[Discuss] Girl Groups’ New Tactic with Teaser Photos

For some time now, it has become a trend for most artists to unveil teaser images prior to the release of their new album. Especially for idol bands, it’s almost a prerequisite for any promotion to first raise awareness with teaser photos. Most of the teasers would usually give a hint at the new album’s concept, allowing fans to picture what the overall promotion would look like.

But when you look at some of the latest teaser photos of top girl groups, you see completely opposite or totally irrelevant themes from the actual album’s concept, leaving many fans surprised at first impression.

Take SNSD, for example. Before the release of “The Boys” last month, SNSD teased us with photos that had the group look like medieval girls. The girls appeared in dresses that gave a sense of a classical, toned down version of the group. But the actual song and music video of “The Boys” was a complete turnaround from the teaser image. The strong beats and lyrics (“Bring the boys out!”) of the song were totally different from what most expected from the elegant image of the photos.

Wonder Girls released their new single, “Be My Baby,” on November 7. Their new song is a soft, retro-sound pop with cute beats and lyrics. But in their teaser photos, Wonder Girls showed up in a tougher, more boyish image, holding guns and wearing heavy makeup in dark leather dresses. Just based on the teasers, fans had imagined “Be My Baby” to have a more aggressive sound to it.

“Cleansing Cream” by Brown Eyed Girls earlier this month also followed the same scheme. For their repackaged album, BEG first released a teaser photo with a brighter mood where the members wore red, yellow, and pink make up. However, the song and MV contained some of the most heart-wrenching lyrics and graphic scenes that had no link to the sprightly teaser photos.

Secret, likewise, first released teaser photos that looked opposite their concept for “Love is MOVE.” Initially labeled “Dark Angel” for its black outfit and heavy mood, the teaser photos of “Love is MOVE” had fans guessing Secret might shy away from its usual bright tunes and go for sexier and more mature sound. But “Love is MOVE” turned out to be another pop dance track perfectly matching Secret’s sweet voice.

Local media said the reason for this new strategy is because most teaser photos aren’t supposed to just represent the title track but the entire album. The concept of the teaser photos are part of the bigger picture, expressing the overall tone of the album, so often they don’t coincide with the title track’s concept.

“The Wonder Girls’ teaser photos are supposed to express the whole second album, so it might feel a bit different from the title track. But the powerful and charismatic image you see in the teasers are an expression of the girls’ confidence and passion for their new album, so it does have some correlation to their title track,” JYP Entertainment told local media recently.

It’s hard to judge whether these tactics are working or not. If you solely look at it from “raising the awareness” stand point, these teasers are definitely serving its purpose. Also, as opposed to teaser photos, most of the teaser videos have been in line with the actual song’s concept. However, in terms of giving an idea of what to expect (thus, “tease”) it may not be the right method. As far as creating a hit product, the recent girl group teasers have all resulted in massive hits. But whether this will become a more common method for other artists, we’ll have to wait and see. What is your take on this strategy? Is this something we’ll see more often in the future?

Thunderstix is the Editor-in-chief for soompi.com. You can email him at eugene@soompi.com, or follow his twitter.com feed at @eugenekim222.