I decided to do away with the chronological order of my involvement in fandoms because I figured it would take too long and thus push the more current content too far back for them to be relevant. I have covered my first two major ones anyway, and now I shall be discussing my current (and most passionate to date) K-Pop obsession: the wonderful ladies of GFRIEND (여자친구).
I have to shamefully admit that I came to the party quite late, only becoming a part of the BUDDY fandom earlier last year.. (shame on me!) T. Noona had actually shown me this group around the time after their debut 6 years ago, and one of the main points was that SinB bore an uncanny resemblance to SNSD's Jessica (at the time). However, the group was introduced to me in the midst of my kpop black hole (around 2014-2019), so I didn't really pay much attention at the time because I was too wrapped up in real-world stuff to care. I guess I will be discussing the black hole in a future post.
It was probably due to the pandemic, along with changes to my daily routine because of my entry into further training, that granted me more free time and eventually sparked my interest and re-entry into the K-Pop rabbithole. I had earlier set aside some GFRIEND videos for T. Noona more as a favor for her than for my own personal consumption. When I began watching out of curiosity though, I was totally blown away...
Ok, so maybe the above GIF I found does not capture the essence of what I wanted to say, but I can't really one that showcases their excellent stage blocking when they were moving about. I eventually found out that they were well known for their synchronization, but more on that later.
Watching Me Gustas Tu, I was awestruck by Yuju's highnote, (and top notch vocals all around as well), and she became my first-ever bias in GFRIEND. 😍 She was a bit chubbier at the time with those chipmunk-like cheeks, which she sadly lost as she transformed into a sophisticated pole-dancing beauty. 😅
To set the timeline straight, this was early-to-mid 2020, so Crossroads and Labyrinth had already come out. I soon delved deep into their discography..
Glass Bead was a strong debut song.It had all the elements that made Into the New World a good start for SNSD. Vocals, visuals, and dancing were all on point. The MV was simple and straightforward though, nothing too fancy, which is understandable considering Source Music's financial situation at that time. People have criticized GFRIEND for having simple, tacky-looking uniforms for their stage outfits. but this is a testament to their very humble beginnings coming from a small, relatively unknown company on the brink of bankruptcy.. It was admittedly a bit difficult to tell them apart during this debut era, since they all sported the same long black hair, with only SinB really sticking out visually due to her Jessica-ness. 😅
Released in 2016, Rough (or "Running Through Time" as some purists would argue 😅) was a visual and auditory spectacle for me. 😍 It really reinforced the Powerful Innocence concept that they were going for, with impressive vocals, sharp snappy dance moves, and an overwhelming orchestra-like accompaniment. Hey, and the lyrics were pretty good too! It is not hard to understand how they would score their first win with this, and shatter records by winning 15 times at music shows. The winter school uniforms were actually quite cute as well. 😍
Ok, I think I posted enough GIFs of Rough. 😅 Moving on along my discovery of their discography was NAVILLERA.
At first, NAVILLERA did not really catch my attention. Sure, it was a high energy song with retro vibes and excellent choreography (again), which in hindsight was really right up my alley. 😅 My guess is that I was still at that point where I was hung up on the fact that their songs all kinda sounded alike.. 😓 It left quite an impression when I saw the intro when they did it at 2x speed though..
So yeah, I was looking around the rabbithole, but my Yuju bias nonwithstanding, I didn't think I was ready to commit myself to full time fanboying again after the events of the black hole era, but then I encountered this...
Just when I thought GFRIEND performances could not get any more epic, there was Time For The Moon Night.. The title struck me humorously as a bit of "Engrish", but wow, the song itself was serious stuff! It even had another Yuju highnote!
After doing a bit of research (actually, YouTube fan theory videos were very helpful 😅), I discovered an apparent attempt to create a unified GFRIEND storyline, where all the videos were somehow inexplicably linked together, either by chronology of events, or recurrent symbolisms.
Of course, you cant\'t mention Crossroads without mentioning Labyrinth as well. Even though it did not have its own music video, this was the first time GFRIEND did a double title track, and occasionally performed both during music show appearances during the promotional period. I also believe Hitman Bang co-produced Labyrinth as well, as this album marked their first involvement under BigHit Entertainment after it had acquired Source Music as a subsidiary label.
It seems as though I had joined the fandom at the nick of time, because after a couple of months, they began rolling out teasers for the Song of the Sirens album, and so I waited impatiently for this new track that they had dubbed Apple..
From the opening scene with Eunha eating a poisoned (?) apple, I knew this was going to be a bit different.. but I think I wasn't prepared for what came next..
Damn1 This is a completely different image!! GFRIEND are no longer sweet, dainty girls. No sir! They have now become the most epic witches I have ever seen!!
WOW... 😳 It was just too bad that they had such a short promotional period.. but 3 wins in two weeks ain't half bad, considering that other groups have been trying to get that elusive first win for years but still fall short every time.. The album promotion confirmed a lot of people's suspicions. There was a booklet that came with the album which explained the narrative of 6 young friends who met in school and gained magic powers that were granted by a lake. Everything suddenly just tied together! The fan theories were right!! 😅
After a few months, word got out that there was going to be a November comeback. I remember thinking: After coming out with Apple, how the hell are they going to be able to top that?? Then came the teasers..
These girls left my mouth ajar for a second time. 😅 This new comeback was gonna be crazy different again! I couldn't wait for the MV to drop!
The video eventually came out, and damn, I WAS NOT DISAPPOINTED!!!
I honestly thought I wouldn't get excited about K-Pop going retro again, since I felt that T-ARA already set the bar pretty high with Roly Poly. Boy, was I ever wrong.. 😅
In addition to the super addictive title track MAGO, the Walpurgis Night album also featured the girls doing subunit tracks for the first time (Hug Hug and World Peace don't really count, do they? 😅). As an added bonus, they wrote these songs themselves, although they have been actively involved in writing their songs since Apple.
The SinRin subunit came up with Secret Diary, a light, bubbly track which goes back to GFRIEND's roots (or at least, that's what Yerin said they were going for).
The Yujuna/Vocal line subunit composed and sang Night Drive, which, true to it's name, is surprisingly appropriate for my long drive home at night. 😅
My personal favorite among the subunit tracks was created by the mother-daughter LeaMak subunit of Sowon and Umji. Better Me suited their voices so well! It was high time we heard best leader Sowon sing that much! 😍
I did not include the Japanese tracks here because they did not really catch my fancy that much, though I think I may eventually feature them here in a separate post. Same goes for GFRIEND's awesome library of B-side tracks, as I just can't fit them all here.
So there you have it! I hope you enjoyed my trip down memory lane detailing how I got into GFRIEND so much.
- B. Oppa
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