The Miserable Fate Of NUGU Kpop Groups 

the fact that Hotshot remained a nugu group even after Produce 101 S2 and The Unit is beyond me. they disbanded without getting any proper recognition.

I mean... at this point it’s really hard for a group to stand out if they arent from a big company. Not saying it’s impossible but considering the amount of monster rookies (aespa, itzy, enhypen, skz, txt, etc) came from big companies are scary. Every year the competition to debut and to stay relevant in the industry is harder and harder, i wish nothing but the best these ‘nugu’ groups

⭐️ The literal translation of 누구 (nugu) is “who?”

4:02 wtf so I did hear that correctly "while it remains unclear as to whether the company forced her to have such an annoying vocal *and chubby figure* " what the actual- can we stop bodyshaming?

Bad management Bad pramotion Bad luck All of them are reasonable for them to be nobody

"Chubby figure" . . . absolutely ridiculous

The whole Hotshot thing hurts me so much. The members are actually really talented individuals who would have made is really big with right management. Like they has super talented dancers and vocalists, visuals, creative power and crazy stage presence. They company really fucked them up with bad promotion

00:40 -> BaBa 02:27 -> Holics 04:20 -> Lipbubble 06:00 -> Hotshot 07:29 -> JJCC

talking about people’s skills are one thing, but calling the girl chubby was so low tho..?!?!?!

4:35 LIPBUBBLE actually debuted as a seven-member girl group (Hanbi, Eunbyeol, Mirae, Seoryn, Haea, RyuA, & Ina), Winy was added later on, after RyuA (Sion), Ina & Mirae left the group [the latter one only temporally]. Also Lia & Ella, joined the group later on for their first comeback. Actually, Eunbyeol & Hanbi, joined The Unit after the groups debut. Also, the MV has little views, because it's a re-upload, the original was deleted when Zenith shut down all the group's socials (the OG one had like 400K, I mean it's not like an AMAZING number of views... but still...)

I’m at the Lipbubble segment and the girl with the pigtail braids is adorable. Gives me Pippy Longstocking vibes. I mean that in a nice way.

ugh, this is freaking sad..... and I'd been thinking JYPE are mistreating their groups in promotion... I've started to think that JYP is an angel (comparing with the management of that groups)

Hotshot is just pure representation of bad management. The members got tons of attention after the survival shows. Sungwoon is an extremely popular solo artist now. After Taehyun got popular and they had a great comeback with jelly, they had so much hype, they should’ve pushed it and went all in. Sadly they didn’t. They had so much potential and the public favored several of the members, I think if the company just owned up that Sungwoon left and pushed on with the hype they got in 2018, they could’ve made it. They haven’t really disbanded yet but most of the members are doing other things or military. I was able to attend their fan sign in their last promotion, they were all so humble and kind and appreciate of their fans (I’ve been to many and this was the first group where all the member gave off that vibe). I hope we can see more from them in some way in the future

I'm a simple woman. I see Lipbubble and I click

The industry is so overly saturated that it's hard for most groups these days to stand out unless their sound/concept is really unique. That with bad management/promotion these guys didn't even had a chance.

Calling the girl chubby was too far

I definitely Remember Hot Shot & JJCC!!🙁

HOTSHOT is a living proof that even it has VERY talented members but with a shitty agency binded them, well, they can’t do anything. At the very beginning of Hotshot debut era, they are quite popular actually, due to Timoteo already had his own fans during his trainee era with other Exo members, but then the shitty agency sent them to promote to China & Japan instead of focusing on made their fanbase in Korea stronger first. Their comebacks after PD101s2 & The Unit were so good tho! Btw, Hotshot wasn’t debuted under Stone Music Ent. They were under Oscar ent, which then change their name to Ador & Able, then change again to Starcrew Ent (until now). You mentioned the member’s name wrong.... it’s Yoonsan (San) not Junhyuk... You already mentioned Choi Junhyuk at first though..... It’s also Hojung not Hosung......

i literally stan b.i.g... they've been around for almost 7 years and they're still pretty much nugu 🥴

I became a fan of Hotshot and JJCC back then with their debut albums but then I just move away.

There is always a reason why a group is underatted like lack of promotions, not given proper training and more. Nice video 😊

The hotshot made my heart 💔 because I know that group a 2 year back & they were really good but all fate 😔 & jjcc prince mak has an RU-vid channel and he had said about idols struggles also

I was a big fan of HOTSHOT and i was so sad when i heard that they disbanded. They had so much talent and the company just wasted it.

Imo frequent member changes and lack of activities is what makes impossible to get into these groups. I used to rly like Pink Fantasy but the member rotation was too high and there wasn't much subbed content like variety shows etc to get to know the members so my attachment faded overtime...

I LOVED JJCC. Their song "At First" still gives me goosebumps. HANDS DOWN one of the absolute best kpop songs imo

It's ALWAYS a bad sign if groups have member changes. Name one group that has success now that had members leave and new ones coming in. You can't right? Adding members, okay. Red Velvet did it and NCT of course does it. But having members leave just to be replaced never plays out. Especially if not one original member is left, like in 24K for example. (Not sure if they are still a thing) But I remember them very well. They had talented members and if the company would've played their cards right they would be somewhat popular and successful now. Instead, members got kicked out for the dumbest reasons, the CEO lied to no end and it got to the point not a single original member was left and they called the new line up still 24K...for a few changes I played along but I should've left right after they put BIGONE on hiatus and never mentioned him again until the CEO suddenly put out a statement years after and said he betrayed everyone in the company and group...

Company plays a big role in a group's success too. You really need INVESTMENT in order to bring the group to the top or at least to a level where you can build fanbase. There are sooooo many groups out there that we just dont know at all, it is a very competitive market ://

I have been a huge kpop fan for more than 3 years and it's so shocking that I never knew about these groups!? I only knew about Hot Shot .

this reminds me so much of 5urprise, noone really knows them as a kpop group they were never popular but the members themselves are self-standing actors now with the gen public knowing their faces but almost no one knows they were idols. maybe it was them being smart and using the light of their career to have better paths ahead but they literally turned from nugu idols to v famous actors

I can feel baba s fans it's like our school they change there teachers every month

Why did you feel the need to comment on someone’s body, do better.

JJCC members were on Produce 101 S2 & Mixnine right? One of them said something about doing part time job as a construction worker, cmiiw.

The kpop industry is saturated with groups. Not easy to differentiate your group from the others. If there's hope for any if these wannabe groups, they could take inspiration from the Brave Girls and to some extent Crayon Pop, 2 groups that suffered through low promotion exposure but conducted a "guerrilla marketing campaign" that could be seen as successful now. If you believe in karma, then all those low pay military base shows the Brave Girls did are now paying off.

OMG YES BABA!!! BaBa are the QUEENS of line-up changes, it's cool to listen to someone talk about unpopular groups, instead of everybody talking about the same five groups!

Same newer nugu groups include: • DKB (Little brothers of Brave Girls) • 24K 2021 (This year 24K re debuted with a new lineup. All of the members from the original 2012 lineup are gone. All of the newer members joined 2016-2019) • Saturday • E’Last • BAE173 (They’re labelmates with another nugu group called Dia) • LUCY (K-Rock band) Edit: the only one who is starting to successfully leave nugudom is DKB and Lucy

It sucks for Baba because they had a great song (see I'll be Pretty) in the works for their next comeback and their lineup for it at at the time was one of their strongest (2 vets and 4 rookies instead of 1 and 5). Even so, they had 2 members leave and disbanded/renamed before the comeback 😩

I was a really big fan of hotshot and jjcc, and i knew most of the ggs too. It's just really unfortunate knowing a lot of older and underrated groups, its both a blessing and a curse because you get good music but also the frustration of it not taking them anywhere.

imagine dropping out of school and leaving your entire life behind to debut only to get almost no recognition

Hotshot being so unknown makes me so sad, they're extremely talented and hard working, alre good looking, were in survival shows and still somehow didn't become famous. It's a shame that sometimes things don't work out no matter how hard you try.

I'm a bit late but I'd still like to give my input. I was a fan of Lipbubble even predebut and I remember a ton of people thinking they had a lot of potential and trust me they had. I was in a group chat with about 30 other fans, international, who enjoyed them and I was probably one of the most informed about Lipbubble, I was one of the first people to find the name of the first newly added member and also the only one who knew they had won an award once (don't ask me which one it was), I was also the one who posted clips of them being in a kdrama. I didn't see a lot of the similarities in their Popcorn mv with a lot of other mvs especially because the concept was just not rare but people ate them alive and didn't give them a second chance. They were hated on for quite everything, even for doing a cover of a famous dance choreography. The member changes and the hate made it very difficult for me to stay with them but I stayed with them until the end. There was a time where fans were thinking the girls filmed their first mv on themselves, with their phones. It wasn't easy for them but I tried my best to enjoy the time I had with them and still check up on the members. I also truly hope the girls had fun spending time with a few of their fans. I don't think the girls are to blame, rather the concept if kpop itself. It's hard to stand out, no one is interested in new concepts that are unusual but if you do a similiar concept you either get compared or people don't pay you any attention. There's a sea of kpop groups and barely any groups make it out alive.

i found jjcc in 2015 and i am so sad that their potential never got really appreciated :(

Tf is stone music doing? Their parent company is literally one of the biggest broadcasting station in Korea? Also if one made it to the top maybe he should talk about the group more? Or idk

Thats why if you want to be kpop only audition to popular Companies like Jyp, Yg, Sm & Nokor!

NUGU's train and work just as hard as big groups, spending hours practicing... sad that it leads to nowhere, i just realized nugu means who

It's sad but most of these groups never had a shot. They're mostly B-tier visuals with poor vocal or dancing abilities...

You realize you're adding views to all of these groups cause we need to see it with our own eyes.😁

I'm really lucky to be an Army. BigHit gave their all promoting BTS even though they are near bankruptcy. And now they are the Kings of K-pop. Couldn't be more prouder.

I mean these groups were pretty alright, all things considered, they had MVs and stuff and some of them even had physical albums... and in the NUGU world, these are MAJOR!!! If we go to the most NUGU groups in the NUGU world, we can name groups like S2U, 2Wentys or Tamisa. I find, digging for info about underrated girl groups very entertaining!

One thing for sure the support they receive is very minimum. Everything is from snatch, no long history company to support. When we talk about long history company , they know the procedure. Luck also play a factor.

Yurim (HOLICS) was really funny tho xd... Also I think HOLICS disbanded, they've been awfully quiet recently... or they just lost like half of their members again lol Also idk how I feel about the 'chubby' comment.

Ohhh.. I really remember jjcc , they're only Korean idol band come and performance mine concept in my city on first time it's unbelievable never forget them😭 they're have good music but people never get that sadly.....

NUGU looks kinda weird in English, but when u write it down 누구 means ‘Who’ and that just sounds so mean ;; gosh…

All the groups were bop in there own way just ppl didnt see them I saw another group like these all group they were (Great Guys ) there songs are all bop . They had almost disbanded in 2020 but suddenly a girl posted on insta about these guys and I was curious so I looked upon these total bops ...😢👍😍😙🖒

Love JJCC they were my favorite group. I listen to their songs all the time back in middle school.

OMG I SAW LIPUBBLE AND I RUN!!!!! IM HERE!!!! I LOVE LIPBUBBLE!!!!

when i first got into kpop like five years ago i loved hotshot's songs. it pained me when i found out they were super underrated. they deserved so much better!!

I have never heard of any of these groups before.

In case people are curious on what happened to LipBubble members, Mirae occasionally posts on her instagram but seems to be doing fine, Eunby is under MAKA MAKA(a new group so please support them!), Hanbi is in a dancing company, Haea is in YOURS(a new group which is still predebut(?) they post the kpop trainees learn about * videos), Ina joined a new geoup called ALLS GIRLS but their fate is unknown(probably never going to debut), Ryua was in SATURDAY but left , Lia and Ella are TWINKLE cheerleaders, Seoryn is a popular youtuber/dancer(the most successful of the group with 149k followers), and Winy is doing acting/dancing. Overall the girls were really talented and are more successful after the group but it’s still sad to see their potential as a group be destroyed due to a bad company that was bankrupt.

I used to be a fan of Hotshot :')

Gurl i only remembered 3-5 i forgot the other 2 group names😭

I think that one of the saddest nugu stories is Queen B'z. They originally debuted as a group called Pop CON, then changes names, agencies, and concepts, but it didn't work. They quietly released music for over 7 years without getting any real recognition. However, for over 7 years, there was never a line up change, which I think is pretty cool. The girls could REALLY sing, and had huge talent though.

JJCC was relatively popular in Australia I guess because Prince Mak is Aussie and sbspopasia promoted the heck out of them.

Just so you know.. I know basically all the rookie groups from 2020/21 and I probably like them all too! I love Rookie groups and I know how hard it is for rookies so I tend to want to support them even more. I wouldn’t say any group would have a fanbase of 0 :/ I also liked Hotshot. They weren’t that unpopular I’m sure. Their company did not promote them well :( I feel so bad that their company disbanded them. You should of added that they recently disbanded. I am glad Sungwoon is successful as a solo artist. The others deserved better tho.

I liked in this video that you actually found groups really underrated unlike the same ones all the time but you body shaming the girl saying her chubby figure was done purposely and her bad vocals was kinda disrespectful. You could’ve just not mentioned her weight and you could’ve been lighter on feedback about her vocals.

I have noticed one thing ...that ZMC (Zenith Media Contents ) actually disbands their old groups so that they can promote their new Groups.....They disbanded Luluz for Zest ... afterwards ZMC disbanded Zest to promote Lipbubble and Wanna.B ....Again after few years ZMC disbanded Lipbubble and Wanna.B for Zstars(Zgirls and Zboys)....And Last year ZMC abounded Zstars for starting a new project on creating Japanese kpop girl group.... Even being a GalaxZ(fan of Zstars) I always hated this company ...For me ZMC is so far the worst company of in whole of kpop industry (Zstars/Zpop are now in the hands of Divtone Entertainment .....)

Ngl but many nugu groups don't get enough attention because of their company's popularity. People only pay attention to the famous companies groups and don't pay attention to the smaller companies. Although some groups are not talented enough I agree (Not trying to be rude) but I think the main problem of these groups not getting enough attention is us.

I think companies decision of making groups debut so early is quite rough,You know some trainees still required sometime to be perfect in some cases,However hard luck is the major factor for example though Bts was already famous in some countries and korea had no expections but I think Dynamite is the major reason for making them spotlight not in some countries but worldwide 💜💛💜💛

This is the harshest written script 💀

Did you say chubby figure? That girl was not chubby. I stopped watching at that point. Ridiculous.

Try harder and never give up. Bts, iu, ateez, gfriend, mamamoo, etc started it from bottom also from small agency.

I'm a kpop fans for more than 10 years and always support nugu groups but sorry, I never heard any of the girl group in this video. I'm a hotshot and jjcc's fan. It is so regretful they didn't get enough recognition

One of my favourite underrated groups is D-Crunch unfortunately they are super super unknown. They just had a comeback called My Name. We are still trying to get it to 100k but only through the help of a lot of other fandoms like Atiny

THIS VIDEO WAS SO SHADY HELPHASJDHK😭💀

4:58 i saw a blakpink dance practice that was identical

I'm sure they are more capable than this. I just wish them better luck in future 💖

none of it is their faults, it's entirely on the management

tbh i love yebin (roha) and yujin (the last johwa lol) from baba so much and sion (ryua) from lipbubble was my bias after debuting a second time in saturday :(

Nugu groups make the best songs

That why debuting on big 3 is also kind of a blessing

Underrated Girl Groups/Rookie Girl Groups those are the only two ways they're being called, as far as I know...

Dang poor lip bubble and Z Pop 😞😔

I wish KPOP fans would understand what happens to all these teenagers who end up in failed groups. A lot of them are then fished by con companies which either just steal their money or convince them to become hosts or hostesses at bars or karaoke bars where they are molested or raped. Not just the girls. Even the boys. Legit groups like SM JYP YG etc go through their abusive training processes which Kpop fans seem to just frown on but still tune in to watch those highly filtered videos. They need to know that Kpop is a business that has a lot of shady entry doors and not just a high school collection of extracurricular activity clubs.

I think they all didn't have a fair chance to begin with, it's those agencies who only think of money, & i've heard they r not even treated respectfully by them, no wonder they r going away, they should hook up with HYBE, they know how to do it right! Look at BTS, PD Bang & Rm know the word respect.

That's why groups from Big3 are more likely to be famous because they were strictly and well trained. And they have an ability to become famous and recognized easily by fans. "TALENT" really matters.

8:05 WAIT ARENT THEY SUPER JUNIOR WHAT

SATURDAY AND DIA NEED TO GO VIRAL RIGHT NOWWWWWWWSWWWWWWW

Hotshot & JJCC were really talented but they had bad company 🥺

hotshot didn't survive even after timoteo showcase all of his talent in the unit???

I still love popcorn as a song ... not gonna lie about that

JJCC really had tons of potential and it didn't lack in visuals too. Their debut did bring a lot if fans but the lack of proper promotions and good management once again failed the group. They hardly showed up at any variety shows despite having the skills and zero to none promotions. The company only depended on jackie chen's name for the group to survive and that was not enough.

I never knew abt nugu groups thanks to this channel, Now I know :)

They depend on their songs and some luck, if the song is bad - no way they can become popular. Bad songs are forgiven here and there but you need to start with good songs to gain this kind of trust.

There is a lot of videos here on youtube of people watching the nugu with less of 1million views and yeah...most of the companys dont train or produce so badly the songs or the music video is bad😭😭😭😭 You will never know of they are a diamonds of vocals, rap and charisma if you never heard of them at all

6:11 If Jimin and Jin had a kid it woulb be this guy on the left

Omg Johwa from Baba is just 1 day older than me we both are 15 years old👻 Awww thank you so much y'all for these 15 likes😊😋👻

Thank you, the only group that i know is Holics because of the video of Ploopy678 who react to group with low view, Holics has a lack of vocal technique and kack of vocal strength

i’ve only ever heard of hotshot :/ i think that all these groups had more potential :(

I loved HOTSHOT's "I Hate You". Too bad they disbanded.

A lot of disrespect in this video.

And I used to think my two fav groups are nugu (KARD and Nu'est), but seeing this I feel a little bit better (sorry If I sound cruel, don't misunderstand). I hope my favs and this groups become successful. 🥺