In March 2017, I was a junior in college, halfway through the second semester, juggling activities, organizations, and academics. The University of Iowa finally opened Voxman, the school of music building. Previously in the infamous flood of 2008, the arts campus was destroyed and the music building became split into three with locations on both sides of the Iowa River. This meant that we had to dart back and forth for practice rooms, lessons, and rehearsals. But in 2016, we got our own building, our own base and, in a way, home.
I studied a lot by the large main table on the ground floor, right by the fridges. It was there that I'd eat, run into friends, write, listen to music.
lights by the open area, ground floor Voxman Music Building
In particular, I remember listening to a girl group called Brave Girls. I just got Spotify (before, I used iTunes) and was having fun digging into discographies more easily. I got hooked onto the group through the song "Deepened" because it sounded different from other K-Pop songs I'd heard at the time. It was darker, edgier, and the production was sleek. Also, I was really stressed at the time, so listening to a similar angsty song was comforting.
But not all their music was like that. They also had songs like "Don't Meet", a mid tempo ballad, and "Whatever", a cheeky attitude song. But the song I had on repeat was a bright EDM song with a catchy hook called "Rollin'". The song would go on to be my fourth listened song for the year.
For some reason, "Rollin'" didn't gain traction and it felt like it would stay an underappreciated bop. But in 2021, four years after the song was released, "Rollin'" suddenly had a revival that, well, no one saw coming. And it all started with a video.
Apparently, I wasn't the only one who also loved "Rollin'". Apparently, "Rollin'" was much loved by the Korean army, even being called on top of the Mil-board, or Military Billboard.
This video was uploaded on February 23. And on March 9th, today, it has resulted in the song launching into number one on the Korean charts and even gaining Brave Girls a chance to perform it again on TV and for several YouTube channels.
It's also really amusing to read the comments left on different videos. It's almost as if the Korean public has taken Brave Girls under their wing and wants to make them win. There's comments where someone's said "we'll get you the top spots, just release a new song" with thousands of likes. The numbers on older Brave Girls' music videos and performances have sky rocketed, with new comments from hours ago popping up.
And the people who expected it the least were the girls themselves. They released another song in 2020 called "We Ride", a sleek city pop song, but without much fanfare. It slipped under the radar. It seemed like Brave Girls were heading towards the unfortunate fate of disbanding and eventually, disappearing.
And then.
I've been following this phenomenon and watching videos of the girls on different YouTube channels performing or talking. And I've added "Rollin'" to my monthly playlist. All of this feels familiar but also fresh and disorienting, but not in a bad way. "Rollin'" was literally part of my soundscape for 2017 and hearing it again in the context of 2021 is like meeting an old friend and catching up. An unexpected moment of reflection.
But it's also made me realize that there's so much that's out of my control. Anything can happen at any moment. Which means, there is always hope. If I keep going onwards, putting things out, something can happen. I've seen mini moments of it already but too often I forget about it, or get distracted, or procrastinate.
Brave Girls' sudden rise has reminded me that timing is an odd, unexpected things and that my only job is to keep going.
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