It takes huge talent and efforts for Kpop groups to stand out among the crowd and garner
public attention.
However, in most cases, these factors are still not enough to bring them to the limelight.
Despite possessing impressive skills and captivating visuals, these Kpop groups are still said
to fail miserably on their way to stardom.
1.
Fiestar Although highly regarded in terms of vocal
skills and visuals, Fiestar’s career was far from smooth.
Since their first public reveal, the group was expected to become the next monster rookie
with the nickname “IU’s younger sisters”.
Nevertheless, after 6 years of working in the industry, Fiestar still remained a no-name
group and eventually disbanded in 2018.
Looking back on their memories as Kpop idols, Fiestar members painfully shared that they
made no benefits throughout their 6 years of working, prompting the members to doubt
their talents and career choices to the point that they had always been on standby to leave
the life of Kpop idols at anytime.
In the hope of attaining public attention, the group once switched to the sexy concept
in 2014 yet this was definitely a wrong move for them.
This decision not only failed to bring success to the group but also led to a broadcast ban
from MBC for the reason that their music video and provocative lyrics were thought to be
implications of a…threesome.
When the song came out, it immediately fell under the protests of viewers, leading to
the regretful disbandment of Fiestar.
During an interview in 2019, Hyemi shared that ever since her trainee days, her career
path has never been easy.
Although rigorously trained and heavily funded by the company, Fiestar still could not make
their name on the Kpop map.
She also revealed that LOEN Entertainment did not mind investing in high-quality costumes
and stages, however, Fiestar still could not receive any profits from their hard work.
2.
High4 When it comes to “one-hit-wonder” Kpop
groups, most people will be reminded of High4 with their national hit “Not spring, love,
or cherry blossoms” collaborating with the “digital monster” IU.
It is safe to say that the company definitely made a smart move when inviting the nation’s
sister IU to collaborate with High4 and boost their public presence.
Their plan went out in a blaze of glory, as the song consistently ranked on top music
charts in Korea whenever spring came even until now, selling over 2.7 million copies.
Unfortunately, their following releases were not as successful.
Initally, the group was thought to continue their success and have a bright career ahead,
however, “Not spring, love, or cherry blossoms” was the only highlight of their career.
Later in August of the same year, the group made their comeback with the ep “High high”.
Though the album had a pretty high number of sales as High4 sold around 1,600 pieces,
it did not create a great impact like their debut song.
In the following years, the group constantly came back with different concepts and songs
yet still failed to continue their early success.
High4 started to fall apart when leader Sangu made his position of wanting to leave the
group and just a while after that, N.A.P Entertainment officially announced that Sangu would move
on with his personal goals and withdraw from High4.
After the leader’s departure, it was rumored that the group would come back as a three-member
group but that never happened because in August 2017, member Alex announced on his Instagram
Live that High4 had already disbanded.
Though the reason was not announced and the agency made no official statement, fans can
still imply that the group was dropped by the company and the members decided to separate
their paths.
So, after four years of being active, High4 eventually disbanded.
3.
Gugudan Having two I.O.I members with certain popularity
among Kpop fans, Gugudan was once expected to become one of the top Kpop girl groups
when they first appeared in front of the public.
Despite their fresh concepts and decent skills, Gugudan could not rise to stardom and eventually
disbanded in 2020, leaving deep regrets among their supporters.
To be specific, Gugudan is a nine-membered girl group from Jellyfish Entertainment that
officially debuted on June 28th, 2016.
The group gained traction from the Korean public as well as Kpop fans for possessing
two members participating in the well-known reality program Produce 101: Kim Sejeong and
Kang Mina.
Since then, the group constantly comeback with different concepts yet still did not
generate any noticeable impact on the Kpop map.
In November of 2018, Gugudan released "Act.5 New Action" with the title song "Not That
Type" which became their last release until their disbandment this 2020.
This decision did not come as a shock to Kpop fans, since the group’s agency had been
showing signs of negligence for the group long before their official disbandment.
Since their last comeback in 2018, the members had been implying their departure on social
media sites and the staff were also found to quit their job.
When member Sally came back to her homeland in China to join the show Chuang 2021, she
revealed that at that time, the company even told her and other members to leave the dorm
for good.
4.
Hari When mentioning the name Hari, high chance
that few people would recognize the Kpop singer.
Although she was a solo artist, I still decided to include her in this list because her situation
was really bizarre.
“Gwiyomi”, surely none of you are unfamiliar with this song, right?
From kindergarten children to adults, everyone fell in love with the cute melodies and lyrics
to the songs.
This hit went viral all over Asia among not only the general public but also the celebrity
world.
Many thought that this song would be a great springboard for the owner of the song to develop
her future career.
In contrast to this expectation, Hari, the owner of “Gwiyomi”, did not have any specific
plans to continue her sudden success.
Starting off as a no-name solo artist, Hari had struggled for a long time in the entertainment
industry.
It seemed that the overwhelming success of “Gwiyomi” took her by surprise and left
her no opportunity to prepare for future moves.
Ever since then, nobody has heard of Hari anymore.
While many voiced their regrets that Hari should have taken advantage of this opportunity
to continue her career as a singer, some rumored that she was already satisfied with the profits
brought by “Gwiyomi” hence decided to leave the Kpop industry and continue her life
as a normal person.
Considering the fact that “Gwiyomi” is now one of the national hits of Korea, many
people believe that this speculation may indeed be true.
So, which of the above cases do you think is the most regrettable?
If you could bring back one of the groups on this list, which one would you choose?