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Crayon Pop promoting Bar Bar Bar. L-R: Ellin, Soyul, Way, Choa, Gummi

POP! POP! CR-A-YON POP!
GET... SET... READYYY... GO!

Crayon Pop is a 4-member Korean Pop band founded in 2012 (initially known as Hurricane Pop) and went on indefinite hiatus in 2017. In the beginning, they found little success in their native Korea, but they were mildly popular in Japan. Their fortunes changed when they released "Bar Bar Bar" in the summer of 2013. At first, the song looked like it was destined for another lukewarm reception, but almost a month after it came out, the song went viral. It would go on to become their first and so far only chart-topping single. In addition to their fame in Korea, they also gained enough attention in America to be selected as Lady Gaga's opening act for some dates of her "Art Pop" tour in June/July of 2014.

Since the summer of 2014, the group has yet to return to the heights of fame they achieved with "Bar Bar Bar." However, they have remained active, releasing new material for both the Korean and Japanese markets. Lately, the group made headlines when Soyul was announced to be engaged to Moon Hee Jun of veteran male group H.O.T, and they were married in February.

In April of 2017, it was revealed the group's contracts with Chrome Media had expired in March of that year and the girls had gone their separate ways, although the group said they didn't consider this an official disbandment and hoped that they would one day get back together as five to release more music (Chrome Media has since announced that Way's contract ends in May, not March as they initially claimed). The group became a quartet on May 31st, 2017, when it was announced that Soyul will be leaving the group due to her marriage to Moon Hee Jun, as well as the arrival of their newborn baby girl.

Since the group's hiatus, Ellin has become a streamer on Afreeka TV, Choa has become a stage actress, and Way has found success as a YouTuber with her channel Wayland.

Members:

  • Gummi note : Leader, main dancer, vocalist
  • Ellin note : Lead Dancer, lead rapper, visual
  • Choa note : Main vocalist
  • Way note : Lead vocalist, main rappernote 

Former Members:

  • Arisa
  • Serang (Mari)
  • Soyul note : Lead vocalist, lead rapper, maknae

Sub-Units:

  • Strawberry Milk note 

    Crayon Pop on Social Media 

    Crayon Pop Discography 


Tropes related to Crayon Pop:

  • Abandoned Area: "Bar Bar Bar" was partially filmed in a deserted theme park, and "Dancing Queen 2.0" was filmed in an empty school and on empty streets.
  • Amusement Park: The setting for most of "Bar Bar Bar."
  • And Your Reward Is Clothes: When they won the mud wrestling tournament on "Let's Go Dream Team," their prize was a tray of beef.
  • Artistic License – Physics: At the end of "Bar Bar Bar 2.0," they bounce upwards off the screen on pogo sticks, seemingly into space.
  • Ascended Extra: Their former managers, nicknamed Wife Jung and Earman Kim, became well known within the Crayon Pop fandom for their banter with the girls in the early episodes of Crayon Pop TV.
  • Ascended Meme: An ASCII depiction of a cat dancing inspires the choreography for the chorus of "Doo Doom Chit."
  • Audience Participation Song: As is typical in K-Pop, their songs all have fan chants. However, their fans are particularly loud, and are even known to jump along to "Bar Bar Bar."
  • Auto-Tune: "Saturday Night"
  • Badass Adorable: When they went to Australia, everyone but Soyul wore a python around their necks for a photo op.
    • The "Story Version" of the "Bar Bar Bar" music video portrays them as a street gang who take up making pop music.
    • Every time that they have been in a "Let's Go Dream Team" wrestling tournament, they have gone on to win the competition, with Gummi and Soyul standing out as being especially talented.
  • Bifauxnen: Their Princess Aurora sketch has Soyul playing the father and Choa as a slightly-more-convincing son.
  • BFG: Formed by the girls to defeat the villain in the final fight in "FM"
  • Big Damn Heroes: Happens twice in "FM." First when the Tuxedo Mask-esque character sacrifices himself, and then again when they get some help from a Spartan and another soldier when they are about to be defeated in the final fight.
  • "Blind Idiot" Translation: While staying in Hong Kong for MAMA 2013, Way tried to use a translator app to check up on iced coffee she had ordered for Choa and herself. The app botched the translation, but the twins still got their meal.
  • The Cameo:
    • As the visual of the group, Ellin has had a few of these.
      • She appears as the love interest in Bumkey's "Attraction" video, and also in "Could You Be Mine?" by Phantom.
      • Ellin once again appears in Amber from f(x)'s solo debut video, "Shake that Brass."
      • She is also the person responsible for reviving K-Much in their debut video "Good to Go."
      • Crayon Pop's iconic helmets also appear at the beginning.
    • John Cho and Karen Gillan danced to "Bar Bar Bar" at a party in ABC's short-lived sitcom, Selfie
    • "Bar Bar Bar" got a classical Korean remake in a scene of the historical drama "Three Musketeers."
    • Many of the Chrome Ent. performers and several Korean celebrities appeared as guest stars and/or background characters in the video for "Uh-ee."
    • The other 4 members appear in Soyul's solo single, "Y-Shirt"
  • Camera Abuse: In "Lonely Christmas," Way knocks over the camera, causing none of the video filmed by the girls to be recorded.
  • Catchphrase: The group's standard introduction: "Charge! Hello, we are Crayon Pop!"
    • The page quote shows up in the Popping Version of "Bing Bing," "Bar Bar Bar" and "Lonely Christmas," and partially at the end of "Uh-ee."
    • Soyul: "Healing!"
      • "Small peppers are hotter!"
    • Ellin : "Uh...Hello, my name is Ellin. Uh, I'm fine thank you and you?"note 
      • "Gomindo no!"
    • Gummi: "I am crying from laughter. This is so hilarious. I am tearing up."
    • Way: "*insert food here* is alive and jumping in my mouth! MMMMMMM!" whenever she is eating something that she likes.note 
  • Christmas Episode: "Lonely Christmas" and "Love Christmas."
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Their management company decided to add a 6th member, Arisa, for Japanese promotions. She was silently released from the company shortly thereafter.
  • Color-Coded for Your Convenience:
    • Gummi: Blue
    • Ellin: Pink
    • Choa: Red
    • Way: Orange
    • Soyul: Yellow
  • Coming of Age Story: The story version of the "Bar Bar Bar" music video.
  • Cool and Unusual Punishment: In the second episode of Crayon Pop - Fun Fun Tour, Way and Gummi lose a game, and their punishment is to go ziplining down the side of a mountain.
  • Cover Version: Way and Choa doing "What You're Made Of" by Lucie Silvas and "Bad Girls" by Donna Summer.
  • Creepy Twins: Way and Choa at the beginning of "Dancing Queen 2.0."
  • Department of Redundancy Department:
    • From the chorus of "Bing Bing": Bingbingbingbing, bingbing, bingbingbing.
  • Determinator:
    • After a long career of guerrilla concerts, barely making it on music shows, and most recently self-producing Evolution Pop, Vol, 1, Crayon Pop has almost always had to make the best of what little they had or were given. The only real exception could probably be 2014, when they had their viral One-Hit Wonder "Bar Bar Bar".
    • Ellin auditioned and failed twice for the group, but tried again and successfully made it.
    • From this episode of "Let's Go Dream Team": Their match against Dal Shabet, especially Soyul's round against Subin (Skip to 1:01:20 for that). Subin has the clear height and weight advantage, and knocks Soyul down twice, but Soyul takes the beating, lets Subin lose her strength, and wins it all for Crayon Pop.
  • Distaff Counterpart: Their male labelmates, K-Much, debuted with a song that sounds very much like "Bar Bar Bar." However, they have already expressed that they want to be unique from Crayon Pop.
  • The Ditz: Ellin, although she insists she's more of a Genius Ditz, as it lets her show off more sides of her personality and brings attention to Crayon Pop.
  • Expy: At their inception, they were a very loose one for T-ara. Hurricane Pop (later renamed to Crayon Pop) was created after Chrome's CEO saw T-ara promoting "Roly Poly" on TV and was inspired to make a girl group. "Saturday Night," "Bing Bing" and "Roly Poly" all share a disco-esque sound, and feature the members in bright, colorful outfits. However, as their career has progressed, Crayon Pop has most definitely formed their own identity.
  • Face Doodling: Done as a punishment in one episode of Crayon Pop TV.
  • Fairy Companion: In "Y-Shirt," fairies played by the other members of Crayon Pop help Soyul with her work by creating men three men to design a shirt for her.
  • Fangirl: The girls have said that they want to be the next PSY (see "Homage" below), and also want to collaborate with One Direction. They got to meet the latter—or at least their cardboard-cutout versions—in Australia.
  • Friendly Tickle Torture: This was the punishment for losing a game in an episode of Crayon Pop TV.
  • Fun with Foreign Languages: The Korean pronunciation for "Christmas" sounds a lot like the Korean word for "depressing." This did not go unnoticed in "Lonely Christmas."
  • Gamer Chick: Each of them have admitted to playing video games in their spare time. Ellin in particular has talked about and posted pictures of herself playing League of Legends.
  • Girl Group: A Korean Pop Music girl group.
  • Gratuitous English: Many instances of this arose during their trip to Australia. It's played for laughs mostly, as none of them are particularly good at English. Some particular gems:
    "You are Hollywood star? Hollywood action good." - Way
    "You are garbagey." note  - Way
    "Please-u save me." - Soyul
    "Sorry, my younger sister is pig." - Choa
    "Wau~!" - Ellen—and others
  • Homage: Watch "Bar Bar Bar 2.0," then watch "Gangnam Style." Notice any similarities?
    • FM is oozing with references to Super Sentai (And by extension Power Rangers). note  It was mostly filmed in a rock quarry, there is karate and formations mimicking Humongous Mecha as part of the choreography, and tight track suits with gloves and boots, which look similar to the Rangers' famous suits.
  • Hotter and Sexier: Way is this to Choa's more innocent character in the video for "Road."
  • Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Retired Korean MMA fighter Choi Hong-Man is a fan of the group, and appeared in an episode of "Let's Go Dream Team" with Gummi and Soyul. When he was asked to hug Soyul, it went exactly as one would expect.
  • Iconic Item: Their helmets from "Bar Bar Bar" and tracksuits from "Dancing Queen" and "Bing Bing."
  • I Can Still Fight!: Gummi was diagnosed with rib fractures during "Bar Bar Bar" promotions, and kept on performing.
  • Identical Twin ID Tag: Choa and Way are identical twins, so for most of their career, Choa has had shorter hair than Way. However, since promotions from "FM" onward, Way and Choa's hair has been at or near equal length, so alternate means of ID can be used. Recently Way also got her bangs cut short, while Choa didn't, which appears to be the new ID tag.
    • Subverted in Strawberry Milk's video for "OK." They are made to look as identical as possible. That is, until their name tags are revealed...when they flash their butts at the camera.
  • I Meant to Do That: Ellin, already known for her clumsiness, intentionally stumbles as part of her choreography during her solo in "Uh-Ee."
  • Incredibly Long Note: Choa belts out a long note in the latter portions of "FM."
  • Jingle: A version of "Bar Bar Bar" with changed lyrics promoting Caffe Bene is used in a somewhat bizzare commercial for said coffee chain starring the girls.
  • Lyrical Cold Open: The original version of "Dancing Queen."
  • Mecha: The girls form a couple as part of the choreography for "FM."
  • Mood Whiplash: "Dancing Queen 2.0" starts off with a horror movie theme in an abandoned school. Then, the music hits and everything becomes light and cheerful.
  • The Music Meister: A saxophone-playing cat doll causes the girls to dance uncontrollably in "Doo Doom Chit."
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The group gives Way this treatment when she knocks over the camera in "Lonely Christmas."
  • Older Than She Looks: All of the girls were born between 1988 and 1991, but their antics and high-energy songs make them seem younger.
  • The Oner: The video for "Dancing All Night" is one continuous shot from beginning to end.
  • Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Soyul, in spite of being the smallest and youngest, has gone up against K-Pop idols much heavier and taller than her, helping to secure all three of Crayon Pop's victories on "Let's Go Dream Team." She also was recently invited back on the show to be one of the "heroes" on the "10:100, Heroes vs. Minions" special.
  • Plot-Powered Stamina: The girls are very lively and talkative when on camera, but once they are off-camera, they can and will nap anywhere as demonstrated here by Ellin.
  • Public Bathhouse Scene: The opening of the "Bar Bar Bar" story video briefly features the girls sitting in a bathhouse facing away from the camera, with a rather impressive dragon tattoo on their backs.
  • Punny Name: In Korean, their name is spelled keu-rae-yong-pab. Yong is also Korean for dragon, so they frequently shorten their name to "YongPop" or literally, "DragonPop."
  • Sexy Santa Dress:
    • Photos were posted of Choa in a rather revealing Santa dress (At least by Crayon Pop's standards) as a preview for their upcoming Christmas-themed song.
    • In reality, their outfits for the teaser were much sillier and not even Santa-related.
    • The sexiness gets completely subverted with this performance of "Bing Bing" in Santa outfits combined with their signature orange tracksuits.
  • She Cleans Up Nicely: Get them out of their signature tracksuits, helmets or "Uh-ee" outfits, and into dresses or hanboks, and they can be quite glamourous.
  • Sibling Rivalry: Of the benign variety with Choa and Way
    • For example, they spend a few minutes in the Crayon Pop TV episodes on their Australia visit arguing about who's the bigger star and who needs to go on a diet...all while trying one-up the other's English.
  • Signature Move: All of their songs have a key point to the choreography, the most famous being the Five Cylinder Engine Dance from "Bar Bar Bar."
    • "Dancing Queen" features The Lonely Dance, and the Kick during the chorus.
    • The Kangaroo Dance from "Saturday Night."
    • The remix versions of "Bing Bing" introduced the chant used in the page quote, as well as the accompanying dance.
    • The appropriately-titled "Uh-ee Dance" from the eponymous song.
  • Silly Love Songs: "Bing Bing," as well as subunit Strawberry Milk's "OK."
  • Singer Namedrop: In "Bar Bar Bar" (as seen in the page quote) and again in "Bbyong Song."
  • Speech Impediment: Choa has a slight lisp, mostly notable in their live performances of "Lonely Christmas."
  • Spinoff: Choa and Way have formed a sub-unit known as "Strawberry Milk." They made their debut in mid-October.
  • Stage Name: All of the girls have one. Their real names can be found at the top of the page.
  • The Stoic: When "Bar Bar Bar" won their first music show, the girls were obviously happy, but didn't really react too much. Except for Gummi, who broke down in tears.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: A key plot point of the video for "Road."
  • Talk Show: The group posts their own series, Crayon Pop TV, to their YouTube channel. Some episodes of Crayon Pop TV are just the girls sitting around a table discussing things or playing games. They also mix in the occasional clip from shows or interview a Chrome staff member.
  • Team Dad: Chrome's CEO Hwang Hyun Chang is this to the group, since they are his first group, and so far his most successful.
    • Their managers Earman Kim and Wife Jung were both this in the group's early stages. They have since moved on to managing the other Chrome groups.
  • Team Mom: Gummi
  • Trademark Favorite Food: Way and shrimp.
  • Travelogue Show: Crayon Pop TV also documents their travels abroad and within Korea.
  • True Companions: With the amount of things they've been through in their short career, it's no wonder they're all incredibly close.
  • Updated Re-release: Both "Dancing Queen" and "Bar Bar Bar" have received this treatment. "Saturday Night and "Bing Bing" both have alternate versions as well.
  • Visual Pun: A dragon, alluding to their nickname YongPop, makes two appearances in "Bar Bar Bar." First, as their tattoo in the Story Version MV, and also on the cover art for the mini-album.
  • Vocal Tag Team: Being a Pop quintet, they all take turns singing during their songs, with Choa/Way/Soyul providing the bulk of the singing.
    • Choa and Way playfully invoke this trope in their song "Feel So Good" on the sub-unit album, rapidly exchanging parts and finishing each other's sentences.
  • We Hardly Knew Ye: Serang and Arisa.

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