SolUnits: A new category of Kpop Acts

Kpop tends to pile all sorts of acts into the same pool and that rarely helps with valid comparison.

One such case is when members of active/not disbanded groups, do solo activity. They benefit from the fandom of the group, which extends as support for themselves. It is only when the group has gone inactive for few years, people would know whether the member truly has fans for themselves or just benefitting from the groups.

So I think these individual ventures should be treated similar to SubUnits of 1, i.e. SolUnit.

To differentiate from Soloists whose groups were in the past, or were never in any group.

Jennie, Jisoo, Rose, Lisa, Nayeon, Jihyo, Suga, RM, Jin, Jimin, Jungkook, Jhope, V are all SolUnits at this point. Even Chuu, Jinni their identity is tied to their groups.

Taeyeon, Hyuna, Sunmi, Chungha, Hwasa, Solar, Wheein, Somi, Sejeong, Kyunhyun, Kang Daniel etc., their group days are long gone, so can be considered Soloists.

Even Baekhyun, D.O., Suho, Kai are getting there.

Ailee, Lee Hi, Heize were always solos, but maybe not idols for they never went through the idol trainee process & debut.

Of course the anomalous phenomenon of Kpop is IU - a true Solo & an idol by training.

So GROUPS, SUBUNITS, SOLUNITS & SOLOISTS

Quote from wsoet

An issue I see with this classification is that the distinction between an "active" and an "inactive" group isn't always clear. For example, I'm not so sure that I'd call Mamamoo inactive, since they were just touring last year. And with Kyuhyun, Super Junior just released a new song last month.

True.. But then very few things in Kpop can have exact definitions.

Active/Inactive will also be perception oriented.

SJ is even if they release occasional content.

Mamamoo, might be trickier, I don't think they are that far in the past to consider them as inactive. They, EXO are kind of in the middle, so the members should be considered SolUnits.

Reunion stuff like SNSD, Kara don't matter, then still are inactive.

Quote from Varenka

Sure. It seems fair. Singers that have been shown to stand on their own with enough time away from their group vs artists who hasn't had enough time to see if they can stand themselves. I also agree that Mamamoo is too recent to be in the soloist group. I would would wait for an entire generation has past for any gen 3 debutante be considered a true soloist. And I would have any gen 2 and earlier singer releasing now to be a soloist.

That's a good metric wsoet .

If the group was 2nd gen, then the person can be considered Soloist.

3rd gen and on, would be SolUnits

But again even "Gens" aren't clear cut in Kpop. There are borderline cases.

Quote from Varenka

That's true. Probably it's better to have some number of years after their first single. Since some artists can just happen to start releasing at the end of the next generation. Taeyeon has been doing it for about eight years now, so maybe 5 or 6 years after their contract negotiations? Groups are typically inactive for a few years at that point aside from special reunions.

Actually Taeyeon debuted as a soloist even before Soshi, continued through it and now beyond it.

The key is whether fandoms still expect the group to get back together and release- other than reunions. If that door is firmly shut, then they are Soloists, else Solunits