Monday 22 February 2016

Red Velvet: The First Mini Album - Ice Cream Cake

Hello
An nyeoung
Konnichiwa
Ni hao


It's Monday which means it's time for another K-pop post and this weeks K-pop post was a post I was going to do the other week but never got round to getting it wrote and posted so I thought I'd do it this week instead. This week I want to introduce you to a girl group that are still pretty new to the K-pop scene and this year will be celebrating their 2nd year anniversary.

Red Velvet are a 5 member girl group containing members Wendy, Irene, Seulgi, Joy and Yeri.
On July 27th 2014 SM Entertainment released a Music Video teaser revealing that they were to release a new girl group named Red Velvet and their debut track would be called Happiness and introduced 4 members of the group. The teaser didn't give too much of the song away but kept SM fans intrigued and on the edge of their seats.
Owned by SM Entertainment.

On the 1st of August 2014 the new 4 member group(Wendy, Seulgi, Joy & Irene) made their stage debut on Music Bank performing their debut song for the first time to the public and revealing the entire song, each member also had a different colour in the ends of their hair so viewers could assign the colour to the member.
Debut Stage

On August 3rd SM released the full MV to Happiness, with the track being released as a digital single on the 4th.
Owned by SM Entertainment.

On the 9th of October 2014 SM released a new MV from the group showing a different sound and image from the group. Their 2nd track Be Natural was a cover of another of SM Entertainment's girl groups called S.E.S. The track also features rapper Taeyong from SR14B (SM Rookies 2014 boys).
Be Natural
SMTOWN
Be Natural was another digital single being released the 13th of October.

On March 10th 2015 SM made things interesting for Red Velvet fans when they released a video titled Welcome Red Velvet New Member Yeri, revealing that Red Velvet was now a 5 member girl group.
Owned by SM Entertainment.

On March 11th SM announced Red Velvet were to release their first mini album on the 15th of March the title track as Ice Cream Cake, they also released another video welcoming new member Yeri on their set of their new MV.
Owned by SM Entertainment.

On the 13th of March (my birthday eek) SM released the teaser for the Ice Cream Cake MV.
Owned by SM Entertainment.

On The 14th of March SM released the first MV with new member Yeri for Automatic which holds a familiar feel to Be Natural.
Owned by SM Entertainment.

On the 15th of March SM released the MV for Ice Cream Cake and revealed that both Automatic and Ice Cream Cake would be promoted as double lead singles.
Owned by SM Entertainment.

Either something was missed in translation or the mini album was delayed a few days as (according to Wikipedia) Ice Cream Cake was released digitally the 17th of March and then released physically in 2 versions the 18th of March. Both versions of the mini album have different photo books and different coloured covers and CD designs.
Their mini album debuted at No.1 on Gaon's weekly and monthly album charts, it came in at No.2 on Billboards World Albums Chart and No.25 on Billboards Top Heetsekers Chart.
Ice Cream Cake became the most viewed K-pop MV in the world for the month of March while Automatic was the 6th. Ice Cream Cake went on to become the best selling album by a girl group in South Korea on the Hanteo Chart for the first half of 2015.
Billboards Jeff Benjamin called the album "an impressive effort for such a young group" and praised it's ability to personify the group's dual sided musical identity through the singles Ice Cream Cake and Automatic.
Ice Cream cake received 6 music show awards, their first awards since their debut. The physical sales of their mini album stands at:
Gaon sales 48,815+
Oricon sales 2,706+

The group name Red Velvet represents the group concept itself, where it defines the two different images portrayed in the group's music and performance, with Red being their vivid and bold image(Happiness and Ice Cream Cake), while Velvet reflects their classy, sultry and toned down side(Be Natural and Automatic).

When I bought their album the version was selected at random and I got the Automatic version which has a simple black and white cover, CD and photo book, while the Ice Cream Cake has a colourful cover, CD and photo book. Looking at unboxing video's for the Ice Cream Cake version the photo book contains stills and shots from the Ice Cream Cake MV and is something I would love in my collection even though the track list is the same on both. The photo book for the Automatic version contains stunning shots from the Automatic MV definitely calling to the Velvet side of the group with even the lyric sections of the booklet looking really pretty and breath taking, just check out the images below to see for yourself.

Track List:
Ice Cream Cake
Automatic
Somethin' Kinda Crazy
Stupid Cupid
Take It Slow
Candy


































With this only being a mini album I thought I'd share all the tracks with you, especially any live performances I can find which shows of not just their dancing but their vocal skills.


Ice Cream Cake Live

Automatic Live

MBCkpop
Somethin' Kinda Crazy Live
By 96mile

Stupid Cupid Lyrics
By sassy maknae

Take It Slow Lyrics
By Jenirus


Candy Live
By 96mile

These are one of the two groups I've been into since their debut the other being GFriend(which I can now officially say I'm a Buddy-GFriend's fan base name), Red Velvet are yet reveal their fandom name and colour, which was announced last year that it would be revealed soon to the annoyance of another SM girl group F(x) who has been waiting for a fandom name for YEARS (they recently revealed it as MeU during their first tour). I can't wait to see how Red Velvet will continue to develop and grow within the K-pop world.

Next week
Owned by SM Entertainment.

Are you a Red Velvet fan?
Do you have a favourite song from this post?
Let me know in the comments below.

See you soon!




An nyeoung
Sayonara
Zai Jian
Bye

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