*Editor's note: "One Track" is a recurring series that uses a single song as a lens through which to examine broader trends in the K-pop industry. The twenty-third instalment looks at "Red Flavor" by Red Velvet, which has become the defining anthem of the Korean summer.*
At noon on 9th July 2017, Red Velvet released "Red Flavor", the lead single from their summer mini-album *The Red Summer*. According to contemporary reports, the track reached the top of multiple streaming charts within three hours of release and became the group's first number-one single on the Gaon Digital Chart — South Korea's equivalent of the Billboard Hot 100. It is the song that cemented Red Velvet's reputation as the group that owns the summer.
Origins — a summer-focused debut in Korean
*The Red Summer* was Red Velvet's fifth extended play (EP) and their first Korean-language special EP, comprising five tracks including the lead single. Lyrics were written by Kenzie, with production and composition handled by Caesar & Loui. The result is an uptempo electro-pop track built around dramatic synthesiser textures and a percussive melody. The remaining four tracks — electronic pop number "You Better Know", tropical-rhythm "Zoo", urban pop "Allo Allo (Mojito)" and mid-tempo "The Sound of the Sea" — were chosen for their breezy, sun-drenched feel.
The rollout itself was carefully orchestrated. A day before the official release, on 8th July, Red Velvet gave fans a first taste of the song at an SMTOWN concert in Seoul, before dropping the single and its music video simultaneously the following day. The video depicted each of the five members as a different fruit — watermelon, pineapple, orange, kiwi and grape — to playful effect. A scene recreating a childhood photograph of leader Irene, pigtailed and eating a hot dog, became a talking point among fans. The group made their television comeback on SBS's *Inkigayo* on the day of release, followed by performances on *The Show*, *Show Champion*, *M Countdown* and *Music Bank*.
Chart performance — Gaon's top spot and beyond
The domestic results were emphatic. "Red Flavor" topped both the Gaon Digital Chart and the Gaon Download Chart, marking the group's first number-one on the former. It became the longest-charting single in Red Velvet's catalogue and their fifth to surpass one million downloads. *The Red Summer* itself reached number one on the Gaon Album Chart in the third week of July, with all five tracks appearing simultaneously in the digital chart's top 50. A brand-reputation index compiled by the Korea Corporate Reputation Research Institute, using big-data analysis covering the period from 10th July to 11th August 2017, also placed Red Velvet first among all South Korean girl groups for that month.
International recognition followed. "Red Flavor" reached fourth place on Billboard's World Digital Songs chart and became the first Red Velvet single to enter the Billboard charts in both Japan and the Philippines. The album topped the Billboard World Albums chart — the group's third number-one on that tally — setting what was at the time a record for the most Billboard World Album chart-toppers by a K-pop girl group. The group went on to win Best Female Group at the 2017 Mnet Asian Music Awards. The music video crossed 100 million YouTube views at 11pm on 10th September 2018, becoming Red Velvet's fifth video to reach that milestone, following "Russian Roulette", "Dumb Dumb", "Bad Boy" and "Peek-A-Boo".
The equation: summer equals Red Velvet
Red Velvet has always operated across two conceptual registers — the bright, bold "Red" and the smooth, sophisticated "Velvet" — alternating between them across releases. "Red Flavor" was firmly in the former camp: an immediately hummable, broadly accessible pop song, and it quickly became the group's signature. A group that debuted in summer, scoring a breakout summer hit, found that the association hardened into received wisdom: in South Korea, summer means Red Velvet. The formula held when follow-up summer single "Power Up" also topped the Gaon Digital Chart. Red Velvet has performed "Red Flavor" at every solo concert tour it has held since the song's release.
Nine summers later — rewriting the template
This summer, nine years on, Red Velvet returned in a different mood. On 3rd August they released the mini-album *Velvet Summer* — their first full-group comeback in approximately two years and two months, following *Cosmic* in June 2024. The lead single, "Surfin' Boy", blends bossa nova guitar, reggae rhythms and house grooves; by the group's own account, it is a deliberate departure from the bright, buoyant summer-pop sound of "Red Flavor" and "Power Up". Tellingly, almost every piece of coverage of the comeback reached for "Red Flavor" as the point of comparison — and the album title itself foregrounds "Velvet" rather than "Red". The group that built a summer formula is now attempting to revise it on its own terms. In that sense, "Red Flavor" remains very much a living influence.
In a word: The sweetest, most universally appealing song in Red Velvet's catalogue — the one that placed a single group's name over an entire season.