In May 2018, CUBE Entertainment debuted the 4th generation girl group (G)I-DLE with 6 members. Right after their debut, Soyeon, Soojin and Miyeon, who used to train with BLACKPINK under YG, quickly gained attention from netizens.
During the early days, (G)I-DLE released many good songs but couldn’t catch up with ITZY and aespa, two girl groups of the same generation from big companies JYP and SM. Many believed that (G)I-DLE was so underrated despite their overflowing talents because they come from a medium company.
In 2021, (G)I-DLE faced the first turning point in their career. “Fan attractor” member Soojin withdrew from the group due to school violence accusations. A lot of K-pop fans thought there would be no more hope for (G)I-DLE, but the group successfully made a breakthrough by retuning more powerfully in the summer of 2022 with the mega-hit song “TOMBOY”.
Since then, the CUBE girl group quickly rose to stardom and imprinted their irreplaceable presence in the K-pop industry by becoming one of the TOP 5 4th generation girl groups, alongside NewJeans, IVE, aespa, and LE SSERAFIM.
Earlier this year, (G)I-DLE released their album “2” with the expensive “Super Lady” music video with an investment of 1.1 billion won. What’s more surprising is that the five members paid for half the MV production cost by themselves. Although “Super Lady” was not as successful as their previous title songs, the girl group still impressed listeners with their signature concept of powerful women.
However, a miracle happened to (G)I-DLE once again after they completed the promotion of “Super Lady”. A month after the comeback promotion ended, the b-side track “Fate” suddenly climbed back on music charts then excellently took the top spots and even achieved Perfect All-Kill (PAK), making (G)I-DLE the only 4th generation girl group to earn PAK with 4 consecutive comebacks from 2022 to 2024.
According to the latest update, “TOMBOY”, “Nxde” and “Queencard” have all exceeded 500 million unique listeners on Melon TOP100. (G)I-DLE is also the first and only artist to have 3 songs reaching this milestone since the introduction of Melon TOP100 chart in August 2021. With outstanding performance on music charts, (G)I-DLE is now considered a ‘digital monster’ group.
Among the TOP 5 4th generation girl groups, (G)I-DLE is said to be the best in terms of digital. As (G)I-DLE is still developing and doing so well, the group is expected to be on the top for a long time before their achievements are surpassed.
