Members: (going from left to right in the picture above)
CL (Lee Chaerin): leader, main rapper, vocalist -- February 26, 1991
Dara (Park Sandara): vocalist -- November 12, 1984
Bom (Park Bom): main vocalist -- March 24, 1984
Minzy (Gong Minji): vocalist, rapper, maknae -- January 18, 1994
Their music has a very mixed sound that is a combination of pop, dance/electronic, hip-hop and R&B. They've also done a few reggae-tinged songs like their recent comeback single "Falling in Love" and the reggae mix of "I Don't Care." Are also known for the unique (and awesomely fierce) taste in fashion.
2NE1 (pronounced like "twenty one" or "to anyone") first appeared in the "Lollipop" commercial campaigns for LG Electronics with Bigbang (both groups are signed to the same record company YG Entertainment), but made their official debut with the release of the single "Fire" in May 2009. The song and the group gained a lot of positive praise and were awarded the "Song of the Month" and "Rookie of the Month" at the Cyworld Digital Music Awards. Their next single "I Don't Care" and their first mini-album were released July 2009 and after finishing promotions for the single the group took a temporary hiatus and each member released solo singles. The group received many awards including "Best Rookie" award and "Best Song of the Year."
"Lollipop" http://youtu.be/zIRW_elc-rY
"Fire" http://youtu.be/49AfuuRbgGo
"I Don't Care" http://youtu.be/zdZya6yATn0
In September 2010 their first full length album, To Anyone, was released and was very successful. It received an all-kill status* as a result of all six songs staying in the top ten music charts for one week. It also topped the iTunes Hip Hop charts and was no. 7 on the Billboard World Albums chart. [*All-kill : When an artist has the #1 song or album on all the legal music download sites, such as Melon, Dosirak and Soribada. An all-kill on a daily chart (on the day of a new release) is normal for most popular groups. Weekly and monthly chart all-kills are much more difficult*]
"Clap Your Hands" http://youtu.be/ZTw-UM5Jy4E
After debuting in Japan in January 2011 and the release of Park Bom's second solo single "Don't Cry" in April, the group released their new single "Lonely" in May (both songs were hits). Their second mini-album was released after the singles "I Am the Best" and "Hate You" followed by the song and video for "Ugly." The album was another major success and 2NE1 became the first artists in k-pop history to release and reach five straight all-kill singles. After completing promotions for the album in late August, they held their first sold-out solo concert at the Olympic Hall in the Chamsil Olympic Park on August 26, 27 and 28 in Seoul, South Korea.
"I Am the Best" http://youtu.be/j7_lSP8Vc3o
"Hate You" http://youtu.be/NB5jyYD2WEw
"Ugly" http://youtu.be/NGe0hHvAGkc
They made their official debut in Japan with the release of the NOLZA mini-album in September 2011 and received the MTV Iggy award for "Best New Band" in October (this was their first US award). They released their first full length Japanese album March 2012 titled Collection along with the single "Scream." They made their official Korean comeback with the single "I Love You" in July and also began the New Evolution World Tour later that same month.
"I Love You" http://youtu.be/LUrUPzLm5SI
March 2013 the group's English collaboration with Will.i.am "Take on the World" is released followed by a second Will.i.am collaboration featuring Black Eyed Peas member apl.de.ap called "Gettin' Dumb." In May, after a series of teasers released by YG Entertainment, CL's solo single "The Baddest Female" is released and its later announced that 2NE1 would making their comeback in July with the release of the single "Falling in Love" and will be releasing at least four new songs from July until October. "Falling in Love" achieved an all-kill South Korea after its release and topped the charts in several other Asian countries. Their second single "Do You Love Me" was released August 7.
"The Baddest Female" http://youtu.be/7LP4foN3Xs4
"Falling in Love" http://youtu.be/zEVd9pSG85Q
"Do You Love Me" http://youtu.be/HRTb81FpWq0
Discography: 2NE1 1st Mini Album (2009)
To Anyone (2010)
2NE1 2nd Mini Album (2011)
NOLZA (2011)
** Collection (2012)** [**Japanese albums, aren't found in US iTunes store**]
How I Found Out About 2NE1: I've actually known about 2NE1 since December of last year. I clearly remember watching the video for "I Am the Best" and "I Love You" while my older brother played Far Cry 3 and a few other games he'd gotten for Christmas. For some weird reason I'd almost completely ignored them until May 21. I was super bored after watching the Xbox One press conference and turned on my Bigbang station on Pandora. 2NE1's song "In the Club" started playing and I immediately decided that this was my new jam and these ladies are going to be my new Bigbang. I bought almost every album of theirs I could find on iTunes, spent several minutes staring at pictures of them on Google and spent hours watching their music videos.
I littered my brother's Facebook wall with pictures of Dara and CL and sent him a video everyday until I ran out of videos. I was super excited to actually be up to date with a k-pop group and have been able to get CL's lovely solo single and their two most recent singles minutes after their release. 2NE1 is currently my favorite girl group because they seriously are the best.
"In the Club" http://youtu.be/f0plumZ16R0
Links: iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/2ne1/id329155759
Official Youtube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/2NE1
Official Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/2NE1
