영원하자

Made a quick trip to Seoul over the weekend and just returned yesterday afternoon.  In the last 5 days, we stayed at two accommodation of sorts – the first two nights at a guesthouse, and the next two at an apartment.  Couldn’t sleep well at the first because sleeping on the floor with a thin mattress and soft pillow = backache.  The second was worse – had air-conditioning that didn’t work and kept shutting itself down like there was some timer, and hot water that was non-existent after midnight.

I slept badly all 4 nights, so much so that I was sleeping away for most part of the return 6-hour flight that I didn’t even want to eat.  Now… eating is a big deal to me and I chose sleeping over it.  Tells you how fatigued I was.

Seoul, like Taipei, is no longer a city I travel to because I want to sightsee.  They have become by-the-way cities that I explore apart from attending concerts.  This trip is no exception, although I must say, I feel less at a loss because I now read their words!  I don’t always know what the words mean, but where it matters, I can read e.g. bus going in the direction of Incheon Airport or Gimpo Airport.  Now… that’s important.

As usual, the hubby complains about how my classes never seem to teach me enough.  I retorted that I know enough to say ‘신쳔역근처에’ and ‘올림픽공원역’.  Oh, and also ‘광화문앞에’.  Good enough to get me to all 3 locations with little problem.  Who said the classes aren’t teaching me anything?

111/250

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

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

Water Dance

I’d been missing from action the past few days because I was travelling.  In a nutshell, the hubby and I made a very short trip to Taipei over the weekend .  He’s actually very busy with work the coming airshow, but specially made time to travel with me because he knew this trip was important to me.  He has to know: I sacrificed my sleep and woke up early two days in a row while in Prague, and used up half a day in Paris staying in the hotel room so I could have internet access to do what I had to do.  He shared my grief when I was not successful, and basked in my happiness when I was.  Nobody else in this entire universe indulges me as much as he does; my family comes in a very close second, but they stop short of fueling my fanaticism.  Well actually, my mum and sis are rather supportive too.  I am indeed fortunate.

I don’t expect everyone to understand my passion (or to put it bluntly, my obsession).  It was never my objective to seek consensus, but it is important to me that my loved ones and closest friends accept me for who I am.  And I’m glad to say that while they may not truly understand, they do not judge me.  In fact, my passion has prompted some of them to relook into their old prejudices with new perspectives.  As for my parents?  They are happy so long as I don’t do the ABCDs – alcohol, booze, cigarettes and drugs.

3 shows.  9+2 members.  12.5 hours.  A very special birthday celebration for Kyuhyun and a unique ‘water dance’ performance on the final day.  I am very contented.

I’ve been travelling every month the past 4 months – October to Tokyo, November to Seoul, December/January to Europe and February to Taipei – and I’m beginning to understand Traveller’s Fatigue Syndrome.  Which is just as well, because I have almost a full year to recuperate.  You see, the hubby has officially ‘banned’ me from travelling for the rest of 2012.

We’ve heard of the Europe Cold Front and seen some devastating news footage while in Tapei.  The situation looks rather bad.  While we’re glad we have returned home safely from our Europe trip, our hearts go out to those of you in Europe.  Please take care!

30/250

The Legendary Sea of Sapphire Blue

Osaka Dome is huge, being able to accommodate 40,000 people for a concert. And a few weekends ago, the interior was transformed into a beautiful endless sea of sapphire blue.  It must had been such an amazing sight to behold.

(cr: hirojune@weibo)

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.

MAMA

MAMA = Mnet Asia Music Awards.  It was held in Singapore yesterday, and at the last minute, I managed to secure 2 tickets to watch the award ceremony.  No, actually I secured 3 tickets, and at the eleventh hour just seconds before the transaction with the seller, he told me his friend had sold one of the tickets to someone else without consulting him.

Honestly, I don’t care about what transpired between him and his friend but that was really not a very right thing to do.  And he had the cheek to tweet ‘Sorry seems to be the easiest word ever… ‘ after that.

Eventually, only E and I made it for the concert.  Sorry about it, C.

The stage setup was awesome.  The award ceremony was a little boring at some bits, particularly when the South Korean presenters just rattled on in Korean, giving no apparent thought to like perhaps 90% of the audience who didn’t understand a single word.  But it was a good experience.  I’d never attended an award ceremony of such a scale so it was quite an eye-opener.

I will try to revert to normal, regular blogging in a few days.  Busy mugging for my JLPT examination this Sunday.

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>

사랑한다

The title of this post reads ‘Saranghanda’, written in Korean, just in case you were wondering.  This was the message that was hopefully passed on to Super Junior during the second Seoul concert last weekend when the whole stadium lifted up this banner during the predetermined song.

I don’t know enough Korean to write and read, but fortunately enough, these 9 characters are commonly seen enough for me to recognise them.  In short, the banner reads ‘Love You,  Super Junior’.

It was a simple, but touching fan project.  Glad I managed to make it for their Seoul concerts second year in a row.

Now that I’m back home, it’s time to sit down and study for next weekend’s JLPT.