GOT7 have decided to move on from JYP Entertainment after seven years at the label.
With their contracts now at an end without renewal, members JB, Mark, Jackson, Jinyoung, Youngjae, Yugyeom and BamBam are set to embark on new projects.
Whether they come back together as a team or decide to fly solo for now is still unknown, but the K-Pop stars have reassured fans they are ‘forever’ despite not being at the same agency.
On January 19, the day their contract officially ended, the group released a jointly handwritten letter thanking their fans IGOT7 (or Ahgase) for their support.
‘We’ll continue to make music for Ahgases! While making and sharing this music in the future, we want to be together with you!’ they said.
How likely is this for GOT7, especially if members sign with different agencies?
Joonoo Park, an A&R consultant and writer from South Korea, tells Metro.co.uk that it is ‘possible for them to promote together’ in future even if members decide to sign with different agencies.
Joonoo shared: ‘In Korea, the expression “seven-year jinx” is already used. There is no similar case, but there is a boy group called Highlight who used the name B2ST.
‘In Highlight, all members except one of the members came out and set up a separate company. There are many cases where the members naturally leave the company after dismantling after the seven-year contract period. Shinhwa also left the company together.’
‘Obviously, this requires the consent of each company, and the process is bound to be complicated,’ he continued.
‘However if there is a will of the members, separate activities may be possible even if the individual agency is different like the group Shinhwa. It is not known how the members contracted with each company, but of course, it is possible.’
There does appear to be a ‘will’ there, so when the comeback lands could it be as GOT7 in his opinion?
Joonoo explains the members could ‘independently recover the trademark right’ to the group name from JYP Entertainment.
He said: ‘In the process, Highlight didn’t get the name B2ST from the company. In some cases, like Shinhwa, it took a long time to leave the company and bring the group name.’
When the members decide to focus on solo projects, Joonoo predicts Jackson could be the standout as ‘he is already on the world stage, and branding as a solo musician has been completed’.
The rapper, who hails from China, has his own company Team Wang and released solo album Mirrors in 2019.
However Ahgase know what all seven of the now former idols are capable of, whether it’s Yugyeom and JB releasing music on Soundcloud, Jinyoung appearing in dramas or Mark working on his YouTube channel (which is approaching a million subscribers without him uploading a single video.) There surely are a host of options waiting for each member.
What’s more, should they decide to release music as a group they know there is a passionate – not to mention large – fanbase from Thailand to the UK that will be waiting for them.
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