Still Together, Just Differently: K-POP Groups Rewrite the Rules After 10 Years

TWICE is beginning to go its separate ways, at least when it comes to individual management. Jeongyeon has left JYP Entertainment for a new agency, while Chaeyoung announced this week that she will also leave the company after 14 years. Both, however, are staying with TWICE.

The group is hardly the first to take this route. Members of veteran K-POP groups have increasingly moved to different agencies while keeping their groups intact. TWICE's latest contract changes are another example of a broader shift already underway: For K-POP groups that make it past the 10-year mark, staying together no longer necessarily means working together all the time.

BLACKPINK has been operating under that kind of arrangement for several years. Jennie, Jisoo, Lisa and Rosé renewed with YG Entertainment for group activities while taking their solo careers elsewhere. That has given each member room to build a career of her own, but it has also made full-group activities harder to coordinate.

That was noticeable when BLACKPINK marked its 10th anniversary on Aug. 8. The four reunited for a livestream, but there were relatively few activities surrounding the milestone. With their solo careers taking up much of their time, full-group appearances have become increasingly rare.

TWICE and BLACKPINK are part of a broader shift as more second- and third-generation K-POP groups enter their second decade. Members are leaving the agencies where they debuted and building careers as soloists or actors without leaving their groups. In turn, the line between "active" and "disbanded" has become harder to draw.

Some veteran acts have kept group activities relatively regular even after members moved elsewhere. SHINee has continued promoting under SM Entertainment despite Onew and Taemin leaving the company for their individual careers. 2PM has remained together with members represented by different agencies, while INFINITE established INFINITE Company to manage its group activities and returned in 2023 with its first full-group album in roughly five years.

SEVENTEEN has followed a more traditional path. Even after passing its 10th anniversary last year, group activities have remained central. The group released a 10th-anniversary studio album and continued touring while the members expanded their individual work.

Others have shown that leaving the agency where they debuted does not have to end the group. All seven GOT7 members left JYP Entertainment in 2021 but secured the rights to their group name and returned with an album the following year. Girls' Generation reunited in 2022 for the 15th-anniversary album "FOREVER 1" after several members left SM Entertainment. MAMAMOO, whose members are now represented by different agencies, also reunited this year for new music and a world tour.

BIGBANG offers another version of longevity. The members' contracts with YG Entertainment have ended and the lineup has changed, but G-Dragon, Taeyang and Daesung continue as a trio. The group marked its 20th anniversary this year with new music and its first world tour in about nine years.

But the growing number of ways to keep a group together also raises a harder question: Can a group that reunites only once every few years still be considered active?

Not disbanding and actually promoting together are not quite the same thing. Some groups have gone years without a new album or full-group performance despite never officially breaking up. For fans, knowing a reunion could happen "someday" may be reassuring. But that promise starts to mean something different when there is no indication of when that day might come.

Then again, formally disbanding may not mean as much as it once did either.

2NE1 officially disbanded in 2016, only to reunite unexpectedly at Coachella in 2022. In 2024, the group returned for its 15th-anniversary "WELCOME BACK" tour, its first headlining tour in about a decade. The members went on to perform 27 shows across 12 cities before wrapping up with encore concerts at Seoul's KSPO Dome last year.

If a group that officially disbanded can return years later, while another can remain technically active without promoting together for years, the old line between together and over no longer says very much.

There is no longer one way for a K-POP group to last. Some continue releasing music and touring regularly. Others focus on individual careers and reunite when the timing works. Some can even disband and eventually come back.

A long gap between full-group activities does not mean a group needs to call it quits. At the same time, simply keeping a group name alive does not necessarily make it active. As more K-POP acts move beyond their first decade, perhaps the question is no longer whether they stay together or disband, but whether they still want to come back together when it counts.