[Misc] Thought Corner: Goodnight Irene

Oh Irene, you fool. There's been quite the commotion surrounding her over the last couple of days. I'll spare you the details because I'm lazy and also not fully informed but man. Irene's been putting in work in the wrong departments. To sum things up in one sentence? Irene harasses people verbally and people are bring it to light. There hasn't been released evidence or anything like that sure, but the fact that Irene had to post an apology and meet with the accuser personally says everything. You truly wonder what was said on that recording...

[Blog] S.M. and the Kibum Factor

Let's be honest. How many people even realize that Kibum was / is a member of Super Junior? Of course he's inactive, but he's still listed as an official member even though he hasn't participated in group activities since 2009. Funnily enough there was very recent news from Kibum himself that he is no longer under contract with S.M. Let's start there I suppose.

Kibum hadn't been active as a Super Junior member since something like 2009. Yet for all intents and purposes, he was still technically a member of the group, even though he hadn't been in a single promotion and was literally 100% on the acting market. There were no lawsuits, no contract terminations, no shenanigans, just the joke of an excuse that he was still "a Super Junior member that we would welcome back anytime." I'd be willing to bet that he had no intentions of coming back to the group, and indeed since his contract ended his Instagram post sure sounded happy he was no longer with the company.

Now we look to Sulli. Sulli's case is probably most similar to Kibum's, in that she hasn't really been active with the group and didn't seem to care much about her future in f(x). Sulli was the reason "Red Light" promotions cut short and the whole attitude debate along with her dating Choiza didn't really put her in the best of lights for fans. There was speculation she'd leave the group eventually and that turned out to be true. To this credit she was treated the same way as Kibum. While her hiatus wasn't as concrete as Kibum's, she was still listed as a member up until the announcement of her departure.

As for Jessica, Tao, Kris, and Luhan (those "lazy" foreigners), They're different in the sense that they had definitely wanted to stay in the group, but have individual activities (or more of such) on the side. Jessica with BLANC, and the EXO boys with overseas activities in China. Ms. Jung still expected to be a Girls' Generation member while maintaining her fashion line and either S.M. or the other members (or both) were against. We'll never know the truth, but again when you look at what happened with Kibum and his status, I don't get why the same couldn't have applied to Jessica. What's even more bizarre is that for a short period after, she remained under S.M.'s management before they finally let her go. As for the Kris / Luhan / Tao trio, health conditions were also cited a la Han Geng's lawsuit, so to me this looks like following a sunbae's footsteps in this regard but again without the full story it's difficult to say. Supposedly Chinese queen Victoria also has separate promotions in China, so I find difficult to believe that something worked out with her and not for the Chinese EXO trio. I'd imagine the key difference being that the EXO members wanted nothing to do with the group anymore due to health / schedule concerns.

The aftermath of all this? Super Junior will continue as if nothing happened because in reality, nothing did happen. They have been promoting with slightly different rosters for years now and "Devil" showed they're still good.  Girls' Generation have trekked along with Jessica for almost a year now and in my eyes have redeemed themselves in terms of music, with a capable "Lion Heart" album. Losing Jessica has freed up line distribution, giving other members like Sooyoung and Yuri more chance to shine. EXO has watched the months go by, losing a member every so often. The quality in their music certainly hasn't decreased, and most of the main talent is still there, but the pressure is on Lay as the only remaining Chinese member. Eyes will be on him like a hawk for who knows how long. As for f(x), Sulli contributed very little to their music, so losing her would ideally give Amber and Victoria some more lines, which is perfect in my book. Her status as the team visual is also highly questionable what with Krystal and Victoria existing. To be honest, f(x) is probably better without her. In the end, S.M. still can't be trusted. The company only has SHINee and Red Velvet that can boast a (mostly) problem-free journey, and RV is but a little over a year old. Time will truly tell for S.M.

[Blog] S.M. Town Live in New York 2011

So this is a post from over two years ago, an excerpt recalling my experience at S.M. Town 2011 in New York at Madison Square Garden. I figured that I would like to place this here for archives’ sake.

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(I apologize in advance if my wording is jumbled or that I forgot certain stages. I’m extremely tired, ha.)

So it’s around the “two year anniversary” of my foray into Korean music. I was first exposed to the likes of Super Junior, Younha, and Big Bang in October of 2009, and have been growing and expanding in interest and taste ever since. October was going to be a huge month: my 18th birthday, a free K-Pop concert in New York, and S.M.Town Live in New York. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the free concert due to a change in location, so I greatly anticipated S.M.Town. Infinite amount of thanks to Judy-nuna for letting me experience this amazing event.

I’ve never actually been to Madison Square Garden (or New York, for that matter) so it was kinda funny getting lost wandering around because we weren’t actually dropped off the bus at the indicated location. Obviously walking around New York / Madison Square Garden, we met all the other people who would be attending the concert. I met fans from New England, Michigan, Florida, and Texas. Hell, I met a woman who flew to the United States three days ago from Japan to watch S.M.Town. This woman had been to previous S.M. performances in Tokyo and was already set on going to the SHINee concert in Japan in November and the Super Show in December. I never bothered asking her what her job / occupation was, but I know I would’ve wanted it if she could afford all this so carefree-ly. Once we were inside the general building, I really started to get hyped. “I’m really here, in New York, at Madison Square Garden?” “I’m about to see S.M.Town?” It didn’t seem real. Only until I sat down and took a look at my surroundings did I truly realize that I was here, I was ready, and I was about to have probably the best night of my life. It was just breath taking to look around Madison Square Garden and see these people of different ages, from different parts of the United States and the world, people of different races and ethnicities, all be gathered and united together for the experience that is S.M.Town. Even before the concert started, you could tell there was one group everyone seemed to be biased for: SHINee. Onew, Key, and Taemin fans, posters, and the like were everywhere. S.M. had a promotional video for their 2011-2012 global auditions, which showcased MV clips of their artists in conjunction with audition locations—they were very clever with this, by the way. BoA had the United States, Super Junior had China, and Girls’ Generation had Japan. But when SHINee came on, Madison Square Garden erupted into cheers. Of course, this commercial came on multiple times, and each SHINee response was just as loud as the previous. I thought a few people would lose their voice before the concert even began. After SHINee though, most of the remaining hype were from ELF and SONE members (myself included), Super Junior and Girls’ Generation fanbases, respectively. Speaking of those audition promotionals, not much love for BoA or f(x) was apparent, which made me sad. but that would change soon enough. Throughout the concert, you could tell that even within each group, the fans had one favourite overall. Super Junior’s Donghae, SHINee’s Key, and f(x)’s Amber all received massive cheers whenever they sang. Pretty amazing how all these people from all around had a single bias shared by nearly everyone else.

I have to give credit to everyone in S.M. Their English lines, no matter how rehearsed they were, still sounded good. Not counting the singers who already speak English like Tiffany, Jessica, BoA or Amber, some people really surprised me with the fluidity of their English. For example, Key did a lot of talking, and sounded nearly natural (probably because he was in New Jersey like two weeks ago). Kangta’s English also impressed me. Seohyun is just the most adorable person ever after stumbling around her English lines. She was supposed to say something like, “Hello New York, I’m really happy to be here.” But apparently forgot ‘here’ and was like “Uhhh. Um.” For like fifteen seconds. IT WAS SO CUTE. Also, around six or seven stages / performances in, something in the speakers messed up and knocked the pitch from the microphones way up. So everyone sounded much higher in range when they were singing / talking compared to their original (I know this was a speaker glitch and not a microphone / audio glitch because I Youtube’d the performances afterwards). For some people like Yesung, Onew, Ryeowook, Luna, Minho, and Amber, this didn’t really change anything but for pretty much everyone else, they sounded like four year old girls and chipmunks. Jonghyun, who usually has such a beast voice, sounded, well, underwhelming. Yuri, Taeyeon and BoA also got it pretty bad, throwing off their lower voices. Leeteuk and Yunho also sounded like chipmunks while talking, and I kinda laughed half the time. Enough about that though. Let’s get into thoughts on the performances, posted chronologically from debut.

Artists

Kangta: S.M. needs to kick it into high gear with Kangta. You either reunite H.O.T. somehow, or you work with solo stuff. Kangta is such a good ballad singer, but the Korean version of ‘Breaka Shaka’ was equally as powerful (I can’t find a version on Youtube!). Kinda wish we got to see more of Kangta, but as such, there isn’t much else to say.

BoA: So back when I said I was mostly anticipating Super Junior and Girls’ Generation, I probably lied, in the sense that BoA’s performances stood out to me as the most powerful. I mean, I can’t say I didn’t expect less from someone who has been in the music industry for the last decade and is considered one of the ‘Queens of Korean Pop’. While BoA’s English has improved since her U.S. debut back in 2007, it’s always the best to listen to the natural Korean songs. “Hurricane Venus” and “Copy & Paste” were absolutely amazing. BoA really knows how to work the stage, and as a veteran, is really talented with singing and dancing. I wish BoA the best of luck in filming for her Hollywood movie debut!

TVXQ: The “Kings of S.M.Town” did not fail to exceed everyone’s expectations. Since JYJ were the main vocals of TVXQ, Yunho and Changmin were powerful in their choreography, so much that when they started introducing themselves they were panting heavily. Of course, this doesn’t stop Changmin’s awesome belts. I’d probably say “Maximum” and the short “Mirotic” performances were the most exciting because of the choreography and Changmin’s vocals. It’s funny to see that Changmin no longer points with his index finger when belting. I would say TVXQ made the most out of the harnesses / “flying” since their songs were probably the most energetic voice-wise and dance-wise. As I said before, I couldn’t really take “Keep Your Head Down” seriously because of the speaker glitch. But as veterans, their ability to sing amidst such intense choreography was very well executed.

Super Junior: Ahh, Super Junior. First off, it’s saddening to see Super Junior reduced to less than 13. With Kibum and Siwon acting, Kangin and Heechul in the army, and the Han Geng situation, only eight members were performing. I’d say the best performances were “Sorry Sorry” and “Mr. Simple”. This isn’t to say the others were bad stages. They performed pretty much every major hit aside from “Knockout”, really. I will say I was disappointed in the “Don’t’ Don” stage because Changmin didn’t show up and belt his head off, but the addition of Henry with his electric violin was beast. Also, Ryeowook seems a lot taller when you’re standing like 25 feet away from him. But Ryeowook is still probably the best live singer of Super Junior. Maybe that’s because of his voice, I don’t know. Also, Sungmin did the nicest thing in one of their stages, where he took a fan’s camera and took a picture of himself singing for the fan. How sweet, right? So obviously, Leeteuk did the same, except he laid down at the edge of the stage so a bunch of fans were around him and took the picture that way, and Leeteuk did this multiple times. Shoutouts to copying Sungmin, hmm? Oh, Donghae’s live singing also impressed me, especially since he mostly covered Siwon’s lines. Henry, Zhou Mi, and Super Junior M also made a showing with “Perfection”, but I was really hoping for “Super Girl”, but they didn’t perform that.

Girls’ Generation: Girls’ Generation gonna bring the heat! Needless to say, I probably screamed the most during their performances. So. Good. Their English performance of “The Boys” was legit. I really liked “Ha Ha Ha”, but the speaker glitch (once again), made their voices higher than usual, which lowered the appeal. Every performance, “Gee”, “Run Devil Run”, and “Oh!” were absolutely wonderful. My inner SONE has been brought out after watching them live. Taeyeon was at one stage about 25 feet away from me. She is so much prettier in person, even though I was relatively far away. Words cannot describe. I also got to see Hyoyeon’s dance swag up close. Also, I swear, Sooyoung looks so much prettier, and she was in a car accident a couple weeks back. Sunny’s “New York let me hear you scream!” was adorable. If the girls persist in learning English, I’m pretty sure they can dominate the international market.

SHINee: These boys were undisputedly the star of the show. SHINee or at least a member appeared every three or four stages. As such, much screaming and fangirling was heard throughout their performances. In particular, Key was the standout, being on so many special stages (mentioned later). But overall, the emphasis was placed on Key, Onew, and Jonghyun, since Taemin has his dancing and Minho has his rapping. Awesome mesh of voices by the aforementioned trio, and their “Lucifer” performance was the most exhilarating. I think they had the most consistent performance levels overall, and were just very, very popular. “Stand By Me” was probably the general favourite because of the nature of the song. SHINee’s on path to a bright future.

f(x): The underrated maknae’s of S.M.! I love them so much! All of their performances were fantastic! “La Cha Ta” and “NU ABO” especially! They didn’t get quite the applause the other groups got, but that’s okay. As the years go on, f(x) will become one of the older / middle groups, and I have no doubt their popularity will keep increasing. Amber’s still going strong with her rapping, and Luna’s voice sounds even better in person. Since most of the f(x) stages were in the beginning, I got to enjoy them the most, since they avoided the audio shenanigans.

Special Stages

Kangta&Sulli: Let me start by saying that Kangta is an A-class actor. His face from getting the microphone out of the mailbox was priceless, and so was the microphone-from-jacket part. Onew’s cameo was also hilarious, tripping himself on stage got a good laugh from the audience. Supposedly Kangta and Taeyeon were to sing this ballad duet but I’m glad I got to see more of Sulli. Sulli’s vocals have grown so much since f(x)’s debut, I can’t wait to see what they’ll do in the future.

Jessica&Krystal: The Jung sisters covered Ke$ha’s “Tik Tok”. There really isn’t much to say. It’s a catchy song, and their English is already good enough to pull it off. Dere’s something to be said about Krystal’s pronunciation of “t” sounds but that’s quite alright. Very charming performance.

Key&Krystal: “My First Kiss” emphasizes Key’s English (since Krystal already speaks it fluently). And both Key and Krystal do a good job of mixing the dancing and singing. Youtube their previous performances of this stage, and then imagine if it was polished up to near perfection. That’s what this special stage was.

Kyuhyun&Seohyun: “Way Back Into Love” was originally covered by Taeyeon, Jessica, Kyuhyun, and Donghae more than a year ago, but this maknae rendition was adorable. Kyuhyun and Seohyun’s voices compliment each other very well. Seohyun’s English pronunciation is still flawless, while Kyuhyun still says “shed” like “****” from the original cover, haha. Probably the most notable part of this performance was the ending when they held hands and Seohyun put her head on Kyuhyun’s shoulder. Needless to say, Madison Square Garden went “Awwwww…” for about ten seconds. The best special stage, in my mind.

Dance Specialists: (Eunhyuk, Taemin, Luna, Hyoyeon, Yuri, etc.) These people know how to dance! Not much else needs to be said, powerful choreography, and Taemin is really approaching Eunhyuk’s level. The only complaint is that I wish BoA showed up, too.

Rap Specialists: (Eunhyuk, Shindong, Minho, Key) These four entered from the back of Madison Square Garden, so naturally everyone in those sections were flipping out when they showed up. I couldn’t quite hear what they were rapping, everyone was cheering 24/7, haha. After listening to “The Boys”, I’m pretty sure Yuri and Tiffany could’ve performed in this stage as well. Rapping isn’t just for males, S.M.

Aside from the speaker shenanigans, this was a truly beautiful set of performances and I had the best time. My only regrets are that I didn’t have a more specialized camera for pictures / recordings and that I wasn’t able to stay for the Girls’ Generation fan meeting. There’s always next time, I suppose!

[Review] S.M. Dance Unit - Maxstep

Vocals: 8 / 10

This is a dance unit. Each member is pretty much the top dancer in their respective group and as such their vocals are not the best. Luhan and Taemin are the exceptions and they did really well. Henry also has a pleasant voice and his awesome high note definitely took me by surprise. While I knew he was one of the two options (the other being Taemin) was still like a “Woah that’s awesome”. Taemin’s “Maxstep” parts at the end was also nice. Hyoyeon’s chorus is good at the English is not out of place, showing improvement since “The Boys” and even has some higher notes thrown in there. Eunhyuk sings very little and Kai not at all, which is alright with me considering these two have the weakest voices of the six. A good choice by S.M.

Appearance: 8 / 10

Eunhyuk looks awkward with hair down, and the random colour addition to the side didn’t really help. He would’ve totally looked better if he had his hair spiked like in “Sexy, Free, & Single”. Given everyone else didn’t have straight hair (not counting Hyoyeon), Eunhyuk looked like the oddball among the group. Henry really hasn’t changed at all since his original appearance, his baby face is eternal. What the flying hell happened to Taemin’s eyebrows? This isn’t like Taeyeon in “Time Machine”. Taemin’s eyebrows are literally not there anymore. This is remedied during one of the solo shots where his hair down (the best looking one) but the others were creepy as hell. Luhan and Kai are looking good, too. Luhan should go back to his “History” look, really fitting. Let’s talk about the feature of the show, Kim Hyoyeon. For starters, I would have prefered she switched her hairstyles. The solo shots were flawless but the long split hair during the dance sequences looked messy with all the movement. Her red jacket / black outfit clashed with the guys’ outfits and made her stand out really nicely. The choice of outfits were a little iffy for the solos except Hyoyeon but other than that, no complaints.

Dance: 9 / 10

Okay, the dance is strong, but maybe I hold some of the members like Hyoyeon, Eunhyuk, and Taemin with too high regard (rightfully so) because I found 50% of the choreography underwhelming. I can’t really pinpoint a specific time period where I found the choreography lacking but it was more like various bursts of disappointment. The interesting sequence involving Henry after the first chorus was really neat. There is still a fair amount of individual expression though which I like, and once Hyoyeon arrived the dance shifted to become more centered on her. Overall, the execution by all the members makes up for a lack of interesting / intense choreography.

Rap: 8 / 10

The good: Kai. The bad: Eunhyuk. The great: Hyoyeon. That is the sequence if raps in a nutshell. Kai does a solid job with his lines although I did not even think for a second that his very first line was actually English. Eunhyuk is rather disappointing, per usual (although admittedly his work in “Spy” wasn’t half bad). Hyoyeon destroyed everything with her rap. Fierce and up to speed on the tempo and everything. Well done. I’ve said before, S.M. Could possibly take advantage of Hyoyeon and Tiffany’s rapping potential, we’ll just have to see if they really do anything with it. Kai and Hyoyeon carry Eunhyuk to a 8 out of 10.

Music Video: 7 / 10

For what it’s worth, this music video is for a dance heavy group, so I didn’t expect anything out of the ordinary and there wasn’t. There’s even a car for little Taemin to be serious facing in, which I can only assume is a Hyundai. For some reason, Henry and Eunhyuk are together for the solo shots, maybe because S.M. feels the need to remind everyone that Henry Lau is a member of Super Junior M and that he does still in fact exist and has not rotted away in the company basement due to inactivity. Taemin gets a car and Kai gets a chair, how unfair is that? Those lazy punks. Thankfully they receive karma by being forced inside some bizarre geometric figure for the other half of their solos. Luhan got the most boring box out of them all but he seemed like he was having fun. Hyoyeon’s mirrors did well to show her off and she exuded some charisma in the chorus near the end. Bland music video but there wasn’t really much expectations to begin with.

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Overall: 80 / 100

Since the preview of this song existed during the 2011 Gayo Daejun, I’m not sure what I was going to see or hear from this but overall the vocals are pleasant to listen to and the dance is solid. The boring music video is offset by the fact that it’s from S.M. and it’s a dance specific group. Pretty good work. Now let’s see a dance version of the music video so I don’t have to see too many close-ups of Taemin’s lack of eyebrows.