Real reason why SISTAR decided to disband the girl group

Sad news for STAR1. On May 23, SISTAR announced that they decided to disband the team. Not only the girl group's fans but also people in the k-pop industry were surprised by the news because the 8th-year girl group has been enjoying great popularity in the world of k-pop and there has never been a hint of the 4 members' breakup.

Then, why do you think SISTAR decided to disband the team even though the team is stil considered as one of the most popular k-pop girl groups? Well, let's see why k-pop idols leave their groups first. There are 7 reasons.



1. Financial Difficulty of Their Companies
It costs a fabulous sum of money for k-pop agencies to produce idol groups. The agencies usually invest hundreds of millions of won into training idols and have to retrieve the investment after their idols' debut. However, only a few of the idols win success and make actual profits. Many of idols suffer from the hardships of life because they do not have steady income. If an idol group can't make profits for years and its agency can't retrieve its investment, the group has to be disbanded, of course. So, before their groups are disbanded, some of the idols make their minds to leave the groups.

2. Over-Bearing Intervention of Their Parents
Most of k-pop idols are in their late teens or early 20s, which means they're not old enough and still need to be looked after by their parents. However, some of idols' parents are too enthusiastic about their sons and daughters' careers. And their over-bearing intervention sometimes create conflicts between k-pop agencies and idol singers. Parents always expect better of their children, right? Enthusiastic parents ask k-pop agencies for too much, while some of them even make their sons and daughters leave idol groups.

3. Anxiety About the Future

Every idol singer feels anxiety about the future because they can't be active as idol singers for all of their lives. They have to retire someday. So, some of idols who are unsure about their future determine to quit their singing careers and try to find a new route. Some start their acting careers, while others strive to concentrate on their studies or start their own business.

4. Eager for Success

One of k-pop idols' difficulties is that they have to share their incomes with their agencies and team mates, while many of idols complain that their incomes are very low for their work hours. In this situation, idols are tempted to leave their groups and act alone. And there are also some astute businessmen who put the comether on the idols to leave their groups and agencies. The businessmen want to turn the idols to profit, but as far as I know, there has been no idols who achieved a success after leaving their groups in this way.

5. Discord Among Members

K-pop idol group members eat, sleep, and sing together all day long. However, they're ordinary people too, and there should be a discord among the members. I can speak with confidence that all the k-pop idol groups experience internal conflicts. Some of them can overcome it, but others can't. And yeah, a discord among idol group members sometimes make one of them leave his group.

6. Love and Marriage

K-pop idols are young boys and girls, and they dream of romance too. They enjoy their dates secretly, while some of them pour everything they have into their love. Wonder Girls' Sunye is the typical example. After her marriage, she has been passive about her activity as a singer and finally left her group. Love sometimes conquers all.

7. A Raw Deal

People envy k-pop idols who are loved by so many fans. However, some of the idols are forced to work around the clock, while they make very little money. There are some k-pop agencies which lives off the backs of their idols. So, if the situation become unbearable, some idols make a decision to leave their groups and agencies because they don’t have any choice.

Among these, which one do you think applies to SISTAR's situation. First, there was no discord among the SISTAR members. They're getting along well with each other. Second, Starship, home to the girl group, treated the members with consideration. SISTAR has earned a lot of money for the agency, and the members received fair treatment. Third, SISTAR doesn't have a super star member like Suzy of Miss A, which means they didn't decide to disband the team because they wanted to achieve bigger success.

So, the SISTAR members decided to disband the team due to their anxiety about the future. Like I said above, every idol singer feels anxiety about the future because they can't be active as idol singers for all of their lives. They have to retire someday. So, some of idols who are unsure about their future determine to quit their singing careers and try to find a new route.



You might say they still can do their individual activities without disbanding their team, but it's a different story because the prerequisite is SISTAR should maintain its great popularity for a long time. However, unfortunately, there are so many young girl groups in the k-pop world, and it's true the young girl groups such as TWICE, BLACKPINK and Red Velvet have already become more popular than SISTAR among young k-pop fans.

In this situation, SISTAR's 7-year contract with Starship has expired, and the members decided to leave the group to make a fresh start. In a way, they're very smart because they made a quick decision. Actually, the fact that the 4 members have actively done their individual activities means they've been preparing to stand alone. For them, it wasn't a sudden decision to disband the girl group. So, it seems like Hyolyn and Soyou will be active as solo singers, while Bora and Dasom will take a fresh start as actresses.

Good luck to all of them.

<K-pop Secret Vol.1: 40 Korean Stars’ Real Personality>
K-pop Secret Vol.1 contains stories about the real personality of 40 Korean stars. The author, who has interviewed more than 100 Korean celebrities since 2010 tells the story of famous Korean stars including G-Dragon, Baekhyun, Nichkhun, IU, Suzy, Kim Soohyun, Lee Kwangsoo, Song Joongki, Jun Jihyun, Park Shinhye and more.
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1225053074
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06Y12BM3D