2NE1, also known as 2NE1 2nd Mini Album,[2] is the second and final extended play (EP) by South Korean girl group 2NE1. It was released on July 28, 2011, by YG Entertainment and distributed by KMP Holdings. It contains six songs composed and produced by Teddy Park and Kush, and five of them were released as official digital singles.[3] "Don't Stop the Music" was initially released as the commercial feature single "Don't Stop the Music (Yamaha "Fiore" CF Theme Song)" in December 2010. A Japanese version of the EP, titled Nolza, was released by YGEX on September 21, 2011.[4]
The EP was a commercial success, placing number one on both the weekly and monthly Gaon Album Chart, in addition to topping the Japanese Oricon chart. Four of the singles—"Don't Cry", "Lonely", "I Am the Best" and "Ugly"—each claimed the top spot on the Gaon Digital Chart, while the other two tracks peaked at number 3, making 2NE1 the first group to have 4 number one songs off of the same album as well as the first Kpop album to have all of its tracks place in the top 3. The mini-album won the Album of the Year award at the 3rd Melon Music Awards, and the single "I Am the Best" won Song of the Year at the 2011 Mnet Asian Music Awards.
On April 18, 2011, 2NE1 announced they would postpone their Japanese debut due to the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami and would resume Korean release plans, pushing the extended play's promotions forward, from April to July.[5]
Plans for the album's promotions were later released on YG Life's blog on April 27, 2011, where the group stated that they we will be releasing a new single every three weeks leading up to the album's release in July. The group stated that the reason behind this plan was because they were more than satisfied with the level of quality in the album's track list and intended to use them all as title tracks for its promotion.[6]
Promotion and release[]
Bom's solo track "Don't Cry" was released as the first single on April 21. It was then followed by the group's single "Lonely" on May 11. Both songs topped the Gaon Digital Chart; in addition, "Lonely" became the first song to achieve a perfect all-kill by a K-pop girl group since the concepts inception in 2010. Neither were promoted extensively on music shows; but on May 29, the group made a surprise two-part performance with both songs on SBS's Inkigayo.[7] The surprise appearance was attributed to the popularity of the two songs and was done as a gift to their fans.[8]
On June 24, the third single "I Am The Best" was released at midnight, and subsequently topped all South Korean real-time charts, achieving another perfect all-kill. The song gained widespread international recognition and has been consistently referred to as one of the most iconic and influential songs in the K-pop industry.[9][10] It was performed for several weeks on the music programs Inkigayo, Show! Music Core and M Countdown. The plans for a mini album then stated another digital single would soon follow along with the release of the group's second mini album.
"Hate You", originally titled "F*ck You", was initially intended to serve as the Japanese bonus track for To Anyone, but was later included into the mini-album's tracklist.[11] It was released one week prior to the mini album's release on July 21 and became a top-three hit. The next single "Ugly", became the EP's fourth number one single, and won three music program wins during the course of its run. It ended the album's promotions on SBS's Inkigayo on August 21.
Following their Korean promotions, the group announced the release of the album in Japan under the title Nolza. It was released on September 21 by YGEX, a joint venture between YG Entertainment and Avex. They appeared on the Japanese music program Music Station to promote the EP, performing the lead single "I Am the Best".[citation needed]
Commercial performance[]
The mini-album debuted at number one on the Gaon Album Chart, and was the top-selling album in the month of July with 54,900 copies being sold in just three days.[12] In Japan, Nolza claimed the top spot on the Japanese Oricon album chart, and became the second South Korean girl group album to do so in the chart's history. The mini-album was released in Taiwan on August 28 via Warner Music Taiwan, and debuted atop the Taiwanese G-Music Combo charts in its first week of release, making it the group's first number-one album in the country.[13] In the United States, the mini-album peaked at number 4 on the Billboard US World Albums chart. The album was also ranked sixth on Spin magazine's "20 Best Pop Albums of 2011", placing ahead of Ellie Goulding, Coldplay and Rihanna.[14]
^Gil, Hye-seong (March 16, 2011). "양현석 "2NE1, 日안정되면 언제든 활동OK..韓활동먼저"" [Yang Hyun Suk: "2NE1, waiting until Japanese situation is stable"]. Nate News (in Korean). SK Communications. Retrieved April 2, 2011.
