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This week’s special article is dedicated to none other than Secret Number as LOCKEYs basically dominated the Spotlight Vote and had Soodam crowned as the fan’s favourite female visual! Today we’ll be looking at how LOCKEYs have always been living up to their name and helped Secret Number crack the code to finding their style and sound.
Soodam debuted alongside 4 members, Jinny, Lea, Dita & Denise back in May, 2020 with their debut track ‘Who Dis?’ From the very beginning the group stood out as many of the members had existing history in the public eye, and the group had also released a couple of pre-debut dance videos which had caught the K-Pop fan community’s attention.
For Soodam, she had a long history of attending well known art schools in Korea all the way back from middle school, and she also had a history as a visual as she had been an Ulzzang back in the cyworld days. For those who don’t know, ‘Ulzzang’ comes from the words 얼굴 meaning ‘face’ and 짱 meaning ‘best’ and was given to a group of youths who were believed to personify the most ideal look of beauty, you can think of it as a bit similar to instagram models in today’s society.
With an already recognised beauty, it was no surprise that Soodam swept up the Visual and Center positions in the group - though you’d be wrong to think she was just a pretty face! As mentioned, she attended famous arts schools particularly in regard to her dance skills. Currently she is completing a major in Dance & Korean Dance at Ehwa Women’s University.
Though Secret Number are technically a 4th generation group, there is no denying that when they first started out their music had a very 2nd generation style. It seemed as though the group was modelled off of existing 2nd gen artists like T-ARA, KARA and 4Minute, with their music often repeating a similar formula such as the popular catchy chorus > dance break > rap verse structure often seen in many 2nd gen songs.
A lot of fans were actually quite disappointed with this style, especially those who had supported the group since the break-debut days. Many fans would often express that the teasers of the concept photos and music often gave a different impression to what was released, and also the choreography of the title tracks never lived up to show off the amazing dance skills the fans knew the members of Secret Number had.
Fans were also upset that Secret Number rarely performed their B-side tracks at music shows, because the B-sides like ‘Holiday’ & ‘Private’ often had better choreography and were generally considered by the fans as better songs. It didn’t take long before fans grew tired of the constant ‘teen crush’ concept which was far too childish for the members of Secret Number, and with the members themselves expressing they wanted to try a more mature ‘girl crush’ look, it was only a matter a time before their company, VINE Entertainment were forced to listen.
It seems that the fan’s intervention was what Secret Number needed to be able to create the kind of music in the style they wanted. Just as their fandom name implies, LOCKEYs were the key to opening up a new world to Secret Number as their faith and support for the girls never wavered.
Secret Number came back earlier this month with their newest single album ‘Doomchita’ and a new member lineup feature the six members: Jinny, Soodam, Dita, Lea, Minji and Zuu and this time they had the dark and mature girl crush look that their fans had been waiting for! Not only that, but the song they did was also a new style which appealed much more to the 4th gen audience as it had a heavy hip hop inspired sound.
Now that Secret Number have been able to challenge the style that they wished to for so long, and that LOCKEYs have continuously asked for, all that’s left now is to see how much the change impacts their success. Judging by the amount of views on their ‘Doomchita’ MV, it seems like the change was definitely for the better! The music video for ‘Doomchita’ already has 7 million views, meaning it should overtake their previous music video for ‘Fire Saturday’ in a matter of days!
With the help of LOCKEYs, Secret Number were finally able to crack the code to their success, so we can’t wait to see what new heights the girls continue to reach in future!
Congratulations again to LOCKEYs for your incredible victory on behalf of Soodam, we hope you liked this article going over the history you guys have with Secret Number and we’re also curious to hear if the new girl crush concept is everything you’d always hoped for? Leave us a comment and let us know!
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Writer: Han (O.L)
Editor: Han (O.L)
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