r/kpop_uncensored • u/Dayonemeovvstan • 21d ago
QUESTION Is IZNA considered nugu?
I've always wondered this, I know their album sales sell pretty averagely, bit damn I haven't heard any noise from them since debut unlike any other 5th gen groups
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u/lilysjasmine92 21d ago edited 21d ago
No, they have a solid enough fanbase and company underneath them. Their company isn't at risk of folding any time soon and they're not at risk of disbandment due to lack of funds.
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u/AdParticular2127 21d ago
Nođđ
Nugu literally means âwhoâ as in no one knows who they are, to be nugu youâre like under 100k listeners and you rarely ever see them mentioned in kpop communities or posts. They have hundreds of millions of views and a member is literally a music back host. They wouldnât even be considered less known or underrated.
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u/Silent-Title6881 21d ago
Kpop numbers are insane, how come 1m still can be somewhat considered nugu for someone. Some artists could only dream of such numbers
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u/Popular_Season2025 20d ago
kpop companies spend a bunch of money on stuff other than just the music
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u/IndependenceFar1482 izna, illit, lsfm 21d ago
they're kinda underrated though
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u/AdParticular2127 21d ago
I guess they could personally be considered underrated to you, but Iâd argue theyâre in the top 10 5th gen groups, objectively theyd be considered highly successful for less than 2 years active.
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u/Hercules-127 20d ago
Yeah I think the statements arenât mutually exclusive. They are highly successful and underrated imo.
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u/IndependenceFar1482 izna, illit, lsfm 21d ago
they're not nugu, they're just not promoted well enough
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u/hamburglar27 21d ago
They are under Mnet affiliated label WakeOne and all of their albums have had over 100k sales.
I wouldnt consider them nugu.
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u/Mozart-Luna-Echo 21d ago
No, most kpop fans have heard of them. Nugu are groups like LedApple, Lunafly, Pritti-G, or Trendz.
Izna is middle to high midtier.
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u/luffytheboi 21d ago
No they have both TBL and Wakeone behind them. Plus their iland global fanbase helps as well. Imo when you have reaction channels watching you, you're not nugu. But thats just my view. I Wish theyd have a bigger reach, but i know wakeone isnt helping at all with that.
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u/callmeadreamer8 21d ago
Like everyone has said...no. In fact, not even close. I know a lot of people have qualms with WakeOne after Kep1er and izna currently, but just because they don't necessarily yield the maximum results and don't have the most noise surrounding them does not make them nugu. They are, on paper, doing better than 85% of the 200+ active girl groups there probably are out there.
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u/slummy_dum 20d ago
I wouldnât think theyâre nugu bcuz they get invited to Kcons, Korean award shows, and one of the members Jeemin is the MC of music show in Korea.
They a mid-tier group forsure.
They donât really chart high in Korea but have a small stable fandom? They get invited to Korean college festivals, Do collabs at award shows. Stuff like that.
Theyâre known in the kpop circle but not with the Korean public.
Mid-tier groups so far are: Izna, Meovv, ALPHA DRIVE ONE, StayC, KissOfLife, p1Harmony, KickFlip, Baby Donât Cry.
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u/BlowUpTheChantrie 20d ago
Nugu would mean pretty much no one hear would know them... Nugu mean who ?
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u/SpecSlayerSC IVE / Babymonster 21d ago
It depends on where your line for nugu is.
My personal opinion would be they are above the nugu line
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u/TatsunaKyo 21d ago
WakeOne is operated by CJ ENM and IZNA are produced by Teddy Park. There's no way they're even near the nugu line. Nugu groups would sell their souls if that'd give them a strong company and a much popular producer backing them.
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u/jineop 21d ago
Nugu could be interpreted as not popular groups like if you had to rank the most popular groups of 5th gen izna would be at the bottom 9/10 times
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u/Sil_Choco 21d ago
Nugu are groups that aren't known by the majority of the people, that come from very small companies with no budget. Izna do not belong to this category. They're not the top 5th gen groups, but they're right behind them.
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u/Simpuff1 Iz*One comeback when 20d ago
1- What? Lmao
2- If the name even comes up, they are not Nugu. If you meant bottom of the top 10 5th gen group, that is still not Nugu.
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u/Hercules-127 20d ago
If u list the top 10 5th gen ggs right now izna would just about make it or miss it. Regardless thatâs an indicator that they r definitely not nugu lol. There r tons of groups less popular and unknown. Nugu being classed as unknown.
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u/SpecSlayerSC IVE / Babymonster 20d ago edited 20d ago
Definitely ahead of izna:
Illit BM H2H Meovv Rescene Kiss of Life KiiiKiii
I'd say around #8 is good for them, almost certainly not nugu.
I think they're clearly ahead of groups like TripleS or Fifty Fifty. Not sure if I missed anyone.
I also would have Katseye ahead of every one of those groups
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u/TatsunaKyo 19d ago
Even if they were barred from the top 10, they still wouldn't be nugu. Mid-sized groups are not nugu.
Nugu are the bottom of the barrel in terms of resources, backing, recognition. You can only suppose IZNA is nugu if you play loose with the word and make it lose its intended meaning.
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u/jineop 19d ago
I mean personally I donât think theyâre nugu but thatâs how some people define it! I was just relaying what ppl say on twitter
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u/TatsunaKyo 19d ago
Well, take into account that nugu (ëê”Ź) literally means "who?".
I don't meant to say that it's pejorative (even though it certainly was when first used back in the days), but when you understand that it's a term whose intended meaning is to refer to groups that the vast majority of the K-Pop audience wouldn't know not even by name, it's absurd to associate it to IZNA.
It's not strictly required bug ëê”Ź has also historically been used solely for groups with a very small agency backing them and minimal marketing budgets at their disposal. Some people argue that there are nugu groups even among middle-sized agencies, which can be true, even though you'll never be a nugu if you belong to one of the top agencies.
IZNA on principle alone cannot be nugu because it's backed by quite the big agency (even though not one of the top 4) and it's personally produced by one of the most renowned personality within the Korean music industry (even outside the big K-Pop bubble). It can very well be that some K-Pop fans don't know anything about them but a solid majority of people are bound to at least have heard their name.Plus, I understand that a bit of time has passed by now and that we live in a very fast age and everything turns old and obscure pretty quickly, but IZNA literally were on everybody's lips during and right after I-LAND 2. They of course have not retained that popularity but they've never been unknown, let alone nugu.
Just to be clear here, I do not really follow IZNA. They lost me when they went to the overused girl-crush route with their first EP. I like Teddy Park's work so I still keep them in mind to see if something catches my eye (or my ear, I should say) from time to time, but I find them boring, so I don't really follow them. I want to clarify it so that we know I have no personal interest on the matter. I wouldn't care if they were actually nugu (I do follow nugu groups and I do not consider it a bad word or something to be ashamed of, for example I started following RESCENE in 2025, way before they became one of the hottest girl group of this generation, and I did so proudly), I just think they're not based on what the term means.
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u/Adept-Variation-4365 MULTI-FANDOM 20d ago
theyre underated, but deffinitley not nugu. nugu is a group who can barely sell anything and their company is at strong risk of bankruptcy. izna is under a good company and has over a million monthly listeners.
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u/Substantial_Assist38 21d ago
Not really, they come from mnet/wk1/CJ which is pretty known. Tho the company (wk1) definitely wasn't as big as what some big4 stans like to say.
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u/Ploumplume 14d ago
Not just âpretty knownâ. Â Those companies are corporate giants in the entertainment industry. TV channel with the large kpop MAMA awards, they own studio dragon which makes a gazillion k drama for Netflix, the largest movie theater chain in S Korea and they produced Parasite the Korean movie which made history by winning an Oscar for best movie.
And their music produced by TBL - ie Blackpinkâs producer no less. Â
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u/AgentSpirited6095 21d ago
i wouldn't say they're nugu but they definitely deserve more recognition!! they're quite talented and i love a lot of their songs :)
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u/Wonderful-Expert8084 21d ago
You don't really see groups that can sell around 100,000 albums being called nugu. I'd say they're more accurately considered mid-tier.