Day by Day

Day by Day is the fourth extended play by South Korean girl group T-ara, released on July 3, 2012, by Core Contents Media. The album marked the first appearance of the group's eighth member, Areum, and the last appearance of member Ryu Hwa-young. A repackaged version of the EP, titled Mirage, was released on September 4, 2012. "Sexy Love" was released as the lead single from the Mirage repackage. The EP and its repackage produced the singles "Day By Day" and "Sexy Love". 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 setting; reminiscent of the movie Mad Max. A large amount of work was needed to complete the computer graphics 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.