GD&TOP, Orange Caramel, Rainbow Pixie, Trouble Maker, Pink Sugar, 5Dolls, Super Junior K.R.Y, After School Blue, After School Red and Sistar 19 are just a few names from the "K-pop sub-unit world".
At the beginning, sub-units were created to show different sides of a band and were more common with male idols, but, during the past year, also 3 female sub-units have appeared. These groups, so far, have the same structure: 3 cute girls with at least one of the youngest members of the original band, cute songs, use of new and cute words, flashy outfits and so on.
In the case of boys, their sub-units are mostly composed of 2 members like GD&TOP, Mir and G.O or Super Junior M, Super Junior Happy, Super Junior K.R.Y, Super Junior T.
GD&TOP mentioned once that they were able to work with different sounds and styles as sub-unit, which was indeed true.
The formation of MBLAQ's first sub-unit by G.O and Mir wasn't a surprise since Mir's collaboration in G.O's solo album caused a great reaction from fans. Due to the strong vocals of G.O and the charming raps of Mir, these two MBLAQ members created an interesting combination together.
On the other hand, the various sub units from Super Junior allow each member to present more sides of himself and let the fans know more about each of the 13 members of the band. Forming sub-units is the most practical way for Super Junior to introduce each member's individual talents. Moreover, Super Junior M has been in charge of the Chinese promotions of the band. Focusing on this language and earning little by little great popularity in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan enables the boys to show a different style and charisma from the one displayed in Korea.
Actually, we can also say that 2PM and 2AM are also sub-units of the group called One Day. One Day is formed by 10 members from JYP Entertainment - previously 11 with Jay Park. So 2AM and 2PM display different colors of One Day. One group focuses on dance tracks and the other one on ballads and stronger songs.
D2O is a sub-unit formed by Chance and Young Sky of One Way, and it is, as its name says, a detour of the original project with a different sound but keeping the same scent and giving fans a chance to hear different colors of Chance and Young Sky's vocals and personal styles.
Talking about the girls, After School started the "3-member sub-unit trend" of girl groups with the formation of Orange Caramel and its debut song "A~ing". This sub-unit is completely different from the original group, focusing on a cute and lovely style with songs that would not fit the concept of After School but go perfectly with the 3 members of Orange Caramel. After School Red and After School Blue also show a different and contrasting side of the original band with a line-up different from Orange Caramel. One of them shows a fierce attitude, while the other one shows a cute side but less extravagant than the one of Orange Caramel's.
Rainbow also presented a 3-member sub-unit under the name of Rainbow Pixie, once again opting for a cute concept and the use of catchy words and phrases.
Sistar 19 formed by Bora and Hyorin also displays a different attitude, a bit more emotional and using their sexy style on a different way than Sistar.
Also, Dal Shabet's sub-unit Pink Sugar formed by Ah Young, Subin and Serri has a wonderland concept and the mellow style.
2NE1 also presented a sort of sub-unit during the release of projects by each member where CL and Minzy collaborated on the track "Please Don't Go", but they are not an official sub-unit of the band. With "Please Don't Go", the members left the fierce style adopted for an upbeat song with some touches of cuteness keeping a cool style and creating a special combination that had a result liked by fans.
There are also some special combinations among members of different groups that belong to the same company like Trouble Maker formed by 4Minute's Hyuna and BEAST's Hyun Seung. The two members displayed a new sound and really sexy concept that charmed fans. Cube Entertainment announced that more sub-units will come in the future.
M&D is also a special sub-unit of SM Entertainment. It's formed by Super Junior's Heechul and Trax's Jung Mo and mixes different styles not focusing just on pop, ballads or rock but mixing them and creating an interesting new flavor.
SM has created another special sub-unit formed by different members of the company but focusing on ballads under the name of S.M. the Ballad that include Trax's Jay Kim, SHINee's Jonghyun, Super Junior's Kyuhyun as well as Jino who has not officially debuted yet.
Co-Ed School also has formed 2 sub-units, one composed of girls named 5Dolls and one of boys known as Speed. They display a different kind of charisma and you can say that, instead of being just sub-units, they have turned into independant groups leaving the original one aside for a while.
Now Girls' Generation has formed a new sub-unit as well. It's featuring Taeyeon, Tiffany and Seohyun and will be the first sub-unit of the girl group. Taeyeon and Tiffany have presented special stages on concerts but with a sexier concept. The new sub-unit which will be called "TaeTiSeo" has recently shared its first teaser in which the girls have pink, red and purple hair and more elaborated outfits than the ones used by Girls' Generation.
Some time ago, netizens said that this trend will be replaced by another one soon and that it will get boring in the end, but it seems like sub-units will keep playing an important role in the K-pop world in the future.
What do you think about this trend?
GD & TOP!!! I love the songs don't go home, oh yeah and baby good night!
they seem to work well so why not?
there can never be too many