***** EDIT. This review was written before today's news that GFriend's Sowon had taken and uploaded pictures of her posing with a Nazi statue. This is not cool and as of the 1st of February, an apology hasn't been issued. Don't pose next to Nazi imagery with a smile on your face. It's wrong. More info here: https://www.koreaboo.com/news/gfriend-sowon-nazi-statue-photos/ ******
Hello my beauties, how are you? I hope your answer was positive, because I’m writing this in the past and am nowhere physically near you and thus cannot hear your response. If it’s not been so good, have my love and virtual hugs as we begin the first day of a project I will probably bully myself into finishing. We’re about to swim a little further into the waters of the wonderful world of K-pop, beyond the headline grabbing artists and first stops on the journey to a point where I don’t know how to continue the metaphor. No BTS or Blackpink here, time to branch out!
This week is going to be focussing on currently active girl groups, with the boys coming up next week. The first group I have chosen, for nothing more than recognising their name, is GFriend. As I mentioned in my introduction to this little project, I will be introducing myself to this group via; their first song; their latest song; top five of their ‘most popular’, and whatever their latest album happens to be. So, without further explanation like the beginning of an underwhelming YA series, let’s go!
Who are GFriend?
They are a six-member group who debuted in 2015 under a relatively small company, Source Music, which was bought by BigHit Entertainment in 2019 to bring them into the same company that created a little group called BTS. Weirdly, this gives them a kind of similar narrative to *the boys*, starting from a smaller company, and later flourishing under the success of something bigger. Their Korean name, 여자친구, translates directly as ‘girlfriend’, though you can see in the moniker ‘GFriend’ that they want this name to have a slightly different nuance. Their description on Spotify emphasises how this name is meant to imply a familiarity, as though they are “good buddies” singing to us. The nature of their songs is apparently sentimental and melodic (all from the Spotify), creating a unique genre of ‘Powerful Innocence’. This kind of genre name sounds completely typical of the type of slightly confusing ways K-pop marketing tends to present itself, so let’s see what this actually means…
The First Song
In January 2015 (remember 2015? Nothing was even on fire), GFriend released their first single, Glass Bead. Before I listened to a single thing they had ever done, I appreciated this title. It’s intriguing, not something vague about love, and evocative. The song itself? OK it isn’t breaking any boundaries, but god DAMN this song is cheery. It’s bouncy and upbeat, with a chorus I really enjoy where the girls sing about not being weak like the ‘glass bead’ they appear to look like. The instrumentation is particularly rich in violins, and the video plays them up as approachable schoolgirls (avoiding the problematic elements I normally have with this image) who are fun, remarkably similar looking (I think we’re still in the era where K-pop liked group members to look as similar as possible, and yes I’m looking at you Red Velvet) and good singers. There is a dance move here where they all step out to form a vertical line when dancing….it’s cool and mayhaps we shall see more.
Five of the Big Hits
Here, I went for Rough, Time for the Moonlight, Me Gustas Tu, Navillera, and Apple. The first four of these are older songs in the GFriend discography, with the last striking a very noticeably different approach. The impressions I got from Glass Bead have indeed been born out in their other hits: this is definitely the group for you if you like backing violins with a fast tempo. Their earlier stuff leans heavily on this to a really cheery effect, amplified by videos showing the girls together just… hanging out and larking about. There is, of course, choreo, and it turns out that diagonal line step out move is one of their signatures, but the balance with them being much more casual in each other’s company is really sweet to see. It feeds really well into the concept of ‘girls who are actually your friends’ as their name suggests, at least in these early songs. The variation in levels of piano to contrast the violins alters slightly, and in Navillera we get a little teeny bit of electronic sounds in the melody samples, but the sound is pretty standard across these first four.
And then we have Apple. This is the most recent of the five songs I picked- the gap between this and its most recent predecessor I chose, Time for the Moonlight, is two years- and the difference in style is really remarkable. Gone are the peppy violins and the friendly overtone, and in its place a much more chic, minimal girl group sound. I hate to use creepy-ass clichés like ‘the girls have become women’, but Apple (released July 2020) undoubtedly demonstrates a step up in maturity. When I first watched the video I was actually slightly disappointed: whilst it was slick and cool, it felt like a video that could have been from umpteen active girl groups working today. Complimentary maximalist/minimalist outfits in the same colour, some vaguely mythic symbolism, restrained sensual moves. Been there, done that. But, when listening to the song in isolation, I really enjoyed the rhythms and melody, with a different utilisation of bounciness that still echoed back to what the group had done before. The singing is still strong here, as it has always been, and I guess ultimately I can come to appreciate this change in direction as a maturity rather than an abandonment.
The Latest Song
This brings me neatly to the group’s most recent release of Mago, in November 2020. Even further away from the preppy chumminess of their earlier releases, Mago is a heavy and unashamed lean into K-pop’s 2020 rediscovery of full-on, technicolour disco. Like Everglow’s La Di Da (absolute banger), Sunmi and JYP’s When We Disco, and of course, a little thing called Dynamite, Mago is aesthetically all about sparkle, sequins, block jewel tones and flares. The underlying synth has the similarly deep disco tone, though the song is still light and fun. For me, this felt like the biggest leap from their early work, and raised interesting questions about how their move into BigHit has influenced their sound, or if it’s just the passage of time. The styling of the members is notably different in the modern era as well: in Mago and Apple the girls have distinct hair styles and colours, a sharp contrast to pretty much the same haircut and outfit in the Glass Bead days. Don’t worry though, the diagonal step move still seems to find its place in their 2020 videos.
The Latest Album
The latest release of GFriend is Walpurgis Night from November 2020, and no, I have no idea what ‘Walpurgis’ is either and I have little inclination to Google it. This album features both Mago and Apple, alongside the single Crossroads, the latter of which feels most familiar to their initial sound. Despite this ultimate change in sound, the album still holds true to an upbeat, personable vibe. I particularly enjoyed the sassiness of Love Spell, and the EDM-influenced Labyrinth: I even started to pump my fist before I realised the song was four seconds away from finishing. Something I didn’t realise until quite far into my listening journey was that there is no rap in anything I have heard from GFriend. Given that having a rapper is now fairly standard practice in any K-pop group, regardless of how good they are (looking squarely at you Momoland), it was weirdly refreshing to hear a modern group who don’t feel any need to attempt to incorporate this. If rap isn’t in your wheelhouse, yeah it probably is best to leave it out and concentrate on what you can do.
Thoughts?
Overall I really enjoyed what I heard of GFriend, and will happily be exploring more. I’m keen to see if the jump from their early work to their most recent singles really was that drastic, or if there was a progression I just haven’t noticed yet. The vibe of the group as friendly and expressive is also really enjoyable as it seems genuinely suited to their talents as artists. There are definitely K-pop groups who are very popular today despite members being pushed into styles that don’t work for them (cough * Rosé in Blackpink * cough), so kudos to GFriend for just singing well and expressively and knowing what style works for them. The songs are fun, the girls are sweet, and I am going to look further into them. Just don’t expect me to figure out what a ‘Walpurgis’ is.
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