The 5 most shocking K-pop group disbandments and why they broke up, from 4Minute’s Hyuna embarking on a solo career and TVXQ losing three members, to 2NE1 member Bom’s drug scandal
- TVXQ’s Jaejoong, Junsu and Yoochun brought attention to the South Korean music industry’s ‘slave contracts’ after filing a lawsuit against SM Entertainment
- Boy band B. A. P sued its agency too, while Sistar’s Hyorin chose to become a solo artist despite members reportedly trying to convince her to stay
K-pop fans were left shocked when six-member girl group GFriend announced in May that they were going their separate ways. But band break-ups are actually fairly common in the South Korean music industry, whether due to disagreements and members wanting to pursue solo careers, to mistreatment, plummeting album sales and even lawsuits. There are countless great groups that took fans by storm and then left them devastated with the news of their parting just as quickly.
Some break-ups even led to a monumental shift in the industry, changing the way management agencies operated and treated idols.
Here we take a closer look at the five of most shocking K-pop break-ups ever.
TVXQ
TVXQ’s members are known as the “Kings of K-pop” because the group was one of the first to put Korean music on the global charts. They took most of Asia by storm with their popular songs Rising Sun and Mirotic.
