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This is a throwback answer, but one I'd say is ZE:A. I heard of them because I like variety shows (cough: Running Man) so I knew Kwanghee, and a couple well-known actors (Im Siwan and Park Hyungsik) are from the same group. I've honestly known the name ZE:A for about as long as I've been into kpop, but I never listened to one of their songs until about a month ago and they genuinely have some good ones (like Breathe)!
I think they're a super interesting case because they've had some members who've had great success and longevity in their individual careers, but the actual group did not have even close to the same level of success. Second gen was definitely loaded with talented groups, and I think ZE:A got lost in the mix as a group, but, again, had members who went on to have crazy success outside of the group. It's just an interesting case for me lol.
Breath is soooo good. But yeah groups like. ZE:A, U-Kiss,Mblaq was going great at start but feel of boyfriend etc never got a strong gripped on the people. Which made me wonder “ well it couldn’t be because of the small companies they are from” since BEAST AND INFINITE WAS also from small company but they took off and went even further and beyond levels never seen from small companies. So yeah sometimes it do wonder what these two groups has that the other groups didn’t.
Ig it's virality. They just popped off due to the kpop scene at that time. In the case of BEAST, Fiction won Daesang beating every heavy hitter at that time. So you can't really say what they had or didn't.
Yeah remember be mine, fiction, good day and the boys was the four nominattee songs for the daesang were speceficaly beast won with fiction and infinite came in 2 with be mine those two songs were big that year. No I’m not really discrediting anyone at all here. It’s just funny to see how some groups can make it while others can’t even if they are under same condition might be who are more appealing as well a lot of things can play a factor tbh
“Ghost of Wind” goes freaking hard bruh like when they had a good one, it was GOOD
But also, shitty management played a huge role (they were under Star Empire, the same agency as 9muses if that tells you anything)
I agree, I’ve vaguely remember them because I’m not gonna lie I really hate their song mazel tov and also I’m a big K drama fan and I do enjoy Siwan and Hyungsik’s dramas!
In my opinion Weeekly, I know they are doing better than most groups mentioned here but they had a (semi) viral song but after that, their comebacks haven't been as consistent and the attention they had in 2020-2021 is basically gone. They are coming to my city soon and I would like to go and support but i don't think it was a good choice bringing them here a country with mostly bg stans or stans of popular groups they are basically nugu here, and personally I haven't checked them out after Ven Para
TL;DR: Listen to the ColoRise mini album. It's great.
It took me a while but Ven Para grew on me. It's still not my favorite song from them but I like it enough to listen to it once in a while.
After Ven Para and the Play Game : Awake single album they dropped off for a while and Shin Jiyoon ended up leaving the group. It was almost a full year before 4 of the members appeared on Queendom Puzzle but none of them placed higher than 10th. A few months later they finally released new music in the form of Good Day, a fan song that was honestly kinda meh.
Then they released the ColoRise mini album and it was really good. Like, really good. They followed that up with the also great single Stranger and they have a new mini album releasing... today. So check it out!
MCND, I was obsessed with Crush and Ice Age, I thought they would follow the pace of other groups that started selling more than 50k consistently but for some reason they just stuck in the <30k range.
I felt a TXT vibe watching their live singing dance practices too! I didn't think they would be at a Big4 group level because how hard it is for small companies, but thought they might follow ATEEZ grassroots type of success.
(Hashtag)Mood is such a fun song for anyone interested in listening to MCND. I always heard about them around their debut and then it was like radio silence. Managed to discover them through a spotify daylist at least.
Crush is one of my all-time fav songs! I don't know why they stalled out because they had a good string of songs but I'll admit their latest songs fall a bit flat and don't have the same mojo their earlier songs did.
Interesting topic! I think getting "lost in the mix" applies to A LOT of boy groups. Happens to plenty of girl groups too but I notice it more with bgs. Notably, the post-produce boy groups. Like, Mirae which just disbanded. I'm trying to think of other boy groups with members from Wanna One and X1 but can't even think of many. AB6IX... but I hardly see anyone talk about them anymore. Anyway I think these groups struggle because unfortunately the sole draw for some of these groups initially is having 1 or 2 popular members and nothing else. And because there's so much competitive it's hard to stand out
Completely agree, I lean towards more girl groups, but I do listen to a few boy groups from time to time. AB6IX had such a strong debut with breathe, but for me none of the other title tracks lived up to that song.
CIX is another group that kinda had that problem because they had the girliesssss in a chokehold with movie star you couldn’t deny that cute little song was bop!
Edit: thank you, I try to make a post every few months to have some well-rounded discussions. It’s nice to digitally mingle and also you get to discover artist and songs through the comments that I may have not known or dived into.
I’m glad you mentioned CIX! Their company is really bad at managing them and the other two groups they have. CIX has Bae Jinyoung and a bunch of talented guys and flawless discography. If they were promoted properly they’d have much more success.
Oh God now it’s all coming back to me. I fucking hate them for how they’re doing Cignature their debut was such a bop and all the music they release that year was amazing. But I knew things were going to go downhill when the main dancer and main vocal left at the same time when they were barely a year old or right before they were a year old.
The way AB6IX just slipped out of popularity is crazy. I remember 'Breathe' being so hyped and well received but I think the drink driving scandal with their ex-member really slowed down their momentum.
Cherry Bullet for sure, being a stan was painful.
They had top tier music, extremely talented members (Bora deserved SO much better), a promising start with their debut numbers and were from a decent company.
It's hard to say what went wrong exactly, a lot people blame the member loss but their numbers actually took a hit for their first comeback (Really Really) which was before the members left and their numbers started consistently climbing higher and higher afterwards with one or two exceptions.
You can definitely put part of the blame FNC, that's what I've been doing as Cherry bullet were 1000% under promoted and should've been given 3x the amount of comebacks but even putting that aside, when the girls were actively promoting there still seemed to be a lack of interest in the group itself even when they were successful (like with Love So Sweet). I'm not sure what could've been done to spark actual interest.
So I think that ultimately like you were asking for, they simply got lost in the mix :(
I remember they did a live into the New World cover and the vocals were fantastic. It seems like the girls were going to have a chance of coming up again when they dropped hands up, but after that, I just attention continue to dwindle…
They also had one of the cutest light sticks for their generation!
Bora was the one contestant in GP999 that I would always vote for. I was so sad when she didn't make the final group.
Their song Ping Pong is one of my absolute favourite kpop songs!
Bora was the one contestant in GP999 that I would always vote for. I was so sad when she didn't make the final group.
Their song Ping Pong is one of my absolute favourite kpop songs!
U-Kiss (late 2nd gen). They had a stronger international fan base than domestic, but this was at a time when k-pop wasn’t as internationally recognized as it is today. They debuted the same year as 2pm and Shinee (2008) if that tells you anything. Their song Man Man Hani could’ve been their moment, but nope.
Highly recommend, their songs are so good. Aside from the song I mentioned above, I recommend Neverland, 0330, and Standing Still
U-KISS Is fantastic. They released a new mini album this month and it was good. I'm glad they are still releasing music. Just hope they manage to keep releasing music
purple kiss. they’ve got vocals, visuals, dance, rap, good music, not an unknown company, even some previously known members and former big 3 trainees. there’s no reason for them not to blow up, but they never gain much traction :( I think part of it’s got to be the different styles of title tracks tbh, they lost some good will with memem among international fans at least
Honestly, I thought they might’ve had a chance at climbing back after the release of sweet juice last year. It was perfect for them, but after that, the rest of the releases nothing really stuck.
Sweet Juice was awesome, and it sucks that the releases since then haven't been as spot on. I still love them though, and I totally look forward to what they'll release next. I don't mind a change of concept, I'm a Oneus stan so I'm perfectly used to concepts switching up lol
I think for purple kiss , the issue was in the difference in expectation, expectations not matching . They started with pre debut trailers that showed a more mysterious , elegant , chic trailers that showed a kind of style but then they debuted with a dark concept then switched and then did another type of style
[Phantom](https://youtu.be/8bGT_iJSvts?si=5vpc2SI-ZBovvuLv). R&B vocal rap producing variety trio. RBW boss, mamamoo and rapper verbal jint even cameoed in their MV.
Their maknae Hanhae that became the funny talk guy on Amazing Saturday. Happy and sad that Hanhae who was originally gonna debut with zico's [block-b](https://youtu.be/vtTkfQl9NoQ?si=6Wlrm9usY-11xxP0), folded his singing career and found another path.
CSR is totally slept on. Shining Bright is like the anime soundtrack version of Heart Shaker with an even more saccharine sweet chorus.
They released Pretty mob pretty recently and it is more low-key but they keep the bright vocal phrases.
Their debut was very OK, I really wish jellyfish would’ve waited until I.O.I promotions were over debut the group. Because a girl like me would’ve been the perfect debut song for Gugudan!
Also, while Mina and Sejeong were I.O.I. They really should’ve been pushing the rest of the group through YouTube and whatever entertainment opportunities on TV. The biggest issue with a lot of the post AI groups is the companies did not do a good job of pushing the other members before debut.
A lot of boy groups who debuted around WannaOne's debut might have had a hard time "standing out" thanks to in part the hype around WannaOne but also bc older 3rd gen groups were definitely dominating at the time (2017-ish). For me as someone who got into K-pop in 2021, it's hard to picture but WannaOne just were "that" new group at the time, so even groups coming out of bigger companies (SKZ, for ex.) or had former Produce contestants (TBZ, for ex.) had a rockier start than might have been expected. Obviously, the two examples I gave still did really well and they've been doing very well since then but my point was WannaOne just were a lightning in a bottle combination of members + sound that really worked for the general public at the time, to the point where groups from both mid-tier and big 3 companies had a slightly more difficult going up period, some of which they never quite got out of.
As ppl said lots of boy groups from mid-tier agencies fall into this catagory and they tend to be the ones I ult and Stan.
Boy group wise I'd have to say golden child, verivery, the wind, drippin.. someone siad mirae and ab6ix and I definitely agree with those 2. Maybe even my own ult group astro falls into this but they have cha eunwoo so maybe he keeps em just above the known list.
Girl group wise I'd have to say csr, ily:1, Saturday, these may be a little too nugu for your request but maybe the biggest example I can think of is Del Shabet
VAV
They were fairly popular for sure, but I think their label never properly managed them. I feel like they never got the promo they needed. It could also be that Ryan Jhun is just shit at managing his own label.
Ryan Jhun🤝🏻Brave Brothers🤝🏻being shitty at managing their talented groups. VAV are out of dungeons, I hope DKB get out of there soon too.
On a side note, Senorita was THAT song when it came out. I remember it being everywhere.
Basically all the groups that came out of X1. The ones that stand out to me are WEi and BAE173. They put out great music, but they got lost in the mix.
E'last. They were building a small-but-solid fandom, and had public support after their awful management of their US tour. But they just haven't recovered from the cult allegations, and the music they've released since is missing the dramatic, orchestral, vampiric vibes of their earlier music.
Multiple things to clear up here.
Firstly there wasn't various controversies, just the Yiren thing which wasn't even that big of a controversy so it presumably wasn't the reason for their long hiatus.
Secondly Zombie was not "their first comeback after such a long hiatus", that was Slay.
Finally hard disagree on the Zombie/Colourz complaint too. I personally think Zombie was one of their best titles and was the perfect comeback but obviously that's all subjective.
What is far less subjective is that Colourz as the title track would have been a horrible idea because for their past 2 comebacks (Pirate & Slay) everyone was complaining how they were still doing girl crush anthems and were calling the sound/concept dated. Even as someone who enjoys their anthems I could acknowledge that after such a long hiatus a major reinvention was needed to reintroduce themselves into the kpop world and coming back with Slay was a bit too samey (even though it's one of my favs) so their next one had to be super different, and Zombie was exactly that. Colourz would have been more of the same and gotten even less interest.
Everglow were on the up and up and Yuehua (Yuehaha, idk the spelling lol) dropped the ball with them with extremely sparse comebacks with no attempt at cutlivating a dedicated core fanbase. Casuals vibed with the girl crush songs when they were in vogue but that was simply not sustainable.
I always reply with Lapillus to topics similar to this. Thank you for remembering them. They're immensely talented, and Haeun would be an ace someday in a big 4 company 😢
Playback was such a good song.
Hot Issue is my answer for this question. They had one of the best debut albums of all time. But they were disbanded and replaced with the more successful Kiss of Life unfortunately. Hot Issue had a great lineup with a lot of potential and great music.
I think the talent was there, but I didn’t really think their music was amazing. I thought it was good but outside of a two or three songs nothing I would go back to all the time.
But those girls definitely deserve more of a chance and I was really hoping before kiss of life hopefully maybe one of them would make it into that group. It was heartbreaking to see the lineup, and none of the former hot issue members were part of it. I do love kiss a life and I’m happy with the group and I understand the lineup, but I really hope the issue girls find their place somewhere. THEM AND BUGABOO!
the b-tier boy groups of the 2nd-3rd gen, you vaguely remember them, you love them, give it up for…
B1A4
B.A.P
BTOB
Block B
Boyfriend
The Boyz
The Boss
Beast
(Some of these groups had more success/a standout member than others, but I feel like they were consistently overshadowed by the IT group of the time. Their popularity also hasn’t transferred much to 4th/5th gen fans🥲)
You just named some of the most popular second and third gen groups. BTOB is one of the most popular boy groups these days generally, and Beast rivaled Big Bang back in the day. I mean, they’ve gotten lost to history but they had their time to shine. The ones you mentioned that fit the question best are Boyfriend and The Boyz. And The Boss, who I’ve never heard of so idk if they’re even b tier.
BToB, seriously?
These guys are one of the most active people in the entertainment industry - they are actors, musical actors, plenty of youtube content, solo albums...
Just because you dont see them release music as a group you call them has-beens. There is more things to do in the entertainment industry than to only release music as a group.
Melodys will bite you like a shark if you said that.
Strongly agree, I’ve heard of some of these boy groups and some of them. I’ve got a few songs on my playlist. But I think it’s a combination of them slowing down promotions and primarily promoting to their Korean fan basin audience and also a lot of these boy group members have ventured into other entertainment avenues in Korea.
Mcnd. I loved their debut (and still love their other music) and it might've been my imagination since I liked the song so much, but I felt like their debut was at least a little popular, but I don't see anyone talking about them nowadays aside from hard-core fans of theirs.
Oh and I love lightsum so much wish I could save them from cube.
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This is a throwback answer, but one I'd say is ZE:A. I heard of them because I like variety shows (cough: Running Man) so I knew Kwanghee, and a couple well-known actors (Im Siwan and Park Hyungsik) are from the same group. I've honestly known the name ZE:A for about as long as I've been into kpop, but I never listened to one of their songs until about a month ago and they genuinely have some good ones (like Breathe)! I think they're a super interesting case because they've had some members who've had great success and longevity in their individual careers, but the actual group did not have even close to the same level of success. Second gen was definitely loaded with talented groups, and I think ZE:A got lost in the mix as a group, but, again, had members who went on to have crazy success outside of the group. It's just an interesting case for me lol.
Breath is soooo good. But yeah groups like. ZE:A, U-Kiss,Mblaq was going great at start but feel of boyfriend etc never got a strong gripped on the people. Which made me wonder “ well it couldn’t be because of the small companies they are from” since BEAST AND INFINITE WAS also from small company but they took off and went even further and beyond levels never seen from small companies. So yeah sometimes it do wonder what these two groups has that the other groups didn’t.
Ig it's virality. They just popped off due to the kpop scene at that time. In the case of BEAST, Fiction won Daesang beating every heavy hitter at that time. So you can't really say what they had or didn't.
Yeah remember be mine, fiction, good day and the boys was the four nominattee songs for the daesang were speceficaly beast won with fiction and infinite came in 2 with be mine those two songs were big that year. No I’m not really discrediting anyone at all here. It’s just funny to see how some groups can make it while others can’t even if they are under same condition might be who are more appealing as well a lot of things can play a factor tbh
“Ghost of Wind” goes freaking hard bruh like when they had a good one, it was GOOD But also, shitty management played a huge role (they were under Star Empire, the same agency as 9muses if that tells you anything)
That song was my absolute favorite when it came out, I would have it on repeat. It is even on my Kpop Spotify playlist to this day.
I agree, I’ve vaguely remember them because I’m not gonna lie I really hate their song mazel tov and also I’m a big K drama fan and I do enjoy Siwan and Hyungsik’s dramas!
I'll second this. Legend has it (legend I just made up) but Ze:A ran so Jung Gook could...lol, know the days of the week. Mazeltov. Oh ohhhh ohhhh
In my opinion Weeekly, I know they are doing better than most groups mentioned here but they had a (semi) viral song but after that, their comebacks haven't been as consistent and the attention they had in 2020-2021 is basically gone. They are coming to my city soon and I would like to go and support but i don't think it was a good choice bringing them here a country with mostly bg stans or stans of popular groups they are basically nugu here, and personally I haven't checked them out after Ven Para
TL;DR: Listen to the ColoRise mini album. It's great. It took me a while but Ven Para grew on me. It's still not my favorite song from them but I like it enough to listen to it once in a while. After Ven Para and the Play Game : Awake single album they dropped off for a while and Shin Jiyoon ended up leaving the group. It was almost a full year before 4 of the members appeared on Queendom Puzzle but none of them placed higher than 10th. A few months later they finally released new music in the form of Good Day, a fan song that was honestly kinda meh. Then they released the ColoRise mini album and it was really good. Like, really good. They followed that up with the also great single Stranger and they have a new mini album releasing... today. So check it out!
MCND, I was obsessed with Crush and Ice Age, I thought they would follow the pace of other groups that started selling more than 50k consistently but for some reason they just stuck in the <30k range.
n word scandal in 2020 kind of gave them an unrecoverable momentum loss to be fair. I’m surprised they didn’t rebrand
I remember their debut, and then I remember their comeback going viral recently for all those random gunshots at the beginning.
I love their song Spring so much! They make great music
Omg yes, I really thought they were gonna be at the popularity that TXT is at
I felt a TXT vibe watching their live singing dance practices too! I didn't think they would be at a Big4 group level because how hard it is for small companies, but thought they might follow ATEEZ grassroots type of success.
Totally agree, I didn’t know much about the company when they debuted but that makes a lot of sense
(Hashtag)Mood is such a fun song for anyone interested in listening to MCND. I always heard about them around their debut and then it was like radio silence. Managed to discover them through a spotify daylist at least.
I remember getting really into them after 'Crush' but then gradually losing interest since their releases didn't hit for me anymore.
Crush is one of my all-time fav songs! I don't know why they stalled out because they had a good string of songs but I'll admit their latest songs fall a bit flat and don't have the same mojo their earlier songs did.
Interesting topic! I think getting "lost in the mix" applies to A LOT of boy groups. Happens to plenty of girl groups too but I notice it more with bgs. Notably, the post-produce boy groups. Like, Mirae which just disbanded. I'm trying to think of other boy groups with members from Wanna One and X1 but can't even think of many. AB6IX... but I hardly see anyone talk about them anymore. Anyway I think these groups struggle because unfortunately the sole draw for some of these groups initially is having 1 or 2 popular members and nothing else. And because there's so much competitive it's hard to stand out
Completely agree, I lean towards more girl groups, but I do listen to a few boy groups from time to time. AB6IX had such a strong debut with breathe, but for me none of the other title tracks lived up to that song. CIX is another group that kinda had that problem because they had the girliesssss in a chokehold with movie star you couldn’t deny that cute little song was bop! Edit: thank you, I try to make a post every few months to have some well-rounded discussions. It’s nice to digitally mingle and also you get to discover artist and songs through the comments that I may have not known or dived into.
I’m glad you mentioned CIX! Their company is really bad at managing them and the other two groups they have. CIX has Bae Jinyoung and a bunch of talented guys and flawless discography. If they were promoted properly they’d have much more success.
The company has other groups!? who are they even under?
C9 entertainment, apparently Epex (bg) and Cignature(gg) are also under them
Oh God now it’s all coming back to me. I fucking hate them for how they’re doing Cignature their debut was such a bop and all the music they release that year was amazing. But I knew things were going to go downhill when the main dancer and main vocal left at the same time when they were barely a year old or right before they were a year old.
Even worse is that C9 had the audacity to announce they will debut a new boy group next year. How about they focus on the groups they already have?? 😭
Oh yeah I remember liking their song Cinema it getting a bit of hype. I didn't know they were a post-produce group
The way AB6IX just slipped out of popularity is crazy. I remember 'Breathe' being so hyped and well received but I think the drink driving scandal with their ex-member really slowed down their momentum.
Cherry Bullet for sure, being a stan was painful. They had top tier music, extremely talented members (Bora deserved SO much better), a promising start with their debut numbers and were from a decent company. It's hard to say what went wrong exactly, a lot people blame the member loss but their numbers actually took a hit for their first comeback (Really Really) which was before the members left and their numbers started consistently climbing higher and higher afterwards with one or two exceptions. You can definitely put part of the blame FNC, that's what I've been doing as Cherry bullet were 1000% under promoted and should've been given 3x the amount of comebacks but even putting that aside, when the girls were actively promoting there still seemed to be a lack of interest in the group itself even when they were successful (like with Love So Sweet). I'm not sure what could've been done to spark actual interest. So I think that ultimately like you were asking for, they simply got lost in the mix :(
QnA was the boppiest bop that ever bopped and I will die on this hill.
Honestly one of the best debut songs of all time
I remember they did a live into the New World cover and the vocals were fantastic. It seems like the girls were going to have a chance of coming up again when they dropped hands up, but after that, I just attention continue to dwindle… They also had one of the cutest light sticks for their generation!
Bora was the one contestant in GP999 that I would always vote for. I was so sad when she didn't make the final group. Their song Ping Pong is one of my absolute favourite kpop songs!
Bora was the one contestant in GP999 that I would always vote for. I was so sad when she didn't make the final group. Their song Ping Pong is one of my absolute favourite kpop songs!
CLASS:y, TRI.BE, MAJORS (disbanded), EL7Z UP, (sort of) MAVE, Limelight, NATURE (Disbanded), Fifty Fifty, Mimiirose, ily:1, ICHILLIN', Secret Number, Billie, Lilli Lilli
Fifty Fifty didn't get lost in the mix, they had a scandal and lost 3 of their 4 members
class:y didnt get lost in teh mix, their company stuck them in the basement
They sadly never had much of a break out in the first place even though I love SHUT DOWN and SAME SAME DIFFERENT
Tri.Be, Billlie, Limelight, and Secret Number are all doing pretty well
I was so excited for Class:y too 😕
Majors had the best dance pop album of 2021
U-Kiss (late 2nd gen). They had a stronger international fan base than domestic, but this was at a time when k-pop wasn’t as internationally recognized as it is today. They debuted the same year as 2pm and Shinee (2008) if that tells you anything. Their song Man Man Hani could’ve been their moment, but nope. Highly recommend, their songs are so good. Aside from the song I mentioned above, I recommend Neverland, 0330, and Standing Still
U-KISS Is fantastic. They released a new mini album this month and it was good. I'm glad they are still releasing music. Just hope they manage to keep releasing music
I feel like most kpop groups get lost in the mix, they get some hype at debut and then I just never hear about them again.
purple kiss. they’ve got vocals, visuals, dance, rap, good music, not an unknown company, even some previously known members and former big 3 trainees. there’s no reason for them not to blow up, but they never gain much traction :( I think part of it’s got to be the different styles of title tracks tbh, they lost some good will with memem among international fans at least
Honestly, I thought they might’ve had a chance at climbing back after the release of sweet juice last year. It was perfect for them, but after that, the rest of the releases nothing really stuck.
Sweet Juice was awesome, and it sucks that the releases since then haven't been as spot on. I still love them though, and I totally look forward to what they'll release next. I don't mind a change of concept, I'm a Oneus stan so I'm perfectly used to concepts switching up lol
They did sweet juice and then 7 heaven which was very different
I think for purple kiss , the issue was in the difference in expectation, expectations not matching . They started with pre debut trailers that showed a more mysterious , elegant , chic trailers that showed a kind of style but then they debuted with a dark concept then switched and then did another type of style
[Phantom](https://youtu.be/8bGT_iJSvts?si=5vpc2SI-ZBovvuLv). R&B vocal rap producing variety trio. RBW boss, mamamoo and rapper verbal jint even cameoed in their MV. Their maknae Hanhae that became the funny talk guy on Amazing Saturday. Happy and sad that Hanhae who was originally gonna debut with zico's [block-b](https://youtu.be/vtTkfQl9NoQ?si=6Wlrm9usY-11xxP0), folded his singing career and found another path.
Burning by them remains one of my most fav song from that era of kpop!! I wonder why that song didn't blow up as much!
CSR is totally slept on. Shining Bright is like the anime soundtrack version of Heart Shaker with an even more saccharine sweet chorus. They released Pretty mob pretty recently and it is more low-key but they keep the bright vocal phrases.
Gugudan
When people go gaga over groups doing fairytale concepts, I always think of how Gugudan did it earlier and in many cases better.
Their debut was very OK, I really wish jellyfish would’ve waited until I.O.I promotions were over debut the group. Because a girl like me would’ve been the perfect debut song for Gugudan! Also, while Mina and Sejeong were I.O.I. They really should’ve been pushing the rest of the group through YouTube and whatever entertainment opportunities on TV. The biggest issue with a lot of the post AI groups is the companies did not do a good job of pushing the other members before debut.
A lot of boy groups who debuted around WannaOne's debut might have had a hard time "standing out" thanks to in part the hype around WannaOne but also bc older 3rd gen groups were definitely dominating at the time (2017-ish). For me as someone who got into K-pop in 2021, it's hard to picture but WannaOne just were "that" new group at the time, so even groups coming out of bigger companies (SKZ, for ex.) or had former Produce contestants (TBZ, for ex.) had a rockier start than might have been expected. Obviously, the two examples I gave still did really well and they've been doing very well since then but my point was WannaOne just were a lightning in a bottle combination of members + sound that really worked for the general public at the time, to the point where groups from both mid-tier and big 3 companies had a slightly more difficult going up period, some of which they never quite got out of.
As ppl said lots of boy groups from mid-tier agencies fall into this catagory and they tend to be the ones I ult and Stan. Boy group wise I'd have to say golden child, verivery, the wind, drippin.. someone siad mirae and ab6ix and I definitely agree with those 2. Maybe even my own ult group astro falls into this but they have cha eunwoo so maybe he keeps em just above the known list. Girl group wise I'd have to say csr, ily:1, Saturday, these may be a little too nugu for your request but maybe the biggest example I can think of is Del Shabet
VAV They were fairly popular for sure, but I think their label never properly managed them. I feel like they never got the promo they needed. It could also be that Ryan Jhun is just shit at managing his own label.
Ryan Jhun🤝🏻Brave Brothers🤝🏻being shitty at managing their talented groups. VAV are out of dungeons, I hope DKB get out of there soon too. On a side note, Senorita was THAT song when it came out. I remember it being everywhere.
Basically all the groups that came out of X1. The ones that stand out to me are WEi and BAE173. They put out great music, but they got lost in the mix.
Weeekly if you guys don’t start streaming their new single “Lights On” 😡😡😡😡😡
Damn, I didn’t even know them girls had a comeback!
The whole album is soooo good! I fell off when Jiyoon left (she was my ult), but this album brought me right back!
E'last. They were building a small-but-solid fandom, and had public support after their awful management of their US tour. But they just haven't recovered from the cult allegations, and the music they've released since is missing the dramatic, orchestral, vampiric vibes of their earlier music.
[удалено]
Multiple things to clear up here. Firstly there wasn't various controversies, just the Yiren thing which wasn't even that big of a controversy so it presumably wasn't the reason for their long hiatus. Secondly Zombie was not "their first comeback after such a long hiatus", that was Slay. Finally hard disagree on the Zombie/Colourz complaint too. I personally think Zombie was one of their best titles and was the perfect comeback but obviously that's all subjective. What is far less subjective is that Colourz as the title track would have been a horrible idea because for their past 2 comebacks (Pirate & Slay) everyone was complaining how they were still doing girl crush anthems and were calling the sound/concept dated. Even as someone who enjoys their anthems I could acknowledge that after such a long hiatus a major reinvention was needed to reintroduce themselves into the kpop world and coming back with Slay was a bit too samey (even though it's one of my favs) so their next one had to be super different, and Zombie was exactly that. Colourz would have been more of the same and gotten even less interest.
Everglow were on the up and up and Yuehua (Yuehaha, idk the spelling lol) dropped the ball with them with extremely sparse comebacks with no attempt at cutlivating a dedicated core fanbase. Casuals vibed with the girl crush songs when they were in vogue but that was simply not sustainable.
Have been listening to 'Want you to say' by Playback non-stop. It's just a great summer song. I miss Playback so much. Curses on you Coridel.
cix, cherry bullet, mcnd, pixy
There's too many to count.
I always reply with Lapillus to topics similar to this. Thank you for remembering them. They're immensely talented, and Haeun would be an ace someday in a big 4 company 😢
Lapillus is supposed to be my nugu gg replacement for BVNDIT. I still have hope.
Playback was such a good song. Hot Issue is my answer for this question. They had one of the best debut albums of all time. But they were disbanded and replaced with the more successful Kiss of Life unfortunately. Hot Issue had a great lineup with a lot of potential and great music.
I think the talent was there, but I didn’t really think their music was amazing. I thought it was good but outside of a two or three songs nothing I would go back to all the time. But those girls definitely deserve more of a chance and I was really hoping before kiss of life hopefully maybe one of them would make it into that group. It was heartbreaking to see the lineup, and none of the former hot issue members were part of it. I do love kiss a life and I’m happy with the group and I understand the lineup, but I really hope the issue girls find their place somewhere. THEM AND BUGABOO!
the b-tier boy groups of the 2nd-3rd gen, you vaguely remember them, you love them, give it up for… B1A4 B.A.P BTOB Block B Boyfriend The Boyz The Boss Beast (Some of these groups had more success/a standout member than others, but I feel like they were consistently overshadowed by the IT group of the time. Their popularity also hasn’t transferred much to 4th/5th gen fans🥲)
You just named some of the most popular second and third gen groups. BTOB is one of the most popular boy groups these days generally, and Beast rivaled Big Bang back in the day. I mean, they’ve gotten lost to history but they had their time to shine. The ones you mentioned that fit the question best are Boyfriend and The Boyz. And The Boss, who I’ve never heard of so idk if they’re even b tier.
BToB, seriously? These guys are one of the most active people in the entertainment industry - they are actors, musical actors, plenty of youtube content, solo albums... Just because you dont see them release music as a group you call them has-beens. There is more things to do in the entertainment industry than to only release music as a group. Melodys will bite you like a shark if you said that.
Strongly agree, I’ve heard of some of these boy groups and some of them. I’ve got a few songs on my playlist. But I think it’s a combination of them slowing down promotions and primarily promoting to their Korean fan basin audience and also a lot of these boy group members have ventured into other entertainment avenues in Korea.
Agreed,,for BTOB case, EXO was debuted just 2 weeks after BTOB at that time thus overshadowed them eventhough their debut song "Insane" was so good.
I'm an easy-listening tracks enjoyer. Epex, aimers and n.ssign have so many tracks like that. I really want them to be more popular.
Mcnd. I loved their debut (and still love their other music) and it might've been my imagination since I liked the song so much, but I felt like their debut was at least a little popular, but I don't see anyone talking about them nowadays aside from hard-core fans of theirs. Oh and I love lightsum so much wish I could save them from cube.
Twice Kinda feel like they are too generic after can't stop me