About a week ago I was on twitter when I saw a tweet about a South Korean girl group called Brave Girls. The tweet was stating how a four year old song titled “Rollin’” by Brave Girls was climbing up the South Korean charts after a YouTube video went viral.
In the viral video, it’s a compilation video of them performing at various military events with comments from the original videos highlighted on the screen. People liked the video because it highlighted funny comments like “Went number one on Millboard (Military Billboard) charts” and “They can unify Korea with this song.”, etc.
It also showed how the military men LOVED the girls performance so much that they themselves would do the choreography while the girls did it on stage and would sing and cheer so loud that it would be on par with the microphones and music playing. (Link of Video (has English subtitles)
The video now has up to 11 million views and counting. This video was the sole reason that the song started charting out of nowhere. The song Rollin’ was released back in 2017, but it had failed to chart or make any kind of buzz on the charts. But with the help of this video people started realizing that it was a really good song and started streaming it and buying it, which lead to the inevitable charting of the song. But they got more than they expected.
As I write this, Brave Girls have a 131st PAK. A PAK is a Perfect All Kill, that means that in South Korea they are number one on all charts and PAK’s are checked hourly meaning they have been number one for a total of 131 hours or an equivalent of roughly 6 days. They have broken various records because of this beating out international girl groups like TWICE and Black Pink as the Girl Group with the most PAK’s.
Moreover, because of the resurgence of “Rollin’” they started promoting it on popular Korean music shows. This has brought them to their first win as a group since debut, which was 10 years, and 5 years for the current line up. But it hasn’t stopped there as they have now currently five wins from music shows like Inkiyago, The Show, Music Bank, M!Countdown, and Music Bank.
What really makes this a happy, feel good story/event for the group is that in an interview they had because of the newly found success, they revealed that they were actually contemplating on disbanding and living normal lives just ONE day prior to the viral video being uploaded to YouTube. They stated that they had a meeting about disbanding and future plans with their company on February 23, 2021. The viral video was uploaded on February 24, 2021.
So much so in fact, members were already working on what they would do post idol life. Member Yojeong shared how she went back to school to get a degree and Yuna shared how she had started taking lessons to get a certificate as a barista as she maybe wanted to open a cafe and move abroad. They also mentioned how their latest single “We Ride” released in 2020 would’ve probably been their last and how that didn’t chart and that made them sad and get into a dark place that was leading to their disbandment as they thought they nothing was working for them and they should just move on to normal life’s.”
This really moved the Korean public, as they also discovered that they had performed at over 100 military events. This is remarkable because those events do not usually pay a lot to the performs and are usually in remote places. The girls shared that they once went to a military event that was a round trip of 12 hours and had to take a boat, then a bus to reach the military camp. Also how in each performance they performed their best no matter the size of crowd or stage. All this was a perfect combination for the nation to fall in love with them and send them soaring up the charts and help them make history.
Now, just a month after Brave Girls had contemplated disbanding, they have 5 music show wins under there belt and broke the record as the girl group with the most PAK’s all time. They have a busy schedule and have been or are going to be featured on many big prominent shows from Korea that will surely bring in new fans for them.
This made me become a fan of them because it shows how if you keep following your dreams it will probably pay off and you should never give up on your dreams as far fetched as they seem. They went from barely getting any public recognition for 5 years and almost disbanding to topping the charts and winning the most awards they have ever won.
So I encourage everyone to become a fan of Brave Girls and never give up on your dreams! You never know when the event that can change your life for the best will happen! The story of Brave Girls really gave a boost of hope to not only the kpop community but for myself that hard work does get recognized and rewarded. And that you should always believe in yourself.
Also listen to Brave Girls latest release “We Ride”
J’s Journal 