aespa – the rookie girl group that is dominating Kpop
Aespa's latest title track "Savage" is topping different music charts in Korea. The group also sold 276,800 copies of their 1st mini-album in the first week.
aespa recently made a comeback with the song “Savage” and the mini album of the same name. Following the success of the previous hit, Next Level, aespa has continued to succeed in both digital music achievements and physical album sales. aespa is gradually surpassing ITZY to become the top Kpop girl group of the 4th generation. aespa is also expected to be the next group to achieve a breakthrough in the international market after BLACKPINK and BTS.
Quickly rising to the top of 4th generation Kpop
aespa debuted when ITZY was considered the most outstanding group among Kpop idols of the 4th generation. However, with only two comebacks in 2021, Next Level and Savage, aespa has risen to the top with remarkable achievements.
According to Meaww, aespa has achieved great success in the music industry since the release of Savage on October 5. After the mini album came out, Savage quickly debuted at the top of Korean music charts like Melon, Genie, and Bugs.
Savage became aespa’s second song, after Next Level, to rank No.1 on Flo. Savage is also the first song released in 2021 by a girl group to get a real time all-kill. aespa is also the first group of the 4th generation to do this.
Notably, aespa’s previous song, Next Level, still ranks 5th on Melon – Korea’s biggest music streaming platform, after many months of release.
Savage also charted No.1 on iTunes Top Albums in 17 countries around the world such as Japan, Brazil, New Zealand, Russia, Denmark, Vietnam, Philippines…
The Korea Times reported that Savage sold more than 276,800 copies in the first week, surpassing ITZY’s (259,705 copies with the full album Crazy in Love). SM‘s rookie officially took over the position of ITZY, pushing the JYP’s group down to 5th place in the ranking of Kpop girl groups with the highest first-week album sales.
aespa only ranks lower than the famous trio BLACKPINK, IZ*ONE, TWICE. They have managed to surpass many other popular Kpop girl groups, including Red Velvet – the senior group at SM.
If only considering the first day sales, Savage sold 147,195 copies. Savage helps aespa rank 1st place in the chart of girl groups with the highest first-day sales for a debut album. aespa surpassed COLOR*IZ – IZ*ONE (34,295 copies) and Square Up – BLACKPINK (19,094 copies).
Savage’s MV hit 30 million views in 24 hours. With the group’s first MV, Black Mamba, released at the end of 2020, aespa also set a record. Black Mamba MV crossed 100 million views after only 51 days of release and became the first debut MV by a K-pop artist to achieve this result.
Success comes from being reckless and different
The Korea Times explains that one of the factors contributing to the success of aespa is the unique concept and different, highly experimental music. aespa is a rare group in Kpop that builds its own universe through music products.
Each girl in the group has her own ae – the virtual member. Girls in the real world and avatar members in the virtual world interact, communicate, and grow together in the digital world.
“aespa is a group of completely new and innovative concepts that transcend the” real world “and” virtual world. A projection of the future centered on celebrities and avatars. The human members of aespa and their virtual avatars interact with each other through digital means, collaborate and grow together,” said SM Entertainment boss Lee Soo Man during the World Cultural Industry Forum (WCIF).
With the mini album Savage, the group continues to expand the fictional universe. “In the song aenergy, all the members revealed our fighting skills and techniques. With the song Savage, because it depicts a fierce battle against the villain, the members tried to deliver a strong performance,” member Ning Ning shared about the new product. In an article titled “K-pop power rookies stake their claim for greatness with future-facing cyberpunk”, the famous magazine NME commented that aespa had taken the risk to take the leap in music.
NME considers Savage to be the next big step for aespa after Next Level. The song stands out with its electronic sounds, catchy chorus, and the powerful vocals of Winter, Ningning.
“Almost as if it’s heralding a new age of K-pop, ‘Savage’’s brand of vibrant, punchy electronic pop falls perfectly in sync with the unconventionality aespa have so boldly presented in their one year as a group. Beyond just proving that they’re more than a one-hit wonder, ‘Savage’ digs deep to traverse beyond the boundaries of K-pop and is indisputable evidence of aespa’s proclivity for expectation-bending sounds and visuals.” – the NME wrote.
Teddy Zee, a Hollywood producer and media and tech consultant based in Los Angeles, told ABC News of aespa’s success: “This is the next wave in storytelling, a true reflection of our ever-changing times that bridges culture with technology. It brilliantly mixes music with live action, anime, video games, virtual reality, augmented reality, artificial intelligence and social media into the ultimate entertainment experience designed for a new generation of fans and consumers. It is truly next level.”
Source: Zing
