2NE1 Turns On The 4 Stage Booster…The First Is With Reggae [Interview]

‘Unrivaled team’, ‘Sound Source monster’, ‘Incomparable artist’, these are phrases that characterize 2NE1, a group of four girls who have recently gained huge popularity with a new reggae-style song ‘Falling In Love‘. Immediately after the sound source release, 2NE1 dominated a number of domestic music charts. Moreover, they received a global attention as they ranked first in 7 of the iTunes Chart worldwide, and ranked high in more than 10 of them.

What’s remarkable about this is that 2NE1 has just started the march. 2NE1 who hasn’t been so active lately except for releasing ‘I Love You‘ last year, plans to make a glorious comeback by showing everything they have prepared for their fans. They declared that they are planning for a ‘4 Stage comeback’ in which they will release new singles and music videos, one per month, from July to October.

“We wanted to present a perfectly-packaged song since each and every piece is wonderful. It is of course good to present all of our songs at the same time in a lump sum but rather, we wanted to highlight the colours of each song. Since we have been working on this for 2 years, we have so many ideas and diverse concepts to share with you.”

The first launch of the unprecedented ‘4 stage booster‘ is the reggae-style ‘Falling In Love’ which captured the minds of 2NE1‘s fans worldwide. They have always dominated the top rank whenever a new single was released, yet members of 2NE1 feel happier than ever.

The leader of the team, CL said as she smiled  “I am extremely pleased. It’s been a while like 2 years since we have really buckled down and performed, and yet our fans have given us great attention and love and I really appreciate that. All I can think for now is to return the favour with better performances.” When asked whether she is pressured to produce a good sound source record, she responded with a wit as she said “The one who is really pressured is Teddy who’s producing the song.”

2NE1 has always brought sensations in the industry as they refrained from following the trend of mainstream music and this time they came back with reggae. Members of the team were always interested in reggae and this is well reflected in a number of past hits such as ‘Fire,’ ‘I Don’t Care‘ and many more. They have even released a reggae version of ‘I Don’t Care‘. However, this is the first time for 2NE1 to release an entirely reggae-style song.

“Minzy struggled the most during the recording. She practiced a lot for a reggae-style vocal. Moreover, she worked really hard with Teddy to demonstrate an accurate reggae-style melody in the booth. On the other hand, the rest of the members focused more on reggae moves and choreographs for the stage.”

2NE1 plans to be away from their charismatic image for a while as ‘Falling In Love’ is more of a cheerful and exciting reggae melody. It seems all the more appropriate that they decided to choose bright outfits and choreographs that are in line with the melody.

“You will be able to see us enjoying and laughing on the stage more than ever. We will try to stage an enjoyable and relaxing performance through highlighting the reggae feel of the song. We have never done such a thing before, so it is not easy for us to get used to it as well. I often question myself whether it is okay for me to laugh this much on a stage. I hope that those who watch us feel the positive energy we produce on stages.”

Another issue grabs our attention. As 2NE1 schedules to make monthly comebacks throught the next four months, a fierce competition among YG Entertianment artists is expected. In the next four months Bigbang’s G-Dragon and Taeyang’s solo comebacks will take place as well as Kang Seug Yoon‘s solo and team comeback which will heat up the second quarter of the 2013 music industry. To this, 2NE1 is more excited than worried.

“To think we will be active all together, it is so exciting. Since we have seen how hard our colleagues work, we will always encourage them and root for them. I hope you love our songs as well as songs of our colleagues in YG Entertainment.”

They also didn’t forget to thank their fan club ‘Blackjack‘ who waited for 2NE1 in what seemed to bea  long break.

“Our fans are incredible. We didn’t show up for 2 years, yet they trusted us and we are so thankful that they waited. We will return their favour by working harder. You can look forward to it since we are planning to show up on screens more frequently.”

Girl groups, are also subject to change over time. Members of S.E.S, a girl group in the early time, Shoo and Eujene are married and Sea is continuing on her career as a solo artist and a musical actress. Lee Jin and Sung Yu Ri of Fin.K.L, have also moved into the acting industry while Lee Hyori who has made her comeback recently is now a bride-to-be. What is the future of 2NE1?

“No matter how we dream of our future, it will not turn out exactly as we thought. For now, we’ve got so many paths to walk and so many things we can do. We can’t make precise predictions at this time. We just want to do our best until we can and perform as much as we can.” 

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Source: Naver Star