Last year, Pledis announced a pre-debut team called Pledis Girlz. Two of the 10 girls were members of I.O.I, and at the beginning of 2017, Pledis announced the official name of their new girl group: Pristin. Their first MV is for their song “Wee Woo,” an upbeat pop track about innocent love.

“Wee Woo” doesn’t bring anything new to the table musically. It’s got jangly guitars and an undeniably catchy melody, but that’s really about it. It’s similar to what most girl groups are putting out now. To me, it sounds like a poppier version of Gugudan’s most recent comeback or even like Twice’s “Knock Knock.” Sometimes the song feels like bits and pieces have been thrown together to create a song. The pre-chorus doesn’t really match the verses and isn’t the best bridge to the chorus, but the “You’re my super, superhero” is definitely my favorite part of the song. That being said, it’s been stuck in my head since I first listened to it.

Visually, the MV looks a lot like Pledis looked at the success of Twice and Red Velvet and went, “Well, that’ll do.” There’s bright colors, a barely discernible plot line, and aegyo galore. The costuming is very similar to Twice’s outfits in “Ooh Ahh,” even down to the crop tops and box pleat skirts. The visual similarities only hinders them, though. Being so on-trend makes it easier to write them off, something no company or group wants. On top of that, it’s already brought criticism from netizens. It’s fine if concepts and styling overlap; it happens all the time especially in K-pop. But, the fact that there seems to be little to no attempt to put their own spin on the trends is really disappointing.

The snippets of choreography we get to see look great, like they’re making use of each of the 10 members to create visually engaging formations. They play up the aegyo during the chorus, with cutesy moves and simple steps. Like most girl group choreography, they rely on simpler moves to enhance their adorableness. It’s not particularly memorable, but it is fun to watch.

Plot-wise, each girl gets a section to introduce them. They all seem to embody some sort of stereotype, like one is a bad girl, another is the queen bee, while another is sporty. There’s even a member dressed as a witch. It’s nice that each member gets some screentime, even if Nayoung and Kyulkyung dominate. 

The lyrics are like the rest of the song: not very original. The members pine over a crush who isn’t showing any interest in them:

My heart is pounding
I like you a lot, boo boo
When I look at you, my heart goes
Wee woo, wee woo, wee

Wee woo, wee woo, wee
It’s dangerous
Wee woo, wee woo, wee

There’s not much to this debut. “Wee Woo” is fun, upbeat, and catchy as hell. It’s still stuck in my head no matter how hard I try to get rid of it. Maybe that’s Pledis’s plan with Pristin: Create songs that are so catchy you can’t stop listening to them until you trick yourself into liking them.

It would have been nice if Pristin was given a more original identity, or if they at least took what other girl groups are doing and did it better. I’m hopeful for Pristin, mostly because a few of their members write and compose, like their label-mates Seventeen. It’d be nice if Pledis encouraged Pristin to be self-producing idols like Seventeen, but that might be asking too much.

Maybe after a few comebacks they’ll be given more control over the music they put out and we’ll be blown away. Right now, Pristin comes off like every other girl group promoting with nothing that helps them stand out. They just seem like Twice redux, and not done well.  There’s only so much quirky aegyo can do for a group before they fade into K-pop obscurity.

What do you think about the new girl group?

MV: 2.5/5

(Sources: Youtube, colorcodedlyrics, kprofiles Images via Pledis Entertainment)