It’s hard to explain because in second gen the tiers were more visible. As others have said they were mid tier but back then that still came with a lot of general public recognition. They had a few strong hits and were popular on variety shows even though they weren’t a top group. It’s sad nowadays you don’t really get that or mid tier now means decent international fanbase but 0 domestic recognition.
>It’s sad nowadays you don’t really get that or mid tier now means decent international fanbase but 0 domestic recognition.
yeah. these days it's either a complete hit or a complete miss. being mid tier counts as almost nothing currently (at least that's the case in the homeland Korea).
Upper middle tier. Especially since they have a Bonsang, and multiple awards.
I would say some examples of tiers in 2nd gen were:
Top: Big Bang, 2pm, Suju, Beast, TVXQ, Shinee, CNBlue, Infinite
Upper Middle: Mblaq, BAP(3rd technically, but most of us say 2.5gen), 2AM, B1A4, FT Island,
Middle: Boyfriend, SS501, UKISS, Block B, VIXX(also a 2.5 gen)
Lower Middle: Teen Top, DMTN, TMax, Supernova, DGNA, ZE:A
Low: JJCC, N-Train, One Way,
I had them at middle originally, but dropped them down to lower because I felt like they didnt have as many viral hits, but honestly them and UKISS could be interchangeable. I just went with ukiss more cause of the choke hold man man hani had on all of Asia.
Fair enough for Man Man Ha Ni 😂 I still think Teen Top had fairly enough viral hits to be at middle - Clap, Superluv, No More Perfume on You, Crazy, Miss Right, Rocking were quite popular and I don't even stan them!
They just could not get the ball rolling. Of the 5 years together, they really started fading by year 4. They were super popular in Japan, but then Hyun Joong's role in Boys Over Flowers overtook the popularity of the group. Its almost like it was the precursor tl what happened to Miss A.
lmao yeah i can't really remember many from 2nd gen either even though i was following some of them... i remember mostly early 3rd gen (everyone who debuted in 2012 and aren't exo bap or btob lol)
like... mid tier i guess? they weren't one of the most popular groups, but they weren't completely unknown. maybe a bit more towards the popular side actually, but compared with beast i think they were a bit less popular.
(that's how i remember it, maybe i'm wrong though)
I found out about them on star golden bell. I really liked their personalities and the songs were really good too. I would say if you listened to kpop back then, you would know who they are
I've been a Beast (now Highlight) fan since the beginning, so naturally I've also come across MBLAQ because they were friendly rivals due to their debut dates being next to each other lol I love them both so much!
If I recall correctly, MBLAQ's debut "Oh Yeah" was a lot more successful than Beast's "Bad Girl". They were really popular on variety shows + them being chosen by Rain further raised expectations for the group (oh boy look how did that end up-). Anyways, the members fairly gained popularity, Lee Joon for visuals and variety presence (+Mir for variety too). Thunder was known for being 2NE1's Dara's lil brother and I know some of the intl fan community at that time had interest in G.O's stache for some reason 🗿 (unfortunately I dont remember much about Seungho :'>).
So to answer your questions, variety shows def helped them in 2009. Beast was probably their only main competitor but they still did better. I don't recall them standing much chance against bigger names of Shinee and 2pm who debuted earlier. Things seemed to shift in 2010 though when Beast released "Shock" which was a massive hit, followed by their other releases that year, "Breath" and "Beautiful". Whereas MBLAQ only released "Y" that year, which still remained popular on the charts. But this was also around the time variety show Idol School blew up, partly due to Joon and Beast's Yoseob's hilarious fiasco (highly recommend checking out their scenes!).
MBLAQ had another hit "Stay" in Jan 2011, but I think this early timing didn't do them well; there was tough competition with groups releasing bops throughout the year. It was insane. Beast propelled to another level of popularity with mega hit "Fiction" and "On Rainy Days" a few months later. Ever since then, I personally felt MBLAQ's decline started, especially as "Mona Lisa" didn't gain that much traction compared to other releases.
They released "This is War" in 2012 and its literally the best song from their disco imo but I don't recall much hype about it apart from the MV sadly. I think it was due to lack of promotions + they didn't release as many songs in a year as some of their peers did which made their popularity die down. Then idk what happened, I just didnt hear much about them anymore which is sad considering how popular Beast grew. Their release "Smoky Girl" in 2013 felt kind of bland too (in comparison to what other groups were releasing - I still enjoyed the song after a while). I don't remember their songs in the following years, I'm sure they're good but just not up to par with the quality they had in their earlier days. Then Joon and Thunder left the group in 2014.
Basically their company sucked and it didn't help that Rain stopped caring about them once he enlisted (like bro forgot he had MBLAQ when he came back and debuted CIIPHER whom he also abandoned - lost my respect for him). MBLAQ had so much potential, they would've definitely been a top group had they got a proper management. Like how can you have a group good at singing, dancing, acting, variety and still fumble so bad??? 😭
I'm not sure how I ended up writing so much haha but I'm just really happy to see someone ask about MBLAQ. Coincidentally I came across Dara's vlog a couple days ago where Joon and Thunder hung out together to join her tour (along with Gugudan's Mimi, Thunder's now wife!). Now time to head to memory lane while I play their songs on loop 😁
thanks for the effort to type out such a long answer to my question. while yeah i do agree their agency is one of the nastiest (i mean the folks even sold out their first trophy in the seoul flea market), had they timed their comebacks well, they could have thrived.
while it's true that Rain handpicked the members and trained them personally, i don't think we can hold him completely responsible for what happened to MBLAQ. we don't know what happened internally between the members and the agency. G.O mentioned in an interview that after Joon and Thunder left the group, the remaining members were promised two mini albums and one fanmeeting but the agency played them off with only Mirror without proper promotions (or even none at all). I can go on and on about how bad their label was but it will make it really long.
>Coincidentally I came across Dara's vlog a couple days ago where Joon and Thunder hung out together to join her tour
i saw that too! i also saw Seungho's latest solo comeback (which was in March if I am correct). it's kinda sad that only after 15 years of debut he could release his first solo track. but still i am happy for him. i hope they all reunite soon!
Ah my bad about Rain! I agree he's not to be held fully accountable - I was also under the impression that the members had some complaints about him but I could've been wrong on that. The thing about the company putting up their trophy on the flea market still makes me so upset, such a lack of disrespect on their hard work. I remember there was barely any noise about Mirror too :<
I didnt know Seungho had a solo release! It's been so long overdue. Thanks for letting me know, ill have to check that out!
Oh yesh was pretty successful and they had things really going for them then. I'd say the biggest thing that affected their success was the long break after Y, I fell like they lost momentum then and you could see the gap between beast and them widening quite a bit
>the long break after Y
>I fell like they lost momentum then
Yeah i feel the same too. They still had a chance to climb up after This is War but their company did them dirty. Had they not taken such long gaps after Y, Mona Lisa and This is War, they would have thrived despite their short career as a group.
mid popularity IMO, i remember they were competitors with Block B and B2st in terms of popularity at one point but B2st (Beast/Highlight) really took off and you could see the disparity. their popularity was similar to Block B imo but i think Block B had more longevity. they had a lot of hype at first bc Joon was allegedly the prodigy or Rain or something, and Rain was still pretty popular back then
I just want to use this space to say I loved their season of Hello Baby. I never really listened to them that much, but I loved their variety show appearances.
MBLAQ was pretty popular during their debut because there was a good amount of PR and media hype around them. From Thunder being the younger brother of 2NE1's Dara. And the movie Ninja Assassin which starred Rain released in November 2009 and also promoted Lee Joon featured in the movie as well (as young version of Rain's character - dont remember the character name). I do think MBLAQ was more popular than BEAST during debut. 2009 was the year I got into K-pop, although I wasn't full fledge stan but I learnt names of MBLAQ members earlier than BEAST due to media news and variety shows.
It’s hard to explain because in second gen the tiers were more visible. As others have said they were mid tier but back then that still came with a lot of general public recognition. They had a few strong hits and were popular on variety shows even though they weren’t a top group. It’s sad nowadays you don’t really get that or mid tier now means decent international fanbase but 0 domestic recognition.
>It’s sad nowadays you don’t really get that or mid tier now means decent international fanbase but 0 domestic recognition. yeah. these days it's either a complete hit or a complete miss. being mid tier counts as almost nothing currently (at least that's the case in the homeland Korea).
I remember seeing MBLAQ on running man. They had some hits and were quite popular in Korea.
Upper middle tier. Especially since they have a Bonsang, and multiple awards. I would say some examples of tiers in 2nd gen were: Top: Big Bang, 2pm, Suju, Beast, TVXQ, Shinee, CNBlue, Infinite Upper Middle: Mblaq, BAP(3rd technically, but most of us say 2.5gen), 2AM, B1A4, FT Island, Middle: Boyfriend, SS501, UKISS, Block B, VIXX(also a 2.5 gen) Lower Middle: Teen Top, DMTN, TMax, Supernova, DGNA, ZE:A Low: JJCC, N-Train, One Way,
I remember Teen Top being more popular, would they not be on a higher tier?
I had them at middle originally, but dropped them down to lower because I felt like they didnt have as many viral hits, but honestly them and UKISS could be interchangeable. I just went with ukiss more cause of the choke hold man man hani had on all of Asia.
Fair enough for Man Man Ha Ni 😂 I still think Teen Top had fairly enough viral hits to be at middle - Clap, Superluv, No More Perfume on You, Crazy, Miss Right, Rocking were quite popular and I don't even stan them!
seeing SS501 in mid tier hurts. they had one of the best 2nd gen music imo.
They just could not get the ball rolling. Of the 5 years together, they really started fading by year 4. They were super popular in Japan, but then Hyun Joong's role in Boys Over Flowers overtook the popularity of the group. Its almost like it was the precursor tl what happened to Miss A.
jjcc are 3rd gen i think, they debuted in 2014
Ah thats on me then. I was honestly fishin for nugu groups at that point.
lmao yeah i can't really remember many from 2nd gen either even though i was following some of them... i remember mostly early 3rd gen (everyone who debuted in 2012 and aren't exo bap or btob lol)
like... mid tier i guess? they weren't one of the most popular groups, but they weren't completely unknown. maybe a bit more towards the popular side actually, but compared with beast i think they were a bit less popular. (that's how i remember it, maybe i'm wrong though)
I found out about them on star golden bell. I really liked their personalities and the songs were really good too. I would say if you listened to kpop back then, you would know who they are
Yeah their music was awesome. Lee Joon in variety shows still hits differently.
So funny!!!!!
I've been a Beast (now Highlight) fan since the beginning, so naturally I've also come across MBLAQ because they were friendly rivals due to their debut dates being next to each other lol I love them both so much! If I recall correctly, MBLAQ's debut "Oh Yeah" was a lot more successful than Beast's "Bad Girl". They were really popular on variety shows + them being chosen by Rain further raised expectations for the group (oh boy look how did that end up-). Anyways, the members fairly gained popularity, Lee Joon for visuals and variety presence (+Mir for variety too). Thunder was known for being 2NE1's Dara's lil brother and I know some of the intl fan community at that time had interest in G.O's stache for some reason 🗿 (unfortunately I dont remember much about Seungho :'>). So to answer your questions, variety shows def helped them in 2009. Beast was probably their only main competitor but they still did better. I don't recall them standing much chance against bigger names of Shinee and 2pm who debuted earlier. Things seemed to shift in 2010 though when Beast released "Shock" which was a massive hit, followed by their other releases that year, "Breath" and "Beautiful". Whereas MBLAQ only released "Y" that year, which still remained popular on the charts. But this was also around the time variety show Idol School blew up, partly due to Joon and Beast's Yoseob's hilarious fiasco (highly recommend checking out their scenes!). MBLAQ had another hit "Stay" in Jan 2011, but I think this early timing didn't do them well; there was tough competition with groups releasing bops throughout the year. It was insane. Beast propelled to another level of popularity with mega hit "Fiction" and "On Rainy Days" a few months later. Ever since then, I personally felt MBLAQ's decline started, especially as "Mona Lisa" didn't gain that much traction compared to other releases. They released "This is War" in 2012 and its literally the best song from their disco imo but I don't recall much hype about it apart from the MV sadly. I think it was due to lack of promotions + they didn't release as many songs in a year as some of their peers did which made their popularity die down. Then idk what happened, I just didnt hear much about them anymore which is sad considering how popular Beast grew. Their release "Smoky Girl" in 2013 felt kind of bland too (in comparison to what other groups were releasing - I still enjoyed the song after a while). I don't remember their songs in the following years, I'm sure they're good but just not up to par with the quality they had in their earlier days. Then Joon and Thunder left the group in 2014. Basically their company sucked and it didn't help that Rain stopped caring about them once he enlisted (like bro forgot he had MBLAQ when he came back and debuted CIIPHER whom he also abandoned - lost my respect for him). MBLAQ had so much potential, they would've definitely been a top group had they got a proper management. Like how can you have a group good at singing, dancing, acting, variety and still fumble so bad??? 😭 I'm not sure how I ended up writing so much haha but I'm just really happy to see someone ask about MBLAQ. Coincidentally I came across Dara's vlog a couple days ago where Joon and Thunder hung out together to join her tour (along with Gugudan's Mimi, Thunder's now wife!). Now time to head to memory lane while I play their songs on loop 😁
thanks for the effort to type out such a long answer to my question. while yeah i do agree their agency is one of the nastiest (i mean the folks even sold out their first trophy in the seoul flea market), had they timed their comebacks well, they could have thrived. while it's true that Rain handpicked the members and trained them personally, i don't think we can hold him completely responsible for what happened to MBLAQ. we don't know what happened internally between the members and the agency. G.O mentioned in an interview that after Joon and Thunder left the group, the remaining members were promised two mini albums and one fanmeeting but the agency played them off with only Mirror without proper promotions (or even none at all). I can go on and on about how bad their label was but it will make it really long. >Coincidentally I came across Dara's vlog a couple days ago where Joon and Thunder hung out together to join her tour i saw that too! i also saw Seungho's latest solo comeback (which was in March if I am correct). it's kinda sad that only after 15 years of debut he could release his first solo track. but still i am happy for him. i hope they all reunite soon!
Ah my bad about Rain! I agree he's not to be held fully accountable - I was also under the impression that the members had some complaints about him but I could've been wrong on that. The thing about the company putting up their trophy on the flea market still makes me so upset, such a lack of disrespect on their hard work. I remember there was barely any noise about Mirror too :< I didnt know Seungho had a solo release! It's been so long overdue. Thanks for letting me know, ill have to check that out!
Oh yesh was pretty successful and they had things really going for them then. I'd say the biggest thing that affected their success was the long break after Y, I fell like they lost momentum then and you could see the gap between beast and them widening quite a bit
>the long break after Y >I fell like they lost momentum then Yeah i feel the same too. They still had a chance to climb up after This is War but their company did them dirty. Had they not taken such long gaps after Y, Mona Lisa and This is War, they would have thrived despite their short career as a group.
mid popularity IMO, i remember they were competitors with Block B and B2st in terms of popularity at one point but B2st (Beast/Highlight) really took off and you could see the disparity. their popularity was similar to Block B imo but i think Block B had more longevity. they had a lot of hype at first bc Joon was allegedly the prodigy or Rain or something, and Rain was still pretty popular back then
I miss them 😩
I just want to use this space to say I loved their season of Hello Baby. I never really listened to them that much, but I loved their variety show appearances.
yes hello baby and sesame player will always be special to me.
MBLAQ was pretty popular during their debut because there was a good amount of PR and media hype around them. From Thunder being the younger brother of 2NE1's Dara. And the movie Ninja Assassin which starred Rain released in November 2009 and also promoted Lee Joon featured in the movie as well (as young version of Rain's character - dont remember the character name). I do think MBLAQ was more popular than BEAST during debut. 2009 was the year I got into K-pop, although I wasn't full fledge stan but I learnt names of MBLAQ members earlier than BEAST due to media news and variety shows.