For After School, a rising K-pop girl group, the past year has been full of new challenges.
The group, which debuted in 2009, took its act to the overseas market in Japan last July and later ranked in the top 10 on Japan's Oricon daily and weekly charts with "Bang!," its first single album released in the Japanese market in August.
This April, the group had its first solo performances in Japan, touring large cities including Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka. Tickets for the concerts sold out before the tour began, heralding a new addition to the stable of South Korean pop artists popular in other Asian countries.
After School recently returned to the local market with a maxi-length single album, "Flashback," named for the title song, an electronic dance piece that is reminiscent of the group's early years.
The eight members of After School said they greatly missed their home stages after a year in Japan.
"'Flashback' revived the strong energy from our early years. Sexiness was added to that. We paid much attention to choreography so we can show our own synchronized group dance during a dance break in the middle of a song and radiate the sexiness of individual members at the same time," Raina, one of the members, said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency.
The group has continued to experiment with new styles and skills, such as drumming in marching band style and tap dancing. For this album, they perform a musical-style group dance using canes, on a dance song called "Rip Off."
"We did an opening show at a concert in Japan with canes and received a hot response, so we prepared a performance using sticks and hats, thinking Korean fans would like it, too," U-IE, another group member, said.
The lyrics of two songs "Rip Off" and "Timeless" were written by group members, Jung-a and Raina.
The group intends to focus on promoting the new album until the end of this month, then will move between South Korea and Japan.
A new album by "Orange Caramel," an offshoot consisting of After School's three youngest members, will also be out soon.
"This year, we will pay more attention to activities in South Korea. Since we missed local stages so much, we'd like to meet Korean fans more often," Jung-a said. (Yonhap)