I’m sick. And I have a physics test Friday. THIS SPELLS IMPENDING DISASTER DDDDD:
Cr: milesedi2
OMG MY UNNIE WON INKIGAYO. As I was pulling my all nighter studying, I somehow enjoyed up jumping up and down and screaming with joy as Inkigayo announced the results. I have never been this excited about a music show before in my life.
Mad props to NegaNetwork + Loen for really impressing me with their stuff their artists have been putting out this year
Cr: KyuleeKPOPMV
Unlike 2NE1’s Go Away, with which I had major problems with the tacky acting and excessive DNW CGI, Gain kept this ten-minute business classy and professional – I bought the message the MV was trying to sell, and I bought it hard. I haven’t been so sad after a MV like this since watching 2AM’s I Was Wrong under extreme sleep-deprived conditions or the only SM masterpiece that was Zhang Liyin’s Timeless. This business better win MV of the Year please (and why was Can’t Nobody nominated in place of Go Away?).
Oh, and belated Happy Halloween!
Cr: SHINeeTimes2
My two favorite jailbaits performing on the same stage *o* And shush about the floor-humping, it’s a Michael Jackson move ok?
Hey guys, I’m alive. I’ll get posting considering my exams have slowed down. Today, we discuss issues of major impact.
Jonghyun of SHINee, and Shin Se Kyung of Highkick Through the Roof fame are officially off the market. They are dating. It has been confirmed by SM and SSK’s acting agency, and fangirls and fanboys (yes, SSK has A LOT of fanboys, so don’t think she’s purely on the defensive) are in chaos.
To say the least, this was entirely unexpected: this involves the hottest rising young actress in Korea, a member of one of the most popular idol groups (with some of the increasingly most crazy fans) from the most oppressive entertainment company in Korea. And it’s SHINee – SHINEE – who has become the group to take the first step toward open relationships. SHINee, the group debuted as the “noona-killers,” the sweet, innocent, young boy band of the industry – not Big Bang, not DBSK, not 2pm, not even H.O.T., g.o.d., or Shinhwa – they are the first band to reveal an open relationship while they are still active within their company. Se7en has a friend now!
Cr: Shineelucifer200
Oh Se Kyung, you are so obvious 😛
What do I think about the timing of the whole thing? To take it lightly, I’d just say SM is stalling to delay SNSD’s Hoot MV (11PM KST now, folks). I’m not really sure what the point of this revelation was as I was spamming Omona.
Which logically transitions us to this next piece of news revealed half-an-hour later.
SM Entertainment has withdrawn their injunction against the members of JYJ (Jaejoong, Yoochun, Junsu), which had prohibited the sale of their album, “The Beginning.”
JYJ’s public relations agency, Prain, stated on October 27th, “SM Entertainment dropped the injunction they filed against JYJ on October 21st through the Seoul Central District Court.”
SM Entertainment had previously attempted to prohibit the sale of “The Beginning” on October 12th, as distributed by Warner Music Korea.
Ok, at this point I just about lost it. People started (sarcastically) saying that Amber, Kibum, and DBSK would soon rise from the dead, and for a minute I totally would have believed it.
WHAT IS THIS? It’s not so much that SM has never doe a single act of kindness previously, but instead they are taking a 180-degree stance to how they approached JYJ just a week before. Combine this with being the first company to allow young idols to date freely, and I’m thinking either a coup d’etat just took place in SM or they added something new to their water. Companies retain reputation not through ethical conduct, that much we already know. Nowadays they are entirely dependent upon reputation and consistency in performance, and with that comes consistency in policy. For SM to suddenly change like this implies that they are starting to change the very identity of SME itself.
SME is not simply an entertainment company – as any attendants of SMTown can tell you, to most of the world, it’s a family, the SM family. The upper business echelon targets not only music, apparel, and advertisements at all-too-eager screaming fans, but also the artists themselves – their personality, their lives, their privacy. It’s what makes idoldom so unique and intimate, and scary at the same time. I am all for Jonghyun’s dating freedom, but that SM has publicized and accepted this has just harmed his career, whether we like it or not – like his looks and voice and dancing, his “date-bility” and position as the object of fangirls’ desires was a part of his career.
However, I’m not going to be all party-pooping. I personally think this is a good move – he’s still a human being, after all, and what say we as fans that he can’t enjoy a normal life? Because he’s an idol? Well clearly this move is Jjong’s reply of, “So what if I am?”
So what if he is? What a good question – oppa’s not going to be yours. This may break a few hearts in the short run, but will probably be good in the long run. The fans will probably be less fervent, but simultaneously less “cray cray.”
And about dropping that injunction? About time, SM, because it was a losing game. I’m not even going to label that as an act of kindness, because SM’s claims were pretty much ridiculous – JYJ and their company stated pretty clearly that Warner is only acting as the distributor, and they were in fact NOT double signed. I just see this as SM riding the Jonghyun wave, neatly tucking their disgraceful defeat in there with some semblance of charitably and benevolence.
Now we have to wonder – did Jonghyun willingly expose this, or even made it so obvious SM could do nothing to stop it, or was there some kind of administrative push? Ahh, that’s probably just my conspiracy-theorist side coming out.
Wait until you YouTube muddy cult. Be warned! That MV was a little too visceral for my taste. But Nega’s bipolar musical quality contrasting haunting guitar lines plus piano with suicidal screamo is so soul-wrenching and precious for some reason. Plus, this will make for perfect emo-music as I hit the library for physics tomorrow. Some Kara Rollin’ would so not fit the mood (aka I HATE PHYSICS GO DIE NOW).
Remember that I came upon Kpop from J-rock. I honestly had no interest in music beyond classical and my orchestra/band repertoire until I happened upon a certain J-rock band called Nightmare, and from then on my life became so musically rich, from the current radio pop to underground indie to Brit rock to Swedish metal, and yes, even High School Musical for a week (after which I was so traumatized I don’t even give Glee a chance). I even started singing again, and all was happy and flowers. For some reason, Jpop was never my jam, but I kept on seeing videos of J-rock vs. K-rock and, naturally, J-pop vs. Kpop videos. I’m pretty sure my first Kpop videos were of DBSK, Suju, and the like, but for the longest time I thought boy bands were in general ridiculous.
The first Kpop video that really stuck to me was this, of all things.
Credit: hazerxx
Impression 1: what kind of name was SS501? I just finished the WWII portion of my history course then, and the SS
Waffen definitely came to mind…
Impression 2: o.O wow the dancing was really synchronized. And the guys were kind of attractive.
Then came the Brown Eyed Girls (Abracadabra got me in, but it was their first two albums that made me stay), then Ring Ding Dong, then 2pm, 2NE1, and my life was over. When I started watching 2NE1TV 24 hours before my chem final…er, let’s just say I am extremely grateful for my grades. That was on top of the WGM I was already watching (but thankfully before I found sites with updated subs, so I only had 16 episodes to work with), and once summer started I watched every SNSD variety show in two weeks. The excessiveness burned out really quickly, though, so now I am grateful to have Kpop as a good diversion to keep the equilibrium of my day.
I’m excited to return to normal blogging soon. I am a 2NE1 and Japan Invasion review behind, plus Beast is coming back next week. Look out for a September Top 5 post, first. I still need to get two midterms over with, though, and schedule out 15 hours of mandatory volunteering, all for next week. Organic chemistry went surprisingly well, so I’m comforted (probably false hope >.<) that my hardest course is manageable with some efficient studying. For all you students out there, don't forget to hit the books! It's all about the self-discipline.
2AM’s Seulong just tweeted a picture from the filming of MBC’s sports Chuseok special. This is simply too precious.
Jinwoon, Dongwoon, Jaejin, Mir, and Key, you guys are precious. ❤
Super excited for Jinwoon’s ab show because it’s kept so well hidden. Pissed that Hara is not here – I want to see her run a race again without falling to see how much ass she would kick how fast she actually is.
And I realized that I’ve posted so many new things today, mostly irrelevant little stuff XD This blog is turning into a random blabber blog. Since I have my first lovely organic chemistry midterm coming up, I’ll probably not update for 6 +/- 4 days. And life goes on, Djokovic is still my favorite, 2NE1 will make music shows this week fun. And I got into the scholarship program I interviewed for! :3 Thanks everyone.
Did anyone realize they had their Magic goodbye stage in mid-June? Wow, someone wants to push 4minute off the top of my ‘most masochistic Kpop group.” However, I kind of have to agree with their company’s marketing technique – as of right now Secret isn’t as well known as other girl groups that debuted around the same time, and they need to keep on trying again and again until they get the ‘big hit,’ and Madonna, the title track of their 2nd minialbum of the same name, may be the song.
As of right now, Madonna is number one on darily Dosirak, Soribada, Mnet, monkey3, and probably a few others I forgot to check – we need to wait a bit longer to see how long they can stay on top, but only fast risers last in the leader position, and Madonna may be the new Bad Girl Good Girl, which remained #1 despite being pelted by SHINee, Son Dambi, G.NA, Se7en, and more. I’m telling you, it’s the lyrics – give me a girl group song not about love/heartbreak and sappy “oppa saranghae!!!” but instead about independence or empowerment, and listeners will eat it up. Plus, this song is pure crack. It’s so addicting.
Let’s look at the tracks.
Secret starts off strong with title track Madonna, which I have listened to at least 15 times today and still have not gotten sick of it. Normally I would be all over a group’s case for coming out with such a similar song to the song they were promoting a mere 2 months ago, but unexplainable I can’t get negative about Secret’s Madonna. t’s the new and improved Magic – if Magic was a beat up Ford, then Madonna is a brand spanking new Porsche. Ok, maybe not that much of a difference, but man, this song gets better with every repeat. At first, I was seriously question the big band instrumentals in the background, but it works so well – Secret as a group can sing, and when you have Jieun belting out her lines, I feel like I’m at some live jazz concert, listening to a diva belt out her tunes. And I proclaim her as 4minute’s Jiyoon’s and Gayoon’s lovechild. It works, trust me.
Lal Lal La’s intro sounds straight out of JeA’s and Miryo’s Blue Trauma collaboration, Love Is…, which is a FABULOUS track, so I absolutely adore this song. It’s very soft R&B but the driving beat is fast enough that the song never seems to drag, and I have yet to find Zinger’s rap annoying or out-of-place which I sometimes do with Miryo’s raps in BEG songs omg I did not just say that, and speaking of whom, I really like her flow – it’s very smooth and though she uses rising inflections liberally, it’s not to the point where it’s annoying (f(x)’s Amber can stop this, though tyvm) and since I’m already doing music lovechildren today, Zinger is like the still maturing child of CL and Tasha. She has lots of potential. Does she sing? I haven’t really watched their previous lives much, but if she’s a triple threat (cause girl can shake booty) then that’ll be fantastic. One thing I’m finding with this song is that Jieun carries the group vocally, and Sunhwa especially gets the consequences of shorter singing lines. It’s a pity though understandable – Secret as a group is pretty vocally talented, and I would love to see Sunhwa’s softer vocals develop over time.
Next, the album kicks up the tempo with Do Better! (Feat. Baek Chan of 8Eight), a song that is very techno and beat-heavy, but seriously, were all the random Darth Vader lines really necessary? I’m jamming along with the dance beats and then *doom voice* totally kills the mood. And I might as well get the criticism out of the way now – I’m sorry, I couldn’t tell Zinger was saying “S-E-C-R-E-T” for the longest time, and I don’t know what they’re saying after “if you, if you continue” (it sounds like “it’s, it’s a boy”?). But aside from the Engrish, I still dig this song – I’ll queue this second on my list to remix after SHINee’s Ready or Not.
The fourth track, Hesitant, brings listeners back to their Want You Back debut days – it’s a vocal showcase piece without being an extravagant ballad and is very easy on the ears. This is the type of track that makes Secret rather unique nowadays – when Want You Back initially came out, people criticized it as ‘boring,’ but then came back after Magic and said Want You Back was the best thing ever. Want You Back and Hesitant are totally my cups of tea, but I totally understand why Secret went the Magic/Madonna road – they are the songs that will sell to the public. However, it’s nice to see they stay true to their roots of cheery, light R&B crooners.
And of course, Empty Space wraps up the minialbum. We’ve heard Jieun’s parts in their MV teaser (and I would love it if they made a full MV for it), and the full-length version sounds very nice as expected. It’s a pretty emotional song with very simple and clean piano backgrounds (aka my favorite type of ballads, yes yes I’m happy). Aside from Jieun and occasionally Hyosung when she gets into her zone, Secret doesn’t have quite strong enough vocals to belt out heart wrenching ballads a la Seeya or even old T-ara5, but they can sing ballads quite a lot better than most groups out there right now. I love them for their versatility yet faithfulness to a core Secret sound.
So overall, a very nice minialbum. I quite enjoyed their Magic EP (My Boy is probably still my favorite song from them, but Madonna is crack I tell you, pure craaaaacccck), and Madonna does not disappoint as a follow up. Something about Secret wants me to label them as the Fin.K.L. of today – they might not achieve the explosive popularity as their sunbaes due to the insane competition, but their sound and musical styles are comparable. Secret is a rare gem amongst groups today – they are one of few groups not jumping on the autotune/electropop-dance/cutesy bandwagon, and their sound isn’t so R&B or ballad as to get lost in numerous non-idol groups who release music in those genres. In a word, Secret’s music is refreshing – it’s easy on the ears and fun, but still display vocal talent so that I don’t feel guilty about listening to songs I could possibly sing better.
A+ girls, good to have you back.
Extra: TAEMIN. I WAS RIGHT. YOU ARE JAEJOONG JR. OMGOMGOMG.
Remember guys, Jaejoong was once tone deaf, and Taemin has improved sooo much T___T so proud. Meanwhile, what happened to Key’s voice? His once gorgeous vibrato has poofed in recent performances, and he’s singing so much whinier than usual – I initially loved his voice for his big, deep, projecting tone, but now he’s covering Ke$ha and I just want to shake him so hard and yell at him to sing a nice, big ballad for me. T_T
Sorry, really digging my Chicago soundtrack for some reason…totally odd, but it kinda fits Secret’s concept?
Sooooo, explosion of estrogen these past two days, as two girl groups made their debuts and two newish groups made their comebacks, and somehow, their concepts were different enough from each other that no one is making comparisons! Or at least they’re too busy bashing each group individually.
Let’s talk about the new debuts first.
I introduce to you, pedo-bait GP Basic! With an insane average age of 13.5 and the maknae still in 6th grade, it’s redundant to say netizens are going batcrazy about their need to stay in school, wtf were their parents thinking, and that they better not be wearing skimpy shorts and be humping the floor or somethin’.
Their debut single contains two tracks, but because the youngest’s rapping voice is just grinding on my nerves (she has good potential, but her voice isn’t developed enough so the rapping just sounds annoying) I will not be listening to LALALA (the…er…B-side track? I did too much J-pop/rock research today. It’s all coming back to me…). Here’s the video for Game (haha video…game, video game XD omg I need to stop sleeping at 3 every day…).
I’m not going to lie. It’s not terrible. I think my tolerance for badly autotuned songs has just built up during late 09-10, because I remember the days where I could absolutely not tolerate UKISS and Beast, and yet today I ended up dancing Mystery in front of my bathroom mirror. The autotune should go, but I find it listenable. The tempo’s too slow and not varied enough for a electro-pop song like Game, though, so its main fault is that it gets a little boring. And these girls should drop the fierce concept – it’s like a monochromatic 2NE1/4minute Jr. I actually don’t care about their age that much considering my best friend made me listen to Kidz Bop 1-12930945 while growing up, and, at the risk of GP Basic bringing on the Miley/Justin trend to Kpop, I think they can safely go down that road without too much bashing. But please, WIPING YOUR MOUTH AND FLINGING IT FORWARD IS NOT A DANCE MOVE. That goes for everyone in Kpop.
Next, it’s the super-leggy models-turned-singers Nine Muses.
I have an unfair prejudice against them. I want to confess that the first healthy obsession I had was Greek mythology. I LOVE me some Greek myth. The fact that they call themselves Nine Muses, after the minor deities of arts, music, and science (and the inspiration for some good Charmed episodes, good times) is just – NO. I’m sure like Girl’s Day, they’ve got some vocal talent under there, but, nononono. Staying away from Greek/Roman myth references/Greek-Latin in general is the best way to make me like you more.
But I feel really sorry for these girls, because they knew right off the bat they would be getting lots of hate for having 9 members – stupid, yes, but the comparison is inevitable, since there aren’t a lot of super-loved 9 member girl groups in Korea right now than SNSD. And then they had to bring that ‘Genie’ beat in – in general I thought the whole dance/concept resembled more of After School’s Bang!, but man, the first 10 seconds sank all hope for them. I was surprised JYP/Rainstone wrote this song, because it sounds so not JYP – there’s no catchy chorus, the beat was too heavy, and it just felt weird. It did resemble other JYP ‘catchsongs’ in one way, in that it doesn’t allow the singers to show off their vocals at all and thus makes for a terrible song to be performed live – if even Yeeun sounds bad in 2DT’s verses, then Nine Muses are screwed. And I’m so disappointed there’s not enough Julien Kang in that MV – it might have been the only reason I watched the MV?
Now for the comeback girl’s. I honestly think Rainbow can compete against model-fierce ulzzang Nine Muses on equal ground looks wise. Looking to climb their way to success in typical DSP fashion after Gosship Gurl and Not Yogurt (DSP – Please suck less), Jaekyung and the Pussycat Dolls Rainbow returns with their digital single, A.
Ok, the MV looks cheap and DSP doesn’t even give Rainbow cool costumes to redeem themselves (DSP 2010 MV review: Lupin–awesome costume/styling, wtf black flakes and moon beds; SS501 – Prince of Persia awesome background, but did you give them scissors for the suits? Rainbow’s was like a combo of the weaker parts of both MVs) BUT I really like the song. It sounds sooo like a 80s beach pop-song, and no autotune! Plus, watch their comeback on Mubank – they all look so energetic when performing, unlike the flopping fish of Nine Muses.
It’s a good song and performance, but why on earth was this only a digital single? Rainbow’s been out of the game for quite a while now, and I know that they’re supposedly releasing some rehashed compilation of their previous singles, but for them to do well on the award shows/charts, they need album sales, and I personally think Secret is going to cream them in digital sales.
One last note on Rainbow: I thoroughly appreciate that DSP gave the non-Jaekyung members that I still cannot differentiate more spotlight. A word of advice from me to them on giving too much love for leader only – deja vu.
Finally, Secret. Ok, so I was VERY excited about their comeback for some unexplainable reason (mostly because the teasers looked so bamf) and was thoroughly crushed when I listened to Madonna and discovered it was Mazik, Mazik Mazik ver. 2.0. Omona-spastic was replaced by the ma-mi-a-ma-mi-a business, mazik was replaced by madonna-donna, the choreo’s virtually the same, and somehow even the backdrop looked identical after watching Magic and Madonna back to back. But thank their lucky stars Mazik 2.0 is much, much better than the original (the costuming, though excessive, was leaps and bounds better than the idk what-you-call-it Magic things).
Hated it the first time I heard it. Then mazikally it began to grow on me, and 12 hours later I’ve flipped my opinion about Madonna 180 degrees. I actually don’t care that it’s basically rehashed Magic anymore – the song is fantastic, the rest of their minialbum is solid (loved the 8eight collaboration), their live performance was very satisfactory, and I now love Jieun forever and ever and ever. Possibly more than Zinger – omo how is that possible. And I feel inspired to review their minialbum, which will happen tomorrow! So yay, expect more Secret spazz 😀
So ranking the four songs? Hmm, if you’d asked me 24 hours ago, I would have said A above Madonna, but Madonna-donna *does the spastic hand wave dance moves* is sooo freaking catchy, and has won my heart.
The list goes Madonna, A, Game, No Playboy. I need to stop being so mean to them.
Speaking of which, I want to make apologies to Girl’s Day. They were my bashing toy since they debuted due to a combination of atrocious outfits and me being in a bad mood, but I took my own advice and tried to walk a mile in their shoes, and actually listened to their EP.
Control blew me away. There are no vocal prodigies in that group, but so far, two of them sing quite above-averagely. And I’m sorry I called Minah the fake-eyesmile girl (hey, that one picture did her no favors), she’s one of the two who can sing. And they’re actually pretty funny on variety. My apologies for their debuting with the wrong song – it happens a lot. I feel like I’m at Confession D:
Finally finally (last thing I promise), Minho’s dancing! I think he was tired/overexcited/nervous because he totally rushed and slipped up on his rap, but no grudges at all, since it was such a fantastic live today – Jonghyun wasn’t ‘flying off the handle,’ Key sounded more like his old self with the deep tone instead of whiny, and Taemin braved his stupid jacket that kept on falling off.
^Yeah sorry guys, I accidentally opened my sarcasm spigot a bit too much here. It’s completely due to the fact I need to sleep but am terrible at staying off my computer X.X
I really don’t like preaching, especially in our bubble known as Kpop–I prefer if others can discover mistakes and correct them on their own, as the end result is much more meaningful, and come on, Kpop is founded upon fanwars and hysterical fangirl/boying. However, there are some misunderstandings/points of hypocrisy that absolutely drive me nuts, so much so that I have resigned myself from attempting to explain on every forum I stalk, and instead will put my thoughts into my own post in hopes that others will maybe read and spread the knowledge.
As they say, pictures are worth a thousand words, so macros must have even higher inherent value. Here’s some excellent ones that will make the point across much easier than a written rant.
First, Taeyeon’s racist comment about calling Alicia Keys “pretty for a black person.” This apparently is a pretty big reason why a lot of people dislike SNSD, which is extremely unfortunate considering it is completely false. I am not a Sone, nor am I trying to make excuses for Taeyeon’s words. Rather, there’s NOTHING TO EXCUSE. She actually did nothing wrong because this was not what she said–I listened to the Chin Chin clip myself, and her words were very much distorted in translation thanks to some anti who even disabled comments on the YT video to prevent clarification.
^That about sums it up.
In Asian languages, ‘black’ translates directly into “African American” without negative connotations. No one uses the phrase “African-American” because it translates into something akin to a scientific name, which would be ridiculous to use in colloquial speech. I feel bad for Taeyeon because she really did nothing wrong here.
Next, let’s talk Key. Key from SHINee is known as a very blunt diva, and he will say what he thinks to your face. You actually have no idea how much I adore Key (I kept on doing his Ring Ding Dong ‘butterfly’ move and it was pissing off my friends), but I was a little offended when Nicole from Kara revealed that Key told her she was fat and asked “when are you doing on a diet?” in, I assume, typical Key fashion, which is to say very bluntly. I am more annoyed that people started commenting, “oh, but you know, they are like BEST FRIENDS, so it’s ok, and Nicole wasn’t really hurt, and I’d want a guy to tell me I’m fat too! (extreme lol at this, O RLY?).” I’d assume being friends would make this even more not ok–your friendship obligates you to at least word it a little nicer.
But that’s actually not my main issue.
Cause you know if it was actually Goo Hara who turned to Nicole and said, “bitch, why can’t your waist be 21 inches like mine,” she would not live to see daylight.
We had a saying like this in debate once: if a guy is rude, he’s just being assertive, but if a girl is rude, she’s being a bitch. I lament. I’m glad we’re all tolerating all the divaness of Key/Heechul/Kwon/others so well, but can we not flame the girls for being confident or critical?
Lastly, Kikwang’s blackface issue. If don’t know already, Kikwang from Beast dressed in blackface to play out a watermelon CF on the comedy show Hot Brothers, and international Kpoppers erupted in rage.
Personally, I have zero tolerance for racism. However, I am also a huge advocate for understanding–even if you vehemently disagree with the viewpoint of another, at least try to understand where its coming from. All this “omfg why is Korea/rest of Asia so far behind, I hate their racism” vs. “zomgbbqsauce Westerners just try to impress their opinions on everyone, imperialistic eggfarters” really gets us no where.
Cultural division exists on both sides–Westerners don’t understand Asian conservatism (what’s wrong with a teenage girl wearing a tanktop?), and Asian cultures don’t understand the Western lack of filial piety (why are some teens so disrespectful?), and I can make lots of pro/con points on both sides. Just know that the line drawn isn’t permanent. I apply a similar plea to the Key issue–Asian cultures are patriarchal because that’s how history turned out, and I accept that. I just hope fans living in more gender-equal nations won’t start to think this is an acceptable practice in their own countries. After all, acceptance breeds opinions, and opinions lead to action.
So do some research before flinging around the hate. You never have to accept someones words or actions, but you do have an obligation to try to understand it.
Let’s keep an open mind, and I’ll start blogging more lighthearted stuff :3
And I ‘borrowed’ all of these from random AKP forum threads–I don’t know who the original creators were, but I give them credit and a hardy pat on the back for their efforts.
So I just wrote about how 2010 = 2009 in terms of ‘quality of songs’ (you know we don’t listen to Kpop for quality). However, 2010 really should’ve been bigger than 2009.
As I look back at who came back in 2010, I’m utterly amazed that Kpop is NOT exploding in sheer awesomeness right now. So many big name, legendary artists emerged from the woodworks after spending years AWOL, and your standard top-of-the-pack groups almost all came back, and the sheer anticipation was on the verge of nuclear holocaust. But then, what happened?
Wonder Girls came back! Finally, the first ‘current generation’ girl group to reach superstardom returns from the U.S.! But 2 Different Tears was a hot mess of overanticipation of something better than TellSoNo, short promotion time, wtfbbq only a single?!?, and Sunmi’s departure.
U-Go-Hyori, the queen bee herself! It’s been 2 years! I actually thought Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was pretty good, but the plagiarism thing completely tanked her.
Rain! Hot abs ninja assassin looked to shock all with something better than Rainism. But he really should’ve put out a full album, because Love Song was just meh for me at least. The sales were ok, but not explosive like Rainism.
Gummy! The soul-voice of YG had been gone since FOREVER, and suddenly she emerges with her Loveless minialbum. Actually, I loved it. But sadly, idols are all the hype these days, and poor Gummy didn’t get the popular reception she really should have received (come on, flower boy Kim Hyunjoong was even in the freaking mv, what more strings was she supposed to pull?!?). The sales were actually ok, but it could and should have been bigger. My Gummy bias 😛
Se7en. Legend. Passion. Returns from the U.S. Again, should have had a full album, and despite his brilliant live performances (Better Together was actually a decent song), his sales are bad, and his fanbase, very weakened.
And the trump card, even BoA returned after 5 FREAKING YEARS. It’s way to early to see her album sales, but to me, that album was extremely disappointing. I think I’m not alone in noticing her music deteriorating in style over the years–honestly, BoA had edgy songs, cool dance moves and music videos, but Hurricane Venus was so dull compared to say, Girls on Top, and I personally attribute it too overwork–Japan and especially the U.S. just drained her. Sometimes I wish artists would just stay in Korea like Hyori–she knows where her base is at and sticks to it, and that’s why she’s the “Nation’s Fairy.”
And to list other hype/disappointments, After School’s Bang! was so meh compared to Because of You, 2pm’s Without U just wasn’t up to par with what 2pm can dish out, Son Dambi barely made an impact with Queen, 4minute had pretty bad sales, f(x) got gypped out of an award, 2NE1 and Big Bang are MIA (yes yes I know BB is in Japan), Seo Taiji got beaten by Jay Park, etc. etc.
Why? Primarily, the fans’ expectation of come backs better than the best works of the artists’ careers was simply too unrealistic. Even if the songs were pretty good, it wasn’t better, so fans were disappointed. I know I was somewhat disappointed.
However, I have been surprised by handfuls of acts this year, and now I think about it, they all came from groups who never had overwhelming success previously or were new acts. 2AM’s Can’t Let You Go Even if I Die/I Did Wrong back-to-back wowed both the charts and myself (it was one of those hits where you’re like, oh, yeah that song was good but never gave it too much thought, then looked back and realized, holy crap, their minialbum did really well), Kara finally had a bit hit with Lupin without choosing the wrong title song, CN Blue’s Loner indirectly lured me on the path of full Kpop obsession, Beast finally overcame their ‘reject group’ label with Shock, miss A again proved to me rookies were worth paying attention to (then Girl’s Day quickly disproved that, oh man I should really stop hating on them, Control was actually really good), and most recently SHINee finally made my summer spectacular with the best album of the year. The fact that I feel more excited about Secret’s comeback than I felt about BoA’s just confirms the new/newish groups are the ones creating the drive in 2010—old names simply aren’t performing on par.
And people are getting overly annoyed that so many new groups are debuting this year. While I will probably put up subsequent posts that mirror the public opinion, I can’t help but feel that, well, it’s always been this way. New groups announce debuts. The crowd groans and rolls their eyes. If their debut sucks they get bashed mercilessly. If they were ok they still get bashed mercilessly. You get the idea. I was rummaging through some old news tidbits and stumbled upon some written about Davichi during their debut–omg Kang Minkyung isn’t an ulzzang, stick to R&B, 8282 sucks, and most hilariously, they need singing lessons zomg. Personally I think Davichi can sing quite well, tyvm, and if you put them next to the idol world, wow, give them a Nobel Peace Prize for actually having talent now please. Hopefully you get the idea–as Seo In Young said recently, “Anyone can debut. The important part comes after.” All new groups will get crap dumped in their face, but they should consider it a weird, cultish welcome. Should they pass the initiation, they will have lots of diehard fans willing to put their lives on the line to defend them and buy their cds, posters, socks, and whatever product their company puts out to milk the fans for all their won.
And I must admit, I’m drooli–er, I mean, quite impressed. An M!Countdown win with the comeback! Edging out winner last week, miss A (impressive they beat Taeyang again), Se7en is back, people! The only thing I questioned was that pink scarf thing Se7en was wearing for Better Together. Apparently the M!Countdown show was closed during taping for only Se7en fans, but was it just me, or did the girls scream a tiny bit louder when TOP appeared?
That move was genius, by the way. I’m very happy Digital Bounce was performed in its entirely, because it is comparable in popularity to Better Together, and TOP is in it, and we know how he can make a song popular without even promoting (Turn It Up’s crazy chart runs without a single second of promotion? TOP’s golden.). When TOP and Se7en ended the song standing side-by-side, I realized, omg, this is it: it’s Korea’s dominant sex appeal together on stage. Forget all those young whippersnapper ab-flashers: when you put a veteran legend like Se7en and TOP who emits some sophisticated sexiness, it just makes everyone else look novice. Awesome awesome awesome.
Taeyang may have had a good run with his solo debut, but when it comes down to direct comparison, there’s no question why Se7en is YG’s dominant soloist. His stage presence is absolutely incredible, and his performances are always so polished (I’m liking DB/BT even better than Rain’s Love Song, and we know how Se7en was always considered not as good as Rain). His dancing is sharp, but it’s his vocal stability that really stands out for me. Se7en is, of course, not some Kim Jong Kook in pure vocals, but he’s an R&B artists and damn good at what he sings. I noticed that he doesn’t sing some parts of the chorus, but does ad lib during most of the empty spots, and his falsettos are AMAZING–it’s on pitch and sounds effortless. Plus, you can hardly hear the breathlessness that always plagues Taeyang, and Se7en’s vocals are strong until the end.
And notice how Se7en uses his backup dancers to the fullest? People, it’s called active interaction and treating your dancers as an extension of yourself, not just random people who copies the way you move in the background. That’s how you do it, kids.
On a side note, all YG’s music seems to share a very similar style. Just some similarities I picked up were “girl I do adore” used extensively in both Se7en’s Better Together and Taeyang’s I Need a Girl, the ‘airplane’ move used by Se7en and CL and Minzy for Please Don’t Go. To a certain extent, YG’s music is very similar, or at least all papa Teddy produced stuff (did he compose Better Together, also?), because I was pleasantly surprised by the distinct sound of G-Dragon’s self-produced album.
I know I wasn’t as hyped about Se7en’s comeback as SHINee’s, but Se7en just took the title of the most awesome comeback of the summer. That his comeback impressed me that much just through quality alone is enough to demonstrate the talent Se7en has and the work he put in for success. Only one who has a chance to beat him is BoA.
But I still predict SHINee will win Music Bank/Inkigayo simply because the album sales are there, plus Se7en did release his mini-album a few days later. Next week is where it gets really interesting.
So with 2010 more than half-ways behind us, I decided to make a little prediction on who’s coming back when.
Red = comeback confirmed, Purple = my guess only
August is going to be a fun month, with Se7en, SHINee, and BoA all actively promoting. I think this will be better than the Rain-Hyori-2pm clash during May (especially since I believe the August contenders are musically a little more standout at this point). T-ara is confirmed for an album (full album? But my prayers are never answered that well…) in September/October. Rainbow will be back September, hopefully with much improvement from Gossip Girl. Both Kahi and Gain have solo activities lined up for September, ironic that it’s yet another Pledis/NegaNetwork clash after Son Dambi/Narsha.
For my predictions, I see a 50/50 chance of 2NE1–rumors are they are already working on choreo/album, but for some reason I don’t feel a comeback. But they have to. So either they’ll come out early, say September or early October at the latest, or not at all.
Will the Wonder Girls return to Korea? Their summer was hella hectic, but I feel 2DT was too rushed and didn’t really make an impact. If they have plans, it’ll not be until 2011. Similarly, I think 2pm is going to be back either really late 2010 or early 2011. However, I feel the 2AM boys will be back in October/November. They only have one mini-album under their belts since debut, so a full album is due.
4minute is done for the year, especially with Japan promotions. MBLAQ is probably also done, but a late 2010 comeback is remotely possible. I feel BEAST will be back in November. They’ve more or less wrapped up overseas promotions and it’s been a while since Shock of the New Era.
I don’t predict anything from the Soshi girls in 2010 since I think they’re the only group preparing to enter Japan seriously (meaning long-term), but SM might have changed strategies after DBSK/BoA, so a late-year mini-album is possible. Big Bang seems to still be promoting in Japan, with their new single Beautiful Hangover soon to be released, so I don’t think we’ll see them until 2011. But do remember T.O.P. was working on an album before he started filming Into the Fire, so expect that to drop late 2010/early 2011 before any Big Bang comebacks.
Kara is sticking around in Japan for only about a month, so I predict they may pop out a mini-album in December (a third album would be nice, too). Some sixth sense (that does not see dead people, tyvm) tells me Brown Eyed Girls will be back in action in December. SIGN was so long ago. UKISS, too, has been missing, since Man Man Hani, so they might return in November/December. After School won’t return as a full group until their last subunit promotes, so it’s 2011 for them. f(x) needs a late year mini-album turnaround, but I just feel SM is semi-giving up.
The New Year will be interesting indeed. By that time, maybe miss A will release a second mini-album! Talk about time and progression–rookies don’t stay rookies for long, do they? Let’s check back on this in 2011 and see how many I got right.
Strictlykpop (but with lots of exceptions) 