Woollim Entertainment is famous for ensuring their artists have perfect live vocals, with very few instances of their groups lip-syncing during live stages. This was the case with older groups INFINITE and Lovelyz, who maintain their vocal stability even with physically-demanding choreographies, and is definitely the case for rookie girl group Rocket Punch. Having debuted to a fair amount of hype since half of their members participated in Produce 48, Woollim's second girl group has continued to wow fans with their varying concepts and excellent performances. After releasing 3 EPs with "Punch" in their title, all of which gave off more modern dance-pop vibes, Rocket Punch's first comeback in a little over 9 months dives headfirst into the retro sound, something that has seen its resurgence in recent years, with their first single album "Ring Ring" (no "Punch" here) and title track of the same name. Without further ado, let's dive in.
Meaning: Much like their previous title tracks, Ring Ring is a love song. I've seen some people think that the song is about a girl choosing one of two potential love interests, depending on who calls her first but I take a different approach. Instead, I believe that Ring Ring is telling a story of the girls playing a push-and-pull or "will they, won't they" game with a boy they like. Maknae Dahyun literally opens the song by singing that she's "enjoying this/a game to see who can make who cry first" and throughout the entire song, we get lots of indications that the girls are the aggressive party in this romance. If you actually take a look at the lyrics, it's surprising how many mature relationship undertones they were able to weave in there and it's definitely masked by Ring Ring's bright retro sound.
Underneath the surface though, the song presents the girls as being very much in love but are trying to win the "game" of having the boy confess first. The chorus begins with "my heart is dizzy, pounding and ringing/telling me he's not the one so you hurry", "you" in this case referring to the boy they want and of course, we get the recurring imagery of the girls' hearts being alarms, which is how we derive the song's name and also why "ring the alarm" appears so much throughout the song. In short, Ring Ring is a love song depicting Rocket Punch's members as very strong-minded girls who want to win the "war of love" with the boy they like, all while hiding their feelings.
MV: The first thing you'll notice about the MV is that everything's insanely retro, from the girls' outfits to the set pieces. Colours are dialed up to eleven and the whole MV is just saturated with bright pinks and purples. I wouldn't go so far as to call it garish but safe be it to say, this is one colourful MV. It's pretty cool to see all the 1980s set pieces, with the girls dancing in an old school petrol station with vintage sedans in the background or a vintage store, selling things like typewriters, stereos or cassette players. Of course, my existence hadn't begun in the '80s so I don't connect to the MV as much but I'm sure for many older viewers, Ring Ring's MV would undoubtedly invoke a strong sense of nostalgia for them. The girls' outfits are also very reminiscent of that era, with hairbands, bell bottom jeans and just general '80s fashion.
On a side-note, my favourite shot in the MV is something that might be considered super inane but I just thought it was so cute and funny. We see Rocket Punch playing some kind of card game in the vintage store, which requires a player to ring a bell as quickly as possible when a certain card is played. I'm not entirely certain of the rules so I can't give a real explanation but at some point we see Yunkyoung play a card and then ring the bell in an excited fashion, only for the other members to give her utter looks of disdain and confusion. It's such an accurate representation of Rocket Punch constantly roasting the life out of Yunkyoung and her "I messed up" face in that shot is just so representative of the group's real life dynamic. I love it.
As you would expect, there's also a ton of "ringing" imagery throughout the MV, from phones to bells to alarm clocks. An interesting thing I noticed is that we get a couple shots of the girls competing with one another to be the first to either receive a "ring" or "ring" something/someone. It might sound a little confusing for me to just say it like that but just take a closer look at the MV. Dahyun rings a bell as the rest are distracted playing with fireworks, Yeonhee beats Yunkyoung to the punch (pun absolutely intended) with that card game from earlier, Suyun picks up a phone before Yunkyoung, Yunkyoung runs to and presses a buzzer before Sohee and Dahyun can react, and Juri snatches Suyun's chance to jump into a Beetle and honk. These are just the examples I could pick up from the MV but I guess there has to be a clear winner out of the 6 girls and we get that right at the end of the MV. After their night of fun, the girls crash in a bedroom with all manner of retro devices lying around them. Amidst the stillness, an alarm clock rings and Yeonhee, who's holding the clock, wakes up, hinting to us that the boy they're pining after has "rung her alarm".
The bright and fun atmosphere of the MV really complements Ring Ring's retro sound, and is sure to bring some viewers back to the time they spent in the '80s. Even if you didn't spend any time in the '80s, I'm sure you'll be able to enjoy this groovy track just like I am.
Styling: As I've done with earlier posts, I'll approach this segment with a little more tact as two of Rocket Punch's members are minors in South Korea (Sohee and Dahyun being 18 and 16 respectively) while the rest are 19 and above. Anyway, I can safely say that the outfits used in the MV are absolutely perfect for this concept because they're literally '80s fashion personified. Like I mentioned earlier, one particular dance sequence outfit (and my personal favourite one) has the girls in bell bottom jeans and varying midriff-baring tops that I can't quite describe but are true retro fashion. Suyun also has this bright yellow hairband and huge earrings that complete her entire outfit and really just screams hip young lady of that time period.
There're a couple other outfits worn during their dance shots that all really match the concept, from the bright colour-coded glossy ones that remind me of dance clubs or the black-and-white outfits that invoke memories of classy functions. They do look a little dated but they're keeping in line with Ring Ring's retro concept so I can accept it. In the non-dance shots of the MV, we do see the girls decked out in more classic '80s fashion and they all honestly all look pretty good in them, accentuating the girls' youthful visuals well.
While Rocket Punch's members have definitely undergone individual styling changes in the past, there're really some big changes here and first and foremost I'll talk about my bias Yunkyoung. Before Ring Ring, Yunkyoung has always had long hair with different colours so KETCHY (fandom name) have definitely gotten used to her looking like that, which made it a huge shocker for us to see her with short hair this comeback. Of course, her short hair is really just a chin-length bob and definitely not as short as Sohee's in the past (more on this later) but it's still a big change for her. Do I like it? Well, there're certain idols that suit short hair better and others that look better with long locks, and I personally think that Yunkyoung falls into the latter category. That's not to say she doesn't look good this comeback though I still think she's a mad visual but just that I think she looks better with long hair.
Now, I namedropped Sohee as a member who has had short hair for all of their previous titles, ranging from what I would call a grade-schooler's haircut to a slightly longer bob. Personally, I felt those styles weren't very flattering on her but I'd gotten used to her looking like that. To my complete surprise, not only does she have long hair this comeback, her hair is also bleached blonde and I'm totally living for it. Sohee's new look has made me eat my words because she absolutely kills it this comeback and her visual has just increased exponentially. Without a doubt, Ring Ring is her era in terms of styling.
Song: If I haven't mentioned it enough by now, Ring Ring has a retro concept and utilises a heavy electric synth sound, making it extremely reminiscent of '80s pop. Rocket Punch's previous titles were basically all modern dance-pop so this is definitely a huge change for them. Retro sounds aren't usually my cup of tea because of how dated they sound in general but Ring Ring has a super catchy post-chorus instrumental that gets more addictive the more you listen to it. It also helps that Sohee's rap break in the middle of the song helps to change things up a little by bringing in a slightly more modern sound while still maintaining the overall flow and coherence of the song. If you're someone who really enjoys retro or disco songs, Ring Ring is definitely down your alley.
Line distribution: Rocket Punch is one of the few K-Pop groups nowadays that doesn't have fixed positions for their members (like someone being the group's main vocal or main dancer for example). However, it's pretty clear at times who's meant to be what, especially once you take a look at the lines assigned to them as well as understanding how the different members perform. For starters, I think it's quite obvious that Suyun is the group's main vocal, constantly getting the more vocally challenging parts as well as high notes, with Ring Ring being no different. She comes in 1st at around 22.1%, almost a quarter of the lines to herself. Coming in close behind is Yunkyoung, who many consider lead vocal, at a little over 20.8%. Yunkyoung constantly shows herself to have amazing vocal stability on top of basically being the group's main dancer so she's definitely the group's ace and deserves the amount of lines she got for Ring Ring.
In 3rd place we have Dahyun at around 19.3%, a good amount of lines for someone who was once considered sub-vocal. She has a pretty soft and sweet voice, which really matches well with the more bubbly concepts that Rocket Punch revolve around so it makes a lot of sense for her to get as many lines as she did. Right after her is leader Yeonhee, who could be considered lead vocal as well as lead rapper, considering that she does get a couple of rap lines here as well as in previous titles. Generally Yeonhee's honey vocals do award her more lines but that isn't the case for Ring Ring, where she gets slightly under 15.7%. 5th place goes to Sohee at just under 11.1% and if it wasn't clear enough, she's undoubtedly the group's main rapper since she's usually the one rapping, with Ring Ring being no different. I'm totally fine with her getting less lines though because she really shone through with her styling and visuals.
I don't really think it's a surprise to anyone that Juri comes in last at around 10.9%. As the only non-Korean member (being Japanese), I foresaw that she would get the fewest lines since it's obvious that the majority of a K-Pop song would be sung by the Koreans. That said, Juri did start out getting quite a number of lines, even fairly long chorus lines, in Bim Bam Bum but that has progressively gone down as the comebacks came. I still think she got a good amount of lines with Ring Ring but I do believe she could've gotten more, maybe give some of Dahyun's lines to her since they're both more or less sub-vocals anyway. Either way, Ring Ring's line distribution makes a lot of sense, with the stronger vocalists generally getting the most lines.
Final thoughts: Rocket Punch is one of the girl groups I've followed since pre-debut and they continue to astound me with their amazing live vocals. A phrase often thrown around K-Pop fans is that their idols "eat CDs" and that's honestly so true for these girls (or Woollim artists in general). Rocket Punch hasn't attained their first win yet and I don't know if a retro song will do that for them but I do hope that they rise to even greater heights and see them continue to soar as pioneers of the 4th generation of K-Pop. Thanks for reading.
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