Flavor Profile: Ladies' Code

I’m finally back! Ladies’ Code’s debut anniversary was at the beginning of the month and I had plans to release this post then, but work was a little too crazy for me to have been able to do that. Now that I’m officially off from work for who knows how long, and staying inside I was able to work on getting it up.

This Flavor Profile is not going to be as extensive as some of my other Flavor Profiles, as sadly Ladies’ Code had some really hard things happen to them which resulted with them not being able to bounce back in popularity making it slightly harder for more varied (or subbed) content that’s easy to find now, but they are a group I’ve liked for a while, and really wanted to share more about them because their music is good and I want more people to give them a chance.

LC debuted on March 7, 2013 under Polaris Entertainment as the label’s first girl group. The group consisted of five members: Ashley, RiSe, EunB, Sojung, and Zuny. Their debut song was ‘Bad Girl’ (one of the best debut songs I’ve heard from any group), followed by ‘Hate You’, ‘Pretty Pretty’, ‘So Wonderful’, and ‘Kiss Kiss’.

All the girl’s had some sort of entertainment background before they debuted. RiSe was on the show Star Audition: The Great Birth and did well enough to gain some fame. She was then coupled with David Oh on the 2011 season of We Got Married . EunB was in the original lineup for AOA, but ended up leaving FNC before they debuted. Sojung was on the first season of The Voice of Korea. Zuny was a trainee at BigHit, and Ashley started doing covers on YouTube before auditioning (and making it into) Cube Entertainment.

Ashley talks about how she got into LC on her YouTube channel. I think it’s worth a look because I feel her experience is a little bit different than others, and a different perspective:

I don’t feel it’s beneficial to Ladies’ Code to have to always be burdened by this event when you are talking about them, but if you are coming here not knowing anything about Ladies’ Code it is important to know what happened to the group as it is a direct result as to why they aren’t as big as they could have been. In 2014 during promotions for the song ‘Kiss Kiss’ the group was in a car crash that resulted in the deaths of RiSe and EunB. The group took a long hiatus and cameback as three members on February 24th, 2016 with ‘Galaxy.’

LC’s style has evolved slightly from when they first debuted with, but they did keep up with their core sound. I very much love their debut song, but their more laid back r&b/electronic comebacks ‘Galaxy’ and ‘The Rain’ are so ridiculously good. Seriously, they are top songs and have been praised by many in the industry as being some of the best to come out in the past decade. After the accident and resulting hiatus, Ladies’ Code just couldn’t come back to where they were which meant that a lot of people didn’t give the songs the attention they deserved.

Billboard lists ‘Galaxy’ as #19 on their The 100 Greatest K-Pop Songs of the 2010s: Staff List

LC’s discography is pretty easy to get through, as there isn’t that much, and I know you can go to their Spotify page and play all their music pretty easily but I did create a dedicated playlist so that you can listen to all of their music in one spot. I skipped instrumental versions, and included a few songs that they’ve worked on either on OSTs/music shows, and all their solo work that is uploaded. Just recently the entirety of their music was added to Spotify, so it’s really the best time to get into their b-sides.

YouTube Music playlist version can be found here.

And of course I made a playlist all of their music videos, in order:

Their most recent comeback was the October 2019 EP, “Set Me Free”. “Set Me Free” is a really good example of the groups older work, and brings back some of the music style they used in the very beginning with the more retro funk/brighter r&b style that you can hear in ‘Bad Girl’. I think it was a really nice choice music-wise, especially since it is their last work together for the time being. It had been so long since their last comeback, I was happy to see Polaris give the girls a somewhat lengthier project, and gave nod to their earlier work.

As of 2020, Ladies’ Code is officially on a break. The group left Polaris, and are focusing on their respective solo works. Sojung has been working on solo music for a while and has a YouTube channel where she has been posting covers and vlogs, Zuny has been focusing on acting (she was recently in the drama Justice and just signed with Actorsaid Entertainment), and Ashley has been focusing more on her YouTube and other collabs (she is currently on the DIVE Studio’s Hwaiting series) as well as continuing her work as host of the Arirang radio show, Sound K.

They all have active Instagrams: Ashley, Sojung, Zuny.

I’m biased because the Musicians React series is my favorite in the react channels so I feel I only post their videos, but I really wanted to make known their reaction to Bad Girls/Galaxy because I think the way that they handle things is extremely respectful and they provide a good assessment on the change in musical style:

As I said before, it’s a little hard to find content for LC around that is subbed, and I think that paired with the fact they aren’t as popular anymore, a lot of the older videos are somewhere in the black hole of YouTube. I did want to find some videos to show off their personality together and not just link to their personal YouTube channels, as well as share some other live videos.

Ask Me Anything:

Performing ‘Butterfly’ on Immortal Songs:

They’ve been on After School Club a couple of times (Ashley has hosted as well), but here’s the episode with all five members:

Random dance from their fifth anniversary VLive. Wait for Sojung’s Taemin moment:

They sound so good here:

‘Dada La’ is one of my favorite b-sides (I also am obsessed with Sojung’s voice here):

And lastly a compilation video of random clips that a fan posted. When you want to actually know about a group, find fan compilations. They really do help you get a feel (there is a part 2 where they focus on the other members if you need more):

So there’s the rundown of one of my favorite girl groups in kpop, Ladies’ Code. I know that I glossed over a bunch of information in this post, but I really truly love their music and think that they are worthy of attention for just that alone. If you are are looking for a retro/r&b vibe with great vocals, this is the group for you. I hope this will help ease you into working your way through their work and enjoy.

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