Kpop Girl Groups 2018 Review (Second Half).

July

                It's pretty much around the same as April.  The big three Twice, APink and Gfriend all came back at the same time again. Also the best girl group of March Mamamoo joined the competition.

               Unlike the previous very strong comeback, Twice came back with the single Dance the night away, which was written by former YG artist Wheesung.

               Also in early July, GFriend released the new album for fans entitled Sunny Summer.The album contains five songs, including the title track, "Sunny Summer,"  It was considered a strong
comeback for Gfriend at early July.

Compare to Twice and GFriend, it is Apink released their seventh mini album One & Six. The title track, "I'm So Sick". "I'm So Sick" topped several music charts in South Korea after its release. The album itself topped the Gaon chart and led Apink to reach their highest-ever position on Billboard's World Albums chart at No. 11. The success of the song and album further led to Apink making their debut on Billboard's Social 50 chart, opening at No. 39

        And Until July 17th 2018, APink got 4 wins already for various music program.4
                         

                      So girl group of the July is APink:

August

          Red Velvet also had a summer cameback, but SM Entertainment being smart, avoid comeback around the same time with Twice, APink, GFriend those big girl groups last month.
          There are few new girl groups also debut or comeback at August, but less well known than July. e.g: DIA, Berry Good, Loona, Nature.  One thing to notice is that the lead dancer of DIA
Eunjin quit the group, which limit the popularity of the group.

                                                         

Commercial Success of Red Velvet.

Now I will talk about the commercial success of Red Velvet. their second special "summer" EP following The Red Summer, which was released on August 6, 2018. the EP contains seven tracks, including the lead single "Power Up" and the English version of "Bad Boy" as a bonus track, 

They The EP was a commercial success domestically and internationally, topping South Korea's Gaon chart's Album Chart, Single Chart and Download Chart. Elsewhere, it debuted at number three on the US Billboard World Albums chart. It also charted on the website's Heatseekers Albums chart at number 3, the Digital Albums at number 21, and became the group's first release to enter the Top Album Sales chart at number 91. The lead single "Power Up" also debuted at number 6 on its World Digital Songs chart. In France, the album charted at number 42 on the French Album Downloads Chart. The EP is also the group's first release to chart in the UK and Australia, debuting at number 38 on the UK Album Downloads Chart and at 31 on the Australian Top 50 Digital Albums Chart

                   So girl group of the August is Red Velvet:

September

  Compare to August, there are even more girl groups comeback, but most are even less well known. Oh My Girl,  WJSN, and Dream Catcher are 3 relatively well known ones among them.

    It is obvious Oh My Girl's Remember Me is the most well known comeback.

               So girl group of the September is Oh My Girl:

October

      After July, August, September 3 month with massive kpop girl groups comeback, there are fewer comeback at October last year. April changed their style and evolved after release  "Oh! My Mistake". 

     Weki Meki's crush has some unique style, the rap portions on the album written by member Yoo-jung

                                                    

    Speaking of the popularity, the new Korean-Japanese girl group IZ*ONE quickly becomes a hot topic right after their debut.Iz One  is a Korean-Japanese kpop girl group formed through the Mnet reality competition show Produce 48. In its first day of release, the EP sold over 34,000 units reported by Hanteo Chart, setting a new record for the highest number of albums sold on the first day of a Korean girl group's debut release. The music video for the lead single "La Vie en Rose" achieved more than 4.5 million views within 24 hours of its release on YouTube, making it the most-watched debut music video by a Korean act in 24 hours. On November 8, Iz One garnered their first music program win for "La Vie en Rose" on M Countdown. This was the fastest music program win for a girl group, just 10 days after their official debut

             So girl group of the October is IZ*ONE:

November

    November is a huge month for kpop girl groups comeback. Not only new girl groups like Nature, DreamNote, also LovelyZ and GuguDan join the competition. Also at the same time,  EXID and Mamamoo also made the comeback.

     Speaking of EXID, member Solji rejoin the group after 2 years, all five members of EXID released a song entitled "I Love You". The song entered Billboard's World Digital Song Sales chart at number 5

The biggest competition this month was none of above. In terms of sales and popularity, bot Twice and Red Velvet going very strong. 

On November 9th, SM Entertainment announced that Red Velvet will release their third album in the year and their fifth EP in total. The EP, titled Really Bad Boy, was released on November 30. It has six tracks including the lead single "RBB (Really Bad Boy)" and its English version.

      The album was a commercial success overseas, with RBB and its lead single debuting atop Billboard's Top Heatseekers Album chart and World Digital Songs chart for the first time. The EP became the group's fourth consecutive album to earn a new best sales week in the United States. RBB also charted in France, Japan and the United Kingdom. It received generally positive reviews from critics who praised all of the album's tracks, with Caitlin Kelley of Forbes noting that all of the songs on the album "are strong enough to stand on their own".

          

But this time, Red Velvet cannot avoid to compete at the same time with Twice from JYP Entertainment.  Twice released their sixth EP Yes or Yes on November 5, 2018 by JYP Entertainment and is distributed by Iriver. It contains seven tracks, including the lead single of the same name and the Korean version of "BDZ". In early October 2018, advertisements with the phrase "Do you like Twice? Yes or Yes"  were put up on subway billboards, drawing attention online.On October 11, JYP Entertainment confirmed that Twice planned to release their third Korean album of the year on November 5.

   In South Korea, the album topped the Gaon Album Chart while the title track topped the Gaon Digital Chart. Yes or Yes was also Twice's first Korean album to rank number 1 on Japan's Oricon Albums Chart and Digital Albums Chart

             So girl group of the November is Twice

December

  Because too many girl groups debut or comeback last month, Laboum is the only girl group who did comeback this month. Laboum's sixth single album was released on December 5, 2018 with the title track "Turn It On."

  So girl group of the December is Laboum

Now, just a summary of the whole year 2018: Girl group of  Jan is Red Velvet, Feb is  CLC

March is  Mamamoo, April is Twice ,May is  G-Idol, June is  Blackpink, July is APink,

August is Red Velvet, Sept  is Oh My Girl, October is IZone, November is Twice, December is Laboum.

Overall,  Red Velvet and Twice both got twice, then is BlackPink, APink, Mamamoo those well known girl groups got once.  Oh My Girl, Laboum, CLC those less well known girl groups also got once. New girl groups such as  G-Idol and IZone both got once as well.