Red Velvet : Soft, Feminine, Yet Strong
SM Entertainment, led by Lee Soo Man, debuted 4 young girls who were before known as the parts of SM Rookies ( pre-debut team ). These young girls, Irene, Seulgi, Wendy, and Joy, were trained for around 3 – 5 years then finally united to be in a new girl band. Seulgi is the first member who joined the agency. She’s been training since 2007 and then followed by Irene who was cast in 2009. In 2012, SM found Wendy in ‘ SM Global Audition ‘ in Canada. These three girls were put in a pre-debut team named SM Rookies. But one of the members, Joy, wasn’t one of the SM Rookies members. She auditioned for SM Global Audition in Seoul in 2012.
Red Velvet name itself was chosen to describe the image of the group which is soft and feminine, yet very passionate. Their first single, Happiness, was a fresh take on the common pop song in the K-Pop industry. The four young girls perform in a refreshing fashion and song style. Their colorful outfits brighten the atmosphere on the stage. Maybe this is one of the SM’s girl bands types that all of the members of the SM’s girl bands perform in a colorful and cheerful atmosphere. We can look back at the Girls Generations and F(x). SM really knows how to create a high-quality girl band regarding to the members’ looks and voice quality.
However, before their first appearance in front of public, there were some events popping up which lead to the postponing of Red Velvet’s first concert. Such as, there is another Red Velvet group which is an indie band who usually performed in Hongdae and have held this name originally. When they found out about SM’s Red Velvet as a girl band, they petitioned against SM and wished that SM wouldn’t use ‘Red Velvet’ name as the name of their newest girl band. But in the end, both sides, SM and Indie Band Red Velvet, agreed after the discussion and Red Velvet girl band can use this name as well. Moreover, after the launching of Red Velvet’s first single, Happiness, the music video was criticized by some Japanese mass media because of two inappropriate scenes which reminds people about deadly bombing event in Hiroshima, Japan and the WTC Bomb in USA.
Never short of controversy, they seem to struggle with these problems, but then SM decided to erase the inappropriate images from the music video, so Red Velvet can move forward to achieve what they’ve been dreaming of.
So, what’s your opinion about Red Velvet ? Any thoughts on the thoughtlessness of their video content?