Category: FEATURES

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

While maknaes are known to be doted on by group members, there are also instances when they are regarded as very dispensable members who can just leave and not really make a difference. Here are three different cases of maknaes who have somehow struggled throughout their idol careers. 

INFINITE’s Maknae: Sungjong 

This one is not really serious at all. On the contrary, all Infinite members love their maknae Sunjong. For his part, Sunjong is every bit the maknae everyone expects him to be. He is super adorable, blessed with both a face and demeanor that doesn’t seem to age, and he is always there for his hyungs. Thus, it is no wonder Sunjong is the subject of intense doting from all the members. But as Infinite is one of those groups that couldn’t help but be very casual with each other, they always give each other the harshest treatment, one would think that they’re enemies if you don’t really know them any better. They love giving each other cutting comments (in jest, of course) and subject each other to very realistic and scary pranks. And in the case of the maknae, he gets ten times the smothering attention, ten times the pranks, and ten times the cutting comments. 

Since the start of each Infinite member’s social media account, all six members (including Hoya who was his roommate before the latter left the group) seemed to have understood SNS as the ultimate platform to make fun of their maknae. Each time Sunjong posts a picture which he claims in the caption showed his best angles and had great lighting, his hyungs would comment that it looks bloated or ask him what happened to his chin. In a number of instances, the members have taken it a step further by actually posting similar pictures of themselves imitating Sunjong’s posts, and parodying the maknae’s captions. There have also been a number of instances when the members would comment on their maknae’s fashions, usually comparing his clothes to food, like this incident when they compared Sunjong’s trenchcoat to an orange. 

Alas, who can forget the numerous instances when Sunjong was subject to intense ribbing in variety shows with his acting debut in Tonniverse where he said his iconic line, “When you have a lot of thoughts, [the solution] is lemon candy.” Even though he had other acting gigs after this, he will never bury the slight embarrassment from this career-defining moment, thanks in part to his members who somehow always make it a point to bring it up at every opportunity. 

But take note that Sungjong doesn’t take all this “attention” just sitting down. As much as he gets all this “bullying”, he also makes it a point to fight back and pull off antics with each of his hyungs. There was this one time that he kept on asking Sungyeol for favors like coming with him to events but often ends up accompanying his other hyung. Alas, when Sungyeol “exposes” the maknae’s mistakes on SNS, Sunjong retorts by saying he will never get tired of making Sungyeol mad. 

iKON’s Maknae: Chanwoo

The idol career of iKon’s Chanwoo has never been easy from the start. Most known as a child actor who appeared in K-dramas in the 2000s, everybody was a bit surprised when he suddenly appeared as an idol hopeful who joined Mix & Match, a reality competition that aimed to complete the line-up for iKON with new contestants plus a member of Team B, the group that only recently lost to Team A, which eventually debuted as WINNER in the program WIN: Who is Next. The entire TV audience saw with their own eyes how Team B’s leader, BI’s, expression dramatically changed from a smile to a scowl upon seeing Chanwoo enter the competition. In one of the show’s interviews, BI was quick to deny that he was not pleased particularly with Chanwoo and defended himself by saying he didn’t really dislike Chanwoo particularly. He said he was just not good with the idea that there would be more contestants that would compose iKON, as he was already very comfortable with his Team B members. Well, we saw what we saw. 

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JUNG CHANWOO of iKONpic.twitter.com/x2eGywC34W

— 𝚁𝚑𝚎 ¹³¹ 🆔 (@just_an_iKONIC) January 8, 2023

Anyway, Chanwoo was eventually selected as the final member of iKON at the expense of the other two contestant trainees, Jung Jinhyeong (who eventually debuted as solo rapper Jey) and Yang Hongseok (who went on to join CUBE and debut with PENTAGON). People who watched the show did remark that despite the two being more talented and outgoing than Chanwoo who was more awkward, it seemed that YG and the show’s producers have angled the show in his favor. Thus, with only his looks to contribute as he doesn’t have a lot going in terms of singing, dancing, and rap skills, his stable of haters was established. iKON debuted with relative success, but public sentiment towards Chanwoo remained lukewarm – he is a good-looking and sweet boy but doesn’t really contribute much to the dynamic of the group. 

Enter the “bullying” event of 2015, which resurfaced quickly after BI’s marijuana incident which caused him to leave the group. A live broadcast from 2015 has B.I allegedly “bullying” Chanwoo. In this broadcast, B.I was shown punching Chanwoo and snapping Chanwoo’s baseball hat off his head rather aggressively. The other members caught on camera seem uncomfortable with what was happening. Koreans pointed out that they almost look used to the situation and predicted there might have been a frequent bullying habit from B.I to Chanwoo.

There were parts of the broadcast that captured raw reactions from Chanwoo that showed him to seem actually hurt and offended by B.I’s actions. While at the time the video first became controversial, iKON clarified that such aggression is only a sign of affection and that the members are extremely close with each other, some Korean netizens didn’t buy it then and are not buying it now.

While Chanwoo has also been seen being the “evil” maknae through the years by fighting back and being mischievous towards his hyungs, it cannot be denied that he has been getting the shortest end of the stick when it comes to his career in iKON. He has never been highlighted, has never received the most lines in any song, and just usually comes off as a regular member who doesn’t give off unique charms. A lot of anti-fans have gone on to say that unlike BI’s departure from the group, there wouldn’t be much of a difference should Chanwoo be the one to leave the group as he doesn’t really contribute much. 

It seems that even after seven years, Chanwoo hasn’t really gotten himself a break and is still pretty much considered a filler rather than a major player in iKON. But then, with Chan reviving his acting career through the movie My Chilling Roommate, maybe we can finally witness the true blossoming of our maknae’s popularity. 

EXO’s Maknae: Sehun

Now, here’s a story of a maknae defying initial perceptions and making an actual mark not just in his group but in the K-pop landscape. When EXO debuted and when the group finally broke through popularity-wise via Wolf and Growl, let’s just say that like most maknaes, Sehun was not someone who had the attention of K-pop fans. Armed with killer looks and height, people were quick to dismiss EXO’s maknae as just another pretty face who didn’t really offer a lot when it comes to talent and overall charisma. Kai has dancing covered, the vocal line of Chen, Baekyun, and D.O is remarkable, and the Chinese members just ooze with charisma, leaving Sehun in the shadow of Chaneyol. See, Chanyeol is pretty much what Sehun is, and arguably more. Sehun is a rapper, and Chanyeol is as well, and arguably the better one at that. Sehun is tall, but Chanyeol is taller by two centimeters. Sehun is charismatic, but so is Chanyeol.  While it can be argued that Sehun’s dance skills are better than Chanyeol’s, Kai still reigns supreme in the department. 

It also doesn’t help that at the start, Sehun didn’t get that much exposure in EXO songs. Initially, it was reported that SM wasn’t particularly fond of Sehun’s speech patterns, as people noted he had a lisp. Later on, it was noted that he doesn’t have a permanent condition but rather only has a funny sound in his voice because he used to wear a lingual crib, which is a wire orthodontic device that’s supposed to help a person overcome the habits of thumb sucking and tongue thrusting. For us commoners, it’s pretty much like wearing braces. Apparently, our maknae has stopped wearing it and has since then improved on her diction and pronunciation. 

But then, a couple of incidents have involved Sehun in his career, including SM still giving him very little exposure in EXO songs and giving him rather silly parts like the iconically cringe-inducing) “Shawty, I’ma party till the sun down”. Is Sehun telling us he only parties until around 5:30 to 6 in the evening? How does that make sense? Does Sehun have buffet lunch parties for him to end his parties at sunset? 

And then, there’s that one issue handsome idols get plagued with: the gay “scandal”. From the start of his career, the issue Sehun’s sexual preferences have been the subject of much speculation. The wildest yet most popular of all these Sehun gay rumors went viral around 2017, with people pointing to him allegedly dating Chef Suke (Shawn E. Choi). The chef and restauranteur actually were initially known as a friend to both Sehun and Chanyeol, but for some reason, a lot of events around that time and IG posts of the chef only have Sehun, from him attending an EXO concert with a report of only the maknae leaving with him, Sehun’s birthday where the chef only posted a picture of the both of them without the other guests, a trip among “friends” to the Philippines that ended up with only the two of them, a number of EXO members attending the premiere of D.O’s movie, but Sehun sitting separately with the chef, among so many other incidences. Fans countered these rumors by claiming that Chef Sukle actually is married and has a family of his own. 

Sehun had to deal with these speculations again in February 2021, when someone on his Instagram Live asked out of the blue if he was gay. After reading the question, Sehun reacted by giggling and moving on to read the other questions. 

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This photo of Sehun had me gaping. He looked like a movie star. A successful and big one at that. Wowwww pic.twitter.com/88mpEu94bK

— mina | tinitigan ni xiumin nung BY2 baby ni yixing (@4ever9EXO) January 2, 2023

It seems that through the years, Sehun has learned to take all of the challenges in his career in stride.  Despite the rumors, it seems that his career not just as an idol, but as an entertainment industry personality has continually progressed. In EXO, he and Chanyeol have debuted the group’s second sub-unit, EXO-SC. On television, he has appeared in variety shows and has even acted alongside industry A-listers like Song Hyekyo and Jang Kiyong as well as in variety shows like Busted! and On Rent. He has even debuted on film via the Chinese release Catman in 2021. He had his first starring role in a Korean movie in The Pirates: The Last Royal Treasure with Kang Haneul and is set to appear in his first TV drama lead role in Everything That We Loved. 

While these three cannot be easily qualified as maknaes on top, their growth and popularity cannot be denied. Here’s to more activities and work for our three maknaes who couldn’t seem to catch a break. 

Featured Image: A picture of Sehun from EXO Official Twitter page

When an idol leaves his or her group, it is said that there are three sides to the story: the company’s official announcement, the idol member’s story, and the rumors and speculations brought to everyone by fans, anti-fans, and armchair analysts. The truth is somewhere in the middle, so in the meantime, let’s take a look back at four idols leaving their groups and what happened after.  

HyunA Leaving Wonder Girls

The “heard it through the grapevine” reason: Allegedly, Hyuna was having an affair with a male JYP artist who hadn’t debuted yet. The JYP (as in the guy who whispers his name at the start of every song he produces) found out about it and wouldn’t keep her in Wonder Girls. There were rumors that she became pregnant and had the pregnancy terminated which would have been something that JYP wouldn’t condone. The Hyuna incident was also the main reason why JYP dating rules are iron clad and has been strictly implemented on its idols from 2PM down to NMIXX and have never been relaxed, ever. 

The official reason: Since Hyuna was still a minor when she was a member of WG, her parents were the ones who requested for her contract to be terminated because of her health issues. Hyuna allegedly suffered from digestive tract problems, particularly gastroenteritis. 

The aftermath: Hyuna left JYP Entertainment only to resurface in Cube Entertainment a year (some argue it only took months) later to debut in 4Minute. Meanwhile, WG had a new rapper in Yubin who was sent from Good Entertainment.  

Sunmi Leaving Wonder Girls

The “heard it through the grapevine” reason: Sunmi bid farewell to her five members in February 2010 as soon as they returned to Korea after the Wonder Girls finished touring 50 cities in the US to promote their music. She said the busy schedule and losing appreciation for life were the reasons she decided to take a break from her career. People were quick to point out though that the attempt at having a breakthrough in the US didn’t really produce the desired results, which dealt a big blow to Sunmi’s pride. In other words, the group flopped in the US and Sunmi didn’t take the failure well.  

The official reason: JYP released a statement saying Sunmi needed to take time off from the group to fulfill her academic ambitions. 

The aftermath: We’ll never really know. But in an episode of Knowing Bros in 2017, Sunmi said, “If I was feeling that at a young age, I had a hunch that my career wouldn’t go very far in the long run. That’s why I needed time alone to reflect and think about what I really wanted to do. After leaving, I realized how happy I could be but also at the same time, envied the other members of Wonder Girls as they continued to perform and be active in the K-Pop scene.” 

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SUNYE IS AT THE SAME PLACE SUNMI WAS AT SHE JUST POSTED THIS ON HER STORY OMG WONDER GIRLS REUNION ???? pic.twitter.com/MxcWPh498D

— Yak 🍉 (@Yaksunn) January 10, 2023

Anyway, all’s well that ends well as Sunmi did re-join the group five years after withdrawing in 2010. Rather than a dance group, the Wonder Girls returned as a four-member band with each member playing an instrument, with Sunmi playing the bass. 

Yookyung Leaving Apink

The official reason: Representatives from A Cube (which later became Plan A, then Play M, before finally settling on IST, but who knows, we may have another name change later) said that Yookyung wanted to focus on her studies and getting a degree. But then, Naeun, Namjoo, and Hayoung were also still studying at that time, so…  

The “heard it through the grapevine” reason: The company that has changed names many times practically dodged a bullet on that one since Apink at the time of Yookyung’s departure wasn’t as big as they have become today, so not a lot of people were that invested in the group just yet. But then, when the group finally had their breakthrough from the No, No, No to Mr. Chu era, the topic of  Yookyung’s departure was revisited and everyone was blamed, from the girls allegedly bullying Yookyung to Cube allegedly kicking her out. Yookyung’s dad got involved in the matter in 2015, clearing the air, the girls, and Cube Entertainment. He said (rather, tweeted) that the girls were at the mercy of A Cube and would not have dared to misbehave. He also said that Cube Entertainment didn’t have anything to do with his daughter’s departure since A Cube was independent of Cube at that time. 

Which leaves A Cube/the company that has changed names many times as the remaining culprit of the incident. Understandably, Yookyung was the least popular member of the group and her dad was a very successful businessman, so reading between the lines of his tweets, the company might have asked him for “donations” should he wanted his daughter to remain in the group and failure to give financial assistance to the company would result in his daughter’s “dismissal”. Yookyung “left” the group, so we can safely conclude what happened there. 

The aftermath: Years later, on a Youtube channel that interviews people who had brushes with fame, Yookyung did clear up speculations of her departure from the group. She continues to be friends with the members (and ex-members, considering that Naeun has also left Apink this year) of the group, so any allegations of bullying should have already been discounted. Also, she said that she never wanted to leave, seeing as she was the member who had the longest training period before getting into the group and she thoroughly loved performing and music up to now. She also said that after her departure from Apink, she got offers to join other girl groups, but since she doesn’t want Apink‘s reputation to be besmirched, she opted to turn down those offers in the hopes of joining Apink in the future.  

So, yes, that practically leaves the “Mr. Hong versus the company that has changed names many times extortion theory” the only viable option. 

JinE Leaving Oh My Girl

The official reason: Shin Yejin, professionally known as JinE, had the longest training period among Oh My Girl members before their official debut in April 2015. She trained for four years starting April 2011. Since debuting, Oh My Girl JinE has been known for her short height and beautiful face. This is characterized by side-swept bangs. She is even compared to actress Han Jimin as many people say they look alike.

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JinE at Oh My Girl’s first concert! pic.twitter.com/A6Fgr77FhX

— JINE PICS 🐳 (@picshyejin) March 9, 2022

However, whenever JinE would present a healthier look during their comebacks, there would be fans who will point out that she had packed on pounds and looked unattractive. Meanwhile, there are also those who keep on pointing out to Jin-E that she is so thin to the point that it doesn’t look okay and it sets an unrealistic picture to young girls that they have to be that thin to be recognized. Poor girl was so confused that ultimately, she developed eating disorders. 

In 2016, WM Entertainment announced her hiatus from activities to focus on receiving treatment for anorexia nervosa. Due to her health issues, she did not participate in Oh My Girl‘s fourth EP Coloring Book. At the time the company announced her departure in 2017, Jin-E not only had physical concerns but also realized that the idol life may not be for her. 

The “heard it through the grapevine” reason: None, because in November 2017, Jin-E herself wrote a letter to her fans explaining her situation. She also wrote in her letter that she dreamt of becoming a singer for a long time. However, she had physical and psychological difficulties. She then said that she will return to her ordinary life as Shin Hyejin and try different things because she had realized that even though she loved singing and performing, the pressures of maintaining a physical appearance for the public was not something she could handle. 

The aftermath: Oh My Girl went on to succeed as a 6-member group, while Jin-E has returned to social media as a “regular citizen” and now appears to be healthy and happy, without the pressures of looking perfect. She is now a social media influencer who has been endorsing cosmetic brands on her Instagram page. 

Hoya Leaving INFINITE

The “heard it through the grapevine” reason, part 1: Here is one tale of an idol leaving his group that nobody really saw coming. In 2017, when it was time for the boys of Infinite to renew their contracts with Woolim Entertainment, speculations were rife that a certain member would not renew his contract and leave the agency, BUT would not leave the group. Because during that time, L aka Myungsoo was having so many acting projects, it was speculated that L will be looking for another agency that would promote the development of his acting career. Thus, the rumors that he may look for a separate acting agency while still continue promoting with Infinite as a member of the group.  

Alas, a bombshell was dropped among Inspirits when it was announced that Hoya will be leaving not just Woolim Entertainment but also Infinite. 

The official reason: Woollim’s official statement read, “With the exception of Hoya, INFINITE members Kim Sunggyu, Jang Dongwoo, Nam Woohyun, Lee Sungyeol, L, and Lee Sungjong have completed contract renewals. The agency is working on reorganizing as a six-member group, and we plan on actively supporting their group and individual activities as we are now. Lastly, we ask for your unchanging support for the futures of the six members of INFINITE and Hoya.”

The “heard it through the grapevine” reason, part 2: So, why did Hoya leave Infinite? Apologists initially speculated that the group’s main dancer never healed from his injuries and heart condition and that he didn’t want to burden the group with his personal situation, making him decide in the end that it would be better to leave the group.  But then, months later, Hoya would resurface in the music scene as a solo artist under Glorious Entertainment with the EP Shower and the single Angel. And he was still busting ’em main dancer moves, all right. 

Hoya himself admitted that it was more differences between him and Woolim Entertainment that caused his decision to leave the group. In an interview with Radio Star, he said, “The things that I wanted to do and what the company wanted to do were different, and the contract expiring happened to be around the same time, so I left.” 

He also claimed that his members already knew of his decision months before contract renewal season came. 

The aftermath: Hoya is still dancing and singing and has recently joined the popular “reality dance” competition Street Man Fighter. As of the moment, everyone except Woohyun has left Woolim, although all six still claim to be members of Infinite. 

Looking back, we have had so many idols quitting on their groups and so many stories behind these events versus what really happened, so stay tuned for more of these flashback stories soon!

Featured Image: Youtube Screengrab from Hoya’s single “Stay with me”

Today we shine the spotlight on the youngest members of some boy groups. While the common perception of maknaes is that they are quite disposable and not really that great in anything except dispensing a lot of aegyo, these maknaes prove everyone wrong. Excited to know who they are? 

BTS’ Jungkook

Well, fine, because there’s no better way to start a list of maknaes on top without naming the youngest member of the most popular Korean musical act these days. And Jungkook rightfully deserves the reputation of being the Golden Maknae. After all, he is arguably the most talented vocalist in BTS. 

Scrap that.

He is actually the most talented vocalist in BTS. When it comes to writing and producing, RM and Suga definitely take the cake, but JK is no slouch, having written and produced some songs that he recorded himself. When it comes to dancing, J-Hope and Jimin take the lead, but Jungkook isn’t far behind either. And he does have some rap skills, especially when the entire group has to perform J-Hope or Suga songs in their concerts. Yep, you’ll be amazed at how Jungkook can spew those rhymes with the best of them. Finally, when it comes to visuals, he is definitely one of the members who can stand toe-to-toe with Mr. Worldwide Handsome Jin. Besides, he’s above the group’s oldest member when it comes to athletic ability, as he has displayed quite the talent in running and archery in numerous ISACs. And do we really need to mention those flashes of toned abs we get blessed with during BTS concerts? 

Especially during the start of their careers, when BTS was still wading in nugu territory, it cannot be helped that the group’s maknae was subject to some microaggressions and awkward treatment by some entertainment industry veterans when he and some of the members guested in a number of variety shows. But Jungkook never figured in controversies involving disrespecting seniors in the industry and just continued to be the well-mannered, uber-talented idol that he was.

With the group’s announcement that they will be focusing on solo activities, it is speculated that Jungkook will be releasing more solo material in the coming years.

Shinee’s Taemin

Before Jungkook (and arguably, even with Jungkook around), nobody, and I mean nobody fits the bill of being called the “Golden Maknae” better than Shinee’s multi-hyphenate member. Taemin can practically do it all – sing with the best of them (and with Jonghyun (RIP), Onew, and Key in the same group, he sure had to prove his singing mettle), exude charisma as expected of any artist from SM Entertainment, and above all, maintain his position as the ultimate dancing idol. I mean, seriously, who can even pull off unimaginable concepts such as androgyny like Taemin and still attract fans of all sorts from different generations and even sexual preferences?  His solo releases and accompanying music videos have been highly lauded and considered performance art. Seriously, you cannot watch a Taemin music video or performance video without holding your breath at the sheer beauty of the choreography and his masterful execution. He always knows how to combine the right amounts of power and gracefulness in his moves. 

Witness for yourself the brilliance of the second gen’s Golden Maknae in gems such as his first and only performance in the dance variety competition Hit the Stage, where he ranked first for his and partner Koharu Sugawara’s adaptation of his Japanese song Sayonara Hitori. Of course, there are the music vides of his hit songs Danger, Drip Drop, Press Your Number, and 2017’s Move, which has somehow become his signature song and a full manifestation of his now-popular androgynous mage. 

Taemin is currently just a year over his mandatory military service, but there was a bit of concern earlier this year when SM Entertainment announced that he has transferred from being part of the military band to being a public service officer because of depression and anxiety attacks. We wish Taemin strength for the remainder of his duty, not to mention countless Shawols who are eagerly anticipating your comeback next year! 

Super Junior’s Kyuhyun

Now, here is the embodiment of a golden and evil maknae rolled into one. From the start, Kyu  had a huge headstart in his idol career, having only trained for a few weeks before getting included in Super Junior. Members of Super Junior who were already at ease with the lineup they had for Super Junior 05 with Ryeowook (who also had a very fast road to idol-dom, having joined SJ05 only weeks after getting accepted into SM) as the maknae got a bit insecure as to why a relatively fresh recruit will now suddenly join their group at the expense of other trainees (e.g. Minho who was eventually selected for Shinee and Suho who had to wait for years before finally getting picked for EXO). But then, all it took was for them to listen to the unicorn voice of Kyuhyun, and everything’s understandable. 

Super Junior’s maknae is the perfect missing piece to complete Super Junior’s vocal line, which is perhaps one of the most well-matched vocal lines in K-pop. While in other groups, you may hear two or three very capable main vocalists, a lot of them happen to sound alike. With the three SJ vocal kings, things are mind-boggling-ly and astoundingly distinct. Yesung has the strong and husky voice, Ryeowook has the strong and high-pitched belting voice, and Kyuhyun has the strong and cool-as-a-cucumber tone. And when you combine the three, you will be convinced that perfection exists. 

https://youtu.be/DidV7iC3Yb4

Kyuhyun has had a pretty solid career as a soloist, having released a good number of solo releases and OST contributors, as he is known as the male Taeyeon, being one of the most, if not the most in-demand and successful male OST artists. He may not be known as the Super Junior’s best dancer at the level of  Eunhyuk and Shindiong, but he always champions his role as one of the front dancers during the dance break of Bonamana as proof of his dancing skills. Finally, Kyu’s biting wit and sassy humor have also allowed him to be regularly cast in talk and variety shows, his longest stint being one of the regulars of Radio Star, where he went head-to-head with the renowned unapologetic TV personality Kim Gura. For those who miss his distinctly borderline evil retorts, there’s always his KYUHYUN YouTube channel, which as of press time already has 78 videos and close to 600,000 subscribers. That’s more subscribers for lesser videos than Worldwide Star Heechul’s YouTube channel! 

Beast / Highlight’s Dongwoon

Even with the original lineup of six members, a closer look at them and you won’t suspect who the maknae is. Chances are, people would usually pick the main vocal Yeoseob as the maknae, with his petite stature and literally small face. But once everyone’s birthday is revealed, it is quite surprising that the group’s tallest and most mature-looking member, Dongwoon also happens to be the youngest. As he was born on June 6, 1991, that puts him a year and three months younger than the next youngest Highlight (and Beast) member, Gikwang, who was born in March 1990. 

But because of his height and movie star looks, Dongwoon has not really been considered the group’s maknae ever since, although his off-stage behavior is more playful and less serious compared to the group’s former main rapper Jonghyun and leader Doojoon. But then, his gentle giant demeanor actually makes him closer to the group’s fake maknae Yeoseob, while his fitness obsession has identified him as close to the group’s beastly member Gikwang. Until he deactivated his Instagram account before he entered the military and before Jonghyun got embroiled in the illegal video scandal, Dongwoon treated followers to photos and videos of his gym activity, which really made people doubt if he was the youngest in the group because of his well-developed physique. 

Take note though, that even if Dongwoon’s visuals are the most inclined in the group to star in television dramas, it has been Doojoon (who can forget the iconic Let’s Eat series) and Gikwang (as early as 2009 in High Kick Through the Roof) who have acted. It wasn’t until 2021 when Dongwoon finally had his first web series lead role in The Guys I Want to Catch with Teen Top’s Neil, Pentagon’s Wooseok, and Victon’s Sejun. He is set to appear on SBS’ Today’s Webtoon, which starts one of the hottest idol actresses to date, Kim Sejeong. 

BtoB’s Sungjae

Unlike their former seniors in Cube Entertainment, the maknae of BtoB also does look like the youngest. But then, with even one idol (ex-Sechskies member Sunghoon) commenting that everyone in BtoB is ugly, this couldn’t be more true. With Minhyuk making it his business to be on the cover of Men’s Health every opportunity he gets and Peniel proving that bald is hot, the group has proven its staying power, with military duties finishes and lineup changes after the departure of Ilhoon. After receiving a relatively lukewarm reception for their dance tracks like Thriller, Insane, and Beep Beep at the start of their career, the group eventually found a niche they cornered with ballads that showcased the strengths of their vocalists while still allowing Ilhoon, Min-hyuk, and Peniel to still establish their credibility as rappers. Thus, hits such as Missing You, Way Back Home, Remember When, and Beautiful Pain cemented the group’s reputation as vocal kings.  

Besides, the group’s maknae, Sungjae, has been working triple time to maintain the group’s high profile. In a group dominated by extremely talented vocalists such as Changsub, Hyunsik, and Eunkwang who are well-known for their high notes, vocal runs, and ad-libs, Sungjaw supplies a very solid lower register but also doesn’t shy away from the high notes when needed. His dancing skills aren’t that bad as well, and most importantly, contrary to what that senior idol said, Sungjae’s visuals have also allowed him to appear on TV in some high-profile dramas. After getting recognized by K-drama fans all over the world for his breakout role as a chaebol heir in the Gong Yoo-headlined Goblin, he has also since been the main protagonist of the drama Mystic Pop-Up Bar. 

Since ending his military conscription late last year, Sungjae has been busy releasing and promoting new music with BtoB and is set to lead the drama Golden Spoon with DIA’s Chaeyeon and former Momoland member Yeonwoo, which is expected to be released before the end of 2022. Not bad at all for the maknae of a group considered to be a visual black hole, yes?   

Seventeen’s Dino

When you are the maknae of a group with thirteen members, it may seem that you couldn’t catch a break. After all, you would need to deal with twelve hyungs, which means giving way to twelve other people whom you are expected to respect (at least publicly), be understanding with twelve different temperaments and personalities while having to deal with your own issues. After all, the life of an idol is no walk in the park. 

Such is the case of Lee Chan, aka Dino of the thirteen-member mega-group Seventeen. Imagine having to deal with twelve other members, two of which are Chinese and one who grew up in the US? Five main vocalists, four main rappers, and including you, four main dance performers. But then, just like Super Junior maknae who has had to deal with so many hyungs in his idol career, Dino is no docile slouch. He is classified as one of the members of the Performance sub-unit, he has also rapped in some Seventeen tracks, and otherwise, has sung most of his parts. Which makes Dino the ultimate triple threat – vocalist, rapper, and dancer. And to be recognized as great in those three areas where you have Hoshi who shares the responsibility of choreographing for thirteen people, DK and Seungkwan who are expected to do high notes and vocal run ad-libs in every song, and SCoups and Vernon who are recognized in the industry as legit rappers is really something.

Also, in all variety shows including their own produced Go Seventeen, Dino is not one of those maknaes that shy away from exposure. Maybe through the years of having to deal with twelve hyungs, he has grown a thick skin and is definitely not one to refuse to promote himself. Even with the constant teasing of his members, Dino is often seen speaking his mind and standing up for himself, particularly when it comes to interacting with the more outspoken members, most especially Seungkwan. Just when you think that Seungkwan takes the case as the Seventeen member with the sharpest tongue, you have to watch Dino-Seungkwan interactions in Go Seventeen, as their banter is half bickering, half sermon (at least in Seungkwan’s part to remind Dino who’s older between them) and 100% entertainment. 

And those are just six! We haven’t even elaborated on ASTRO’s Sanha, known in the industry as the bossiest maknae around, or Pentagon’s Wooseok and Monsta X’s IM who, like Highlight’s Dongwon, doesn’t look like maknaes of their respective groups at all. Stay tuned for more maknae countdowns!

Featured Image:  Jungkook from BTS. Picture from BTS official Twitter account.

When it comes to fandoms, we can say that a good number of them were subjected to an intense emotional rollercoaster this year. BLINKs had to deal with the ups and downs of finally getting a comeback after close to two years while being treated to some poorly executed concerts. ARMY had to deal with the BTS Festa of June 14 where several announcements were made that were misinterpreted and downright sent them into a tailspin and Jin started his mandatory military duty. Both BLINKs and ARMY had to deal with the seemingly eternal rumors of Jennie and V dating, Orbits were held hostage of whether Chuu is in or out of LOONA, FEARNOTs had to say goodbye to Garam after only meeting her weeks before, and SUMITs have been in limbo since the departure of two LIGHTSUM members. 

As for CARAT, the fandom of Seventeen, 2022 can be considered a year that they got spoiled, big time. So much content, so many new releases, and the group just going non-stop in their continuous stay at the top of K-pop royalty!  What more can CARATs ask for? Well, let’s take a trip back the entire year and count the ways S.Coups, Jeonghan, Joshua, The8, DK, Mingyu, Jun, Woozi, Hoshi, Wonwoo, Vernon, Seungkwan, and Dino managed to keep the CARAT fandom wanting nothing. 

The new music 

When it comes to releasing new music, it’s pretty obvious that SVT has maintained that “rookie mentality,” which is a rare thing among groups that are their contemporaries. You see, once a K-pop group reaches seven years, the quantity of their new releases starts to noticeably decline for a number of reasons. One, most, if not all idols starting in the second generation, are party to 7-year contracts, which means once this initial contract expires, the idols can either keep the being a part of their company, their group, both or altogether leave their company and group to sign up in another company. Thus, both the groups and the companies deem it impractical and financially unsound (let’s not forget that k-pop is still a business, guys) to plan a full year of activities for a 7-year group when there is a huge possibility that a member (or two, or three, or in iKON’s case, all member) might end up not renewing their contracts.       

Two, and this is particularly true for boy groups, it’s usually also in a group’s seventh year that members start to push for their individual or sub-unit releases since a member or two will already start going on hiatus to start their mandatory military service. Especially when the most popular members go on leave, the scale of a group’s releases may not be as grand as before and expect that to be true with the number of releases as well. Finally, the third reason benefits both the company and the idols, as groups that have lasted for seven years may usually have established fandoms that will continue to support them whether or not they get new music or not. As seen in groups like Girls’ Generation, Kara, Apink, Shinhwa, Super Junior, TVXQ, and 2PM, they can already afford to take long breaks without releasing new music and still have impactful comebacks once they do reunite. A solid fandom can bring out that confidence that “legacy” groups need to pace their releases down to one new song/EP/album a year. For idols, this allows them to keep their solid relationship with the group’s fans while giving them a lot of time to also pursue their individual career goals and maintain a good degree of physical and mental health. This also works for the company, because they don’t need to funnel too much effort into the “aging” group in terms of marketing and executing huge-scale activities while allowing them to be more focused on younger and new groups. 

But throw all of those justifications out the window for Seventeen, because they are releasing music like they just debuted recently. After the wildly successful Attaca, their first EP to sell more than 2 million (yes, 2 and six zeros) copies in late October 2021, they presented not one, not two, but three albums to Carats in 2022. That’s one full-length album in May entitled Face the Sun, one re-issue of Face the Sun entitled Sector 17 in July, and Dream, a Japanese EP in November. All three releases went straight to numero uno on both the Korean Gaon/Circle and Japanese Oricon charts (yes, the two Korean albums managed to top the Oricon charts as well), not to mention Face the Sun and Sector 17 peaked at numbers 7 and 4 respectively, in the US Billboard Hot 200 charts.     

And let’s not forget the singles! Hot, the title track of Face the Sun, peaked at number 7 in Gaon/Circle, while _World took spot number 4. In the US Billboard World charts, the two peaked at number 3 and 12, respectively. The group’s first all-English title track, Darl+ing, peaked at #15 on the US Billboard World charts, while Dream ended up in 27th place on the Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart.   

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seventeen — don't wanna cry // timestamp: 1:56
︎ ︎ ︎︎ ︎︎→ kpop cropped crop mv pinned pic.twitter.com/dO2XwviKhA

— ً (@wwcrop) January 5, 2023

So, the group renewed their contracts before Attaca was released, so that’s way before their contracts were set to expire this year. Moreover, leader S.Coups and Jeonghan, who also happen to be the oldest members, won’t be anywhere near the dreaded h-word (h*atus due to military enlistment) for another three to four years. Alas, it is yet unknown whether Korean-American Joshua, the third oldest member, will do an Ok Taecyeon and perform his patriotic duty of finishing his military duty. The group basically assuaged everybody’s (including Pledis’/HYBE’s) fears by renewing their contracts early and still being far from any hiatus. The nearest thing the group has ever been on hiatus was The8 and Jun going home to China after a gazillion years in December 2021, which exempted them from doing some Attaca promotion-related activities. To top things off, with the prolific Bumzu-Woozi team that seems to have a penchant for producing songs like a well-oiled machine, we seriously don’t see Seventeen slowing down on their song-releasing speed like a “legacy” group even as they enter their first decade and “senior” group era.     

The solo and unit releases

With most groups, it takes years for a member to release solo music. In most cases, it does take around 7 years for an idol to release solo material, and this is usually presented to them by their companies as a way to make them stay. After all, there’s nothing more idols would want more than to be recognized as very capable soloists aside from their reputation in the groups they are part of. Moreover, it can be speculated that companies want to establish the popularity of the groups first before giving individual members solo music projects. Finally, these companies may also want to avoid moves that can be misconstrued as favoring a certain member who is given a solo song. Thus, solo releases from Kyuhyun, Ryeowook, and Yesung from Super Junior, all SHINee members, Suho, D.O, Chen, and Kai from EXO, everyone from BIGBANG, and Mino and Yoon from Winner only came after years of their groups’ debut.

Seventeen members didn’t have to wait that long to release solo material. Fans of Woozi, Seungkwan, and DK have heard their contributions to some popular OSTs, and last year, we had Jeonghan, Hoshi, The8, and the pillar hip-hop pair of Mingyu and Wonwoo release singles, racking millions of music video views and Spotify listens. This year, The8 started the year with Hai Cheng, a single that may be more expected of a vocal team member rather than a performance team member. A full-fledged ballad compared to his 2021 mid-tempo hit Side by Side, the single proved that the boy from Haicheng (yes, the title of his 2022 song is his hometown) can also successfully sing slow-tempo songs as his teammate from Shenzhen, Jun. But then, you can still see glimpses of Minghao the performer as he dances with his partner ala Gene Kelly and Lalaland choreography in front of the beach and in some park benches while wearing trench coats. How’s that for performing team supremacy? 

Speaking of Jun, after releasing a string of ballads for the past few years, it was his turn to go mid-tempo in the dark and very sexy Limbo. This is definitely not your sweet, pure, and innocent       fake maknae singing one of his ballads. What a dramatic turn as Jun wears shiny black leather outfits and performs some really slinky moves while welcoming us to his limbo. And based on the music video and stages, more than the costumes and the song itself, it’s really the choreography that shines bright, which is perfect for our Prince of China to showcase his undeniable performance skills. 

While Jun used red as one of the color themes for his Limbo music video, our genius PD Woozi went all the way to use the color for his 2022 song, Ruby. The release surprised lot of fans, pleasantly at that, because the song has more of an edge with its alternative rock sound. Based on experience, we did expect Woozi to come up with a ballad for his solo project, so this very energetic rock song is a very welcome surprise. The music video also didn’t disappoint, as our small but terrible vocal team leader sported some very fashionable sleek looks. 

And towards the year’s end, our Leo DiCaprio lookalike gifted us with a pre-Holiday mixtape entitled Black Eye. And just like Woozi’s edgy turn in Ruby way back in January, Vernon also presents us with a not-so-surprised-but-not-entirely-expected pop-punk sound with Black Eye, an all-English language track. Keen Carats will of course observe that this is not the first time our hip-hop team member has dabbled in this kind of sound, as his duet with Joshua on the Attaca album, 2 Minus 1, has a similar vibe. Black Eye might not be a full-on emo track, but it does harken to an early-2000s rock band or an Avril Lavigne semi-angsty emotional rollercoaster song. Imagine that, one of our reliable rappers can sing an entire song without going into a burst of rap rhymes!

Lest we forget our main vocalists shining in their craft – singing the hell out of tear-jerking OSTs! Our musical King DK released the wildly successful Go! (not to be confused with Go, Seungkwan’s contribution to the Record of Youth Soundtrack in 2020) for the Twenty Five Twenty One OST. On the other hand, Mr. Sassy main vocal Boo released Pit a Pat for the Link: Eat, Love, Kill OST. And did we say that our K-pop Ph.D. also released a Spotify single of his version of Harry Styles’ As It Was?  

Going strong with GoSe

It is without question and not up for discussion that Going Seventeen, the boys’ web series readily available on YouTube, is the most engaging variety program in the world of K-pop? Make someone who doesn’t have a single clue of who Seventeen is watch an episode of GoSe and chances are, that viewer will simply fall in love, or at the very least, laugh at the boys’ antics in the show. 

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#IN_THE_SOOP SVT ver. S2 Official Poster

✔️ 방영 일정
WEVERSE➡️1/28부터 매주 토,일 저녁 8시 VOD공개!
JTBC➡️1/29(일) 저녁 6시 40분 TV 첫 방송!

Available on Weverse at 8PM every Saturday & Sunday from Jan 28!

✔️예약판매 : 1월 16일부터
Pre-order : available from Jan 16! pic.twitter.com/1ye7pL7d9h

— IN THE SOOP Official (@INTHESOOP_TV) January 6, 2023

This year, the world was again blessed with 29+1 episodes of the groups’ antics, and it would take a separate article to name our favorites for just this season. Here are three rather memorable episodes:

How to Eat Rice the Perfect Way (Part 1 and 2), GoSe’s first episodes of Part 2 of the 5th season. The appearances of Hoshi’s mom and Dino’s grandma were simply precious and obviously tugged at the Carat’s heartstrings. Woozi won the game, but a familiar character returned: supreme cheater and schemer Jeonghan, who used his wish coupon to take possession of Woozi’s prize for winning the game, which was a snack privilege. This episode also gave birth to a legendary character that is destined to make several comebacks in future GoSe episodes: The Hungry Monster whose only line is “beh goopa” (I’m hungry) and play to exaggerated perfection by musical theater actor Dokyeom.   

Runner-Up Sports Day, an episode that was an absolute treat to Jun-stans. Members of Seventeen play various games but should only aim for second place. In reality, the entire production plays a prank on Jun: the members should furtively play the games in a way that will lead to Jun’s victory. If Jun wins the games (by finishing second place overall) without noticing what’s up, all members will receive a Children’s Day present whereas only Jun will win a gift if he wins and realizes he is the center of the ruse. But if Jun loses (by not finishing second overall), no one receives a gift. The members succeed in secretly making Jun the overall winner of the intramurals. Too bad S.Coups, Hoshi, and The8 were not in the episode because of COVID-19. Otherwise, Jun’s innocence and purity, the expected antics of the boys (usually involving Dino having to fetch a dodgeball from far away), and the return of the Hungry Monster in a game that involved flipping the blankets of the members are what made this episode one for the books. 

Going Seventeen Special: Going SVT X MMTG, an episode that featured the unbeatable K-pop doctorate degree holders Seungkwan and Jaejae. Have you watched MMTG episodes where Seungkwan was a guest and the two can discuss the history of K-pop for hours and not run out of things to talk about? Well, this collab episode may not have featured the two gabbing the episode away, but it still featured the undeniable chemistry between the two, as well as Jaejae going along with the antics of the other members. In this episode, Jaejae was introduced to three of their best Going Seventeen contents (“Insomnia-Zero“, “Debate Night” and “Don’t Lie“) and competed on which of these contents raises her heart rate the most. 

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going seventeen special part 2 on this wednesday😳 need to catch up the part 1 then since i haven’t watch it😫 https://t.co/0lSHTx4OiZ

— 하니행뵹 (@flamehanie) January 3, 2023

That truly global tour

The running joke for “global” tours in the K-pop world is that they include a number of shows in Seoul, a couple of concerts in Japan, and an appearance at a KCON event in the US. Obviously, fans in Europe, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Australia, and the Americas argue that Korea, Japan, and a single US show do not a world tour make. 

Good thing the group’s Be The Sun tour included two shows in Seoul before going on multiple stops across the US and even in Vancouver before going back to Asia for stops in Bangkok, Jakarta, Singapore, and Manila. The tour was mostly sold out and additional two dates were added in the Philippines (at the Philippine Arena, aka the largest indoor arena in the world) Jakarta for December 17 and 28 shows, respectively. 

This brings us to the rather unfortunate plight of European CARATs. Seventeen has never been to Europe and the Ode to You Tour of 2019-2020 was supposed to change this. Alas, COVID-19 dropped its viral impact on the world, which caused the cancelation of the tour’s stops in Berlin, London, Madrid, and Paris. Alas, when the Be The Sun tour dates were released, there were still no European dates and Hoshi even held a V-Live apologizing to the group’s European fans for Europe’s exclusion from their tour schedule anew. 

Anyhow, it’s not like they’re unknown in Europe. On the contrary, there was outrage over the continent’s exclusion in the BtS tour, not to mention the group won a number of awards in the 2022 MTV Europe Music Awards.  Next tour, perhaps?

As 2023 has started, we can only wish for CARATs to be as spoiled this year as they were in 2022 and for European CARATs to finally get some love from the group.

Featured Image: Seventeen Official Twitter

Ever wonder what happens to idols when they leave their agencies, the companies that they spent years training under and worked so hard just to be part of? Here are three unique cases.

Mamamoo’s Wheein: The Amicable and Trendy Standard

The departure of Wheein from the agency of her group, RBW, was one that didn’t seem like it had any animosity or bad blood. As with the trend with most idol group members who have decided to leave their agencies but not their group, Wheein did hop on to that trend when she decided to leave the group’s parent company in June 2021 while the three other members, Solar, Hwasa, and Moonbyul, continued with their contracts with RBW. However, as Wheein declared that she still has a lot of affection and affinity to her group, she decided to keep her schedule open to Mamamoo activities until 2023.

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Wheein is really Mamamoo's cute little baby 🥺❤️ her adorable smilepic.twitter.com/uaCoDtPdVN

— Absence🌻|𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚕𝚒𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝙼𝚄𝚂𝙴 ✨ (@Ivett1222) January 9, 2023

Many speculated that Wheein didn’t feel she was given much importance by the company during the first seven years of her career, which she spent with them both as a Mamamoo member and a solo artist. However, looking at the history of the group, it was actually Wheein who debuted first as a solo artist among the four members when she released her first solo single Easy on April 17, 2018, which was a few days before Solar released her first solo EP, Solar Emotion, on April 24. Looking closely, there wasn’t really much of a difference in how the four members were treated by the agency. Alas, the difference in popularity among the members, where people argue that Hwasa is definitely more popular than the three others, is not really the fault of the company, as it can be argued that actually, in terms of pushing them in other activities, Solar has gotten the most TV exposure as early as 2015, when she joined King of Masked Singer and when she was Eric Nam’s “wife” in We Got Married the following year.

Alas, when she was asked by Teen Vogue why she decided to leave RBW and join Ravi’s THE L1VE label, she had this to say: “I wanted a fresh start. I wanted to maybe experience the new environment under the new agency. That was my hope and I wanted to take a stepping stone into my personal growth in a new angle.”

With her new agency, Wheein has since released her second EP, Whee in January 2022 and has also held her first solo fan meeting ‘D-DAY’ at the Yes24 Live Hall on April 17. Looks like our Wheepup has settled in her new agency. Now, can we have new Mamamoo releases, please? 

JYJ: Messy and Unfulfilled Promise

Here is one group that made one of the most, if not the most awkward and messiest of exits from their entertainment agency in the history of Korean pop music. So, this all started in 2009 when all of a sudden, Jaejoong, Yoochun, and Junsu, three members of TVXQ decided to quit on the group. A court battle raged on for three whole years, which was pretty much damaging for the JYJ members who had to deal with it while trying to establish their careers as a new group. 

What exactly was JYJ‘s problem with SM? It was actually the contract that they had with SM, which they stated was much too long (thirteen years total) and the idols felt that only the agency would benefit from such terms. The idols questioned its legality of it. SM, however, revealed that according to the law, a contract that binds an artist for over seven years is completely legal on the condition that the artists are active overseas. Finally, the agency also said that it was actually family members of TVXQ who insisted and requested that SM Entertainment honor the thirteen-year contract with TVXQ.

On the subject of the three claiming they were not paid the correct wages, SM Entertainment also claimed that they kept all the promises they made with TVXQ, including paying them the correct amounts for their talent fees. 

For their part, JYJ has stated over and over in the past about the issue that they were coerced into the thirteen-year contract and activities overseas and despite their unwillingness to do according to the agency’s wishes, they stated they had no choice but to remain silent for a long time since they believed in their work ethic.

The conflict was resolved in November 2012 as both parties agreed to terminate all contracts and not meddle in each other’s affairs from that point on. But then, everybody knows that engaging SM Entertainment in a legal tussle will result in dire consequences for the other party. Hangeng, Kris Wu, Luhan, and Tao may not have felt a huge impact as they transferred their career home bases to their native China, but JYJ and Jessica Jung surely felt these consequences. 

Given SME’s economic clout within the industry, the entertainment giant implemented on JYJ (and later with Jessica) that unspoken ban  – JYJ was banned from award shows, concert venues inside South Korea, and various music charts. Despite the legal battle and consequent bans, JYJ did flourish though, with all their albums and EPs charting at the top both domestically and in Japan.  Their songs also charted very well, with their lead singles all managing to chart in the top 20 nationally. Ayyy Girl and Empty managed to peak at numbers 19 and 18, respectively, while their succeeding singles Get Out, In Heaven, and Back Seat charted in the single digits, reaffirming their success after all the legal troubles and SME manipulation they went through. Even their Japanese release Wake Me Tonight, managed to peak at number 2 in Oricon. That was their last release before all three started their mandatory military duty. 

But then, trouble never left the three. Yoochun as early as 2016, was embroiled in accusations of sexual harassment. In 2019, C-JeS Entertainment, JYJ’s agency, decided not to renew his contract after he was involved in a drug abuse controversy. He served his probation, but then got involved in a dispute with an agency again as he claimed that his agency, Re:Cielo (the agency he signed to after getting kicked out from C-JeS) did not pay him correctly for his work (sounds familiar?) The court has since then temporarily banned him from engaging in activities in the entertainment industry. 

Meanwhile, Jaejoong has been more active in the Japanese market, although he released his own documentary entitled Jaejoong: On the Road in 2021. Finally, Junsu, now known artistically as Xia, has been very active in both music and television, although his music releases have been self-produced with his agency Palm Tree Island after he decided not to renew with C-JeS in 2021.

https://twitter.com/AkananiHana/status/1610837473231515649?s=20&t=mex_6SiQDFztih3TM9KtNw

But with all the problems Yoochun has brought to the table, it is highly unlikely that Jaejoong and Junsu would want to even be associated with him. With contracts ending and personal issues occurring, it is highly doubtful that there will be any JYJ complete group comeback. Actually, JYJ did have a release for a Japanese OST in March, but then, that only had them as a duo, and using “JYJ” when the Y has been problematic as hell would not make any sense. Maybe rename the duo to The Js? Imagine that, TVXQ was forced to become a duo since 2009 and the group created by the members who quit has now been reduced to a duo as well, thirteen years later!  

One quick point: With JYJ as OT3 eventually going on a hiatus in 2015, would it be safe to conclude that the group did not really live up to its full potential? I mean, JYJ broke away from TVXQ in 2009, then only really got liberated from legal troubles in 2012, and only promoted as a complete group until 2015. That means they were really just a fully functioning group for three years, which was also how long the group was embroiled in its legal drama with SME. With TVXQ debuting in 2003, that means that the fabled “slave contract of 13 years would have been over by 2016, which would have been a year more than JYJ’s active timeline. With JYJ also having a dip in activities for those three years from 2009 to 2012, that meant that they did stand a lot to lose then. Imagine had they stayed in SME until their “slave contract” expired in 2016, how they could have not lost those three years + 1 year after 2015? It does make one question if all the trouble the two Js went through from 2009 to 2012 and beyond (after Yoochun’s mess, which also caused a stop in JYJ group activities) was worth it in the end. 

But then, all this time, I’m quite sure SM Entertainment has felt highly relieved that they dodged the toxic Yoochun bullet. 

HyunA and Dawn

Now, this is a case of slight Romeo and Juliet feels in the K -pop world not only because they’re supposed to be star-crossed lovers, but also because there was a clear case of miscommunication and tangled comms among the parties involved, leading to a bit of a disaster, which fortunately now has a happy ending. Much like the hapless duo of Shakespeare who got confused about whether the other took the poison or not, HyunA and Dawn had a weird back and forth with their agency, Cube Entertainment, which led to them getting kicked out from the company.

To start things off, HyunA was Cube’s precious gem. When Wonder Girls’ rapper left the group and JYP Entertainment only after the group debuted, people were quite curious where her career would end up, should she get better (as she left WG and JYPE because of health problems) and continue her career as an idol singer. Alas, a former JYP employee who has moved to Cube Entertainment recruited her and she became one of the company’s top acts. She got included in the company’s first girl group, 4Minute while she was also supported by the compay to release solo material. The group succeeded, though it did feel like the group was built around her as her sort of vehicle to gain more popularity, although it can be seen as unnecessary because as mentioned earlier, Cube also quickly launched her as a solo act. 

There was a small hiccup at the start as Change, HyunA’s first solo song didn’t become a phenomenon as expected, though it sold millions of copies and peaked at #2 in the national song charts. Suffice to say, the song wasn’t on everybody’s subcionsciousness as her succeeding songs would. When you think about how Red, Ice Cream, and Bubble Pop would be these iconic, massive hits, you’d understand why Change was a bit underwhelming. But we digress.

HyunA’s solo career took off, 4Minute gave her more activities, not to mention 4 backup singers and dancers. Everything HyunA touched turned into gold, and Cube was not blind to that. She signed her up for a project duo with Beast’s Hyunseung called Trouble Maker, which released two EPs with the lead singles Trouble Maker and Now, which became massive hits, arguably even bigger than the hits of her own group 4Minute. 

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Are K-pop stars Hyuna and Dawn back together after break up? Agency reveals they are 'occasionally having meals together, but they are not dating again'#HyunA #Dawn #Kpop #KoreanMusic #Music #KoreanPop #KpopNews pic.twitter.com/JYFJIyVxMb

— HT City (@htcity) January 10, 2023

With Hyunseing and his group Beast getting de-prioritized by the company, Trouble Maker was put in the backburner even with its proven success. In comes Pentagon, Cube’s new boy group, in 2016, the same year HyunA’s group 4Minute, was officially disabnded. With HyunA only being a solo artist, Cube gave their golden girl a new group with the new boy group’s members, E’Dawn and Hui. Triple H was not as successful as Trouble Maker, but it may have triggered something between HyunA and E’Dawn, as photos of the two were released in a number of publications. Then, came the Romeo and Juliet-reminiscent events. Here is a chronological list of events:

1. HyunA and E’Dawn photos come out.
2. Cube, considering the repercussions of two of its high-profile talents being involved in a dating “scandal”, denies the rumors.
3. A few hours later, Yeonhap News releases and interview with HyunA and E’Dawn, with both admitting to their relationship that started as soon as Triple H was formed. 
4. Cube, in disbelief that two idols at the peak of their careers easily admitted to having a relationship, cancelled all previously planned performances for Triple H, on-air appearances and fan events including a fan meet-up that was scheduled on the next day
5. Fans were divided, with some calling for E’Dawn’s removal from Pentagon, while others pointed out that the company cared more about the repercussions of the scandal rather than putting the welfare of their artists first. 
6. On September 13, Cube Entertainment announced that they would be terminating both HyunA and E’Dawn’s contracts, as they felt that there was a breach of trust among the parties. 
7. On October 15, Cube Entertainment officially confirmed Hyuna’s departure.
8. On January 27, 2019, HyunA signed with P Nation, a new agency founded by Psy since he left YG Entertainment in May 2018. On November 5, 2019, she released a single titled Flower Shower, her first release under P Nation.

As you have read with those three cases, there is indeed life for idols even as they leave their agencies. Some might have their careers stalled a bit because of some issues that would arise once they decide on leaving, but as with everything in life, everyone carries on and hope their decisions would lead them to success.

Featured Image: Screengrab from JYJ Official video ‘Backseat’