FANDOMS 1B: Say A

Miss A

Miss A is a South Korean girl group with four members: Jia, Fei, Min and Suzy.

Birth Name	Date of Birth	Positions*
Meng Jia	February 23, 1989	Rapper, Lead Dancer
Wang Fei Fei	April 27, 1987	Main Vocalist, Main Dancer
Lee Min Young	June 23, 1991	Lead Vocalist, Main Dancer
Bae Suji	October 10, 1994	Vocalist, Maknae

*not accurate

Their music gender is known as k-pop, an abbreviation for Korean Pop.

KOREAN POP – Brief Introduction

This type of music has already become famous around Asia and is now looking for a bigger public. K-poppers, which is how the k-pop fans call themselves, are a group of people with a huge passion for Korean music and idols, a giant fandom composed by minor fandoms, just like a family. For k-poppers some things are different if compared to other kind of fans. Names such as Oppa, Dongsaeng, Hyung, Noona, Saranghae and Maknae are a must know.

ABOUT THE BAND

In 2010, the group made their official debut on June 30 with the single “Bad Girl Good Girl”. The song was taken from their mini album single “Bad But Good”. However, this wasn’t their first appearance to the netizens. Originally, the group had five members, being two of them Jia and Fei. While training they appeared in a bunch of Chinese television shows to promote themselves. They were known as the “JYP Sisters” and the “Chinese Wonder Girls”. Then, three members decided to leave the group. One of them, Lim, joined the Wonder Girls. The company managed to group the remaining girls with Suzy Bae, a South Korean trainee. The group signed up with Samsung China and released a commercial song entitled “Love Again” for Samsung Beat Festival.

Love again

Later, Lee Min Young also joined the group. She auditioned when she was only six years old, then she travelled to the USA and had her training there. The solo artist came back to Korea in 2008 to continue her activities and the decision of her joining the group was announced. She also made a quick cameo appearance in the “Love Again” MV.

The title track “Bad Girl Good Girl” made a huge success around Asia. It placed number 1 in charts such as SBS’s Inkigayo, Mnet’s M!Countdown and KBS’s Music Bank. The music also won the award Music of The Year in the 2010 Mnet Asian Music Awards (MAMA). The mini album Bad But Good wasn’t enough for them so they came back on September 26 with another single album “Step Up”. Although it didn’t attracted the same amount of attention, the title song “Breathe” showed a completely new side of the band, with its colorful and doll-like MV and dance. We find it a funny, playful and joyful music video. (>-<)

Breathe

After 2010, when the girls left a marc and became known to the public, the solo activities were important. Suzy and Min gave a chance in acting, Suzy made her debut in the Korean drama “Dream High” as the main character, while Min was casted in the movie “Countdown”. In Korea it’s common for the idols to appear in numerous variety or reality shows, so that you can know more about them. At the time Min was a fixed member in the show “Oh My School”, more known as 100 points out of them. She was one of the few “students” that stayed to the very end. Suzy also was a guest in one/two episodes of this show.

First Part of the first episode of the show if anyone wants do check it - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFAm8wYoUqc

The Chinese members weren’t that active, both made an appearance in different music videos and promoted as miss A, nothing big.

In May, the girls released the track “Love Alone”, that was part of an upcoming full album entitled “A Class”. The album was released in July, with a total of 13 songs, four were new and the other were mixed versions of previous songs. After that they started the title track promotions, another big hit. It was called “Goodbye Baby” and won first places on more than one charts, like their debut song. Their dance once again draws attention, even getting the Best Dance Performance Female Group award at the 2011 MAMA.

Still in 2011, Miss A had their Chinese debut with a special edition of their newest album. They placed top on Chinese charts more than one time.

Besides the popularity they were gaining, Suzy attracted many attention and her schedules were becoming more and more packed. She was criticized by her lack of acting skills when she acted as Go Hye Mi, in Dream High. Some comments surrounding her were pretty bad and she was very sad about it, but she didn’t give up. She is trying her best for her fans and herself. In 2012 she participated in her first movie, “Architecture 101”.

In February, they launched a new song called Touch. The song lyrics represent a man’s touch which opened the woman singing’s heart so that she can feel love. It’s the opposite shown in Goodbye Baby, when they expressed rage and hate for a man who supposedly cheated each one of them with the other. This time Miss A was aiming for a deeper theme. The music video was filled with red and white roses, black color, and sad or dark backgrounds. Their style also changed (once more), this time adjusting perfectly with the settings. They wore clothes sometimes with black tones, sometimes with white stripes covering the body.

Touch

On March 23 Miss A released the Chinese version of the new album. It immediately placed top on Chinese online charts.

Later, Jia and Fei made their acting debut on the drama “Happy Noodles” and Suzy announced that she would be featuring idols such as Gong Yoo and Lee Min Jung in the drama “Big”.

On October they had another comeback and present a different purpose, a new style of women. Now they didn’t need men, or money from others, they wanted to show to the world the independent ladies.

I don't need a man

Nowadays Miss A is doing well. Fei starred in the Korean version of the television show Master Chef and competed with other idols. The same happened with her in Dancing with the Stars 3. Suzy is currently starring in the drama “Gu Family Book”. Jia still doesn’t appear alone, but she is almost a fashionista (in our opinion). Min appeared in the sitcom “Reckless Family 2” alongside BTOB’s Minhyuk.

The reason

We chose Miss A because one of us (Clara Salles) is a Say A, which is the name of Miss A’s Fandom. This band has been an inspiration, more specifically Suzy. They pursued their dreams and they do what they love and they’re really good.

“This was the first band I really liked when I found out K-pop existed. I thought I would never understand what is to be truly passionate about an idol or a band. I mean, we don’t know them and we probably never will, but it’s like magic. When I saw them for the first time I just knew that I was goind to become a Say A and I did kekeke.” (Clara)

Why Suzy? Well we can’t explain it. What we can tell you is that she has the title of the Nation’s First Love.