Gone But Not Forgotten: ✨ CCM Special ✨ Gangkiz, The SeeYa, Coed School, 5Dolls/F-VE DOLLS
In this series I want to go through groups that are gone, but not forgotten. I will go from debut till disbandment or [indefinite] hiatus, remembering the time we had together and look back on their highs and lows.
This installment is a Core Contents Media Special about Gangkiz, The SeeYa, Coed School and F-ve Dolls
The label was established on January 9, 2007 as the subsidiary label of CJ E&M Music by Kim Kwang-Soo. On October 1, 2014, it was announced that Core Contents Media had been acquired by MBK Co., and renamed as MBK Entertainment. MBK is an abbreviation for "Music Beyond Korea".
[Warning: Mentioning Of Drugs, Rape, Bullying, Underage Drinking]
Gangkiz
Gangkiz was a South Korean girl group formed by Core Contents Media. Consisting of members Jihyun, Sooeun, Hae-in, Somin, Eunbyul, Esther, and Hyeji. No official announcement regarding the group's dissolution was ever made.
2012: We Became Gang and MAMA
Gangkiz was originally created by Core Contents Media, but later moved to a subsidiary label, GM Contents Media, before their debut.
The group officially debuted on May 15, 2012 with the release of their debut album "We Became Gang".
Gangkiz released a seven-part music video for their debut song "Honey Honey", which is described as an "upgraded version of T-ara's "Roly-Poly" and "Lovey-Dovey" with a more mature concept".
The group released a repackaged mini-album titled "MAMA" on June 26, 2012. The music video for "MAMA" was released on June 22, 2012. The group was transferred from GM Contents Media back to Core Contents Media in October 2012.
Both We Became Gang and MAMA performed poorly by only selling 3000 and 1182 copies respectively.
2013-2014 Member Departures and Disbandment
With no releases for the remainder of 2012, Gangkiz was scheduled to make a comeback in early 2013. However, after opening CCM's official fancafé, it was revealed that most of the original line-up had quietly withdrawn from the group, and that only Esther and Hyeji remained. Haein subsequently confirmed her departure.
In 2014, Hyeji's Twitter account was deleted, Esther's went inactive, and the group's official fancafé was shut down. Although Core Contents Media has never released an official statement, the group is believed to have completely disbanded. Esther went to university majoring in Event directions, Eunbyul started working as a stewardess and Somin started working at an office.
The SeeYa
The SeeYa (stylized as "The SEEYA") was a South Korean R&B girl group consists of Minkyung, Youngjoo, Yoojin and Yeonkyung. They debuted on November 12, 2012 with the single album Good To Seeya featuring the title track "Be With You". In the last year of 2015, their profile page was removed and many speculated the group disbanded.
2012-13: Debut with Good To Seeya and Love U
Their debut single, "Be With You", was released in two versions, the main version featuring former Speed member Taewoon and the other version is female only. One of the music videos featured actors Joo Sang-wook and Im Jung-eun with direction by Chang (Death Bell).
The debut single album "Good To Seeya" was released in November 12. The SeeYa released their first mini album, "Love U", in December, they promoted "Poison" as their title track.
In June 2013, Core Contents Media released digital song "Painkiller". The song was a collaboration with T-ara, The SeeYa, F-ve dolls and Speed.
In July 2013, Yeonkyung was confirmed to be joining girl group F-ve Dolls. She would simultaneously promote as a member of both groups.
2014: Tears, Love Is and Crazy Love
The SeeYa was released two single album In January 2014. The group's released their second single-album Tears with title track called "More & More" on January 3 and released their third single-album Love Is with title track called "Tell Me" on January 21.
End of 2014, The SeeYa released their fourth single-album Crazy Love with title track called "The Song Of Love" collaboration with EXID's LE was released In December 29.
2015: U & Me and Disbandment
On February 10, 2015, MBK Entertainment artists T-ara, Speed, The SeeYa and Cho Seunghee participated in MBK project group "TS" and released winter song "Don't Forget Me".
In March 2015, MBK confirmed Yeonkyung would only focus on promoting with The SeeYa.
On 21 April 2015, The Seeya released their fifth single U & ME with title track "Wedding March".
In November 2015, MBK Entertainment removed the group's profile page from their official website. The group ultimately disbanded.
On May 18, 2016 Yoojin made appearance on SBS' War of Vocals - God's Voice. She also confirmed that The SeeYa had disbanded.
COED SCHOOL
Coed School was a South Korean pop group formed by record company Core Contents Media in 2010. The co-ed group consisted of four female members: Sumi, Hyoyoung, Hyewon, and Chanmi; and six male members: Taewoon, Sungmin, Jungwoo, Kwanghaeng, Kangho, and Noori. The group was eventually divided into two sub-units: an all female-group called F-ve Dolls (2011) and an all-male group called Speed (2012).
Pre-debut:
Member Kangho was accused of rape when a victim posted a post saying he had raped her. Nothing was ever confirmed.
2010: Debut and Something That Is Cheerful and Fresh
They debuted with the single "Too Late" in September 2010.
Just under three weeks since their debut, the group followed up "Too Late" with a second single, "Bbiribbom Bberibbom" (삐리뽐 빼리뽐). The music video for the song was recorded on October 11, 2010, and features T-ara member Ham Eun-jeong. The video, along with a second music video for ballad "Nae Simjangeul Ttwige Haneun Mar" (내 심장을 뛰게 하는 말 "I Love You A Thousand Times"), was released on October 18. "Bbiribbom Bberibbom" peaked at number 61 on the Gaon Chart.
The group's debut mini album, "Something That Is Cheerful and Fresh", was released on October 28, 2010. It features the three previously released songs and various remixes. Despite being limited to 20,000 copies, Core Contents Media announced that the album had received 50,000 pre-orders and announced increase production of albums therefore selling roughly 47,000 albums. The album peaked at number 8 on the Gaon charts.
A scandal erupted by the end of 2010 when Kangho was spotted drinking and entering an "adult entertainment facility" despite him being underage. Not much later Noori was also seen drinking underage.
2011-2014:
By the middle of 2013, a representative of Core Contents Media stated in an interview that they have no plans for Co-Ed to reform again as both of its sub-units (F-VE Dolls and SPEED) had grown and changed their line-ups to become independent ensembles. In 2014, the female members departed the record label. All original male members parted from the agency as well.
2016-2017:
In 2016 Kangho was caught smuggling drugs into Canada and was charged for it and also had been charged for using six pills of MDMA as well as seven rolls of Marijuana in the Netherlands and charged with connecting a friend to his drug dealer.
In 2017 he was charged for smoking three rolls marijuana in his car and admitted to all drug charges.
5Dolls / F-VE DOLLS
F-ve Dolls (formerly known as 5dolls) was a South Korean girl group formed by Core Contents Media in 2011. The group was composed of six members: Hyoyoung, Seunghee, Yeonkyung, Hyewon, Eunkyo and Nayeon.
The group was known as "Female Unit" of Coed School until CCM's announced that the group became independent in 2013. The group disbanded on March 10, 2015.
2010: Formation
On December 2010, Coed School broke into sub-groups. The female members Lee Soo-mi, Heo Chan-mi, Ryu Hyo-young and Jin Hye-won, with the addition of new member Seo Eun-kyo, became 5dolls.
2011: Debut with Lip Stains, Charming Five Girls, Time to Play
On January 20, 2011, 5dolls released two promotional videos featuring Jay Park, one called "Lip Stains" and the other one called "I Mean You" (or "It's You"). Both MVs were around 7:40 minutes long, something CCM was known for back in the day. The group released their first mini album "Charming Five Dolls" on February 16, 2011. Becauase their mini album didn't sell well, T-ara performed with them a couple of times to promote their song and mini album.
During their live performances, the group received criticism for presumably lip synching.
5dolls released their second mini-album "Time To Play" on May 11, 2011 with their lead single "Like This Or That" and the music video. "Like This or That" performed well and stands as the highest selling song for a rookie of 2011 with $192,000 USD grossed.
2012-13: Line-up changes, Since 1971, First Love
2012 saw the departure of both Soomi and Chanmi from the group.
There are a lot of controversy and questions surrounding why, but it’s thought that Soomi left because of a conflict between herself, Chanmi, and Eunkyo.
Right after that netizens started to spread news about Soomi's departure. According to rumours, Eunkyo purposely befriended who Soomi was closest with to turn them against her. Soomi got bullied day in and day out by Eunkyo and Chanmi.
An example of the bullying was that Soomi's fancafe gave Soomi and Coed School a congratulatory cake for their successful debut. On that cake, Soomi's face was broken. Soomi wrote in the fancafe after receiving the cake and thanked everyone, but she also wrote that "someone broke the cake on my face and I'm going to find who did that."
Chanmi and Eunkyo were blamed for forcing their former leader to leave by bullying her.
The group ended every promotion and went on hiatus. In the same year, during summer, Chanmi left CCM.
Han Na-yeon and Shannon were announced as replacements and, in February 2013, trainee Choi Ji-hyun was also said to be joining the group, thus becoming six.
On July 8, 2013, the group officially announced that they would be returning at the end of the month with a new single called "Soulmate #1" as well as a new stage name, F-ve Dolls.
However, of the three new members announced, only Nayeon stayed, and the other two gaps were filled by Cho Seung-hee and The SeeYa member Oh Yeon-kyung, who simultaneously promoted the two groups.
On July 31, 2013, their first digital single "Since 1971" was released with the music video of the title track "Soulmate #1", produced by Duble Sidekick. The song charted 62 on the Gaon Chart and 44 on the Billboard Korea Hot 100. F-ve Dolls promoted "Soulmate #1" from July 31 through September 1, 2013.
The promotion flopped after their bullying scandal and member changes and netizens were not happy to see another T-ara Roly Poly rip-off from CCM.
F-ve Dolls followed-up promotions with a new mini-album called "First Love", which was released on September 17. The group promoted with the song "Can You Love Me?", which features new T-ara N4 member Kim Dani, making it her debut. On 17 September 2013, a second version of "Can You Love Me?" music video and a music video for the song "Deceive" were released.
2014-2015: Disbandment
On November 2014, it was reported that F-ve Dolls was disbanded after their labels were renamed, and subsequently F-ve dolls was deleted from the official label's website.
On March 10, 2015, the label confirmed the official disbandment of the group. It was stated that those members who still had a contract with the agency would be part of a new group. On September 2015, Cho Seunghee re-debuted with new group DIA, but she left the group the following year.
2020:
Chanmi made her solo debut with "Lights".
Previous: Nine Muses, 4Minute, Girl's Day, Sistar, Secret, Orange Caramel, Rainbow, 2NE1, Dalshabet, Stellar, Miss A, After School, Spica, Hello Venus, Wonder Girls, f(x), Crayon Pop, WA$$UP, BESTie & GLAM, I.O.I, Pristin, Pristin V & Hinapia.
Sources: Wordpress, Gangkiz Wikipedia, Peter Lo, kprofiles, MBK Entertainment, 내가 듣고 싶은 노래, aminoapps, vice, onehallyu, F-ve Dolls Wikipedia, Coed School Wikipedia, kprofiles f-ve dolls, MBCkpop, blogspot, blogspot (2), soompi forum.
Next: Hint
I planned this flopped CCM groups special many weeks ago, but it took me very long to dig up all the information on these groups and to complete it. The old CCM days were so wild.
I hope you can make some time to look into these groups because the songs are all really decent. CCM worked really hard to create a second T-ara though. My favorites from this post are Gangkiz' MAMA (the whistle is so addicting!), F-ve dolls' It's You, Like This or That and Soulmate #1.
I have been listening to Soulmate #1 so much the past weeks, it's such a catchy song. The lyrics is so funny though: Hug me tight till my rib bones break, kiss me so my teeth fall out 🤭
Let me know what you think about this week? Did you enjoy any of these groups? Do you remember them? What do you think about the scandals/rumours?
This installment is a Core Contents Media Special about Gangkiz, The SeeYa, Coed School and F-ve Dolls
The label was established on January 9, 2007 as the subsidiary label of CJ E&M Music by Kim Kwang-Soo. On October 1, 2014, it was announced that Core Contents Media had been acquired by MBK Co., and renamed as MBK Entertainment. MBK is an abbreviation for "Music Beyond Korea".
[Warning: Mentioning Of Drugs, Rape, Bullying, Underage Drinking]
Gangkiz
Gangkiz was a South Korean girl group formed by Core Contents Media. Consisting of members Jihyun, Sooeun, Hae-in, Somin, Eunbyul, Esther, and Hyeji. No official announcement regarding the group's dissolution was ever made.
2012: We Became Gang and MAMA
Gangkiz was originally created by Core Contents Media, but later moved to a subsidiary label, GM Contents Media, before their debut.
The group officially debuted on May 15, 2012 with the release of their debut album "We Became Gang".
Gangkiz released a seven-part music video for their debut song "Honey Honey", which is described as an "upgraded version of T-ara's "Roly-Poly" and "Lovey-Dovey" with a more mature concept".
Click to viewThe group released a repackaged mini-album titled "MAMA" on June 26, 2012. The music video for "MAMA" was released on June 22, 2012. The group was transferred from GM Contents Media back to Core Contents Media in October 2012.
Both We Became Gang and MAMA performed poorly by only selling 3000 and 1182 copies respectively.
2013-2014 Member Departures and Disbandment
With no releases for the remainder of 2012, Gangkiz was scheduled to make a comeback in early 2013. However, after opening CCM's official fancafé, it was revealed that most of the original line-up had quietly withdrawn from the group, and that only Esther and Hyeji remained. Haein subsequently confirmed her departure.
In 2014, Hyeji's Twitter account was deleted, Esther's went inactive, and the group's official fancafé was shut down. Although Core Contents Media has never released an official statement, the group is believed to have completely disbanded. Esther went to university majoring in Event directions, Eunbyul started working as a stewardess and Somin started working at an office.
The SeeYa
The SeeYa (stylized as "The SEEYA") was a South Korean R&B girl group consists of Minkyung, Youngjoo, Yoojin and Yeonkyung. They debuted on November 12, 2012 with the single album Good To Seeya featuring the title track "Be With You". In the last year of 2015, their profile page was removed and many speculated the group disbanded.
2012-13: Debut with Good To Seeya and Love U
Their debut single, "Be With You", was released in two versions, the main version featuring former Speed member Taewoon and the other version is female only. One of the music videos featured actors Joo Sang-wook and Im Jung-eun with direction by Chang (Death Bell).
The debut single album "Good To Seeya" was released in November 12. The SeeYa released their first mini album, "Love U", in December, they promoted "Poison" as their title track.
In June 2013, Core Contents Media released digital song "Painkiller". The song was a collaboration with T-ara, The SeeYa, F-ve dolls and Speed.
In July 2013, Yeonkyung was confirmed to be joining girl group F-ve Dolls. She would simultaneously promote as a member of both groups.
2014: Tears, Love Is and Crazy Love
The SeeYa was released two single album In January 2014. The group's released their second single-album Tears with title track called "More & More" on January 3 and released their third single-album Love Is with title track called "Tell Me" on January 21.
End of 2014, The SeeYa released their fourth single-album Crazy Love with title track called "The Song Of Love" collaboration with EXID's LE was released In December 29.
2015: U & Me and Disbandment
On February 10, 2015, MBK Entertainment artists T-ara, Speed, The SeeYa and Cho Seunghee participated in MBK project group "TS" and released winter song "Don't Forget Me".
In March 2015, MBK confirmed Yeonkyung would only focus on promoting with The SeeYa.
On 21 April 2015, The Seeya released their fifth single U & ME with title track "Wedding March".
In November 2015, MBK Entertainment removed the group's profile page from their official website. The group ultimately disbanded.
On May 18, 2016 Yoojin made appearance on SBS' War of Vocals - God's Voice. She also confirmed that The SeeYa had disbanded.
COED SCHOOL
Coed School was a South Korean pop group formed by record company Core Contents Media in 2010. The co-ed group consisted of four female members: Sumi, Hyoyoung, Hyewon, and Chanmi; and six male members: Taewoon, Sungmin, Jungwoo, Kwanghaeng, Kangho, and Noori. The group was eventually divided into two sub-units: an all female-group called F-ve Dolls (2011) and an all-male group called Speed (2012).
Pre-debut:
Member Kangho was accused of rape when a victim posted a post saying he had raped her. Nothing was ever confirmed.
2010: Debut and Something That Is Cheerful and Fresh
They debuted with the single "Too Late" in September 2010.
Just under three weeks since their debut, the group followed up "Too Late" with a second single, "Bbiribbom Bberibbom" (삐리뽐 빼리뽐). The music video for the song was recorded on October 11, 2010, and features T-ara member Ham Eun-jeong. The video, along with a second music video for ballad "Nae Simjangeul Ttwige Haneun Mar" (내 심장을 뛰게 하는 말 "I Love You A Thousand Times"), was released on October 18. "Bbiribbom Bberibbom" peaked at number 61 on the Gaon Chart.
The group's debut mini album, "Something That Is Cheerful and Fresh", was released on October 28, 2010. It features the three previously released songs and various remixes. Despite being limited to 20,000 copies, Core Contents Media announced that the album had received 50,000 pre-orders and announced increase production of albums therefore selling roughly 47,000 albums. The album peaked at number 8 on the Gaon charts.
A scandal erupted by the end of 2010 when Kangho was spotted drinking and entering an "adult entertainment facility" despite him being underage. Not much later Noori was also seen drinking underage.
2011-2014:
By the middle of 2013, a representative of Core Contents Media stated in an interview that they have no plans for Co-Ed to reform again as both of its sub-units (F-VE Dolls and SPEED) had grown and changed their line-ups to become independent ensembles. In 2014, the female members departed the record label. All original male members parted from the agency as well.
2016-2017:
In 2016 Kangho was caught smuggling drugs into Canada and was charged for it and also had been charged for using six pills of MDMA as well as seven rolls of Marijuana in the Netherlands and charged with connecting a friend to his drug dealer.
In 2017 he was charged for smoking three rolls marijuana in his car and admitted to all drug charges.
5Dolls / F-VE DOLLS
F-ve Dolls (formerly known as 5dolls) was a South Korean girl group formed by Core Contents Media in 2011. The group was composed of six members: Hyoyoung, Seunghee, Yeonkyung, Hyewon, Eunkyo and Nayeon.
The group was known as "Female Unit" of Coed School until CCM's announced that the group became independent in 2013. The group disbanded on March 10, 2015.
2010: Formation
On December 2010, Coed School broke into sub-groups. The female members Lee Soo-mi, Heo Chan-mi, Ryu Hyo-young and Jin Hye-won, with the addition of new member Seo Eun-kyo, became 5dolls.
2011: Debut with Lip Stains, Charming Five Girls, Time to Play
On January 20, 2011, 5dolls released two promotional videos featuring Jay Park, one called "Lip Stains" and the other one called "I Mean You" (or "It's You"). Both MVs were around 7:40 minutes long, something CCM was known for back in the day. The group released their first mini album "Charming Five Dolls" on February 16, 2011. Becauase their mini album didn't sell well, T-ara performed with them a couple of times to promote their song and mini album.
During their live performances, the group received criticism for presumably lip synching.
5dolls released their second mini-album "Time To Play" on May 11, 2011 with their lead single "Like This Or That" and the music video. "Like This or That" performed well and stands as the highest selling song for a rookie of 2011 with $192,000 USD grossed.
2012-13: Line-up changes, Since 1971, First Love
2012 saw the departure of both Soomi and Chanmi from the group.
There are a lot of controversy and questions surrounding why, but it’s thought that Soomi left because of a conflict between herself, Chanmi, and Eunkyo.
Right after that netizens started to spread news about Soomi's departure. According to rumours, Eunkyo purposely befriended who Soomi was closest with to turn them against her. Soomi got bullied day in and day out by Eunkyo and Chanmi.
An example of the bullying was that Soomi's fancafe gave Soomi and Coed School a congratulatory cake for their successful debut. On that cake, Soomi's face was broken. Soomi wrote in the fancafe after receiving the cake and thanked everyone, but she also wrote that "someone broke the cake on my face and I'm going to find who did that."
Chanmi and Eunkyo were blamed for forcing their former leader to leave by bullying her.
The group ended every promotion and went on hiatus. In the same year, during summer, Chanmi left CCM.
Han Na-yeon and Shannon were announced as replacements and, in February 2013, trainee Choi Ji-hyun was also said to be joining the group, thus becoming six.
On July 8, 2013, the group officially announced that they would be returning at the end of the month with a new single called "Soulmate #1" as well as a new stage name, F-ve Dolls.
However, of the three new members announced, only Nayeon stayed, and the other two gaps were filled by Cho Seung-hee and The SeeYa member Oh Yeon-kyung, who simultaneously promoted the two groups.
On July 31, 2013, their first digital single "Since 1971" was released with the music video of the title track "Soulmate #1", produced by Duble Sidekick. The song charted 62 on the Gaon Chart and 44 on the Billboard Korea Hot 100. F-ve Dolls promoted "Soulmate #1" from July 31 through September 1, 2013.
The promotion flopped after their bullying scandal and member changes and netizens were not happy to see another T-ara Roly Poly rip-off from CCM.
F-ve Dolls followed-up promotions with a new mini-album called "First Love", which was released on September 17. The group promoted with the song "Can You Love Me?", which features new T-ara N4 member Kim Dani, making it her debut. On 17 September 2013, a second version of "Can You Love Me?" music video and a music video for the song "Deceive" were released.
2014-2015: Disbandment
On November 2014, it was reported that F-ve Dolls was disbanded after their labels were renamed, and subsequently F-ve dolls was deleted from the official label's website.
On March 10, 2015, the label confirmed the official disbandment of the group. It was stated that those members who still had a contract with the agency would be part of a new group. On September 2015, Cho Seunghee re-debuted with new group DIA, but she left the group the following year.
2020:
Chanmi made her solo debut with "Lights".
Previous: Nine Muses, 4Minute, Girl's Day, Sistar, Secret, Orange Caramel, Rainbow, 2NE1, Dalshabet, Stellar, Miss A, After School, Spica, Hello Venus, Wonder Girls, f(x), Crayon Pop, WA$$UP, BESTie & GLAM, I.O.I, Pristin, Pristin V & Hinapia.
Sources: Wordpress, Gangkiz Wikipedia, Peter Lo, kprofiles, MBK Entertainment, 내가 듣고 싶은 노래, aminoapps, vice, onehallyu, F-ve Dolls Wikipedia, Coed School Wikipedia, kprofiles f-ve dolls, MBCkpop, blogspot, blogspot (2), soompi forum.
Next: Hint
I planned this flopped CCM groups special many weeks ago, but it took me very long to dig up all the information on these groups and to complete it. The old CCM days were so wild.
I hope you can make some time to look into these groups because the songs are all really decent. CCM worked really hard to create a second T-ara though. My favorites from this post are Gangkiz' MAMA (the whistle is so addicting!), F-ve dolls' It's You, Like This or That and Soulmate #1.
I have been listening to Soulmate #1 so much the past weeks, it's such a catchy song. The lyrics is so funny though: Hug me tight till my rib bones break, kiss me so my teeth fall out 🤭
Let me know what you think about this week? Did you enjoy any of these groups? Do you remember them? What do you think about the scandals/rumours?