OK, girl!

Let me begin to catch up on April's big news with an introduction to 5 member boy band B1A4. *happy sigh* Signed with WM entertainment, they have been in training for 2 years and were first revealed via a webtoon last month. It seems that this is the first instance of this kind of introduction in the K-pop world, and I was relieved when the real photographic images finally appeared, my mind having wandered all over asking questions as to why they would withhold their faces for so long..?! But I guess it is nice to be a little less shallow for once (though I am sure it is just as contrived, but whatever, we are talking mainstream pop here). So from the 'toon' we were able to get to know them a little, which is nice. It is clear that CNU likes basketball and he needs his glasses to write. But Sandeul is clumsy and may also wear glasses? Jinyoung plays guitar or bass. Baro is a freshman i.e. young, and is constantly "rapping a verse", awesome! It seems like at least some of these traits passed over into the OK video.

But before get ahead of ourselves, it's good to take a good look at the member profiles, just to be on the 'safe' side, and also explain that title. So, according to my sources, and you may have already guessed it, there is one B type (blood) member, and the rest are all A's, hence the numerics. And you may or may not know that I am an A type, woo! So it means that four of the five members are my 'ideal type', yay! Thanks WME.

Anyway, members:

Jinyoung Real Name: Jung Jin Young (정진영) is leader.
He is the lead vocal and wrote a song on the album, titled Bling Girl.
Born in 18 November 1991, he is one of the 4 A's.
178cm, 59kg

His skills: Songwriting, singing and acting. Also good at cooking.

He has three facebook pages dedicated to him! AND he has his own fuckyeah tumblr.

Want to see him as a girl? Evidently someone did..
He's so cool he's even had an outfit match with MBLAQ's Lee Joon already. He's so lovely I am finding it had to pick any one picture!

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Baro Real Name: Cha Sun Woo (차선우) is the rapper - we already know how much he loves rhyming verses.

He is the B! Ha, great! He is my joint last favourite. Born 5 September 1992 - second youngest.
178cm, 63kg

He is apparently good at beat boxing and voice imitations. And, "unlike his cute looks, Baro actually has a charismatic rap tone." Well, at least he is talented.... 'Baro' is on facebook too.

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Hi, Gongchan! Real Name: Gong Chan Shik (공찬식). He is the maknae of the group, uh oh.

Another A type, his birthday is 14 August 1993.
181cm, 60kg How so tall and so young!?

The word on the street is that he seems cool but has a lot of aegyo (cuteness). Some consider that he is a lookalike to actor Hyun Woo, but I would rather he isn't - thanks, but no thanks! He is an actor though, so I do hope to see him treading similar footsteps to U-KISS's maknae Dongho soon, and appearing in a high school drama of some sort.
Please look at lots of pictures of him.

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Lovey Sandeul Real Name: Lee Jung Hwan (이정환) is the main vocal (apparently you can have a lead and a main).

Born 20 March 1992, he is the third A.
178cm, 62kg

He is good at cooking like his hyung, and is "always smiling, so he makes people feel happy". I think I agree with this - his face makes me very happy!
Back in the day, here he is practicing with a bit of K.Will balladsville, a strict much older hyung shouting directions over the top, and also a school festival performance, bless him. He really can belt it out when it suits him! I think I prefer the slightly lower key B1A4 style though.

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CNU (Shin Woo) - he has two stage names? Real Name: Shin Dong Woo (신동우) is general vocals and rap.
He is the final A and was born 16 June 1991.
182cm, 64kg he's tall I guess...but height alone is not enough.

WME claim that he is a "health enthusiast. He’s an impressive member with talent in both singing and rapping. CNU’s masculine and a bit on the quiet side, but has a charming smile that captures the hearts of women.” I'm not sure if I am wholly in agreement with this, but we will see. It's nice to know he is healthy if nothing else. But he did get lumbered with the long hair look which is rarely pulled off, poor kid. I can't really help placing him in the same mentally sealed off category as C.N. Blue's Jungshin, sorry.

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As a group, they consider g.o.d. as their mentors. I can't say they are one of my fav original 90s K-pop bands, but that's ok. More excitingly, in their free time, B4A1 like to play speed games, whatever they are, and bingo together. I can almost see them now, sat around in a circle of luminescent dungarees with felt tip pens in hand as a manager hyung calls the numbers!! Bless their cotton socks.

Actually, their bright clothes are one of the reasons I adore them. And I love that dungarees are part of the uniform for the leader!



Lovely boys in lovely fun colourful clothes. I like the thought that they dress themselves in the dark every morning. Or each other.

Apparently, according to leader, they have garnered some interesting nicknames: “Thanks to our unique group name, fans have given us unique nicknames like ‘paper idols’ and ‘blood idols.’ Apparently, ‘paper idols’ comes from the fact that our name reminds them of A4 papers" Paper dolls or blood dolls - which is better?? I think I'd rather think up a new name.



The facts so far haven't been to mind blowing I know, and I haven't really revealed much of exceptional interest, bar pictures, but that is because what drove me to write this post was primarily their music! I love their mini-album, love love love it, love it so much that I want everyone to get to know them and give it a go.
It's kind of a standard rock pop combo thing, much more pop than rock obviously, in fact, the posing with instruments may be the only rock bit. But still, it's great. They debuted on 21 April 2011 with the song OK. Here is the video:

I don't know why it makes me so happy, but it does. The MV intro gives you a hint of all the other songs, which gets me super excited now I know them all, and then it gets cracking with OK. We are hiding out in their B1A4 secret hangout. It cuts between them singing and dancing and playing with toys - it's all so chirpy! Luckily the words 'OK girl' flash up, which is kind of essential because otherwise I would definitely be singing 'OK Go!' Oh, and the bit where they move their finger around has a name you know, it's the 'finger windbreeze dance' - catchy, no? I love you-ou you-ou you-ou... Blue PVC/foil dungarees! It has it all. The live debut on MBC's Music Core was also really good too, even with the MR backing track removed. I think they really can sing and dance. And they seem to change their outfits for every performance, so it's not worth missing any of them!

And the whole record is actually fantastic if you ask me. After OK is Remember. The rap on here is so catchy and I like the low tones a lot. And there are plenty of English bits to sing along to too.
못된 것만 배워서 (Only learned bad things) - this is the only slightly snoozy song that is a bit nothingy. But it's certainly not bad, and it kind of reminds me of some of the album tracks on SHINee's first album. You listen, it passes, and the next song is great.
Bling Girl sounds a bit OK-like but then we are told we look beautiful and there's some group "Oh"-ing. Through the second half of the verse the beat builds up and then we get the "Oh baby ma bling girl" chorus. Even if it sounds like "Green girl" I don't care. It's so damn catchy and I get it stuck in my head for half the day.
The last track before the instrumental is Only One. It's a ballad and yet I love it. I don't even know if I can say why - I hate ballads. However this one has the perfect harmonies and the "I pray no tears in your dreams / I know you’ll fly high in your life" is just so lovely. Sandeul sings it so well.

It's not often that a mini-album comes out with five complete songs and only one instrumental - it's usually three of each. And first records are rarely so well done that you can listen all the way though I would say. Hence I am very happy with these boys, very pleased indeed. Hopefully they will start getting involved in some variety TV and get a bit more interesting - I think they have the potential to do well...


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Bonus:

Their Twitters have also been offering up some gems - and this polka dot duo is one of my favs so far. It seems that Jinyoung is a Beatles fan? I'm English, how about I play him some LPs and show him some Beatles B-sides?

Or a post-/pre-bathing selca? Go on then.

If their Twitters are not enough, here is their fuckyeah Tumblr link, enjoy!

How about some type of kick boxing exercise? Baro, Infinite's Hoya and Norazo's Lee Hyuk. Baro certainly goes for it! Or Gongchan taking on ZE:A's Kwanghee and Teen Top's Chunji as some type of contact hopping knock out?


- Jessica Jane