GFriend: K-Pop Girl Group Entices Fans In Roller Skates In ‘Navillera’ Music Video Teaser For First Studio Album ‘LOL’ [Video]
Earlier this year, GFriend made it “rough” for K-pop fans, especially those who are Buddies (official fan club of GFriend), with the release of their latest extended play (better known as mini-albums in South Korea) titled Snowflake. Upon its release, it was a smashing success, especially its featured song “Rough,” which won multiple first place award trophies on numerous music competition variety shows. Needless to say, it was GFriend’s most successful comeback to date.
However, fans are wondering when GFriend will actually take the initiative to create a full-length studio album. If the K-pop community were to take a look back at GFriend’s last three albums, they will realize they are all mini-albums. Not only that, they are also part of series — a schoolgirl trilogy. Not surprisingly, when Source Entertainment announced GFriend would be releasing their first official studio album, fans were ecstatic.
Now, Source Entertainment and GFriend are releasing teaser promotions for said studio album, titled LOL (which either means “Laugh Out Loud” or “Lots of Love.” One of them is a teaser for the music video for their track “Navillera.”
Before diving into an analysis of the teaser videos, it should be noted that GFriend has initiated hype for their comeback with plenty of stunning images, as reported by Soompi. Their first set of images were individual shots in a forest. Each member is wearing a white dress while holding a bouquet of flowers or wearing a flower wreath. The second set of images were set on fairgrounds in which the members portrayed enjoying a “fun day at the fair” (images shown above). The third set of images were the members in cute tennis outfits. Finally, their latest set were the girls wearing bright 80s colors utilizing 80s props like a classic skateboard, visor, two-colored basketball, and retro camera.
The images were more than enough to entice fans, but it was the music video teasers that are receiving a lot of attention right now. According to AllKpop, there were two music video teasers released for the album’s track “Navillera.” In the teaser videos shown below, the girls skate around in retro roller skates in a gymnasium, hang outside, and police their trophies, which may be a reference to the number of first place wins they grabbed for their last title track “Rough.”
It should also be noticed that the retro concept used in GFriend’s promo photos were not just exclusive for the shoot. Their track “Navillera” seems to have that 80s retro vibe too, a style that was most-likely first utilized as a retro comeback by Wonder Girls. The musical style also shows that GFriend is going in a different direction from their last three K-pop comebacks, which utilized both the season at the time mixed in with the schoolgirl concept. Will it be a success? Only time will tell especially after the album has been released for about a week or so.
Still, the promotions, along with the fact GFriend is very popular, has affected pre-order sales. According to reports released today, the album already has 60,000 pre-orders, a testament to how far GFriend has come given the fact they only made their debut a little over a year ago.
GFriend’s first full-length studio album, titled LOL (which once again is an acronym for “Laugh Out Loud” or “Lots of Love”), will release this coming Monday, July 11. It will be available in compact disc format or as a digital download.
[Image via Source Entertainment/GFriend Promotions for LOL]
