History of K-Pop: Apink
When the world brings up legendary girl groups, names like Wonder Girls, Girls’ Generation, and 2NE1 come to the surface. But it’s important not to forget one of the most long-lasting, versatile girl groups in the industry. We are talking, of course, about the girls of Apink. Despite being one of the longest lasting girl groups in the industry, the girls still face a lack of recognition and even disrespect at awards shows. Just last year at the KBS Song Festival, their performance was cut short by staff. So, in order to shed some more light and honor these girls for their accomplishment, The Kraze is diving deep into Apink’s impact on the K-Pop industry in celebration of their recently passed nine year anniversary.
Apink’s formation began in early 2011, when A Cube Entertainment announced their intention to form the group, with first member Naeun revealed after her appearance in a number of BEAST videos. Chorong came next, announced as the leader, followed by Hayoung and Eunji, then finally Yookyung. Bomi and Namjoo were introduced via the pre-debut reality show Apink News. A lot of work went into building their credentials pre-debut, with a number of big celebrities of the time hosting their reality show.
April 2011 marked the group’s official debut, with leading track “Mollayo” featuring BEAST’s Gikwang in the music video. This was the first introduction to Apink’s signature concept: the sweet, innocent, and bright girls.
The girls got their first music show win with their first comeback “My My” in January 2012, a track composed by Shinsadong Tiger, who is now well-known for his extensive work with EXID. The promotion period for “My My” began in November 2011, and the promotions for it helped lead the girls to win the “Female Rookie Award” at the 2011 Mnet Asian Music Awards. Along with their music promotions, Apink News continued for three seasons and showed off the members contributing creatively to the project via different outlets such as writing, producing and directing. Their first full-length studio album, Une Année, was released for their one year anniversary along with title track “Hush.”
As 2013 rolled around, Apink spent a lot of time promoting themselves alongside Cube Entertainment artists like BEAST, 4Minute, and BTOB, and in April of that year their only former member, Yookyung, left the group to pursue her studies. That summer, the group’s third mini-album Secret Garden brought the group their first commercial success. Title track “NoNoNo” gained a significant amount of attention, and remains a “classic” track to this day for K-Pop fans, considering its choreography is one of the more recognizable and is often used in random dance plays. While “Hush” experimented slightly with their sound by shifting more toward an EDM focus, “NoNoNo” brought the group back to their bubblegum pop roots, which proved to be a major success at the time.
2014 solidified their position as a long-lasting group in K-Pop with the release of “Mr. Chu” and accompanying album Pink Blossom, giving the group their first chart placement on Billboard’s K-Pop Hot 100, peaking at No. 2. On top of that, the girls won six music show awards during promotion, and by the end of the year “Mr. Chu” was the eighth best-selling digital song in 2014. This proved to be a breakout year for the group, with Bomi and Namjoo forming subunit Apink BnN, their official Japanese debut in the summer, their fanclub surpassing 100,000 members, and their first No. 1 rank on the Gaon charts with November release “Luv.” By the year-end ranking, Apink was Gaon’s third best-selling group.
Going into 2015, Apink’s success continued to skyrocket as they became the first group to win five consecutive music awards on Music Core. That was only one example, as the group continued to win a litany of awards, including but not limited to digital bonsangs and “Best Female Group.” Along with domestic success came growing international success, with most of 2015 spent touring different parts of Asia and even taking part in the Los Angeles-based Korea Times Music Festival. Album Pink Memory was released in July, and following that, the group had a year-long hiatus in music as they focused on touring.
Their return album Pink Revolution featured title track “Only One,” a track that featured the collaboration of famous producer Black Eyed Pilseung. The track immediately skyrocketed to the top of seven music charts in Korea. Eunji also broke out as a solo artist during this time, producing a number of albums before Apink’s concept reinvention and ultimate global success.
The girls’ seventh mini-album One & Six and title track “I’m so sick” marked a huge turning point, where the usual concept was traded for something completely new: a more intense and bolder look and sound to signify the group’s maturation. While they had achieved success with the innocent concept for many years, the new side shown in “I’m so sick” proved to be a major success, as it began to draw even more international attention to the group.
“%%(Eung Eung)” came next in early 2019, keeping the concept consistent with their new direction. Unlike previous title tracks that sang of innocent love, “%%(Eung Eung)” and “I’m so sick” show a much more independent and mature side to the girls, a move that is fitting given how long they’ve been part of the industry. With many girl groups these days focusing on a more girl crush type of concept, Apink managed to stand out for shifting to a more sophisticated image without doing a complete 180 from their original concept in order to fit into something completely different.
Latest release “덤더럼(Dumhdurum)” follows this formula as well, and continues to prove the staying power it has with the K-Pop world as the girls continue to dominate the charts.
Apink’s ability to ease into a new regular concept just highlights the talents each of the girls has, since it’s not an easy switch. While there are some groups out there that swing back and forth on the extreme ends of the concept spectrum, it’s often incredibly difficult to maintain a unique image when bouncing around like that. For a group that stuck to one thing for so long to be able to move into something quite different is truly remarkable, and is likely the catalyst to the further international success that they have found.
What truly makes Apink distinct from their counterparts is that despite so many years on the scene, the group is still on the upswing in their success, and have yet to reach the plateau that some groups experience early on in their career. As gen two artists, they are bridging the gap between K-Pop generations and gaining more recognition from newer fans in the process. Apink is a true powerhouse, a long-lasting gem in this cutthroat industry.