On Jan. 29, 2018, the K-Pop Girl Group Red Velvet released their first repackaged album titled “The Perfect Red Velvet.” It includes all the songs from their second full-length album “Perfect Velvet” along with three new ones including the single “Bad Boy.”
The album hit number one the Gaon Album Chart while “Bad Boy” debuted at the top on Gaon’s Download Chart and as number two on the Gaon Digital Chart.
Red Velvet entered new areas as well with the album charting at number 87 on the Canadian Hot 100 for the first time. “Bad Boy” earned the ladies their first music award on Show Champion.
Red Velvet consists of five members: Wendy, Seulgi, Joy, Irene and Yeri. However, the group originally only had four girls at their debut in 2014. The group itself is known for the dual concepts it provides, a deviation from the normal concepts seen within South Korean girl groups.
Like their name suggests, they have a “red” side and a “velvet” side. The former is more bubbly and bright in terms of sound and is predominantly pop while the latter holds a more mature and elegant vibe with songs appearing more in the R&B or ballad.
Their debut song is “Happiness” and it was released on Aug. 4, 2014. The original version of the music video reached over two million views within a 24 hour period, though it had to be removed due to complaints regarding problematic background images. After this, an edited and more appropriate version was put up in its stead and now has over 66 million views.
The second single “Be Natural” was released on Oct. 13, 2014 and peaked at number 33 on the Gaon Digital Chart.
Following this, Yeri was officially added to the group and appears on Red Velvet’s first mini album “Ice Cream Cake” that was released on Mar. 15, 2015. This album had two title tracks known as “Automatic” and “Ice Cream Cake.” Only twelve days later, the group won their first music show trophy while the album itself became the best selling girl group album for the first half of 2015.
Red Velvet’s first full-length album “The Red” came out on Sept. 9, 2015. A total of ten tracks were featured with the title single being “Dumb Dumb.” It was an immediate success and was received positively among critics. The music video for the title track was the sole non-English entry on Rolling Stone’s 10 Best Music Videos of 2015 list.
The third extended play “Russian Roulette” came out on Sept. 7, 2016. This titular single gave Red Velvet their first music show win for the track as well as peaked at number two, the group’s highest ranking yet.
2017 holds the most releases for the group by far with another EP known as “Rookie” coming out on Feb. 1. The album topped charts and won several awards for the song “Rookie” at several shows.
On Jul. 19, the fifth EP known as “The Red Summer” came out with the title track “Red Flavor” and ended up being Red Velvet’s third number one release and set the record for most number one albums by a K-Pop girl group.
Nov. 17 of the same year saw the release of the group’s second full-length album that returned to the “velvet” side of their sound. The lead single “Peek-A-Boo” has a music video currently holding 59 million views. The album peaked at the top of Billboard’s World Album Chart.
With the amount of releases from Red Velvet during 2017 and with the extreme popularity of “Red Flavor,” the group attained “top girl group” status in South Korea.
Erika Brandenburg
Staff Writer
