Red Velvet - #Cookie Jar

It's been a while since I wrote anything here and the main reason is because I haven't been listening to much J-pop recently. About a year ago, I decided to leave Twitter and Instagram: I do log in once in a while, but I do not actively use them as before. With that, I stopped keeping up with numerous Japanese idol groups, but I did not go back since. And perhaps more ironically, I got heavily invested into K-pop after leaving the social media sites where it is so prevalent.

The timing of this post coincides with KCON Japan, a K-pop festival organized by Korean media giant Mnet which takes place each year in several countries, with the biggest editions being in Japan and LA. This weekend, several Korean idol groups or Japanese idol groups managed by Korean agencies will be performing in Makuhari Messe. One of these groups is my current favorite, a 5-member girl group called Red Velvet.

Red Velvet is managed by agency SM Entertainment, which essentially opened the doors for the promotion of Korean artists in Japan with BoA in the early Aughts, followed suit by boy group TVXQ, and Japan since became the most profitable foreign market for K-pop, with more recent groups such as Twice and NewJeans becoming as prevalent in Japan as in their home country. SM Entertainment is known by fans to excel at all areas: music, visual arts, choreography... everything except the management of their artists. Most notably, TVXQ underwent a brutal lawsuit by three of their members in 2009, which denounced slave contracts and poor working conditions.

Following the success in Japan of their predecessors Girls' Generation, Red Velvet debuted in Korea in 2014 and had their first full Japanese release in 2018 under avex trax, "#Cookie Jar." The name Red Velvet - besides being, of course, a cake - represents the two concepts of the group, "Red" being energetic pop songs and "Velvet" being softer or darker songs, often dabbing in jazz and R&B. The title track for this Japanese album, "#Cookie Jar," falls clearly on the Red side and is very reminiscing of traditional Japanese idol songs.

Despite the heavy use of English in the lyrics, all members have pretty good Japanese pronunciation, which helps on how much I enjoy this song. A special highlight goes to center member Irene, who is not given as many lines in Korean songs except for rap parts, but I feel like she shines particularly in this song. As a piece of trivia, member Wendy dabbles into at least 4 languages, as she has lived several years in Canada and the US: she is fluent in both Korean and English, and she can also speak some Japanese and French.

I would honestly recommend Red Velvet as a gateway to any J-pop fan who ever wants to venture into K-pop, as they have a great and diverse discography, even within the Japanese-only releases.