Over fifteen years of combined experience doesn't mean chart-toppers in South Korea.

Super Junior, the SM Entertainment K-pop idol group that debuted in 2005, and CNBLUE, FNC Entertainment's band that debuted in 2009, each released new albums this month to little applause. Despite stellar careers and longterm fans, neither group was able to break into the top 10 of any Korean music charts this month.

The longevity of neither CNBLUE nor Super Junior was able to save either group's most recent comebacks, with singles failing to garner attention.

Super Junior released "Magic," the second part of a special 10th anniversary commemorative album, on Sept. 16. Whereas the first part of the album, "Devil, appeared in the top ten on multiple Korean music charts shortly after its release on July 16, "Magic" struggled to appear in music charts and hardly cracked the top 100 of Korean music charts, despite being the title track of a special anniversary album.

Similarly, CNBLUE's first single in over a year, "Cinderella," didn't achieve much success on Korean music charts, and was unable to break into the top of any Korean music chart. Both CNBLUE's "2gether" album and Super Junior's "Magic" were relatively succesful on physical charts, but neither comeback had a major affect on digital charts.

The seemingly waning popularity of both groups also affected views of the music video for CNBLUE and Super Junior's title songs, "Cinderella" and "Magic" respectively. A week after being uploaded to YouTube, Super Junior's video obtained around 2.7 million views, while CNBLUE's achieved just over 1.2 million. In comparison, Super Junior's lablemates Red Velvet achieved around 8.2 million views on YouTube within two weeks of the release of "Dumb Dumb."

Fans took to YouTube to express their frustration with both the agencies and fans.

"SM [Entertainment], it is time to stop putting these guys down," wrote Annum Sadiq regarding "Magic." "...Your other artists are important but do NOT forget that Super Junior is your artist also and rather than investing their hard earned money on others put it back into them."

"Super Junior deserved better much better," continued Sadiq. "What kind of 10th anniversary is this? ... Why were your other artists put first during such a meaningful time not only for us ELFs [Super Junior's fanclub] but most importantly Super Junior? Why did you not allow them to promote? Why? I'm so done with you SM so done this crossed the line for me I lost the little respect I had left for your sorry a*s of a company...."

Super Junior fans previously expressed discontent with SM Entertainment's tenth anniversary promotions, reported AllKpop, due to the simplistic artwork for the cover of the "Magic" album. In addition, SM Entertainment released music from Red Velvet and SHINee's Jonghyun within a week of Super Junior's "Magic," rather than focus on Super Junior's anniversary promotions as fans hoped. 

Fans of CNBLUE expressed that they were disappointed in one another moreso than the company. 

"Seeing how CNBLUE is doing poorly in digital charts and the MV views increasing so slowly, it seriously pains me. Where are the other fans?" asked CNBLUE's fan Arie Liena. "How pathetic, they work hard for this full album and this is it, this is what we give them back."

Despite struggling on Korean digital charts, CNBLUE's "Cinderella" and Super Junior's "Magic" did well on album charts, where fans played an important role in buying albums.

In addition, CNBLUE's "Cinderlla" was well-received overseas in both China and Japan. The Chinese version of "Cinderella" was selected as the theme song of Korea-China joint production film, "Bad Guys Always Die."

Similarily, Super Junior's "Magic" also did well outside of South Korea, topping charts in Thailand, Japan, Romania, Taiwan, Macao, and more. 

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