NU’EST disbandment thoughts
NU’EST’s disbandment was/is disappointing, but I’m not entirely surprised. Not to say that there is anyone to blame, as we don’t know the full story, but there were some things that stuck out.
1. NU’EST isn’t on RhythmHive. And I don’t know if this is because of HYBE’s contract with Pledis, but Seventeen is on RhythmHive while NU’EST is not. I was hoping they would be, as NU’EST has a lot of great songs that would be great for a rhythm game. It was strange to not see them there since they are a longtime artist of Pledis. (Yes Fromis_9 is also not on RhythmHive even though they were recently acquired by Pledis, but I would say that’s because they’re a new group to the company.)
2. Waning dedication. I got the sense that as much as NU’EST enjoys being NU’EST, they were not as passionate/dedicated to their work as they used to be. After The Table (2019), it just kind of seemed like they were coasting in their careers. And while there is nothing wrong with basking in your success and just enjoying that time (as they really did struggle a lot up to that point), I would think that as an artist you would still want to try new things. You can see that they do get more experimental in Romanticize with their solo songs, but that is as a soloist, not as a group. Seeing that most of Romanticize was solo tracks was a bit disappointing. Each member has so much to offer, and solo tracks are great for that, but the best songs have always been group songs.
3. Creative differences over time. Baekho does a great job of creating each track with the members, and you can definitely see that he has a style, but I wonder if the group’s desired style is different from what Pledis/HYBE envisioned for them. It’s no secret that NU’EST hates “Sleep Talking,” and that was a company decision by Pledis at the time to go in that direction. Perhaps the group’s style has changed over time and no longer aligns with what the company imagines for them. Usually if a group is really into their song you can kind of tell; I’m not 100% sure NU’EST truly loved working on “I’m in Trouble” and “Inside Out”. They’re both pretty good tracks, although “I’m in Trouble” just sounds a lot like “Deja Vu”, but I wonder if they wanted to do stuff that was more like “ 다시, 봄 ” or “Galaxy” (which Baekho said in their BTS recording that he wanted to make a song similar to “Dress” when doing Romanticize but both tracks couldn’t be included), which isn’t as.... marketable. Ballads/pop ballads tend to be more difficult to sell because there’s no choreography or internet challenges to pair with them. And while cool tracks like “I’m in Trouble” are definitely more chill and synth-y, they are still classified as a dance/pop track. It really did feel like “ 다시, 봄 “ was a return to their “Hello” days, which the guys look upon fondly.
Each member also seems to be going in different creative directions, which may have contributed to their widening differences.
4. Changing goals for each member. NU’EST was together for ten years. That’s a long time to be with one group of people. With their waning dedication and creative differences, it’s not surprising that they started having different goals for themselves too. Aron took that long break (due to health, but that gives a person a lot of time to think) and is now (post-disbandment) doing a podcast/YouTube channel (Korean Cowboys). As the first member to get their new venture started, it does make me wonder if Aron had this planned from a while back. Not to say that Aron was the cause for disbandment, but if he had expressed to the group that he wanted to pursue other things (and not be in K-pop), this may have prompted everyone else to think about what they want to do in the future. (Yes, there have been groups where the members are in different companies, and since that didn’t happen, cases like Apink are not comparable.) I don’t think NU’EST would have wanted to go forward without everyone on board (e.g. even when Minhyun was away they went by NU’EST W), so without full buy-in, the group would disband.
It makes sense that Baekho and Minhyun remained with Pledis, as they both have pretty strong music careers going for them. Ren may go into musicals (although he did say in his farewell letter that he was interested in doing something completely different, which I take to mean completely different from the music industry) or pursue a completely new project that has yet to be announced. I don’t know what JR will do. There have been speculations by people online about him going into streaming/gaming, but nothing has been confirmed. There have also been no announcements as to whether Ren and JR have signed to new companies, so it’s possible that they may be leaving the industry as well (although if Aron will be talking about K-pop, I would say he remains adjacent to the industry).
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