K-pop Goes February: Day 6- WJSN/Cosmic Girls

Hello possums. It’s Saturday. Revel in that information. I’m nearing the end of my active girl group week, and it looks like the groups I’ve chosen have more complex names and origin stories as time goes by. I realise that, given that this is day six, and that there actually is a K-pop group called Day6, that would have been a really neat little idea. But hey, they’re a group of guys, and guys are my plan for next week. Sorry boys, but until Monday it’s strictly ladies only. Therefore, please welcome to the stage, WJSN/Cosmic Girls.

Who are WJSN/Cosmic Girls?

Ah, just when I thought Loona, IZ*ONE and Weki Meki had exhausted my quota of complicated names and group origin stories, here is WJSN/Cosmic Girls. The reason I’m slashing is that WJSN is the name this group seems to be most commonly known by, which is an acronym for their Korean name, 우주소녀 (Oo Joo So Nyeo), meaning….yes, you got it. Cosmic Girls. From now on I’ll just use WJSN to describe this thirteen-member girl group who debuted under Starship Entertainment in February 2016. Now, I have actually heard of Starship Entertainment, as they are the company behind second generation summer queens SISTAR, as well as probably my second favourite boy group, Monsta X (still haven’t forgiven the company for what they did to Wonho, but that’s another story). This gives me pretty reasonable expectations.

As mentioned, WJSN debuted in 2016 with twelve members, though of course it wasn’t as simple as that now was it, you fools. Similar to Loona, WJSN actually revealed themselves in multiple sub-units: this time four instead of three, but without the singles unique to each unit. I’m not going to delve into these units because, again, I just don’t have the willpower. But just know that they existed. Also, it’s worth noting that three of the members of this group are Chinese, and that they periodically have had other commitments meaning that they don’t always perform with the members. Also, the group added a thirteenth member later in 2016, because they could.

I can’t find much prior information about the style that WJSN caters to, so I guess this means that we just dive right in.

The First Song

That honour goes here to the wonderfully K-poppy title of Mo Mo Mo. This song starts off really strong, with wonderfully dreamy synths, though bringing in the standard pop beat to accompany it in under a minute does dull its shine pretty fast. The video is wonderfully literal with the concept of ‘cosmic girls’, as the girls are pestered by a fully suited up astronaut. Space, you see. Also I am DEFINITELY recognising a trend in 2015/2016 for girl groups to all have similar length, chocolate brown hair and identical outfits. This is the fourth group I’ve looked at this week to do this, it’s definitely a thing. The song is sunny and fun, but doesn’t impress much on the memory.

HOWEVER, whilst I didn’t intend to, as I was watching these videos on a YouTube playlist, it auto played their second debut track, Catch Me. This is a much more sonically toned down, rap heavy track, with more of that attitude I love so much from girl groups. I felt a lot more hooked in by this song, and I thought it interesting that this was what followed Mo Mo Mo. If the plan here was to showcase variety, then by Jove I think they did it. A good start.

Five of the Big Hits

For these I went for Save Me Save You, Secret, Happy, As You Wish and (slightly confusingly with the last choice) I Wish. The first of these didn’t leave too strong an impression on me musically, though the video did highlight one of the biggest fashion struggles I have: loving the tartan pattern and haaaaaating the schoolgirl in uniform concept. I will never be on board with school uniforms as suitable for anything other than, ya know, schools (maybe because I’m from a country where wearing one is standard from age four to sixteen?), but good god the tartan in this video is beautiful. Which says all it needs to say about the song really. As You Wish is weirdly similar: the song doesn’t stick with me, but there are some lovely patterns in the video outfits, plus for one section of the video they’re all in riding gear, the most flattering of sportswear. There’s also a cat, so I’m good. The song itself? A big, well-sung chorus, and that’s about all I have to say. I Wish is similarly pretty generic cutesy stuff, though, again, props to the video for including an actual unicorn. And yes, I said actual. As in, they brought in the totally real animal the bright pink unicorn for this. Secret has a little more fun with the backing track, particularly in the stripped-back opening, but soon falls into a style I’ve just heard too much to be truly unique.

Of these five songs I picked, it was Happy that left the biggest mark. Happy is the kind of song that people who have only read about K-pop online, and maybe watched that one Family Guy episode, will think K-pop is. Both the song and the video are relentless with their bright colours, fast-tempo gimmicks, and bouncy melodies. This is basically a sugar rush in sonic form, the polar opposite of Radiohead music. And I loved it. It’s a solid little pop song, bolstered by confident singing and surprisingly fast rap. This was earlier in their career than the other songs I looked at, so it’s curious that the fun seemed to lessen as time went on.

This is from the Happy video, See what I mean?

The Latest Song

Weirdly this will be the second song I’ve listened to in two days, by an active girl group, called Butterfly. Being an ARMY I know that BTS also have a song by this name, so it’s obviously a popular insect in these parts. WJSN’s contribution to this very specific canon of music has the unstoppable enthusiasm of Happy, but without as much uniqueness to make it really stand out. Whilst the chorus was enjoyable, every time I heard the word ‘butterfly’ I couldn’t help but think of the central melody in Loona’s version, which led me to be let down by WJSN’s. This is unfair on WJSN, as I have only recently fallen hard for Loona, which is no reason to compare the music of the two, who are clearly aiming for different things. Their song is good, but unfortunately it didn’t strike me like Loona’s did.

The Latest Album

The latest release by WJSN, before they formed yet another sub-unit (WJSN Chocome), is June 2020’s EP Neverland. Now, this was actually a pretty strong one for me, given a lot of their biggest hits had left me cold. The lead single is, of course, Butterfly, but the following two tracks, Hola and Pantomime, each stood out. The former carries on Happy’s legacy of almost forceful cheeriness, at times reminding me of the glory of Eurovision entries (and in my mind, there is no greater compliment). The latter plays with an interestingly unexpected melody, adding a slyness I enjoyed hearing. The second half of the album falls back into the standard mid-tempo pop we can expect from non-title tracks on a K-pop EP, though the quality of production and performance is always solid. The track Where You Are particularly reminds me of GFriend’s earlier work with its rich string-based backing vocal, though the rap does add a nice touch of difference.

Thoughts?

Ultimately, it seems like WJSN is caught between a tendency towards a style so ubiquitous it edges close to forgettable, and embracing the full potential of energetic sugary fun that great K-pop can be. It’s almost like they are trying to present themselves a generic chocolate cake, when they could be adding whipped cream, sprinkles and lots of edible glitter. I say go for the glitter: Happy, Hola and to a lesser extent Mo Mo Mo and Butterfly show what is possible when they do. Catch Me also offered a wonderfully bad-ass side to their persona that I hope comes up more within their discography. WJSN are consistently quite fun, but have the ability to fully take you on a neon, rainbow, unicorn journey. Hopefully, if I look further into them, that’s what I’ll find.