T-ara

T-ara

T-ara (Korean: 티아라; Korean pronunciation: [tʰiara]) is a South Korean girl group formed by Core Contents Media in 2009. Before their debut, there was a high level of interest in the group as they were called "Super Rookies" and had been training for three years prior to debut. Originally a five-member group, they released their first song "Good Person" for the soundtrack of the Korean drama Cinderella Man in April 2009. In June 2009 members Jiwon and Jiae left the group, delaying the group's debut. The next month, T-ara regrouped to become a six-member group with the addition of Boram, Qri, and Soyeon, and released their debut single "거짓말" ("Lies"). In July 2010, T-ara introduced a new member, Ryu Hwayoung, to become a seven-member group. T-ara uses a rotating leader system, and has a different member of the group elected as leader each year, in order to give both the group and the individual members the opportunity to grow in a new direction.

History

Pre-debut

The original five T-ara members were trained for three years, and released their first song "좋은 사람" (Good Person) for the Korean drama Cinderella Man soundtrack. In early 2009, Jiyeon was in a collaboration with SeeYa and Davichi for project single called "여성시대" (Women's Generation).

In June 2009, Core Contents Media announced that Jiae and Jiwon left due to differences in music style. Soyeon, Boram and Qri were added. Later, it was revealed that Soyeon was originally cast to be a part of Girl's Generation (SNSD), but six months prior to her debut Soyeon withdrew from the group due to personal circumstances. Her stint away from the music industry was relatively short as she quickly joined T-ara following open auditions to replace the departing members. The group's agency released promotional pictures in July 2009 in accordance with the new members. Afterward, T-ara released their debut single "거짓말" (Lies).

Debut and Absolute First Album (2009)

T-ara made its debut on MBC's Radio Star talk show on July 29, 2009. The music video was released that day. Their first performance was on Mnet's M! Countdown show, where they performed "Lies" and "Wanna Play?". Their debut was looked upon negatively by webpostings, where people stated that it was lipsynched and commented that it seemed like an elementary school performance. The group announced afterward that future performances would be live. A few members of T-ara (Eunjung, Soyeon, Hyomin and Jiyeon) were in a project group with Supernova, a six member male group for the digital single, TTL (Time to Love). The single TTL became the members first number 1 as it topped many of the online charts. On December 1, 2009, T-ara released their first full-length album, named Absolute First Album. The album had two lead singles, "Bo Peep Bo Peep" and "Like The First Time", both with music videos.

Breaking Heart and Temptastic (2010)

On January 1, 2010, T-ara's single "Bo Peep Bo Peep" won an award on the New Year's Day episode of Music Bank. Two days later, they won the Mutizen award on Inkigayo. The following week, T-ara won their second consecutive Music Bank and Mutizen awards. The following week, T-ara won their third consecutive mutizen award (Triple Crown).

Later in the month, Core Contents Media announced that Eunjung and Hyomin would take part, alongside label mates SeeYa and Davichi, in project group, 'Wonder Woman'. Consequently, the T-ara announced promotions for their follow up single, "Like The First Time" (Korean: "처음처럼"). Promotions ended quickly as member Soyeon was diagnosed with H1N1.

In February, the group announce the release of a repackaged version of their debut album, entitled Breaking Heart. The music video for its lead single, "I Go Crazy Because of You" (Korean: "너 때문에 미쳐"), was released on February 24, 2010. The group performed with Mnet's M!Countdown. After promotions for "I Go Crazy Because of You", T-ara promoted the next single off the repackaged album titled "I'm Really Hurt" (Korean: "내가 너무 아파").

On November 23, 2010 T-ara released a music video for their song "Why Are You Being Like This" (Korean: "왜 이러니"). The group then began promotions with their new 7th member, Hwayoung, and a new leader, Boram. The mini-album's title track was titled "Yayaya". T-ara received two consecutive wins for "Why Are You Being Like This" and "Yayaya" on Mnet M! Countdown on December 9, 2010 and December 16, 2010 respectively.

Japanese debut and 2nd mini-album (2011-Present)

In June 2011, it was announced that T-ara would be making a comeback with the title track "Roly Poly" on July 1, 2011. It was also announced that the group would be advancing into the Japanese market with a showcase on July 5 As of June 14, 2011, Core Contents Media has announced that Hyomin shall be taking over the leadership for this album and for their Japanese promotions. They further explained saying, “In order to instill a sense of responsibility in each of the members, we have decided to change the leader for each new album release. We will be passing the leader role onto members who have not been leader yet. The reason Eunjung was leader during their debut was because she and Hyomin had trained the longest with T-ara, and we felt that she would be the best fit". They continued, “Likewise, Hyomin has been chosen for T-ara’s Japanese and ‘Roly-Poly’ promotions for the same reasons as Eunjung. We have made this decision after much discussions with both the members and our agency.”

T-ara's "Roly-Poly" music video and song was released on 29 June and it reached #1 on Cyworld, GomTV, Bugs, Nate and Mnet real-time charts just after an hour of being released.