On August 17, new K-pop girl group Solia released their first single, Dream. On August 22, they disbanded.
The five-piece group were managed by Space Music Entertainment, a small South Korean entertainment company that has attempted to debut several K-pop acts but seen minimal success.
According to a post shared on Solia’s official Instagram account by Space Music, “the company can no longer lead our team Solia due to its circumstances”.
It is unclear from the post why Space Music disbanded Solia, but the short timespan between the release of their first song and their disbanding, that left little room for music fans to respond to the group, garnered attention from K-pop followers around the world.
“It was such a short time, but [we] want to say thank you and sorry to the fans who supported us and loved us,” reads the post.
Their disbanding has raised questions about saturation and sustainability in the South Korean music industry. Numerous groups make their debut every year with little hope of succeeding. Solia was only unveiled in June and not even 70 days passed between their first Instagram post on June 16 and their final one. They ended their career just as it had some room to begin.
Although groups such as BTS and Blackpink have achieved fame and amassed devoted fans around the world, countless would-be musical stars compete every year in South Korea for the chance to make their debut. In Solia’s case, its members were barely given the chance to find an audience.
For sure, this isn’t the end of the road for the members of Solia, who may be able to revive their careers with other groups, as is common in K-pop. This isn’t even the first debut for some of the women: three of Solia’s members were active previously in another girl group, Siosijak, formed in 2017, and later went inactive.
Although the coronavirus pandemic has impacted the industry, around 100 K-pop acts are launched every year. Yet only a handful of high-profile ones produced by major entertainment companies garner attention ahead of their debut, while the others fight for their place in the industry.
Some fans have questioned whether Solia’s disbanding is part of a creative public relations campaign on the part of Space Music, as more people are talking about the group’s short lifespan than their debut. Earlier this year, Brave Girls were saved from the brink of disbandment when their 2017 song Rollin’ became a sleeper hit in South Korea, so the ability of a public awareness campaign to save a group is not beyond the realm of possibility.
K-pop group debuts are expensive, with even the most minimal band launch typically costing companies upwards of US$1 million.
Regardless of the reasoning or intent behind their disbanding, people are interested in Solia: since the group dissolved, the music video for Dream on YouTube has acquired over 500,000 views, while most of the other videos on their account have less than 10,000 views – showing the extent of interest from viewers intrigued by the bittersweet career arc of the group.
