Imagine how big would Gugudan be now with Sejeong's recent rise in popularity

Wasn't Sejeong always popular though?

Sejeong was always extreeeeeeeeemely popular and that was kind of (largely) the reason gugudan fell. The group became Sejeong and friends unironically and the gp didn't really care about the group since the gp only liked and followed Sejeong.

Sejeong was rly popular back then too tho..she had a rly succesful solo debut as well. Jellyfish just fucked up with the groups direction..people werent vibing with them. Also IOI fans werent as dedicated as Iz*One fans since the group was only around for..9 months if im not mistaken.

Sejeong was always popular, if something she was more popular during IOI days than now, she had a good solo debut too, i think they missed with Gugudan's debut, the song, mv, clothes etc and knetz never gave them a second chance

Gugudan had like really nice music, Not That Type and The Boots were bops, and Semina were great too. SEMINA SEMINAAAAAAAAAAA NA NA NA

But she has always been bigger, her first OST sold 1M copies in Korea.

No? Bona also hit it big this year with 2521 but WJSN recent song still flopped.

I don't think it would make any difference. Not always individual popularity translates to group

She was restricted while in the group…now that she isn’t in the group she was able to explore and now more popular…so the group wouldn’t have been more popular with her in it. The writing was on the wall and destined to fail for Gugudan unfortunately.

But Gugudan's problem wasn't Sejeong's popularity (or Mina). It was the horrible "Multiplication Table" name, the title song choices (at least the first one), the costumes and styling, and the large number of members.

If anything, Sejeong is finally able to regain her momentum cos the group has disbanded. They've been holding her back for so long and tried to make it work for those couple years, Jellyfish really milked her popularity to death.

Now she's finally going solo, which is what everyone and the whole of Korea wanted her to do since IOI.

Groups that have a member that is much more popular than the others usually flop not the opposite. Only exception i can think of is ive

I didn't follow gugudan but sejeong was always popular during IOI times and even in her solo activities during that time/early gugudan

it was just that the group gugudan as a whole was somewhat lacking

Quote from catzi

Groups that have a member that is much more popular than the others usually flop not the opposite. Only exception i can think of is ive

I never thought about this, do you think have a member who is much more popular a good thing or a bad thing for the group?

Quote from VaniLuci

I never thought about this, do you think have a member who is much more popular a good thing or a bad thing for the group?

Most of the time is bad because it overshadow other members, people associate the group with only one person and it cant be a good thing to carry the group's rep all on your own

I liked gugudan, particularly their later songs like "Not that type"

but the fact is Sejeong never lacked in popularity ever since PD101.

And it is argued that her popularity is what sank gugudan, because it became Sejeong and nugudan -even Mina and Nayoung did not make a difference.

So do you think it would have been any different with Sejeong's success in acting.

Somethings simply aren't to be - Kpop is 10% talent, 40% marketing & 50% luck.

Having a popular member doesn't guarantee success, look at all groups that have members from IOI, Wanna One and X1, Loona is another example now, Chuu can chart but Loona can't. IVE is the only exception, Lesserafim is from Hybe they succeed even without Sakura and Chaewon

Quote from BubbleSVT

Having a popular member doesn't guarantee success, look at all groups that have members from IOI, Wanna One and X1, Loona is another example now, Chuu can chart but Loona can't. IVE is the only exception, Lesserafim is from Hybe they succeed even without Sakura and Chaewon

To be fair, I would attribute some groups problems (Wanna One, X1, IOI)... to having the short contract and X1 disbanding early. IZ*ONE had 2.5 years to establish themselves and to gain a sizeable fanbase. The others didn't. I do think Starship also just played their cards right (for once..). The others didn't. But you're correct in saying a popular member doesn't guarantee success: look at ASTRO and Cha Eunwoo

Quote from xiaotingskeep1r

To be fair, I would attribute some groups problems (Wanna One, X1, IOI)... to having the short contract and X1 disbanding early. IZ*ONE had 2.5 years to establish themselves and to gain a sizeable fanbase. The others didn't. I do think Starship also just played their cards right (for once..). The others didn't. But you're correct in saying a popular member doesn't guarantee success: look at ASTRO and Cha Eunwoo

IOI was a missed opportunity and Izone was very lucky that they could establish a good fan base before the worst of vote manipulation hitting them.

Also Starship does a good job with GGs at least, even among ex-IOI GGs, only WJSN survives to this day, even if they did not hit the top tiers, they still are profitable and stable.

SISTAR, WJSN and now IVE, Starship sure knows how to do GGs well.

But yes, a super popular member if not managed well can be more a liability to the group than a benefit (Suzy and Miss A is the best example)