The Annual Date

I have a friend of almost 30 years that I have been seeing once a year, for the last few years.  This friend and I go way back when we were the top students in our primary school comprising mainly students from English-speaking families.  A small group of us stuck out like sore thumb because we were equally good in both English and our Mother Tongue Language (in this case, Mandarin Chinese).  The rest of them, back then, couldn’t speak a complete sentence in Mandarin even if their lives depended on it.  In fact, some of them almost never made it to the local universities because they could barely pass their Mother Tongue exams.  The last I checked, their linguistics skills in this area didn’t improve over the years.  Perhaps the level of proficiency might even have ‘deproved’ due to lack of use.

In the late 80s/early 90s, a certain unique genre of music called Xinyao (the extended form being ‘Singapore Songs’ in Chinese) was emerging in Singapore.  The movement began in the early 80s when some junior college students started forming small groups to compose and sing their own compositions, in Mandarin.  By and by, this genre of music grew popular (because the songs were usually about everyday lives of average Singaporean students) as the listeners could identify with the issues sung in the songs.  At the peak of the movement, YF and I caught the bug in spite of our tender age.  We attended one concert in the last year of our primary school, and another concert again in the first year of our secondary school.  The following couple of years Xinyao became more commercialised, resulting in the annual concerts cum award ceremonies being televised.  We stopped attending the concerts because the tickets were no longer available for sale.  Being in different top secondary schools (and were naturally bogged down by our studies), YF and I lost contact.

Somehow, we never really felt the need to contact each other again but I always hear of her from friends who attended the same junior college as her.  Truth is, the ‘elite circle’ those days was very small; you can always find someone who knows someone else in your life.  Then we both moved houses and lost contact once again (back then, emails were not prevalent, there were no cell phones and definitely Facebook has not been invented).  It was much harder to keep in contact, and we were just too busy with our own lives.

For the next few years while in university, I tried searching for her.  Everyone I knew from her junior college heard of her, but didn’t know how to contact her.  Somehow years passed by and once again, I got caught up with life’s little busy-ness.

Until one day shortly after I got married, I saw an article of her and her newly-wedded husband on a bridal magazine.  That was about the time when Friendster came into existence.  I searched for her name on Friendster and voila!  I found her, together with many other primary school friends I lost contact with.  We caught up on the lost years.  By then, the once dead Xinyao movement was also revived in the form of annual concerts.  We started attending the concerts together again.

Yesterday, we attended a concert celebrating 30 years of Xinyao.  And boy, did we feel young amongst the crowd.  Told mum and little sis I was attending the concert, and they immediately assumed that I would be going with YF.  It is that predictable.

Together with the other concert attendees, we had hell of a time during the 4-hour long (without intermission) concert.  I’m eternally grateful to have found a friend like YF who shares a common interest because honestly, I don’t think I can find a second person in my life who shares the same passion.  Well, perhaps the hubby… but he is not that into Xinyao.

It may seem strange that we meet up once a year, considering that we are now hooked up.  I guess the years apart somehow have an impact – we now move around in different circles and lead very different lives.  I’m contented to keep in touch with her via attending the annual concert and the occasional conversation on Facebook.  Same goes for her.

103/250

K-Pop Demystified VIII: My Biases

I could literally hear some of you go ‘WHAT?  Biases?’  It’s just a slang to denote ‘favourite’, to put it plainly.  This word is especially useful and might have been created exclusively by fans of K-Pop.  You see, K-Pop is dominated by idol groups, and while one could most certainly love the whole group, he/she would most likely have a couple of favourites within the group.  These favourites are called the biases.

Like many fans of Super Junior, I have biases amongst the group of 13 members.  To be exact, I have 3 biases – Siwon, Kyuhyun and Yesung (top 3 of the collage below) – and I like them 3 for different reasons.  My ultimate bias Siwon was the one who ‘introduced’ me to Super Junior.  Being the tallest and arguably the most good-looking in the group, he was chosen to be ‘The Face’ of the group in that he would also be placed in the centre for photo shoots and MVs.  The strategy worked because I kind of fell for the trap.  After knowing more about the group, I added 2 more biases but he remained in my top position because the truth is, despite being good-looking, he isn’t very popular compared to his other group mates and I think in part it’s due to his lack of spontaneity and unwillingness to act cute.  Definitely didn’t help that he is religious and is always choosing to sing songs of worship in their concerts.  But I could see that he tries very hard, sometimes too hard.  Remember I once mentioned that I like championing underdogs?

I got into Kyuhyun and Yesung because of their musical talents, in particular their voices.  For the longest time, I couldn’t place either of them in my 2nd and 3rd places squarely (I love both their voices) so they were both sharing the 2nd spot.  However of late, Kyuhyun has emerged to be in my 2nd spot.  The shy maknae has recently come out of his shell and his snarky personality is shining through.  He is all charm, evilness and cuteness rolled into one.

Yesung is frequently known as Super Junior’s biggest failboat.  He is socially awkward, almost to the extent of being considered inept.  But he also has the most soulful voice in the group.  And he is famous for being filial to his parents.  He tries very hard too, like Siwon.  It is sometimes so painful to watch him try so hard but he’s slowly gaining more popularity.  I’m happy for him.

Lee Jonghyun is the lead guitarist and 2nd lead singer of CNBLUE and boy, does he play the guitar really well!  I prefer the warm timbre of his voice too, over the lead singer’s.  But he’s a little quiet, not spontaneous and socially inept too.  Predictably, he is not exceptionally popular despite the great voice he possesses.  And the remaining two – Song Joongki and Shim Changmin – are a little random.  I find Joongki a great actor (watch Sungkyunkwan Scandal and Tree with Deep Roots and you will know what I mean).  As for Changmin of DBSK, I just find him cute.  He has a great singing voice too.

Is the hubby jealous over my biases?  Not that I know of.  He knows all of them and he lets me go fan-girling over them without kicking any fuss.  He even incited me to go stalk them like a teenage girl the other time when some of them were in town (not that I did – I’m too old for that!).  I have a very open-minded husband and I’m grateful for that.

The real reason why I wanted to write this post was because some time back, a friend commented that she could see some commonality amongst my biases.  But I can’t see the commonality she was talking about, so I decided to put the pictures of all my biases side by side for comparison.  Granted, there are some similarities:

1. Height and Weight- they are all rather tall for Asians: Yesung and Joongki at 1.78m, Kyuhyun at 1.80m, Jonghyun at 1.82m, Siwon at 1.83m and Changmin at 1.86m.  And on the skinny side.
2. Fair – they are not too tanned.
3. Short haircut – I prefer men to look and behave like men, i.e. short cropped hair and are not in the least effeminate.  All 6 are rather ‘manly’ in their mannerism and habits.

That’s all I could deduce.  Visually there could be something more common about their facial features that draws me to them, but I can’t really see anything else beyond what is listed above.

56/250

Blessed

Always liked this song because it has a marvellous MV, so much so that I will end up crying like a baby every time I finish it.  I think anyone who has seen this MV and is touched by it will marvel at how successful the director of this MV has been at conveying the message of this song.

A gist of what this song (and MV) is about… you have a group of people and a dog (who have lost someone precious – and I like to interpret that it is separation by death) boarding a bus called the ‘Memories Bus’.  The journey brings us through the process of reminiscing the past, the sense of loss, the dissipation of the pain and sorrow, up to the final stage of acceptance and moving on in life.  In short, it is a blessing to have loved, and have been loved.

The highlight of the MV comes on after the 5th minute when the characters on the bus spoke to their beloved at the seaside:

1. The elderly man talking to his late father about how he has tried to live his life the way his dad wanted him to, and hoped that his dad was proud of him
2. The young girl talking to her best friend, telling her how much she wished to confide in her
3. The young lady talking to her boyfriend about how tired she was, and wished he were around to hug her while she cried
4. The young man talking to his baseball coach about how he missed all the lectures and regretted not listening to him
5. The dog barking and thinking about his young owner
6. The elderly lady talking to her Japanese pilot lover, about how she has lived her life well for the both of them, and wished to meet him again in her next life
7. The singer talking to her late parents and how she has grown up and is proud of being their daughter – this part is entirely true, by the way

This song took on a new meaning for me after I lost Sugar and I cried buckets whenever the dog in the MV appeared.  I still miss her terribly, and especially more so because the two young furkids at home now are so unlike her in temperament.  They love me too, but in different ways from how Sugar loved me.  Watching this MV is a reminder that it’s high time I walk out of the grieving and embark on the healing process.

I really dread going through it twice more.  It might just kill me.

42/250

K-Pop Demystified VII: Male Idols and Army

South Korea is like Singapore – all men citizens must complete a certain duration of military service.  In South Korea, all men between graduation of high school and 35 years old must complete 21 months of military service (source: Wikipedia) so they are given the flexibility as to when they are ready to be conscripted.  Entertainment artistes (including singers, actors etc.) in South Korea mostly start their careers at a very tender age, first by entering entertainment companies as trainees.  Following that, they will debut young, sometimes as young as 17.  As a norm, the males tend to put off their mandatory military service till it is no longer possible to delay any further.  This is not to say that they trying to avoid entering military service; on the contrary, South Korean males take pride in serving the nation and will take the obligation like a man should.  All they wanted to do was to establish their careers in the entertainment scene prior to leaving because nobody knows what would happen after a 2-year hiatus – they might not be able to find a strong foothold again.

As a result, a rather strange and interesting phenomenon has occurred in Korean dramas, I have noticed.  There seems to be a lack of male actors between the ages of 28-33 because all would have been conscripted for military service.  To fill the void, producers and directors turn to the younger male actors.  Or older male actors.  So you end up having 24 year-olds or 35 year-olds trying to act like they are 30 year-olds.  This seems like a situation unique to South Korea, as compared to Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore entertainment scenes (that I also follow).  Out of these countries, only South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore practice mandatory conscription.  However, only South Korea is flexible in the age at which the males could get conscripted because as a general rule, Singapore and Taiwan require males reaching the age of 18 to be conscripted.  This is probably the main reason why we do not see very young male idols debuting in Singapore or Taiwan.  Most of them only become performance artistes in their early 20s, after fulfilling their military obligations.

I came across this very interesting chart summarised by a Japanese fan of K-Pop.  In essence, this chart lists down all the active male idols in K-Pop now, in accordance to the birth years.  This year, the male idols born in the years 1981-1984 should all be conscripting.  And some younger ones, by choice.

In K-Pop, it is believed that there is such a thing called a ’5-year curse’ for idol groups.  This is because some very popular groups like H.O.T, DBSK and SS501 disbanded saw some major changes to their lineup after a 5-year period.  Instead of calling it a curse, you could also call it the ‘natural shelf-life’ of an idol group.  However recently, two groups have notably surpassed the supposedly 5-year curse – Super Junior and Big Bang.  In fact, Super Junior might be the first group in K-Pop history to actively continue with their promotion activities despite having temporarily lost some members to military service.  One of the members would be completing his service by April, when Super Junior would still be busy with their world tour.  It would be interesting to see how the entertainment agency deals with his return because for sure, this is something unprecedented in K-Pop.

Whether the younger male groups will suffer an eventual fate of disbandment under the ‘curse’, or rise to the occasion and overcome it is anyone’s guess.  But one thing I know for sure, is that even if Super Junior somehow disbands and does not re-group after all of them have completed their military service (which is calculated to take a span of at least 8 years, unless the younger ones all get conscripted together), they will still make it in the entertainment industry simply because of their diverse talents in MC-ing, acting, singing, hosting radio shows etc.

If, in the event that I do not get to see them perform as a group again, I shall remember the last scene – the deep bow – from all their concerts I’ve attended.

41/250

In Sweet Rejoicing

This is by far my most favourite piece of Christmas carol, followed by John Rutter’s version of ‘We Wish You a Merry Christmas’.  I loved singing this version of ‘In Dulci Jubilo’ during the carolling days in university when we had to perform a few sessions a day at several hotels.  Ah, those were the days…

There is just something about singing in a choir that gets to me.  I miss that goosebumps-rising experience.

K-Pop Demystified VI: Releasing New Music

I have had listened to a lot of music in my life, primarily owing to my dad’s influence.  It wouldn’t be exaggerating if I told you I grew up listening to the Bee Gees, Beethoven, Teresa Teng and Richard Clayderman.  And mum listened to anything that was playing on the radio.  Diverse, I know.  Maybe that’s why I grew up confused about my taste in music.

K-Pop entertains me.  And intrigues me too, especially the way new music is released and publicised.  Again, I have to qualify that my knowledge is very skewed towards SM Ent. and Super Junior because I don’t follow the other Korean artistes as closely.  But I’m guessing that it isn’t much different.

First of all, teaser pictures about the concept of the new album are released, usually of one member each day, just to whet the appetite of the fans.  Following that, a teaser MV would be released on the agency’s official YouTube channel.  What’s a teaser MV?  It’s a condensed version of the real MV, and reveals just a little about what the actual song might sound like.  And I have to say, SM Ent. makes some of the best teasers out there.  So good the teasers were that I was actually kind of disappointed a couple of times when the full MV was released and it sounded nothing like the teaser.

Compare between the teaser and the full MV for ‘Super Girl’.  I was expecting an edgier song with a stronger beat.  The actual song is quite good actually, but I felt kind of cheated because the teaser was much better, I thought.

Of course, a few days following the release of the teaser MV, the actual MV is released on YouTube as well.  And this is call a Comeback.  No, the group did not split or disband after the series of promotions and concert tour of the previous album ended.  ’Comeback’ is just a term used specifically in K-Pop to refer to artistes who are beginning promotion activities for a new album.

And after the MV is released, they start their roundof live stage performances on the various music shows in South Korea namely, Mnet Music Show (Thursdays), KBS Music Bank (Friday), MBC Music Core (Saturdays) and SBS Inkigayo (Sundays).  Some of these shows give out awards based on album sales, audience voting but it’s too complicated so I won’t cover that here.

In the midst of this promotion period, the group will also attend other various entertainment and radio shows to promote the new album.  This is usually done on top of other duties they might already have for example co-hosts on shows etc.  This cycle goes on for several weeks (about five weeks) before they take a one-week break.  But no, they are not resting in that one week.  What happenes is they start learning the dance for the main track of their repackaged album.  And this again goes on for several weeks till the last performance known as the ’Goodbye Stage’.

Things don’t end there after the Goodbye Stage.  Usually if it is not a new artiste or group and if they had released a full-length instead of a mini album, it was time to prepare for a concert tour.  Of course, the number of shows and the number of countries they travel to depends on how popular the artiste or group is.  Take for example Super Junior’s Super Show 3 (to promote their 4th studio album) saw them travelling to 13 cities for 20 concerts in 10 months.  Seems like a long period of time for the small number of concerts but while they were touring to give their concerts, their subgroup Super Junior-M made time to release a mini album.  On top of that, another subgroup Super Junior K.R.Y was also travelling to a few countries for their first concert.  Some members were also juggling appearances on musicals.

This is one very busy group.  I’m not sure if the other groups or solo artistes in South Korea are as busy, but I’m guessing that Super Junior is busy because they have been in the industry for some years now and have several other commitments outside of promoting their music.

So, there you go.  Summarily, this is how new music is being released and promoted in South Korea.

And since this post is already the 6th installment of series, I thought I should end the post with links to the previous parts.  I know, not many of my regular readers are interested in K-Pop but in case someone who is totally new to this genre of music decides to read up on it, I would rather they read what I’ve written here than pull off information from some misguided website written by a fanatic K-Pop fan who cannot be neutral.  I’m not always neutral, I know, but I tried.

K-Pop Demystified V: K-Pop Fandom
K-Pop Demystified IV: Maknaes
K-Pop Demystified III: Leaders
K-Pop Demystified II: The Obsession with Age
K-Pop Demystified I: The Concept

And if you are not a fan of K-Pop (I know I’ve been seriously boring you to death), I apologise.  It’s just that K-Pop has, in particular, been drawing a lot of flake because they say it’s shallow, severely auto-tuned and the artistes not talented.  Music is music, whatever the genre.  What more music that entertains me.  I can’t appreciate all genre of music out there, but I blame no one for not being open-minded towards metal music or Linkin’ Park.  It’s a matter of taste and hence I don’t think anyone should slam any music without knowing much of it.  I just want to do my little part in righting this.

The Perfect Pose

Tuesday is unofficially K-Pop day on my blog.  I have not had the time to continue with my K-Pop Demystified series so it’s all about Super Junior today.  Again.  Sorry… I know I have been exceptionally frivolous of late.  I can’t even remember when was the last I sat down and seriously wrote something of substance – not that I have much grey matter to begin with.

It will only get worse I have to prepare you, because I have to pre-write almost a month’s worth of posts in advance while I’m away holidaying (just in case I don’t get internet access on the go).

Their magnum opus is easily ‘Sorry, Sorry’, the title track in their 3rd full album.  It is also this infectiously memorable song that brought them to prominence in the international music scene.

Originally, 12 members performed this song.  After 2.5 years, it was a 9-member strong group that performed this song last week at the 2011 MAMA.

Rumour has it that they did the dance version for their MV in one take.  I love the chereography of this song but it’s still not my top choice.  Maybe I’ll leave the rest to another post.

Why I Like You

And this, is the reason why I feel that it is worth the time, effort and money spent on them.  Despite being at their prime (and now on a slight decline), they never lost their humility and the human touch.  They know very well it is not their entertainment agency that got them to where they are today.  Instead they have their fans to thank everything for.

In a recent interview, the founder of their entertainment agency talked a bit about how this group came about – they were amongst the less outstanding trainees remaining after DBSK was formed.  He pitied them because they worked so hard (apart from the fact that they had also signed contracts with the agency) hence the decision to give them a chance to debut without putting in too much effort to help them.  That they would go on to become so popular with that strong a global fan base was something he did not expect.  As a result, the group was transformed from a project group (with changes to the line-up every year) to a permanent group.

This was something revealed to the public only recently (the bit about how they were assembled) but I’m sure the boys knew it right from the start.  This might be somewhat a biased comment, but I honestly have not seen another K-Pop group that bows as deeply as they do, or as often.  Just in case you are unaware, a deep bow in many Asian societies connotates reverence and/or gratitude.  What triggers this constant act of gratitude from this group (although they are easily one of the most senior, active idol groups in K-Pop now) could be the knowledge that they would not be who they are, and where they are, without the support of the fans.  Their existence depended on the love of the fans, and this is even more so than other groups (who would have the full support of their agencies).

I’ve always been somewhat a champion of the underdogs, and it seems that I have not invested myself in vain.  Various circumstances have decimated the original 13-member group to the current 9 active members – one is concentrating on his acting career (I have my theory about this official stand), two are in the army, and the only Chinese member of the group has returned to China to pursue a solo career.  Suffice to say that they have weathered through quite a bit of storm together (incuding 2 life-threatening car accidents involving members in their earlier days), and I dare say much more than other groups.

I don’t know how long more they might be around.  Nobody knows.  But I’ll be on this journey alongside them for as long as they stay together.  And the hubby too.  Unknowingly he has come to regard them quite fondly.  They are easy to love – just attend one of their live concerts and you would be touched by the apparent camaraderie amongst the members and their earnestness in bringing the best performances to their fans.

Leaving you guys with a live performance of their song ‘Why I Like You’ from their 3rd album (made famous by the song ‘Sorry, Sorry’).  I love this song, but for some reason, they just don’t sing it anymore.

<photo credits: www.facebook.com/smtown>

For Da Boys

Still in Seoul, and the purpose of this trip was really mostly for da boys. I know this may not make sense to some people but hey, we are all entitled to have our own little indulgences, no? I mean, some people drink and smoke, and others drive fast cars… my little indulgence just happens to be closely related to 13 boys.

Be back home tomorrow and naturally will be back to slightly more regular blogging.

Till then…

K-Pop Demystified V: K-Pop Fandom

When I first got interested in K-Pop, there was really quite a bit of learning to do because this well-oiled industry works very differently from english and mandarin pop music.  A closer cousin to K-Pop would be J-pop, of course.  With their close proximity geographically, their entertainment industries have cross-pollinate to become what they are today.

First things first… did you know that the fan club of each band/group has a unique name and an official colour?  Who decides on the names and colours?  Sometimes the entertainment agencies themselves decide for the bands or groups when they first debut, but sometimes the fans get to have a say.  Here’s a short list of some of the more interesting fan club names + their official colours:

1. Super Junior: E.L.F. (Everlasting Friends) + Pearl Sapphire Blue
2. DBSK: Cassiopeia + Pearl Red
3. 2PM: Hottest + Grey
4. 2NE1: Blackjack + Hot Pink
5. RAIN: The Cloud + Silver
6. CNBLUE: Boice + Blue
7. B2ST (read as ‘Beast’): B2UTY (read as ‘Beauty’) + Dark Grey

Some of the fan club names above are self-explanatory (for example Hottest because 2PM is the hottest time of the day and Blackjack because 21 is the highest number you could hit while playing blackjack).  Others are less intuitive, like Boice is a combination of the words blue and voice and E.L.F. is something the agency created.

As for colours, it makes perfect sense to assign a unique colour to a band or group so as to better identify their supporters in combined concerts.  In fact, it becomes very interesting when the idol groups come together to perform at some concerts for example the Dream Concert.  Fans of different fan clubs are assigned different blocks so you could imagine the plethora of colours you see at the stands.  Furthermore, it generates more income for the entertainment agencies.  Lightsticks, balloons, tees, blish etc. are just some of the merchandise available for sale to fans.  And that is on top of the CDs, DVDs and concert tickets.

It is expensive being a devoted fan.  Trust me.

I got a bit lazy and didn’t want to search through my external hard disk for this original picture so I lifted this from my Chinese blog.  I took this during Super Junior’s 2nd concert tour in Taipei.  It was a beautiful sea of sapphire blue, and at one glance, you know you are at a Super Junior’s concert.  In contrast, it would be say… a sea of red if you attended a DBSK concert or pink for an SNSD concert.  I can only applaud the industry for being so organised.

And what ‘duties’ does a K-Pop fan have?

First off… fan chants.  This fant chant thingy irritates a lot of people, myself included initially.  Thing is, it is a culture to fan chant during the singing.  I’m not sure how and why it started, but it’s kind of fun when you pick it up, the fans get involved and really, the idols are expecting it.

Just in case some of you are not familiar with what I’m talking about, watch this video and hopefully you’ll understand that fan chants are actually supposed to be very systematic and organised.  It’s rather messy in this video and I tried looking for a video with the Japanese fans involved (they are the most disciplined when it comes to fan chanting) but without the subtitles, an untrained ear might not be able to decipher the fan chanting from pure cacophony.

Other than fan chants (which necessitates the need to learn all the songs), there are other ways fans can show their support.  The more traditional ways are providing food support when the idols just released an album and are attending music programmes, birthday gifts and show support when the idols are involved in individual projects like acting in a tv drama series or musical by means of rice wreaths.

What?  Rice wreaths?  Yup, you read it right and I think this is unique only to them.  The picture above shows a portion of the rice wreaths sent to a tv broadcasting station in South Korea on the day of the official press conference of Poseidon, a Korean drama starring Siwon, a member of Super Junior.  I really like the idea of rice wreaths over flower wreaths because to what happens after this is, the celebrity who received all these rice would donate them to the poor.  Hey, rice is definitely more useful than flowers and I think the South Koreans definitely got their priorities right.

As for food support, you will be surprised at how organised the different fan clubs can be.  I know I was really awed when I first saw the pictures.

This food support project was intiated by one of Siwon’s Korean fanbase.  They prepared food and beverages for the whole crew and staff during his first episode of filming as an MC for a music programme.  Anybody could see that a lot of care had been put in to assemble to ‘care packages’.

This fanbase is not unique.  In fact this is the norm in the K-Pop industry.  And I truly worry for the young fans who have no earning power but are spending so much on their idols.  If it’s any comfort, the fanbases are very systematic in asking for donations for such projects and each individual usually doesn’t have to contribute very much.  This is truly the epitome of power in numbers.