[Discussion] Unsuccessful or Mismanaged? (2021)

[satoori]

1. There are groups with great concepts/songs/talent and companies that work decently. But still for some reason (luck, timing and or whatever) they're simply unsuccessful at making a big breakthrough or surviving the Kpop industry.

2. Then there are groups who are simply mismanaged by their companies. Their companies are terrible at managing, marketing and or making good decisions. Basically their company is mainly to blame.

Unsuccessful or Mismanaged. Which one best describes the reason for the downfall or decline of the groups listed below. 

 

 

CLC
April
Gugudan
Pristin
Topp Dogg
B.A.P.
EXID
Momoland
2ne1
Got7
Kara
Miss a
U-Kiss
f(x)
4minute
Beast/Highlight
Mblaq
Secret
T-ara
Nine Muses
Ze:a
Teen top
B1a4
Boyfriend
Rania (pre-Blackswan)
Stellar
ChoColat
Cross Gene
Fiestar
Hello Venus
GI
History
Wassup
Berry good
Laboum
Uniq 
Hotshot
Romeo
DIA
Astro
KNK
Vromance
MYTEEN

 

Note: Feel free to skip or add groups

Edited February 10, 2021 by satoori
updated.

[satoori]

CLC - unsuccessful (high quality mvs and concepts. perhaps that scandal in the past impacted their growth? and wasn't fully ever able to recover)
April - unsuccessful
Gugudan - unsuccessful
Pristin - mismanaged
Topp Dogg - unsuccessful...then later mismanaged
B.A.P. - mismanaged...then later unsuccessful (despite release great tracks and concept the group couldn't recover after all the lawsuit drama)
EXID - unsuccessful
Momoland - unsuccessful (sadly can't seem to get over the one hit hump yet...)
2ne1 - mismanaged
Got7 - mismanaged
Kara - unsuccessful (after the two members left they were never able to recover despite having decent management)
Miss a - unsuccessful???... (min did well on variety early on, china line had their own radio show, and suzy of course was popular...miss a great concepts but korea only cared about suzy)
U-Kiss - unsuccessful
f(x) - mismanaged (great concepts, but SM sort of neglected them overtime)
4minute - unsuccessful (did very well even with cube lacking here and there, however when 4minute begin to experiment more with girl crush things seem to fall apart)
Beast/Highlight - mismanaged?
Mblaq - mismanaged 
Secret - hmmmm ... unsuccessful (while TS is known for being terrible, secret actually had good cocnepts and promo, i think with time the community moved on when trends changed)
Tara - mismanaged (company didn't handle the scandal properly)
Nine Muses - unsuccessful (deserve better from kfans/ifans)
Ze:a - unsuccessful
Teen top - unsuccessful (tbh still releasing great songs)
B1a4 - unsuccessful (one of the greatest 2nd BG. it's unfortunate they could never quite blow up)
Boyfriend - unsuccessful
Rania (pre-Blackswan) - unsuccessful (concept was to much for korea. and ifans were not ready to fully support either)
Stellar  - unsuccessful (korea couldn't get behind their concept)
ChoColat - unsuccessful (kpop wasn't ready for them, now might be different)
Cross Gene - unsuccessful
Fiestar - mismanaged
Hello Venus - mismanaged
GI - unsuccessful (debut song and concept was FIRE!!!! they deserve better from the kpop community)
History - unsuccessful
Wassup - unsuccessful (korea wasn't ready for such a concept)
Berry good - unsuccessful
Laboum - unsuccessful
Uniq - mismanaged
Hotshot - unsuccessful
Romeo - unsuccessful (being accused of plagiarizing other senior groups didn't help)
DIA - mismanaged
Astro - unsuccessful (eunwoo doing great unfortunate the group can't get that momentum too)
KNK - unsuccessful
Vromance - unsuccessful
MYTEEN - unsuccessful

Edited February 10, 2021 by satoori
bold

[love]

with momoland i would say that MLD is largely responsible for their downfall...i mean they lost three members in a really short amount of time (one being yeonwoo, one of their most popular members with jooe and nancy) which doesn't just happen unless there's some shady stuff going on at the company imo.  not even delving into their poor PR regarding the "attitude" controversies and plagiarism.  or even dating news...daisy's comes to mind.  so strange.

but i can kind of see the unsuccessful angle in the sense that none of their immediate releases after bboom bboom ever hit nearly as big--baam did decently well but it was also criticized for being a rehash.

[Lizzo]

why are some of these groups on this list????????????????????

EXID, T-ara, 2NE1, Highlight, and GOT7 among others are not like the others.

Edited February 10, 2021 by Lizzo

[satoori]

1 minute ago, Lizzo said:

why are some of these groups on this list????????????????????

EXID, T-ara, 2NE1, Highlight, and GOT7 among others are not like the others.

tbh i just picked a bunch of groups i've heard people talk about over the years. so i was interested how people felt now.

[YooJeong]

I'm only gonna do the ones I know well enough to form an opinion on 

CLC - Both
April - Both lol
Gugudan - Mismanaged 
Pristin - Mismanaged 
Momoland - Mismanaged. They had all the potential. 
Miss A - Mismanaged 
4minute - Both 
B1a4 - Hmm both but idk some of their members are very successful individually. I think probably just unsuccessful was a group tho. 
Fiestar - Hmm both
Berry good - Unsuccesful 
Laboum - Both 
DIA - Unsuccesful, the company is a mess too tho 

f(x), Got7, Kara, 2NE1, Exid , Highlight and T-Ara These are all successful groups lol 

I think it's usually a combo of both. Companies could have promoted/handled things better. Some groups had chances for breakthroughs (April, Fietsar, Laboum, Dia) but just never made it. Some groups had potential and did show signs of success but were managed horribly (4minute, Miss A, Pristin, Gugudan), some just never got the hype (Fietsar, Berry Good, CLC).  

[GetRapper]

I pretty much agree with all your conclusions, though I would say every group under TS including Secret and B.A.P. were mismanaged.

Hello Venus really pissed me off, their original concept and members were amazing and they were a hit. The termination of the agreement between Fantagio and Pledis doomed them.

[satoori]

1 hour ago, love said:

with momoland i would say that MLD is largely responsible for their downfall...i mean they lost three members in a really short amount of time (one being yeonwoo, one of their most popular members with jooe and nancy) which doesn't just happen unless there's some shady stuff going on at the company imo.  not even delving into their poor PR regarding the "attitude" controversies and plagiarism.  or even dating news...daisy's comes to mind.  so strange.

but i can kind of see the unsuccessful angle in the sense that none of their immediate releases after bboom bboom ever hit nearly as big--baam did decently well but it was also criticized for being a rehash.

Similar thoughts. Tho I ended up picking unsuccessful since it's the one that best fits, for me. While their company is maybe shady behind the scenes, their company overall do decent with promoting the group for public/fans and Momoland songs and concepts are not terrible either. "Ready or not" and "Starry night" were different and a step in the right direction, in my opinion

 

28 minutes ago, YooJeong said:

 

f(x), Got7, Kara, 2NE1, Exid , Highlight and T-Ara These are all successful groups lol 

I think it's usually a combo of both. Companies could have promoted/handled things better. Some groups had chances for breakthroughs (April, Fietsar, Laboum, Dia) but just never made it. Some groups had potential and did show signs of success but were managed horribly (4minute, Miss A, Pristin, Gugudan), some just never got the hype (Fietsar, Berry Good, CLC).  

These groups had their hits and success, you're right. But they also had a downfall/decline. So I'm curious what people felt was the reason. 

 

I agree, a good argument could be made for a combo too.

Tho groups that had a chance but never made it or never got the hype - I consider them unsuccessful more than mismanaged. They were unsuccessful at gaining those things due to luck, timing or something.

 

Edited February 10, 2021 by satoori

[satoori]

16 minutes ago, GetRapper said:

I pretty much agree with all your conclusions, though I would say every group under TS including Secret and B.A.P. were mismanaged.

Hello Venus really pissed me off, their original concept and members were amazing and they were a hit. The termination of the agreement between Fantagio and Pledis doomed them.

yea TS is shit TT

 

ugghhhhhh don't remind me!!! I was literally ready to stan hello venus back in the days..but then the whole split happen. although the post group was not terrible, it just wasn't the same anymore..

Spoiler

 

Edited February 10, 2021 by satoori
fixed.

[GetRapper]

14 minutes ago, satoori said:

yea TS is shit TT

 

ugghhhhhh don't remind me!!! I was literally ready to stan hello venus back in the days..but then the whole split happen. although the post group was not terrible, it just wasn't the same anymore..

  Hide contents

 

Ah, I love these songs so much especially Would You Stay for Tea? I liked them after the split and hiatus but all their momentum was lost and it wasn't the same to me.

[satoori]

2 minutes ago, GetRapper said:

Ah, I love these songs so much especially Would You Stay for Tea? I liked them after the split and hiatus but all their momentum was lost and it wasn't the same to me.

I would definitely put 'Hello Venus' in a list of all time best Kpop debuts. 

 

[starsocks]

yeah timing is a factor, but in 9 out of 10 cases it's just management that makes or breaks a group

[Pinkika]

CLC - unsuccessful 
April- unsuccessful 
Gugudan - unsuccessful 
Pristin  - both
Topp Dogg - unsuccessful 
B.A.P. -  Mismanaged 
EXID - they are successful
Momoland -  Mismanaged 
2ne1- they are successful
Got7- aren't they successful? don't know much about them
Kara- they are successful
Miss a- they are successful
U-Kiss - unsuccessful 
f(x)- they are successful
4minute- they are successful
Beast/Highlight- they are successful
Mblaq - they are successful
Secret - they are successful
T-ara - they are successful
Nine Muses - unsuccessful 
Ze:a - unsuccessful 
Teen top - they are successful
B1a4 - they are successful
Boyfriend - unsuccessful 
Rania (pre-Blackswan) - unsuccessful 
Stellar - both 
ChoColat  - unsuccessful 
Cross Gene - unsuccessful 
Fiestar  - unsuccessful 
Hello Venus - unsuccessful 
GI - unsuccessful 
History - unsuccessful 
Wassup - unsuccessful 
Berry good - unsuccessful 
Laboum  - unsuccessful 
Uniq  - unsuccessful 
Hotshot - don't know them
Romeo - unsuccessful 
DIA - unsuccessful 
Astro - unsuccessful 
KNK - unsuccessful 
Vromance - unsuccessful 

MYTEEN - don't know them

 

[Danee Danee]

Tbh I cannot from people who label Berry good's company as good and the group as simply unsuccessful because of the group itself. The group had its moments but was marketed right only once in their whole history and that was sending them on the show with Gfriend. Funny part is that it was worse possible timing for such schedule. At the time the group underwent major changes (not even month before shooting the show) and the members werent comfortable around each other yet which showed on so many levels. Especially in comparision with Gfriend. Outside of this, whole group always appeared on many shows but always targeted on older public, not youngsters, not teens, not kids... Company picked the concepts in the weirdest possible way as well and the timing was always bad (like promoting Dont believe alongside BTS, Twice and Black Pink). Everytime member was pushed a bit, they trended. But it happened so rarely that the group simply had no chance to make it...

[bumpbumplove]

KISSmes like to bring up how the agency mismanaged. They had a hit song but was shipped to Japan soon after.

But to me, it was a better option given that it is common for Jfans to be multi-fandomed, and also willing to spend on all of their groups. 

They were signed to Avex over there (as with many SM acts), had many quality releases, including tours. But of course, the general kpop fan would not know about this. 

 

[felidae]

Such long list lol. I'd assume you want to know what if they have long run because I would exclude some names here.

Disclaimer : I'm not fan/follower of many groups.

5 hours ago, satoori said:

CLC - less successful than expected, not sure if they're mismanaged
April - unsuccessful until last year. Let's see their next comeback
Gugudan - a bit of both but I'd say unsuccessful
Pristin - mismanaged
B.A.P. - MISMANAGED TO THE T
Momoland - mismanaged
2ne1 - mismanaged
Miss a - they're be more if "another Hyuna situation" were handled better
f(x) - MISMANAGED FUCK YOU SM MY GIRLS WOULD HAVE CONCERTS EARLIER BUT NOOOOO YOU DECIDED TO DUMP EVERYTHING ON THEIR LAST YEARS
Nine Muses - unsuccessful. Another case of ahmagerd so talented why ppl no support them sad emoji sad emoji
Boyfriend - unsuccessful. Would be more in advantages if they debuted much later
Rania (pre-Blackswan) - I want to say mismanaged because they keep changing members, but I haven't heard a lot from them
Stellar - unsuccessful. And if the members didn't say they were forced to do the concept I won't say they're also mismanaged

Fiestar - unsuccessful
Hello Venus - mismanaged then unsuccessful. They did better during cute concepts.
GI - unsuccessful. Would be more in advantages if they debuted much later (2)
History - unsuccessful
Wassup - I forgot what happened to them 
Laboum - unsuccessful. Which is a pity because despite everything their songs are bops.
Uniq - mismanaged, but I'm not sure if yuehua wanted them to thrive as group lol they do well individually (and wang yibo is currently that star)
DIA - unsuccessful :"(

[CandyCane23049]

Miss A was not unsuccessful. Suzy might have been the popular one, but they always did good digitally so they were mismanaged as well as GOT7 who were mismanaged because despite what people think their kept growing even with how JYPE held them back. 

[Moon Jellyfish]

Miss A was more of a tale of mismanagement. Digitally, all or most  of their songs did really well. But JYPE's failure of trying to build any sort of fanbase and put efforts into the group certainly didn't help. Hell, even Sizy's individual popularity  didn't do much for sales either.

 

Got7 also mismanaged for obvious reasons.

In fact, I would say a good deal of the groups mentioned here had fell victim to mismanagement at one point rather than unsuccessful since some have had some degree  of success. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[satoori]

54 minutes ago, CandyCane23049 said:

Miss A was not unsuccessful. Suzy might have been the popular one, but they always did good digitally so they were mismanaged 

 

39 minutes ago, Moon Jellyfish said:

Miss A was more of a tale of mismanagement. Digitally, all or most  of their songs did really well. But JYPE's failure of trying to build any sort of fanbase and put efforts into the group certainly didn't help. Hell, even Sizy's individual popularity  didn't do much for sales either.

 

 

Good points.

Miss A did well but was never truly able to hit big like other JYPE girl groups. 

I remember some people saying JYPE had financial problems which caused them to struggle a bit. I think Miss A was even moved to another company temporarily(?) So I'm not sure JYPE is fully to blame. Plus, that other company did decent job with the resources and connections they had promoting Miss A.

However Miss A were unsuccessful at gaining more momentum after they reached a point. Mostly as y'all mentioned they struggle to gain a dedicated and loyal fandom. Honestly, I feel MIss A was a bit before their time. I think half the group being Chinese wasn't relatable to Koreans. Unsuccessful. Min was great on variety but other then that she couldn't compete with Suzy. And inevitably Suzy stood. Which partially led to Suzy individual fandom growing and establishing more than the group itself.

Edited February 10, 2021 by satoori

[rananicolee]

2NE1 was definitely mismanaged. From the Bom scandal to their disbandment, everything was handled poorly by YGe. They wanted to stay together but YG couldn't even handle them properly after Bom's scandal which the company made worse. Their statements like "2NE1 never parties" was so fake and stupid when they had parties for their AON tour, CL and Dara went to Jay Park's AOMG launch party and more. 

I can keep talking about this but I am so lazy and...just lazy. 

[king_seungmin]

 

Miss A was definitely mismanaged

all of their songs from their first one to their last one were hits

Their debut song was the #1 song on GAON that year and won them a Daesang on their rookie year

while their last song gained PAKs and iirc blocked EXO on the charts

that's far from being an "unsuccessful" group.

some songs of course were lesser hits than the others but still did good digitally.

JYPE had plans for them both in China and in Korea (Chinese albums, tours etc..) but for many reasons JYP just dropped the ball on them.

They probably learned that they could put less effort in the group but still earn a lot of money by exploiting one member (Suzy) and ignore the group and the others.

That caused not only a very divided fandom but also

Fei, Jia and Min were being ignored and being accused of using's Suzy's popularity

while Suzy herself was being exploited/overworked and went through a lot of physical and emotional stress.

[CandyCane23049]

1 hour ago, satoori said:

 

 

 

Good points.

Miss A did well but was never truly able to hit big like other JYPE girl groups. 

I remember some people saying JYPE had financial problems which caused them to struggle a bit. I think Miss A was even moved to another company temporarily(?) So I'm not sure JYPE is fully to blame. Plus, that other company did decent job with the resources and connections they had promoting Miss A.

However Miss A were unsuccessful at gaining more momentum after they reached a point. Mostly as y'all mentioned they struggle to gain a dedicated and loyal fandom. Honestly, I feel MIss A was a bit before their time. I think half the group being Chinese wasn't relatable to Koreans. Unsuccessful. Min was great on variety but other then that she couldn't compete with Suzy. And inevitably Suzy stood. Which partially led to Suzy individual fandom growing and establishing more than the group itself.

That’s JYPE fault. They mismanaged them. The group songs were always a hit. Fei finally gained a following after Dancing w the Stars and JYPE did nothing with it.  How can the group go farther if the company does nothing to help them?  We never had any merch, got a fanlight, a concert, and JYPE continuously lied to whatever fan base miss A had which just turned people off.  Their full albums always included songs already released on their mini albums. Miss A started with a bang and finished with a bang. They won music shows for GoodBye Baby the same day it came out. 

miss A were under a subsidiary of JYPE called AQ. JYPE was never in financial trouble like people think its only because JYPE had a private company and public company and for some reason 2pm were under the private company until late 2013 and that’s when JYPE got rid of their subsidiaries and put everything in the public company. 

The girls wanted to do things and the company denied them, does this sound familiar? 

Edited February 10, 2021 by CandyCane23049

[satoori]

1 minute ago, CandyCane23049 said:

That’s JYPE fault. They mismanaged them. The group songs were always a hit. Fei finally gained a following after Dancing w the Stars and JYPE did nothing with it.  How can the group go farther if the company does nothing to help them?  We never had any merch, got a fanlight, a concert, and JYPE continuously lied to whatever fan base miss A had which just turned people off.  Their full albums always included songs already released on their mini albums. Miss A started with a bang and finished with a bang. They won music shows for GoodBye Baby the same day it came out. 

miss A were under a subsidiary of JYPE called AQ. JYPE was never in financial trouble like people think its only because JYPE had a private company and public company and for some reason 2pm were under the private company until late 2013 and that’s when JYPE got rid of their subsidiaries and put everything in the public company. 

They never gave fans any fan related events to do or buy. They didn’t capitalize on anything or do any of the plans that they promised fans. The girls wanted to do things and the company denied them, does this sound familiar? 

yea it do sound familiar o.o

[Moon Jellyfish]

1 hour ago, satoori said:

 

 

 

Good points.

Miss A did well but was never truly able to hit big like other JYPE girl groups. 

I remember some people saying JYPE had financial problems which caused them to struggle a bit. I think Miss A was even moved to another company temporarily(?) So I'm not sure JYPE is fully to blame. Plus, that other company did decent job with the resources and connections they had promoting Miss A.

However Miss A were unsuccessful at gaining more momentum after they reached a point. Mostly as y'all mentioned they struggle to gain a dedicated and loyal fandom. Honestly, I feel MIss A was a bit before their time. I think half the group being Chinese wasn't relatable to Koreans. Unsuccessful. Min was great on variety but other then that she couldn't compete with Suzy. And inevitably Suzy stood. Which partially led to Suzy individual fandom growing and establishing more than the group itself.

I think CandyCane touched on the points that I wanted to make in her more recent post so I dont really have too much to add. But basically what you described is caused by mismanagement from JYPE's part. 

Edited February 10, 2021 by Moon Jellyfish

[iKnife BurnCat]

CLC - both, seriously. CLC are the definition of both. After Hobgoblin, Cube changed their concept which was their biggest mistake regarding this group. But all their later releases were just unsuccessful unfortunately. 

Pristin - mismanaged, they were very promising rookie group. Someone in the post above said they were unsuccessful, yyyy wtf. No they weren't!

 

Edited February 10, 2021 by Sugar Daddy