This Week: BULLDOK and KCONIC Entertainment's Clever Use of Produce 101

This week we're going to talk about BULLDOK, the girl group relying on Produce 101 fame and a supposedly different take on generic girl group concepts to capture fans' hearts.

KCONIC Entertainment debuted their girl group BULLDOK on Oct 20, 2016 with the song "Why Not?" This group consists of members Kim Minji, Kim Hyeongeun, Park Sehee, Lee Jinhee, and Park Sora. All of these members appeared in the hit television show and trainee competition Produce 101.

Faced with the fear of disbandment, from being truly nugu/unknown girls, this company is relying on the knowingly short-lived fame from Produce 101 and the 'shock' factor from a hard and wild song to make an impact.

As we've discussed before, new girl groups like DIA, Gugudan, WJSN, and CLC, are relying on the P101 popularity of one of their members to hard-carry the rest of the group into success. These groups, as well as their companies, are also relying on the "powerful innocence" trend started from groups like G-Friend to try and please the public.

In each of these cases, the P101 members who are hard-carrying their respective groups were massively popular during P101, however, they're not popular enough to save their sinking ships on their own. Even the two P101 members of Gugudan, who were immensely popular during P101 (they even debuted in the final line-up of the "Nation's Girl Group: I.O.I") were not enough to save Gugudan's debut from nugu-ness.

What KCONIC Entertainment and BULLDOK are doing differently, is taking the average popularity from all the P101 trainees they had, bringing them together and challenging the public's appeal for "innocent" girl groups with this debut. "Why Not?," a debut we will discuss more throughout this week, is an approach to this flash-in-the-pan-fame that takes a chance and asks: Why not take the risk of debuting these trainees while the P101 fame is still alive and trying to leave a rebellious, strong, and sassy impression on the public?

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Music Video Analysis: "Still 24K" and "Bingo" by 24K

On Monday, I talked briefly about 24K and Choeun Entertainment's approaches to achieving public recognition. Both the group and the company seemed to change image and concept in their debut year before cementing a more hardcore and trendy style after their two year hiatus. 

Today, I'm going to touch upon 24K's more recent comebacks and how the music videos for "Still 24K" and "Bingo" further reinforce this hardcore and trendy image. 

In the music video "Still 24K," there is a very clear establishment of the style that 24K is going to promote in for a while. The music video follows with the delinquent and edgy style from their past successful releases, and also includes some elements that have proven successful for other groups.

"Still 24K" is a story-based music video where the members are delinquents and robbers who set up a scam to get alot of jewelry and gold from a jewelry store. The story is set up i a way where the audience is left with the cliffhanger "to be continued" towards the end of the MV.

What's interesting about this approach to achieving public recognition, is that story-based music videos are a trend nowadays. Successful groups such as BTS, BAP, and VIXX have benefited from engaging their audience with a story and allowing fans to discuss possible music video theories. So, the focus on story in the music video, although a generic one, as well as the cliffhanger at the end, makes fans anticipate 24K's next release. This allows the group to have a consistent fanbase from comeback to comeback, in this case, from "Still 24K" to "Bingo."

In the music video "Bingo," there's a clear continuation from "Still 24K."

The storyline emphasizes the betrayal of one of the members of the delinquent gang because of the girl and the money.

Music videos that deal with betrayal are not uncommon in KPop, but I noticed that 24K and Choeun Entertainment are bringing back trends from past successful music videos. One music video that the company and the group could have drawn inspiration from is "One Shot" by BAP. The emphasis on gun wars, money, blackmail, theft, and betrayal, is something that brought BAP alot of attention during that comeback. It's smart of Choeun Entertainment and 24K to cement their hardcore trendy style in 2016 by bringing back hardcore themes and concepts that were successful in 2013.

Aside from maintaining fans' interest through a music video cliffhanger between comebacks, and reasserting the type of audience 24K wants through this consistent hardcore image, the sets and styling are also indicative of the trends that both the group and the company want to follow.

The dancing scenes for "Bingo" take place in a set similar to Monsta X's "Hero" and Up10tion's "Attention" (both successful comebacks), so it makes sense that 24K and Choeun Entertainment use these sets in their search for public recognition. Although the group and the company focus on trends into making music videos, I think the drawback with getting inspiration from some other successful groups is that 24K loses some of their identity. What do you think?

Let me know through Twitter or in the comments in the Disqus down below, is this hardcore concept, (emphasized through music video plot, set, and styling) too general for a group like 24K or is it just what they need to really start getting noticed by the public?

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This Week's Nugu Idol: 24K, the "Golden Idols"

This week's posts will focus on the "Golden Idols" 24K, Choeun Entertainment's boy group who debuted in 2012 (one of the most competitive years in K-Pop) but didn't really grab much attention until their recent releases "Still 24K" and "Bingo." Today, we'll be analyzing 24K's progress, up until their most recent comeback, "Bingo," and figuring out what changes have been made to this group on their journey out of the "nugu" or unknown/underrated label.

Before 24K's debut, their acoustic pop sub-unit, 4K, debuted with "Rocking Girl" in June 2012. 

This trend of having a "pre-debut-debut with sub-unit members" let companies like Choeun Entertainment test how the audience would feel about the current lineup for their future groups. 4K debuted with vocal members Cory, Seokjune, Kisu, and Sungoh, meaning that right from their first exposure to the public, 24K would be breaking the "idol's can't sing" stereotype. 

However, their official debut "Hurry Up," with its less known industrial genre, threw their first fans for a loop.

24K's vocals were overpowered by the intense mix of pop, trance, and dubstep in the song, and led to the sacrifice of their first fans (those into their acoustics) for new fans (those interested in this uncommon genre). 

Afterwards, their August 2013 comeback "U R So Cute," led to even further confusion, with its blend of house and hard-rock guitar with a lovey-dovey yet funny yet mildly cringe-y video. This comeback might have been Choeun Entertainment's attempt to bring back original fans by mixing 24K's cute vocals with an edgy sound. 

Despite these back and forth concept and image changes, followed by a 2-year-long hiatus and lineup changes, 24K's 2015 comebacks "Hey You" and "Super Fly" were a well-needed fresh-start for this group.

These two songs, released only 5 months apart with more than double the YouTube views than their past releases, cemented them as a group with a hardcore image through the tracks' more EDM and trendy hip hop styles. The freedom that leader Cory and members Jungwook and Daeil received to produce the choreography, as well as, compose and mix the tracks in these albums, definitely benefited the group. 

Overall, I think 24K's approach towards achieving public recognition has taken a turn for the better and will hopefully keep improving as long as they stay consistent with their successful concepts.

On Wednesday, I'll be discussing their most recent music video "Bingo" along with "Still 24K," since the story line for those videos extends into both, but for now let me know, through Twitter or the Disqus below, what you think about Choeun Entertainment's and 24K's approach towards public recognition. Should they have stayed as a more vocal or acoustic group? Is their new concept too idol-like to appeal to a fanbase greater than just idol-biased fans?

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DAL⋆SHABET "Fri. Sat. Sun." Review and Analysis

DAL⋆SHABET came back after 8 months with "Fri. Sat. Sun.," a song expressing the joy of breaking the everyday routine with an exciting and free weekend.

Debuted in 2011 under Happy Face Entertainment and created by E-Tribe, DAL⋆SHABET is a group that has been on the journey to win a music show for around 5 years. This group started off with a strong debut, much like NU'EST's "Face," but has suffered through untimely injuries, member changes and malicious rumors, all while never quite having the correct timing or musical concept that could strengthen their fandom or appeal to the general public.

DAL⋆SHABET was the first girl group to debut in 2011. These six girls were rumored to be as good as SNSD, or Girls Generation, because they were brought together by E-Tribe, the creator of SNSD's hit song "Gee." DAL⋆SHABET's debut with "Supa Dupa Diva" was highly anticipated and the buzz around this group and this song made them a success during their debut.

However, following this success were the pressures of being a celebrity and being put in the spotlight. One of Happy Face Entertainment's smart managing moves was to keep the members promoting for as long as they had the public interested in them. Unfortunately, during comeback "Bling Bling" promotions, Subin was injured, so their promotions were halted. Afterwards, in 2012, one of the most important years in k-pop, DAL⋆SHABET's leader was under question, and subsequently removed, for her rumored bad personality, and a fan war between DAL⋆SHABET's fans and B1A4's fans got so severe, that it prompted police interference.

Overall, DAL⋆SHABET's debut was strong, but unfortunate events reduced the group's momentum, and they have been struggling to hit their peak. Aside from this, is their lack of identity due to a flip-flop between different styles and concepts over the years paired. DAL⋆SHABET's concepts have always been either sensual, or fun, or an exciting mix of both, but there hasn't really been a distinct sound that comes from them. The songs DAL⋆SHABET performs could be performed by any other girl group like Nine Muses, Rainbow, or After School, because they are standard textbook k-pop songs.

The same goes for "Fri. Sat. Sun." What should be a song about letting go and getting ready to have loose-canon fun on the weekend, is actually a song with a rising beat leading to a mellower-than-expected drop. It's still a catchy song, with the classic 3-syllable title and chorus that has proved to be successful for groups like A.O.A, but the song's potential is limited by the girls' vocal ranges. DAL⋆SHABET doesn't have the vocal range that groups like Sistar or Spica have, so they need to rely on a lower sound and chorus in order to sing well. This makes the song awkwardly mellow in a time where the song should have an outburst of energy.

Fortunately, the unexpected change from hype to mellow in the song can be justified. This is a direction in music that hasn't really been tested before, and could potentially become trendy, if the right musical tweaks are done to smooth out the transition between rise and fall. Also, the music video and dance performance are very well done. This music video's outfits and concepts fit a mature yet fun DAL⋆SHABET image. They're seen as part time workers ready to dance the night away in the upcoming weekend, and their dance comes off as mature yet fun due to the body roll that leads into a hop-skip-jump kind of dance. This concept fits well with their ages since its not as innocent as their image during "Someone Like U" and it's not as blatantly sexy as their image during "Joker."

DAL⋆SHABET's mature yet fun image, established in "Fri. Sat. Sun.," could be the right direction for them in future songs, and could be their best approach towards a music show win.

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