I. Introduction
Brown Eyed Girls (브라운 아이드 걸스) is a Korean pop girl group formed by Nega Network, currently signed to the APOP Entertainment label. They have arisen to significant success, beginning with their 2008 hit song "L.O.V.E." and their 2009 mega smash hit "Abracadabra". The choreography for "Abracadabra", dubbed the "Saucy Hip Move", proved immensely popular amongst the public internationally.
II. Career
III. Pre-Debut
Brown Eyed Girls started with their first member JeA who was a member of the group 3point and have been singing OSTs. JeA got a phone call from Nega Network who asked if she wanted to start up a group. JeA is the one responsible of the group's creation and who selected other members, which the first one was Miryo. Miryo was known as a great rapper in well-known hip-hop group Honey Family. Narsha became a member of Brown Eyed Girls after a suggestion by JeA, who had been her friend since their high-school years. The last chosen was Gain she was noticed by Brown Eyed Girls after she was eliminated during auditions for the Korean reality series Let's Coke Play! Battle Shinhwa!. Gain, was seen crying in the bathroom after her failed audition. Ahn Jung Hoon, noticed her and asked her to join. Before debut their was a fifth member Yoari. She auditoned for the girl group Brown Eyed Girls, passed, and was going to debut with the group and be the 5th member of Brown Eyed Girls but Nega Network thought she had more of a rocker image and put her in Sprinkler. The four members performed several small shows under the name "Crescendo" before officially debuting as Brown Eyed Girls in 2006.
IIII. Debut, Japanese Debut, and Critical Acclaim
Brown Eyed Girls debuted in March 2006 with the album Your Story after 3 years of training. The album didn't sell as well as expected, but in August it was re-released including 5 new songs, one of them being "Hold The Line". This song samples Sugababes song "Push The Button" and Daft Punk's "Technologic". "Hold The Line", boost the group's popularity and even was included in the soundtrack for the video game Pump it Up.
After a break of almost one year, Brown Eyed Girls returned with their second digital single "Naega Yeoreumida Vol.1" in June 2007, and their second album Tteonara Ms. Kim in September.
IIIII. Breakthrough and Mainstream Success
In January 2008, Brown Eyed Girls came back with their first mini-album "With L.O.V.E." Their single, "L.O.V.E," was a departure from the B.E.G. sound that people had come to know but it became an instant success and Brown Eyed Girls scored their first No. 1 song and also one of the top hit songs in the first half of 2008. "Love Action" was the second single taken from the mini album. With Love also marked the group's second digital album (after "I Am a Summer"), though it was released in conventional CD format as well. After the release of their first mini-album, they could achieve the commercial success. "Love" was composed by Saint-Binary and Min-Soo Lee. Looking to strengthen their success, Brown Eyed Girls returned again in September and released their second mini-album "My Style." The title song "How Come" is a retro-style dance song that has become a popular trend.
On July 20, 2009, Brown Eyed Girls released their third full-length album, the double-disc Sound G. Even though "Candy Man" was the first song unveiled from the album, the first heavily promoted single was "Abracadabra," which was composed by Ji-nu and Min-Soo Lee. He composed the first part of "Abracadabra," and tried to compose the refrain part. However, he could not think of a good idea to make the refrain part. Therefore, Min-Soo Lee, who worked with BEG previously, helped and composed the refrain part of "Abracadabra." The release of this album also saw a shift in the image of the group, as the members redefined themselves as independent and mature city girls. Their music video for their title track sparked controversies. As the group is sporting a substantially more provocative visual style, criticism has arisen for the suggestive and erotic themes that the video presents. They later released a "stage version" of the video, which focuses only on the choreography. Nevertheless, even with all the controversies they took the Kpop world by storm, snagging awards at music shows and year end music awards. The sexy hip dance became a national dance with a lot of fellow celebrities doing a parody of it. Later on, the group revealed a repackaged version of the album titled Sign that included a new single, "Sign," along with "Drunk On Sleep" and a remix of their previous hit "Abracadabra." The repackaged album was released along with the music video for "Sign." The music video caused controversy because of its content: it featured scenes of violence and death, including the group members drowning in tanks of water. "Sign" has reached certain success, but it has not matched the success of the band's previous single "Abracadabra."
The quartet has been readying for their Japan debut since signing with major record label Sony Music Japan International. In August 2010, the group re-released Sound G in Japanese to promote them in the country, which indeed marks the beginning of their Japanese promotions. After the success of the album, the members concentrated more on their individual activities juggling it with their overseas schedules. In July, Narsha released her first solo album 'NARSHA' to meet certain success, In August, JeA collaborated with Rattpoom, a Thai singer, in his song 'Face to Face'. Later in October, Gain also started her solo activities through her debut album Step 2/4 with a strong interpolation of tango music, featuring 'Irreversible' as the title track. On October 31, she clutched her first win (Mutizen song) in Inkigayo. In December, JeA worked on her ballad single 'Because You Sting' featuring G.O. of MBLAQ. Aside from that they also became part of popular variety shows and sitcom. Ga-in appeared on We Got Married with 2AM's Jo Kwon beginning in September 2009. The couple was very popular in Korea and still is one of the most recognized virtual couples in the country. Regrettably, their virtual marriage came to an end after 15 months in January 2011. She made her acting debut in MBC daily sitcom 'All My Love'. She was the female lead 'Gaumji'. However, owing to schedule conflict, her filming in sitcom ended in May 2011. Narsha has appeared on Invincible Youth (also known as G7) since October 2009. She is known on the show as "Sung In Dol" (Adult idol) due to her age difference with other members and her funny, but naughty reactions on the show. She was also one of the fixed cast member in SBS's variety show 'Heroes'. In April 2010, she DJed on "Pump up the Volume" on KBS Cool FM. Due to Brown Eyed Girls' overseas promotions Narsha decided to leave the show, with her last broadcast on December 28, 2010. The group successfully ended the year with a concert entitled "Hot Winter Party" held in the Ax-Korea Hall in Seoul.
On January 17, the Japanese music video for "Sign" was released. Its content is completely different from the original Korean version of the song, since the new version focuses on choreography while the original version did not feature any. The group started their promotions in Japan in early 2011. The girls originally planned to hold a concert in Japan in April but due to the Tōhoku earthquake in March, the concert was postponed to September instead. The band's first Japanese concert at C.C Lemon Hall in Shibuya took place on September 12. There, they unveiled one of their songs in their fourth album An Inconvenient Truth, which was composed by JeA and KZ. On September 6, NegaNetwork released an official comeback date, marking the end of their two-year hiatus. The group was expected to release a single on September 16 titled, "Hot Shot," followed by their fourth album and music video "Sixth Sense" on September 23. The concept for this album is “Resistance for freedom of expression through music via sixth sense.” Representatives of their agency, NegaNetwork explained. This album focuses not only on their singing and performance. The members hope to convey their thoughts to the public through music. Their title track is an expression of the limitations of experiencing music with only five senses, and it asks people to feel it instead with their sixth sense. The song itself is very free in style. They kicked off their promotional cycle officially with a double stage performance of "Hot Shot" and "Sixth Sense" on September 24 on Music Core. and grabbed the top spot on M! Countdown and Inkigayo. They also broke the jinx of going down a slump after a “big hit” as they won over their famed song Abracadabra, receiving higher digital sales for Sixth Sense. They concluded their "Sixth Sense" promotions after a month but it was immediately followed by the release of a repackage of their fourth studio album. On November 4, their repackage album was released. They followed up promotions with their ballad song 'Cleansing Cream'. They officially concluded their promotional activities on November 18 with a final performance on KBS's ‘Music Bank'.
IIIV. Solo Activities, More Successful Albums and Sub Unit
The members branched out to solo activities once again. Starting with Miryo, releasing her self- produced solo album, MIRYO a.k.a. JOHONEY on February 1. She had a rocky start with two of the songs from her album banned in broadcasting stations. Namely, “Revenger,” which according to SBS officials has lyrics depicting violence and the title track “Dirty” for the lyrics of the song, containing the word, “cross-eyed” which could be perceived as a derogatory term for the disabled thus forcing Miryo to change the lyrics to be able to perform on music shows. On TV, Narsha made her acting debut with MBC's drama "Light and Shadow" playing the role of an aspiring singer Lee Jung Ja and followed by Ooh La La Couple as a goddess. The other members participated on reality programs. Gain became a CEO of a public relations company called ‘Mental Breakdown' particularly for the show, "OnStyle's Launch My Life – Gain's Fashion King." While Miryo was included in Mnet's hiphop program Show me the Money, collaborating with a rookie rapper to compete against other contestants for the top spot. Jea also became a fixed member of Immortal Songs 2 but she later left the show due to her solo album promotions and was replaced by Narsha which later on left the show also due to her musical "When A Man Loves."
On July 17, BEG released their digital single "The Original" of the hybrid soul genre – the genre the girls have originally debuted with. It has two tracks Come with me and the title track “A Midsummer Night's Dream” meant to be a gift to the fans who are still supporting the group despite it not being active at the moment. It was produced and composed by JeA. No promotional activities were done. Gain dropped her second mini-album on October 5 "Talk About S" with the title track Bloom. The title track and won the top spot in M! Countdown. JeA also pre-released the track "Let's Hug" on December 28 from her upcoming solo album. Before the year ended, fans of Brown Eyed Girls were finally able to see all four members up on stage together once again for their 19+ Rated ‘Tonight 37.2 °C‘ concert.
Member JeA started the year by releasing her solo album "Just JeA," showing her prowess as a vocalist and also a producer. Gain also surprised everyone by releasing a duet album on April 7 with label-mate Cho Hyung Woo, titled "Romantic Spring." The album contains warm, beautiful love songs that perfectly fit the season. On July 4, a teaser image was released via Facebook and Twitter for Brown Eyed Girls' long-awaited comeback. July 9 marked the release of a digital-single: "Recipe (레시피)." Renowned Korean Hip-Hop producer Primary produced the track "Recipe," which served as a pre-release to the upcoming album, with Miryo and Dynamic Duo's Choiza writing the lyrics for the song. After the positive reception of their digital single from the public, they continued by releasing their 5th studio album, Black Box, on July 29, with "KILL BILL" being announced as the title track, being composed by Lee Gyu Hyun and member JeA. The music video teaser for "KILL BILL" was released on July 25, with the actual music video being revealed later, on July 28, followed by a special dance version on August 2. They performed their comeback stage on SBS' Inkigayo on July 28, as the opening act for the episode, performing pre-release single "Recipe (레시피)" before their album title-track later in the show. They continued their promotions for the album throughout various music programmes (with the exception of KBS-run programmes for undisclosed reasons) until August 25 where they brought them to a close. Youngest member Gain also revealed in an interview that she will release another solo album after the Kill Bill promotions. In October 2013, Ga-In also broke onto the CPOP scene, featuring in Show Lo's music video for "愛投羅網 (Cast The Net Of Love)." On November 4, multiple sources in the entertainment field revealed that Miryo and Narsha will be forming a sub-unit and plan on releasing music for the unit in mid-November. While Brown Eyed Girls members have been well known to venture into solo activities, this is the first time in which two members will be working together as one team. On November 11, M&N released their first single, titled "Tonight (오늘밤)," which included two versions of the same track (one Korean, one English version), with the lyrical content to the first version being self-composed between the two members - on a later date during an interview, both members of the sub-unit stated that they had plans to release an album sometime within the next year, with it to feature a strong Hip Hop sound complete with promotional activities.
At the end of January 2014, Gain was revealed to be making a comeback with her 3rd mini album Truth or Dare on February 6, releasing a teaser picture along with the news. On January 22 she released a "mysterious and sexy" teaser still-cut from her pre-release track 'Fxxk U'. She later released a controversial teaser for the song showing two silhouettes behind a shower curtain and Gain saying "Fxxk you."Information released with the teaser said the song would feature singer Bumkey and be "simple yet melodious" and feature a classical guitar.
The song and music video were released on January 27. The music video portrayed Gain and actor Joo Ji Hoon in a physically and emotionally abusive relationship. The song was created by lyricist Kim Eana and composer Lee Minsoo (who also worked with Gain on her previous solo single "Bloom"). The title song "Truth or Dare" deals with the topic of rumors and their effect on celebrities and their life. On August 6 it was announced that the group would be releasing a "greatest hits" album titled Special Moments, featuring several songs from the group's eight-year career, as well as a new track "Hush," which would serve as the title track to the album. Special Moments has a two-disc format, with the first disc featuring the group's lead singles and promotional tracks, and the second disc focusing mainly on their ballad tracks. The album was released on August 11, 2014.
IIV. Departure from Nega Network, contract with Mystic Entertainment and Basic
On September 4, 2015, members JeA, Narsha, and Miryo became free agents after deciding not to renew their contracts with Nega Network. On October 1, 2015, all members have signed with Mystic Entertainment. On October 26, Mystic released the first batch of teaser pictures through BEG's official Twitter account. Each girl was shown posing in a desert like landscape, while the concept gave off a futuristic and science fiction feeling. Simultaneously they announced the release date of their upcoming 6th studio album, which was November 5 at midnight. Another batch of teaser pictures was released a day later on the 27th October. The track list was released on October 28 and revealed ten brand new tracks, with Brave New World (신세계) being the title track and Warm Hole (웜홀) the second title track. Moreover, Jea and Miryo took part in the writing and composing several songs of the album. The title track Brave New World is writing by Kim Eana and composed by Lee Minsoo, who have also worked together on previous Brown Eyed Girls songs. The group appeared on the popular smartphone broadcast V App on the 29th where they stated that Brave New World was a choreography heavy song, couldn't actually reveal any more info about the album. During the course of the next few days they revealed teaser videos for non-title tracks, such as Ice Cream Time, Obsession and Wave. The teaser videos for the two title tracks Warm Hole and Brave New World were the last to be released. The girls held their first showcase of their careers called 'Comeback to the Basic' on November 4 where they also performed the side track Ice Cream Time. Youngest member Gain revealed during the showcase that she took part in choreographing Warm Hole and Brave New World, as well as forming the concept for their 6th album. The album and the music video for Brave New World got released on the same day. The reference to Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World became obvious, though the theme of music video and song do not refer to discouragement of critical thinking, abundance of material goods and other plots as the novel does. However, the futuristic theme got picked up through time traveling in the music video as well as the idea of a dystopian state through the lyrics. The Warm Hole MV got released on November 5 and sparked a controversy due to the heavy sexual lyrics and references in the MV to a female's reproductive organ. But still they performed Warm Hole on the 5th November on M!Countdown as well as on the 6th on Music Bank.
IIVI. Hiatus, 10th anniversary, Narsha's departure from APOP Entertainment, RE_vive
In 2016, it was reported that Brown Eyed Girls were the first girl group without any member changes for 10 years. For their 10th anniversary, the group held a concert with Kero One and KRNFX on March 18 at the Feria (now known as Club Bound LA) in Koreatown, Los Angeles, CA. On December 14, 2018, it was announced that Narsha would be leaving Mystic Story and APOP Entertainment. However, she would continue to promote with Brown Eyed Girls in future activities. The statement also revealed the group was preparing for a new comeback. In September 2019, the group set up an official Instagram, where they announced their new album RE_vive released on October 28.
III. Discography
IIII. Korean Discography
IIIII. Albums
[2006.03.02] Your Story
[2007.09.06] Tteonara Ms. Kim (떠나라 미스김; Leave Ms. Kim)
[2009.07.21] Sound-G
[2011.09.27] Sixth Sense
[2011.11.09] Sixth Sense Repackage
[2013.07.29] Black Box
[2015.11.05] Basic
IIIIII. Best Albums
[2014.08.11] Special Moments
IIIIIII. Cover Albums
[2019.10.28] RE_vive
IIIIIV. Mini-Albums
[2008.01.17] With L.O.V.E. Brown Eyed Girls
[2008.09.10] My Style
[2009.10.29] Sound-G: Sign
[2010.04.06] Festa On Ice 2010 (Special Album)
IIIIV. Digital Singles
[2006.05.03] Hold The Line (feat. Cho PD)
[2006.09.08] To My Lover (Brown Eyed Girls & SeeYa)
[2007.06.21] Naega Yeoreumida Vol.1 (내가 여름이다 Vol.1; I Am Summer)
[2008.10.30] My Style (Hidden Track)
[2009.07.09] Candy Man
[2009.12.22] Nun Naerineun Maeul (눈 내리는 마을; Snowy Village) (After School, Brown Eyed Girls, K.Will, Kan Mi Youn, Tei, SUKI, An Young Min)
[2011.08.16] Hot Shot
[2011.11.03] Cleansing Cream (클렌징크림)
[2012.07.17] Brown Eyed Girls The Original
[2013.07.09] Recipe
[2020.01.02] 2019 Nyeon Gyeoul Cheotnuneuro Mandeun Geudael 2020 Nyeon Nuneuro Dasi Mandeul Sun Eobsgetjiman (2019년 겨울 첫눈으로 만든 그댈 2020년 눈으로 다시 만들 순 없겠지만)
IIIIVI. Compilations/Others
[2006.07.26] Girl Friends - Another Myself (#2 Listen (feat. All Black, Brown Eyed Girls))
[2006.08.28] The Vineyard Man OST (#5 Loving You)
[2006.11.18] Queen Of The Game OST (#5 Dokhan Sarang (Rap Version))
[2007.11.05] The King and I (#2 Bisoyu (Brown Eyed Girls, Maydoni))
[2008.03.06] Cho PD + Yoon Il Sang Project Album PDIS (#9 Hold the line 08' Remix (Feat. Brown Eyed Girls))
[2008.06.05] Little Mom Scandal OST (#1 Bad Girls)
[2008.12.02] Sweet Lies OST (#1 Good Day)
[2010.05.14] Dasi Han Beon Daehanminguk (#2 Dasi Han Beon Daehanminguk (Brown Eyed Girls & 4minute))
IIIII. Japanese Discography
IIIIII. Albums
[2010.08.25] Sound-G
IIIIIII. Singles
[2011.01.26] SIGN
IIIIIIII. DVDs
[2011.03.29] This Is My Style
