I woke up this snowy morning to the news of Eunji and Lee Sem leaving Nine Muses, along with the rumor of two more members being added to Kara, who recently lost both Nicole and Jiyoung.
I personally don't care too much about Kara, but that seems like a stupid decision for a group that has been around since way back in 2007.
With Nine Muses however, I was both surprised and upset for several reasons. The girls have been getting more and more famous and are slowly but steadily climbing up the ranks, so I don't know why now would feel like a good time to leave the group.
I got into Nine Muses last year with Wild, and I've grown to appreciate and care for the members, as well as their solid discography. This is a group that has experienced a lot of member changes through the years, with three original members leaving in the first year and Euaerin having left but then returned, but for the last year all the members have stayed intact. The newest addition Sungah made her debut with Dolls a year ago, and finally they were nine members again. It all looked so promising for them, the lineup was impressive and they released great material throughout all of 2013, as well as their first full album.
The company has stated that the girls left for personal reasons and will still be under the company but doing individual activities instead, and I really can't wrap my head around it. I was never a big fan of Eunji, she is cute and funny but I always found her a bit insincere. I think she mentioned in their pre-debut documentary that she would go solo if she had the chance, but I never though she actually would. Most people don't know her at all, so I don't know what she would do as a solo artist. Release a single? Try out acting? Modelling? I wish the best for her, obviously, but I am still very confused about her decision.
More than that though, I was completely taken back by Lee Sem's departure. I always saw her as some kind of core of the group, along with Sera, and I liked her laid back personality and mindset. What kind of individual activities will she be doing? In any way, I wish the best for her as well, but how I wish she would stay in the group.
The strange thing about this is that their agency Star Empire very nicely referred to the departure as a "graduation"; a phrase heard before in cases like After School. Maybe they're just trying to make it all a bit less dramatic, but I can't help but wonder if they're implying that more members will be added. I don't think it's a very good idea at all, just like with Kara, because they had finally started to earn some recognition and people were getting more familiar with the members, so just throwing new ones in would cause a bit of a mess.
This leads me on to the topic of member changes in general, a story very familiar to a lot of fans. In fact, a lot of groups experience changes in their early days, but settle later on with a final lineup that stays the same until an eventual disbandment. Examples would be Girl's Day, Super Junior, 2PM and (up until last year) Kara. However, there are some groups whose member changes have come later in their careers and deeply affected the groups. After School, as mentioned previously, is probably the group most known for this. In fact, their entire concept revolved around the graduation of the members. The current lineup is vastly different from the first, with only two original members remaining. This has caused the group to change quite drastically over the years, especially with former leader Kahi leaving in 2011. She was the glue that held the group together, and since then they've been a bit lost. The concept of constantly adding new members may work in other situations, for example in Japan with monster group AKB48 (and I mean monster as in gigantic), but it hasn't clicked in South Korea. I think it's just hard to grow attached to a group that so often switches members, and it's hard for the members themselves to adjust to new dynamics and relationships. New people means new personalities and new ambitions, so things are bound to change, and for After School? Let's just say it hasn't helped them.
Another example worth mentioning is TVXQ, as you can probably understand. Anyone who is into kpop knows their story to a certain degree, because it is by far the most well known break up in the industry. They broke up at their absolute peak, and since then neither of the duo or trio have really had the same kind of spark. Wonder Girls too have fallen because of this, first when Sunmi left but mostly recently with Sunye's marriage and long term hiatus. Now Sohee has left the company as well, so the future for the Wonder Girls looks very dark.
My point is that member changes can be good, but they can also be destructive, especially if the group has been around for a while. I'm pretty much done with Kara, although I was never that much into them, but I'm very anxious about Nine Muses. I felt like the picture finally was completed and the girls were at last set to aim for the starts, but now I'm worried they may fall back into irrelevancy.
All that we can do now is show support and hope that, as always, the company handles the issue with carefulness and respect, both for the fans and the members.
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