7 Disbanded Or Inactive K-Pop Groups That Fans Regret Missing Out On
If you’re just now getting into K-Pop, or have only gotten into the music genre in the last year or two, there may be a lot of K-Pop groups from the past that you haven’t heard of!
There have been so many incredible artists that have since disbanded or haven’t been active in many years, and it can be sad and frustrating to discover them only to realize they haven’t made new music in years.
Recently, K-Pop fans on Reddit discussed several different groups that they feel this way about, and these are 7 of the most common ones!
1. 4MINUTE
4MINUTE debuted in June 2009 with the song “Hot Issue”. In total, their discography included one full-length album, seven mini-albums, and one full-length Japanese album as well. The group consisted of five members — Jihyun, Gayoon, Jiyoon, HyunA, and Sohyun — but even though they had highly successful hits such as “Crazy” and “Hate”, the majority of them decided not to renew their contracts with Cube Entertainment and 4MINUTE sadly disbanded in June 2016.
2. Girls’ Generation
Girls’ Generation debuted in August 2007 with the single “Into the New World”. They really rocketed into stardom with the hit “Gee” and was long known as the nation’s girl group because of their popularity and overall likeability. In September 2014, however, Jessica was removed from the nine-group, though Girls’ Generation continued to promote as an eight-member group for a while after.
They haven’t officially disbanded, but three remaining members — Tiffany, Sooyoung, and Seohyun — didn’t renew their contracts with SM Entertainment in October 2017, and the group hasn’t had a full comeback since “Holiday” in August of the same year. Hopefully it will still happen at some point, since all eight members are still considered part of the group despite label changes!
3. SISTAR
SISTAR debuted in August 2011 with the song “So Cool”. Long known as the girl group of the summer, SISTAR had a long list of popular summery hits, including “Touch My Body” and “Shake It”, which are two of their more well-known songs, along with “Give It To Me”, “I Like That”, and “Loving U”. Though they did really well overall as a group, in May 2017, the four members – Hyolyn, Bora, Soyou, and Dasom — mutually decided to disband after nearly 6 years together, and they made their final performance of some of their biggest hits on Inkigayo in June 2017.
4. VIXX
VIXX debuted in May of 2012 with the song “Super Hero”. They seemed to be a pretty typical K-Pop group at first, but less than a year later they came out with “On and On”, with a somewhat eerie alien concept that began their careers being known as the “concept-dols” in K-Pop. They often broke the mold with creepy and unusual concepts, such as in “Voodoo Doll” and “Hyde”, and they developed a very loyal fanbase because of it!
Their last full-member comeback was in April 2018 with “Scentist”, before some of the members started doing their military services. However, in August of this year, Hongbin left the company after a controversial livestream, leaving the group with five remaining members — N, Leo, Ravi, Ken, and Hyuk. Both Ravi and, more recently, N, didn’t renew their contracts with Jellyfish Entertainment, but they are still considered part of the group, so hopefully this means they’ll continue to make music together someday!
5. I.O.I
I.O.I was a temporary group formed through the competition show Produce 101 by CJ E&M. The eleven members of the group were chosen from 101 initial trainees on the show, all coming from different companies. They debuted in May 2016 with the song “Dream Girls”, and they had a very successful run as a group! However, they were never meant to last, and as had been planned, they disbanded in January of 2017 to return to their original respective companies. There have been talks of a reunion, though there have been complications that haven’t allowed it to happen yet, but hopefully someday they’ll be able to perform together again!
6. MBLAQ
MBLAQ debuted in October 2009 at Rain‘s Legend of Rainism concert. After this performance, they were highly praised and even considered by some to be the “next DBSK“. They ended up having a very long, successful career with hits such as “Y”, “Mona Lisa”, “This is War”, and “Smoky Girl”. Sadly in December 2014, members Lee Joon and Thunder announced their departure from the group, leaving the other three — Seungho, G.O, and Mir — as the remaining members. Though they haven’t officially disbanded, they haven’t had a comeback since “Mirror” in June 2015, though hopefully they will produce great new music together someday in the future!
7. Wanna One
Like I.O.I, Wanna One was a temporary group made up of the top trainees from the second season of Produce 101. They also had eleven members, all from various companies originally, and were incredibly successful in the K-Pop industry despite being a temporary group! In fact, they still have some of the best album sales in the industry to this day. They debuted in August 2017 with “Energetic”, and had other huge hits such as “Burn It Up” and “Boomerang” as well. They disbanded as planned in December of 2018, though they had their last official concert in January 2019 before they returned to their respective companies or went on different paths.
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