We know that things can be incredibly competitive in the K-Pop world. But this K-Pop artists have been able to work past their challenges and become very successful in the end.
- BTS
BTS really struggled at the beginning of their career. Their debut song, “No More Dream”, didn’t make much traction in the K-Pop industry, and their first several songs after it came out didn’t attract much attention either.
Coming from a small, pretty unknown company without much funding, BTS could have easily disbanded before they became popular. In fact, they almost did! With the release of “I Need U”, the group planned on likely disbanding if the song didn’t do well.
However, “I Need U” ended up earning them their first music show win, and that was when their success began. Their popularity continued to grow from there, and now, of course, they’re the most well-known K-Pop group in the world! Not bad for a group of seven talented guys from a small, almost-broke company.
- GFRIEND
GFRIEND was also on the verge of disbandment at one point. At one point, they actually had such little funding that the CEO of their company had to sell their house in order to get by.
During a performance of “Me Gustas Tu”, the stage they were performing on was extremely wet and slippery from rain, and several of the members ended up falling multiple times during the performance.
However, their determination and dedication to continue the performance brought them new fans as the video went viral. The following year, they won their first music show award for “Rough”, and winning 14 total awards for the song!
- ATEEZ
Though ATEEZ still isn’t a huge group yet, they have become very successful in the two years that they’ve been active since debut. However, their future success wasn’t obvious at first.
They debuted under KQ Entertainment, who was relatively unknown at that time. Their first album that was released also didn’t make many sales, which was likely very disheartening.
Their popularity slowly grew, however, especially from international fans, and they made their first win in less than a year with “Wave”. They’ve been highly praised for the performance skills, and their most recent comeback album, ZERO: FEVER Pt.1, has made around 400k sales!
- (G)I-DLE
At the time that (G)I-DLE debuted under Cube Entertainment, the company was short on money from promoting CLC and PENTAGON, and thus their debut, “LATATA”, was relatively low-budget.
However, once the group started promoting “LATATA” on music shows, they gained attention quickly. Thanks to their great performance abilities as well as the popularity that Soyeon had received as a trainee, they quickly became one of the leading groups of the 4th generation of K-Pop.
- SEVENTEEN
Similar to (G)I-DLE, SEVENTEEN’s company, Pledis Entertainment, was low on funding and actually nearly bankrupt when they debuted. The members were therefore unable to have a lot of training before they debuted, which actually ended up working well for them in the long run since they are now known for being so heavily self-produced and self-managed.
Unlike some groups, SEVENTEEN was one that became more popular gradually over time, though they have had some immediately more popular hits such as “Very Nice” and “Don’t Wanna Cry”.
They’re now renowned for being one of the most synchronized group in the industry, and their status as a self-producing team is definitely very highly praised!
