Yet it seems Brave Girls’s persistence to show up for these (and their rather devoted military fans) was enough to achieve internet virality, if only for just a moment.Īnd so the story goes for all viral hits seizing onto their 10 seconds of revived fame: talk show and variety show interviews, fresh award show performances and wins, the first of which occurred 1,854 days past the initial release of ”Rollin’,” the aforementioned gratuitously-titled EP (“I've been waiting so long (so long)”), a rebranded album cover, brand deals and brand songs, and the like. The poor compensation for appearances on Special Shows (about $900 USD for each) leaves little incentive for any known acts to make the trek to the often remote and desolate stations where the country’s mandatory male conscripts are stationed. Brave Girls acquired quite the reputation for their frequent gigs at the military’s “K-Force Special Shows” for conscripts, a rare form of entertainment on the often-remote bases where mobile phone use was only recently sanctioned. Rather, all of the performances featured were taped on gigs at 80 or so South Korean military bases in the time between their debut and big blow-up. The popular folklore explaining their sudden return stems from a particular YouTube edit of their performances, though not in the colorful, ornate stages most perform on. Everyone loves a good redemption arc, but where did all the success come from?
BRAVE GIRLS MEMBERS SERIES
Previously near disbandment, the ensemble of four non-original members were suddenly back on with a series of new performances, a new EP titled Thank You, and a rare US tour.
It became the song with the sixth most Perfect-All-Kills (a ranking metric for simultaneous #1 charting) of all time, and the highest for any female-led K-Pop group. So it’s a bit strange to see a new sort of meme-fueled virality take center stage, independent of the usual careful planning behind modern viral hits: “Rollin,’” a four-year-old single from a last-ditch comeback effort of a largely-forgotten, ten-year-old K-Pop girl group, suddenly found itself at the top of the 2021 music charts in South Korea. It isn’t 2012 anymore: Out-of-touch parents have shifted their stratagem to fitting in with the kids by professing their familiarity with BTS and BlackPink instead of Bieber. Cast away your memories of the early aughts’ fixation on 15-seconds-of-famers and occasional K-POP hits that entered the global limelight through the eyes of the global industry, modern K-Pop has exploded to foster staple ensembles that compete with household names on an international stage and fandoms that will go to the ends of the Earth to defend their faves. Virality is never an unwelcome phenomenona in the hyper-competitive K-Pop industry, though it’s a feat usually not achieved with a fair bit of intent, at least as of recent.
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