Without an appointment, many Gen 4 Kpop girl groups are having extremely difficult careers.
In recent days, the intense fight between “mother of NewJeans” Min Hee Jin and HYBE group has become the focus of attention. The two sides constantly argued, no one was willing to give in, even seemingly unrelated names like ILLIT, TWS, RIIZE, FIFTY FIFTY or even BTS were dragged into this war.
Regardless of the outcome of this accusation, the names of the idol group will be somewhat affected, especially NewJeans. And not only NewJeans, but many Gen 4 girl groups have struggled in their careers for many different reasons:
NewJeans took over Kpop like a whirlwind, being the number 1 girl group of Gen 4, they encountered a drama of accusations from their “parents”.
In the Kpop scene that is gradually saturated with the girlcrush concept, NewJeans is a new and unique breeze. 5 young, talented and beautiful girls under the hands of Min Hee Jin are officially leading the trend. NewJeans was launched in a “no-touch” way, hitting the mark with a series of MVs, giving the first impression with music and images. 5 completely new faces, never seen before, make the public extremely curious. And NewJeans won big right from their debut music product.
Ditto – the group’s first comeback single in December 2022 continues to be a “shocking” performance. The song helped NewJeans enter the Billboard Hot 100 after only 5 months of debut and brought home 3 Daesang Song of the Year in the 2023 awards season. The girl group is expected to be the representative to succeed BTS and BLACKPINK, continuing their global success. for Kpop in the international market.
According to the announced schedule, NewJeans will return with a double single this May. However, the drama that broke out between ADOR CEO – Min Hee Jin and HYBE may affect the group’s comeback more or less. Especially when the AODR representative revealed to the media that the accusation of “ILLIT copying NewJeans” was made after careful discussion with the group’s members and legal representatives.
NewJeans is now caught in an awkward situation when technically it is still under the HYBE group and no matter what the outcome of that war is, the 5 girls still have to stay with the company if they don’t want their contracts to be compensated. In terms of love, the relationship between Min Hee Jin and HYBE seems to be irreconcilable overnight. If NewJeans think about their relationship with the person who “created them”, they can choose to leave HYBE to follow Min Hee Jin. However, the 5 girls may fall into the same incident as the previous FIFTY FIFTY, have to compensate for a contract worth billions of dong and almost disappear from showbiz. It depends on whether their comeback in May will go smoothly on the choices of 5 members. This is really difficult for NewJeans!
aespa – SM’s “fighting cock” when debuted was highly anticipated but fell short in the long run
aespa debuted in 2020 and is currently in the 4th year of its career. The group was created by company founder Lee Soo Man as SM’s Gen 4 representatives. He even built a unique worldview for SM called “Kwangya” based on aespa’s concept of the future and AI.
After an impressive debut with Black Mamba, aespa created a big explosion for the Korean entertainment industry when launching Next Level. The song became 1 of 3 girlgroup songs in the top 3 Melon Weekly Chart for 12 weeks, breaking the record set by SNSD’s Gee 13 years ago. The songs released later also achieved many impressive achievements.
In early February 2023, the “battle” between the big guys regarding the management of SM took place fiercely, causing aespa’s comeback schedule to be more or less affected. In mid-August 2023, SM clearly demonstrated its goal of attacking the US market when letting aespa release the English song – Better Things. Despite actively promoting in the United States, the song’s actual achievements were too poor. The audience said that Better Things failed in the US because it was a lackluster dance-pop song that lacked emphasis. The MV was filmed in a rather old style and the lyrics were criticized as cliché.
Their ambition to advance to the US failed, aespa returned to work mainly in their home country of Korea and continued to make their mark through each comeback. However, if you want to find a boom like the Next Level era, it certainly requires the tireless efforts of the 4 SM girls.
BABYMONSTER struggles under the huge shadow of senior BLACKPINK
In 2023, BABYMONSTER debuted to the audience with the song Batter Up but only with a 6-member lineup, lacking “trump card” Ahyeon. The group’s debut song caused controversy because the quality of the music and concept did not match the members’ talents.
The audience once again placed expectations on SHEESH as a second chance for BABYMONSTER to affirm its position in the Kpop music industry. “Re-debuting” with a full 7-member lineup, BABYMONSTER’s 3rd MV was considered a boring combination, lacking in depth to the point that no matter how talented the group was, they still “lacked room to use martial arts” due to their appearance. There are too many details related to famous seniors.
Besides, being constantly compared to senior BLACKPINK or rival girl group ILLIT makes many people have even more expectations for BABYMONSTER’s success. Despite breaking album sales records or achieving huge views on YouTube, SHEESH’s digital music rankings were extremely poor when they debuted, and it wasn’t until promoting on music stages that they gradually improved. However, BABYMONSTER is still a promising factor in the music industry in the future.
LESSERAFIM has hits but lacks skills, labeled “the shame of Kpop”
Equally struggling as NewJeans is the girl group that debuted at almost the same time – LE SSERAFIM. Although active for 2 years, LE SSERAFIM already has extensive idol experience before that. In addition to the youngest member Eunchae, who is a new element, and Kazuha, whose starting point is ballet, all three members, Kim Chaewon, Sakura, and Huh Yunjin, were trained through survival shows. Among them, Kim Chaewon and Sakura also won debut slots with the extremely famous project girl group IZ*ONE. In particular, eldest sister Sakura has more than 15 years of experience as an idol because she debuted in Japan before coming to Korea.
Thought to be a promising talent, the more LE SSERAFIM works, the more controversial it becomes. The group still does well in many areas, but the most important skill of a singer, the voice, is disappointing and culminates with the stage at the 2024 Coachella music festival.
In mid-April, LE SSERAFIM officially had its first stage at Coachella 2024. The group’s set lasted 50 minutes with 11 songs, including many familiar hits. LE SSERAFIM scored points with a stage invested in visuals, choreography and a catchy live band arrangement. The 5 girls showed their strength in stage presence, the crowd danced along passionately thanks to the well-arranged and attractive setlist.
However, the live voice of the HYBE girl group is the reason why social networks exploded with negative reactions. The impression of LE SSERAFIM after the Coachella stage on day 1 was that of a “tone deaf” girl group, unable to sing, constantly cracking when reaching high pitch. The group received negative reactions from their home country of Korea, being labeled “shame of Kpop”.
Knet felt embarrassed by LE SSERAFIM’s disastrous live stage, each member’s shortcomings were “exposed”. Kpop’s image became degraded because of LE SSERAFIM’s performance. HYBE girl group had a performance. Coachella’s debut was disappointing. Moreover, two members of the group also took action to “fuel the fire”: Leader Chaewon posted a provocative photo, and eldest sister Sakura confidently affirmed “this is the best performance of the group”.
ITZY “pops fast, disappears fast”
In February 2019, JYP launched ITZY. In the beginning, ITZY was a pioneering girl group of the generation, exploding across all music fronts. The combo of hits Dalla Dalla – Icy – Wannabe quickly helped ITZY gain popularity, becoming aespa’s most formidable “rival”.
The debut performance was extremely good, but JYP was unable to maintain ITZY’s attraction. The group began to lose form in 2021. From the pioneering girl group of the generation, ITZY retreated with a series of comebacks that could not escape fans.
The year 2023 was ITZY’s most unstable year when member Lia suspended activities indefinitely due to health problems. ITZY lacks a main vocal. The comeback in early 2024 with Born To Be also did not create a buzz, even though the release time did not “clash” too many competitors. Many people believe that ITZY’s failure came from JYP’s strategy. The group had extremely favorable development momentum in the beginning, but JYP’s change in promotion affected ITZY’s long-term career.
NMIXX – Beauty cannot save music that is too difficult to absorb
Not only having problems with ITZY, NMIXX – JYP’s 2nd generation girl group is also not very booming. Possessing talented faces, “top visuals” like Sullyoon, Lily,… but JYP has wasted the girls’ resources right from their debut project O.O. With the ambition to create a girl group that does pioneering things , NMIXX’s music was difficult to absorb from the beginning. JYP focused on building a fandom and neglected the need for new recruits to become familiar with the public.
NMIXX is fully capable of becoming the leading group of the generation. But in the context of direct competition with IVE, NewJeans and LE SSERAFIM or even junior groups like ILIT – BABYMONSTER, picky music has hindered the group. Currently, when listing the top girl groups, NMIXX and ITZY have been forgotten by the public. In terms of achievements, NMIXX has never exploded even though it has been in operation for the third year.
IVE – A bright step but coming from a small company, the future is difficult to determine
Although IVE debuted in a small company, they own two members with a huge fan base from the project girl group IZ*ONE, Wonyoung and Yujin, so the group quickly achieved a lot of success as soon as they debuted. The series of hits Eleven, After LIKE and especially Love Dive made the group’s recognition more popular in the eyes of the audience.
However, in 2023, the company released 3 title songs, causing IVE’s achievements to decline compared to previous times. Besides, the American experiment with MV All Night was also considered lackluster and disappeared from the charts. Therefore, many people are looking forward to IVE’s recent comeback with a unique concept and a song that promises to be catchy.
(G)I-DLE has a successful comeback
Similar to IVE, (G)I-DLE, despite starting from a small company, with the talent and acumen of leader Soyeon, this girl group continuously achieves high success each time they come back. It can be seen that (G)I-DLE’s career would have developed extremely smoothly if the fan-attracting member Soojin had not been accused of school violence to the point of being forced to leave the group.
However, (G)I-DLE still successfully bounced back with a 5-member lineup. Most recently, the group’s side song Fate also achieved Perfect All-kill on Korean music charts.
