Crayon Pop () is a South Korean girl group formed under Chrome Entertainment in 2012. The group consisted of four members: Geummi, Ellin, Choa, and Way. Their fifth member, Soyul, left the group in 2017.
Crayon Pop officially debuted in July 2012 with their performance of "Saturday Night" on Mnet's M! Countdown. Their first EP was not a commercial success, and when their song "Dancing Queen" was released in October, the group had few opportunities to promote on music shows. Instead they held guerrilla performances on the streets of Seoul, which helped increase their fanbase. Crayon Pop gained a huge increase in popularity following the release of their single album "Bar Bar Bar" in June 2013. The group's unique stage outfits and choreography gained public attention, and made the title song a viral hit. It eventually managed to reach number 1 on Billboard's K-Pop Hot 100. Crayon Pop was able to earn numerous awards, including the New Rising Star Award at the Golden Disk Awards, the Hot Trend Award at the MelOn Music Awards, and Best New Female Artist at the Mnet Asian Music Awards.
The group has held solo concerts in South Korea, Japan and Taiwan, and has also performed in other countries including Australia and China. Throughout June and July 2014, the group was an opening act Lady Gaga's ArtRave: The Artpop Ball concert tour. Crayon Pop performed for it in 12 cities around the United States and Canada. Following their appearance in the Artpop tour, the group debuted their first subunit in October. The unit is named Strawberry Milk, and consists of the twin members Choa and Way. In March 2015, Crayon Pop released their second mini album FM, for which they used Super Sentai inspired costumes.
They released the song "RaRiRuRe" in June of that same year, which was their debut in the Japanese music market. The group continued their Japanese promotions with their second single "Dancing All Night" in November. Their first Japanese studio album Crayon Pop was released January 2016, and it ranked #11 on Oricon's Daily Album Charts. Crayon Pop collaborated with Mexican boy band CD9 in August, to release the song "Get Dumb". In September, Crayon Pop released the song "Vroom Vroom" ahead of their first album Crayon Pop Evolution Pop Vol. 1. They soon released the music video for "Doo Doom Chit", another song that would feature on the track list of the album.
On 19 April 2017, the group announced their contracts with Chrome Media had ended in March and they had gone their separate ways, although they would not be officially disbanding. On 30 May, it was revealed that Way, Choa, Geummi and Ellin would continue to promote as Crayon Pop under Chrome Entertainment, but Soyul had chosen to leave the group.
History Pre-debut The group was initially named Hurricane Pop, and consisted of members Serang (Yang Se-hyeon), Geummi (Baek Bo-ram), Ellin (Kim Min-young), Choa (Heo Min-jin), and Soyul (Park Hye-kyeong). Chrome Entertainment's CEO, Hwang Hyun-chang, did not consider candidates who were taller than 165 cm or had a sexy image, because he wanted a group of ordinary girls. Soyul was the first member to be accepted, and Geummi was the next to join. Serang, under the name Mari, had formerly been the leader of the disbanded girl group Coin Jackson. Ellin was referred to Chrome Entertainment by Chrome's dance choreographer and was accepted after her third audition. Choa was recommended to the company by Way, her twin sister. Way had been invited to audition, but was unable to do so because she was a member of the indie band N.Dolphin. Singer Bumkey was involved in the audition process and also supervised the group's vocal training.
The group recorded their first song 'Bing Bing' as Hurricane Pop. In January 2012, they performed the song live for the first time in Hangzhou, China. The performance of "Bing Bing" was filmed for the Chinese television drama Curry Campus. A music video for their song was filmed in February, but Serang left the group in May to pursue an acting career. After Serang's departure, Way was given another chance to join the group and she left N.Dolphin. Shortly before their debut the group's name was changed to Crayon Pop, as Chrome Entertainment thought the name Hurricane Pop would be insensitive in light of Japan's tsunamis. The members' stage names were chosen by the company's CEO, although several of them had input into the choice.
2012: Debut with Crayon Pop 1st Mini Album and Dancing Queen
Crayon Pop began their promotions in Japan in May 2012, using their time there to film music videos for "Bing Bing". The group released both the Korean and Japanese music videos in June. The music video for their debut single "Saturday Night" was released on 17 July, followed by a Japanese version, as well as an alternate version with new footage, on 24 July. Crayon Pop's first EP, Crayon Pop 1st Mini Album, was released digitally on 18 July and included both "Bing Bing" and "Saturday Night". The group made their official stage debut the following day on 19 July, performing "Saturday Night" on Mnet's M! Countdown. Crayon Pop's debut did not receive much attention and their album was not commercially successful. Chrome Entertainment's CEO later revealed that the album had depleted all the company's money.
Crayon Pop released a digital single album, "Dancing Queen", on 24 October 2012. Besides the title track, it also included a remixed version of "Bing Bing". In order to stand out from other girl groups, Crayon Pop wore tracksuits instead of more feminine clothing. After seeing a performance of "Dancing Queen", Kangin and Shindong of Super Junior praised the song and group, with Shindong saying "I'd love to produce a girl group like them". Crayon Pop was only invited to perform on music shows three times, and they were not able to have a typical promotion cycle. As a result, they took to the streets and promoted "Dancing Queen" with guerrilla performances, which often took place in extremely cold weather. Chrome Entertainment also produced a reality web series about the group, titled Crayon Pop TV. Through these activities, Crayon Pop developed a loyal fanbase, especially of "uncle fans" called "Pop-jeossi" (from the Korean word ajeossi).
2013: Success in Japan, "Bar Bar Bar" and rising popularity
Crayon Pop returned to Japan and held a mini-concert on 6 January 2013 in Shibuya, Tokyo. Tickets went on sale on 11 December 2012, and sold out in less than an hour. As a result of considerable demand from fans unable to purchase tickets, Chrome Entertainment announced that another Japanese concert would be held at a later date, and a second mini-concert was staged in Osaka on 22 February. On 25 January, Crayon Pop began promoting the remixed version of "Bing Bing", which included a popping dance break to Daft Punk's "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" instead of the original rap verse. They had a "delinquent schoolgirl" concept with new choreography, and wore tracksuits or school uniforms with tracksuit pants. On 19 May, a third Japanese mini-concert was held in Shibuya, Tokyo. A new Japanese member, Arisa, was to be revealed at this concert, but she had withdrawn from the group before the performance.
On 8 June, Crayon Pop performed a preview version of their new song "Bar Bar Bar". The unusual dance featured choreographed jumping, and they wore scooter helmets, polo shirts, and tracksuit pants with skirts. A story version music video was released on 13 June, a week before the song's digital release on 20 June. Three days later, a dance version music video was released. Filmed with a budget of only 380,000 won (US$347), the music video went viral and Crayon Pop drew interest due to their unique stage outfits and choreography. This music video has more than 64 million views on YouTube as of March 2021.
As "Bar Bar Bar" went viral, it began to climb the Korean digital music charts, eventually reaching the upper positions of most major real time chart listings. It stayed at the top of Billboard's Korea K-Pop Hot 100 chart for more than a month, and ranked number 1 for the first time eight weeks after release. "Bar Bar Bar" solidified its viral status when a parody video was aired on a segment of SNL Korea on 13 August. That same day, it was announced that Crayon Pop had signed a contract with Sony Music Entertainment, who were inspired by the groups' creativity and uniqueness and saw their global market potential. Crayon Pop scored their first music show win when "Bar Bar Bar" won first place on Music Bank on 30 August, beating EXO's "Growl". On 9 September, a "Global Version" music video was released ahead of Crayon Pop's second mini album, The Streets Go Disco, which was released on 26 September under the Sony Music label. This album consisted of their four previous singles and remixes of those songs. A music video for the title track, "Dancing Queen 2.0", was released along with the album. "Bar Bar Bar" earned Chrome Entertainment US$2 million in the year after its release, and Crayon Pop was able to move from their small row house in Nonhyeon-dong to a luxury "villa" apartment due to their increased income.
Crayon Pop's rising popularity also brought them criticism. Netizens accused the group of being affiliated with the right-wing website Ilbe after Way used the phrase nomu nomu (노무노무) on Twitter. This phrase was popularized on Ilbe and was used to criticize former president Roh Moo-hyun. It was then discovered that Chrome Entertainment's CEO previously mentioned the website on Twitter. CEO Hwang responded by saying he was registered on many popular online communities, including Ilbe, in order to gather information about singers and girl groups. He also stated that Way's phrase was an example of aegyo and she was not even aware of the website. However, the controversy continued and several of the group's scheduled events were cancelled after criticism from the public. Online auction company Auction stopped broadcasting its new TV commercial featuring Crayon Pop after widespread customer complaints. The controversy resurfaced in January 2014 after Ellin allegedly used the Ilbe hand sign, but Chrome Entertainment explained that Ellin was forming the letter "E" with her hand, and all the Crayon Pop members have alphabet hand signs that signify their names.
Due to Crayon Pop's increased popularity, they had more opportunities to perform. On 27 July, they held their first mini-concert in South Korea. The group first performed in China on 9 August at the 23rd Qingdao International Beer Festival, and they performed in the United States for the first time at KCON on 25 August. On 30 October, Crayon Pop held a solo concert titled 1st POPCON in Seoul. As a token of appreciation, the concert was free to attend and 100%, My Name, Bumkey and The SeeYa appeared as special guests. The concert was broadcast on MBC Music on 12 November. Crayon Pop held another solo concert, 2nd POPCON in Tokyo, on 15 November at Zepp DiverCity, Tokyo with more than 2,000 fans, 30 media outlets, and 200 representatives in the music industry in attendance. In November, Sony Music sponsored a week-long trip to Sydney, Australia, where the group held two performances and fan signing events. They also appeared on several Australian TV shows, including SBS PopAsia, and did a guerrilla performance in front of the Sydney Opera House.
On 22 November, Crayon Pop collaborated with Norwegian duo, Ylvis, to perform a special stage at the Mnet Asian Music Awards in Hong Kong. Crayon Pop received their first major award, Best New Female Artist, while Ylvis won the International Favorite Artist award. Crayon Pop received many other awards throughout the awards season, including the Hot Trend Award at the MelOn Music Awards, Artist of the Year on KBS Song Festival, New Rising Star at the Golden Disk Awards, the New Artist Award at the Seoul Music Awards, and the Hot Trend Award at the Gaon Chart K-Pop Awards.