Spin-off duo Sistar19 sweeping charts
Sistar19’s Hyo-rin, left, and Bo-ra. / Korea Times
By Kim Tong-hyung
Two months into the new year, chaos reigns on the K-pop scene where no one among the army of sugary boy bands and girl groups has managed to stand out as the clear-cut public favorite.
People have stopped pretending they like the new Girls’ Generation song "I Got a Boy,’’ while cocky male group Big Bang seems more focused on the American market at the moment.
CNBlue, the boy band masquerading as a rock group, was making some noise before punk rockers Crying Nut slapped them with a lawsuit for recording one of their songs on a DVD without its consent, effectively killing any goodwill.
In this underwhelming music scene, Sistar19, the fembot-like duo spun off the sexy four-member group Sistar, appears to be making the closest case as a showstopper. Their new single "Gone Not Around Any Longer’’ shot up the charts shortly after its Jan. 31 release and is now showing staying power.
The song has maintained top place on major download charts like Melon and Mnet since its debut and has kept the No. 1 spot on KBS television’s weekly K-pop program Music Bank for a second consecutive week.
Sistar19, consisting of Hyo-rin and Bo-ra, first debuted in 2011 with the single "Ma Boy.’’ The duo was shelved for 2012 as the immense success of Sistar’s "So Cool’’ album prevented the need for a sideline act.
Sistar19 is one of the many spin-offs that are beginning to gain popularity on the K-pop scene as groups’ entertainment agencies continue to look for different ways to milk the popularity of the artists they have already established.
The trend was triggered by the success of Girls’ Generation-TTS last year, consisting of Taeyeon, Tiffany and Seohyun from the nine-member girl group. Other spin-off projects are 2YOON from popular girl group 4minute, and Infinite H featruing Dong-woo and Ho-ya from boy band Infinite.