Often, after debuting, artists totally fall off the radar, or on other occasions, they seem to only vanish without any clarification for fans. But what about a group that went through a good run before disbanding? That is the story for Stellar.
In 2011, Stellar officially debuted with four members, including Gayoung, Jeonyul, Leeseul, and JoA, with the single "Rocket Girl."
"Rocket Girl" didn't take off and they went through a line-up transition before launching "UFO" the following year. Both "UFO" and "Rocket Girl" didn't do really well, contributing to a line-up change. Members Leeseul and JoA quit the group and had Minhee and Hyoeun replaced.
Early concepts from Stellar have been a perfect blend of adorable and girl crush, a bit like 2NE1 meets TWICE. The band released their track "Study" in 2013, which was their first hit charting in the top 100, which signaled the beginning of their rise to stardom.
They launched their first EP "Marionette" the following year. However, it was evident that they moved in a different direction. They drifted away from their sweet, candy crush image and quickly moved into a sexy persona.
For the promotions they made to pump up "Marionette," the group faced intense criticism when fans were required to "like" photos on Facebook to show the body part of a group member.
However, even after scandals, the original music video earned a 19+ rating, and the song went towards becoming their top-selling song. "Marionette" reached 35 on Gaon and 34 on the K-Pop Hot 100 list on Billboard.
Gayoung revealed the theory of why their concept had changed drastically.
"We'd been similar to a cool idea when we first started. There were items like aliens, but that was a fun idea that matched our age group. At first, we were able to reap the benefits of publicity because we were the band "produced by Eric from Shinhwa,'" she revealed.
"We produced about three albums, but the outcomes were not good. And the company was in a tough position. Subsequently, Eric quit, and there was a time when it was merely the CEO and our manager. It was tough. We didn't even have the financial freedom to just sit in a cafe. When another famous person car would drive us by, we would get so humiliated. We used to cover up our faces," she added.
Since their concept shift, including the extremely controversial MV, was essentially a big success for Stellar. But at a cost, Gayoung admitted they had been fooled into filming the provocative sequences by their company, never completely expressing what their motives were to the band during the shooting.
"There was one scene in which a member would have to drink milk. The script said, 'Waking up and drinking milk, missing your past lover, Tossing and turning in bed.' We just figured they decided to make her drink milk to represent a scene of the morning," she confessed.
The member was drinking the milk for the sequence, but unsurprisingly, they said to her, "Spill the milk while drinking." She assumed she was pouring it out to prove the character had no control, but when we saw the feedback that said, "This scenario will make you picture an act," we were surprised," she went on.
"The member who reenacted it was just 20 years old at that time, and she was so surprised that she is still unable to drink white milk to this day. She was really badly hurt. Nobody realized that was [the scene's aim]," Gayoung further said.
Stellar members did not like the idea of the sensual concept their company pressed onto them, and they tried other ideas. Their "Sting" was launched in 2016, and it had more of a girlfriend concept, with the band having to explain, "This way, we decided to look rather like a girlfriend than a provocative one. We 're putting on lighter makeup, so more people feel connected to us."
Sadly, their concepts of the pre-"Marionette" era are just other concepts they repeatedly tried to suffer the same fate. They did not do well, which would be to say.
As a consequence, their company held control of their profile, and their company would harass them with fees and penalties if the members attempted to make a stand for themselves. Since they were young during that period and feared they could not pay a substantial amount of money, they would just indeed let go of the issue. Furthermore, only one meal was given to the girls to divide up among the four.
"All of a sudden throughout "Vibrato," they asked us to perform in the outfit that day. We informed them, 'In these, we can't dance.' They replied, 'Just try. Why you say no before you even try it.' For it, we took about five pictures, and we asked them, 'Look, it's too much.' They appeared to understand and asked us to adjust, but they published those images," the former Stellar member shared.
"When we saw those pictures, and we decided to call to argue with them, they swept it aside and said, 'Hey, didn't you know? All right, sorry, we're not going to do it again.' Yet, the pictures have already been published, and we could not do anything. I believe they thought that the members were soft and all too generous," she added.
Given their joy in carving their own path through life, it is clear they've been done dirty by their company.
During a Q&A session conducted on Minhee's channel, Gayoung disclosed that each member was compensated only USD 9,000 in their seven years as a group, despite getting several successes and making a large amount of money for their company.
"Whatever other people might think, I do not even care, but we didn't make as much money as they thought we did. We've never compensated out properly," she concluded.
