Wonder Girls and Big Bang go head-to-head with new albums

Top K-pop groups to dominate summer soundtracks

Wonder Girls and Big Bang dominated the music charts after the release of their new albums on Sunday, proving their firm hold on the K-pop music scene.

Wonder Girls returned with “Wonder Party,” filled with playful and cheerful songs including “Like This” and five other new songs.

Big Bang unveiled a special edition album with five new songs, including powerful title track “Monster” and four other songs released previously and made into different versions including “Still Alive” and “Fantastic Baby.”





So far, Big Bang has been in the lead with two to three of their songs topping major music charts on Monday while Wonder Girls only had their title song ranked second or third place in the charts.

On YouTube, Big Bang’s “Monster” achieved more than 3 million views in a day, the highest viewership recorded in such a short period in K-pop history, according to YG Entertainment.

Wonder Girls’ “Like this” has been watched by more than 1.3 million viewers a day on YouTube. 





With the simultaneous release of two albums, fans are busy commenting on their favorite songs and group.

“(I prefer) ‘Monster.’ I also like Wonder Girls’ ‘Like this.’ I think it’s going to be big in Korea since it’s catchy and has some crazy dance. I feel like their song is definitely for summer,” wrote Chachii on the Yahoo! Answer board.

Wonder Girls’ album came seven months after “Be My Baby,” another retro concept song.

The new title song “Like this” departs from this retro sound. Based on powerful hip hop beats combined with electronica, the song evokes parties on summer nights.

The new album features songs that better express the unique characteristics of the group members as they composed and wrote lyrics to some of the songs, according to JYP Entertainment.

Yeeun wrote “R.E.A.L” and “Girl Friend” and Yubin made her debut as a lyricist with “Hey Boy.”

Big Bang successfully topped the local music charts on Monday morning despite the fact that they are not promoting the new album directly in Korea as they are on a concert tour in Japan.

The title song’s emotional melody line appeals to fans who were drawn to the addictive melodies in “Lie” and “Blue.”

“I have to say I prefer Big Bang’s music video more, not just because I like Big Bang more but because this song felt like it had more of an emotional value to it and I could actually connect to it,” wrote Jenny on the Yahoo! Answers bulletin.

Big Bang’s music video was made in collaboration with Hyundai Card. The card company covered some of the production costs and participated in the design for the album cover.

The movie-like music video reinterprets the character of each member of the group into a “monster” who talks to his lovers that have turned away from him.

The special edition album includes “FEELING,” produced together with world renowned German DJ Boys Noize, “Bingle Bingle” created by G-Dragon and Teddy, a producer of YG Entertainment, and “Ego,” which tells of the feelings of a man in love.

By Lee Woo-young  
(wylee@heraldcorp.com)





<한글 기사>

음악차트를 폭발시킨 빅뱅, 쫓아가는 원더걸스

원더걸스와 빅뱅이 새 앨범 발매 이후 각종 음악차트를 독식하고 있다.

원더걸스는 새 앨범 “Wonder Party”를, 빅뱅은 신곡 다섯 곡을 새롭게 수록한 스폐셜 앨범을 지난 3일 발표했다. 발표 하루 만에 빅뱅의 새 앨범에 수록 된 3곡이 차트 상위권에 올랐고, 원더걸스는 타이틀 곡인 “Like This”를 2,3위권에 랭크시켰다.

특히 주목해야 할 점은 빅뱅은 현재 일본투어로 인해 한국에서 활동 하고 있지 않음에도 차트를 석권하고 있다는 점이다. 수록 곡 중 “FEELING”은 독일의 유명 디제이인 DJ Boys Noize가 프로듀싱 작업에 함께 참여했다. 

또한, 원더걸스는 멤버들이 이번 앨범 작업에 직접 참여했다. 예은은 이번 앨범에 수록 된 “R.E.A.L”과 “Girl Friend”를 직접 작사, 작곡을 했고 유빈은 “Hey Boy”라는 곡으로 작사가로 데뷔했다. 

온라인에서도 이 두 팀에 대한 반응은 뜨겁다. 빅뱅의 “Monster” 뮤직비디오는 유튜브에서하루 만에 조회 수 3백만 건 이상을 기록했고 원더걸스는 조회수 130만 건을 기록했다. 

팬들도 다양한 반응을 내 놓고 있는데 Jenny 라는 네티즌은 “빅뱅 뮤직비디오의 감성적인 면이 끌린다”고 평했다. Chachii 라는 또 다른 네티즌은 원더걸스의 신곡에 대해 “기억하기 쉬운 멜로디와 멋진 안무”로 큰 성공을 할 것이라 말하며 “이번 여름에 딱 맞는 곡이라고” 말했다.