Kpop Idol Culture + Lots of Queuing

Writing from the land of kimchi, still! And since I'm here, why not immerse myself into probably the biggest Korean export out into the world - KPOP! Idol culture here in Korea is a big thing, and girls, women and quite a number of boys and men queue up for hours outside broadcasting stations to either go in to watch music shows of their favourite idols or wait outside to catch glimpse of their idols walking in for recordings.

I've done both - and can I say that it takes a hell lot of effort and it's super tiring! Ok so basically to get into a music show, you will have to join the queue of a specific group's fan club. There will be rules on what you have to bring in order to get into the recording, usually the CD the group is promoting, fan chant and a slogan towel. And then you basically go to the broadcasting station to queue. Some of the bigger fan clubs have a bidding system for tickets so you will have to sign up on their fan café and this is usually war. You basically spend 3 hours queuing to watch your idols perform for 5 minutes.

And just to be adventurous, I decided to go out of Seoul to watch a music show. It was in Ulsan, about 4 hours out of Seoul by bus. Since it's summer, MBC held a summer music festival at their Ulsan Centre Stadium. Admission to watch is free, but the queuing thing happens again. Crazily enough, we hit the queue at about 6am in the morning and it was already snaking. People were coming out from tents like refugees. The recording only started at 4:30pm... so... the queuing starts.

At about 2:30pm when they started letting people into the venue, people who were behind the cut off point started to play dirty and wanted to cut the queue - lots of pushing and swearing happened. I'm just glad that I didn't get cut off if not my entire day of queuing would be wasted! This is it with queuing for music shows here in Korea, there's always that slight chance you would be denied entry. At the end of the day, we spent about $20 on iced water because the temperature was like 34 degrees and the sun was working extra hard! I got tanned, didn't care about my image and slept on the ground under a tree - just to see these 7 boys.

INFINITE!!!

But it was so worth it HAHA. Fangirl, through and through.

Here's the video of the performance, it was such good fun being in that crowd and screaming my head off!

Flashback Friday - H.O.T

안녕히세요 여러분 (ahn-yeong-ha-se-yo yeo-ro-bun)! Which basically means hello everyone! It is time, for your monthly dose of Korean goodness!

We are all well aware of the latest Korean or Hallyu wave that has hit Singapore like a tsunami and can rattle of the names of bands like Super Junior, Girls Generation and even sing along to their songs without even knowing what they mean. BUT! For this instalment, I'm going to take everyone back to waaaay back to when the Hallyu wave FIRST STARTED and the band which got me started down this one way road of no return hahaha. Yes, a lot of people have no idea that this Hallyu wave is not a recent thing. It was started back in 1996 - yup, you read it right - 1996, 17 years ago.

The first band ever, that started this whole k-pop idolism thing, is none other than H.O.T, which stands for High-five of Teenagers (yes, the name makes no sense). But because they were formed mainly to target the teenagers... so... Lee Soo Man, brainchild of now THE biggest entertainment company in Seoul, SM Entertainment specially coined the band name for them. Ahn Chil Hyun (a.k.a Kangta), Moon Heejun, Tony Ahn, Jang Woohyuk and Lee Jaewon - 5 boys with varying talents shot into superstardom overnight, and it was the birth of k-pop idolism.

A far cry from the pretty boys in tailored suits we see these days isn't it? H.O.T had reign of the kpop charts from 1996, until they disbanded in 2001. During those 5 glorious years, they had a plethora of number 1 hits, with their biggest hit being 'Candy'.



So now you wonder, it's been 12 years - where are they now?

Lead vocalist Kangta stayed on with SM and has since released a few solo albums - I personally liked his Pinetree album the best. He completed his military service earlier this year and stepped back into the game with "Breaka Shaka", his breakout single for the Chinese market. He also re-signed with SM, extending his contract with them for another 10 years and was in Singapore for the SM Town concert last year. The direction for his Korean albums and Chinese albums are worlds apart, and personally, I prefer the Korean one.


Pine Tree - Kangta

Breaka Shaka - Kangta

Leader Moon Hee Jun initially stayed on with SM, and attempted to get rid of his pop idol image and released a rock album. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out like what he hoped despite a few album releases. I do have the albums, and I don't listen to them at all. I just bought them because I love H.O.T. In 2005, Heejun left SM Entertainment and created his own entertainment agency, PS Entertainment. Don't really know what happened to that company as he is currently signed with Sidus HQ that is also the management company of Jay Park. These days, Heejun has put on some weight and has been doing a lot of hosting for variety shows. He also had a comeback stage in January with his new song I'm Not Ok.


I'm Not OK - Moon Hee Jun

The remaining three members Tony, Jaewon and Woohyuk formed their own trio band JTL and only released one CD. My favourite song from their album My Lecon (yeah, the English does not make any sense, just ignore it lol).


행복했던기억들은 (Memories) - JTL

After the disappearance of JTL, Tony became quite the entrepreneur, opening up TN Entertainment(a music company), Skoolooks (a school uniform company), and Shinenihs (an undergarment company). 

Jaewon decided to go solo but his career barely even started before he was accused of a rape charge which made everything completely just spiral downwards into a dark abyss. Better luck next time, with him being discharged from mandatory Korean national service in 2011.

Jang Woohyuk, known for his lean mean dancing skills even back in the day. He started a dance company called Newest Entertainment and has also contracts to perform in the Chinese market. He also had a comeback into the entertainment scene in 2011, with the track Time is [L]over. He definitely still hasn't lost his amazing ability to dance!


Time is [L]over - Jang Woo Hyuk

Rumours have been going around for a while now that members are planning to come together and perform on the stage together again for fans to bring back good memories. I certainly am hoping for that day to happen!

So this is the Kimchi Fairy signing off, but not before leaving you some of #1 hits of H.O.T! Enjoy!


Happiness

아이야 (ah-ee-ya) meaning Child
P.S.: There is a meaningful message behind this song, go look it up on google if you're interested!

We Are The Future

Mother Father Gentleman

I would have very much liked to blog about Psy's new song Gentleman when it was released, but unfortunately my column only comes once a month. Better late than never they say!


If you don't understand Korean, it sounds like Psy is repeating a cuss word over and over again. But this is actually what it means...

I don't know if you know why it needs to be hot
I don't know if you know why it needs to be clean
I don't know if you know, it'll be a problem if you're confused
I don't know if you know but we like, we, we, we like to party

Hey there
If I'm going to introduce myself
I'm a cool guy with courage, spirit and craziness
What you wanna hear, what you wanna do is me
Damn! Girl! You so freakin sexy!

Ah Ah Ah Ah I'm a...
Ah Ah Ah Ah I'm a...
Ah Ah Ah Ah I'm a mother father gentleman

I don't know if you know why it needs to be smooth
I don't know if you know why it needs to be sexy
I don't know if you know darling, hurry and come be crazy
I don't know if you know, it's crazy, crazy, hurry up

Hey there
Your head, waist, legs, calves
Good! Feeling feeling? Good! It's soft
I'll make you gasp and I'll make you scream
Damn! Girl! I'm a party mafia!

Ah Ah Ah Ah I'm a...
Ah Ah Ah Ah I'm a...
Ah Ah Ah Ah I'm a mother father gentleman

Gonna make you sweat.
Gonna make you wet.
You know who I am
Wet PSY! Wet PSY! Wet PSY! Wet PSY! PSY! PSY! PSY!
Ah I'm a mother father gentleman

I'm a, ah I'm a
I'm a mother father gentleman
I'm a, ah I'm a, I'm a mother father gentleman

Mother father gentleman

No hidden meaning behind the song like Gangnam Style. This song is indeed brainless, but a fun song to dance to at clubs, I guess... The MV also shows Psy being a total douchebag to girls he dates, until he meets a girl who is as much of a douchebag as he is.

Personally, I felt that originality was... barely there. This song was like a mash up of LMFAO's Party Rock Anthem, the Harlem Shake and Gangnam Style all mashed together. Maybe he was trying to do reverse engineering with the song after the success of Gangnam Style. But well, Psy's free to do his thing and it isn't THAT bad a song. So... alrighty then. Also, Gangnam Style had the horsey dance, and I supposed Gentleman has the hip shake - which was actually the crux of the Abracadabra dance by Brown Eyed Girls back in 2009.


Psy definitely did reference this dance well, getting Son Ga In of the Brown Eyed Girls to star in this MV with him. I reckon this song is going to be a hit with it's catchy beat and cheesy dance steps, but I'm not sure if it will do as well as Gangnam Style did.

What do you think about Psy's new song? ^^

This is The Kimchi Fairy signing out, PEACE!