[Blog] End Of A Generation

Pack it up y'all, the girl groups we used to love are all dead and gone. Girls' Generation is the proverbial nail in the coffin, with recent news reporting that some members did not resign with S.M. Entertainment. Seohyun, Sooyoung, and Tiffany will not remain under the label, while everyone else - Taeyeon, Sunny, Yuri, Yoona, and Hyoyeon - will resign. Whether it's official or not, Girls' Generation is finished. Yeah they may not have disbanded, but you can't realistically expect all the members to come together in the future when they're under different management. I also feel there's no way S.M. would let that happen, this is S.M. we're talking about.

They could theoretically pull a 9MUSES in the sense that the remaining five members would be a "subunit" but really be all that's left of the main group. With the remaining roster that could work, since you still have Taeyeon on main vocals, Hyoyeon on rapper, etc. etc. It would still be a really strong lineup (mostly thanks to Taeyeon) but somehow I doubt that S.M. would promote the SNSD name as five. Losing Jessica is one thing, but losing three members is another. What will likely happen is that they will promote the members as individual artists: Taeyeon is already a superstar while Hyoyeon and Yoona have dipped their toes in the solo waters. Yuri and Sunny are also plenty capable of performing on their own, so essentially they're a stable of talented soloists. Maybe some unique collaborations are possible that will be explored with the smaller total number of members. For example, a Hyoyeon, Yoona, and Yuri dance team could be lit.

Thus, the story of 2nd generation girl groups is pretty much over. I can't think of many girl groups from when I started getting into Kpop that are still around. KARA is gone, 2NE1 is gone, Wonder Girls are gone, Sistar is gone, etc. etc. The list got shredded this year and sort of leaves a hollow feeling inside. Yeah, there are plenty of new girl groups like Black Pink and Mamamoo on the rise that will continue to make waves, not to mention the slightly senior squads like Girl's Day and Apink still going. But it's a crazy thing to view all these groups that were all the rage kinda go out quietly. Sistar's finale was probably my favorite one so far since they released a great song to exit with. Hopefully the new generation can bring the same magic to the stage.