Ever since their debut back in 2014, Red Velvet has become one of the most innovative K-pop acts to ever exist in the K-pop industry. Originally formed under four members — Irene, Joy, Wendy, and Seulgi — the SM Entertainment girl group wowed K-pop fans with their debut track “Happiness,” a song utilizing a tribal beat which was complimented with a very colorful and fun music video, one that introduced the current mascot for SM Entertainment today (the small pink bear).
As time went by, Red Velvet would add a fifth member, Yeri, and continue to utilize the concept of innovation for their songs. Said concept paid off last year with “ Dumb Dumb .” The title track off their first full-length album The Red was extremely popular. As a matter of fact, it became the most popular K-pop song of 2015 too which might be the reason why they made a peculiar cameo appearance in Descendants of the Sun to perform it.
Fortunately, success did not mean Red Velvet would pigeon-hole themselves into a particular style. Earlier this year, they performed a soulful ballad titled “One Of These Nights.” Though the song was not as popular as its predecessor, it received plenty of attention because the song’s lyrics and symbolism in its music video hinted it was made in tribute to the 2014 Sewol Ferry Disaster .
Though Red Velvet fans got their annual dose of the K-pop group with “One Of These Nights,” it was not recognized as an official comeback per se. Red Velvet fans will not have to wait long as their favorite K-pop group will be making their official 2016 comeback very soon. As a means to hype it up, SM Entertainment is starting to release promotions for it starting with their first teaser, a picture featuring Wendy.
As mentioned above, SM Entertainment is starting to hype the upcoming comeback of Red Velvet starting with a teaser image featuring Son Seung Wan (Wendy Shon), better known simply as Wendy. According to AllKpop , said teaser is taken from the page from their past playbook in which the teaser photo uploaded on Instagram is a collage . For those who do not remember, the teaser images for Red Velvet’s debut were also collages promoting their debut song “Happiness.”
Going back to the first teaser featuring Wendy, we are also treated to the title of the upcoming song or album of the comeback, “Russian Roulette.” Traditionally, Russian Roulette is a high-risk game of chance involving a revolver and a single round in the chamber. The gun is placed to the side of the player’s head and he or she pulls the trigger. They better hope they don’t get the lucky one in six chance of actually shooting the gun. These days however, the term for “Russian Roulette” is often associated to chance.
The teasers for Red Velvet’s comeback will continue until sometime midway through September, which is around the time SM Entertainment said Red Velvet will make their comeback.
It should also be noted that Red Velvet’s comeback this time around is vitally important because they are directly competing with Black Pink, YG Entertainment’s new K-pop girl group, right now. Earlier this month, Black Pink made their debut with not one but two songs, “Whistle” and “Boombayah.” The impact they made in one week was amazing given the fact that they were debuting.
As of now, SM Entertainment has released one more teaser for Red Velvet’s comeback. According to Soompi, Red Velvet’s official website changed to an animation of a heart that’s pierced by an arrowreading “Russian Roulette.” It doesn’t reveal much about Red Velvet’s comeback, but it is a teaser nevertheless.
Eventually, SM Entertainment will release more teasers which will include more images especially of the four remaining members, video teasers for the featured track’s music video, and most likely the music video for the featured track a day or two before the comeback officially drops.
[Image via SM Entertainment]