Along with Wonder Girls and Girls’ Generation, KARA was one of the most iconic girl groups active in Korea in the late 2000s to the early 2010s. While they were the first to disband among them, their influence on K-Pop (and J-Pop) trends can’t be underestimated.
Although Mister was the track that gave them the initial push to stardom, Step, from a few years later, is my personal favorite from their discography. It’s a wonderful, nonstop burst of energy from beginning to end, and a good representation of the niche KARA occupied in K-Pop: a bit more mature, a bit more free-wheeling than their competitors.
Sadly, as with a lot of K-Pop histories, KARA’s end was not the cleanest; amid swirling rumors of contract troubles and fracturing relationships within the group, KARA basically split in half in 2013, with two of the original members leaving. Their agency would attempt to continue the name by adding a new member, but they would never quite recapture the popularity of their glory days, and would disband in 2015.