Battle of the B-Sides:: DIVA: Feel it

 This song right here is literally older than half of Stray Kids and half of ATEEZ and the entirety of TOMORROW X TOGETHER. We're going back, y'all. Which is funny because there's another first gen song lurking in my roulette wheel that's older than all of BTS except for two. So, for those of you who were born after this group disbanded, and never got the chance to listen to them, and for those of you who came to K-Pop after they disbanded and never got the chance to listen to them, well, now's your chance to discover them! We do have some of the lineup changes that make first gen K-Pop distinct, instead of just the music, but it could have been a lot wilder with those changes. And the group had a few controversies while they were active, but it seems like they and Baby V.O.X are more or less cool with each other now.

DIVA debuted in 1997 as a three-member group under Cream Records, possibly. I did look, but I'm getting conflicting information from a couple of different sources. The other one that I'm inclined towards is Seoul In Production because of a footnote from their Namu Wiki page. They also had two other labels before they disbanded in 2005. For this album, the line-up was Vicky, Chae Ri Na, and Lee Minkyoung. I had to dig to find out information about them, but they were as big a deal as the Big Three girl groups from first gen: S.E.S, Fin.K.L, and Baby V.O.X (the only one of those three I haven't covered yet is S.E.S, so if you have any suggestions on that end, do let me know). DIVA, just as a fun fact, were one of the first hip-hop girl groups in South Korea, broke into the Taiwanese market, and are considered to be the predecessors to 2NE1. They were also one of the first groups to release an English album. Also, just as a fun fact because No Scrubs had a resurgence when I was in high school, DIVA was specifically modeled after TLC. When I finally do my DEUX post, that's when you'll get my mini essay on black music and K-Pop, so while I'm not saying anything about it right now, know that it is coming and I am aware of it. 

This song is not hip-hop, which is why I'm not talking about it yet. Feel it was released in 1999 as the second track of their third studio album, Millennium. I had to dig to find out any information on any of the songwriters because my normal four sources had nothing. So, it looks like the lyrics were written by Kim Young Ah (BoA, Fin.K.L (including To My Boyfriend), Un, Paul Kim, Sechskies, Brown Eyed Girls, OH MY GIRL, Park Bom, CLEO, NRG, Uhm Jung Hwa, Shinhwa, Click-B, Boyclub, Sunny Hill, 7 Princess, Y2K, 5TION, and Lee Jihoon) and Yang Chang Ik (MC Mong, FT Island, Davichi, Ok Joohyun, Wax, Jeongin, and TVXQ!) (note: apparently he's got about two hundred songs registered with KOMCA, though I didn't find that many when I looked him up, but I'm just happy that I found any artists he'd written for) (this is one of the fun things about first gen). 

All of the things I found for this required me looking up the song using Hangeul. I probably should have been doing that a lot earlier but I didn't think about it. So, a hundred posts in, we're going to start doing that to check if a song actually had a performance or not. But also, I had to use a lyrics video posted in 2023 for the lyrics to this song because this is not a first gen song that's been blessed with having the lyrics done on any of the normal websites.

For a hip-hop group, these members have a set of pipes on them. I've been reading that they prided themselves on singing live in an industry rife with lip syncing, so I'm very curious to hear what they'll have for us in terms of live vocals. I picked this specifically as my first song for them because I knew that this song had been performed, but I find it a little funny that I did that while also picking a song that had the hip-hop group singing a ballad.

I'm apparently instinctively drawn to the ballads. I apologize for anyone who doesn't like them as well, but at least we've got a bit of a hip-hop beat underneath the ballad, even if it doesn't start off this way. It's actually got a very pretty, almost magical sound at the beginning there that calls to mind groups like Girls' Generation in their earliest days (fun fact: their debut song was actually supposed to go to a first gen group that disbanded before they could release that album). 

And the vocalizations at the beginning sound so ending-song-from-a-Disney-movie-from-the-90s that I'm shoved back to my childhood pretty strongly every time that the song starts over from where I have it on repeat, since I don't have to worry about a music video. 

I will say, however, that in the middle of the vibratos and pretty vocals, we have some aggressive rapping to counterpoint the singing. Considering that, of the three members for this album, the only one of the three to not be a rapper was Chae Ri Na and we have two different rapping spots at 2:26 and 3:13, I'm assuming that both of the rapping members got to rap during the ballad. Unless what I've been looking at is wrong, in which case it could be any of the three.

Those are some hard clipping consonants during the rapping though. They are crisp. They kind of have to be, to be fair, because of the speed the syllables are being rapped in places, but even the softer consonants feel a bit like they're being attacked. 

Apparently the song is one of the love songs where it's from the POV of someone who isn't sure of the other's feelings towards them, so they guard their actions and their heart until they're sure. In this case, the two actually do seem to be in a relationship already, which is a nice take on the genre, or at least close enough to it that they're holding hands, but there's still some uncertainty there.

There is theoretically a stage from Music Camp on this song. I found what I'm pretty sure is that stage, possibly, and it was uploaded three months ago. So, thank you, YouTube Channel giant spirit, very much for this. The quality is exactly what I'd expect from a performance from 1999, however (better actually because the highest quality is 480p which is leaps and bounds away from 144p, but it will never be "HD").

Even the ballad has choreography. It's very cute choreography, to be fair, but there is still choreography. They've got some fun little jumps and wiggles and spins, but it also looks like it's designed to let whoever has the center with the part have modified but similar choreography that's a little less strenuous, which is good if they're actually singing live and does support that.

I just need you all to know that I giggle fondly every time I see the jump at :14 because it's darling. You know that moment when you have too much excitement and energy in your body to stand still so you kind of hop? It feels a lot like that.

And the blue plastic dresses are making my skin itch on sight, but it's so 90s that I don't even really care. I love the knee pads. I love the sneakers. I love the safety pins acting as some sort of a barrette. The matching costumes are incredible and we do not see enough of them these days.

There are a couple of spots that it sounds like they might be singing live. I compared the studio recording with the very beginning and it sounds like the texture of the breathiness in this performance is a little bit different, and I'm coupling that with the throat and underside of her jaw movement at :07 which would match moving up into those notes. The way the member says the word "보여" at 1:55 also doesn't sound the same as the studio recording. And granted, the one at 2:03 during that rapping is moving her head, but there's a little bit of throat tension and movement when she briefly holds her head still. I'm inclined towards this being at least partially live, but it sounds a lot like the studio recording. It really does, and if that's just what they sound like, then color me deeply impressed. 

Also, watch the dancer to the left side of the screen at 2:51. He had the wrong feet there. Bless. This is why we like live performances. You never know what little oddities are going to pop up.

The only other performance of this song I found was at the Gyeongpo Summer Festival in August of 1999. There's a group of people over by the "'99" on the banner that are very enthusiastic about this song.

It does start at :48, but that intro is kind of fun.

It's still very space science fiction with what they're wearing, although this time they're in silver plastic dresses that the one with the braided pigtails has to pull her strap up at 2:02. I will confess that when I saw the strap slip, my first thought was "Is she going to wait until she's off camera or is she going to-" My question was answered almost immediately because she just slipped it back over her shoulder without missing a single beat. Judging by her dimples, I think she's Chae Ri Na and the cute one with the long hair is the maknae, Lee Minkyoung. Which would make the swaggery, aggressive one the American rapper, Vicky. Yes, it's taken me this long to decide which is which, but I'm having to put pieces together.

What I like about this performance, which is actually kind of annoying in terms of camerawork if you're trying to watch a single member, there are some long long-shots so you get to see the choreography of the group and the dancers. So if someone wanted to do a cover of this song, or perhaps one of the younger groups because almost every group is younger than DIVA, and they couldn't get a hold of someone to give them the original choreography, they could piece it together between this performance and the last one. 

There's a looseness to the choreography though that I think most modern K-Pop consumers and producers (as in, any of the groups or artists who perform and make the music, not necessarily only the people who are credited as producers in the making of the music because of the definition of the word "produce" meaning "make") might struggle with a little bit. Not that this would be any less challenging or difficult. But synchronous dancing hadn't really become popular yet. You know how it is. And the dancers at the end are kind of all over the place and I love that.

But talk about an aerobic workout. Those feet do not stop moving. Our hands are waving and our heads are bobbing and those feet do not stay still.

And at the very end of the song, at 3:31, Chae Ri Na looks into the audience and waves while she smiles. That moment right there is the most clearly modern K-Pop moment of the entire song, and it's also pretty touching because this album was the last time she'd be with the group until their reunion in 2022.

Y'all, I actually got this done early. It's weird. I'm still going to post it at my expected time, but I guess this means I can also get started on the next one early. Anyway, this is a very sweet song and I hope that y'all gave it a chance even though it's a bit old. It isn't old because it's younger than I am, but in such an extremely fast-paced industry like the K-Pop industry, a song that's 27 years old is practically Jurassic. 

If you've got any other songs you'd like me to cover, and it doesn't matter how old or new they are (although if you do give me a title track that's too new, I'll hold it in stasis until it's ripened like a delicious cheese), drop a comment for me. Or, if you're wanting something more structured and completely anonymous, you can always submit the song or songs via The Form.

Thanks for reading, my Champions! I'm officially calling y'all that! See y'all next time!

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