These artists deserved better.
Fans used to be outraged at YG Entertainment for not letting Lee Hi promote after the huge success of “Breathe” in 2016. In fact, she did not release any music until 2019. Since joining AOMG in 2020, Lee Hi has achieved more success with TV appearances, releasing more songs, and performing at music festivals.
Former Pledis trainee with Seventeen members and “Produce 101” contestant Kim Samuel debuted under a number of different agencies but has yet to blow up. Unfortunately, he hasn’t found the right company that can promote him well as a soloist even though he is very talented and well-trained. In November 2021, Samuel won a lawsuit against Brave Entertainment to terminate his contract.
CL is extremely talented. She can slay both solo and group promotions with 2NE1. Fans admire her for breaking the typical standard of a K-pop female idol. After 2NE1 disbanded, she had very little activity and lack of music releases. Fans expressed their regret at the unique talent of the female rapper that was not deservedly explored in the industry due to her former agency YG.
When Henry was a member of Super Junior M, he and Zhoumi dealt with a lot of pressure from fans for not being part of the group’s original lineup. Although Henry is talented and hardworking, his solo career under SM Entertainment did not get the promotions it deserved. Now that he is no longer under SM, his career has undergone many changes. Instead of being active as an idol, Henry likes to challenge himself in different areas of the industry.
Many fans think that Minzy is the member who receives the least attention from YG Entertainment during 2NE1 activities. Therefore, the solo debut that she deserved thanks to her top-notch dancing and rapping skills also did not happen when she was in YG. YG didn’t give Minzy opportunities for individual promotions, so even now, as a solo artist, Minzy is still struggling to make a name for herself.
When AKMU Suhyun‘s older brother Chanhyuk enlisted, YG Entertainment did not promote her as a solo singer at all despite Suhyun’s amazing voice. Suhyun made her solo debut in October 2020 because she wanted her solo music not only to rely on songs produced by her brother.
CLC is not even a nameless girl group. Fans all agree on how CLC could have been so much more successful if Cube Entertainment had promoted them right and effectively. Some even claimed that this agency prefers Pentagon and (G)I-DLE over CLC. Unfortunately, this girl group has disbanded with only Yujin left, who is currently the leader of Kep1er.
With a huge fandom from Produce 101, but PRISTIN had only released a few hits before Pledis Entertainment disbanded them. Even the members who are still at Pledis like Yehana and Sungyeon don’t have many activities after the group’s disbandment in 2019.
Nine Muses has both great visuals and talents, but they couldn’t achieve any big success due to the lackluster promotion plan and a constantly changing line-up. Despite their 9-year-long career, this 9-member girl group cannot prove their name amid the crowded K-Pop scene.
Fans are worried that with the debut of MCND, TOP Media’s new group, the already weak management and promotion plan for UP10TION will go down even more, to focus on the new group. This is very unfortunate, as UP10TION is talented and deserves a better treatment. Even though they received some attention after Kim Wooseok and Lee Jinhyuk appeared at Produce 101, the agency questionably decided to leave them out of UP10TION’s promotion.
