‘John Travolta Wannabe’ by T-ara

In the outskirts of K-pop, T-ara are strutting to the beat of their own drum with the release of their comeback mini-album, ‘John Travolta Wannabe‘. Before giving the disco-themed package a listen, we’ll run through a quick crash course on T-ara’s music, and what they’re all about.

Track List:

01 Roly-Poly
02 진짜 진짜 좋아해
03 Ya Ya Ya (Remix Ver.)
04 왜 이러니 (Remix Ver.)
05 Ma Boo (Remix Ver.)
06 몰라요 (Remix Ver.)
07 괜찮아요 (Remix Ver.)

Kpop girl group T-ara is a peculiar set of ladies. Made up of seven members – Boram, Eunjung, Hwayoung, Hyomin, Jiyeon, Qri, and Soyeon – T-ara’s trajectory in K-pop has been, more or less, an interesting one.

T-ara debuted in 2009, making their foray into the music industry with their first single – and to this day, one of their strongest – “Lies“. T-ara didn’t make much of a splash at first, but when they joined hands with boy-band Supernova in September of the same year, they really started to gain recognition for their music.

Both groups saw their popularity skyrocket with the smash-hit collabo, “TTL“. Its dark overtones and smooth blend of voices made this song very likable, and it went on to spawn two other versions: the electronic “TTL 2” and the Japanese CF version, “TTL 3“.

In December 2009, T-ara dropped their first full-length album, appropriately titled ‘Absolute First Album‘. To put it together, T-ara gathered their hits and sprinkled them among a batch of new songs. One of which being T-ara’s most recognizable single, “Bo Peep Bo Peep“. It wasn’t until this point that T-ara went from standing as just another girl group, to being (what I like to call) the queens of theearworm.

T-ara exist because their songs never quit. The magic is found in the hands of their songwriters/producers, who have shamelessly cooked up outrageous hooks, mostly driven by meaningless noise and gibberish, and have rarely held back from dousing T-ara in downpours of vocal processing. The outcome: eye-crossing songs with sharp talons, ready to claw their way into your head and peck away at your sanity.

Brutal? Considering such singles as “I Go Crazy Because of You” – the overdone, over-reaching knockoff of Britney Spears‘ “Womanizer” – and “YaYaYa” – T-ara’s most eyebrow-raising, cringe-worthy release yet – there’s really no other way of putting it.

But because T-ara are manufactured pop starlets, they also had the luck of handing over glowing tunes worthy of batting an eyelash (most of which came from their first full album, where they had adopted an audacious electro-pop style with high levels of appeal). Case in point: Bo Peep Bo Peep’s accompanying lead single, “Like The Beginning“, their repackaged single “I’m Really Hurt“, the sassy-meets-redundancy-done-right “One & One“, and of course, their true first song, “Good Person“.

It’s not a compelling collection of songs, but T-ara have followed all of the trends to a T, cooing through auto-tune and embracing every style in the books. And to guarantee their music sticks, they’ve willingly hummed, squealed, yelled, and yawned quirky hooks ad nauseam.

Which finally brings us to “Roly Poly“.

Seeing as how several groups have stepped into a time machine (tapping into retro concepts and the like), it comes as no surprise that T-ara have opted to jive to disco this season.

“Roly Poly” is the cliché take on the disco era. In true T-ara form, the song’s main lure is the relentless “roly poly, roly roly poly” line, accompanied by a thumping instrumental that’s made for a head-bobbing good time.

The song teases with T-ara’s best take on ‘rap’ near the end; vocally, “Roly Poly” doesn’t do much other than the usual 1-2 octave setup. The second song on this mini-album, “진짜 진짜 좋아해” – which is nothing more than a rehash of T-ara’s previous songs with a ‘disco’-like production - fails to offer any as well. Although, there is one point where a member attempts a high note, she manages to sound completely out of tune instead. But it’s not fair to knock them down for not having vocal talent, because they don’t have much and that’s not what these songs ask for.

T-ara is always there to give you what’s popular at the time, but they do it by delivering it in a contrived way with an insane amount of noise that overwhelms the senses – that’s the basic gist of what happened with ‘John Travolta Wannabe’. T-ara are experts at babbling melodies that later worm their way into your subconscious. You become as much of a robot as they are to their own songs, and in a weird way, that’s what’s expected.

Once upon a time, T-ara were a promising group in K-pop. Now, all that T-ara seems to be is a barometer of the next trend, which they can then twist to rattle our brains with their next spin of nonsense.

Overall Rating: 2.9/5

What are your thoughts on T-ara’s new mini-album?