4Minute - Huh

I remember very clearly the criticism that 4Minute suffered for having Hyun A, an ex-Wonder Girl, in the band and sounding like a bad 2NE1 copycat - I didn't like them that much but they were one of the first new girl groups to debut when I had just gotten properly addicted to kpop last year so I kinda followed their career. If you were with me earlier this year, you know that I went so far as to see them "live" when they were here last January. I didn't like it, and I was disappointed, but that was with their past material and they're over that phase of their career now - time to move on.


I didn't like Huh when I first heard it, I found it too 4Minute-y, and I didn't like it when I saw the video. However when I saw the live performance everything started to make sense to me and I got a blast of enlightenment. Personally I still don't like it but I get what 4Minute are doing and I like how they think.

The start reminds me alot of Hyun A's Change but once the melody starts so do the differences. I like that they didn't process their vocals to oblivion so you actually hear that some of these girls actually have some semblances of actual voices. Like their brother idol group, the instrumental and the vocals together sound gritty and rough.

4Minute began with a very clean sound - clean processing, clean computerized instruments and for that they got called a 2NE1 copy. But now that I think about it, Beast started out with the same style - everything about Bad Girl was so clean - but then Beast released Shock and the production on the song was still smooth, but for the most part the vocals and the instrumental sounded very gritty. That's exactly what they're doing to 4Minute now - they're gearing them away from the clean processing sound and towards this new one while still keeping some of the band's identity.

It's not a complete change, because like I said I found it too much like a 4Minute song when I heard it, once again it's more like a growth. You hear elements of their first EP in the song, and the treatment may have been changed but their vocals are distinct, at least to me.

The song's catchy but not annoying because an actual melody gets stuck in your mind, the girls actually sing and the live performances make it sound even better - it's a very good pop song.

4.1/5