When talking about K-pop, what comes to your mind first? Probably some korean edm music that has it’s particular choreography to it. Well, technically yes, but when talking about girl groups, you can’t forget the one of the big 3, the sister group of Girls generation, Red Velvet from SM entertainment. Recently, there has been news about these girls, that there will be a new album called “The ReVe festival 2022” with the title song “Feel My Rhythm”. Featuring Irene, Seulgi, Wendy, Joy, and Yeri. But who really are these girls? You’re about to know it.
The Members
IRENE 배주현 (Bae Joo-hyun)
Bae Joo-Hyun a South korean woman, born on 29 march 1991, currently 30. She has a stage name of Irene, and became a member of Red Velvet with the role of Group leader, lead dancer, main rapper, support vocalist, center, and the visual of the group. Last year, she was even in the #3rd of the most beautiful faces in Kpop 2021.
Seulgi 강슬기 (Kang Seul-gi)
Kang Seul-gi, Born in february 10th 1994, currently 28. Her stage name is also known as Seulgi. She has a strong dancing and singing ability, so her role is nothing else but a main dancer and a lead vocalist. As she dedicated her life for being an idol with 7 total years training in SM entertainment. SHe also took part in many subunit performances and stages like the Irene Seulgi “Monster” and Station X “Wow thing”. She was also known for her drawings and arts and being so beautiful.
Wendy 손승완 (Son Seung-wan)
Here comes Wendy, Son Seung-wan, born on February 21th 1994. She used to live in the USA, South Korea, and Canada in her early life before she debuted. She loves to sing way before the Red Velvet was even born. However she was recruited and eventually became the main vocalist of the group.
Joy 박수영 (Park Soo-young)
Park Soo-Young, aka Joy, born on september 3rd 1996. After her 2-year training in SM entertainment she finally became a supporting vocalist and lead rapper in Red Velvet. But not only is she known for being one of the members of the group. She is also known for her acting skills in K-drama called Liar and His Lover. Not only her being a main character of the series, she also released many official soundtracks for the series as well. She stated that if she couldn’t be an idol, she would be a dog trainer instead.
Yeri 김예림 (Kim Yerim)
Kim Yerim, also known as Yeri, born on march 5th 1999. She chased her dream and debuted as a Red Velvet member later in the song called Ice Cream Cake. Being the supporting rapper and vocalist. She is also the youngest person of the group with the age of 23 years old, or what we called “maknae”. She also debuted as an actress in a special one-episode series called “Drama Stage Season 4: Mint Condition” in 2021
Now that we got to know all the members in the group. An idea about the group plays an important part in group building as well. If you have searched for their songs on youtube or spotify, you might be confused by the genre of the songs they have released. Some are songs with energetic music and cheerful vibes. And some are songs with creepy music filled with the story of life and death. So let me introduce you to..
The Concept(s)
It is revealed by the SM entertainment themselves that girl group “Red Velvet” wouldn’t be cornered into any specific genre like a sexy or cute girl group. Instead holding onto a constantly-changing concept of duality. With the concept of the “Red” which appears to be a bright and energetic side with a happy mood and tone, such as the song “Russian roulette” or “Rookie”. And the other side of it, “Velvet” Which shows their wonder, dark, and sexy side. With songs usually being slow and having dark vibes to it and usually being R&B and ballad. Examples would be Bad Boy (2018), and Psycho (2019). However, their songs are not always extreme on any side, there could be songs that give the dark vibes and still be energetic about their beat like RBB or Really Bad Boy. With these concepts, there are many possibilities to mix and match the genre together and come up with fresh songs for every comeback. Now that you know it, why not give it a try to categorize all the songs from this girl group, to see which one is from the “Red” and which is from the “Velvet”.
Now that we have the members, the concepts, one more thing that we can’t miss before embracing the phenomena of The ReVe festival 2022 is the songs, of course. Although there are almost 100 songs (not to mention sub-units and official remixes), there are title songs that are a must if you’re getting to know these girls. So here we are with timelines as if we’re recapping The Avengers and the MCU (note that the songs released in japan are not considered in this timeline. for more info, please check redvelvet.fandom.com). So here comes..
The songs
2014 – Happiness – the debut song with a bright and energetic vibe just as the name of the song itself.
2015 – Ice Cream Cake – the second comeback with the new member at the time, also currently the 5th member of the group, Yeri, has made her way into the group
2015 – Dumb Dumb – red velvet has comeback with title song of Dumb Dumb along with 9 other songs in the first ever album “The Red”
2016 – Russian Roulette – the song with an iconic dance that has been viral on TIkTok on 2021 as the choreography being the part of the “Vivi trend”
2017 – Rookie – Their most energetic song ever, with the easy to enjoy and the choreography that is hard to master. It makes this song the most frustrating song to dance to ever.
2017 – Red Flavor – once again with their energetic song to dance to. Along with the album named “The Red Summer”
2017 – Peek-A-Boo – A song that released exactly on halloween which is the October 30th 2017, being the 3rd comeback of the year was enough to ask for, but Red velvet gave is a whole album called Perfect Velvet with 9 tracks including Peek-A-Boo being the title for the album.
2018 – Bad Boy – The R&B title track which broke the records for the girls that gained the most views within 24 hours with 7.3 million views.
2018 – Power up – to continue with their success on releasing Bad Boy, “Power up” has been released as a single which later be a part of the album called “Summer Magic”
2018 – RBB – aka. Really Bad Boy, R&B song that supposedly is for halloween, yet was released on november 9th which is a little late for a halloween. With the unique song arrangement, RBB became the most controversial song whether it is good or not.
2019 – Zimzalabim – The opener of The ReVe Festival trilogy. Zimzalabim features a pop music with a chanting-like lyrics similar to magic spell “avada kedavra” with the concept of chanting a spell and a chorus that gives you a very different feeling from the verse, plus a very earworm chorus of “zimzalabim” stucking in your ears. Making the netizens debate over the topic of Is this a good song?
2019 – Umpah Umpah – A fresh music from Red Velvet releasing in the same year with the album The ReVe Festival Day 2, the second part of the trilogy
2019 – Psycho – The single release along with the ReVe Festival Finale. The final song of the year with the power vocal like Wendy giving chills to all the netizens and all ReVeluvs. Resulting the song having 9 wins, surpassing its ancestors like Bad Boy and Red Flavor.
2021 – Queendom – After solo debuts and subunits like Irene and Seulgi, Red Velvet finally came back as a group with the fresh and impactful “Queendom” being the energetic and cheerful song from the girls. And being the latest song ever.
Now coming up with 2022 The ReVe festival that seems to end, it surely doesn’t because SM entertainment has announced the new album called The ReVe Festival 2022 with the title song “Feel My Rhythm”. It is expected to be on the Velvet side, according to their music and the vibe given in the trailer.
Though you can enjoy the new single coming this 21th march, the community finds a way to spice things up with their theories from each of their songs.
(Bonus) The story
Songs to enjoy were enough for some of us, there have been some fan theories about each of the MVs ever released. Peek-A-Boo for example, it is theorized (or decoded) that the girls in the MVs are a group of the serial killers who lured the pizza guy just to be killed. Not only bland killing, but the girls take turns to be the runner and the chaser, by giving that one of the 4 got to be the one who is good and try to help the pizza guy out of the situation and have the 4 chasing them. But the sad reality is the pizza guy, whether he can escape out of the house or not, will eventually be killed, just like the last one where only his shirt is displayed in the MV when the pizza guy has arrived. This is just one of the neverending stories of the Red Velvet that fans theorize. There are surely more from the fans like, “These girls are never real, it’s just a story from a child”, or “Irene is actually the mastermind of all these chaotic stories”, and more with an easy click on youtube with the keyword “Red Velvet theory”. Hope you enjoy it. Lastly, if you have reached this point of the article, well, congratulations and…
Welcome to the Reveluv 🙂
