It is without a doubt that Kpop Nation is growing bigger and bigger, groups like S.E.S, H.O.T, TVXQ, Super Junior, EXO, Big Bang, Wonder Girls, Girls Generation, SHINee, Blackpink, BTS and more are and or have led the Hallyu wave for generations respectively

But Many Kpop fans might not have heard of Baby VOX since they debuted decades ago.

But I guess a little history on baby VOX would do no harm!

Baby V.O.X officially debuted on July 3, 1997, with a televised performance of their song "To Men (Democracy)".

Their first album, EQUALIZEHER, was released on July 10.

They were put together by the company DR Entertainment (name later changed to DR Music).

The group was inspired by the Spice Girls and Korean acts like H.O.T, and therefore went with an attitude-filled social justice/feminist concept for their first release. 

They became known as the "Spice Girls of Korea" and the "Female H.O.T" because of this.

However, the concept ended up being too strong for the Korean public and "To Men" was banned from broadcasting due to its lyrical content.

They changed their title song to "Haircut" and continued promotions, but only achieved moderate success. EQUALIZEHER reached number 47 on the SBS Gayo Top 20 (music TV show) chart and sold around 50,000 copies.

Baby V.O.X's debut performance, recorded on July 3 and aired on July 5, 1997,

During the promotions for their first album, member Cha Yumi was forced to leave the group and return to her home in America due to health concerns.

She was replaced by Kan Mi Youn, who would remain in the group for the rest of their releases. After the first album promotions, members Jang Hyun Jung and Jung Shi Woon left the group (this has been attributed to internal conflict) and were replaced by Shim Eun Jin and Lee Gai.

For their sophomore album, Baby V.O.X took inspiration from Korean girl groups S.E.S and Fin.K.L to create a more palatable cute concept. BABY VOX II came out on September 15, 1998.

"Ya Ya Ya" was the leading track from the album. 

A second, more mature-sounding song, "Change", was promoted later that year.

BABY VOX II lead Baby V.O.X to success, reaching number 3 on the SBS Inkigayo chart and selling over 200,000 copies in Korea.

Baby V.O.X won the New Female Artist award at the 1998 SBS Gayo Daejeon, the Popularity Award at the 1998 KMTV Gayo Daejeon, and the Popularity Award at the 1998 Seoul Music Awards.

Baby V.O.X won the Popularity Award at the 1998 Seoul Music Awards (their first major award)

Lee Gai (real name Lee Hee Jung) left the group after the promotions for the second album. It was discovered that she had been lying about her age: She had convinced DR Entertainment that she was only 20 years old when she was really 30. She had debuted before multiple times, under different names and with different groups, throughout the prior decade.

She was replaced by 15-year old Yoon Eun Hye.

Baby V.O.X came back on July 21, 1999, with their third album, Come Come Come Baby.

This album was a complete change of concept, from cute and innocent to sexy and confident. Songs "Get Up", "Killer", and the ballad "Missing You" were all promoted. The album scored the group their first number 1 on the KBS Music Bank and SBS Inkigayo charts

Their first music show win was on August 8, 1999, with "Get Up" on KBS Music Bank.

With this album, Baby V.O.X solidified their image as a "sexy concept" group.

Come Come Come Baby sold over 200,000 copies in Korea.

Baby V.O.X won the Bonsang (Main Prize) at the 1999 Seoul Music Awards, the Teen Singer Award at the 1999 SBS Gayo Daejeon, the Popularity Award at the 1999 KMTV Gayo Daejeon

Artist of the Year at the 1999 KBS Music Awards, and the Under 30's Choice Award at the 1999 MBC Gayo Daejejeon.  In November 1999, Baby V.O.X signed a contract in China to officially license and sell their music there. 

During promotions for their third album, a rumor spread that member Kan Miyoun was dating H.O.T member Moon Heejun. This led to a wave of anti-fan activity against Baby V.O.X that continued for years. Some of this activity was violent and caused physical harm to Baby V.O.X members.

There were several videos of anti-fans chanting "꺼져라" ("Ggeojyeora"), meaning "Get lost", during a Baby V.O.X performance

Baby V.O.X's fourth album, Why, was released on May 15, 2000.

The songs promoted from this album were "Why" and "Betrayal". The album was more elegant and mature in concept than their previous one.

Even though Why wasn't as commercially successful as the group's last album, it still did well, garnering the group another number one on the charts and selling over 150,000 copies in Korea. 

Baby V.O.X started to gain popularity in China during this era and performed there multiple times throughout the year as part of the Korean Wave.

Baby V.O.X started to promote in Japan in 2000, holding interviews and concerts in hopes of gaining popularity there as they did in China. At the end of the year, they won the Producer Award at the 2000 SBS Gayo Daejeon, Singers of the Year Award (Youth Sector) at the 2000 KBS Music Awards, and the Popularity Award at the 2000 Seoul Music Awards. 

Baby V.O.X promoting in Japan and China

2001 saw the release of Baby V.O.X's fifth album, Boyish Story, on June 4.

The songs promoted were "Game Over" and "Doll". On this album, each member contributed to the lyrics and/or music for at least one song.

This album didn't do as well as the previous two albums and only reached 4th place on the KBS Music Bank chart.

By the end of 2001, it had sold around 90,000 copies in Korea.

However, Baby V.O.X continued to gain popularity in China and other parts of Asia throughout this period despite the album's relative lack of success, becoming leaders of the Korean Wave.

They won the Bonsang at the 2001 KBS Music Awards.

Baby V.O.X released Special Album on April 23, 2002.

This was a compilation album in commemoration of the fifth anniversary of their debut. It is commonly referred to as their "5.5th" album. It came with three CDs, one VCD, and a small photo booklet containing pictures of the members. The first CD contained two new songs, "By Chance" (also translated as "Coincidence" or "Accident") and "Go", plus a non-stop dance mix of previously released songs. The second CD contained another dance mix, and the third CD contained a compilation of previously released ballads. The VCD contained the music video for "By Chance" and exclusive behind-the-scenes/reality footage of the group. "By Chance" was used to promote the 2002 FIFA World Cup in Korea, and a special World Cup-themed video was filmed for the song. The Special Album charted number 1 on the SBS Inkigayo chart and sold more than 240,000 copies in Korea, making it Baby V.O.X's best-selling release.

The original "By Chance" as well as a "Latin Remix" version were both promoted throughout the summer of 2002. Baby V.O.X won the Bonsang at the 2002 SBS Gayo Daejeon, Singers of the Year Award (Youth Sector) at the 2002 KBS Music Awards, the Popularity Award at the 2002 Golden Disc Awards and the Hallyu Award at the 2002 Seoul Music Awards.

On August 15, 2002, Baby V.O.X had their first concert in Seoul, aptly titled The First Concert in Seoul, at the Kyung Hee University Peace Hall auditorium. A VCD of the concert was released on September 16, 2002.

They became endorsers of the Korean Red Cross and made a cameo in the movie Emergency Act along with other popular Korean idol groups and singers.

Throughout the year, Baby V.O.X promoted in Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. In September 2002, they signed a contract with GMM Grammy, Thailand's biggest record company, becoming the first Korean artist to do so.

On March 12, 2003, they released an EP titled Go - 1st Mini Album in Japan.

The EP contained a Japanese version of "Go" along with remixes and a few other previously released songs. This was meant to be their official debut in the Japanese market, but it was met with only moderate success.

Devotion, Baby V.O.X's sixth studio album, was released on April 3, 2003, simultaneously in Korea, China, Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, and Vietnam.

The songs promoted from this album were "What Should I Do" (sometimes translated as "What Can I Do") and "Wish". The ballad "I'm Still Loving You", recorded in Chinese, was promoted in China and hit number one on the China National Radio charts. This made Baby V.O.X the first-ever foreign artists to achieve this. The music video for "What Can I Do" was shot in Thailand and the video for "I'm Still Loving You" was shot in Hong Kong. A special video for the track "Maybe It's Love" was released exclusively on DR Music's Chinese website. Part of the profits from the sales of Devotion was donated to the Korean Red Cross, as stated on the back cover of the album.

Devotion was a major success for Baby V.O.X, selling over 84,000 copies in Korea and an estimated 400,000 across Asia.

At the end of the year, Baby V.O.X took home the Bonsang at the 2003 SBS Gayo Daejeon, Singers of the Year Award (Youth Sector) at the 2003 KBS Music Awards, and the Bonsang at the 2003 Seoul Music Awards.

They also won Singer of the Year at the 2003 KMTV Korean Music Awards.

Performance of "What Should I Do", "At Last", "Wish", and "By Chance (Latin Remix)"

Baby V.O.X promoted Devotion throughout Asia. They also performed at the Lunar New Year Festival in Los Angeles, California on February 9, 2003, and the Peace Festival in Washington, D.C. on June 28, 2003.

On October 6, 2003, Baby V.O.X (along with Shinhwa, Lee Sun Hee, and other Korean singers) performed at a televised concert in Pyongyang, North Korea.

Baby V.O.X's seventh album, Ride West, was released on March 18, 2004.

This would be their last album as a group. For this release, Baby V.O.X went for a more hip-hop look and sound in an attempt to appeal to the American market.

DR Music was planning to have Baby V.O.X debut in the U.S. in hopes of finding success there like the group did in countries like China and Thailand.

The songs promoted from this album were "Xcstasy" and "Play Remix". "Xcstasy" featured Tupac Shakur and Floss P, a rapper allegedly from the "Dr. Dre family".

"Play Remix" was a remake of Jennifer Lopez's 2000 song "Play", and "featured" Lopez. Although the songs were advertised as collaborations, Floss P was the only actual feature: Shakur and Lopez's works were simply sampled. A DVD containing the documentary 2-Pac 4-Ever (directed by Jay Lee Thomas) and the music video for "Xcstasy" was included with the CD.

On April 8, 2004, Amaru Entertainment, a company partially in charge of the rights to Tupac's works and owned at the time by his mother, Afeni Shakur, released a notice stating that they would pursue legal action against Baby V.O.X for using Tupac's material without legal permission.

DR Music claimed that they had used the material legally.

Throughout the year, Amaru Entertainment continued to threatened legal action against Baby V.O.X, at one point declaring that they had begun a legal suit. On June 12, 2004, Lee Ha Neul, member of Korean hip-hop group DJ DOC, posted a statement on his personal website expressing his anger at Baby V.O.X's use of Tupac's work.

In the post, he referred to Baby V.O.X as "Miari V.O.X" ("미아리복스").

Miari is one of the largest red-light districts in Seoul.

He also called the group "sex singers" ("섹스 가수").

These statements seriously harmed Baby V.O.X's image, as Lee was their senior and respected as a hip-hop artist in the Korean music industry.

DR Music threatened legal action against Lee unless he apologized and deleted the original post.

He complied, and DR Music did not take legal action against him. Although Lee apologized, he stated that his opinion on Baby V.O.X's use of Tupac's rap remained unchanged.

Promotions for the album were halted in June 2004 amid controversy.

Ride West only sold 32,000 copies in Korea. 

As the album was a commercial failure, Baby V.O.X's planned American debut never took place. During the promotions for Ride West, Floss P released a song called "Fire" (featuring Shim Eun Jin) that was supposed to be on his upcoming album, which never materialized.

Baby V.O.X won the Hallyu Award at the 2004 Seoul Music Awards.

News broke on December 27, 2004, that Shim Eun Jin had left Baby V.O.X to pursue a solo music career.

Despite this, DR Music insisted that the group would continue activities as four.

Baby V.O.X continued to do minor performances until Yoon Eun Hye left to pursue her acting career in July 2005.

DR Music announced an alliance with a German music label less than two weeks later in another attempt to establish a presence in a Western market.

No plans ever reached fruition. On February 5, 2006, the remaining Baby V.O.X members announced that they would be going their separate ways. However, they stressed that they were not truly "disbanded" and would leave open the possibility of getting back together again in the future.

Baby V.O.X was still a valuable brand in China and Southeast Asia after their disbandment. 

They were leaders of the Korean Wave (Hallyu) in the late 90's and early 2000s. At the peak of their career, the Korean press dubbed Baby V.O.X the "protagonists" or "heroines" ("주인공") of the Korean Wave.

They were one of the first Korean pop groups to gain popularity in China, where they became the first foreign artist to get a number one on the China National Radio charts in 2003.

Baby V.O.X is recognized as one of the most popular Korean girl groups of the '90s and 2000s, usually third to S.E.S and Fin.K.L

In March 2018, the group came second in an online survey asking Koreans which disbanded groups they would most like to see have a reunion. Their songs have been covered multiple times by Korean artists, such as Urban Zakapa and Twice.

This Might Be Random But To All Those Who Read This, The Word Happiness Is Too Vague, But I Hope You Find A Life Worth Living.

- IKON, Hanbin❣