Ahh!!! I have such stars in my eyes!! This is so important and exciting for me! Yes, I love SISTAR and Secret and SunSHINE and Girls' Day and YMNTD and Miss A and Orange Caramel and Red Velvet and Macaron 5 (some of these are fake names I tossed in there, since I know this list is gibberish to people who don't care about k-pop) and I loved Yenny's Ha:felt solo project, but this is WONDER GIRLS. They're what got me into k-pop back in 2007.
It was so exciting for me when the Wonder Girls came to America and opened for the Jonas Brothers on tour, and that was when the JoBros were really popular.
I find that in the States, there only seems to be room for one or two girl groups at a time. Right now it's pretty much just Little Mix and Fifth Harmony, right? It's either the Bangles or the Go-Gos. Back in the mid 90s it was TLC and En Vogue. Then in the late 90s, when the Spice Girls were the reigning girl group supreme, there were a bunch of -- forgive the pun -- wannabes coming up right behind them, like All Saints. There were a ton in the teenybopper magazines at the time that were a flash in the pan. Then it was Destiny's Child, and I can't think of a group that rivaled them here in the States.
But in South Korea the scene is saturated with girl groups, and I absolutely love it. I fairly strictly listen to Korean girl groups, not boy bands; I love that there are so many young women dominating the scene.
The Wonder Girls have had a rollercoaster ride. They left South Korea when they were super popular and gave it their all to try and make it in America. They were the first Korean act to crack the Billboard Hot 100, way way way before "Gangnam Style" became a thing! They did an English song with Akon. I was sure they were going to crack their way into the American music scene.
But over time, members left for various reasons. Then they seemed to all be going their separate ways for a while, doing solo projects and acting and modeling and hosting, and I really thought that as a group, they were kaput, but just not saying so. But they've revamped their group into a band and have come out with this album! I'm so stoked for this comeback!
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