Music / Idols
20120208_seoulbeats_chocolat

One More Day for Chocolat

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Written by On February 9, 2012

Chocolat was one of the dozens of girl groups that had debuted last year, making headlines and stirring up controversy through their concept of biracialism with three members being biracial. Since then, Chocolat has remained in the K-pop industry, continuing to perform on shows and drawing media attention, so you could say they’re one of the better off groups that debuted in 2011. Recently, the group released their newest single album, Chocolat,  and with it a music video for the song “One More Day”, featuring Sung Hyo-ram from X-CROSS.

Before I begin this review, let me first get my feelings across about Chocolat. Honestly, I never really cared about them. They were on my “Rookies to Watch” list before I saw their performance of “Jingle Bells/We Wish You A Merry Christmas” after which I immediately lost interest. Their performance bored me and I found nothing remotely impressive about their vocals or dancing. Still, I was willing to give the girls a chance.

I had several different reactions to this music video:

Pros:

  • The song (although similar to Christina Aguilera’s “Genie in a Bottle”) is smooth and highly reminiscent of 90s pop. The girls sound great, Melanie sounding the best in my opinion, and I didn’t detect very much use of autotune. The song worked with the girls’ vocals and I think it suits them better than something cutesy and bubbly. Also, the rapping was good. I’m glad they hired an actual rapper rather than have one of the girls do it themselves.
  • The masks. So they were a little creepy, specifically the long-nosed ones the girls wore in the van. But I found them amusing, adding some comic relief to the song and ambiguity to the guy that was kidnapped and supposedly tortured. He is faceless and doesn’t have an identity–he represents all cheaters out there. And he also reminds me of Jack from the Jack-in-the-Box commercials.
  • The hair and makeup is better. The makeup they wore in “Syndrome” was a bit weird – there was too much emphasis on the eyes, making the girls look like aliens. Here, the girls look gorgeous, eyeliner applied correctly to bring attention to their eyes but not make them jump out at you. Tia and Melanie looked especially pretty to me — they’ll be bombshells when they get older, no doubt. The hairstyling was better as well, the buns and bouncy waves adding to the girls’ prettiness. Melanie looks better with longer hair; her old hairstyle made her face look too pointed.

Cons:

  • The first thought that jumped into my mind after watching the choreography was nymphets and lolita. How old are Tia, Melanie, and Juliane? Fifteen? Fourteen? It’s disturbing to see girls that young perform choreography that’s so incredibly sexualized. The dance looks like something Hyuna would perform. And the up-close shots of the girls’ hips and Tia’s breasts at 2:19 added to the creepy factor. With the gyrating, body waves and booty popping, I wouldn’t be surprised if this dance got banned and they were forced to change it. Why aren’t netizens stirring up trouble over this?
  • SO MUCH TIA. Tia’s a pretty girl, but so are Juliane and Min Soa. Poor Juliane and Min Soa hardly got any screentime. Melanie got a fair share, however. Tia’s the dancer but Melanie’s the fiercest of the group and Min Soa is the oldest – I would’ve focused the camera on Min Soa during the more provocative moves to make the music video look less pedophilic.
  • The styling. The hair and makeup were fine, but the outfits were not. The skimpy black and white outfits looked cheap and rip-offs of SNSD‘s “Run Devil Run” attire. And what is with those knee straps?
  • The overall music video looked a little cheap to me. The lighting could’ve been better, especially in the white room.

Overall, I would give the song a 4/5 and the music video a 1/5. I’m subtracting points from the music video for it being creepily pedophilic, cheap, and not having an equal amount of attention to all members. The song is good, not amazing, but the girls are improving bit by bit. “I Like It” was a step-up from “Syndrome” and “One More Day” is two-step ups from “I Like It.” Despite growing disinterested in them for awhile, I do believe Chocolat still has potential. Most of the girls are incredibly young, there’s plenty of room for improvement in the coming years.

What do you think of Chocolat and their latest release?

(ParamountMusic)

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  • http://sunsetoldstories.blogspot.com/ Ruxandra

    the knee straps were probably used because in their choreography they have to move a lot from standing on their knees to standing up and it sure is painful doing it without them…

  • Anima

    The song sounds SO much like “Irresistible” by Jessica Simpson to me. They are such sweet girls, they deserve better than that imho.

    • http://twitter.com/Laava90 Lava

      But “Irresistible” was so good!! At least my teen self loved it lol

      • Anima

        lol it’s okay I loved that song too.

  • Nahbysone

    So…

    1. They
    lost a girl?? They were five before, now four….

    2. Tia
    gets way to much screen time, please. They should focus on the other girls too.

    So…

    1. They
    lost a girl?? They were five before, now four….

    2. Tia
    gets way to much screen time, please. They should focus on the other girls too.

    • Nahbysone

      Why did this posted twice?? Lol.

  • MqN

    The chorus really does sound like “genie in a bottle” =/ 

    I loved their last single, I Want It All, but I’m also reeling over the fact that one of the girl is no longer with the group. I also realize I don’t like Melanie’s voice that much. It’s very….. whiny/annoying. 

    As for the choreography,  I find it creepy that whenever they do a body wave(?) the camera’s always behind one of the girls with focus on her behind. really awkward as a female viewer. Annnd… I hate hip hitting while sitting on the chair part. Really awkward, in my opinion. 

  • Anon

    So they flopped when they tried to use the whole biracial thing as a gimmick and now their oversexualizing these girls two of which are underage so they don’t flopped even harder. Not surprised.

  • http://twitter.com/Laava90 Lava

    I thought exactly the same when I heard this song, I kept thinking to myself that I like it because it reminds me too much of an old Christina Aguilera song, and now I see I’m not alone lol. Tbh I thought it’s a good song, but there really is absolutely nothing outstanding about it, there’s no build up or climactic moment, it’s just very repetitive that when it finished it was so abrupt (IMO anyway). That’s the thing about Chocolat, they just don’t give you anything to really love or get hyped up about and I’m unsure as to whether or not they even have the potential to do so in the future, it really doesn’t seem that way.
    As for the choreography, ok fine they can do what they want and if them and their parents are ok with it then I could care less about it being oversexulized because firstly, I don’t really care for Chocolat, and secondly, if I got worked up about this video, then there are plenty more mvs that can follow that feature the same pedo creepiness. But, the girls look their age and could pull of the ‘aegyo, cutesy’ thing because they are the right age for it, so why isn’t the company using that while they can?? APink are using their age appropriately and it works, so why don’t Chocolats company take advantage of these girls actual age while they can? They look really young like you can still see their cute baby fat even, so why not just stick with the more youthful image?
    I personally don’t see Chocolat hitting it big or anything, they might just end up being one of those groups that release songs every so often but never get a big following or hype around them, but that’s just me, maybe it will work out differently?

    • Anonymous

      They tried the cutesy thing with “syndrome” and it failed miserably which is why they decided to go the sexy route, even though the girls at far too young to be sexy. Also these girls while they looks youthful, they have the type of vocals the sound better wi this type of music over the youthful stuff. I mean they sound great here and they sounded horrible even on the recording of ” syndrome”.

  • Anonymous

    chocolat has potential to become a great girl group. they just need hit song. One More Day is step up from their previous singles but still it isn’t the song that will propel them to massive popularity.

    the company should really take advantage that these girls are in the right age to do cute songs like Gee… not saying i want them to come out with similar song like gee but catchy cute song would really work best for them. Summer is coming up soon so perhaps they can release a cute catchy summer song.

  • Anonymous

    Nothing much has changed about Tia and her backdancers concept. She is a pretty girl for sure but the same goes for all of them. I don´t think she is the pretties or the most talented but it doesn´t really matter, what matters is that all of them should get the same amount of screentime. I personally think that Melanie has a stronger presence than her (and yes, she looks much better now with longer hair) and Min Soa is more sexy.
    I like the song and their singing, especially the fact they have a “real” rapper (in suit=cool), it´s really a progress since their last song which I didn´t like much and its MV (colorful leggings? thanks, but no). The new MV and dance … ok, no problem if they were like 20, but they´re barely 16 and despite them not looking like your average teenage girls … I get that Westerner girls look more mature but they´re still teenagers. I don´t want them to do some bubble pop and aegyo stuff but dancing with chairs like this is something you learn in flirt or poll dance class. Despite my complain about giving this choreo to the teenage girls I actually did like the dance – for some private lessons.

  • Oh Ji’s Ho

    The girls were 14 and 15?  Seriously?  They look to be in their mid-twenties.  That doesn’t bode well for the aging factor.  I was pleasantly surprised by the song itself.

  • Bervalvic

    Girls have potential and I’d rather see them continue to go in this music direction then turn around and do something cute. This will probably be one of those groups you actually look forward to seeing when your saturated with too many girly cute groups.

    I don’t want to see them turn into another Secret or Girls Day. They went from being fun and edgy to being like every other cute group.

  • kc

    considering how young they are, I can’t help feeling a bit… excited about them, I mean if they sound like this at this point in their lives and they still have room to grow I have a feeling we’ll be seeing some epic things from these girls.

    I rather like the song, it’s something I’d wanna listen too^^

    I agree completely about the Choreography and clothing, I think their company has alot of learning to do when it comes to promoting (first it was their eyes, now it’s the exaggeratedly sexy clothes and movement, most of these girls are minors for crying out loud-.-) 

    question though, weren’t there five girls? I remember there was a fifth, what happened to her? (she probably got tired of being over shadowed by Melanie…)

    • kc

      meant Tia, I actually like Melanie being in the spot light^^

      • guest

        Jaeyoon was really ill during the time they were recording the mini album so as a result she had to take a break when the group promoted “I Like It.”

        Seeing as how “Same Thing to Her” is a song from that mini album, I guess (speculate) it wouldn’t make sense to have her promote this song with the group, as the song was recorded without her.

  • asianromance

    I love the 90s pop sound to this song, but yeah the fact that some of these girls are like middle schoolers in the mv skeeve me out, especially with the camera work so focused on their body parts.  What do they put in the kimchi over there in korea.  I think of all the 14/15/16 year old Asian, white, and asian/white girls over here in the US and most of them don’t look like they’re 20.  The knee-pads look really weird- they should have just had the girls wear pants or leggings to hide the knee-pads. 

  • guest

    I think it’s interesting food for thought how it’s the international fans and not the SK fans that seem to have problems with liking Chocolat, but I suppose that’s a thought for another day.

    I will admit that while I love how Chocolat is promoting aggressively, I personally would have liked them to promote a new song rather than just work with a song off of their mini album.  Though their mini album is really really good, and they probably wouldn’t have been able to start promoting again so quickly had it been an entirely new song.

    And I didn’t particularly find the dance to be overly sexual (I rarely think that way though, maybe I’m just too desensitized or am too much of a prude) and despite Tia not being my bias in the group, I wasn’t overly annoyed by her “overexposure” (trust me, you’re going to need a lot more members to be really annoyed at such a thing). 

    To end, I guess I’d also like to bring to the table that Chocolat isn’t the only group that’s had young members dancing somewhat “sexual” dances, but they seem to be constantly getting flak for it.

    Interesting huh?

    • Soup

      “I think it’s interesting food for thought how it’s the international
      fans and not the SK fans that seem to have problems with liking
      Chocolat, but I suppose that’s a thought for another day.”

      Because Korea doesn’t really care for Chocolat, international fans in my opinion seem to care more for them than Korean fans.

      “Chocolat isn’t the
      only group that’s had young members dancing somewhat “sexual” dances,
      but they seem to be constantly getting flak for it.”

      Not true.

      • guest

        I’m sorry, it seems I’ve written some ignorant things.

        However I think the fact that SK fans are willing to scream/cheer for them when they perform seems a lot more supportive than all of the hate I see/read/hear from the internationals.

        And I’ve only seen the word “pedophile” applied to Chocolat and IU (who isn’t sexy) so please enlighten me. 

        • http://twitter.com/GoGoSunshine I B Anonymous

          GP Basic got a ton of flak when they came out 12 and 13 in booty shorts and four inch heels. I could probably name more but I have a massive headache and class in 20 minutes.

      • Guest’s Father

        “Because Korea doesn’t really care for Chocolat, international fans in my opinion seem to care more for them than Korean fans.”

        Not sure if I would agree with this because they seem to be doing fine. Not to mention this has also been said several times about f(x), and that simply isn’t true either..

  • Murderlogist

    Don’t think they will get the time to improve because everything is moving so fast now you’re not good,you won’t survive.And while they may have special talents they will never have the time to show it competing with tens of other groups possibly even hundreds.

    • http://twitter.com/Laava90 Lava

      That’s true, a couple of years ago you could be forgiven for not being outstanding and there was a chance to improve and those groups have now become the big groups, but now there just isn’t any time for improvements, if you don’t debut perfect and make a name for yourself in your debut, then you just become as irrelevant as the next debuting groups.

  • Guest 007

    They won’t survive. I give them another year or so before they become as irrelevant as CSJH. Maybe for even the same reasons: injuries, pursuing other artistic endeavors, etc.

  • http://twitter.com/Laava90 Lava

    Ok I don’t know how I didn’t see this before, but in todays Music Bank performance one of those girls danced proper sexually with the rapper!! And I’m sure she’s one of the two youngest (I can’t remmeber which is melanie and which is tia =S) It looked really bad, there are overly sexual performances with 15 year olds where it is just them on stage, and then there’s dancing up on some middle aged man- and that is on another level. The girl really looked like a baby, she’s not even fully developed or anything and she was dancing all up on him wearing the weird stage outfits they were wearing, I really was shocked. Their company need to reevaluate themselves and the way they’re managing these girls.

  • http://twitter.com/melrichardson_ Mel

    Mel and Tia are 14. Julianne is 18 so I think her doing the moves was fine. I just wish their company didn’t focus so much on sexualizing the girls. But I LOVE this song and am so glad they made a rather creative video for it. And as for the chair dance; I thought it was unique, I also liked it =) “ I would’ve focused the camera on Min Soa during the more provocative moves to make the music video look less pedophilic.” THIS. I completley agree with, would of made them as a group not appear so bad. Soa is a mature 23 year old, why make Tia the sexual object?

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002246424014 Tiaralover Diadem

    i like the song but i’m not a fan of chocolat,