[Blog] The New Guard

By time of writing, there are some 10 girl groups who have disbanded, will disband soon, or are as good as disbanded. Groups in the first category include KARA and Wonder Girls, groups in the second category include Sistar and T-ARA, and groups in the third category include miss A and After School. I'm really sad - stop taking them away! Frankly, it's harrowing to think so many of the girl group staples are never coming back. If you looked at a list of girl groups pre-2010 and their status in 2017, it paints an extremely depressing scene.

Many of the household names from the heyday of Kpop are already out of the picture. 2NE1 and 4minute had some of the most badass themes and styles among the sea of youthful girl groups, and you had Wonder Girls' band concept revival and the classic releases all these groups shared. From "Mister" to "Sugar Free," and "Nobody" to "I Am The Best," these girl groups dropped hit after hit and it's sad to see them all go. I fear that girl groups of the future, or the rising stars, will never recapture some of the power that the fallen girl groups have. Either they're all sticking to the bland (but popular) innocent and cutesy concepts, or the ones who are trying to stand out have not been seeing the successes that they should have. Don't get me wrong, Twice, GFriend, Oh My Girl are all doing well and with reason - this style sells. But I'm going to miss the void of tougher images that have been left behind. Still, you have Black Pink who is 2NE1 reincarnate, and Sonamoo used to give me hope before they did a 180. I'm praying for at least one or two more girl groups who can bring the pizzazz.

Something else that's come to mind is with the success of I.O.I and other project groups like Unnies, is what the long-term possibilities are with future temporary groups. It could be a path for members of disbanded groups, opportunities for less popular members, and collab chances all wrapped in one. The recent one that caught my attention was "Deep Blue Eyes" by Girls Next Door. If we could see stuff like this more often, it would help change up the pace with so many groups disbanding and (arguably) not enough groups filling in the spaces. Anyway I still have hope, but this is just the changing of the guard. Veteran groups saying farewell, and the younger newer groups saying hello. Speaking of, I'll be taking a look at Cosmic Girls' latest comeback soon, and another Blitz piece for a guy group I've never heard of. Stay tuned.