BUDDYs are not okay after hearing the news that GFriend are parting ways with their agency Source Music after 6 years.
In a statement made on Tuesday, May 18, 2021, the girl group’s agency confirmed that the six-piece group did not renew their contracts with them, and had come to an agreement to lead separate paths of growth. Source Music also added that “for six years, the girl group has received an enormous amount of love from K-Pop fans from their variety of concepts, performances, and songs that began a new generation of girl groups and music.”
The statement, however, did not clear out the possibility of the GFriend’s disbandment. In other news, it had also been reported that Source Music had applied to trademark the English name “GFRIEND” at the Korean Intellectual Property Office recently, drawing attention to how the girl group will continue in the future and confusing fans.
Here are some of the fans’ reactions to the unexpected news, considering that most of the members had communicated through Weverse and VLive earlier that day.
K-Buddys are mad! MAGO by GFriend reached #59 on Bugs Chart, their newest peak for the last 48 hours! 😭😩 pic.twitter.com/kXtrZUUEEm
— xiel 🍸︎ (@MAGOPLAGIARISM) May 19, 2021
"Who's responsible for building SouMu from ground up? It's GFRIEND!"
"Thanks to GFRIEND, SouMu got to expand its office building to above the ground.."
Everyone in the industry has acknowledged that GFRIEND is the one who brought your company this far, except you @SOURCEMUSIC pic.twitter.com/CXNMWw1KTA
— May. (@mademyday603B) May 19, 2021
https://twitter.com/giexshua/status/1394805843367845888?s=20
look at this. 8 hours before the announcement regarding GFRIEND contract ends. Sinb still interacts with buddy on weverse. 😢😢😢 pic.twitter.com/Lfx330aTiN
— CHANNEL YEOCHIN (@Channel_Yeochin) May 19, 2021
https://twitter.com/gfriend_part/status/1394849536049238019?s=20
the way gfriend built source music from unknown company, but soumu betrayed them 😭
— ᴊʏʀ (@yerintopic) May 19, 2021
GFRIEND has not yet officially disbanded, but the number of cases where all members move to another agency are little. According to this, the industry expects that the dismantling procedure will be followed.
🔗 https://t.co/syTmVweGUK pic.twitter.com/pztoYuGVCi
— 버디 업데이트 (@Buddy_Updates) May 19, 2021
https://twitter.com/b_scenezone/status/1394889309447151616?s=20
GFriend is a six-member girl group, consisting of Sowon, Yerin, Eunha, Yuju, SInB, and Umji that debuted in 2015 with “Glass Bead”. Initially known for their innocent, school-girl concepts like “Me gustas tu” and “Rough”, the girl group branched out to more powerful concepts that still oozed innocence, such as “Navillera”, “Time for the Moon Night”, and “Sunrise”.
In their most recent releases, GFriend’s sound and styling began to mature, signifying their flexibility to a variety of concepts. Beginning with “Fever” and up till their latest release “MAGO”, GFriend never failed to showcase a different side to their music and image.
If the author of this article were to speak from a personal level, she’d describe GFriend and their songs as possible opening or ending songs to different girl-centric (shoujo) anime, because they always sound like one. The author’s top 3 favorite songs from all of GFriend’s singles would be Fever, Sunrise, and MAGO.
Let’s all trust and hope for the best in their future endeavors, BUDDYs!
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