So for those who aren’t familiar with Stan Twitter lingo, the “Khia Asylum”, in my understanding, is a gag that revolves around a sort of holding cell for Pop girls who had a very promising career start and very high peaks but were unable to sustain the momentum bought by their rise to fame and eventually lost their mainstream appeal and relevance, despite having a dedicated fanbase and prior success. I remembered this term recently because Charli Xcx and Bebe Rexha referenced the Khia Asylum a few months back. Charli xcx said that she “missed her cool friends” back in the Khia asylum (lol) and Bebe Rexha tweeted about how lonely it was in the Khia Asylum 😭.
“Nugu” is the closest Kpop term I could relate to the Khia Asylum but if I’m not mistaken, the “nugu” term typically refers to smaller, almost obscure kpop groups from small companies, not K-pop groups who had high peaks in their early career but eventually reached a steep career decline. The best example of this is Itzy. I wouldnt call Itzy a Nugu group now, of course, since people still know them, they still get streams, and they’re under JYP ent but WOW I can’t help but wonder what exactly went wrong or what couldve been done differently, because whats stopping them from having the same career tradjectory of, idk, I-dle? Though, of course, being trapped in the Khia Asylum doesnt necesarilly mean that you’ve flopped or that you’ve lost your fanbase, it just means that a pop girlie or group just doesnt captivate the masses as much as they used to and they aren’t charting or selling out stadiums nearly as much as they used to during their peak, its as if the public conciousness moved on from them at some point and they weren’t able to keep up nor catch their attention again. It also doesnt mean that their careers are cooked, since these artists still have the potential to experience a resurgence in the future, like Zara Larsson for example, who became relevant in the US again by rebranding herself and taking advantage of the 2000s-2010s nostalgia trend. Then again, I’m having a hard time thinking of a K-pop term that carries the same weight as “Khia Asylum”. Maybe “Nugu Jail”? Lol.
submitted by /u/KwonSoo-young
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