(Left to Right: Melanie, Tia, Soa, Julianne)
Chocolat debuted on August 17, 2011 and gained a lot of attention for being one of South Korea's first biracial K-pop groups. The girls were introduced as being an American-Korean girl group that would wow our ears and eyes with their singing and dancing abilities. Melanie (maknae: 05/05/97), Tia (second maknae: 15/03/97) and Julianne are all American-Korean girls while Soa is Korean. They originally debuted with five members, but for this single one member (JaeYoon) had to leave due to dealing with colon cancer.
The group debuted with their catchy single Syndrome which received much negative and positive feed back. The music video was critiqued for showcasing maknae Tia too much while the song was critiqued for being catchy to the point of annoyance and they were pushed off to the back of the shelf where all the bland, cute K-pop groups get pushed to when they debut with a song that sticks to the standard.
The girls came back again with their next single I Like It (which they did not promote with a music video) before finally coming back with the ever catchy song being reviewed in this post.
The transition from Syndrome to One More Day was a drastic but well needed change in their management. The group had me more annoyed than interested when they first started out because of the way Tia was hogging the spot light but in One More Day we see even Julianne getting a fair share of the song. The music video was still a bit biased towards the maknae but it was still an improvement.
When I first heard the song I couldn't help but think that it sounded like a fusion of the old Britney Spears and Korean. It had that old school edge that made me drown in my own nostalgia. Nonetheless, I found myself humming the tune over and over again as it was always stuck in my head. The powerful vocals combined with the catchy tune made an all kill in my mind. Melanie baffled Chocolat fans with the way she was able to belt out those high notes - and at such a young age too (15).
Comparing this song to their debut and second single, we can see that they took a turn away from the pop, techno music to the more sultry ballad like K-pop that I find leaves a stronger impact on people. Their company did well in choosing a song that could showcase their vocals and still be upbeat enough for them to dance to it and to leave the audience constantly singing it unconsciously.
As far as the song goes, it's fantastic. Taking a look at the dance, however... That leaves much to be desired. Watching their live performances (One More Day - Chocolat (Live) K-pop Con Concert) we see them dancing on their chairs like in the video whilst singing. The use of chairs works well in this dance, in my opinion, though it is not unique to K-pop as we have seen it in other music videos such as SHINee's Love Like Oxygen. I realize that the song is not much of a dance tune but the choreography was disappointing. I expected to see some intricacy and uniqueness in the moves but instead I was forced to watch Tia, a fourteen year old girl, grind up against a men well beyond her age and then forced again to watch her group mates throw themselves onto the floor and do moves on the chair that looked a bit like the actions a man would do when pleasuring himself.
It's not that it was a horrible dance, it's better then a couple dances I've seen, but them doing such awkward moves at such a young age is not a pleasant thing to watch. The chair move especially reminded me of Miss A's Goodbye Baby in which they do a similar movement during their chorus.
That being said, I didn't find the dance original or very difficult and the moves were a bit too odd to watch with the fact that they are young girls nagging at the back of my mind which is why I give it such a low opinion.
Though the dance was disappointing, I did thoroughly enjoy the fresh new look their company gave them. They went from looking like little girls to sophisticated women (even though that's stretching it a bit). They matured into young women in this video instead of the baby doll, donut girl look that they had going for them with their debut. Below, you can see just how much they transformed from the bubbly, less than average look they came out with, to the classy, matured look they acquired promoting this song.
(Left: Syndrome; Right: One More Day)
Name: Soa
Position: Leader
Name: Julianne
Position: Vocalist
Name: Tia
Position: Vocalist/Second maknae
Name: Melanie
Position: Main vocalist/maknae
Some might argue that the drastic change in appearance is a negative thing. They believe that Paramount Music should have waited a couple years before giving the girls such major changes in style. Especially, some say, being that the two youngest members are not even of age yet. In the defense of the girls, though, I enjoy this new look and find it fresh and, for lack of a better word, cool that they are being promoted outside the box of standard K-pop. Plus, was Minzy (2NE1) not fifteen when she debuted with the band? Was Boa (SM Entertainment) not thirteen when she debuted? And Lee TaeMin (SHINee) was fourteen when he debuted in the group.
The transformation may seem rushed to certain people but I find it was a necessary change they needed to undergo in order to make it in this ever growing business.
Controversy has not only risen with regards to the girls' looks, but rumours of plagiarism have also been surfacing as the song sounds very familiar to a Romanian song (Dragostea ramane -Andra), but since the girls did not produce the song themselves I'm holding this against their producers and not them. Just like with the dance, they didn't choreograph it themselves which is why I don't accuse them of trying to act beyong their age.
All in all, this song is very catchy and will have you singing along in no time - even if you can't speak or understand Korean. The dance was mediocre but paired of with their dazzling transformation I find that Paramount Music achieved something quite amazing with this single.
Rating: 8/10
Now enjoy some YouTube coverists versions of this song:
Coming soon...
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