An Album a Day Ashley

Learn about (the) K-POP Museum, located in the Gyeongju Bomun Complex, in this episode. The museum specializes in pop music and has permanent and planned exhibitions of rare original music albums released between the Korean Empire period when pop music started until present day.
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"An Album a Day" | "Multifacetedacg Theme"
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View photos from K-POP Museum taken by Ashley


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In this episode, we begin digging into the discography of Apink days before their 12th anniversary. Their debut EP, Seven Springs of Apink, was released April 19, 2011, and marked an entry into an arena filled with some of the most fierce female-group competition at that time. Their origins, right after the drop.
When you have a lot of companies involved in the success of an act, there’s likely a lot of interest before they hit the big stage. In Apink’s case, their founding in 2011 was chronicled in a reality show called Apink News. The cable show chronicled their launch process for three seasons with second generation K-pop idols as the hosts, such as members of BEAST, MBLAQ, and 4MINUTE.
Then, on April 19 of that year, members Son Na-eun, Park Cho-rong, Oh Ha-young, Jeong Eun-ji, Hong Yoo-kyung, Yoon Bi-mi, and Kim Nam-joo made their debut with their first extended play, Seven Springs of Apink.
Featured music by MsBlink
"An Album a Day" | "Multifacetedacg Theme"
Connect with A3Day online


This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy
Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy

An Album a Day is my exploration into the Korean music scene. This podcast will cover mainstream, indie and some underground artists within the scene and provide both factual and opinionated commentary. The biggest benefit to sharing my thoughts this way is that it will hopefully expose you to more great music and exploration of your own.
Hey y’all, it’s good to be back. This is the longest season break I’ve taken and it was well worth it. Since we technically never closed Season 5 with AlphaBAT, I’ll finish them for Season 6. Please anticipate -- there’s better organization this time, despite my lack of improved recording habits. This season is going to be fun and I’ve got some things to announce, right after the drop.
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Welcome back, welcome back listeners! I’ve two announcements to share but I want to get into this music first. Before 2020 came to its highly anticipated end, it took a few K-pop groups down with it. None crashed and burned as hard last year as Ace of Angels, better known as AOA, particularly because they haven’t technically disbanded. With a former lineup of eight ladies now whittled down to a trio, it’s likely only a matter of time. We aren’t starting at the end, however. Let’s go back to their debut year of 2012.
AOA is an FNC Entertainment group that honestly had a good thing with their intended plan. When the octuplet was created, the women were promoted as both a dance group and band. Their summer 2012 debut established their teasers and news that theirs would be a group who could play live instruments and dance their buns off, calling it a “transformer concept.” Additionally, FNC Entertainment called 7 of AOA’s members “full angels” and one as half-mortal and half-angel. This created what some of their fans and media would refer to as a 7+1 group. As mentioned earlier, there’s only three contractually bound members at this time: Lead dancer and vocalist Kim Seol-hyun, the face of the group; Shin Hye-jeong, lead vocalist, lead dancer, and visual; and lead rapper, main dancer, and vocalist Kim Chan-mi, who’s also the maknae. So who was in AOA?
There’s former leader and lead guitarist Shin Ji-Min, whose distinct voice made her rap unforgettable. Park Cho-a, former main vocalist and rhythm guitarist. Let me just say, this tiny woman can sing. Cho-a can SING, her voice is incredible and she’s definitely a favorite of mine in the industry. Be forewarned, I’m going to talk about what she brought to the group often. There was drummer Seo Youkyung, the +1 angel/mortal who only performed when the ladies were in band mode. Main vocalist and keyboardist Seo Yu-na, whose voice is so delightful with its feminine flair. There’s an inherent longing in her delivery that we’ll talk about. Finally, former lead rapper, vocalist, and bassist Kwon Min-a deserves all the love and extra protection possible, as she continues to use her platform to bring attention to bullying and depression.  
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Before we talk about discography here’s the first announcement.
Thanks to your support, A3Day’s been nominated in the Quill Podcast Awards. How cool is that? This is its debut year and will award top podcasts and brands in various categories for their production, innovation, and hard work. I really appreciate the nominations. Even if I’m not selected as a finalist, this is still a huge accomplishment. This feels as good as when I was nominated for a Shorty Award I attempted to originate years ago! You can continue to nominate An Album a Day at quillpodcasting.com/quill-podcast-awards until May 26, 2021.  
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Across 1 group and 3 subunits -- AOA Black, AOA White, and AOA Cream (the latter being my favorite) -- the group released 3 studio albums, 1 compilation, 19 singles, 6 EPs, and 4 promo singles. They also released 21 music videos and I’ve seen more of them than I realized over the years. I...

An Album a Day is my exploration into the Korean music scene. This podcast will cover mainstream, indie and some underground artists within the scene and provide both factual and opinionated commentary. The biggest benefit to sharing my thoughts this way is that it will hopefully expose you to more great music and exploration of your own.
Today, we brush over 2013 and go into the sound-defining work AOA made in 2014 with their album “Miniskirt.” If 2013’s “Red Motion” was any indication of where these ladies were heading with their sound, then you’d have a partially wrong assumption. The commercial success in review, right after the drop.
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Hey y’all, at this point in AOA’s discography, they mostly put down the physical music instruments and picked up a greater commitment to R&B, pop, and vocal arrangements that suited them. In 2013, they released two single albums, AOA Black’s “Moya” and their fourth single album, “Red Motion.” Both were very different from each other, with “Moya” allowing the subunit to shine as a punk band of sorts, and “Red Motion” introducing audiences to a more mature, confident representation of the group.
Image-wise, the song “Confused” was a clue to the transition in style that  AOA was about to experience. They were giving us high heels and fashion choices that almost every other girl group was delivering on, such as hot pants, peplum tops, and minimal distinction between outfits. However, with their sound, this is where more memorable melodies began. And so, FNC Entertainment had the women wait three months before revamping production, reorganizing vocal arrangements, and polishing each member’s role in the group, before their  January 16, 2014 comeback with their single album, “Miniskirt.”
“Miniskirt” the album is noted for being dance-pop and R&B but I want to put more emphasis on R&B. Rhythm and Blues music is already a popular genre, so they created a one-two combo of releasing songs that would appeal to a wider audience. Though its predecessor had its charms, the composition and lyric choices were more befitting of younger listeners. To clarify further: the themes were the same, but the presentation of said themes shifted. “Miniskirt” the song is still talking about wanting the attention of a clueless guy, but the ladies are more confident and flirtatious in expressing this goal.
The single album features three unique tracks and one instrumental. The album’s intro “Gonna Get Your Heart,” was produced and arranged by Galactika. Title track, “Miniskirt” and “Under the Street Light” are the works of Brave Brothers, Cha Kun, and Elephant Kingdom. Some of these names are new to us and I hope to find more information about these behind-the-scenes professionals.
Suffice it to say that a major breakthrough for AOA came by way of incorporating the talents of Brave Brothers for production and lyrics. His work created greater musicality for the ladies and the Brave Sound overall sent AOA soaring to new heights. Through the title track, “Miniskirt,” they secured their first top 20 spot on the Gaon Digital Charts, pulling in at number 11. He brought an enhanced quality of music production that created more depth for the vocalists of the group. He knew when and where to place leader Jimin so that her vocal quality was an accent to the track. Likewise, his mixing and mastering skills brought a better sound sonically to listeners, whether or not they noticed it. The volume level and fullness of the 2013 albums played immediately before this one 2014 album is very noticeable.
Given that “Red Motion” and “Moya” were samples to the buffet of their first 2014 project, I will not rank them. I wanted to acknowledge them for historic purposes but focus the ranking on the more complete project. Additionally, having a change in production style from their debut season to that of Brave...

An Album a Day is my exploration into the Korean music scene. This podcast will cover mainstream, indie and some underground artists within the scene and provide both factual and opinionated commentary. The biggest benefit to sharing my thoughts this way is that it will hopefully expose you to more great music and exploration of your own.
Oh hey, look! Apple, in all of its powerful technology force, made updates that compromised countless podcast’s availability and I had to pause my show. Previously recorded episodes had time-specific references that caused me to have to re-record a lot of AOA’s episodes. Since I am determined to deliver a cohesive podcast season experience by minimizing delays, here’s a quick overview of the remainder of their most dynamic year in music, 2014, right after the drop.
You’re tuned into An Album a Day. Show start.

Hey y’all, as previously stated in Episode 3 of this season, FNC Entertainment struck gold for the group when Brave Brothers began to work with them in 2014. January set the new sound standard and this summer follow-up continued to push the new AOA vibes in the right direction. On June 19th of that year, AOA released their debut extended play, or EP, “단발머리.” This title literally translates as “short hair” in English and is also the name of the first single from the album. The EP is just over 24 minutes long and is a decent album to perk up your mood. Though “Short Hair” was followed by the album’s second single, “Joa Yo!” the song “Short Hair” is truly memorable. The theme focuses on feeling good in one’s skin. Choa’s “whoa oh oh” refrain and ownership of the chorus makes the “it’s okay to not be okay” theme more of a pick-me-up versus going the route of a ballad. Overall, it’s an album that can populate itself on shuffle when you’re streaming music and you won’t feel the need to skip it.
Continuing to ride the wave of success, AOA released a compilation album in September 2014 entitled, “AOA Best Songs for Asia,” and that’s a seriously audacious name! So much so that I’m skipping over details of this because it’s a compilation album and they’ve already told you by the title that they don’t care what you think about what could possibly be on a Best Songs for Asia list. It’s them. It’s AOA, in their book.
The winner of 2014 in their discography for me is the undeniably catchy, “Like a Cat,” released on November 11th. The entire album is fun and sassy but the title track has been proven to make me blow a speaker or two. The song is so iconic for them that it even made American-based television channel Fuse’s top 10 pop songs list for that month and year.  
K-pop fans on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being essential listening and 1 not worth mentioning, the A3Day rating for 2014 for AOA’s body of works is a 5. We’ve never ranked a year before so this is a first! Though I hate that we had to breeze over this in greater detail, you’re always encouraged to listen and draw your own conclusions. Oh yes, the #A3Day Highlights Playlist on Spotify is updated because it’s Friday! Albeit a bit late! I’ll catch you in the next episode, bye y’all.

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After a long hiatus, the host returns with a dramatic reading about her ultimate bias.


This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy
Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy