‘Coed’ pop group
Four-member KARD makes official debut with ‘Hola Hola’
From the agency that created the now-disbanded girl band KARA, a new coed band named KARD was introduced to Korean fans Wednesday.
The four 20-something artists represent the first coed K-pop band in six years.
Although there were several coed Korean pop bands in the 1990s, the “idol” bands that appeared after the 2000s were mostly all girl or all boy bands.
At the Ilchi Art Hall located in southern Seoul, the four members of KARD — BM, J.seph, Jeon So-min and Jeon Ji-woo performed four songs including the title track on their debut album “Hola Hola.”
Before its official Korea debut, the band showcased three songs overseas and had already gained popularity to the extent that the music video for “Don’t Recall” has reached 26 million views on YouTube as of July 18.
At the press conference, the members said they chose the title song (which means “hello, hello” in Spanish) to introduce themselves to the public, and because it was a song people could listen to while driving.
The music video was filmed in Los Angeles, leader BM’s home town.
The band, which has already performed in North and South America, released “Oh NaNa” first in December 2016, followed by “Don’t Recall” in February and “Rumor” in April this year. When the band released “Don’t Recall,” Billboard ranked the group as one of the top five K-pop artists to watch for this year.
These songs received surprisingly good feedback from overseas fans, because the band performed in South American countries Brazil and Mexico, before Seoul.
“My friends were surprised, they were like, ‘ Oh My God, that’s crazy, that’s cool,’” said BM.
Jeon So-min, Jeon Ji-woo and J.seph said they also received a good response, which they believe was possible because of the popularity of K-pop, but they hoped it was because of their own singularity of their band.
Indeed, the band retains that trendy pop sound with a distinctive Korean pop sound to their songs.
Before their Seoul debut and overseas performances, fans got to know the members and their activities because the band’s debut was officially announced after its Twitter and Instagram accounts were established.
Similar to other relatively newer K-pop bands, KARD’s name has a certain “concept,” here. It comes from the standard 52-card deck. K stands for King, A stands for ace. The R stands for joker and the D for “hidden” and will mean a guest participant.
The first “guest” partner for “Oh NaNa” was the former KARA member Heo Young-ji. For its third single “Rumor,” KARD released a dance music video featuring its choreographer, Z.Sun as its “hidden card.”
If the members look familiar, they all have experience in front of the camera with the exception of Jeon Ji-woo, who was formerly a trainee with FNC Entertainment.
The two male members, BM and J.seph have been featured on Koo Hara’s songs (“La La La” and “Choco Chip Cookies”). Jeon So-min is a former member of girl band Purety and APRIL, and participated in the survival show, “KARA Project.”
Asked if they had difficulty being a coed band, the members said the only challenge was when they had to change outfits for stage performances.
Also, they dashed any notion of romantic feelings within the group when J.seph quipped that it was “all a business relationship.”
The band is making its debut in the crowded summer music scene during which such big names as boy band EXO has returned and Girls’ Generation will return next month. Another girl band, GFriend, will releases an EP called “Parallel.”
There are also solo singers such as Chung Yong-wha, who returned Wednesday with his solo album “Do Disturb” and Taemin, a member of SHINee, who will also release his solo album in August.
Because the band’s three pre-released songs did well on iTunes K-pop and Billboard charts, did the musicians feel pressure about their performance on local charts?
“I would say there is more anticipation rather than pressure. Also, I do not want to be swayed by the song’s rankings,” said So-min.
J.seph said, “Our aspiration and goal is to receive this year’s New Artist award at the end of the year.”