Rough (song)

"Rough"
Single by GFriend
from the EP Snowflake
ReleasedJanuary 25, 2016
GenreK-pop
Length3:29
Label
Songwriter(s)
  • Iggy
  • Youngbae
Producer(s)
  • Iggy
  • Youngbae
GFriend singles chronology
"Me Gustas Tu"
(2015) 		"Rough"
(2016) 		"Navillera"
(2016)
Music video
"Rough" on YouTube

"Rough" (Korean: 시간을 달려서; RR: Siganeul Dallyeoseo; lit. Run through time) is a song recorded by South Korean girl group GFriend for their third extended play, Snowflake (2016). The song was written and produced by Iggy and Youngbae,[1] and was released by Source Music on January 25, 2016.

The song was ranked at number 3 on the year-end Gaon Digital Chart for 2016 and was the best selling song of the year in South Korea with 1,903,126 downloads sold.

Release and promotion

"Rough" was revealed as the lead single of GFriend's third EP, Snowflake, on January 14, 2016,[2] and was released with the EP on January 25. "Rough" is the final song in the group's "school series" and represents the end of a school year.[3][4] They maintained their "powerful-innocent" concept, wearing school uniforms and showcasing "perfectly synchronized fierce and powerful" dance choreography.[5][6] The accompanying music video for "Rough" was inspired by the anime film The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.[7] It was produced by Zanybros and directed by Hong Won-ki.[3]

The group performed "Rough" for the first time at the showcase for the EP, held at AX Korea in Gwangjin District, Seoul, and broadcast live via Naver's V app.[8][5][9] The group then promoted the EP with performances of "Rough" on various music shows, starting with SBS MTV's The Show on January 26. In their second week of promotion, the song won first place on every music show with a chart system. By February 28, "Rough" had won a total of 15 music show trophies, including "triple crowns" on M! Countdown, Music Bank, Show Champion, and Inkigayo.[10][11][12][13] With these wins, GFriend is in second place for number of wins by a girl group for a single song, behind Apink's 17 wins for "Luv".[11][14]

Reception

The song made Billboard's 20 Best K-Pop Songs of 2016 list at number 13, stating that the group "solidified their place as one of the top new girl groups", adding that they "perfected their formula of synthesizer-driven pop with dramatic violin lines" with a "more impassioned vocal delivery than we heard from the six beauties".[15]

"Rough" on listicles
Critic/Publication List Rank Ref.
Billboard Top 20 Best K-Pop Songs of 2016: Critic's Picks 13 [16]
SBS PopAsia Top 6 K-Pop Songs of 2016 1 [17]
Kim Young-dae (KMA's Music Critic) Best K-pop Idol Songs of 2007–2017: Critic's Pick — [18]
Yang So-ha (Music Critic) Top 50 K-pop Tracks (2015–2019) 44 [19]
Melon Top 100 Songs of the Decade Chart 67 [20]

Chart performance

The song debuted at number 2 on the Gaon Digital Chart, on the chart issue dated January 24–30, 2016, with 298,228 downloads sold and 4,598,171 streams.[21][22][23] In its second week, the song stayed at number 2 and topped the chart the following week, marking the group's first number one single in South Korea.[24][25] The song topped the chart for two consecutive weeks and spent a total of seven weeks within the top 10.[26][27]

The song placed at number 14 on the chart for the month of January 2016, with 325,098 downloads sold and 5,287,188 streams.[28][29][30] In February, the song topped the monthly chart with 454,065 downloads sold and 22,466,115 streams - topping the Streaming Chart -.[31][32][33]

The song also made the year-end chart as the third best selling song of the 2016, with 1,903,126 downloads sold - topping the year-end Download Chart - and 98,910,973 streams.[34][35][36]

The song surpassed 100 million streams in January 2017 and 2,500,000 downloads in June 2018.[37]

Accolades

GFriend at the 2016 Melon Music Awards
Awards and nominations for "Rough"
Year Organization Category Results Ref.
2016 Mnet Asian Music Awards Best Dance Performance (Female) Won [38]
Song of the Year Nominated
Melon Music Awards Song of the Year Nominated [39]
Best Dance Performance (Female) Won
2017 Gaon Chart Music Awards Song of the Year – January Won [40][unreliable source?]
Golden Disc Awards Digital Bonsang Won [41]
Digital Daesang Nominated
SBS MTV Best of the Best Best of Best View Won [42]
Soompi Awards Best Choreography Nominated
2020 Bugs Music Awards 20th Anniversary – Most Loved Songs Won [43]
Music program awards
Program Date (15 total) Ref.
The Show February 2, 2016 [10]
February 16, 2016
Show Champion February 3, 2016
February 17, 2016
February 24, 2016
M Countdown February 4, 2016
February 11, 2016
February 18, 2016
Music Bank February 5, 2016
February 12, 2016
February 19, 2016
February 26, 2016
Inkigayo February 7, 2016
February 21, 2016
February 28, 2016

Charts

Sales

Country Sales
South Korea (digital)[44] 2,500,000+
South Korea (streaming)[45] 125,291,174+

References

  1. ^ "시간을 달려서 (Rough)". Melon (in Korean). Retrieved October 15, 2017.
  2. ^ Kim Ji-young (January 14, 2016). "'Girlfriend' unveils teaser images for upcoming album". K-Pop Herald. Archived from the original on October 11, 2016. Retrieved May 23, 2016.
  3. ^ a b Kim Byung-kwan (January 25, 2016). "[Photo] GFriend Steals Hearts at Comeback Showcase". enewsWorld. CJ E&M. Archived from the original on February 13, 2016. Retrieved May 23, 2016.
  4. ^ "GFriend". After School Club. Episode 199. February 16, 2016. Event occurs at 15:58. Arirang. Archived from the original on September 18, 2019. Retrieved May 25, 2016.
  5. ^ a b Ahn Sung-mi (January 26, 2016). "GFriend drops new EP amid much fanfare". The Korea Herald. Archived from the original on June 2, 2016. Retrieved May 23, 2016.
  6. ^ 여자친구 3rd Mini Album 'SNOWFLAKE' [GFriend 3rd Mini Album "Snowflake"] (in Korean). Melon. LOEN Entertainment. Archived from the original on May 8, 2016. Retrieved May 24, 2016.
  7. ^ Lee Jae-hoon (February 6, 2016). [초점]'여자친구' 명실상부 신흥 대세 걸그룹, 어떻게? (in Korean). Newsis. Archived from the original on June 11, 2016. Retrieved June 2, 2016.
  8. ^ "GFriend to hold 1st showcase". K-Pop Herald. January 19, 2016. Archived from the original on October 11, 2016. Retrieved May 23, 2016.
  9. ^ Shin Ji-hye (January 26, 2016). "[V Report] GFriend wants to 'collaborate with San E'". K-Pop Herald. Archived from the original on March 13, 2016. Retrieved May 23, 2016.
  10. ^ a b Son Ji-hyoung (February 22, 2016). "GFriend 'formidable' with 12th victory". K-Pop Herald. Archived from the original on October 11, 2016. Retrieved June 4, 2016.
  11. ^ a b Park Se-jin (March 2, 2016). "G-Friend dominates Korean music scene". Aju Business Daily. Archived from the original on June 11, 2016. Retrieved May 9, 2016.
  12. ^ Hicap, Jonathan M. (February 20, 2016). "GFriend achieves 2 triple crowns". Manila Bulletin. Archived from the original on April 28, 2016. Retrieved May 25, 2016.
  13. ^ Kang Seo-jeong (February 24, 2016). 여자친구, '쇼챔' 1위 '트리플크라운'..13관왕 '대기록'[종합] [GFriend wins number one on 'Show Champion' for the triple crown... 13th trophy so far] (in Korean). OSEN. Naver News. Archived from the original on February 27, 2016. Retrieved May 25, 2016.
  14. ^ Kim Jae-heun (March 2, 2016). "It's GFriend Time". The Korea Times. Archived from the original on July 13, 2018. Retrieved May 23, 2016.
  15. ^ "20 Best K-Pop Songs of 2016: Critic's Picks". Billboard. Retrieved October 15, 2017.
  16. ^ Benjamin, Jeff. "20 Best K-Pop Songs of 2016: Critic's Picks". Billboard. Retrieved December 22, 2016.
  17. ^ "Top 6 K-Pop songs of 2016". SBS Pop Asia. Archived from the original on June 21, 2017. Retrieved January 19, 2017.
  18. ^ 케이팝 아이돌 베스트 2007-2017에 선정한 120곡 영상 및 리스트입니다. (2). Twitter, YouTube. Archived from the original on June 17, 2021. Retrieved October 10, 2017.
  19. ^ "2015 – 2019 케이팝 결산 Domestic by 양소하 - 2020년 11월 21일". Tonplein. Archived from the original on June 17, 2021. Retrieved November 21, 2020.
  20. ^ "Rough listed at #67 at MelOn Top100 Songs of the Decade Chart [2010s-2019s]". Melon. Archived from the original on January 28, 2021. Retrieved December 1, 2020.
  21. ^ "Week 5 2016 Digital Chart". Gaon Chart. Korea Music Content Association. Archived from the original on February 15, 2016. Retrieved October 15, 2017.
  22. ^ "Week 5 2016 Download Chart". Gaon Chart. Korea Music Content Association. Archived from the original on March 16, 2016. Retrieved October 15, 2017.
  23. ^ "Week 5 2016 Streaming Chart". Gaon Chart. Korea Music Content Association. Archived from the original on October 18, 2016. Retrieved October 15, 2017.
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  25. ^ a b "Week 7 2016 Digital Chart". Gaon Chart. Korea Music Content Association. Archived from the original on February 21, 2016. Retrieved October 15, 2017.
  26. ^ "Week 8 2016 Digital Chart". Gaon Chart. Korea Music Content Association. Archived from the original on November 25, 2016. Retrieved October 15, 2017.
  27. ^ "Week 11 2016 Digital Chart". Gaon Chart. Korea Music Content Association. Archived from the original on March 23, 2016. Retrieved October 15, 2017.
  28. ^ "Gaon Digital Chart: January, 2016". Gaon Chart. Korea Music Content Association. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved October 15, 2017.
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  33. ^ "Gaon Streaming Chart: February, 2016". Gaon Chart. Korea Music Content Association. Archived from the original on April 27, 2016. Retrieved October 15, 2017.
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  37. ^ "Gaon Observation Note". Gaon Chart. Korea Music Content Association. Archived from the original on September 13, 2018. Retrieved September 12, 2018.
  38. ^ Tamar Herman (December 2, 2016). "8 Can't-Miss Performances From the Mnet Asian Music Awards". Billboard. Retrieved January 1, 2017.
  39. ^ Chung Joo-won (November 20, 2016). "BTS, EXO, TWICE top 2016 Melon Music Awards". Yonhap News Agency. Archived from the original on May 24, 2020. Retrieved January 1, 2017.
  40. ^ James Buhain (February 18, 2016). "Big Bang, EXO Take Home Major Trophies For 2016 Gaon Chart K-Pop Awards". kpopstarz.com. Archived from the original on February 8, 2017. Retrieved December 31, 2016.
  41. ^ Yoon Min-sik (January 15, 2017). "Exo, Twice grab top honors at Golden Disc awards". The Korea Herald. Archived from the original on March 17, 2017. Retrieved January 16, 2017.
  42. ^ "GFriend won the Best of Best View at 100th Episode of SBS MTV". The Show. February 1, 2021. Archived from the original on June 17, 2021. Retrieved February 14, 2017.
  43. ^ 20주년 어워즈 – 가장 사랑받은 음악 20 [20th Anniversary Awards – 20 Most Loved Music]. Bugs! (in Korean). Archived from the original on December 13, 2020. Retrieved April 10, 2022.
  44. ^ "Gaon Download and Streaming Certification– Year 2017". Gaon Chart. Archived from the original on September 12, 2018. Retrieved September 12, 2017.
  45. ^ [좀 특별한 가온차트] 굿바이 여자친구… 가온차트로 보는 여자친구 6년의 역사. Gaon Chart. Archived from the original on June 21, 2021. Retrieved June 21, 2021.