tripleS subunit Visionary Vision fights against social stigmas with new album 'Performante'
Female hip-hop seems to be the latest trend in K-pop, and girl group tripleS’ newest subunit is here to “Hit the Floor” and ride the new wave.
tripleS Visionary Vision (VV) comes as the newest “dimension” of the girl group, which are subunits of the group that are formed by fan votes on which members the audience wants to see perform on each new album.
For those less familiar with tripleS, the girl group is a massive 24-member collective first put together with 10 members on Feb. 13 last year. Additional members were rolled out with new “dimensions,” leading up to the whole 24-member group releasing the “Assemble24” full-length album on May 8 this year.
For each new album, the agency Modhaus introduces the theme first, then asks fans to vote on which members they think will be the best fit for it.
For VV’s new album, “Performante,” fans were asked to vote for who they thought were the best dancers of tripleS. The result was the 12 members of VV: leader Hyerin, Yooyeon, Nakyoung, Yubin, Kaede, Kotone, Yonji, Nien, Sohyun, Xinyu, Lynn and Jiyeon. A total of 870,000 votes were counted, among which 680,000 were for Hyerin to be the leader.
“I took part in this album feeling a sense of responsibility like never before,” Hyerin told reporters during a showcase held on Wednesday at the Yes24 Live Hall in eastern Seoul for the release of “Performante.”
“Twelve members aren’t a small number,” she said. “I was worried whether I could lead the team in the right way, especially because I’m one of the younger ones of tripleS. But as we practiced for the album, it felt like all 12 of us were leaders of the group, not just me.”
“Performante” is a 10-track album, which features the “high-tech dance” track “Hit the Floor.” It aims to fight against the social stigma surrounding young girls — especially the opinions on how they look and behave — something tripleS has done with its past tracks, including “Girls Never Die” and “Rising” (2023).
“We want to break the mold of what’s been done by female idols and prove that we can be whatever we want to be,” Sohyun said. “So, we talked a lot about the difficulties that young girls endure. But with this album, we’re taking a step toward overcoming such difficulties and becoming independent women.”
BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]