K-pop groups metamorphosize

Working as units allows for degree of musical freedom

By Kim Ji-soo

One of the attractions of K-pop groups is there are numerical as well as qualitative advantages to them.

The popular Girls’ Generation has nine members — Sunny, Tiffany, Taeyeon, Seohyun, Yoona, Yuri, Hyoyeon, Jessica and Sooyoung.

Super Junior has 10 members currently active —Lee Teuk, Ye Sung, Kang In, Shin Dong, Sung Min, Eun Hyuk, Dong Hae, Si Won, Ryeo Wook and Kyu Hyun.

INFINITE has seven members, SHINee has five, and all have their distinctive charms that can be obfuscated in a group.

For fans, this means they are able to adore the members both as individuals and as a whole. For the group and their agencies, it allows for fluid business and musical metamorphosis.

SISTAR 19 kicked off the year with the popular “Gone Not Around Any Longer.” The duo is a spinoff comprising Bora and Hyorin, two members of the foursome girl group SISTAR.

Super Junior-M, an eight-member sub-group of the popular Super Junior, is already topping charts in Taiwan and other Asian countries.

On Feb. 16, Super Junior-M met with about 5,000 fans at Thunder Dome in Thailand for their 2013 Super Junior-M Party [Break Down] in Bangkok. “Break Down” is also the name of the sub-group’s second album, currently riding the airwaves in Asia. It claimed the top spot on Thailand’s largest music chain store B2S’s aggregate album sales charts when released there.

Consisting of Eunhyuk, Sungmin, Donghae, Siwon, Ryeowook, Kyuhyun, Zhou Mi and Henry, the group’s members all speak Mandarin.

Another boy band, ZE: A is a nine-member K-pop group that is also benefiting from rearranging its line-ups. The group debuted in 2010 but was largely identified with its chatterbox singer Kwanghee, an active character on entertainment shows.

Recently, five members formed ZE: A—Five and released the single “The Day We Broke Up,” which is in the top 30 on domestic charts. With the bubble-gum single, the five — Siwan, Dongjun, Hyungsik, Kevin and Minwoo — have stepped out from Kwanghee’s shadow to present a strong “boys-next-door” image.

Dance pop act T-ara will also debut a sub-group soon. Its talent agency Core Contents Media announced April 4 that members Eunjeong, Jiyeon, Hyomin and Areum will form such a unit. They were selected from the group’s seven members for their team work and synergy, but have not yet decided on a name for the secondary group.

T-ara’s unit activity may well be the barometer to whether the fans are reeady for the group that last year was embroiled in an intenral bullying scandal.

Following the scandal, T-ara, which had such hit singles as “Bo Peep Bo Peep” and “Lovey-Dovey,” saw Hwayoung leave the group in July and the remaining members issue a public apology to fans.

Hoya and Dong-woo of INFINITE performed as a unit called “INFINITE H” with a hit single “Without You.”

“For members of groups, working as a unit means that they can do music that they wouldn’t normally do as a part of an act, styles that each member is fond of. It has the double effect of giving the group members a chance to further improve, while for the company it means we’re able to offer diverse range of music,” said Kim Jung-ryoul, manager of Artist and Reference at Woollim Entertainment, which is INFINITE’s talent agency.

The added bonus of unit activity is that it can enhance the profile of the group when it is successful.

The group INFINITEis back as a group again with its latest single “Man in Love” that is currently topping the domestic music charts.

“But unit activity is something that will remain on our agenda throughout the year,” Kim said.