20 days ago, Brave Girls seemed like your typical aging idol group with no future to look forward to. The fact that they even released a song, the retro-infused "We Ride", in 2020, was a surprise. The group's latest release prior to "We Ride" had been the sexy summery (but originally accompanied of a quite dark music video) "Rollin'" all the way back in 2017. Matter of fact, due to change in distribution rights, its original music video doesn't even exist anymore, with the song being re-uploaded 3 years later on Brave Entertainment's (Brave Girls' label) Youtube channel. It was a quite recurring joke during the time the group had spent on hiatus that its company would rather keep posting remixes of the song (like a "dance version", a "clean version" and a "new version") than giving a new song to the Brave Girls', focusing instead on the debut of boy band DKB. The group also lost a member in the meantime, as Hayun first took a break from Brave Girls due to health reasons in 2018 and eventually left in 2019 (she has since become an influencer on TikTok and gained over 5 million followers on the platform). Overall, Brave Girls seemed doomed to an inevitable disband.
That was until this video was uploaded.
The video, from Korean Youtube channel Vidtor, has got 9 million views since its release, on February 23rd, 2021. It's sort of a stage mix of Brave Girls performances at music festivals attended by members of the Korean armed forces, with comments popping up showing the excitement of soldiers about their performance, particularly the ones from September 29th, 2017 (the open air festival performance) and August 30th, 2019 (the one with the soldiers jumping from their seats). The latter, with the group already performing under the current four member formation, managed to amass over 5 million views.
"Rollin'" started rising up the charts, first it re-entered Melon (Korea's biggest streaming platform) at the very bottom, two days after the video was uploaded, then it rose nearly 250 spots the following day. On February 27th, at 9 PM Korean Standard Time, it took 1st place on Bugs, Korea's 4th biggest music chart. Less than 24 hours later, it entered Melon's top 100. Genie, the 2nd biggest chart, was the next to be taken over, on March 1st. By March 5th, the song was already in the top 5 of all main music charts. Flo, the 3rd biggest, was finally conquered on March 8th. Three days later, it was Melon's turn, toppling none other than IU's, the most popular singer in the country, most recent song. Minor chart Vibe was the only remaining obstacle for the song to reach a perfect all-kill, which is the act of topping all charts, realtime and daily, plus the weekly chart, at the same time. On March 12th, it finally reached that milestone. Two days later, the group grabbed its first music show win for "Rollin'".
To put onto perspective how unusual their win was, it took Brave Girls 3629 days to achieve it, that's only 24 days before the group's 10th anniversary. That's by far the longest time an idol group has taken to achieve its first music show wins. Previous record holder, boy band Nu'est, had taken 2611 days until their first win (albeit they had some wins under a subunit prior to that), meaning Brave Girls shattered the record for over 1000 days. The difference compared to the girl group they took the record from, CLC, is even more jarring. CLC first win came after 1427 days, just a little over 2200 days (around 6 years) earlier than Brave Girls' first. They are the first group to get a music show win without a single one of their original members still on the group. In fact, if the debut of the current lineup was counted, they would still hold the record at 1854 days. The urgency for girl groups to get a win as fast as possible is much higher compared to boy groups, because the former rely on the public's goodwill and usually don't have big fanbases, while the latter can gather some sort of fanbase even when they aren't successful. Prior to Brave Girls first win, out of the 10 groups who took the longest to achieve theirs, 8 were boy bands and only 2 were girl groups, meaning sometimes girl groups don't even live for enough time to get there. Matter of fact Brave Girls is only the 10th girl group to win at a music show after its second anniversary and only the 3rd to win after its third (and Girl's Day, the other group alongside them and CLC to take this long, won exactly on the day they turned 3 years old).
But it wasn't supposed to be like this at the beginning. Let's take a look at the full story of the Brave Girls, going back to even before their inception as a group.
Origins: Following the old boss footsteps
Kang Dong-Chul, known by his stage name of Brave Brothers (even though he is just one) was a rising producer at one of the biggest music labels in Korea, YG Entertainment, which he joined in 2004. He started producing for YG soloists Lexy and Seven and later for Bigbang, YG's new boy band, which enjoyed great success from the start. His most notorious production for the group was the single "Forever With U" in 2006, which features then trainee and later 2NE1 member Park Bom (to which Brave Bros. would later produce some songs for her solo career). Kang left YG in 2008 to establish Brave Entertainment, following the footsteps of his old boss, Yang Hyun-Suk, who was also a former rapper and producer before founding his label in 1996. His last production for YG were a couple tracks at soloist Gummy's "Comfort" album.
Brave Entertainment had a rather slow start, not debuting any artist during their first two years. In the meantime, Kang started doing what would eventually make him famous: freelance productions. His first came in April 2008, for Pledis Entertaiment soloist Som Dam-Bi's electropop single "Bad Boy". A month later he produced "Secret" for former Shinhwa member Kim Dong-Wan, a song that also featured Girls' Generation member Tiffany as a narrator. His first freelance incursion with an idol group wasn't exactly the most successful, producing boy band's Battle "Step By Step" single album, their last before going on hiatus. However, that would change in September of that year. In a span of a week, the producer would see two charting success, "How Come", from rising girl group Brown Eyed Girls, the first song to feature the iconic "Brave Sound" robotic intro that would follow his productions over the course of Kang's career, and another former Shinhwa member Lee Min-Woo's "Don't Trust Men".
In 2009, just like in 2008, Pledis Entertainment was the first to ask for Brave Brothers services. They were about to debut the first girl group, After School, which would be the first Korean group to use the concept of a rotational lineup and member graduations seen in j-pop groups such as AKB48. After School debuted on January 25th of that year with the single album "New Schoolgirl", entirely produced by Kang, with "Ah" serving as the lead single. Its leader, Park Kahi, already had a previous connection with Brave Brothers work, providing the rap feature for the already mentioned "Bad Boy" from labelmate Son Dam-Bi. Kang also produced the next two singles for the group, "Diva" and "Because of You", the last one ended up becoming the first smash hit from his production career, selling 4 million digital copies in the process and earning the group their first music show win in December of that year.
However, if After School was the first girl group to be directly linked to Brave Sound productions, the one who would be associated the most with them would only debut a year later. Once again a relatively new company, Starship Entertainment, established in 2008, the same year Kang founded his own label, wanted to debut their first group, a quartet of girls by the name of Sistar. They drafted the producer for the group's debut single, "Push Push", released in June 2010. The Sistar-Brave Sound partnership turned to be one of the most successful in k-pop, as Kang also produced the next four singles of the group: "Shady Girl", "How Dare You" (the group's first win), "So Cool" and "Alone", with the last 2 going #1 and selling over 3 million digital copies, plus subunit Sistar19 smashes "Ma Boy" and "Gone Not Around Any Longer", although the group's subsequent track record, scoring 7 more #1 hits without him and with other producers such as Double Sidekick and Black Eyed Pilseung at the helm making it more believable that it was Sistar that helped make Brave Sound productions a big brand in k-pop and not the way around.
The Sistar-Brave Sound relationship was so symbiotic that when Brave Entertainment finally debuted their first group, hip-hop duo Electroboyz, guess who did Kang draft to aid promotions for the group? Exactly. There were Sistar and Olympic gold medalist figure skater Kim Yuna trying to push their new group at their first comeback single. Brave Entertainment was pushing their new group hard, also giving them features with popular soloist NS Yoon-G and T-Ara's member Hyomin.
Original lineup: nothing but a side project
That was not the case. Brave Girls had a rather generic rollout leading up to their debut, in April 2011. Two teasers were released, showing different concepts of the group: boy-ish girl crush and chic sexy (the former looked very similar to Miss A's "Breathe"). Their original lineup featured five members: Eunyoung, Seoah, Yejin, Yoojin and Hyeran. Brave Girls ultimately debuted on April 7th, 2011 with the single album "The Difference", with two tracks, the sad-ish "Do You Know", where they showed the chic and the upbeat and very in line with other Brave Sounds productions of that time "So Sexy". "Do You Know" peaked at #19 in the Gaon chart, which would be the best charting result for the Brave Girls for the next 10 years. The single didn't sell poorly though, considering Brave Girls came from a rather small label, clocking at 11676 copies It's rather funny that they didn't use the outfits presented as sexy in the song called "So Sexy", which instead featured the girl crush outfits, but alas...
In typical recently debuted group fashion, Brave Girls quickly held their first comeback. In just a little under 3 months, the group was back with their first extended play, "Back to The Future". The title song was "Easily", featuring reggae singer Skull, which had worked in the past with Brave Brothers when he was still at YG Entertainment. The summery song is a big mix of genres, featuring piano ballad moments, reggae horns and drums and even a saxophone solo. Despite the lower peak than "Do You Know" (#38 at the Gaon chart), it sold more digital copies than their debut single, closing on 700 thousand downloads, compared to 430 thousand from "Do You Know". However, physical sales had a big decline, only registering a total of 3484 copies.
Brave Girls original lineup, concept photo for "Easily"
Brave Girls returned in February 2012 with their second extended play "Re-Issue", with "Nowadays, You", serving as the single. The song showed the group's capability of switching concepts, going from the summery vibes of "Easily" to a suit-based mature concept somewhat similar in aesthetics to recent Wonder Girls smash hit "Be My Baby" but using the characteristic electropop of Brave Brothers rather than the retro-ish sound of JYP. Their showcase comeback feature Brave Brothers new customers, boy band Teen Top, to which he would produce music for all the way up to 2017, but especially from 2012-14, plus labelmates Electroboyz. In the charts, the song improved from "Easily", peaking at #21 on the Gaon Digital charts and selling roughly similar in digital downloads. Album sales, however, declined, to just 2865 copies.
However, Brave Girls were essentially a side project to Brave Brothers and his crew and the hiatus that followed showed it clearly. With Kang's golden goose Sistar switching producers for the first time for their summer comeback "Loving U", new moneymakers were needed. The producer's bets were the aforementioned Teen Top and 4Minute, originally under the tutelage of rival freelance producer Shinsadong Tiger, first through its most popular member, HyunA, to which Kang produced "Ice Cream" in October, with the song featuring Electroboyz member Maboos, and eventually for the full group with their 2013 comebacks "What's Your Name?" and "Is It Poppin'?". Speaking of Electroboyz, though, Brave Brothers kept pushing the group, tying them to every popular girl he crossed paths with, including releasing remixes of Sistar19 hit "Ma Boy", first one featuring Hyolyn herself back in 2011, then one with After School's Nana in 2013, plus the already mentioned HyunA feature for Maboos. And speaking of After School, Kang returned to produce for the group for its summer release "First Love" (which ended up as their last Korean release), in June 2013. Only two months later Brave Girls would finally make their comeback, with digital single "For You", which wasn't even promoted and came with the promise of a future album on the horizon. The album never came and their next hiatus would be even longer.
Hiatus: the Brave Girls are A-O-A
Brave Brothers continued on their tour of giving music to everybody except their own girl group over the course of 2013. In October, rookie girl group Bestie released his production "Love Options", the quintessential "would have been a hit if released by a bigger group" song. But a new golden goose was about to emerge at Brave Entertainment headquarters. A group that seemed confused between being a live band or a dance pop group, or both at the same time. That had shown flashes of potential and had great and varying visuals but had never fully clicked with the public. The group in question was FNC Entertainment's 2012 debutants Ace of Angels, or, as most people would know them, AOA. And the song in question was none other than sexy concept classic Miniskirt.
This section will be rather brief because truth be told, there were no new developments for the Brave Girls as a group in 2014 and 2015. They were just on hiatus with no news, forgotten by everybody especially their own label. Brave Brothers kept producing for various girl groups during that time. In February 2014, on his own words, he released the "first collaboration of JYP and Brave Sound" producing Sunmi's "Full Moon". The following month, 4Minute's single "Watcha Doin' Today", also known as the song that simultaneously beat Girls' Generation and 2NE1 for a music show win, came out. In November, Fantagio girl group Hello Venus released Kang's production "Sticky Sticky" and followed suit for their 2015 releases "Wiggle Wiggle" and "I'm Ill". In 2015 he even snatched a group that had been produced by its rival Shinsadong Tiger since debut, making "So Crazy" for T-Ara. Even Nine Muses got a shot at a Brave Sound production but nothing came out for Brave Girls.
The real golden goose, however, was AOA. In 2014 alone the group made three releases, the aforementioned Miniskirt, "Short Hair" and "Like a Cat". The group was in their prime, quickly rising into one of the most popular in the country to the tune of Kang's productions. In 2015, it came the final coronation, with the group's signature song "Heart Attack". For all intents and purposes, they were the de facto "Brave Girls", getting most of the company resources directed towards song production.
New lineup: last ditch attempt
However, out of nowhere, Brave Girls' return to the scene was announced in February 2016, two and a half years since their last release. Instead of 5, Brave Girls would now be a 7-member group (interestingly, the same size as AOA). The only survivors from the original lineup were Yoojin and Hyeran. Gone were the three oldest members from the original formation: Eunyoung, Seoah and Yejin, replaced by Minyoung, Yujeong, Eunji, Yuna and Hayun. Yejin later disclosed she left because of their manager reckless driving.
Brave Girls were then quickly on the run, with their "2.0 version" making their debut in February 16th with sexy slow tempo R&B single "Deepened". On Hyeran's own words, it was the group's "last chance". The song got quite good reviews from critics and even landed in best of the year lists. It's arguably sandwiched between one of the finest runs of form by Brave Brothers as a producer, coming right after the release of Dal Shabet's retro single "Someone Like You", which later gained cult status. I guess losing the production of AOA's upcoming comeback lit a fuse under him.
As expected, considering such a long hiatus, "Deepened" didn't do well in the charts, peaking at #131 at the Gaon digital chart. However, it didn't end up as the group's last chance. Four months later, the group came back with the uptempo "High Heels". It's far more commercial than its predecessor, which even earned the group accusations of being sellouts. It definitely has a lot of callbacks to previous AOA tracks, especially "Heart Attack". If they were selling their souls for success, the call wasn't answered, because "High Heels" charted 14 spots worse than "Deepened", although it did manage to slightly outsell it in the long run. The extended play featuring the song also sold worse than any album from Brave Girls' original formation, clocking at just over 1 thousand copies. Not shocking considering any resemblance of fandom the group had in the past was destroyed by their hiatus. In August, the group released a typical summer concept with "Yoo Hoo" but the song failed to even register in the charts. Overall, it wasn't looking good for the Brave Girls revival.
Brave Girls concept outfits for "High Heels"
In a sense it seemed like the once hitmaker Brave Brothers had become a producer of songs that are cult hits but commercial flops. The aforementioned "Someone Like You" fits the bill. So does the two Brave Girls tracks above. Same for his 2016 production that followed it, Stellar's "Crying". Even when he returned to produce to AOA, the results were similar. "Excuse Me" produced the group's worst charting prior to their breakout with Miniskirt but later became appreciated. But the biggest of his sleeper hits was yet to come, even if it took four years for it to materialize. Brave Girls were now down to 5 members, it was truly the last Hyeran had spoken about, but she wasn't even there anymore, taking a hiatus (although in the end she would never return), announced alongside member Yoojin's departure, leaving Brave Girls without any member from their original formation. The group would be rolling on a tropical beat into a dark castle under a thunderstorm, while performing sexy moves such as shaking their hips on top of stools. On March 7th, 2017, it was now or never for the Brave Girls.
The tide was truly against "Rollin'". The song was deemed "unfit for broadcast" over vulgar lyrics. The music video teaser was given a mature rating, blocking anyone under legal age in Korea from watching it. The song predictably flopped commercially. 10 days after the comeback, member Yujeong announced a break after struggling with abdominal pain. The group was doomed and members acted accordingly. Once recovered, Yujeong grabbed some coins as a cover girl for men's magazine Maxim. She, alongside fellow members Eunji and Yuna, also auditioned for competition show "The Unit", which intended to give a second chance to failed idols. Both Eunji and Yujeong made into the main show but failed to make the final lineup. The aforementioned Hayun left and became a streamer. New leader Minyoung was largely silent, as the group seemed dead.
Until one video would change their entire history...
Future: Exid, Crayon Pop or Momoland?
There are three groups whose stories are tied the most to a viral hit.. Curiously, two of the groups (Exid and Momoland) blew up with viral hits that came from Brave Brothers main rival producer, Shinsadong Tiger. The third group is Crayon Pop. There are some aspects where the Brave Girls comparison is a bit more complicated, the main one being age. Exid were two years and 8 months old when their viral moment happened, while Brave Girls, even when only starting the count at the moment the new members joined, are already 5 years old. Crayon Pop and Momoland were actually still during the period groups are considered to be rookies, as they were only 1 year old for the former and 1 year and 3 months for the latter before going viral, however, they had no past track record of charting at all, which approximates them from the current iteration of the Brave Girls.
There are obviously other examples of sleeper hits among girl groups: the aforementioned AOA's "Miniskirt", Girl's Day "Expectation", Gfriend's "Me Gustas Tu", Twice's debut "Like Ooh-Ahh", but they aren't as deeply associated to their groups history as the previous three, given these groups managed to have more successful songs in the future. That being said, let's explain how each one of their cases developed and what happened to them after.
The day was October 8th, 2014, in the city of Paju. Girl group Exid were in disarray, as their first release since 2012, "Up & Down" had failed massively in the charts, leaving them on the verge of disbandment. It seemed just like another performance before they met the inevitable fate. Until a fan captured member Hani's dancing to the song during that day. The video started blowing up, with new reports every time it crossed a milestone, first it was 1 million views. Then 5 million. Then 10 million, The song managed to climb all the way up to #1 in the charts by January 2015, four months after release, in a progression that quite resemble the one currently happening to "Rollin'". It is truly the most valuable hip thrusting in k-pop history. To this day it's scored nearly 35 million views. Before fancam spamming became a trend, it used to be the most viewed fancam of all-time.
Exid are the example of a viral story ending well. The group never had a song as big as "Up & Down", but managed to be among top girl group until ceasing activities in 2019, particularly between 2015-17, scoring two more top 5 hits ("Ah Yeah" and "Hot Pink") and 3 extra top 10s ("L.I.E", "Night Rather Than Day" and "DDD"). Worst case Exid were just a tier below the top girl groups of during these years and at least for 2015 were a top tier group.
Crayon Pop offers a less successful case but still positive overall. The quintet blew up through its song "Bar Bar Bar" in June 2013. The low budget video (made at a cost of $350), where the group invites everybody to jump, started going viral during that summer. After debuting at #143 on Gaon digital chart, it peaked at #3 seven weeks after release. On Billboard Korea's own version of the Hot 100 chart, the song went #1. Covers of the song were popping out each day during that time.
"Bar Bar Bar" gave Crayon Pop a record label deal with Sony Music, a music show win over boy band Exo, which sounds insane given the size gap between each group's fandoms, impressed the extremely hard to impress Yang Hyun-Suk, opened the door for them to open concerts for none other than Lady Gaga. Although the group never managed to come close to its success again, and only had one top 10 hit after in "Uh-ee", the song still managed to give them opportunities they wouldn't have obtained without it. Therefore, landing at average levels of popularity following it was still a win.
Momoland, on the other hand, was a group who has lived under a nightmare in the times that followed its breakout viral hit "Bboom Bboom" in early 2018. Released on the third day of the year, the song started climbing up the charts until eventually peaking at #2 in late February. The song was a bonafide hit. In 8 months it already had received a certification over reaching the 100 million streams milestone. Its music video is nearing on 500 million views and its dance practice has over 90 million even though the group doesn't have a big fandom to mass stream it 24/7. Yet, aside from the first few months, when it milked the song to a point they were still performing it on music shows 6 months after release, MLD Entertainment failed miserably to build from its success.
The early accusations of plagiarism by russian girl group Serebro of its song "Mi Mi Mi" could be interpreted as an early bad sign, but they got answered and didn't impact on the song's success and would pale compared to the mismanagement the group had to endure. On the chart department, the follow-up single "Baam" got decent views for the music video but peaked at #13 on Korean charts, meaning they couldn't score another top 10 hit. But the first major warning would come in their next release, "I'm So Hot", where it was announced members Daisy and Taeha would not take part for the promotions. That was particularly suspicious, especially on Daisy's case, given their recent dating rumours with boy band Ikon member Yunhyeong. This was the last time the group charted in the top 100. The hype of Bboom Bboom was gone and was replaced by news about lack of payments, members suffering from panic disorder, members departing the group, accusations about the group's lineup being rigged, inaprpopriate photos of members leaking. Big fandoms targeting the group with hate sprees and accusations of being rude didn't help either. The group is now an one-hit wonder and a lot of it has to do with its terrible label, which failed in every imaginable sense in doing their job of protecting the group and setting it up for success, turning them instead into one of the biggest recent tragedies in k-pop.
Avoiding Momoland's fate is the biggest priority for a group like Brave Girls and a lot depends on how Brave Entertainment will act following the success of "Rollin'". The rather lethargic reaction from Brave Brothers, limiting to post hashtags such as #amen on his Instagram, was not well received, as people now anticipate a Brave Girls comeback. It was a positive step that the group returned for music shows starting March 12th, when they performed on MCountdown, but that should only be the start. Everything related to the song is pulling big numbers: relay dances, stage performances, fancams, idols dancing to it. Other Brave Girls songs are rising in the charts. For now, Brave Entertainment's focus seems to be boy band's DBK upcoming release, scheduled for March 30th. The real deadline will be for summer. It's imperative Brave Girls have a new release by then, so that "Rollin'" can't just be a viral hit on a vacuum.
