While the probability to debut as a KPOP idol is smaller than being struck by lightning,
the chance to build a name in this fiercely competitive battle ground was actually a million
times smaller than that. On average, more than 100 groups debut each
year, but you can only remember 5 to 10 rookies debuted in 2020, can’t you? The number of
successful acts are counted on the fingers of one hand only. The rest whose popularity
remains zero after years of working are even specifically referred to as “nugu groups”—which
could be roughly translated into English as “Nobody.” Though there are countless nugu
groups in the industry, for the limited amount of time of today’s video, only some will
be mentioned.
BaBa BaBa is a girl group debuted in 2015 under
PR Entertainment and have had some pretty wild changes. Over their 5-year career, the
group has had 21 members through various lineups, but their final lineup consisted of 5 members:
Pureum, Starlight, Sooreem, Chaeha and Johwa. Different from most groups, they debuted with
a techno cover of Sergeant Kim's Return from Vietnam— a song by Shin Jun Hyun from 1969,
instead of a song produced exclusively for them. To attract more attention from the public,
they turned to the mature and sexy concept in the second comeback. However, upon the
realization that such a change couldn’t help their fanbase grow bigger, they switched
back to the cute concept for the latest promotion in 2018 “Oh! My God!” but, since they
remained a nugu group after that comeback, the girls ended up disbanding in 2020.
Speaking of the reasons for Baba's failure to thrive, there are several points to be
named. First is about the constant change in line-up. As I’ve mentioned, within the
short span of five years, 21 people have come and gone and just imagine, how could any fan
bear when they had to constantly change biases, but still, the new biases they just rooted
left them the very next day? If you’re a fan of Baba, could you remain a loyal fan
and root for the group in such a situation? No, definitely not.
The second reason comes down to the songs that Baba had been releasing. Probably for
their limited budget, the girls rarely had any tracks that could get people hooked right
from the start. If it had not been for the lame melody then there would have been something
plain with the lyrics. And of course, the last reason: bad luck. What else could make
a group “nugu” when everyone checked all the boxes and was also trying hard despite
the constant line-up change? Bad luck, obviously. Even with their last comeback, Baba could
only promote three times on THE SHOW with the most viewed performance having around
5k views and 28 comments. Eventually, the group ended up disbanding
in 2020.
Holics Although Holics, a girl group debuting in
2016 under LPA Entertainment, also had the same rock-bottom budget like Baba, they remained
a nugu not really for unfortunate but rather the lacking qualifications of the members.
Initially, Holics were composed of five members: Yulim, Yeonjeong, Yunseong, Mina and Yoonju.
However, until now, only three members stayed because Yurim left after the promotion of
Funky Dunky and Yoonju either went on an indefinite hiatus or departure after the promotion of
“Our Story.” As mentioned earlier, bad luck had no interference with the group’s
failure but instead, it was for their poor MV quality and the terrible shortcomings.
First, throughout their career, there were hardly any videos that were taken seriously,
from the camera angles in the MV to the melody of the song. In fact, their debut MV “U.lie”
looked nothing more than a low-quality dance assignment done in the last minutes. Opening
the video, you’ll be met with a scene where all members look as stiff as pencils doing
awkward hip wiggling. Then, U.lie proceeded with the choreography that can irritate the
eyes, and the vocal that can cause a listening fatigue. (chèn 1 đoạn video của MV này
vào đây)
Things also didn’t get any better in the second one “Our Story” since it was pretty
much another cheesy school project. Especially for part from 0:45 to 1:05, you’ll see how
lacking the vocal techniques of these two members are. (chèn phân đoạn đó vào
đây, khoảng vài giây thôi)
Though the dancing skills of Holics did improve in time, with regard to their singing capabilities,
they were way under the bars except for Mina and Yeonjeong. Especially for the former member
Yurim, while it remained unclear as to whether the company forced her to have such an annoying
vocal and chubby figure, as everyone started to get mortified by her lines in Holics’s
song, she ended up leaving the group in 2020.
Lipbubble Another nugu group that managed to debut just
to struggle every single day after with super low budgets was Lipbubble. Despite the name,
LipBubble has nothing to do with blisters or cold sores. In 2017, the group debuted
under Zenith Media with the eight-member line-up: Winy, Lia, Seoryn, Mirae, Ella, Haea, Eunbyeol,
and Hanbi.
Somewhat luckier than the previous two groups, LipBubble had already built up some anticipation
before debut thanks to their impressively synchronized dance cover video of Rihanna's
"B*tch Better Have My Money", which has around 130,000 views as of this post. Then the group’s
reputation also increased a little bit after Eunbyeol and Hanbi appeared on KBS’s The
Unit. Unfortunately, the pair didn’t help Lipbubble become any more famous since neither
made it through the first elimination. Probably to gain more public attention, LipBubble was
forced to do one of the most controversial debuts ever with “Popcorn.”
During that time, LipBubble was accused of releasing a mixed version of TWICE’s Cheer
Up and Red Velvet’s Russian Roulette. From the concept, MV, choreography to even photocards
and stage costumes, everything reminded people of either one of the two famous MVs of two
top girl groups of KPOP.
Though LipBubble tried to fix the mess with the second comeback “Yellow Pink,” an
upgrade in aesthetic, musical quality, and originality, they still failed to attract
attention since everyone was fed up with groups that used crafty tricks to be famous. Even
until now, the MV has just had around 55k views and 344 comments.
HOTSHOT Besides nugu girl groups, there are also tons
of other boy groups that you may have never heard about. The first one on this list is
HOTSHOT, a boy group debuting under Stone Music Entertainment. In 2014, they made their
very first public appearance with the line-up of six members: Ha Sung-woon, Roh Tae-hyun,
Choi Joo Hyuk, Kim Timoteo, Junhyuk and Go Hojung. Despite possessing the promising and
talented face who used to train along with EXO members - Timoteo - HOTSHOT still struggled
to survive in the cut-throat environment of KPOP.
Similar to some members of S.I.S and LipBubble, Sungwoon and Taehyun participated in Produce
101 Season 2 to save the group’s reputation. Though they were both ranked in A class in
the first evaluation, and Ha Sung-woon even made it onto the final lineup, not many people
actually know about HOTSHOT until now.
That also explained why in 2017, Timoteo and Hosung went on another survival show, “The
Unit”, to revive their group. Still, they failed once again.
Despite being a talented boy group checking all the boxes: visual, expression, stage presence,
singing and dancing, the group hasn’t had any promotions for two years and obviously,
their future remains a big question. Seemingly, the company really wanted to invest further
in HOTSHOT but since it was understaffed, buried in debt and super broke, there was
nothing to be done. For a long time, HOTSHOT had to produce their own song, come up with
the choreography, fan chant and even do the whole promotion process themselves.
JJCC The next boy group that suffered from a similar
fate with HOTSHOT is JJCC. The group debuted in 2014 under the management of Jackie Chan
Group Korea with the initial lineup of five members: E.Co, Edy, Prince Mak, Simba, and
San Chung. Not long after that, two new faces: Yul and Zica, were added to the group. However,
Prince Mak left the group in 2017 after signing with Emperor Entertainment Group Beijing to
pursue a solo career in China.
Though JJCC did initially gain some attention for being the first-ever KPOP group trained
and debuted by the company of Jackie Chan, the public interest quickly faded away since
JJCC didn’t have anything particularly distinguished.
After the 2016 promotion of “ToDay,” upon the realization that they could hardly thrive
in the domestic market, JJCC started to go for the Japanese industry in the same year.
However, they failed miserably. As of today, their MV “ToDay” has only had around…
91k views and their debut MV in Japan “FREEDOM” has also seen a humble number of roughly 155k
views.
So, which group do you find most regretful? Do you think any of them should have never
debuted and why so? Just comment down below to share your thoughts with us. Also don’t
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