The Moment Of Truth For The Wonder Girls

“So Hot” may have gotten a general response of thumbs up, but translating that success to the on-stage kind is not necessarily so easy. Thus, the first live performance in this “new era” of the Wonder Girls was always going to be closely scrutinised.

First, the positives. The dancing is, as ever, sharp as hell. For a group that are as vocally strong as the Wonder Girls, dancing of that high a standard is unusual. I’m not saying they’re DBSK or anything, but it should make SNSD take a long hard look at themselves…anyway, enough bitching. The performance is taken straight from the video, from the styling to the choreography. The girls look great, the leopard print and those amaaaaazing pink socks really work for me. Unlike some of their other costumes, it really adds to the performance. The choreography is modified from the PV. Most of the time it’s a good routine, but some of the transitions are a little bit messy when members have to scoot past two others to get to their place. But that’s a minor point.

The only major criticism that I have of the performance is the on-stage attitude of the girls. To me, it still smacks of “cute” rather than “sexy”. Dancing aside, the facial expressions etc just weren’t there. Hopefully it’s something that they’ll grow into. Two-plus years of being trained to act in a certain way can’t be shaken off so easily.

Vocally, it was a good all-round performance. As usual, the only weak point was poor Sohee. I DO believe that she’s working on it and I think her voice has improved. She’s still letting the others down though. Whether we put it down to age or not, she really needs to shape up and keep pace with the rest of the group. As for Yoobin, her reported “vocal chord strain” forced he to mime her rap. And what a disastrous mime it was. With Korean media you can never be sure that somebody really is sick, but I hope she is. I know that sounds horrible, but I’d hate to think that Yoobin wasn’t able to live up to the song in person! Let’s hope that it was a genuine problem and one that she recovers from soon.

Overall, I’d say it was a good first attempt. Sohee and Yoobin can only get better and I’m sure the “sexiness” will come to the group with time….hopefully…

So Hot or Not?

I’ll be brutally honest with you.

Since the publicity photos introducing to the Wonder Girls’ new image were released, I’ve been dreading their new song. By all means, the girls look good in the pictures – but it’s just not Wonder Girls!

Or so I thought.

The video for “So Hot” has been revealed and I take it all back. JYP sure knows what he’s doing. The outfits, in the context of the video, now make sense. It’s still a retro style, maybe a little bit more 80’s. The girls still look cute, just not so innocent. And why should they? Any successful artist needs to reinvent themselves (to a certain extent) between each album. You have to keep things fresh, right?

I’ve read other reviews of the video where the girls have been slammed for their new “sex pot” image. People need to grow up. The girls may still be young but their not stupid. How many of us didn’t glam it up when we were in our late teens? Besides, I hardly think acting your age and reflecting the materialistic society we live in today qualifies them as selling out to sexy.

The song itself echoes their previous hits with a retro disco beat. The tongue-in-cheek message of hard it is to be cute and popular is one that every girl is going to be singing on a night out. It’s catchy, the dance is cute – I’m sure it’s heading straight for number one. To be fair, most of the criticism seems to be directed towards the image change, rather than the song.

If you want your girl groups to fake their innocence and milk it for all they can, you can go and listen to SNSD. I’m happy with the Wonder Girls keeping it real. Now where can I get those pink socks like that….?!?!

Wonder Girls – So Hot (English Subbed)