To the T-ARA Three Strong Fronts
Ｔ－ＡＲＡ三強戦線へ
T-ARA's first full album in Japan, "Jewelry box," is attracting a lot of attention.
T-ARA's first full album in Japan, "Jewelry box," to be released on June 6, is currently No. 1 in daily pre-order sales on Tower Records, a Japanese music sales site.
T-ARA is predicting another big hit after their debut single "Bo Peep Bo Peep" topped the Oricon daily and weekly charts on the first day of its release in September last year.
This full album will include Japanese versions of "Bo Peep Bo Peep," "Roly-Poly," "yayaya," "Lovey-Dovey," and other new songs that have not yet been released.
T-ARA returned to Japan on the 19th after filming "FREEDOM" in Europe for 9 days and 8 nights with a new 7-member girl group.
They plan to leave for Japan on the 23rd and focus on their activities in Japan for half a month. T-ARA will then perform a total of 11 shows in 6 cities in Japan, starting with Nagoya on June 19th, followed by Osaka, Fukuoka, Sendai, and Sapporo.
K-POP in Japan is gradually gaining popularity, especially in urban areas.
T-ARA entered the Japanese market later than KARA and Girls' Generation, so they may not be as popular with the living rooms of the nation as they have yet to do so.
Compared to KARA and Girls' Generation, who appeared in living rooms of the nation with their fun pelvic dance and pure style, T-ARA's appeal to the eccentric fashion of the Shibuya tribe may have put off living rooms of the nation, which is not very connected to trends.
T-ARA's Japanese debut single "Bo Peep Bo Peep" ranked first in the daily and weekly rankings.
This song was a small hit. Some young people were enthralled by it, but it did not spark any secondary or tertiary waves of popularity.
K-Pop's popularity in Japan does not seem to be that broad yet.
If KARA and Girls' Generation's popularity is filled, it will be almost full, and all that will remain for T-ARA will be sharing with the fans of both groups.
However, things have changed recently.
T-ARA's popularity has skyrocketed in Europe and other places, and it has been reported that K-Pop's popularity is also skyrocketing in Japan.
However, it is safe to say that the popularity of K-Pop in Japan is equal to that of KARA and Girls' Generation.
The popularity of other groups is only an appendix to that.
T-ARA's popularity alone is about the same, and it may be more accurate to say that most of the popularity is coming from fans of both groups.
In fact, as time goes on, the number of "omnivorous" fans who have multiple favorite groups will also increase rapidly.
On the surface, KARA and Girls' Generation were strong rivals, and the more enthusiastic their fans were, the more confrontational they felt between the two.
However, K-POP, which mixes American pop with dance, does not differ much from the songs themselves.
So what is being competed on is the overall quality of the songs, the singing and dancing, the faces and looks, the fashion and choreography.
It is clear why KARA and Girls' Generation became so popular.
First of all was the freshness of K-POP.
In addition to the things mentioned above, KARA brought with them their own dramatic nature (a desperate situation).
In addition to that, it was fortunate that they were a mid-level (B-grade) K-POP girl group.
And it was even more fortunate that Girls' Generation, who followed them, were girls with skills (A).
If Girls' Generation had come first and KARA second, they might not have competed so much in Japan.
Japan tends to like idols that grow. KARA, who came to Japan and grew, fit that bill perfectly, and Girls' Generation also showed off their A-level skills from the beginning, threatening the leading KARA, which was also cool.
I had the impression that the fans of both groups hated the other group, but I think that their fan base overlaps.
If you think of the fandoms of both groups as a triangle, and when they get close to each other with hatred, the base of the triangle will overlap.
I think that many of the fans of both groups, who were at odds, liked both KARA's music and Girls' Generation's music.
KARA came to Japan in search of a way to make a breakthrough when their popularity in Korea was unstable.
And they walked the path to success.
Girls' Generation came to Japan after soaring in popularity in Asia, including China, Taiwan, and Singapore.
They captivated fans with their performances that showed their achievements.
T-ARA arrived in Japan with the impression of being a combination of KARA and Girls' Generation, but they arrived later and lacked one more driving force.
Now it's clear what that was. With their popularity and success in Europe on the rise, T-ARA will once again set foot on Japanese soil.
Will T-ARA be able to break the strongholds of KARA and Girls' Generation with their arrival?
Can they become the third girl group to achieve the "K-Pop dream"?
★ T-ARA related articles
During a carefree trip to Italy for 8 nights and 9 days, Eunjung lost (or was stolen?) the money (23,000 euros (approximately 34.3 million won)) that had been entrusted to her by the other members.
★ A representative from her agency Core Contents Media explained on the 14th that "Eunjung lost her bag at Milan Square at around 5pm local time on the 12th," and that "she was humiliated when she went to buy coffee during a break from filming at Domo Songtan near the square."
It was a terrible disaster, but the story of Eunjung crying all night has probably reached the eyes and ears of Japanese K-Pop fans with a global perspective. With the news of adding two new members, it is certain that K-Pop fans are becoming more interested in T-ARA.
They are also planning a tour of Japan in June.
The time seems ripe for T-ARA to seriously challenge the strongholds of KARA and Girls' Generation on Japanese soil.
<script type="text/javascript" src="//translate.google.com/translate_a/element.js?2db9cb=googleTranslateElementInit"></script> google-site-verification: google3493cdb
