STAYC girls, it's going down!!

 One of my biggest regrets in my K-Pop history is that I have been unable to stan my favorites from the beginning. I had unwittingly missed the narrow window of joining the GFRIEND fandom early on, even though T. Noona had already presented it to me on a silver platter. 😓

 

As a result, Sad Eunha is sad.. 😅

I admit that I am a big sucker for stories of organic growth and development, so I decided that I would not let another opportunity to stan a worthwhile group (from debut) to pass me by. Admittedly, the process is now made a little easier with some companies (particularly the more enterprising, smaller ones) revealing the abilities of their soon-to-debut trainees months before the actual debut stage. A couple of prime examples of this would be  365 Practice from RBW (now renamed as the still-to-debut Purple Kiss), and the Highup Girls by High Up Entertainment who eventually made their debut as power rookie group STAYC (스테이씨; Seuteissi, acronym for Star To A Young Culture).

Despite the fact that they had put out some of the aforementioned predebut content, I admit that I only came across their teaser videos shortly after the release of their first title track entitled So Bad.

 

It's definitely going down 😎

When I first heard and saw the MV for So Bad, I thought to myself that "Dang, THIS is how pull off a proper debut for a girl group!" It veered away from the tried and tested formula of going for the totally sweet and innocent concept (see SNSD, GFRIEND) but didn't swing wildly the other way either by going full-on girl crush (see BLACKPINK, ITZY) or ultra sexy (see Nine Muses) from the very beginning. Instead, they seem to have found a solid middle ground wherein they could plant their flag safely. Oh, and it helped that the debut stage performances weren't sloppy either (Sorry T-ARA 😅)

I wouldn't say that it's just a safe song, but it is definitely a SOLID song. Riding the current retro wave, the song starts off by giving this very 80s synthesizer music vibe, something that is also reflected in the Tron-like visuals seen in the CD box (and throughout the MV as well).

 

Yup, very much 80s..

Although the line distribution is unbalanced, the title track gives listeners a fairly good sampling of each member's different vocal capabilities. The most surprising was the very deep vocal tone (? not really a music guy, sorry 😅) pulled off by their maknae, J. 

J = This young lady.

The discography is still understandably slim though, since the  single only contains a pair of songs: The aforementioned So Bad, and a slower, more melancholy track called Like This.

 

Not to be confused with this 👆 Wonder Girls song of the same name 😅

Kpop insiders may argue that despite being from a small company, the girls are geared for success from the get-go, since they are the first girl group created by legendary K-pop producer duo Black Eyed Pilseung, who were the masterminds behind such awesome tracks like APink's Dumhdurum and a number of widely successful songs by a group  called TWICE, maybe you have heard of them? 😅 No wonder So Bad is just so good! 😜

Despite my positive response to the MV, i was still a little apprehensive whether I should follow this group or not. All that changed when I watched their live stages, and man, they were AMAZING!! These girls seem to make it a point to sing LIVE. No matter the imperfections, they are not afraid to go in microphones on, and rock the stage with minimal background vocal support! 😲

It's just a shame that they were not invited to the year-end events.. but then again, their debut was a little late in the year.. Hey, wait a minute! Aespa had their debut much later but still got invited.. I smell an unfair bias.. 😒, but more on that some other time..

After a round of music show appearances, the STAYC girls were hard at work, making various variety appearances and interviews to present themselves to the public. Then the new year came, and with it, was a performance by STAYC that I feel was nothing short of legendary...

Much to the delight of my SONE heart, STAYC did an epic cover of SNSD's Way to Go (Himnae), and being true to form, they did it with LIVE vocals!!! It was just incredible that they could dance that energetically while singing that well! I wasn't absolutely perfect, as you are really expected to pant a bit while singing and dancing at the same time, but that it what made the performance so special, and more importantly, so REAL!

Just when I thought things couldn't get any better,  STAYC came out with an acoustic version, as well as a remixed version of So Bad in a more sultry tone and with a powerful dance break.

It seems that STAYC has all the right fundamentals to make a solid push towards superstardom in the years to come. They have a solidly talented and highly visual member lineup, a very supportive and successful CEO/producer team with a lot of clout in the industry, and even an officially-named fandom this early on in their carrers, although I don't think I'm actually ready to call myself a SWITH just yet. The name still needs to grow on me a bit. 😅 I am now looking forward to their inevitable first comeback sometime this year (hopefully), and maybe get a hold of their official lightstick when it comes out. 😁

- B. Oppa