Kpop Girl Groups 2016 Review (Second Half)

           So this is second half of the blog.....

         July

             At July 2016, there were more sexy concept girl groups comeback such as Wonder Girls, f(x), Hello Venus, Stellar, Melody Day, D.Holic, PPL. Among them, I would say Wonder Girls comeback lead to some discussion, but not other groups.

Also at the same time, some girl groups use old school kpop single as their comeback song, which leads to some copyright issue as well, such as Oh My Girl, C.I.V.A

Speaking of Girl group of the month:

  (On June 29 2016 , Source Music started teasing for GFriend's first studio album LOL, signifying at the same time "Laughing Out Loud" and "Lots of Love". LOL was released on July 11 with the title track "Navillera" , and reportedly had more than 60,000 pre-ordered copies worldwide.On July 19, GFriend earned their first music show win for the album's single "Navillera" on The Show. Until July 29th, GFriend earned 7th win already on various music program.
           " Navillera"  is a reference to Cho Chi-hun's poem "The Nun's Dance" , and is a phrase used to describe a fluttering action similar to the movement of a butterfly.The song's lyrics describe a girl's feeling of wanting to fly like a butterfly to be with the person she loves
          Influence:  The album was a commercial success in South Korea, reportedly selling more than 60,000 physical copies in pre-orders before release. It entered the Gaon Album Chart at number three, while "Navillera" topped the Gaon Digital Chart. "In the United States, LOL charted at number seven on the Billboard World Albums chart, while "Navillera" was number 12 on the World Digital Songs chart.)


                   So girl group of the July is GFriend

  August

            Some big news in August includes disband of Sunny Hill, other girl groups comeback include I.O.I , Spica,  Brave Girls,  Bambino ,WJSN, Laboum and few other small girl groups.
            The biggest news in August would be debut of YG's next girl group Black Pink.

     Yes, after many YG kpop fans' waiting for years, YG Entertainment's new girl group Black Pink officially debut this month.
              The group consists of four members Jisoo from  Korea, Jennie from New Zealand, Rose from Australia and Lisa from Thailand. Among them, Lisa was the first non-Korean member under YG Entertainment. So they have the exactly same number of members as 2NE1, their last very successful girl group

First non-Korean artist under YG Entertainment Lisa

They debuted with two singles, "Boombayah" and "Whistle", from their single album           Square One on August 8, 2016. Both songs ranked well after debut. Whistle ranked No 1 on Korea chart and Boombayah ranked No 1 on US World kpop chart as well. And both MV also pass 10 millions very easily, becomes a hot topic and trend in kpop as well.

   If you listen to their new songs carefully and their new image, each member in Black Pink tried to imitate someone in 2NE1,especially Jennie imitates CL, spotted by lots of kpop fans.

BlackPink Jennie Kim VS 2NE1 CL

Can Black Pink eventually catch up and becomes the next generation of 2NE1 ? I'm not sure, they just start, so we will see. But from here, we can see kpop girl groups are really competitive nowadays, Black Pink maybe another girl group will join the 1st tier girl group competitioin..

                So girl group of the August is Black Pink.

September

      At September 2016, there's a trend of many kpop boy groups comeback at the same time, Infinite, 2PM, SHINee almost made comeback exact the same time. During the boy groups comeback wave, there are still quite a few girl groups comeback as well, Russian Roulette from Red Velvet is a pretty strong one, Crayon Pop, DIA, Mamamoo, Dalshabet all made comeback this month.

        But the best one is still:

According to wikipedia, their  third full-length Korean album was released after one year and two months on September 26th with the name of Pink Revolution including title song "Only One"On the same day, they held a showcase which was broadcast live through V-live. "Only One" topped seven music charts in Korea just a few hours after it was released. During the showcase, leader Cho-Rong stated that Pink Revolution would incorporate a new sense of Apink's growth and maturity since debut, while Eun-ji explained that Apink will begin to focus on making complex and beautiful music, rather than tracks that "are simply fun and catchy."

         What does this mean???..so APink will abandon their old innocent and cute image, which is how APink is different from the rest of other girl groups.

                So girl group of the September is APink.

October

        Because of the CL concert and the huge popularity of Black Pink, so instead of talking about girl group at October, I write a special topic about YG girl groups.  And during this time, Black Pink was indeed really famous.
           But everyone who listen to kpop probably know who is the most popular kpop girl group:

       I'm like TT....Just like TT...

 So girl group of the October is Twice.

                                     November

        At November 2016, there are quite a few pretty strong comeback this month, T-ara, Mammoo, few small groups also made comeback such as Berry Good, Badkiz ,new debut girl group Momoland
           Speaking of the winner of this month:

        Blackpink released their second single album Square Two with the lead singles "Playing with Fire" and "Stay" on November 1, 2016. The songs are similarly produced by Teddy with R.Tee and Seo Won Jin. They performed their comeback stage in SBS Inkigayo on November 6 and in Mnet M!'Countdown on November 10, 2016. "Playing with Fire" was their second single to hit number one on the Billboards World Digital Songs Charts
          Afer Twice's TT trend, Black Pink's "play with fire" quickly became few No 1 place on various music program. In less than 4 month, Black Pink already released 4 hot top singles already, some of  their  MV views are over 50 million already as well.



             So girl group of the November is Black Pink.

                                 December

       I didn't write the blog for last month December either, but very few groups comeback during holiday season. Laboum and Twice Christmas season song is quite decent, compare to them, APink did a good job on Cause You are my star, so I would say


       So girl group of the December is APink

So in the end, let me make a conclusion here, who is the most popular kpop girl group at 2016?

First half year: Jan  APink,  Feb  GFriend   Mar  Red Velvet  April  Twice  May  AOA   June  Sistar

Second half year: July GFriend  Aug Black Pink  Sep APink  Oct Twice Nov Black Pink  Dec APink.

so based on my article, APink won 3 times,  GFriend, Twice, Black Pink all won twice. But APink doesn't face strong competition as other 3 girl groups during their comeback month.  And GFriend had record breaking wins at the first half of the year, the popularity of Twice Cheer Up and TT song,and the second half year Black Pink almost dominates kpop girl groups for almost 3 month.

So APink, GFriend, Twice and Black Pink, which one would you vote as the most popular kpop girl group in 2016 ? and why?

Kpop Girl Groups 2016 Review (First Half).

          First of all, Happy New Years !!!....
          Today I will write a special topic, basically I will give a quick review about what happened each month last year , pick one girl group from each of my blog last year, the girl group of the month.(one group per month). And we will see the result....
          And I will write the first half of the year 2016  first.

January

 
         For Jan 2016, I didn't write the girl groups, I write something called Kpop breaking news, I basically talked about disband of KARA, Tzuyu Incident from JYP, Infinite World Tour....and the most important, Vancouver APink Pink Memory concert !!!


                                 So girl group of the Jan is APink.

   

                                                February

         Even with APink's brand new days and comeback of Mamamoo, and debut of few other small girl groups, the success of GFriend is definitely the highlight of this month.

        . (On February 2, GFriend received their first music show win on The Show.The next day, they won on Show Champion, on February 4, they won on M! Countdown, and on February 5, GFriend won on Music Bank.They won on Inkigayo on February 7. GFriend took their first "Triple Crown" on the February 18 edition of M! Countdown. On February 19, they took their second "Triple Crown" on Music Bank. On February 24, they took their third "Triple Crown" on Show Champion. And they had over 10 wins already, which is one of the most successful comeback in recent years.(Only SNSD Gee and APink LUV had such successful result in recent year so far)....


                               So girl group of the Feb is GFriend.

                                                 March

              During March last year, it is the new wave of cute concept girl groups debut and comeback, CLC, Oh My Girl, Matilda and few others. And among the cute concept girl groups,  I would say Red Velvet won a few times on various music program after the GFriend domination.

(First of all, I have to say SM Entertainment is really smart at business, they avoid letting Red Velvet comeback as the same time with G-Friend last month.
             Red Velvet's second mini album The Velvet was schedule released on March 16, 2016 but ten minutes before schedule release, S.M. Entertainment announced that the music video and album's release would be delayed to March 17 "to guarantee a high quality of work".The album showcases the smooth R&B-influenced "velvet" side of the group's concept and is a direct follow-up album to The Red, which highlighted the band's bright and bold "red" persona.
             Until now, they have won a few times on various music program.
             But one thing I noticed that SM Entertainment idol group doesn't completely dominate kpop now after the decline of SNSD. Even though Red Velvet will be a successful girl group, but compared to G-Friend, I still don't know yet....)


                        So girl group of the March is Red Velvet

                              

       April

             During the April last year, the second save of cute concept girl group comeback,  first is APink 5 years anniversary....

           

                                            (I was joking I want to be one of the Panda there...)

LovelyZ, Laboum,  April, Berry Good all made comback this month, but the most successful one would be Twice.

( JYP's new girl group Twice is back.  Twice's second mini-album, Page Two, was released on April 25, 2016. The album includes title track "Cheer Up", a remake of Park Ji-yoon's "Precious Love", and "I'm Gonna Be A Star", which served as the theme song for Sixteen. The group held their comeback showcase the same day at the Yes24 Live Hall located in Seoul, South Korea. The music video hit 10 million views on YouTube within five days.
                  I would say JYP's Twice is definitely a rising star in kpop right now. However, after I listen to "Cheer Up", I didn't find anything similar to Park Ji Yoon's old songs, anyways....)


                               So girl group of the April is Twice

                                          May

        During the May 2016, there is a new trend of new debut girl groups, among half of the girls groups are new debut girl groups, so many people never heard of them before. Among them, I.O.I would be a unique one stands out.

        ( I.O.I is a South Korean girl group formed by CJ E&M through the 2016 reality show Produce 101 on Mnet. The group is composed of eleven members chosen from a pool of 101 trainees from various entertainment companies. They debuted on May 4, 2016 with a mini-album, and are expected to actively promote four albums, either as a whole or as sub-units, over the next 10 month

              Which means this group is a highly qualified group. So among those 4 new girl groups, I would rank I.O.I the first.)




           However, I would say AOA is actually the winner here.
         ( "Good luck 길이길이 You like me,Good luck 길이길이 I like you,Good luck 놓치지마 Lucky lucky,Good luck 나는 너의 Lucky lucky"....Yes, you are right. If you always heard the above part of lyrics, AOA is officially back. FNC Entertainment announced on the 1st of May that AOA would release their 4th mini-album Good Luck on the 16th of the same month. I would say AOA's comeback was one of the biggest among kpop girl groups comeback this month....)

AOA Visual member Choa during good luck MV filming

                                       

  So girl group of the May is AOA

                                              

                                               June

         For June 2016, it takes turns, the most sexy concept girl groups made comeback. Sistar, EXID, Brave Girls, Wanna.B, O21. Also cute concept girl group such as Gugudan also made debut. and old kpop girl group As One come back

( So first of all,I will introduce one new girl group called Gugudan. So how is this group formed?

         According to Wikipedia, In January 2016, Kim Na-young, Kim Se-jeong and Kang Mi-na were introduced as Jellyfish Entertainment's first female trainees on the Mnet survival show Produce 101 where 101 female trainees from various companies competed to debut in an 11-member girl group that would promote for a year under YMC Entertainment. After placing 2nd and 9th respectively in the final episode, Sejeong and Mina eventually debuted as members of I.O.I in May 2016.  

          Despite denying earlier reports about Sejeong and Mina debuting in a 7-member girl group in June, the company confirmed on June 7 that the two I.O.I members would debut within the month in what would be the company's first girl group. Because of YMC Entertainment's special terms in which I.O.I's members are allowed to do activities under their respective companies while IOI was on break or while the group promoted in sub-units, there were no complications with the plan.

         So this is another girl group which members come from survival show after I.O.I.)

        On June 1 2016, it was revealed that Sistar will be coming back in June with a title track produced by Black Eyed Pilseung who also produced Sistar's song, "Touch My Body".  On the same day, Sistar released the first teaser for their fourth EP, then releasing two riddle images the next day.

  On June 4, Sistar and their fans celebrated Sistar's 6th Anniversary, displaying a picture of the girls with the gifts and cakes that they received.

     On June 10, Starship released a mash up collaboration of Sistar and DJ Soda. On June 14, it was revealed that the title song of their fourth EP, 몰아애 Insane Love, is called "I Like That" On June 20, Sistar had a live countdown for their music video and album release. On June 21, Starship released the "I Like That" music video on their official YouTube channel and officially released 몰아애 Insane Love physically and digitally.

                          So girl group of the June is Sistar

               I will write the second half part sometimes in the near future....

Kpop Girl Groups Update November 2016

       Last month I wrote about YG Entertainment girl group because of the CL concert.
       Now I will go back normal routine, I will talk about the girl groups debut and comeback at November 2016.
        First of all, I will talk about the trending YG girl group black pink....

      BlackPink: Play with Fire , Stay

           Blackpink released their second single album Square Two with the lead singles "Playing with Fire" and "Stay" on November 1, 2016. The songs are similarly produced by Teddy with R.Tee and Seo Won Jin. They performed their comeback stage in SBS Inkigayo on November 6 and in Mnet M!'Countdown on November 10, 2016. "Playing with Fire" was their second single to hit number one on the Billboards World Digital Songs Charts
          Afer Twice's TT trend, Black Pink's "play with fire" quickly became few No 1 place on various music program. In less than 4 month, Black Pink already released 4 hot top singles already, some of  their  MV views are over 50 million already as well.

My fav member Lisa from BlackPink.

         So since the mature concept girl groups are relatively more famous this time, so I will talk about the mature concept girl group first, then cute concept girl group later on....

                                  

  T-ara : Tiamo

                In October 2016, MBK Entertainment announced that T-ara would be releasing mini-album produced by Duble Sidekick in November.  T-ara's eighth extended plays, Remember with lead single TIAMO was released on November 9. The release was followed by 3 fan-signing event as well.
                Also right now, T-ara is regarded as the most popular K-pop girl group in China.  In just five days, the group's MV has reached over 120 million(which is higher than 2 of the blackpink songs combined) views on Tudou of China! The views on this MV are also much higher than their previous MVs on Tudou, showing the group's fast increase in popularity in China.

             

                                

Mamamoo: Decalcomanie

         Besides Black Pink, Mamamoo is a girl group also gradually become more and more famous nowadays.

          After wrapping up promotions for "New York" Mamamoo's agency announced that the group will make their comeback on November 7 with their fourth mini album, Memory The lead single for Memory was announced to be "Décalcomanie." 

         On Nov 29th, Mamamo finally taking a win with "Decalcomanie"!  With the girls' honey-like vocals and fun dance moves, it comes as no surprise that their latest promotions earned them a trophy.

Now, I will talk about few of the other cute concept girl groups comeback at Nov 2016.

Berry Good : Don't Believe

         I mentioned about this group in my previous article as well, Berry Good is a kpop girl group by Asia Bridge Entertainment in 2014.

        Before they have only 5 members,  On October 25 the group added a new member, Johyun, bringing the total number of members up to six. Three out of four songs from the EP, including the lead track "Don't Believe", were showcased on Arirang Radio's K-poppin' one day before their release. The official music video for "Don't Believe", and the group's second mini album Glory, were released on November 1

        To promote "Don't Believe" in November 2016, Berry Good underwent a change of styling and concept to take off the original girlish, neat and pure image, adding EDM and tropical pop elements to their music.

Momoland : JJan! Koong! Kwang

            Who is Momoland?  

            Momoland  is a seven-member kpop girl group formed by Company Dublekick. They debuted on November 10th, 2016, with a mini-album titled "Welcome To Momoland".The members are the winners of survival program Finding Momoland. So this is a brand new girl group.

After watching their MV, I find they seem a bit like the early day APink, lol...

Badkiz : Ear Attack 2

             I also mentioned about this group few month ago. So Badkiz is a kpop girl group debut under Zoo Entertainment. The group consists of members Monika, K.Me, Somin, U-Si and Duna. The group debuted with their song "Ear Attack" on March 24, 2014.
             The group had some lineup members change, and On November 21st, Badkiz released their fifth single, a remake of their debut single "Ear Attack" called "Ear Attack 2"

The Original Ear Attack is this one :

YG Entertainment Girl Groups

         Hi, so this week I am gonna write about some special topic. One of the topic I really want to talk about is Kpop girl groups under YG Entertainment. Since it's CL concert this week as well, so it's the good time to write about this topic.

        (Note: In order to make the whole thing makes sense, I recommend readers to read the article from beginning to the end, so you will know where does each person come from in YG and how they related to each other)




        First I need to talk about a bit history about YG Entertainment and its girl group....

        At 1992, Seo Taiji and The Boys formed and they became one of the most successful groups in kpop back in early 90s. After the group disbanded at 1996, the former  group member Yang Hyun Suk created what is called  YG Entertainment  at Feb 24th 1996. “YG” is an abbreviation of Yang‑gun (양군), a nickname for executive director and founder Yang Hyun Suk. Right now, YG Entertainment is one of the 3 biggest record Label in kpop, along with SM Entertainment and JYP Entertainment.

 

                                         (YG is the guy on the most left side, photo taken at 1992)


        At 1996, YG debut their very first boy group called Keep Six, but is a failure. Later on, they debut boy groups such as Jinusean, 1TYM  and artist like Perry back in late 90s, but no girl groups. Here I want to mention one boy group called 1TYM, because almost all the YG Entertainment girl groups and also boy groups debut after them are related to them.. 1TYM(also called One Time) was 4 member hip hop boy group debut under YG Entertainment at 1998. The members are Teddy Park, Danny, Oh JinHwan, Song BeakYoung.
         I want to specially mention one member called Teddy Park, right now he is a main producer under YG Entertainment and produce most of 2NE1's major hits  and all of the blackpink songs as well.

                                (Teddy Park is the one on the most righthand side, 1TYM)

                                       The main producer, the "real boss" under YG Entertainment
                                                                     Teddy Park

Here is the list of all the songs produced by Teddy Park from 2008 until now: (including most of 2NE1's major hits and all the black pink
songs): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teddy_Park_production_discography#BLACKPINK_.E2.80.93_Square_One



So until today, YG only debut 3 girl groups, and only 3 girl groups, but many boy groups. The 3 girl groups are Swi.T, 2NE1 and BlackPink.

Swi.T

The very first girl group debut under YG Entertainment is Swi.T at 2002.  Swi.T is an acronym that stands for "Song will tell. The members are Lee Eun Ju, Ahn Nai Young and Sung Mi Hyun.

  I want to especially mention about the member Lee Eun Ju,  because she is the wife of  the CEO of YG Entertainment Yang Hyun Suk.

Here is the full article talks about how Yang Hyun Suk secretly dating Lee Eun Ju.

http://www.allkpop.com/article/2012/05/yang-hyun-suk-opens-up-about-how-his-relationship-with-wife-lee-eun-joo-began

                                   

      So back in early 2000s,  under the influence of some very successful girl groups such as S.E.S during that time, most kpop girl groups have 3 members back then.. I know Swi.T from one magazine around 2002, I didn't really pay attention to them because I was big fan of S.E.S. at that time.
      The group was often compared to American group TLC, partially due to musical style and partially due to the similarity of their costumes and sets of the I'll Be There music video compared to TLC's "No Scrubs" video.

   Also Swi.T and 1TYM belong to the same generation like early 2000s, so they always  collaborate with 1TYM members, especially in the MV on and on , Oh JinHwan from 1TYM was also in MV, also one of my fav song from Swi.T before.

     Swi.T last until 2004 and disband at the same year due to members leaving issue,

2NE1

           After Swi.T disbanded at 2004, there is no girl groups under YG Entertainment until 2009. After 5 years, YG Entertainment decide to debut 2NE1 to against big groups such as SNSD from SM Entertainment. 2NE1 is a kpop  girl group formed by YG Entertainment in 2009. The group consists of CL, Bom, Dara and Minzy, but Minzy left the group at April this year....

       Until now, 2NE1 was considered the most popular kpop girl group ever debut under YG Entertainment. Unlike other groups ,each member in 2NE1 have high popularity and easy for fans to recognize as well

        CL is the lead rapper of the group. And her style leaves impression on a lot of people. And Teddy Park from 1TYM in charge of 2NE1 when 2NE1 was in their career peek as well.

     

The rumor about CL dating Teddy Park is not true as well, but CL and Teddy Park are close friends under YG....

2NE1's hit singles "I don't care" , which won them the Song of the year award at 2009 Mnet Asian Music Award and "I am the best" also Song of the year at 2011 at the second time. And both of them are composed by Teddy Park, I would say Teddy Park is one of the most important person in YG Entertainment right now...

What happened to other 2NE1 members now?

                         Minzy's departure from 2NE1
            On April 5, 2016, YG Entertainment confirmed that Minzy was officially leaving the group. 2NE1's contract expired on May 5, and Minzy was the only member who did not re-sign.
           so she will  move on to focus on new (likely solo) endeavors; meanwhile, the girl group would move forward as a trio.

 Speaking of Bom, most fans will think of the plastic surgery she went through. It's common for kpop celebrity to have plastic surgery. However, Bom did way too much of it......

And speaking of Dara and her success in Philippines," she was nicknamed the "BoA of the Philippines" by Korean fans. She is recognized as a fashion and beauty icon because of her eccentric and distinct fashion style.

CL, of course the most successful solo artist among all the 2NE1 members, CL's first solo single, "The Baddest Female", was released on 28 May 2013. And now comes the Hello Bitches tour, then I saw her at Vancouver. 

(To be honest, I used to be a bit scared of CL because of her style, but actually she looks pretty in person and really nice as well)

Right now, 2NE1 is under haitus, and their past success will be remembered by their fans for a long time in the future.

BlackPink

         Yes, BlackPink in your area.....

              The third girl group debut under YG Entertainment , represents the current and future generation fans, blackpink debut at August 8th 2016, so they are still brand new. However, they are very successful after they debut, and had pretty strong fanbase already in just 3 month.

              Again, if I say Teddy Park compose most of 2NE1's big hit, Teddy Park composed  all of BlackPink's songs.

              
Their debut singles hit number one on the Billboard World Digital Songs chart and the fastest act to do so, and only the third Korean artist to hold the top two positions after Psy and Big Bang. "Whistle" topped the digital, download, streaming and mobile chart of Gaon Chart of August 2016. They also reached number one on the weekly, popularity, music video, and K-pop music video chart of China’s biggest music-streaming website QQ Music. Blackpink's first music show performance was aired on August 14, 2016 on SBS's Inkigayo. Their win in Inkigayo broke the record for girl group with the shortest time to win on a music program after debut (14 days). They wrapped up their promotions for Square One on September 11, 2016 with another win on Inkigayo.


interesting enough, both 2NE1 and BlackPink had 4 members. While YG made it clear that he originally wanted to create a group like Girls’ Generation from rival SM Entertainment, the label ended up opting for something much more like its own act 2NE1. BlackPink’s formation, in my opinion, is definitely the safer route. Instead of pushing its boundaries to create a larger girl group with bigger visuals and personalities, YG maintains its trademark styles of fusing hip-hop and pop while emphasizing rap and vocals over everything else.

Now I will compare each member from both groups one by one.
Jennie vs CL

Jennie's place in BlackPink is almost the same as CL in 2NE1 because her position is rap, also can sing and dance as well. She gave the same badass attitude and hardcore vibe, their style matches closely as well.

Jisoo vs Dara

Both members serve as the visual focus of the groups and have some singing lines. And both members look alike a lot. The interesting part is they know each other even before Jisoo debut.  And A lot of blackpink fans thought Jisoo actually stand out from the rest 3 members. 

Rose vs Bom

Rose easily matches Bom, and both are main vocals and especially requires most vocal skills and power.

Lisa vs Minzy

At last, both Lisa and Minzy are the youngest members, and Lisa's position is rap and dance which is very similar to Minzy in 2NE1 before. (But I do  think Lisa is pretty). Another thing is Lisa is the only  non- Korean member , she's from Thailand.

  Since I don't have a fav member from either 2NE1 or blackpink under YG Entertainment.

 I do think Lisa from Black Pink is pretty, that's why I always ask who is the Lisa girl  during dance practice. Lisa is YG Entertainment's very first non-Korean artist. (And Minzy is my fav member in 2NE1 before she left 2NE1). And no, I don't always like the youngest member, lol...

Final Words: As most of the kpop fans know, YG Entertainment is famous for their boy groups and their hip hop music style, which is different from other big companies.... I wrote this article just to introduce girl groups under YG Entertainment.