''Day by Day'' is the fourth

extended play An extended play (EP) is a Sound recording and reproduction, musical recording that contains more tracks than a Single (music), single but fewer than an album. Contemporary EPs generally contain up to eight tracks and have a playing time of 1 ...

by South Korean girl group

T-ara T-ara (; ) is a South Korean girl group formed in 2009, currently consisting of four members: Qri, Hahm Eun-jung, Eunjung, Hyomin, and Park Ji-yeon, Jiyeon. T-ara's career is marked by Hook (music), hook-heavy dance-pop music, a result of their ...

, released on July 3, 2012, by

Core Contents Media MBK Entertainment () was a South Korean entertainment company established by Kim Kwang-soo. MBK Entertainment is known for managing multiple successful K-pop artists, such as T-ara, DIA, Davichi, SeeYa, F-ve Dolls, Shannon, Coed School, and S ...

. The album marked the first appearance of the group's eighth member, Areum, and the last appearance of member

Ryu Hwa-young Ryu Hwa-young (; born April 22, 1993), better known by the mononym Hwayoung, is a South Korean actress and singer. She is a former member of South Korean girl group T-ara. Biography Ryu Hwa-young was born on April 22, 1993, in Gwangju, South Ko ...

. A repackaged version of the EP, titled ''Mirage'', was released on September 4, 2012. "

Sexy Love "Sexy Love" is a song by American R&B singer Ne-Yo, released on June 6, 2006, as the fourth and final US single, as well as the second and final international single from his debut studio album, ''In My Own Words'' (2006). The song peaked at nu ...

" was released as the lead single from the ''Mirage'' repackage. The EP and its repackage produced the singles " Day By Day" and "

". Both the album and singles appeared on Gaon and ''Billboard'' Korea yearly sales charts for 2012. However, the album's promotion was cut short due to the group's bullying controversy which resulted in Hwayoung's contract termination and dismissal from the group.

Background and release

On June 13, 2012, Core Contents Media announced that the group would be releasing a new EP entitled ''Day by Day'' on July 3. The EP marked the debut of T-ara's eighth member, Areum. Both the EP and its title track were released on July 3. " Day by Day" was written by Kim Tae-Hyun and produced by Cho Young-soo and Ahn Young-min, who have all previously worked with T-ara on songs such as "Cry Cry" and "Neo Ttaemune Michyeo". Before its official release, a choreography video in which "Day by Day" can be heard in was leaked onto YouTube in late May 2012. The music video for " Day by Day" was directed by Cha Eun-Taek in Seoul, South Korea. It was announced on June 12, 2012, as a 20-minute music video drama starring the group themselves in a

science-fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, sp ...

setting; reminiscent of the movie ''

Mad Max ''Mad Max'' is an Australian media franchise created by George Miller and Byron Kennedy. It centres on a series of post-apocalyptic and dystopian action films. The franchise began in 1979 with '' Mad Max'', and was followed by three sequels: ...

''. A large amount of work was needed to complete the

computer graphics Computer graphics deals with generating images and art with the aid of computers. Computer graphics is a core technology in digital photography, film, video games, digital art, cell phone and computer displays, and many specialized applications. ...

featured in the video, which caused its release to be delayed by 13 hours. The second part of the music video was released in August 2012. The music video was included in "Top 5 Music Videos of the Week" list by ''

Stereogum ''Stereogum'' is a daily Internet publication that focuses on music news, reviews, interviews, and commentary. The site was created in January 2002 by Scott Lapatine. ''Stereogum'' was one of the first MP3 blogs and has received several awar ...

''. A repackaged version of the EP, titled ''Mirage'', was released on September 4, 2012. It contained two additional tracks, "

" and "Day and Night (Love All)". A Japanese version of "Day by Day" was digitally released on September 26, 2012, and was included as a B-side on their fifth Japanese single, a Japanese version of "Sexy Love".

Controversies

In June 2019, Vietnamese singer Quang Ha was accused of plagiarism after netizens noticed similarities between his newest single "Everyone Will Change" and "Day by Day"'s intro. On July 4, the musician held a press conference in which he admitted that the two songs did sound identical at the beginning. He later apologized for not being aware of international music and not noticing the similarities.

Commercial performance

"Day by Day" reached number two on the weekly

Gaon Digital Chart The Circle Digital Chart, previously known as the Gaon Digital Chart, is the music industry standard record chart ranking the 200 most popular singles in South Korea. It provides rankings on a weekly, monthly, and yearly basis, which is based on ...

and the

K-pop Hot 100 The K-pop Hot 100 was a music singles chart in South Korea, launched by ''Billboard'' in conjunction with ''Billboard'' Korea () on August 25, 2011. It is the second Asian ''Billboard'' chart after the Japan Hot 100. The chart used the same multim ...

. The song ranked among the best-selling singles of the year with nearly 2,150,000 downloads sold in South Korea by the end of 2012. "Sexy Love" peaked at number three on the ''Billboard'' Korea Hot 100 Songs chart and sold nearly 1,550,000 downloads in 2012. The Japanese version of "Day by Day" peaked at 16 on ''Billboard'' Japan Hot 100.

Background and release

Controversies

Commercial performance

Track listing

Charts

''Day by Day''

''Mirage''

Sales

Release history

References