Ten years ago, before Twice and Red Velvet and Girls’ Generation and 2NE1 and Wonder Girls, there was Jewelry.
In the mid-to-late 2000s, Jewelry was all the rage; coming hot off the successful Superstar three years prior, they would release, in 2008, one of K-Pop’s watershed tracks: One More Time.
One More Time embodied Jewelry at their best: powerful, sexy, sultry—and ever so cheeky. The song was a runaway success, staying on top of the chart for several consecutive weeks and putting the group into contention for several end-of-the-year awards (and winning one).
Jewelry had an entrance/graduation concept similar to After School; also similarly to After School, this concept would prove to be a contributor to Jewelry’s downfall. It turns out, fans don’t take kindly to their favorite members leaving without satisfactory replacements. While the group would chug along releasing songs until 2013, they would shed fans and popularity with each passing album, until their agency finally closed the book on their disbandment in 2015.
A decade after One More Time’s release, the song still manages to stay in the hearts and minds of Koreans; just take a look at the reaction to their 2018 reunion, where they performed this song—and its distinctive “finger guns” choreography—in front of a cheering crowd: