The Underrated Treasures of K-pop Boy-Groups
Some people might think that being trainees is the hardest part of an idol’s life. It might be easy for the rookies from the big agencies to be shine, but being debuted from a small agency and becoming a kind of underrated group is also hard. Among the tens to hundreds of groups in South Korea, the groups which debuted under the small agencies have to compete with each other to be recognized and gain fans. This time, Byeol Korea will tell you about some boy-groups that you might not know about and which really deserve to be more popular, let’s check it out!
TOP SECRET
TOP SECRET is a new rookie group from JSL Company. They debuted on January 4, 2017, with their first mini album, titled Time’s Up. This group originally had 7 members, they are K, Yohan, A-IN, Wooyoung, Junghoon, Yunghyeon, and Kyeongha. Unfortunately, Kyeongha left the group following the sexual assault scandal he made.
Their latest comeback was under a new name, TST, with the single Paradise. Let’s check out these boys’ great talent!
A.Cian
A.Cian is the acronym for Ace + Musician, they come from South Korea and debuted on October 2, 2012, under Wings Entertainment with the mini album titled Stuck. The group was originally formed by 5 members: Seulgi, Chanhee, Crooge, Sehee, Sanghyun. After some re-arrangement of the lineup, now the group has only four members left, Jungsang, Hyeokjin, Jino, and Saenghyun as the only original member. They also became popular after their videos trying to pronounce western celebrity names.
Their most recent song is Touch, full of fun vibes and flower-boy type. Their visuals really killed in this music video!
BOYS REPUBLIC
Boys Republic is Universal Music’s first K-Pop idol group, which debuted on June 5, 2013, with the single Party Rock. The group consisted five members, they are Onejunn, Sunwoo, Sungjun, Minsu, and Suwoong. The boys were trained for two years under Universal Music along with Happy Tribe Entertainment, who helped to produce first-generation idols such as g.o.d, H.O.T, and S.E.S.
Boys Republic already gained much attention both locally and internationally. In 2014, the group won the Rookie Artist Award in the 20th Korean Entertainment Arts Awards. They did tours overseas, such as the Europe Tour in 2015 and the Japan Tour in 2016. In the early part of 2018, the group was rumored to be disbanded but the agency denied this issue then announced that the group would be on indefinite hiatus at the end of the year.
Below is the most viewed video from Boys Republic. The song was released on March 30, 2016. The MV is amazing as the vocal, rap, dance, outfits, cinematography, and everything are just on point!
X-5
Xenos Five or X-5 is a boy-group which formed through Open World Entertainment in 2011. Xenos is an amorf of Yunani, which means strangers, and five means the number of members. They debuted on April 20, 2011, with the song The Show Is Over and appeared for the first time on KBS2 Music Bank on April 22, 2011.
Unfortunately, one year later, in April, 2012 , Open World Entertainment’s CEO Jang Seok-woo was arrested for the crime of sexual assault. His subsequent arrest forced the disbandment of the boy-group. Their latest performance was their promotion of X-5’s first mini album, titled Dangerous, with the same title for lead track.
CHaOS
CHaOS is a boy-group under Winning InSight, which debuted in 2012 with five members. During their debut era, they gained a lot of interest from fans, making the debut a success. The song She’s Coming was catchy and the music video was quite likable, but although they had such a strong debut, their company couldn’t handle them well. The publicity for them was quite minor, the release of their new mini album was delayed, and when it was out, the sale was dropped.
After a break following their final release, there hasn’t been any news about the group. Instead having a comeback, CHaOS decided to disband 16 months after their debut.
LU:KUS
LU:KUS is the boy-band debuted under Box Media on July 4, 2012. The thrree members of LU:KUS are the former members of X-5 which disbanded in December, 2012, they are Donghyun, J.One, and Jinhwan. The group shortly relocated to PAN Entertainment, but in 2016 they moveed again, to JWK Entertainment, and change the group’s name into L.A.U, because the previous agency was holding the rights to their old name. In 2016, Jinhwan also left the group. In 2019, they made a comeback into their old name LU:KUS. Their recent comeback was on January 14, 2019, with their single titled Faker.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqHntq8zwbQ&pbjreload=10
AA
Double A, or AA, is a group formed by Wellmade Yedang, formerly known as Well Made STAR M, in 2011. The group originally had six members: Woosang, Holk, Joowon, Jinhong, Kimchi, and Aoora. But now, there were only two members left (Woosang and Holk) after the other four left the group. There hasn’t been any news about the activity of the group, so maybe we should conclude that the group is unofficially nonactive since there’s only two members left.
Below is AA’s lead track fromf their first extended play, titled Come Back, which was released on March 27, 2013. The netizens comments on YouTube show disappointed fans wondering how a group as good as them should disband so early.
TRCNG
TRCNG is the acronym for Teen Rising Champion in a New Generation and the group debuted under TS Entertainment, the same agency that launched B.A.P, SONAMOO, SECRET, and Untouchable. TRCNG consisted of 10 members, they are Ji Hun, Ha Young, Tae Seon, Hak Min, Woo Yeop, Ji Sung, Hyun Woo, Si Woo, Ho Hyeon dan Kang Min. They debuted on October 10, 2017, with their first mini album titled New Generation and the lead track, Spectrum.
They recently made their comeback, titled Missing, on August 4, 2019. The song is catchy with their manly vibes and strong rap and dance parts. A netizen commented, “the only thing these boys are missing is proper promotion“.
