This is part of a series featuring new hallyu stars. ― Ed.


Leaving the mini-skirts and high heels at home, the three-member group D-Unit is not your stereotypical K-pop girl group.

The members Jun Woo-ram (R.A.M), Jung Yoo-jin (Ujin) and Kwak Soo-jin (Z.I.N), through their hip-hop and electro-pop beats and bold dance moves, steer away from the cutesy, innocent image of most girl groups and try to portray a fiercer image of women.

“We are not the typical image when you think about girl groups,” said R.A.M, the younger sister of T-ara’s Bo-ram and the daughter of famous ’80s rock singer Jun Young-rok and actress Lee Mi-young.

“We wear sneakers, strong make-up and bold accessories,” Z.I.N responded. “Our dance moves are intense.” And unlike most of the girl groups in the K-pop scene, “Our choreography is much like that of boy bands,” she said.

The D-Unit trio released their first album, “Welcome to Business,” in August and made their debut on the “M! Countdown” stage performing their album’s title track, “I’m Missin’ You,” which made it into the top 50 on the K-Pop Billboard charts. 

D-Unit released their newest digital single “Luv Me” on Nov. 7.

“The concept of the song is, ‘I’m going to make you love me,” said Ujin. “The dancing is much more powerful this time around … It shows the confident side of women.”

With the clothes, attitude, lyrics and the overall image of the group, she expressed her wishes to portray independence and female empowerment.

“Although ever since I cut my hair short, I keep hearing that I look like Justin Bieber,” she laughed. “Some of our songs may be mellow at times, but I still hope it projects a strong feeling.”

“When people listen to our music, we want them to feel a sense of confidence,” Z.I.N said.

“We live in a male-dominated society,” R.A.M added. “We want to project the image of women as confident leaders.”

The girls shared that their most memorable moment since they debuted just three short months ago actually involves them going to jail.

“The other day we gave a performance at a prison,” R.A.M said, blushing. “It was for the well-behaved prisoners who were set to be released soon. It was a little scary at first; they were all wearing the same uniforms,” she laughed.

“But many of them knew who we were, and were cheering very loudly,” the girls said giddily, adding that although it was awkward at first, they were still touched to be able to share that moment with the prisoners.

Before the group’s official debut, the members once performed on a military base but the crowd was not so hyped, they said.

“But we played on the base again after our debut and all the soldiers were singing along to our songs. That was really exciting.”

As the girls are busy promoting “Luv Me,” they have announced that the D-Unit trio may not stay a trio for long. The group is expected to add a member or two sometime next month. It is also unknown if any members will leave when the new members are added.

“But nothing has been officially decided yet,” R.A.M said.

D-Unit may include some new faces in the future, but the group vowed to continue to show off their passion and energy. “So keep an eye out on us,” said the members.

By Julie Jackson (juliejackson@heraldcorp.com)