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Candy (H.O.T. song)

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Wikipedia article




{{Infobox song

| name = Candy

| cover =

| alt =

| caption =

| type = single

| artist = H.O.T.

| album = We Hate All Kinds of Violence

| language = Korean

| released = September 7, 1996

| recorded = 1996

| studio =

| venue =

| genre = * K-pop

* dance-pop

* bubblegum pop

| length = 3:37

| label = SM

| writer = Jang Yong-jin

| producer = Jang Yong-jin

| prev_title = Warrior's Descendant

| prev_year = 1996

| next_title = Wolf and Sheep

| next_year = 1997

| misc =

}}

"'Candy'" is a song recorded by South Korean boy group H.O.T.; it was released as part of the group's debut studio album 'We Hate All Kinds of Violence' on September 7, 1996 via SM Entertainment. Along with "Warrior's Descendant", it serves as one of the two singles from the record. A cheerful K-pop bubblegum pop dance track, the song was both written and produced by Jang Yong-jin. Upon the album's release, "Candy" was met with widespread recognition in South Korea and has been credited with sparking a new wave of mainstream music in the country's youth.

H.O.T. promoted "Candy" with televised live performances on weekly South Korean music programs in late 1996 and January 1997, and topped the chart rankings for several weeks. At the 11th Golden Disc Awards, the group received the Best New Artist award for "Candy". In a 2005 survey conducted by MTV Korea, it was voted the most popular song of 1996 in South Korea by netizens.

Background



In early 1996, SM Entertainment founder and record producer Lee Soo-man surveyed high school students in the area to find out what their ideal pop music group would be like. Lee then used this information to form and create the concept of the agency's upcoming boy group, H.O.T. The five group members were recruited by the company and soon became trainees under the agency, a model that took inspiration from the Japanese idol system founded by Johnny Kitagawa. H.O.T. made its debut on September 7, 1996, with the commercially successful release of the album 'We Hate All Kinds of Violence', which sold over 1.5 million copies.

Two singles were spawned from the album: the first single "Warrior's Descendant" is a critique of schoolyard bullying, while the second single, "Candy," is a cheerful bubblegum pop song that established the group's popularity in South Korea. The trainee system laid by SM with H.O.T. has led them to become recognized as the first idol group in K-pop, with the fashion, rap skills and dance moves shown through "Candy" sparking a new wave of mainstream music in the country.

Live performances



Following promotions for the first single "Warrior's Descendant", H.O.T. began promoting the album's second single, "Candy", on televised weekly music programs in November 1996. The stages for "Candy" exemplifies the level of coordination regarding idol costumes, with each member wearing a designated color and accessorized with face paint, fuzzy oversized mittens, visors, bucket hats, and earmuffs, and used stuffed animals, backpacks, and messenger bags as props. On October 13 and 14, 2018, H.O.T. performed "Candy" at their reunion concert "Forever [Highfive Of Teenagers]" at the Seoul Olympic Stadium, which attracted a total of 100,000 attendees.

Accolades



"Candy" won the Best New Artist award at the 11th Golden Disc Awards. It achieved the top position on SBS's 'TV Gayo 20' (former version of 'Inkigayo'), MBC's 'Popular Songs Best 50' (former version of 'Show! Music Core'), and KBS's 'Top 10 Songs' (former version of 'Music Bank').

Impact and legacy



The release of "Candy" presented a softer and gentler form of pop music with upbeat and cheerful melodies accompanied by energetic dance movesa formula adopted by many subsequent Korean idol groups. Ranking it as the best K-pop song of all time in 2012, David Bevan of 'Spin' magazine wrote "Seo Taiji may have laid K-pops foundation a few years earlier, but it was H.O.T., a boy band engineered in part by SM kingpin Lee Soo-Man, that ushered in the 'idol' cult that's propelled Korean pop cultural product as far and wide as it's come in the past ten years." In 2014, Mnet included "Candy" in their countdown list of Legend 100 Songs, a list of 100 influential songs in Korean popular music history since the 1960s. That same year, music webzine 'Music Taste Y' ranked it at number 25 in their list of 120 greatest dance songs of all time, where critic Kim Yun-ha noted the multi use marketing that commercializes not only music, but also fashion and characters, and said that the song acts as sort of the ancestor of all those combined elements that the K-pop industry has become accustomed to in the present. 35 music and pop culture critics organized by 'Seoul Shinmun' and Melon ranked "Candy" at number 17 in a 2021 list of the 100 best K-pop songs of all time; critic Jeong Byeong-wook echoed that its beats, "dances, related fashions, various derivatives, and the fandom culture that surrounds it have all become pioneering models of the K-pop business today."

References



Category:1996 singles

Category:1996 songs

Category:SM Entertainment singles

Category:Korean-language songs

Category:K-pop songs

Category:Bubblegum pop songs

Category:Dance-pop songs

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