[Blog] Wonder Girls & SPICA Bow Out

Welp. For once, delaying a post has some benefits. Originally I was going to write out my woes for the disbanding of Wonder Girls, but now with SPICA joining them I have more material, sort of. KARA was the first true girl group "titan" to fall, and now Wonder Girls joins them next. Even though the band concept gave them extra juice for another two promotion cycles, they'll call it quits after "Why So Lonely." Yubin and Hyelim will remain under JYP, while Yeeun and Sunmi are off to greener pastures. It's really unfortunate because not only were they enjoying success off the "Why So Lonely" mini, but they really had some momentum moving forward. Anyway, I'm curious to see what will come from Yubin and Hyelim remaining under JYP. Hopefully a Yubin solo is in the works, because that sounds amazing. As for Sunmi and Yeeun, both members have previously established themselves as capable soloists during their down years so I'm also excited to see what's in the store for them. Ideally neither will stray from the music path, and I don't think they'd be the ones to do so anyway. Looks like I won't be getting that Wonder Girls vs. AOA band battle after all.

SPICA is a little different. SPICA debuted only five years ago, and while they never saw the popularity of Wonder Girls (or a lot of girl groups, unfortunately), they were extremely impressive from the start. This is a group that possessed two main vocalists: Boa and Bohyung. Not one main and one lead, not a 1-2 punch, but #1a and #1b. Combined with the rest of the roster - Jiwon and Narae having pleasant support vocals, and Sihyun being a capable rapper - they had plenty of talent. Despite their strong selection of title tracks ("Tonight," "Russian Roulette," just to name a few), they never could reach the a level of success that could keep them going. Especially with the drought between "Ghost" and "Secret Time," not to mention the lackluster chart placings of the latter, their end was almost inevitable. I really got into this group during the 2012-2013 years, but the time off really hurt them overall. SPICA was one of the most potent girl groups in terms of their vocals, and hopefully history will not forget them as we move forward and groups like Mamamoo continue to climb higher.

Perhaps this just illustrates the changing of the times. The old generation is truly on their way out, and the younger new generation is in full force. The pre-2010 groups are numbered, while new groups are appearing practically every day. We've yet to see just how many of these ambitious hopefuls can become the next dominant forces in the girl group battles, but one thing is for sure: we've already lost two solid girl groups in 2017. Twice will take up the mantle of JYP's flagship artist (they already did even when WG was still intact), and Mamamoo had long usurped SPICA as the powerhouse vocal group. For now I bid farewell to Wonder Girls and SPICA. You will be missed, but never forgotten.