Former Idol Reveals Why K-Pop Groups Disband And How The Members Feel About It

On his newly created YouTube channel, MBLAQ‘s Mir discussed why most K-Pop idol groups come to disband, how the involved members handle the break-up, and what he believes is a way to prevent disbandment.

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Mir first explained that he is speaking from his experience – meaning, while MBLAQ has not officially disbanded, he believes the team no longer has a future together – and that it was breaking his heart to dish it like it is.

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Disbandment sucks. The members are usually like brothers and sisters. They grew up together, trained together, went through thick and thin together… So for me, since I personally experienced my team’s break-up, it really breaks my heart. It’s painful.

— Mir

He then added that while most K-Pop fans believe that groups end up disbanding because of disagreements among the members, it is rarely because of the teamwork…

When groups break up, people think it’s because the members don’t get along anymore. I don’t think that’s ever the case. I mean, MBLAQ members were super close. And if you watch shows that some of these teams do as a group, you can tell that everyone gets along fine and they’re not acting that out.

— Mir

… but rather because of the agency and the money involved.

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It’s more so because of the money. The members usually don’t have trouble among themselves. It’s between the agency and the artists. If money does become an issue between the agency and the artists, then it evolves into an issue of who’s leaving and who’s staying. And that ‘relationship with the agency’ can lead members to drift away from each other.

— Mir

In addition, Mir pointed out that when a member becomes too interested in flying solo instead of staying a part of the team, it can cause a crack in the teamwork. While it is perfectly normal for idols who are talented and confident to want to do more outside their roles in their teams, Mir said pushing that boundary too far and ultimately neglecting the group work overall can be problematic.

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I understand the desire to become a solo artist. Of course you want to fly solo. You’re much more confident now, you know a thing or two about what you’re doing. But I believe there is beauty in staying a team. You debuted as a team, you matured as a team. I understand you want to be a solo artist, and you can be. But you need to come back to your team – no matter how well you do as a solo artist. A team is only a team with everyone in it.

— Mir

Unfortunately, things happen, and teams disband all the time. Mir looked back to when he was actively promoting with MBLAQ and revealed that he had quite a hard time to recover from the unofficial break-up of the group. Not only is disbandment tough on the fans, it is also destructive to the members involved also.

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The break-up destroyed me. I was troubled and depressed… And you know I can’t listen to or sing MBLAQ songs. MBLAQ songs reminds me of that era when I was a part of the team… And I can’t listen to my own songs anymore because it just shoves me back into despair.

— Mir

Mir confessed that a part of his heart is still holding on to MBLAQ. However, for him – and for most disbanded groups – it isn’t as simple as “getting back together” and promoting as a team again. The reality is, disbandment is permanent and teams don’t usually recover from such goodbyes.

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We’ve all spent too much time on our own by now. We have our own things now. We have our untold stories… the gap is too wide to bridge now, for us to come together again and exist as a group again.

— Mir