정수연

The first couple of times I watched the Gee music video, I thought Tiffany and Jessica were the same person. Back then I had a strong disdain for K-Pop, and I thought Korean female celebrities all looked alike. SNSD's Gee was the first K-Pop video I actually enjoyed watching (though I didn't want to admit it at the time), and it took a while for me to realize that the starting monologue was from two people, not one.

(I had the same problem telling Yoona and Yuri apart, but that's for a different post.)

Once I realized my mistake, I watched the video again and I decided I liked Jessica more than Tiffany. This was before I knew their names. Even though I often claim that Yoona was my first bias, Yoona was just the first bias whose name I already knew (due to a friend's obsession with Korean drama). In reality, the first Soshi member who I decided I liked was none other than Jung Sooyeon, a.k.a. Jessica Jung, the Ice Princess; I just didn't know who she was at the time.

Random Thought for the Day

I just had a realization. Each "Red" single by Red Velvet represents one of the members.

The song Happiness is Joy's song. The most obvious clue is that the word happiness is synonymous to the word joy. Also, notice how the the music video had lots of "jungle" scenes, which means the color green dominated, and green just so happens to be Joy's color.

Ice Cream Cake is for Wendy. First, Wendy likes making desserts. It's not too far-fetched to think that she's made ice cream cake before. The music video also shows the girls looking like white chicks in a North American setting. Guess who's actually lived in North America and can be considered the "whitest" member of the group? Wendy.

Dumb Dumb is obviously about my favorite member, the lovable dumb bear Seulgi. She's the only one with the word "Dumb" written prominently on her shirt in the video. Also, her legs were used for all those creepy-awesome legs-in-a-box scenes. Heck, I bet Seulgi is a big Michael Jackson fan, so even that part of the song fits her.

Now we just have to wait for Irene's and Yeri's Red songs!

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(I'm just kidding about the whole thing, of course. :-P)

The Red

It's only been a year, but it already feels like Red Velvet has grown beyond the "rookie" stage. They've certainly been more busy than any other rookie groups since last year, having been through the music show promotions cycle thrice already (not counting the ongoing Dumb Dumb promotions), and with Irene and Yeri becoming music show hosts. They've participated in international concerts, guested in multiple radio and TV shows, and mingled with the masses in multiple official fan meetings and signings. They've even collected six music show trophies during their Ice Cream Cake promotions.

All those milestones were reached before they even released their first full album. And now even that has been achieved. The Red contains ten brand new songs from my favorite quartet-turned-quintet. As of this writing, The Red's lead track, Dumb Dumb, has already won three music show trophies so far, and the album itself has debuted in the Billboard World Albums chart at #1.

The album title is probably a reference to Red Velvet's "thing" of having a "Red side" (high-energy and experimental, with some hip-hop influences, as seen in songs like Happiness and Ice Cream Cake) and a "Velvet side" (smooth and a bit sexy, like Be Natural and Automatic). As expected, the songs in this new album are predominantly upbeat and quirky, in keeping with the group's Red side.