Have you noticed that many recent disbandments were after about 4,5 years of activity?

I think the days of low-mid tier groups finishing their 7 year contract is done.

I assume the economy can't support these groups anymore and fans don't really check them out. With the big companies having multiple active groups at the same time, there's not much room for these type of groups to grow. A group now needs to start strong and have a large fan base early because if they don't then most likely disbanding within 3-5 years.

Even if a song goes viral it doesn't mean much because it matters what you do with it after. A group just needs to hope people actually check their music when they go viral. I think this happened with Rescene where Love Attack went viral and people decided to check out their music, and it resulted in reaching new high in album sales with their latest comeback. Now they just need to continue the momentum and hopefully gain fans.

Quote from StanGIDLE

Even if a song goes viral it doesn't mean much because it matters what you do with it after. A group just needs to hope people actually check their music when they go viral. I think this happened with Rescene where Love Attack went viral and people decided to check out their music, and it resulted in reaching new high in album sales with their latest comeback. Now they just need to continue the momentum and hopefully gain fans.

yea h1key had a semi viral song but i predict they wont last long too

Quote from draggehz

yea h1key had a semi viral song but i predict they wont last long too

Correct, Rose Blossom gave them a viral hit and it charted in the top 20. It resulted in the group reaching new heights in sales. I believe the first week for that comeback had just 6k sales but it ended up getting 35k sales in total because that song was a hit. Then off of the hype their follow up doubled in sales but it didn't connect with the audience like Rose Blossom. Now they're free-falling in sales and I don't think many are checking their comebacks. I did enjoy their latest comeback but sales for it only reached 10k first week.

I believe they left their current company but unsure if their situation improves. It's why it's important to carry on momentum because people are quick to drop a group and building a fanbase is the most important thing.

Not sure if it's really a new thing, groups have been disbanded after just a couple of years as long as I have followed kpop, so not sure if it have really increased? But maybe.

Overall I would not say it a bad thing, I mean most cases it's probably a mutal agreement between the company and the artist to end it early after a couple of years when they see that there is not much progress for the group. After 3-4 years struggling without any success I would guess a lot of artist would think on moving on to something else and would accept to disband if the company maid a suggustion like that.

Still, it's of cource is disapointing when groups you like die young.

Statically, 2013-2016 are worst years to debut. There was a high percentage of groups debuted in that periods disband early.

Most kpop groups do not make it to their 7 year.

That has always been the case.

We just have so many more groups now, that it looks more visible.

Quote from BEG4DAWIN

Most kpop groups do not make it to their 7 year.

That has always been the case.

We just have so many more groups now, that it looks more visible.

Not really, more than 80% boy groups made it to the 7th year.

50% for 2nd gen girl groups.

The problem is that there were only 16% of 3rd gen girl groups survived 7 years.

We'll have to wait until 2029 to know the number of 4th gen. So far it's better than 3rd gen at least.

Quote from vinslow4

Not really, more than 80% boy groups made it to the 7th year.

50% for 2nd gen girl groups.

The problem is that there were only 16% of 3rd gen girl groups survived 7 years.

We'll have to wait until 2029 to know the number of 4th gen. So far it's better than 3rd gen at least.

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I do not know about Boy groups.

But by my count, there were around 63 Girl groups that debuted between 2003 and 2011 (Generations exact years are disputed).

Out of those based on incomplete data (many groups never announce their disbandment, they just stop releasing music) 44 or so 'disbanded' before 7 years. That is like 70% of GGs disbanding before the 7 year contract.

I counted 18 that disbanded/disappeared in a year or a little over 1 year.

Quote from BEG4DAWIN

I do not know about Boy groups.

But by my count, there were around 63 Girl groups that debuted between 2003 and 2011 (Generations exact years are disputed).

Out of those based on incomplete data (many groups never announce their disbandment, they just stop releasing music) 44 or so 'disbanded' before 7 years. That is like 70% of GGs disbanding before the 7 year contract.

I counted 18 that disbanded/disappeared in a year or a little over 1 year.

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1 year is too few. Some group need 2-3 years between releases. For example SNSD didn't release anything between 2011/12 to 2012/12 or between 2013/02 to 2014/03, Wonder Girls between 2013 to 2015 (don't remember exact month).

My standard is 2 years after last release, or just official disbandment.

63 is plenty, I'm using data from kpopping then there are only 47 ggs debut during that period.

Anyway, here is the chart

An interesting observation is that 3rd gen has 3x number of ggs but less ggs survived 8 years (mean breaking the 7 years curse) than 2nd gen.

Quote from vinslow4

1 year is too few. Some group need 2-3 years between releases. For example SNSD didn't release anything between 2011/12 to 2012/12 or between 2013/02 to 2014/03, Wonder Girls between 2013 to 2015 (don't remember exact month).

My standard is 2 years after last release, or just official disbandment.

63 is plenty, I'm using data from kpopping then there are only 47 ggs debut during that period.

Anyway, here is the chart

Gen	Count	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
1st	13	84.62%	76.92%	61.54%	61.54%	53.85%	46.15%	38.46%	30.77%	23.08%	15.38%	15.38%	15.38%	15.38%	7.69%	7.69%
2nd	47	93.62%	87.23%	78.72%	72.34%	70.21%	63.83%	53.19%	44.68%	34.04%	29.79%	25.53%	25.53%	25.53%	19.15%	14.89%
3rd	145	94.48%	75.17%	57.24%	45.52%	35.17%	27.59%	18.62%	8.97%	6.90%	4.14%	2.07%	0.69%	0.00%	0.00%	0.00%

An interesting observation is that 3rd gen has 3x number of ggs but less ggs survived 8 years (mean breaking the 7 years curse) than 2nd gen.

2nd gen 8 yrs	3rd gen 8 yrs
Girls' Generation	Twice
Apink	Red Velvet
Wonder Girls	Blackpink
Kara	Mamamoo
T-ara	EXID
Davichi	Oh My Girl
Brown Eyed Girls	Laboum
Girl's Day	Sweden Laundry
BB GIRLS	Laysha
Secret	HeyGirls
After School	Sixbomb
9Muses	Bubble-X
Sunny Hill	fishingirls
RaNia
Gavy NJ
Big Mama
2NB
Story Seller
Sweet Revenge
Trampauline
OKDAL

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Part of the problem is what Girl groups make it to the list.

For 3rd Gen I have 205 GGs vs your 145 number.

That means that there are about 60 GGs that I count as debuting in the 3rd Generation that are not on your list.

Those GGs are so nugu that some websites do not even list them, most of them are groups that probably put out one song and then they disappear from the industry.

Here is the list I have for 2nd Generation (BTW, I just saw that I am missing another GG that debuted in 2003 "Morning" )

Quote from vinslow4

The problem is that there were only 16% of 3rd gen girl groups survived 7 years.

I would guess it's because a lot of new smaller companies with less resources and competence tried their luck after kpop took during the 2nd generations, during early 2nd generation it probably was more established companies and people that was behind the majority of the groups.

Quote from BEG4DAWIN

Part of the problem is what Girl groups make it to the list.

For 3rd Gen I have 205 GGs vs your 145 number.

That means that there are about 60 GGs that I count as debuting in the 3rd Generation that are not on your list.

Those GGs are so nugu that some websites do not even list them, most of them are groups that probably put out one song and then they disappear from the industry.

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I wonder if we can count group released just 1 song (not full album) then disappeared a real group. Some of them were temporary projects or we just don't have data about their later releases.

Btw, thank for the list. I'll cross check with my list when have time. I used kpopping just because it has downloadable data to save time on writing crawler.

P/s: pretty sure your list is missing i-13, the first ever big Korean gg.

Soon, it's gonna be shorter than 3 minute, I mean years... sorry.

If you know, you know...

Quote from StanGIDLE

N‍ow they're free-f‍alling in sales and I d‍on't think many are checking their comebacks.

Fortunately, "Summer Was Y‍ou (여름이었다)" is performing decently on the charts, so not all hope is lost:

summerWasYou.png

Actually it is better for nugu acts going nowhere to disband earlier so its members could find another job .

The group called Ye-A is very little known, debuting in 2014 and disbanding, without a noise, in 2016, with only one member, Kazoo, much, much better known as Kwon Eunbi, still in showbiz.

If Ye-A did not disband earlier but lingered on Kwon Eunbi would not have found another job, although it did hurt someone else.

All of the acts mentioned in the OP had members who would have gone somewhere if they were released from their hopeless acts, but they are now aged and newer generations have arrived.

Gugudan was disbanded in 2020, and a member Hyeyeon, now going with the name Jo Aram, is doing better than anyone else in the act although Jo Aram did leave before the group disbanded.

"존속 어려워" 걸그룹, 연이은 해체·활동 중단…씁쓸 [N초점]

최근 연차가 찬 걸그룹들이 연이어 해체하거나, 활동 중단 소식을 전해 짙은 아쉬움을 남긴다.걸그룹 퍼플키스(PURPLE KISS)의 소속사 RBW는 지난 4일 공 …

www.news1.kr

A music official said, "After the tempering incident of some teams, investors withdrew a lot of investments in the entertainment industry, and distributors are also cautious about investing."

Another official explained, "Recently, the production cost of idol teams has risen too much, and everyone invests a lot in music videos, costumes, promotions, etc.," and added, "Even if it is a burdensome situation for the company, if we don't invest that much, our competitiveness will lag behind, so we have no choice but to keep up." At the same time, he said, "The more annual leave you have, the more production costs accumulate, but if you can't make a profit, it will be difficult for the company to keep the team afloat." He also predicted, "This is a vicious circle," and "It will get more and more difficult, and this phenomenon will continue for the time being."

Dammit Hybe. lol kidding.