Appreciation You Should Know: Brave Girls (1 Viewer)

[centen]

Brave Girls was formed and produced by Brave Bros through Brave Entertainment, officially debuted on April 7, 2011 and disbanded February 16, 2023. None of the original members were with the group at the end.

First Gen Brave Girls:
Originally a five-member group with Eunyoung, Seo-a, Yejin, Yoojin, and Hyeran, they were together for about two years for three albums and one single:

1. 4/8/2011: Do You Know?
2. 7/29/2011: Easily
3. 2/22/2012: Nowadays You
4. 2/13/2013: For You

In case you listen to this and think "wtf was Brave thinking?" keep in mind the time these released. Some of Brave Bros' other songs around that time include Sistar songs Alone, So Cool, Push Push; U-KISS's Man Man Ha Ni; After School's Diva; and 4Minute's What's Your Name, Is It Poppin, and What'cha Doin Today. These songs for the first version of BG just sound VERY second gen kpop to me, lol. A bit dated, but they're also 10-12 years old.

Spoiler: First Gen Brave Girls

Eunyong competed on a singing show (Kookmin Singer) in 2021, but was eliminated. She now has a YouTube channel where she posts fitness videos.
Seo-a is now an Afreeca TV streamer.
Yejin is a Lotte showhost and a model. You can follow her instagram.


1.5 Gen Brave Girls:
After "For You," Brave Girls then went on a THREE YEAR hiatus, while Brave Bros' prioritized songs for AOA. There's a "joke" that Brave didn't give BG good songs, but if you listen to the songs that he made for AOA (Short Hair, Miniskirt, Like A Cat, Heart Attack and Excuse Me), imo, his songs for Brave Girls in this gen are VERY in line with what was popular at the time. It's a personal pet peeve of mine that people act like BG had bad music outside of Rollin', because the other songs are good. The girls are good. The issue has always been Brave Entertainment's inconsistent promotions.

The middle generation of Brave Girls included two OGs Hyeran and Yoojin, and added five new members Hayun, Minyoung, Yujeong, Eunji, and Yuna. This was probably my favorite set-up of the girls, partially because the mid-2010s music has managed to remain sounding less dated, lol, and Hyeran is still with the group. She's the fantastic rapper.

Their releases are:

1. 2/15/2016: Deepened
2. 6/22/2016: High Heels
3. 8/31/2016: Yoo-Hoo

Spoiler: 1.5 Gen Brave Girls

See what I mean? Inconsistent. Three years of hiatus followed by three releases in a six-month window. In January 2017, it was announced that the last two OG members, Hyeran and Yoojin, were "on hiatus." Hyeran did feature in two B-sides on Brave Girls' next album, the songs "Memory" and "Don't Rush" from Rollin', but she never performed with the group again and Brave Bros' didn't confirm that she had left until 2019.

Hyeran has a YouTube channel where she posts VLOG style updates and the occasional dance/song cover.
Yoojin has since gotten married to a non-celebrity boyfriend.


Second Gen Brave Girls:
In 2017, Brave Girls made what was expected to be their final comeback with Rollin'. This is the last album that included any members of the first gen of the group (as noted above) and is Hayun's last appearance. Hayun has since signed with a digital entertainment company and has a TikTok and posts make-up shorts on YouTube.

Rollin' was released in 2017 with an age restricted version and a clean version released a few days later, and with a rearranged version released about a year and a half later as a thank you to their fans. They released We Ride in 2020 (back to that inconsistent promotions), and were on the verge of disbandment. In early 2021, a compilation video highlighting the fact that the girls had performed Rollin' literally hundreds of times over more than four years went viral. Rollin' climbed back up the charts, peaking at #1. This success also bolstered We Ride, bringing that one to peak at #4. They got their first music show win with Rollin', 1854 days after the debut date, the longest time between debut and first win until Dreamcatcher's win with Maison last year (which took 1923 days).

In 2021, they got their third and final hit with Chi Mat Ba Ram, which peaked at #3. They also promoted a B side, Pool Party, and had a repackaged album with After We Ride as the lead (which I personally like more than We Ride, but ymmv). They released their final album, Thank You, last year, as a gift for their fans (Fearless) and talking about their experience about how crazy 2021 and 2022 had been for them.

Their final release was 2/16/2023, with Goodbye. All four of the remaining members have left Brave Entertainment, but haven't confirmed what they will do next. Brave Entertainment's final words are at least spot on here: "We understand that their journey was not only a miracle but also a myth, thanks to the members and fans. We will remember Brave Girls as an icon of hope forever."

Their releases are:

1. 3/2/2017: Rollin'
2. 8/9/2018: Rollin' (New Version)
3. 8/5/2020: We Ride
4. 6/14/2021: Chi Mat Ba Ram
5. 6/28/2021: Pool Party
6. 8/17/2021: After We Ride
7. 3/11/2022: Thank You
8. 2/16/2023: Goodbye

Spoiler: Second Gen Brave Girls

I hope this can help any non-fans get a little appreciation for the group and all of the members' long struggles.

 

[Lovely_Cornchips]

I'm still mad about Deepened.

 

[centen]

I'm still mad about Deepened.

It was so good. 2016 really should have been their year, if Brave could have only figured out how to actually promote them.

 

[Lovely_Cornchips]

It was so good. 2016 really should have been their year, if Brave could have only figured out how to actually promote them.

EXACTLY. Deepened is still a song I actively listen to all this time later-it was top tier and so underrated. That should've been the game changer for them. I loved Rollin don't get me wrong but Deepened was something else entirely.

 

[centen]

EXACTLY. Deepened is still a song I actively listen to all this time later-it was top tier and so underrated. That should've been the game changer for them. I loved Rollin don't get me wrong but Deepened was something else entirely.

Same! Rollin' is good, it's definitely in my top five BG titles, but Deepened was them at their best. I'm always so sad for Hyeran that she struggled with the group for SO long, and just missed out on the little burst of success.

The one thing I feel like Brave did right was not making one of the remaining four members into a rapper after Hyeran left. It just would have highlighted how very good she was, and I think their later releases are better by Brave bringing in features for an occasional rap line (e.g. Pool Party) rather than trying to make one of the girls do it.

 

[Lovely_Cornchips]

Same! Rollin' is good, it's definitely in my top five BG titles, but Deepened was them at their best. I'm always so sad for Hyeran that she struggled with the group for SO long, and just missed out on the little burst of success.

The one thing I feel like Brave did right was not making one of the remaining four members into a rapper after Hyeran left. It just would have highlighted how very good she was, and I think their later releases are better by Brave bringing in features for an occasional rap line (e.g. Pool Party) rather than trying to make one of the girls do it.

OH Hyeran was ugh amazing.

 

[Tiaramitsu]

Their comeback w/ Deepened was a cultural reset

 

[Moguri]

Thank you for your efforts @centen

That was very informative! I did not know many things. Those release schedules are hard to understand.. but in the end at least they were very active for some time and tried to capitalize on the success, but I guess somehow it still failed :/ I really wonder why, I really loved the summer queens album a lot, I think I still have every song from that album in my playlist

Also one of the saddest things is, that 2 of the members that took part in Rollin could not experience its success and were already out of the gorup

 

[Moguri]

They got their first music show win with Rollin', 1854 days after the debut date, the longest time between debut and first win until Dreamcatcher's win with Maison last year (which took 1923 days).

uhh?? How did this happen, I never heared about Maison blowing up afterwards

 

[Moguri]

Thank You, last year, as a gift for their fans (Fearless)

For a moment I thought they have the same name as LSFM fans

 

[centen]

For a moment I thought they have the same name as LSFM fans

I remember people asking why LSFM wasn't Fearless, but they were 11 years too late. 😂 (Idk why they went with Fearnot instead of something like Unbreakable tho.)

 

[centen]

uhh?? How did this happen, I never heared about Maison blowing up afterwards

Maison won a music show during their promotional cycle. Maison came out 4/12/2022 and won 4/20/2022 on Show Champion. Dreamcatcher had just never managed a music show win in the ~6 previous years.

 

[Moguri]

Maison won a music show during their promotional cycle. Maison came out 4/12/2022 and won 4/20/2022 on Show Champion. Dreamcatcher had just never managed a music show win in the ~6 previous years.

oh wow! I completely misunderstood. I thought that was the time from when the song was released until the win, but looking at the day count, that did not make sense at all obviously

 

[Moguri]

I remember people asking why LSFM wasn't Fearless, but they were 11 years too late. 😂 (Idk why they went with Fearnot instead of something like Unbreakable tho.)

Yeah that makes sense now, I'm sure they also would have preferred fearless as their fandom name

 

[centen]

Thank you for your efforts @centen

That was very informative! I did not know many things. Those release schedules are hard to understand.. but in the end at least they were very active for some time and tried to capitalize on the success, but I guess somehow it still failed :/ I really wonder why, I really loved the summer queens album a lot, I think I still have every song from that album in my playlist

Also one of the saddest things is, that 2 of the members that took part in Rollin could not experience its success and were already out of the gorup

Thank you for reading it all! It's nice that at least they got a tiny bit of success at the end, and they have a decent sized discography. I couldn't help but think about all the groups that also perform hundreds of times but they never take off. I think it's BG's relentless enthusiasm that made their video go viral and at least they got a tiny bit of appreciation for a while.

 

[Moguri]

Thank you for reading it all! It's nice that at least they got a tiny bit of success at the end, and they have a decent sized discography. I couldn't help but think about all the groups that also perform hundreds of times but they never take off. I think it's BG's relentless enthusiasm that made their video go viral and at least they got a tiny bit of appreciation for a while.

ofc! I told you was curious to learn about it!

And yes I had the exact same thought you just described.. at least they had a wonderful time, even if it was short.

If you saw my thread about the demise of third gen, I added a list of all the disbanded groups today and I think almost none of them ever experienced even a tiny fraction of what BG had before they had to disband

 

[Selfmate]

interesting

 

[RandAlThor]

Thanks for that.

2016 was a brutal year for girls. Trying to make a splash then was just hard.

gfriend twice sucked up all the oxygen early in the year, and thru the summer.
IOI was active for their short run.
Bp debut took the end of year.
Even red velvets russian roulette flew under the radar.

that is just off the top of my head.

 

[centen]

Thanks for that.

2016 was a brutal year for girls. Trying to make a splash then was just hard.

gfriend twice sucked up all the oxygen early in the year, and thru the summer.
IOI was active for their short run.
Bp debut took the end of year.
Even red velvets russian roulette flew under the radar.

that is just off the top of my head.

It was a good year for music, but a hard year to stand out in, for sure!