and ran away with it. Not only did they just copy the Ron Pearlman prototype of gathering 5 to 8 pretty boys and make them sing, they have to put the Korean stamp to it by assigning these boys particular positions to make sure the entirety of the group has something for everyone – Heejun was the leader, Woohyuk was the main rapper, Jaewoon was the youngest member, Tony was the all-arounder, and KangTa was surprisingly the main vocalist of the group, not to mention that he (with Tony) were the most popular members based on their looks. 

While the other members decided to leave SM and pursue other careers, KangTa decided to continue as an SM Entertainment talent and as a solo artist, re-debuting with a solo album Polaris in 2001. He continued his career with a couple more albums, Pinetree and Persona, all of which established him as a successful solo act. After completing his mandatory military service, KangTa also released songs in Mandarin, signalling his entry into the Chinese music market. 

KangTa’s other ventures in music include being part of a group called called ‘S’ (Supreme) with Shin Hyesung (Shinhwa) and singer-actor Lee Jihoon. Later he became a part of a duo with Taiwanese singer Vanness Wu (of Meteor Garden fame). KangTa has also been featured on other SM artists’ songs, particularly with BoA and Taeyeon and has taken part in the writing of numerous tracks, proving he has also developed top-notch songwriting skills.

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To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before

TVING <케이팝 제너레이션> Ep.3
➫2022.02.09 4PM (KST)#KPOP_GENERATION #EP3_내가사랑했던_모든남자들에게#KANGTA#SUPERJUNIOR #LEETEUK#SHINee #MINHO#EXO #SUHO#NCT #DOYOUNG pic.twitter.com/rxRkyPfjqn

— SMTOWN (@SMTOWNGLOBAL) February 9, 2023

But along with his accomplished solo singing career, KangTa also got himself into acting along with the other idols. He has appeared on both Chinese and Korean TV dramas and movies, all of which have been successful. 

KangTa has since celebrated his 20th debut anniversary with SM Entertainment and carried out his 25th debut anniversary in 2021. He hosted the SM Congress 2021 where the remastering of about 300 songs was announced. In 2022, he made his return to solo music with a full album Eyes on You, released in September.  

BoA

Some regard BoA as “the female KangTa,” alluding to her loyalty to SM Entertainment, while some dub her the “Queen of K-pop,” which refers to her pioneering efforts and staying power in the rather fickle Korean music industry. Both are correct, as BoA has spent her more than two decades with the same company and she remains active in the Korean entertainment industry even after 21 years after her debut. When it comes to K-pop relevance, BoA has things mastered, from releasing new songs to appearing on several TV shows as an emcee, judge or coach. 

Kwon Boah, professionally known as BoA, is actually SM Entertainment’s first solo artist. Not only that; she is the youngest idol to enter the K-pop industry during her time, releasing her debut album in South Korea at the age of thirteen. ID; Peace B was released in the year 2000, and that time, KangTa was still in the final stretches of his career in H.O.T, which means that Queen BoA is really SME’s first solo artist and she is actually KangTa’s seonbaenim when it comes to being a solo artist. 

A couple of years after her Korean debut, BoA ventured to Japan and debuted in March 2002 via the album Listen to My Heart. And just in case you’re wondering, yes, BoA debuted in Japan on her own at age 15. Things went fast forward for the queen as her debut album shot up to number 1 in Japan, while she still had to return to Korea to prepare for her academic career. But then, she already broke through the Japanese market that it was the Japanese TV and radio stations that had to adjust, going to Seoul to tape BoA’s Japanese performances instead of the artist going to Tokyo to stretch her “15 minutes of fame” (of course, we all now know in hindsight that BoA’s Japanese following was never just 15 minutes). 

And mind you, BoA’s successful Japanese debut was not an exaggerated breakthrough overly hyped by the Korean press – Listen to My Heart became an RIAJ-certified million-seller topping the Oricon Chart, the first album by a Korean artist to do so.

The Queen of K-pop went on to launch more Korean and Japanese albums, all of which became successful in their respective markets, reaching millions in terms of album sales. She even became the first non-Japanese and non-English language singer to have two albums selling more than a million copies in Japan. During the late 2000s, when female acts like Girls’ Generation and Wonder Girls tried their luck penetrating the US market, BoA did the same with the American single Eat You Up in October 2008. She followed this with her Hollywood movie debut in the dance film Make Your Move 3D, where she played the character Aya.

When BoA renewed her contract with SM Entertainment in 2006 until 2012, she, along with another loyal talent we already mentioned earlier, was given 100,000 shares (valued at approximately USD 1 million) by the company in appreciation of her loyalty with the company.

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K-pop diva @BoAkwon will celebrate her 20th debut anniversary with fans by holding a concert on March 11-12 at the Olympic Hall in the Olympic Park in Jamsil, Seoul! Click here for more: https://t.co/LCDYRqTDJG #BoA #보아 pic.twitter.com/m50qz4bTws

— KpopHerald (@Kpop_Herald) February 8, 2023

As with KangTa, BoA also started venturing into other fields once she already established her career as a K-pop icon. She started participating in music production at SM Entertainment and also started appearing on TV in 2013. Among her most notable TV appearances include her stint as the representative judge of SM Entertainment in the first two seasons of K-pop Star (where AKMU, Lee Hi, and Jamie competed), the MC of the second season of Produce 101 (which saw the birth of WANNA ONE), and a judge of both Street Woman Fighter and Street Man Fighter. 

Aside from continuously releasing new singles, BoA finally realized one of the very few missing things in her long and illustrious career – becoming a girl group member. Twenty-two years after debuting as a solo artists, SM Entertainment included her in GOT the Beat, a supergroup formed with members of Girls’ Generation (Taeyeon and Hyoyeon), Red Velvet (Wendy and Seulgi), aespa (LKarin and Winter), and the queen herself. Now, she finally say she has experienced everything there is to experience in the Korean entertainment industry – actress on TV, movies, and the stage, emcee, reality show participant, soloist, and now, girl group member!

If their recent activities are to be considered, it seems these two will be staying strong with their careers, not just in the Korean entertainment industry in general, but in the K-pop scene in particular. And with their annual dividends (amounting to millions of US dollars) as SME stockholders, we can also safely conclude that loyalty and longevity in this rather fickle world of K-pop do pay off handsomely!

Featured Image Credit: KangTa Official Twitter

As the Miley Cyrus song goes, “it’s the climb”. But for most K-pop groups, even just one failed or “flop” comeback can spell the difference between the company planning the next comeback or the dreaded announcement of disbandment. Oh, the pressure! Remember Cube Entertainment “forcing” 4Minute fans to make “Hate” a hit as it will play a big role in the members’ decision to continue with the group or not renew their contracts? To think 4Minute at that time was already a huge name, coming from the astonishing success of Crazy. 

Lucky for us, here are some groups that persevered for some time before finally experiencing that breakthrough.  And how these groups we named staged their breakthroughs! Quite unique, if I may say so. 

INFINITE

Number of Years Before Making It Big: More than a year

How they got past the struggle: That one song. 

You may think, “It only took a year for INFINITE to make a breakthrough in the market? Then why are they on this list?” But you don’t understand — the situation for INFINITE was close to desperate before, during, and that year after their debut. Why you ask? It so happens that their (this takes on a whole new level of meaning later) company, Woollim Entertainment, prior to INFINITE‘s breakthrough was more of an indie, anti-establishment agency hosting talents like Nell and Epik High. Though these artists were quite famous in Korea and were regarded and respected as legit artists even then, they weren’t exactly the most lucrative or income-generating talents, to the disadvantage of Woollim’s coffers. 

Thus, on their road to debuting, INFINITE was a witness and you may say, the direct victim of the company’s precarious finances. For one, INFINITE didn’t even have its own dormitory when the group debuted. Where did they live during their trainee period, you ask? With Woollim’s CEO, that’s where. Even their earliest music videos for their releases were filmed in the CEO’s house. Quick, go to YouTube and look for INFINITE’s music video for their debut single, Come Back Again. That house and that neighborhood were their CEO’s and since they lived in the CEO’s house, technically theirs. Suffice it to say that the CEO didn’t have the money to pay the rent for separate accommodation or filming locations. At the very least, what the Woollim CEO had the money for was rent for the group’s single practice room. 

But while this would have made trainees go up in arms and complain of “inhumane” conditions, INFINITE continued to strive for their dream. This situation continued for six releases, one single album, and two EPS, where the group started recognition for their very intricate choreography and the dancing skills of the members to match before finally, the Korean public took a liking to the dance track with the slightest tinge of retro Be Mine, the lead single of their first full studio album Over the Top. Despite the relatively just-okay performance of INFINITE‘s releases, Woollim’s CEO took the huge (and some may argue was downright crazy) gamble of producing a full-length album for the boys. Thank goodness, it caught on with the public and solidified the boys’ position as the “knife choreography kings” of K-pop, alluding to their synchronic movements so sharp they could cut. The precise choreo and the hella catchy song really did the group huge favors. 

This success of INFINITE eventually allowed Woollim Entertainment to debut more idol groups such as Lovelyz (disbanded in 2021), Drippin, and Golden Child, as well as promote solo artists like IZ*ONE‘s Kwon Eunbi and Lee Sujeong, the only Lovelyz member who opted to re-sign with Woollim. INFINITE‘s breakthrough also went well for the company’s CEO Lee Jungyeop, as he acquired more investments and eventually merged his company with SM Entertainment’s SM Culture and Contents (SM C&C) in 2013. Three years later, SM C&C separated Woollim from its video content business so that the company can focus on music content.

NU’EST

Number of Years Before Making It Big: 5

How they got past the struggle: Thanks to the power of the Produce 101 franchise

NU’EST is one of those groups that actually got off to a very promising start but somehow needed a second breakthrough in the middle of its career as the group didn’t sustain the momentum it had after debuting. In fact, the group only hit its stride in 2017, which was more than five years after a great debut that was followed by a series of rather unfortunate events (read: poor planning by the agency).

When the group debuted in 2012, JR, Aron, Baekho, Minhyun, and Ren, showed immense promise that not a lot of debuting groups exhibited. The group debuted with Face, a single and music video that touched on bullying and modern societal pressures. It instantly set them apart from other boy bands. A lot of K-pop fans even argued that while most groups don’t tend to have the strongest material in their debut era as the company is still doing some trial and error to see what clicks with the public and what doesn’t. However, NU’EST’s first EP did not only contain a banging lead single, NU, Establish, Style, Tempo, Not Over Your and Sandy on their next EP titled Action was also well-accepted by the radio-listening and music streaming public. For a while, the Face music video even held the record for being the most-watched among debuting K-pop acts at nearly 50 million views, to be surpassed only by Twice and Blackpink later. 

It also helped that the members were very varied in terms of image, from Ren and his androgynous and gender-bending norms to Baekho with his more muscular build reminiscent of the members of 2PM. Ren went as far as starring in an ad campaign for the China-based online mall VIP Shop wearing a skirt and long hair. On the other hand, the main vocalist Baekho was featured in various fitness magazines and pictorials with his defined body for everyone to swoon over. Their success continued with Hello, an emotive ballad released a day before Valentine’s Day in 2013, as the song became their highest-charting single at the time. 

But unlike most groups that put most of their efforts into establishing themselves in the local Korean market before branching overseas, the boys of NU’EST set themselves apart by also trying their best at gaining a following overseas. During their debut year, they already performed at the very first KCON in the US and later celebrated their first anniversary with a Japanese concert. As mentioned earlier, they also had exposure in China as NU’EST-M, singing in Mandarin with Yuehua Entertainment’s Jason. 

Alas, this shift towards focusing more on the international market, although successful, also took its toll on their homecourt popularity. After promoting Hello, NU’EST concentrated so much on promoting in Japan and China that their Korean fans started becoming disengaged with the group.  Unfortunately, the group’s singles after Hello, such as Sleep Talking, Good Bye Bye, I’m Bad, Overcome, and Love Paint (Every Afternoon) didn’t resonate as much with Korean listeners, and as Baekho admitted in Produce 101, the company Pledis advised them to join the competition because they (the company) can’t procure funding for new NU’EST releases anymore. He also admitted that during that time, it was junior company-mates SEVENTEEN that was funding Pledis operations and that his groupmates are so jealous of their hoobaes.    

But all of that thankfully changed when all except Aron joined the second season of PD101. While Minhyun had to promote with WANNA ONE as he secured one of the 11 slots for the project group, JR, Baekhyun, and Ren reunited with Aron to release music under the “sub-unit” NU’EST-W. All their songs charted and a number of their tracks from their back catalog such as Hello and Face returned to Korean singles charts (and stayed there for months!) Although the group officially disbanded as Ren, JR, and Aron opted to not re-sign with Pledis upon the expiration of their 10-year contract, it does comfort us to know that the group did experience their breakthrough (more like a renaissance) and enjoyed their success for a few years before officially parting ways. 

EXID

Number of Years Before Making It Big: Close to 3 years

How they got past the struggle: The OG queens of the fancam

These days, every performance by K-pop artists, whether it’s through a televised program or even in concerts, has a slew of fancams being uploaded only within minutes after the number is finished. Fancams seem to be taken for granted as they have become staples of K-entertainment already, thanks to the readiness of tools such as WiFi connection and a mobile phone, which almost 100% of show or concert attendees are already equipped with. But when you ask the 2nd generation girl group EXID for their opinions of fancams, you will surely be met with profuse gratitude and amazement at how something as commonplace as a fancam actually spelled the survival of their careers.

The quintet produced several K-Pop hits, one of which is one of the most quintessential K-Pop songs in history, their career-defining single Up & Down. The group’s history has, just like the song’s title, been with countless fluctuations, not to mention that the initial group that debuted in 2011 is quite different from the EXID second-gen K-pop fans know. The group’s history started in pretty much the same fashion as most idol groups, with a entertainment company (in this case, a scouting venture AB Entertainment and producer Shinsadong Tiger) gathered idol wannabes (read: trainees) to form a group. An ex-trainee at JYP Entertainment who failed to debut with a group, Yuji and a number of her co-members at the federation of JYP dropouts namely Hani, Haeryeong and Jeonghwa answered AB Entertainment’s casting call. Two more were added: LE, who was already making a name for herself in the underground rap scene and Dami, the only trainee originally from AB Entertainment and rounded out the final lineup. Although three of the names are familiar, this is still different from the EXID we know and love today, yes?

Debuted in 2012 with the single Whoz That Girl, the group that basically bridged the second and third generations of K-pop acts performed quite okay on the charts (peaking at No.36), considering they were from a mid-sized company with only Shinsandong Tiger as the industry-recognized backer on their team. But in a scene reminiscent of idol groups like Le Sserafim (a.k.a. groups that lost members very shortly after they debuted), members Yuji, Haeryeong, and Dami left the group. Yuji and Dami allegedly want to focus on their studies, while Haeryeong left to pursue an acting career. But then, Haeryeong resurfaced as a member of BESTIE in 2013 while EXID welcomed Solji and Hyerin shortly after. 

With the addition of vocal standouts Solji (who was actually a vocal trainer for EXID) and Hyerin (who was previously eliminated from the lineup of the group), EXID released the EP Hippity Hop and digital single Every Night, which did well but did not really announce the arrival of chart-topping queens they were destined to be, although the latter’s music video did create some buzz with its sexy bloody vampire theme. Even their eventual breakthrough smash hit Up & Down went unnoticed when it was released in August 2014, as it did not even crack the top 100 of the Gaon (now Circle) Music Chart. So, what sort of miracle happened that saved the group from permanent residency in the land of nugu-dom?

The turning point for EXID was when a fancam of Hani performing Up & Down went viral in October (that would be two months after the song was released) and almost immediately, the single shot all the way up to the top ten on the real-time charts, and topping the Gaon chart a few hours after its re-entry. The girls were even invited back onto music programs to promote the song months after their promotions had ended in September. The group then finally achieved their first music show win 35 months after debut in January 2015. Even for that music show win, they had to wait for the perfect timing as the entire December, it was Apink’s LUV that carved its own niche in K-pop history, eventually totaling 17 music show wins (and still remains unbeaten by any girl group to this day). Years later, tales of Hani’s viral fancam are still being brought up to groups that may seem on the brink of giving up. More of that later. 

So, back to EXID, the success they experienced in their careers went on until 2020, when the girls opted not to renew with Banana Culture, the company that handled the group during that time. Prior to their break from their company, the group continued to churn chart toppers such as Ah Yeah and Hot Pink in 2015 (both of which were met with slight criticism that the songs sound too much like Up & Down, but hey, why fix what ain’t broken and provided them with music success in the first place?), L.I.E from their first full-length album STREET, Night Rather Than Day (their first comeback without Solji, who had to undergo surgery for her hyperthyroidism), DDD (which Solji only participated in its recording but was absent in the music video and promotions), Lady, and Me & You. The group also launched successful careers in both China and Japan.  

But as the girls promised, the girls staged a comeback of sorts in September 2022 even though they were already signed to different companies, with only LE staying in Banana Culture. To celebrate their 10th anniversary as a group, they released X under Sony Music. From being in danger of nugu-dom to being one of the most recognizable groups of second gen K-pop, EXID has indeed come a long way, and all it took was a fancam.  

Brave Girls

Number of Years Before Making It Big: Nine-ish

How they got past the struggle: The mandatory Korean military service 

Now, if you’re looking for the most melodramatic rise to K-pop stardom, have we got one heck of a story for you! The Brave Girls’ story is basically that Cinderella story that has the girls struggle throughout their story and when all hope was lost, their fortunes took a sudden turn that basically changed their lives. 

Actually, the girl group we all know as Brave Girls started in 2011, at the tailend of the second generation of K-pop acts. Their start was very promising because after all, they are the Brave Girls, the first girl group produced by Brave Entertainment – as in industry legend Brave Brothers, the iconic producer (yes, Brave Brothers is composed of a single person, Kang Dongchul, as confusing as his moniker may be) of monster hits such as AOA’s Miniskirt and Short Hair, HyunA’s Ice Cream, and Sunmi’s Full Moon, among so many others. It was a promising start as Eunyoung, Seoa, Yejin, Yoojin, and Hyeran released The Difference with the lead single Do You Know peaked in the Gaon album and singles charts at numbers 2 and 19, respectively. They capped their debut year with a win from the 19th Korea Culture Entertainment Awards, where they were named Rookie of the Year. The group then released Easily, Nowadays You, and For You, which kept them afloat in public consciousness, although still not asserting themselves as one of the industry’s premier girl groups. 

Then, something weird happened. By the end of 2013, Brave Brothers himself claimed that he will be working on the group’s next full-length album. With such a huge claim by THE successful producer himself, the public anticipated a solid album with one hit release after another that would finally catapult the group into finally being a Korean household name. 

Alas, this was not the way things went as for some reason, Mr. Brave ended up producing one hit song after another for FNC Entertainment’s AOA, not for his own girl group. An act of the utmost betrayal? Did FNC pay Mr. Brave that much to make him divert all his focus to their group instead of working on his own group? Suffice it to say that most of the group did not take these events in stride as three of them quit and Yoojin and Hyeran welcomed five new members; Minyoung, Yujeong, Eunji, Hayun, and Yuna when the group came back in 2016 with the EP High Heels, which released two singles, Deepend and High Heels. The two songs, although characteristically very catchy just like any other Brave Brothers track, failed to catch the attention of the public. After that comeback, the two members of the original line-up have also left the group, so post-High Heels, it was a completely different group from the one that debuted in 2011. 

The group’s numbers further dwindled when Hayun left the group in 2018, only months after the re-release of the song Rollin, the original version of which was the first song the remaining five members released. With the constant line-up changes and songs that couldn’t seem to catch on with the public, alas, talks of disbanding, according to the company’s publicity team, was inevitable. It was only a matter of when the official announcement will occur, with the four remaining members already packing their personal belongings in their dormitory and planning what their next career moves will be. That is, until a COVID pandemic miracle of sorts happened. 

A compilation montage of footage from their performances of their song Rollin taken at various South Korean military camps was uploaded to YouTube in late February 2021. The video flashed witty captions and comments like, “If we play this song at the front lines, victory is ours,” alongside scenes of South Korean soldiers cheering and copying the rather unique choreography points of the track, including the hip rolling move with the arms extended to the side and the fists rolled and that infamous stingray dance. In a matter of days, the original video garnered millions of views and thousands of comments on YouTube, causing Brave Girls‘ popularity to skyrocket.

Rollin not just gave the group instant recognition; the song itself went on the re-chart, as it topped South Korea’s music charts, scoring a Perfect All-Kill for the group (being #1 in all real-time and weekly music charts in Korea) while also topping Billboard’s latest K-pop 100 chart, ousting IU‘s Celebrity, which had held the top spot for seven straight weeks. Brave Entertainment had to move cautiously and see if the sudden success was fleeting. On March 14, 2021, the group took home their first-ever music show win.  

South Korean service members make up a solid portion of the Brave Girls fandom, in a country where all men between the ages of 18 and 28 are mandated to serve in the military for 18 to 21 months. The girl group has staged more than 100 performances at South Korean military camps, despite the remote locations and low profits. Seeing how successful the girls were with Rollin and their summer 2021 comeback Summer Queen and the Chi Mat Ba Ram, plus the re-released We Ride made the guys who served in the military in the late 2010s nostalgic and proud of the group, as they felt that they were part of their struggles. The group went on to participate in the second season of the reality show Queendom while having two more releases, After We Ride and Thank You. 

But as of the moment, Brave Entertainment is in hot waters once again as the fans are thinking the company (unlike Bana Culture in our EXID discussion earlier) has not been successful in stretching the girls’ proverbial 15 minutes of fame. Brave Girls’ 2022 activities have been tepid, with the groups’ ranking on Queendom 2 lackluster (they almost always came last) and the group’s concert plans in Korea shelved, which further irritated the fans when the group’s US tour made up of nine shows in July 2022 pushed through. There’s still no news of the group’s activities in 2023, which has sparked protests among Korean Fearless (the group’s fandom). It is quite upsetting when these things happen, yes? Just when the group has finally achieved a clear breakthrough, the company may have messed things up.

With a lot of fourth-gen groups, particularly girl groups like Le Sserafim, Ive, StayC, and NewJeans not even breaking a sweat to achieve instant success, it can be argued that we may not see a lot of stories similar to Infinite, EXID, Brave Girls, and NU’EST in the near future. But then, as long as we have a steady number of K-pop groups being introduced to the public every single day, there will always be room for more quirky idol group success stories, yes?

Featured Image: NU’EST Official Twitter

In this industry of Korean pop music which we all love, change (pun alert to HyunA’s debut single) can be a good thing. The risks associated with change paid off for groups like Apink, BTS, and Dreamcatcher, as well as with Jay Park who established a solo career after leaving 2PM, and Chungha and Somi who opted to go solo after being identified with the girl group survival show Produce 101 and the subsequently produced girl group IOI.   

But changes are indeed risky. The odds of getting good results after a change can only be matched by the odds of falling flat on your face after deciding to go ahead with the change. Here are two cases of changes in K-pop that may not have gone in the artists’ (and their companies’) favor.  

Weeekly: The Case of the Unexplainable Concept Change

When it comes to image, concept, or sound change, IST Entertainment (aka the company that is only keen on changing its name from A Cube to Plan A to Play M before finally settling on IST, but who knows what the future holds) is one of the more conservative companies. After all, IST is behind the most enduring concepts for a girl group in K-pop, with Apink taking a whole seven years before finally tweaking their bright and innocent concept into a more sophisticated one. With how the concept change was resoundingly successful for their banner group and not a lot of revamps have also been implemented on the company’s male group VICTON, it was expected for the company to also be very cautious and deliberate when it comes to any change for their representative 4th gen group, Weeekly.     

The group actually started out well. Considering everything (the fact that they’re not a Big 4 group, they debuted four days after Blackpink released How You Like That and a day after Hwasa released Maria, among others), their debut with the EP We Are and Tag Me went fairly well. Their steady performance continued with their next single Zig Zag from their second EP We Can released four months after their debut. By this time, people were anticipating that it won’t be long before the group will get their big break ala My My of their sunbaes Apink, their breakthrough song that was released six months after their debut. 

Alas, IST hit a gold mine nine months into the group’s career as After School, a single off Weeekly’s 3rd EP We Play became a viral hit. It wasn’t just one incident or factor, but Koreans started using the song on their social media posts because of its inherent catchiness. Casual K-pop fans quickly pointed out that the song sounds like something Apink can release, which means that the song sounds like a 1st to 2nd gen k-pop song, something that obviously piqued the interest of the more “advanced” (in age) music lovers.

With IST’s track record of shying away from risky concept changes, no one expected the company to rock the boat, especially after a wildly successful release. They did exactly that, all right, with the bright and cheerful Holiday Party, which more or less continued the group’s infectious and youthful sound. Alas, Holiday Party did not perform as well as the viral After School, for which the company seemed to take matters into its own hands. And by that, they implemented a concept change that was something so left field with the group’s next release Ven Para.

Ven Para… an attempt at doing a Chungha/D.O by releasing a Spanish-tinged song? Not really, because as you may have heard and seen from the song and the music video, there’s not a lot of Latin flavor on both, except that phrase. Instead, we were given a girl crush song coupled with a girl crush music video. Yes, the girls we saw donning casual attire and performing silly cute antics were not wearing leather-infused outfits and dancing with literal fire (not just fire on LED screens) in the background. 

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Weeekly in onesies is the best thing that happened in ven para era pic.twitter.com/fsRarJfZzE

— J ✦ ColoRise(d) Talaarawan (@prodbyjiyoon) January 25, 2023

Now, you may argue that this is basically a Cube Entertainment move when they completely revamped CLC from cuties singing No On Oh with fruits in their outfits (watch the music video and look for the cherries, strawberries, and lemons in the girls’ shirts, pants, and skirts) to barbed wire-covered baseball bat brandishing women in Hobgoblin. But then, until that time, CLC didn’t have an established concept and the company felt like there was space that their girl crush group 4Minute vacated after their disbandment that CLC could readily occupy. 

In the case of Weeekly, the concept change doesn’t add up for a number of reasons. One, the company hasn’t had prior successful experience in the girl crush realm – not that the queens of Apink cannot do girl crush, it’s just that they didn’t need to do it as girl crush just isn’t their stryle, AS IST WOULD KNOW). Two, Weeekly already had success with the colorful and uplifting After School, so why fix what clearly wasn’t broken? Three, IST is a company known to be quite conservative when it comes to implementing changes to their groups, so why start now and in such a drastic fashion?

Take note that the group has steadily sold more units with every new release, with Play Game: Awake (the single album that has the anomalous Ven Para on it) selling more than 83,000 units. This goes to show that the group has continued to rise in popularity at least in Korea. What that weird concept change did was to definitely alienate fans (mostly international) who fell in love with the group in their After School era, hoping to hear more of the same from them. Moreover, there is doubt that the concept change was successful in establishing the girls’ identity as a group because when you ask people what comes to mind when they hear “Weeekly”, they will likely sing to you the melody of After School’s chorus, the one that goes, “Urin seukeiteubodeu wiro” or that English line, “I’m so good with you”, not leather-clad girls dancing with literal fire behind them!

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Weeekly released the best song of 2021 = After School but people still decided to sleep on them on their future releases, especially Ven Para and question why they haven't had a comeback since#Weeekly #위클리 #AfterSchool #Daileee #데일리 @_Weeekly @by_Weeekly #Kpop pic.twitter.com/OMsOiGdMej

— 이영재 🦁 (@Youngjae_Lee295) January 24, 2023

Weeekly’s Ven Para comeback is one of the biggest conundrums of k-pop, and with the girls still not having a comeback after that fiasco, we sincerely hope that their next release won’t have everyone scratching their heads again because one more misstep for this group may inch them closer to the world of doomed k-pop girl groups (read CLC, Momoland, and Lovelyz).    

KARD: The Case of the Temporary Unnecessary Sound Change

The world of K-pop is not that kind to coed groups. If you’re not convinced, give me a name of a hugely successful K-pop coed group. Give up? That’s because there’s none. The only successful female-male collabs are in pairs, with AKMU and Troublemaker defying the odds – only that they’re actually just pairs, not groups. In recent memory, only Triple H managed to perform decently, and unfortunately, we all know what happened to them after only two releases. The rest like SM The Ballad and SSAK3 are only project groups and if you don’t know Roo’Ra, don’t blame yourself because they were active in the 1990s. And there was s#arp, which figured in the biggest bullying scandal in the K-pop industry and Coed School with the female subunit figuring in bullying incidences as well. With all those bullying events, it’s not hard to see why Koreans may have lost interest in coed groups.       

Thus, when DSP Media, a company that, if we’re being honest here, has a patchy history of managing their idol groups, debuted a new coed group in 2017, people were a bit excited but have somehow managed expectations. You see, DSP Media actually has a solid track record of creating idol groups. Fin.K.L, Sech Kies, April, Rainbow, Kara, and SS501 all started with DSP. You might wonder now, how can a company with such a stellar line-up not end up at the Big 3 (or 4) level or even with legit challengers like Cube and Starship?  It seems to be a combination of factors, with the main reason being the artists do not seem to have that much of an affinity with their agency. Not a lot of their talents choose to renew their contracts once they are about to expire, as evidenced by Jiyoung and Nicole of Kara. When the group Sech Kies reunited years after their disbandment, they did so under YG Entertainment, not DSP. Alas, when Kara reunited in 2022, DSP was already bought by RBW, so the Kara comeback was already handled by the buyers. 

Anyhow, KARD was off to a promising start in 2016 despite DSP not really having the best standing in the industry. The foursome caught the attention of some Korean music fans who were intrigued by the tropical sound of which the group was one of the earlier adapters. But more than their domestic success, the group acquired a bigger following in the international market, with fans liking their fresh sound, the idea of a group with boy and girl members together, and the undeniable physical attractiveness of all four members. I mean, who can ignore how hot J Seph, BM, Somin, and Jiwoo are? 

The group’s success continued with their next releases, particularly with their official debut single Hola Hola released in 2017, which charted in Korea and pushed the group into a “world tour” of Asian countries like Singapore, Hong Kong, Taipei, Manila, Melbourne, and Jakarta. They also performed in high-profile music festivals in Japan (Summer Sonic Festival) and even the US (SXSW). Finally, it was on August 19, 2018, when the group held their first solo concert in Seoul. Throughout these ballsy efforts by DSP to promote the group overseas, criticism of the group also started in their home country, as it was apparent that the company is pushing the group more internationally. Domestic K-pop observers have gone as far as saying that KARD is a “fictional group” along the lines of aespa’s virtual members who live in the virtual world of KWANGYA. 

But this is not actually where the weird events related to KARD started. Everything was (and actually, still is) swimmingly fine for the group until three years in, they decided to tweak their sound with the two successive releases in 2019, Bomb Bomb and Dumb Litty. The Latin-tinged moombahton sound which has become the group’s bread-and-butter signature sound since their first project single was adjusted to reflect a more commercial dubstep sound that for a time, was the trend in K-pop. 

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4 years ago today in kpop history, KARD debuted with Hola Hola. It would go on to peak at 2 on the Gaon 3 on the Billboard US World Albums charts. pic.twitter.com/eDvsN3EdM1

— i'm too old to be this into k-pop (@TooOld4Kpop) July 20, 2021

For us fans with basic music taste, here’s a simple explanation: In the “old” Kard releases, the Latin influences come in chill, reggaeton beats. With Bomb Bomb and Dumb Litty, the group shifted to singing songs that ceaselessly build up in the verses until that explosive “beat drop” that supposedly makes everyone including their mom lose their heads because… the beat has dropped! In a euphoric, almost orgasmic fashion at that! For further reference, go to the following: Hate by 4MINUTE, Miroh by Stray Kids, and I Don’t Wanna Cry by SEVENTEEN. But that’s not to say that moombahton-heavy songs don’t have beat drops. It’s just that the beats are being dropped in a rather… suave manner. With dubstep songs, it’s as if listeners are encouraged to hold their breaths until they turn blue before the beat finally drops and we can all breathe freely once again. 

Which was why when the 2019 KARD releases came out, fans scratched their heads in confusion. Why am I listening to something so familiar, though I swear to all supreme beings that this is not the KARD I am used to? What is going on? The two tracks continued the group’s popularity especially overseas, although many die-hard Hidden KARDs found the songs… strange Obviously, they love the songs because they’re by KARD, but it feels awkward to see the group surrender their signature sound to the all-consuming “beat drop” trend. 

I mean, KARD is supposed to be a group setting trends, not merely following them. They’re the lone coed act in a sea of exclusive-gender groups, they were more focused (read: stubborn) in maintaining their international appeal rather than gaining a foothold on the domestic music market, and they are among the pioneers of the moombahton sound in k-pop. BM has been quoted in interviews in saying that the group in 2019 was trying to diversify their sound, but doing so would mean being unfaithful to the sound they’ve attached themselves to a bit too early in their careers. And that can put off some fans who were on their way to completely joining the Hidden KARD fandom.

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Hola hola, @KARD_Official is in the building! 🔥

One of the few co-ed groups in K-pop, the quartet came as a "sexy skeleton, cat, pirate and vampire" ☠️🐱⚓ 🧛 for #HALLYUWEENPH2022 #KARD pic.twitter.com/tDm7TgjRSR

— SUPER (@inquirersuper) October 29, 2022

But then, 2020-2022 happened, the world went into a standstill because of the pandemic, J Seph served his mandatory military service for Korea, Somin had to deal with the undying rumors of her role in the APRIL bullying scandal, (yes, KARD main vocal Somin was also APRIL main vocal Somin for a time, and the two girls had to continue dealing with the other undying rumor of them not getting along with each other. Fortunately, on June 22 last year, the group came back with the EP Re: (complete with teasers asking the question, “Do you RE:member KARD?” after all that has happened in the world, including that weird sound change in 2019) and the title track Ring the Alarm gave us KARD pre-2019, so yes, we remember KARD, all right. More of these and less of the suffocating beat drops in the future, juseyo!   

The good news with both groups, as we’ve already mentioned in the case of KARD, is that they are still active groups and therefore can still do some “damage control”. KARD has already reverted to their old sound that is not too beat drop-reliant and Weeekly can still be pretty much considered a rookie group, being only in the business for two years. May the odds be in their favor the next time they (or their companies) plan on implementing such huge risks!

Featured Image: Weeekly Official Twitter

In the world of 3rd generation K-pop acts, there’s not a lot that can compare to the confusion brought about by the question, “Why did Lovelyz fail?” By the time Lovelyz debuted, there was so much hype about them being INFINITE’s sister group from Woollim Entertainment, balanced with a lot of backlash brought about by member Jisoo’s sex scandal. But all in all, exciting times!

The promising start

Suffice it to say the group benefited from all the publicity, as their debut single Candy Jelly Love, despite being (subjectively speaking) one of the cringy-est debut songs in K-pop history, peaked at #48 in the Gaon singles chart. The girls continued their journey to a breakthrough with Hi and it didn’t even take long for them to finally get that breakthrough hit with Ah-choo, which sold more than 1.1 million units and pushed the group into the country’s collective consciousness.

As for Jisoo’s scandal, things turned out okay for everyone, especially Jisoo in the end. It started in a rather scandalous fashion, with an issue even Hollywood A-listers may have a difficult time surviving, more thriving. Right after Lovelyz’s debut, an SNS account posted pictures of her and Jisoo, claiming that Jisoo is bisexual and she was her girlfriend. This account went further by stating that Jisoo sexually and physically abused her. Things went wild as after days later, a number of other anonymous accounts made their presences felt, claiming that they (all of them are supposedly women) too were once romantically involved with the soon-to-debut girl group member. Woollim vehemently denied these claims and stood by their talent’s moral uprightness, issuing the standard Korean entertainment company statement that they will look into the matter further and pursue legal action when it is found out that there is malice behind these issues affecting their artist.

Jisoo was rather well-loved in the company and at the height of the scandal, Jisoo tried to resign from the group and the company altogether not once, not twice, but three times, all of which were rejected by Woollim, which continued to push the group while pretty much ignoring that ginormous elephant in the room. Poor girl had to be hospitalized with the emotional stress from the issue taking a toll on her mental and physical well-being.   It wasn’t until the following year, nine months after the initial stages of the scandal broke out and more than a year after the group debuted that it was found out that the “girl” behind the SNS that pioneered it all was not a girl, but a middle-aged man who concocted stories and doctored pictures he nicked from porn sites to besmirch Jisoo.

So, all’s well that ends well, right? It only took three releases for the group to break through the tough K-music market. But somehow, after Ah-Choo, things slowly went awry people wondered if Ah-choo was already Lovelyz’s peak and if that peak happened too soon in the group’s career. 

A sudden but inevitable rivalry

Then, for some reason, a series of unfortunate events unfolded for Woollim’s first girl group. After scoring another hit with Destiny, the group kept releasing songs that are above average at best and bland and boring at worst. WoW!, R U Ready?, Now, We, Twinkle, That Day, Wag-Zak, Lost N Found, Beautiful Days – all released one after another just did not do the group any favors. These songs may be on every Lovelinus’ playlist, but for casual k-pop listeners, any of these songs would not ring any bells. 

Around this time period, Oh My Girl, a group that debuted only five months behind Lovelyz, has also been building their discography with songs like Coloring Book, Secret Garden, Banana Allergy Monkey (featuring the group’s first sub-unit, Oh My Girl Banhana), Remember Me, The Fifth Season (SSFWL), and Bungee (Fall in Love).  The dynamic between these two groups is based on friendly competition, the way Fin.KL and SES, 2NE1 vs Wonder Girls vs SNSD, Beast vs Infinite vs B1A4, and Apink vs GFriend at the height of their “rivalry”. Both adapting the bright, girl-next-door concepts to perfection, check. Both supported by mid-sized entertainment agencies with some degree of success, check. However, what distinguishes the two groups from each other is while both stuck to their core concepts, girly for Lovelyz and dream-like fantasy for OMG, the latter took measures to tweak the songs such that they are distinguishable from each other. 

Coloring Book is, fast-paced as a song and, as expected, has a very colorful music video featuring the girls splashing paint on each other in a room floating in the sky (watch the music video if you don’t believe this description). Secret Garden is a wistful ballad with the trademark OMG music video featuring fantastic animals suspended in mid-air. Banana Allergy Monkey is the group’s attempt at the Orange Caramel market, so you get the picture of how silly the song and music video are.   Remember Me caught the attention of music reactors for its unusual format as it doesn’t seem to have a chorus. SSFWL harkens to the wistfulness of Secret Garden, while Bungee is as playful as the group’s previous releases like Coloring Book, Liar Liar, and their debut song Cupid. Meanwhile, all Lovelyz releases were the same mid-tempo songs about young love with music videos that utilize a pastel blush haze filter. When all of a group’s videos feature everything in sky blue, cyan, peach, seafoam green, and baby pink, things get pretty boring quickly. 

When the golden crown turned out to be plastic? 

And then, Queendom happened, which furthered the weird relationship between Lovelyz and Oh My Girl. Queendom was that show that fans saw will elevate the profiles of all participating groups, not just the winner and both OMG and Lovelyz joined the fun. Hosted by Mnet, check. Groups to receive the notorious Mnet evil edit, check, lots of special performances and stages, check. And when a challenge was given to the groups to interpret each other’s songs, the two groups happened to get assigned to each other. 

But while Oh My Girl bravely faced the assignment and promised to perform Lovelyz’s Destiny, Lovelyz backed out, citing that OMG’s girl next door concept is too close to theirs, so it would not present them with a real challenge as they wish to display other sides of themselves in the competition. Since they won a previous challenge that allowed them to choose another song from any group (even those performed by groups outside the competition), they respectfully declined the chance to interpret an OMG song and instead opted to do their version of Brown Eyed Girls’ Sixth Sense. 

This did not sit well with people. AT ALL. 

1. The arrogance! How rude it was for Lovelyz to ride a high horse and claim their superiority over a group they are basically on the same level with by refusing to sing that other group’s song. Who do they think they are? Isn’t that the group that debuted with a bisexual member? 
2. Why are they biting the hand that feeds them? The group basically relied on the bright and girly concept throughout their careers so far, so what makes them think that they’re already way above that concept? That’s some ungrateful behavior, thinking the sweet and innocent concept of Oh My Girl is so beneath them.
3. Brown Eyes Girls? Sixth Sense? Are they typing their hand on career suicide? Do these girls think they can successfully embody the fierceness of Narsha and Gain? Is Lovelyz’s rapper as good as Miryo? Can their vocalists even be half as good as JeA? How are they supposed to be that representative fierce unapologetic girls of K-pop when Woollim has imprisoned them in a world of pastels, rainbows, and unicorns? 

Lovelyz’s defenders were quick to point out that:

1. They are not arrogant. On the contrary, they opt to not sing Oh My Girl’s song because they know precisely that when it comes to executing the bright and sweet image, their “rival” group is way better and that they will pale in comparison. Besides, this is a contest and if there’s an option that presents them with a better chance of surviving, then who are they to refuse?
2. Queendom can be a vehicle for the group to present itself in a different light. That the girls have gotten stuck in their perfect girly dreamworld throughout their careers so far has also earned them a fair share of haters and people who find them just plain boring, so why shouldn’t they use Queendom as a platform to showcase their versatility and ability to execute concepts that may allow them to flourish as confident artists?
3. They are not trying to copy BEG. They should be presenting a stronger image for Lovelyz but still infuse their performance with that distinct Lovelyz brand of girl-next-door dreaminess. 

Oh, if only it were that easy. Alas, the stars may have permanently misaligned when it comes to the group in their participation in Queendom. Lovelyz’s performance of Sixth Sense was watered down to ensure its airing on Mnet. It was said that there were some portions of their original stage that was too risque to be even aired on the Korean cable TV. So, it was Mnet that actually tweaked some portions of the performance, which in turn resulted in what looks like Lovelyz not really getting into the concept and presenting a half-hearted performance instead. 

Thus, it seemed that because of factor(s) beyond their control (Mnet “sabotaging” their performance), haters claimed that their points 2 and 3 became justified. Lovelyz just couldn’t hack a fierce concept and would have been better had they just stuck to their girly concept. People concluded that they got a bit too ambitious in executing a fierce concept, they were in way over their heads when they thought they could wing a BEG stage just like that (NOBODY, not even legendary groups like SNSD, 2NE1, or Wonder Girls can execute a BEG concept properly), and that they bit more they could chew.

To hammer the final nail to Lovelyz’s coffin, Oh My Girl performed one of their signature songs,  Destiny, to resounding success, eventually becoming one of Queendom Season 1’s most watched and iconic stages. What Oh My Girl did was turn the cosmic but still girly Destiny ala Lovelyz into a cosmic but eerie, historical, etheral, and full on dramatic Destiny ala Oh My Girl. Lovelyz’s song was, in real estate terminology, “flipped” in such a drastic manner that if you are just a casual music fan who has never heard of the original Lovelyz version, you’d think that the song is really some traditional folk song performed by women in hanboks in the 19th century. It even prompted AOA’s Seolhyun to react while watching the performance with, “Is that song really sad,” alluding to Lovelyz’s rather bright approach to an actual sad song, if we’re just talking about the lyrics. 

And in all their barefoot glory, Oh My Girl has upset Lovelyz again. But to be fair to Lovelyz, they loved OMG’s version of their song, threw tons of praise to the performance, and said they felt “honored” and “appreciated” OMG’s version a lot.  But then, the haters brought up the earlier point again, saying that actually, both groups can “flip” each other’s songs successfully, so it raises the question of why Lovelyz had to be so rude to OMG by refusing to remake their song and opted to do an overly ambitious Brown Eyed Girls remake, which ended up with the group falling flat on their faces. Had they been humbler, they might have given Remember Me or Closer the Lovelyz treatment, just like Oh My Girl giving Destiny the Windy Day treatment. 

The challenge ended up with Oh My Girl getting first place and Lovelyz getting 4th place, only a few points ahead of Park Bom and last place (G)-IDLE. Bu that didn’t end there. The amount of Lovelyz hater went on full throttle as “fans” of the show demanded that the arrogant group be given 6th place. The hate Lovelyz got became shocking when a petition was sent to the Blue House demanding for their disbandment. You might think, “What? Over a concept mistake? Isn’t this an overreaction?”” Well, you’re not alone in thinking that.

The petition did not fall through as there were less than 200,000 people who signed the petition, but suffice it to say the group’s disbandment may not really have been the primary objective of the original petitioners. Obviously, the seed of the idea that the group was hated was already planted in the public’s consciousness, so much so that when something bad does happen to the group afterwards, people would instantly react that they’re not really surprised. It’s pretty much the origin story of every public figure that’s hated/cancelled for the flimsiest of reasons.

The “what were they thinking” comeback and Mijoo’s popularity explosion

 With the unexplained hate the group somehow collected during and immediately after the airing of Queendom (the group ended up 4th overall, but it’s not like the contestants that ranked after them, namely AOA and Park Bom, had Blue House petitions demanding for their banishment from the Korean music industry), the company may have deemed that the group should lie low for a bit andf let the public “hate” subsude befire they stage a comeback. Thus, the group was not able to capitalize on the hype the show provided, which in hindsight they should have, because despite that Sixth Sense enable and the suceeding events, they still ended up 4th, which was higher than two other acts and may mean that there were still more people rooting for them than those wanting them to disband or disappear from the music biz altogether. 

As the winner of the show, MAMAMOO hit the ground running by staging a comeback days after the show’s last episode. Runners-up Oh My Girl staged a Japanese comeback in January the next year and waited only for close to five months to stage their comeback, and what a comeback indeed as they finally got their breakthrough hit with Nonstop. Lovelyz sat out most of 2020 maybe because of the increased hate and the pandemic and only came back on September with Obliviate from the EP Unforgettable. 

While any Lovelyz comeback was welcome to Lovelinus and even to casual K-pop fans by this time, what confused the fandom was a concept change for the group. The music video and of Obliviate and the concept photos of the Unforgettable EP showing a more sophisticated, darker,  and mature image reminiscent of latter CLC and Cosmic Girls. Before you say, “Isn’t it time for the group to mature in their concept,” here’s my reply to you “Wasn’t the group severely criticized because of their overly ambitious transition to a darker concept in Queendom?” 

Seriously, why would you go ahead with a move that was a leading cause of people hating on you the last time? Moreover, there was no transition from the last comeback to this current dark visual concept. Beautiful Days, the last song they released prior to their Queendom participation did introduce us to a more mature spound and less cutesy lyrics and rhythms, but it was still given the pastel Lovelyz treatment – from the art direction of the Once Upon a Time EP to the Beautiful Days treatment. Were we meant to understand that the Sixth Sense stage was the transition Woollim provided for everyone to accept the impending graduation of Lovelyz to a mature concept? Why did it feel like Woollim got selective amnesia with what that “attempt” at a concept change result in? Truly, a headscratch moment in K-pop history. 

From Kei and Friends to Mijoo and Friends?  

From the moment Lovelyz debuted, that member who just somehow was effortlessly popular and set herself a bit separate from the other members was Kei. In the now-infamous MLBPARK annual poll of 2016, Kei found herself ranked 2nd for the Bullpen Goddess (Bulldess), beaten only by Olympic skating goddess Kim Yuna. The annual poll is a poll that asks the most basic question for men: Who is the ideal woman for you. Apparently, only after a year since the group debuted, Kei already got the attention of Korean men since she is basically the living ideal girl for them. Kei is small, thin, is an aegyo machine, cute, possess a milky white complexion, has an adorable eye smile, obedient, young, innocent, virginal, neotenic and unquestionably of pure Northeast Asian ancestry. Her amazing vocal talents and entertainment personality charms should also work for her. 

All was well and status quo in the Lovelyz world until circa 2018, when Mijoo broke free from her own shadow and somehow came undone. For their Sanctuary comeback in late 2018, Mijoo would catch the attention of photographers and fans stationed in TV station entrances and parking lots, as the arriving groups would usually form their lines, greet the public and pose for “firing squad” photos of them in a single file, bowing and waving at the shutterbugs. Then, out of the blue, after the prerequisite single file photo, Mijoo, usually wearing some attention-grabbing wide-brimmed hat and eyeglasses would break out of the line and strike poses like she’s in a magazine photoshoot. At the starter, you can see the members having a laugh at it, but then, even casual onlookers can sense that maybe there’s a tinge of “oh, here she goes again” when Mijoo suddenly breaks into her fashion model persona. Alas, soon enough, you can see in the viral videos and YouTube compilations that the fotogs and the fans were already anticipating her arrival and her ensuing antics such much that they wait for her to be alone or come in last so that they can take pictures of her and her alone. 

Mijoo used this newfound attention to her benefit, allowing her to get numerous variety show appearances. As with what has happened to Momoland’s Joo-E and Seventeen’s Seungkwan, Mijoo carved for herself a very lucrative career on TV as one of the most sought-after a variety show personalities. Alas, casual fans who knew her post-2018 would be surprised to know that she is an idol, much more a member of an actively promoting girl group. Her individual popularity may have caused a noticeable increase in Lovelyz’s profile, but it would be foolish to say that this popularity surge did not affect the other members at all, especially when the group started to be known as “Mijoo and friends.”

Alas, the proverbial excrement hit the fan when all except one member of the group opted to not renew their contracts with Woollim Entertainment. All seven members who have since signed with other entertainment companies have stated that they are still amenable to working with Woollim in the future as members of Lovelyz, but with Mijoo’s often-packed calendar and the fact that only Sujeong (FKA Baby Soul) is still with Woollim, realistically speaking, it would take tremendous effort for Lovelyz to stage activities as a group. To think that it took five years for Girls’ Generation to return as a complete group when you are only dealing with 13 entities (8 individuals + SM Entertainment + Tiffany’s Korean agency + Tiffany’s international agency + Sooyoung’s agency + Seohyun’s agency)! The efforts it would take to get a consensus out of sixteen entities (eight individuals plus eight agencies that represent them individually) can only be described as collosal. But there’s comfort in knowing that there isn’t a lot of bad blood among the girls. Here’s hoping it won’t take so long for Lovelinus’ wishes of a full group comeback to come true.     

Featured Image: Lovelyz Official Twitter

Don’t you get frustrated when you see some idols being wildly popular but not the same can be said about the groups they are part of? If you don’t understand what I mean, here are three examples: 

Rowoon, Chani and SF9

Kim Seokwoo, more popularly known as Rowoon, has been on a roll as far as his acting career is concerned. While he started his TV appearances just like anybody else, that is by doing bit roles and cameos, he finally got his big break as a lead in the webtoon-turned-drama series Extraordinary You. Since then, Rowoon has furthered his popularity on TV with plum roles in successful series such as She Would Never Know, The King’s Affection, and Tomorrow, with the latter two earning him household name recall and it seems there’s no stopping his momentum. The same cannot be said of his group’s trajectory, though.

Rowoon is a part of SF9, FNC Entertainment’s first legit boy group (as opposed to bands such as CNBlue, N.Flying, and FT Island which the company has successfully launched), a group, which despite having a couple of very popular members, having very interesting concepts and releases, and having the adequate amount of push and support from its company, just couldn’t seem to catch a break. Their songs do appear on the national charts, but they are usually outside the top 100. It wasn’t until four years after debuting that they won their first music show trophy, and their albums have only sold roughly around 100,000 – 300,000 copies. This is okay for most boy groups, but for a group that has been in the business for more than six years already, not to mention that two of their members are regularly seen on TV (Rowoon and SKY Castle’s Chani), the figures should be at least around 300,000 up, not 300,000 down. 

Consider this: Seventeen, a group that only has a year’s worth of headstart from SF9 and has zero members who act (the only visible member of the group outside of idol activities is Seungkwan who does regular variety show appearances), averages a million units sold for their releases since 2019. Their latest album, Face the Sun, has sold more than 2 million units. And they have to work under one of the most incompetent companies in the business, Pledis while playing second fiddle to BTS, whose parent company HYBE absorbed Pledis in 2020. With CNBlue and FT Island being legacy groups and Cherry Bullet being a girl group (AOA was given sufficient support while being successful at the same time as CNBlue), SF9 shouldn’t, and in fact, doesn’t have problems related to company support. So, it is a conundrum as to why the public (both Korean and international) has not majorly caught on to such a talented group. 

And to get your head scratching more:  Rowoon was not included in SF9‘s promotions for their eleventh EP, The Wave OF9, which was released on July 13 last year. This was allegedly due to scheduling conflicts, where Rowoon was too busy filming that he didn’t have time to practice his with the group. As FNC knows the schedule of their talents, it is mind-boggling how they wouldn’t know how to work around those schedules and make Rowoon available for the group’s comeback. Like come on, he is your company’s moneymaker and the most popular member of the group. Is there no such thing as workforce planning in Korea?

Cha Eunwoo and Moonbin of ASTRO

Here’s another idol who cannot seem to pull up the profile of his group. Cha Eunwoo, legendary face genius, and owner of Korea’s most perfectly symmetrical face is someone practically everyone knows. Even if you don’t listen to K-pop, there’s Rookie Historian Goo Hae-ryung, Gangnam Beauty, and True Beauty which featured Mr. Cha’s beautiful mug. Thousands of words have been dedicated to how otherworldly ideal Cha Eunwoo’s appearance is, so let’s not add any more, yes? 

Like Rowoon, the thing about Eunwoo is that despite him being overly popular, his group, Astro, doesn’t seem to have reaped its positive effects. I mean, for someone to be that popular to the point that both men and women are astounded by your beauty, it wouldn’t be that far-fetched for similar amounts of popularity to be present in your group as well, right? But just like Rowoon, Eunwoo’s popularity hasn’t translated into the group. It just seems that people have adapted separate mindsets towards Eunwoo and Astro and don’t really see a direct relation between them. They may like Eunwoo and his perfect face and his improving acting skills, but they just don’t automatically remember him as an idol who releases songs with his group.  

Even with another member emerging in popularity, Moonbin, the group is still somewhat underperforming. The album sales are still averaging 300,000 units per release, which, as also mentioned earlier with SF9, isn’t that bad. But then, considering that THE face genius Cha Eunwoo is a member of Astro, one would expect album sales to be at least half a million on average. 

What a lot of people feel about Astro is that Eunwoo is not really pushed as a member of the group and instead zealously promoted as an actor. Many speculate that the company is caught in a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation wherein people will be up in arms against Fantagio no matter the situation, as they will be ridiculed for not promoting Eunwoo enough as an Astro member and at the same time, will also be ridiculed for unfair treatment, favoritism, or overly relying on their “cash cow” should they push Eunwoo too much. 

The thing is, things are the way they are. The sad reality is that Eunwoo is crazy popular and Astro is lagging behind. And if this continues, Astro will be immortalized in K-pop history as being one of those groups with very popular members in an underachieving group, in the company of groups like ZE:A, pre-PD101 NU’EST, and girl groups like Dal Shabet and LABOUM who did not capitalize on their popular members for the group’s cumulative gains. 

Byungchan and Seungwoo of Victon 

Victon, a group under IST Entertainment (formerly A Cube, Plan A, Play M Entertainment, yes, they’ve changed their company’s name four times already), which has Apink and Weekly in their talent stable, is also one of those groups that have been underperforming despite having popular members. IST, with their competence in making Apink one of the industry’s top girl groups, however, seems to be on its way to being another Pledis (of NU’EST and After School fame, not of SEVENTEEN, who are basically self-producing idols and are now reaping the benefits of getting absorbed by HYBE). First, it has lost Son Naeun as one of Apink’s members.  Then, Apink’s 10th-year celebrations became rocky as the company couldn’t seem to put a fitting conclusion to Park Chorong’s bullying issues. Then, Weekly, which experienced viral success with their song After School, has been undergoing a rough patch with a member leaving and a weird concept change. Alas, Victon has also been on a rather prolonged popularity plateau and the company seems to be clueless about how to deal with it. 

Victon, just like NU’EST post-PD101 Season 2 era, seemed to have gotten a new lease on life after a number of the group’s members participated in Produce 101. While everyone in NU’EST except one (Aron) joined the second season of the show; two members of Victon, Seungwoo, and Byungchan, participated in the show’s fourth season, which unfortunately was also the last. As the contest went on, Seungwoo, who was struggling a bit at the start despite being the brother of an ex-idol (Secret’s Sunhwa who also happens to be in the hit drama Work Later, Drink Now with Seungwoo’s company-mate Apink’s Jeong Eunji), caught up with Byungchan’s popularity, and on the episode before the final line-up of the show’s project group would be revealed, Byungchan pulled out, claiming to be injured. 

Seungwoo eventually became one of the members of the show’s project group X1, which despite its tremendous promise, disbanded after only six months after it was revealed that the group’s composition was subject to the manipulation of a couple of the program’s producers who apparently accepted bribes from the companies of the trainee contestants. The public was mostly convinced that Seungwoo was not among the ones that got into X1 because of vote padding, so when he got back to Victon while also debuting as a solo artist, the group’s popularity was elevated, exactly as what happened with NU’EST W and NU’EST after Minhyun’s return after his time with Wanna One. 

But then, just like NU’EST, it seems that VICTON’s breakthrough was short-lived as they haven’t sustained the momentum they’ve gotten courtesy of the raised profiles of Seungwoo and Byungchan. The former’s solo efforts have gotten encouraging results, with his first two EPs selling more than 70,000 copies each and his two singles charting in Gaon. On the other hand, Byunghan’s acting career has taken off with the three high-profile shows that he has been part of – Live On (with Minhyun of NU’EST), The King’s Affection (with Rowoon, someone we talked about earlier), and Business Proposal (with fellow PD101 alumna Sejeong) all receiving considerable success.  

Alas, observers have also noted that another member, Chan has the looks and charisma to make it big on TV. But alas, bad luck struck the group again when Chan left the group after figuring in drunk driving incidences. So, now, if only time speeds up so that Seungwoo can rejoin his group and have Byungchan do more TV work while both still being clearly identified as members of Victon, then maybe the group can really solidify its presence, eh? 

Here’s to SF9, Astro, and Victon getting more recognition like their most popular members in the coming years! 

Featured Image: Victon Official Twitter

A concept change can prove to be a huge risk for a lot of groups, not to mention their companies. But as with anything else, huge risks, if executed properly and with a huge dose of luck, can yield huge pay-offs as well. Not convinced? Here are three groups that prove this point. 

Apink

The eternal fairies of the K-pop world, they’re one (if not the only) of the few K-pop girl groups that maintained a fairly sweet and innocent girl-next-door image that harkens first generation K-pop groups like Fin.K.L and SES. Actually during the second generation of k-pop groups, the girls actually all start off adapting the sweet and innocent image, as we talked about earlier with Girl’s Day. And as we also mentioned earlier, most girl groups “graduate” into something more relatable to audiences – in other words, trendy. And in this generation, groups like EXID, AOA, and Girl’s Day hopped on to what was then the fad among girl groups, the sexy bandwagon. 

Apink proved different. They clung to the innocent concept throughout much of their careers and were rewarded for it. Actually, there were a few breaks in their adherence to their bread-and-butter concept – their 5th single, Hush, was definitely not the same saccharine image their girls have presented so far from Mollayo to April 19th, their first anniversary single. There was also LUV, which up to this day has maintained the record for being the girl group song with the most music show wins at 17, a song about a girl longing for her gone love. Now, what’s so sweet and innocent about that? 

But even with the subtle changes concept-wise of these songs, it cannot be denied that there’s still that wholesomeness that is distinctively Apink. That the group’s forte is really with the sweet and innocent was fortified when they released the mellow and in American radio terminology, the adult-contemporary sounding Only One, which severely underperformed, only for the group to return to form in the Korean music charts with the overly catchy Five, which can also be described as, you guessed it right, sweet and innocent, complete with cakes, ribbons, and filters in pastel colors on the song’s music video.  

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#Apink Dilemma's first anniversary is coming up, I'm not ready. pic.twitter.com/2BEXvkMxPL

— Legendary Apink (@LegendaryApink) January 16, 2023

Thus, Apink was faced with the dilemma (a bit of a pun) after their seventh anniversary whether they should forge on with their teenybopper image even when the members are already in their mid-20s and critics are already dismissing them as monotone. The girls took a gamble with 2018’s I’m So Sick, which ushered in a new era of still catchy but more sophisticated concepts for the group. While this reportedly had a lot of k-Pandas leave the fandom, this concept change was also how the group was introduced to a new generation of fans that were already more accustomed to more “aggressive” concepts being pushed by groups like Red Velvet, ITZY, and Blackpink.   

I guess you win some, you lose some, right? In the case of Apink, it was you lose some, you win a lot, as their succeeding releases, Eung Eung (%%) and Dumhdurum, which had the group fully transitioned to the mature/elegant concept trajectory, continued the group’s success, with the latter topping the Melon charts, a feat Apink last achieved in 2015 with Remember.   

BTS

You read that right. On the road to being the most famous musicians in the world and the 21st-century version of The Beatles, BTS was on the brink of nugu-dom. Some attributed this to a number of factors such as not having a viral hit in Korea, not coming from the big 3 (JYP, YG, SM), not having a famous member before their debut, being pitted against SME’s EXO which definitely put all other groups including BTS in the dust, not having big TV or variety show personalities, and not coming from an audition show, which for a time, was the most popular way to introduce the Korean public to a group (from Twice to Winner, iKon, and Wanna One, even Momoland, remember?).  But then, related to the first reason and perhaps the most popular theory of BTS’ lack of a breakthrough in the Korean market are those depressingly angry songs. 

The boys since their debut adhered to this angry, anti-establishment, angsty, bordering on emo image that obviously was not a hit with the Korean public. No More Dream, We are Bulletproof pt.2, N.O, Boy in Luv, Just One Day, Danger, War of Hormone – the first two years of the group showed their enormous talents as composers and performers, but seriously, who wanted to be bombarded with the issues and disappointments of youth when you have the boys from SM Entertainment declaring they want to growl to protect their girl at one moment and asking their girls to Call Me Baby the next?  

Two songs released one after the other changed BTS‘ image and fate for eternity. I Need U and Dope, from The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, Part 1 turned the boys from angry young men to dreamy guys the world (and soon, Korea) would readily embrace. In I Need U, the feeling was more longing for a girl and less about anger at societal norms. In the music video, the boys use less black and were even filmed with a dreamy (read: hazy) filter and not in stark black with boys in man-liner. More of the boys hanging out in abandoned rail carts and gas stations. Obviously, the MV still showed the boys setting things on fire, crying, and stabbing each other, but everything was somehow lighter, as even these starkly violet were interspersed with shots of the boys enjoying a joyride, throwing french fries at each other, and laughing. The Korean public started taking notice, with the song peaking at number 5 in the Gaon (now Circle) singles chart. 

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Yes, 2013 was 10 years ago.

No, we’re still not over these iconic songs from that year:

‘I GOT A BOY’ – Girls’ Generation
‘Growl’ – EXO
‘What’s your name?’ – 4Minute
‘No More Dream’ – BTS
‘첫 사랑니 (Rum Pum Pum Pum)’ – f(x)

— Spotify ❤️ K-Pop (@SpotifyKpop) January 13, 2023

On the other hand, the boys finally got their viral hit, not in Korea, but internationally, though the music video for Dope. While the song still had the trademark youth angst, international audiences who didn’t understand a word of Korean (apart from the lines “I don’t wanna say yes,” “I gotta make it,” and “higher higher,” among others) were smitten with the choreography of the MV, particularly in the chorus where the boys, dressed up in different uniforms, danced in perfect sync, which at that time was an alien concept among international music fans. Soon, content creators (read: “video reactors”) were caught in the hype of these Korean boys dancing so sharply it can cut you from your phone screen, and slowly but surely, we witnessed the birth of international sensations.  

Suffice it to say that the change from the all-black, eyeliner era to a less angry and more relatable image for the Bangtan boys did them tremendous favors. Just like Apink, even with this image/concept change, BTS has somehow been successful in carrying a distinct flavor in their music through the years. If it’s a continued sense of wholesomeness for Apink even with their elevated sophistication, it’s the exuberance of youth for BTS (always alluded to their songs and album concepts), although nowadays, they’ve expanded their range to include loss and freedom as well, not just societal pressures as mirrored in their early years. When the group decides to reconvene for a complete group release maybe five years from now, shall we anticipate another concept change, this time to adulthood and their experience in transitioning from a group with members in their 20s to a group with members in their 30s? We cannot wait!

Dreamcatcher

Now, this is a tricky one. That’s because Happyface Entertainment (a company not a stranger to concept changes with their former group Dal Shabet) not only changed the concept and sound with Dreamcatcher, they actually re-debuted an entire group. Like starting all over again, tabula rasa, clean slate. So, you may say, is that a bit of a cheat since the company “created” an entirely new group? Not at all, since the old group had the same members, so what they did was change the name, changed the group’s image/concept, and sound. Thus, in relation to the group, it is really a concept change, and then some. 

So, for new K-pop fans that know Dreamcatcher from the start as a group that has released rock tracks and now questioning when the group actually had a concept change, here’s a quick fact: They did not actually debut as Dreamcatcher. In September 2014, Happyface debuted a new group named Minx on M Countdown with the song Why Did You Come to My Home. The following year, they released their first EP Love Shake, with a lead single of the same name. Even in the group’s promotions, the single (and therefore the group) was marketed as a “joyous song” that “goes well with summer”. Truth be told, it seemed that the company was just doing a bit of cost-cutting as Love Shake is only a remake of the song Love Shake from labelmate Dal Shabet‘s Bang Bang album. 

So yes, that was a blatant money-saving move from Happyface, which didn’t really do any favors for Minx as the song didn’t chart even with its bright and cheery concept. This was during the time Apink dominated the charts with their successive NoNoNo, Mr. Chu, and LUV releases, which goes to show that the Korean public still had a taste for bright and innocent girl group concepts. It just came down to the group executing them and if they were executed properly, I guess.    

So, with Minx‘s lackluster debut, Happyface deemed a massive reboot was in tow. After all, the company was not used to flopping this badly. Dal Shabet in 2011 sold close to 1.3 million units of their debut single Supa Dupa Diva. But then, what were they thinking, debuting a group by giving them a b-side of their established group? But then, I digress. 

In November 2016, the company revealed that Minx would re-debut under the name Dreamcatcher with two additional members, Handong and Gahyeon joining Minx members JiU, SuA, Siyeon, Yoohyeon, and Dami. The group re-debuted with the release of their single album Nightmare and its lead single Chase Me the following year. Suffice it to say the overhaul to a rock-based, anime opening/closing theme for the girls paid off, big time! 

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8 years ago, MINX debuted with "Why Did You Come To My Home?"#MINX #밍스 pic.twitter.com/bYtUjoKNdm

— that day in K-Pop (@thatdayinkrpop) September 17, 2022

Want proof? Dreamcatcher sold more than 142,000 units of their Apocalypse: Save Us album in the first half of 2022, close to 120,000 of their EP Apocalyse: Follow Us in the same year. Their latest MV for Vision released in October last year has raked in more than 21 million views on YouTube. The group still kills the post-apocalyptic RPG end-of-the-world concept on both the sound of the song and the music video and no other group (except maybe soloist AleXa) has ventured into this concept. This means Dreamcatcher has a monopoly on this niche image. And those record sales! More than 100,000+ copies sold by a girl group, not from the Big 4. A successful concept overhaul is an understatement, indeed!

See? Concept changes may be seen as risks, but when properly executed, can return big dividends to a group, not to mention the company that handled these changes. Stay tuned for concept changes gone horribly wrong, including one done by IST, which handled Apink’s chef’s kiss concept revamp. 

Featured Image Credit:  BTS Official Twitter

Whether he is your bias or not, it cannot be denied that Seventeen’s Seungkwan is hard to ignore. And if you are a Mr. Boo stan, here’s something to tickle your fancy and remind you, yet again, of some of our UB’s most iconic, meme-able, and adorable moments:

The Seungkwan alarm

On the very first episode of SEVENTEEN PROJECT in 2015, the members were shown waking up and starting their day. Seungkwan looked like he had a headstart and started waking up his members who were still hitting the snooze button. One of those members is vocal team leader Woozi, who fell victim to one of Seungkwan’s more clever ways of waking them up. Instead of sounding off the usual alarm sounds, Seungkwan attacked Woozi who was still lying in bed, with Dam Bi‘s Queen, which he sang along with an audio file:  “AYO LADIESS!!! THIS IS YOUR STORY!!! Ije wake up, wake up, wake up wa-wake up…”

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the "wooahae" alarm by boo seungkwan, cute 🥺🤍 pic.twitter.com/wEjYmWFYjb

— 쿱 (@seungcheol) September 28, 2021

It was not clear if Woozi did get out of bed, as Seungkwan transferred his energies into waking S.Coups. The leader had him in a headlock though, so it seemed he didn’t have time to sing his alarm song. 

When SVT Main vocal meets Apink main vocal…

We all know that even among Seventeen vocal team, the members who are considered the main vocalist of the group are down to two: Dokyeom and Seungkwan. With the master producing skills of Woozi, the sensitive vocals + English skills of Joshua, and the confusing concepts of Jeonghan (Is he an angel? Is he the devil’s incarnate?), the heavy vocal lifting, including the adlibs and vocal runs, are usually left with DK and our Boo. So, when S.Coups, DK, and Seungkwan, who were promoting their Pretty U comeback and Apink main vocal Eunji, who was promoting her debut solo single Hopefully Sky, met in Mnet’s karaoke room for the music channel’s Karaoke on Fire content, it was but natural for Mr. Boo to stage a duet with the Mr. Chu vocalist. 

At first skeptical of his abilities when they chose to sing 4men’s Live in the Memories, Eunji puts him at ease by complimenting SEVENTEEN’s popularity and inviting the two other members into the karaoke booth to cheer them on.

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what makes me cry up to this day is that seungkwan, dk and apink eunji sang the climactic part of this collab 💖 #승관 #도겸 #정은지 pic.twitter.com/UG9H4DnKAc

— boo archive | ♡ (@BOOARCHlVE) May 14, 2022

Seungkwan and Eunji traded off parts and harmonized towards the end of the song. The performance was so good that one would think that the impromptu performance was staged or rehearsed. But then again, it was a chance encounter that would leave anyone in awe of Seungkwan’s high notes, stable vocals, and ability to sing on the spot with the industry’s best. 

The tsunami in three acts

It is also a well-accepted fact that aside from being one of the main vocalists of Seventeen, Seungkwan is also known as a variety ace, which means he has the personality (read: the gift of gab) that makes him the perfect guest in variety and talk shows.  Whether it’s his non-stop talking skills, his natural banter with the hosts, or his bottomless reservoir of hidden skills and talents, trust Seungkwan to always make a guest appearance super memorable. 

Such was the case when in 2016, Seventeen were guests on the variety show Star Show 360 with hosts Super Junior’s Leeteuk and Tak Jaehoon. As his talent, he showed a parody of three reactions to an approaching tsunami. For the first scenario, he copies a male lead star upon seeing an approaching tsunami, screaming, “Oh my God, you’re so danger, you’re so danger. (sic)!” In the second scenario, he played a mom picking up her kid from nursery school when she sees a tsunami approaching. Mom Boo suddenly screams “Oh my God oh my god you’re so danger you’re so danger” in a panic while frantically picking up her daughter Jasmin, played by Jeonghan. Finally, in the third scenario, Boo plays a grandpa who has already lived a full and complete life, so he just accepts his fate when he sees a potentially lethal tsunami. 

This skit is so legendary that Seungkwan did it a couple of more times, once on Weekly Idol and another time on Amazing Saturday. And it just never gets old. 

Seungkwan loves his mom.

If there are two things Seungkwan is known to love so much, that would be his hometown of Jeju and his mom. In their debut concert when the group was introduced, Seungkwan practically cried a river when he saw that it was his mom who went up on stage to surprise him as all members had a family to cheer them on. In a show for Dino which featured him going home to Jeju, he discussed his trainee life and how he only had 4 days in his entire training period to see his mom. And, he had spent all of those days crying and hugging his mom because he missed her so much. 

In most variety shows, most members often joke about Seungkwan being a crybaby during award acceptance speeches and when he gets to meet his mom in events, but Carats will always understand and will always have a soft spot in their hearts for a momma’s boy.

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— d-12 #BOOday_KWANtdown #SEUNGKWAN @pledis_17

favorite song or cover? it will always be this cover, him singing "mom in the garden" by kim junho on mother's day and doing sign language. and the lyrics appearing above him, that is his handwriting :))pic.twitter.com/lzvaW55QAD

— april boo ʕ •⁠ᴥ⁠•ʔ (@ahbabiboo) January 4, 2023

Imitating Seungkwan will get you a high kick.

As mentioned earlier, Seungkwan is quite a master when imitating famous people. As part of his skills as a variety ace / master, from Yoo Ahin to Kim Hyuncheol, not a lot of celebrities have escaped Boo’s mastery of imitation. But when it comes to members imitating him, Seungkwan somehow refuses to be a sport about it. Most of the time, he’s a bit sensitive about it, almost always reacting in a (jokingly) negative way.

Seungkwan’s defensive reactions most usually get triggered when it is his Bookseoksoon unit co-member Hoshi who does the imitation. Hoshi is clone-level perfect when imitating Seungkwan’s shaky walk and bent wrists when pointing at something, while his right hand is busy holding a large glass of his favorite drink, an iced americano. Hoshi is also a master when copying Seungkwan’s emotional outbursts when he cries during awards acceptance speeches or when he recounts his difficult days as a trainee when he would miss his family, particularly his mom.  

And those imitations would usually merit Seungkwan strangling him or jumping to execute martial arts movie-style high kicks. Of course, we know that those reactions from Seungkwan are mostly in jest, but it is fun to see Boo acting sensitive when Hoshi imitates him to perfection. 

How Seungkwan always loses every single mafia game.

In all the years that Seventeen has released Going Seventeen, the group has somehow taken the mafia game to a whole new level. And on every staging of the mafia game, which for the purposes of GoSe, they have renamed to Don’t Lie, whether it’s the hidden treasure in the police station or the hotel or the house, Seungkwan always gets killed. Whether by the mafia who have realized that he’s on to something when it comes to his suspicions or because the ordinary citizens get suspicious of his usually defensive pleas, he always somehow gets cut. The worse part of it is, that he is almost always not a mafia member, so eliminating him usually means a step closer for the mafia to winning. 

But because Seungkwan is usually emotional and defensive when it comes to persuading his group members that he is not a mafia, then the mafia members usually take this as an opportunity to make him a suspicious character. For most of the episodes, it has been agreed by the members that the emotional players will usually lose the game since they act excessively defensive and thus, become suspicious. And because our Seungkwan fits the bill, it is usually a foregone conclusion that in Don’t Lie episodes, Seungkwan almost always gets eliminated.  

Alas, Seungkwan is also one of the most expressive members of the group. He freely speaks his mind, which is obviously a threat to the mafia members who don’t want to keep on ruffling feathers. Because he is always forthcoming with his observations, he always needs to be silenced. 

Seungkwan can be clumsy, too. 

It is known to all Carats that when it comes to clumsiness, it is Mingyu who takes the top position. It can be funny to think that someone as handsome as Mingyu can make things break or cause accidents even when he’s not moving a lot, or sometimes even when he is doing nothing at all.  But all SVT members are never spared of their butterfinger moments, not even sassy Mr. Boo. 

In a concert, there was a segment where The8 showed the audience his skills in nunchucks, being the amazing Chinese martial artists that he is. After displaying his skills, the two emcees, Seungkwan and Hoshi, interviewed him about his weapon, and for some reason, the nunchucks ended up in Seungkwan’s hands (a really scary event, if you ask me). Of course, our main vocal could not pass up the chance of looking cool with the implement he was holding, so he also did a couple of moves. He continued to play with the nunchucks until alas, the inevitable happened: One of the nunchuck’s  hit the back of his head. Good thing, it didn’t hit him hard, or his attempt at looking cool could have ended up in a bloody affair, with him being rushed to the hospital.

So, there you have it, folks, just seven of countless meme-worthy moments only coming from our eternally-sassy ray of sunshine, Boo Seungkwan. If you’re feeling down and you need some sassy Boo to pep you up, here’s another article on one of Boo Seungkwan’s struggles in life: the English language.

Featured Image credit: Official Seventeen Twitter