A present, for ME?!?

It's like Korea knew just what I wanted.

Or rather, they realized the vast appeal that Amber has (f(x)) and realized that a whole fucking group of androgynous(ly dressed) girls singing Kpop would be hugely successful.

Welcome to G.I.  (Global Icon (fairly inane in term of Kpop band names).)

There were teasers, to get us all excited. (I was excited.)

Then there was this video - which I give a solid 7/10, and the song which also gets a 7/10.  Actually, the video would be more like and 8 or 9 except that I just reeeeeally wanted more of the shots of them dancing in jeans. Because those were the most androgynous looks the had on.

And I could kind of tell... purple hair back there might actually be a tomboy, and not just dressed as one. (I do think the main part of Amber's charm is that she seems to be a legit tomboy, not just a girl dressed as a dude for publicity.) I couldn't get a good feel for the other four, though. Although in terms of smexy androgyny, I obviously found their dance practice video to be much more appealing:

That video, combined with some of their promo videos let me to believe that the ones who were probably actually tomboys were Ai (green hair) and Aram (purple hair).  One Ket (awesome blonde hair) could go either way in my mind...

Eun Ji obviously not - she got to stay girly the longest with the long hair.  And Ha Yeon is making a cutey pose.  That's not a dude pose.

Mostly it's the poses/facial-expressions.  Eun Ji and Ha Yeon seem to need to look "pretty" for the camera, no matter what.  Aram is usually making some derpy "fierce" face - kind of like a dude trying too hard - I think she's a tomboy, but a louder one than Ai - maybe less tomboy and more just independent non-typical girl... I think she'd fit in well with 2NE1. 

One Ket just looks like she's trying to channel T.O.P all the time (and I'd say she's pretty successful), but there've been a couple where I thought she was trying hard enough to make sure she looked good that I doubted she was a true tomboy. 

Ai is probably my favorite. Of all of them, she strikes me as the most androgynous - because she obviously doesn't give a shit.  She either looks (sexily) apathetic or mildly derpy in all photos.  Either way, they're always poses that you could totally interchange with any male idol and it would look totally natural.  Also I think she may be the lead dancer.  I tend to fall for the lead dancers first. Not that Aram isn't hella awesome - she pretty much blew me away with this cover.

Aram + Ai

All of these were just my little opinions.  I had no real way of knowing, and they hadn't been around long enough for rumors to be all over the internets about them.
BUT THEN.
I happened to be surfing around AllKpop.com one day, which is weird because I've been avoiding that site actually, when the live debut interview with G.I. was coming on. So I watched them in all their short-haired glory, and felt that my assumptions were probably correct.  And then, GOD BLESS THEM, the question was asked, "Which of you have a natural tomboy style, and which usually like a more feminine style?"

The reply? (from Aram:) "Ai and I are kind of tomboys already (Ai nodded), and Eun Ji and Ha Yeon are definitely more girly.  One Ket can kind of go either way."

Yessssssss.  I may not have very good gaydar, but my androgydar is working Just Fine, thankyouverymuch.

(I mean, seriously, Ai - you sat through the whole interview with your legs open. Way to be, dude, way to be.)


Anyway, the girls seem to be doing well.  There song is playing well, their stage performances are fucking awesome, and there still seems to be a good buzz around them.

I'm excited to see what else they'll do.  And I'm excited to see more of Aram and Ai.  Thank god they've got some actual tomboys in the tomboy group.  It would be so sad otherwise.  But it is not - Ai you hold down the fort and keep confusing people. ^__^

New (K) Pops

B1A4,
I love you so much, despite your videos.  Or rather, I'm waiting patiently for this one to suck me in.  Because I hated Beautiful Target the first time I saw it, and now it's one of my favorite kpop videos ever.  So perhaps "Baby I'm Sorry" will subconsciously make me love it in just a few days time. But for right now, it's a little overly-auto-tuned (especially when I know Sandeul doesn't need any auto-tuning to make him sound amazing).

It does take a pretty long journey - starting out all sad and moody, and ending in a dance party... hmmm.  I do like the sentiment there.  DANCE to fix your life.  GodDAMMIT it's already working.  I'm already starting to like it more.  Bah.  You ultimately win me, B1A4.  (And you didn't have to fight me on any of your outfits, they're all amaaaaazing, and I'm sure Gongchan's blonde hair will make me love it pretty soon here.)

EXO,
I don't really understand if you're real yet.  There've been SO MANY TEASERS and promo videos and "prelude" videos.... I'm not sure if I'm supposed to think of this as the real thing yet.  Is this all of you?  I know there are thousands of you, but maybe this is all of you in your EXO-K incarnation?

Anyway, regardless of my confusion, I have to continue to give props to SM Entertainment for really knowing their craft.  Damn, ALL of you are unbelievably gorgeous (and I'm sure plenty of money was spent making you that gorgeous, silly koreans and your plastic surgery), and this is a spectacularly produced video. You also know that I don't give much of a shit about a plot... All I really want is the dancing and the pretty boys, and I appreciate that you don't distract from those things. And that ridiculous shake your hands in your pants dance is pretty fucking hysterical. 

I was really planning on ignoring you, EXO, because there are just too many of you (the full group, with EXO-M and EXO-K is 20+ members, I think)....  but.... but....  well.  I won't purposefully ignore you anymore. 

NU'EST
Expletive expletive expletive expletive.  WHY IS KPOP SO AMAZING.  I am CONSTANTLY impressed and continually falling in love.  Seriously.  I'm watching this video for the first as I write this... fuck it's SO GOOD and they're SO PRETTY. I knew that one of them was already getting shit for looking too much like a girl, and HOH MY GOD.... seriously.  It's almost impossible to believe he's a dude.  You'll know who I'm talking about as soon as you see him.  Anyway, I really like the vibe and groove of this whole video - and i appreciate they've got a rapper who is perhaps a native English speaker... sounds good.  Okay.  This post was going to be longer, but I now have to go do some Nu'est research.  ^_^

New K-Pops

Once upon a time, I was very adamant about trying to limit my Kpop groups. I was only going to add one at a time, if at all. Because I knew how easily I became obsessed and was afraid I would spend literally ALL of my time researching their names and watching their entire back-catalog of videos.

Yeah, well, that rule kind of fell by the wayside pretty hard.

BUT, I haven't gotten crazy-obsessed with any of the newer groups yet. I like them and am watching the videos, but for the most part I don't know their names (yet). To this day there are only a few groups that I can name all the members of (Super Junior, Big Bang, Shinee, 2NE1, Fx).

But, there are some new videos and songs that I'm pretty into. I was always aware of but hadn't really invested much time into: Beast/B2st, TVXQ/JYJ/DBSK (they've got name issues), U-KISS, B1A4 , Boyfriend, ZE:A, CN Blue, FT Island. More time has been invested, but mostly just in a song or two.

And my new favorite favorites (as far as listening to these songs on repeat for the last 3 weeks) come from Teen Top, SS501, and Infinite.

Teen Top! Seriously, it stands for "Teenz on Top" or something equally horrible. Sigh. Korean band names are SO BAAAAD. I'm pretty sure they're all jail bait (one would assume, with a name like that, right?), but they've got this cool fucking clapping song:

AND then there's this masterpiece - SO catchily titled "No More Perfume On You". (Double sigh.)

But it IS hella catchy and fun, and there's an amazing amount of guyliner going on. I'm also in love with the dance. Just never never ever go find the English translation - it will ruin the song for you. That's why I didn't even post the real video here. You can tell just from the real video story line that its a pretty douchey song. So I'm ignoring that, because I can't speak Korean and thusly I can choose to ignore it. Also, I almost always like the dance version music video better.

As to why Wide-Eyes sings pretty much the whole fucking song, I have no idea. But he looks like a barbie doll, and I'm cool with watching him. And I LOVE watching little red-hair's smug little snarky face in the background the whole time.

I've been listening to this A LOT. I'm considering learning the dance and doing it in-place-of or in-addition-to a Zefron drag act at my choir's Talent-No-Talent show this year.

SS501. I have no clue what that stands name for. Probably something about how many members are in their band, their initials, their blood type, what kind of girl they want - who knows. I'm sure it stands for something both meaningful and idiotic. I don't care what they call themselves, because they have one of THE best k-pop songs of the year, hands down, in my opinion.

I realized one of the reasons this song is awesome is that you can tell they're saying "Love" - with a real English "L" sound! (I understand that this is difficult for most Asians, but when it's the main line of your chorus it's especially important to try extra hard. I'm looking at you, ShinEE. Stop "Ling Dinging" around your stages and take some time to learn how to say "Rrrrrr".)

Hold the phone, yall. Wikipedia has informed me, over the course of writing this post, on the intensely special meaning behind SS501's name:

"The name of the band is a combination of letters and numbers that have special meaning. The first “S” stands for “Superstar". The second “S” is an abbreviation for "Singer". The combination of 5, 0, and 1 symbolizes "five members united as one forever".^[1]SS501's official fan club name is Triple S (means SSS : Super Star Supporters)."

I feel my point has been proven.

Infinite. A band name that is almost normal. Well done, boys. I like Infinite because of this song, which is awesome and catchy (Oh!) enough to outweigh my dislike for the way it just kind of... ends. It doesn't fade out, it doesn't do one last chorus - they're just rapping, and then it's over. Whenever it comes on my ipod I'm really happy and then it's just GONE and I'm so confused. I had to listen to it multiple times on multiple formats before I actually believed that was the ending.

Infinite has some other good songs out there, too, but mostly I'm impressed with Sungjong, their little maknae (youngest in the group). He's easy to spot in the video because he's the one with the blue color pop (I fucking LOVE the video production/post-processing they did on that video. I know it's kind of cliche and not new in any way, shape, or form, but I love it anyway). He's the ladydancer of Infinite (I'm convinced that almost every boy band in Korea has at least one ladydancer (e.g. Heechul in Super Junior, Key in Shinee)), and the first time I saw the video below, I had no idea who it was.

I REALLY was hoping it was a girl and I was so prepared to be head-over-heels in love. Like, finally a rival to GD perhaps. And not that he's not awesome, because he so obviously is, but I just can't get that fired up about boys that are never going to be into girls... ... .. #sometimesgayboysmakemesad.

There are some solo acts that I've liked a lot recently, too, for either sound (and NOT dancing), or sound AND AWESOME DANCING. (HyunA and Jang Woo Hyuk, respectively.) But I'll spare you, as I think I'm done expanding on Kpop for the day.

f(x)

I have a new favorite. Her name is amber.

See if you can guess which one she is.

I do that fucking hand motion on the chorus EVERY TIME I listen to this song. Even while bike riding or running.

I also really kind of want to see her and GDragon together everywhere... especially if GD went back to blonde.... that would just be so much blonde androgynous swag that I might faint.

SuJu Introduction (for real, yo)

So. Super Junior.

My induction group into the continually-addictive world of Korean entertainment.

They make pop music. Some of it is ridiculous. (And like, REALLY ridiculous in the best ways.)

Some of it is Amazing. All of it is shit you want to dance to.

There are many members in Super Junior. For a long time they were the biggest boyband in the world. There are also many groups in Super Junior.

Let me list them for you.

LEETEUK - Leader of super junior and eldest member. PERFECT FACE. He has no problem being super-corny, which I love - he's always the first guy into the giant animal suits when given the opportunity. He's also got an absolutely ridiculous laugh. Let's not lie: i'm kind of in love with him. He's .... just kind of perfect.

HEECHUL - DIVA. Fabulous asshole. Hysterical. Master of androgyny. Heechul acts ... well... American, maybe? He's not respectful the way he should be, and he should get in trouble for it, but because he's Heechul, everyone just kind of rolls their eyes and laughs and admires his balls. Because he pretty much just does whatever the fuck he wants to do. He also learns girl-group dances like nobody's business.

YESUNG - The voice! king of FAIL! He's gotten better in the last couple of years, but he was just insanely awkward on tv shows, etc. for the majority of SuJu's early famewhoring days. But his voice is amazing, and he's the vocal base of a lot of SuJu songs. Also, he dances like a tard, which is mostly funny not because it's so bad, but because he doens't seem to have any idea how bad it is. He just gets this mildly offended/sad look on his face when his band members start laughing hysterically and trying to pull him off the stage after he dances. OH! And Yesung is like, bizarre and creepy. Used to sneak into the other members' rooms at night and watch them sleep. And likes to touch that indent in people's upper lips. He's just so fantastically bizarre.

KANGIN - May be the only suju member who actually acts masculine. Occasionally acts like a dick. Is the only member of SuJu I'd trust with the ability to actually lift me off the ground. Kangin is now in the army - partially because it's required, but also seemed like good timing after he'd shamed himself by getting in trouble (DUIs or something else drinking related) multiple times.

SUNGMIN - Likes pink, and defends that personal preference. Is the King of aegyo (acting obnoxiously cute). He is also more built than people give him credit for - martial arts SuJu master # 2 after Hangeng, twirls sticks like none-other. He also has an absolutely crazy cupid's bow of an upper lip. He and Leeteuk duke it out for first place in my SuJu bias list.

HANKYUNG* (aka Hangeng) - Gets a lot of shit for not speakingKkorean perfectly, as he's their original Chinese member. He's also superhot. And for some reason, Heechul really likes him and takes care of him (and teases him the most as well), which just seems so out of character for Heechul but is awesome. Hangeng does have pretty amazing stage presence.

EUNHYUK - The DANCING MACHINE. He was actually the reason I was first transfixed by SuJu - because his dancing in the It's You movie is absolutely captivating in it's utter perfection. He also reminds me of (young) Edward Furlong, who was the first actor I ever had a crush on. He also has the goofiest most adorable gummy smile you've ever seen.

SHINDONG - Takes shit for being the "fat" one, and takes it with grace. Especially since he's really very very average by American standards. Also, Shindong is an awesome dancer, and he's really good on the variety shows with impromptu comments that are actually funny. He did (or does) MC for a children's TV show, which also seems totally appropriate.

SIWON - Asian Ken Doll. King of hand gestures. He loves god a lot. I guess Siwon tries to make nice with everybody. Mostly I think he's funny for all the hand gestures, but otherwise I kind of ignore him because he's so overly stereotypically perfect looking that I'm kind of turned off. He models a lot, and makes more money than any of the other members because of it (and his family was already loaded to begin with).

DONGHAE - Acts like he's 7 years old. All the time. He's maybe not... super.... quick. ....
To catch on to what's happening. But that is definitely part of his charm when paired with his super wide-set eyes. He is also an amazing dancer. And he really really likes Eunhyuk, and they're adorable together.

KIBUM - Cares about acting more than singing with SuJu :( I feel like I don't know enough about him to describe him much, but he's still awesome by default.

RYEOWOOK - So pretty. I do kind of think Ryeowook is the most effeminate member of SuJu - and he sings similarly. He does have an amazing voice, and SuJu songs would be sorely lacking if he weren't around. He's just tiny and adorable.

KYUHYUN - VOICE LIKE BUTTER. Youngest member. Mischievous and snarky in the best ways. He's just so fucking adorable, but then he's also actually a bit tall and masculine looking - which is a bit rare in the kpop world. Well done, Kyu, well done.

HENRY** - Has chubby little cheeks that Ryeowook likes to pinch? He plays violin! And speaks english really well, which is nice, since after Kibum went awol SuJu's pretty lacking in the English skills department. (He's Canadian!)

ZHOUMI** - I used to get him confused with Siwon. Now I don't. His legs are very, very long. (I.E. Zhoumi is so tall that I never invested much time in him.)

I kind of want to do a post about each member individually, because they're all fabulous in their own way. And they're all fabulous together. Really, kind of the best thing about SuJu is the endless library of youtube clips available to watch of them just being fame whores and interacting with each other. And I will. Someday. I'm still in the process of compiling images, clips, etc. (Mostly for my own fangirl archival purposes, but under the guise of posts for this blog.)

But for now, here's a clip of Heechul dancing with his cat. Because when you go on a radio show, you bring your cat, right?

SuJuSubGroups:

SuperJunior-M

(M for Mandarin?) The Chinese touring group. They're super-popular and recently expanded. I don't get the hats. But Kpop stylists are INSANE:

SuperJunior-H

(The "H" is for Happy. Seriously.) The exploit-the-adorable-asian-factor group:

SuperJunior-T

(T for Trot. It's a style of traditional Korean pop music.) The cracktastic WTF group:

SuperJunior-KRY

(KRY for Kyuhyun, Ryeowook, Yesung.) Ballad group of the best singers in SuJu:

AND THAT'S SUPER JUNIOR. IN A (large) NUTSHELL.

* SuJu got some drama, yall. Hankyung is actually Chinese - and he had a nasty ass contract that he eventually got out of and returned to China and is now doing his own solo stuff. But we (and by "we" I mean all the crazy SuJu fangirls, or "ELFs") still love him and wish him the best. (But also want him back. Come back Hangeng!)

**The other stars are for Henry and Zhoumi, who were not part of the original group of 13, but were added later as part of Super Junior-M which is SuJu's Chinese subgroup. Many ELFs weren't happy with the additional members, but I feel like thats pretty much faded. Especially because with Hangeng being gone, and Kangin gone in the army now, and Kibum MIA because he's pursuing his acting career - SuJu just seems too small with only 10 members, and so having Henry and Zhoumi there helps round out the numbers. Also they're awesome. And Henry actually legit speaks English 'cause he's Canadian, and it's pretty great to actually hear one of them speak English in songs without sounding... well. Like they sound. :P

so this isn't on the list...

(EDIT: Now it is. its 17 hours long and I've watched it 5.5 times in two weeks.)

...but I recently started watching Coffee Prince, the Korean Drama. (Although it was spurred from watching the BigBang parody, so maybe it still counts.) (Also, I probably should add androgyny in general to the list, in which case the totally and completely fits.)

Eun Chan is such a fantastic wackadoo. Watching her try to be a girl and walk in heels, her eating anything, running around like a crazy person, talking to herself.... she's just awesomely ridiculous. I'm totally in love with her, and Han Kyul - he's just freaking gorgeous. And he's adorable because he loves her soooo much.

So.... if you feel like you need to break into the world of Korean Dramas, I highly recommend Coffee Prince.
The whole thing's on www.dramafever.com :)