Although I didn’t watch August 23′s broadcast of Mnet’s 20′s Choice awards (a wannabe VMA’s, really), looking over the full winners list, my first reaction is: “What were they smoking?”

Some choices made sense. I get why Jang Geuk-seok, shakin’ his thang above as the event’s MC, was awarded Hot Movie Star (Male) because he’s had a great year coming off the drama Hong Gil Dong and recent movie Baby and I. And Hot Sports Star is a topical choice, going to the recent gold-medalist female weight lifter Jang Mi-ran, while the annoyingly catchy, ubiquitous earworms “One More Time” and “So Hot” (by Jewelry and Wonder Girls, respectively) are no-brainers.

But even the fact that they’ve got a “Hot Schoolgirl” category (winner So-hee), or “Hot Comment” (I think they meant catchprase) are kind of, pardon my French, retarded. And don’t even ask me what “Hot Sweet Music” means.

Furthermore, I get that “American beef” was a hot topic this year, but to highlight it at an awards show as the “winner” of Hot Issuemaker seems a little crass. Or just stupid.

Check out the full list beyond the jump, along with pics of the show in all its tacky glory.

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Read the rest of Mnet 20′s Choice Awards makes weird choices (203 words)

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Post tags: awards, Baek Sung-hyun, Big Bang, Eom Ki-joon, Girls Generation, Jang Geun-seok, Jun Jin, Kim Ji-suk, Kim Min-hee, Lee Beom-soo, Lee Hyori, Park Min-young, Park Shi-hoo, Park Yong-ha, Ryu Seung-beom, Seo In-young, singers, Uhm Jung-hwa, Wonder Girls, Yoo Seung-ho

As we know, Koreans sure have a fierce sense of cultural pride (sometimes to uncomfortably myopic degrees). So it’s no big surprise that all are elated with Olympic gold medalist Park Tae-hwan‘s win in the 400m freestyle on August 10. In about the half-day since he’s won the medal, his cyworld mini-homepage has amassed over 80,000 congratulatory messages.

Actually, currently there are 82,204 82,357 82,505 messages (that’s how fast the numbers climbed in the time it took me to write this post), although only the last 75,000 or so have come post-win. It’s kind of cute, actually, there are some messages reading, “I’m watching you on TV now,” and then, just a few messages later, “Just… a little… farther…” to be followed with, “Congrats on the gold medal!”

Of particular note are congratulatory messages left by members of girl groups Wonder Girls, Girls Generation (SoShi), and even figure skater Kim Yuna.

Kim Yuna’s message read:

“오빠 대박 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 추카해!!”
“Oppa, jackpot! Kekekeke Congratulations!!”

His site’s background music was the boy band 2AM song “아니라기에” (“To say it’s not”), to which 2AM’s Im Seul-woong wrote:

“(배경음악 선택에) 너무나 감사하고 올림픽 금메달을 석권한 박태환 선수처럼, 저희도 열심히 해서 가요계의 금메달을 따겠다”
“Thanks so much for choosing our song. Like you’ve won the gold medal at the Olympics, we’ll work hard and do our best to win the gold medal in the music industry.” (Whatever THAT means!)

Another 2AM-er, leader Jo Kwon-do, wrote:

“금메달 소식에 홈페이지에 와 봤는데 ‘아니라기에’가 흘러나와 깜짝 놀랐다. 금메달 따길 2AM모두 기도했는데 너무 축하 드린다”
“I came to the site after hearing the news that you’d won the gold medal, but I was startled to hear ‘To Say It’s Not’ playing. Everyone in 2AM had prayed you’d win the gold. Congratulations.”

Park Tae-hwan sure wasn’t shy about his gold-medal hopes; his cyworld address is http://www.cyworld.com/freestylewin.

RELATED POSTS

• Han Ji-hye’s Olympic “Friends”

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Post tags: Girls Generation, Kim Yuna, Park Tae-hwan, Wonder Girls

Because it wasn’t enough to trot out fifteen-year-olds who can’t sing as sexually suggestive coquettes, now a nine-member “kiddie group” called Sweety is making its debut, with members ranging in age from 13 down to its 6-year-old “mascot.” (Btw, that’s eight girls, one boy. He be da pimp.)

They’re being touted as a group with singing skills “on par with adult groups.” If those adult groups mean the Wonder Girls, that’s not saying much. (Before you get offended: listen to this. Or this. Or this. Or this. My opinion is, if they put out such “professional” performances, they’re fair game to be called on it.)

I have nothing against the idea of a pop group aimed at a younger generation — heck, I grew up watching Kids Incorporated and Sesame Street, and my first music record (and nearly last, toy record players being pretty inferior products) was a Care Bears compilation. But it’s not the concept itself that has me feeling uneasy; it’s the tone and content of its marketing.

Singing aside, I’m disturbed at this trend for younger and younger teenage pre-teen poptarts, using the innocent “cute” defense to gloss over any suggestive implications that lie therein. Look, I’m not going call it pedophilic or accuse this group of being blatantly sexual, because I don’t think that’s true. But the point is that the slippery slope is getting slipperier with these mixed messages and crossed signals — tell me Sweety has nothing to do with the sex-peddling marketing strategies behind equally squicky Lolita-laden Wonder Girls or Girls Generation.

You can’t quite defend the choice of costuming as being innuendo-free when those short-short miniskirts are put on by adult stylists onto prepubescent girls — look at those two girls in the middle with their hands on their hips and their hips stuck out in their “Who, me?” faux-innocence poses. Is the coquetry a conscious gesture or has the image become so pervasive that these young girls have adopted it as the norm? Or are they being coached to act that way by their handlers? (ALL of those options seem creepy and unfortunate to me.) And do I see bare MIDRIFF with that cropped top? Even Wonder Girl Sohee admitted just this week that she used to shorten her skirts on her school uniforms. What, did she not have enough leg-baring and hip-swiveling in her day job?

Sweety’s first mini-album reportedly boasts “hip-hop rhythms” with “cute choreography,” and they’ve just filmed their first music video. That video had better be full of stuffed animals, dancing rabbits and animated birds, is all I’m sayin’. Leave the sexy stuff to the adults and let kids be kids, already.

Cable channel Mnet will start airing the group on July 22; a mini-album is set to go on sale soon.

Via No Cut News

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• The future of kpop
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Post tags: Girls Generation, ranty/ravey, teen sexualization, Wonder Girls

Here’s what I wanna know: Which industry bigwig is brand-new rap duo Mighty Mouth servicing sexually? Or bribing? Or blackmailing?

First, Yoon Eun Hye lent her vocals to their debut single, “I Love You,” and her high-profile collaboration helped the track shoot to the top of music charts with stunning speed. The song was then performed live by JOO, and then actress Han Ga In.

Now the rest of their first full-length album is poised for success; the current song gaining traction is “Energy,” which features the Wonder Girls’ Sun Ye. But that’s not all — the album features performances by Solbi, Yuri, DJ DOC’s Kim Chang Ryeol, and even Horan. (Horan?? That sure caught my eye.)

Sure, kpop is a relatively small pool, and singers and groups do tend to work together frequently — but not usually with such a high density of high-profile names in a brand-spankin’-new artist’s debut album. Big producers require big money, which a new group wouldn’t have. And as far as I can tell, Mighty Mouth aren’t themselves a hotbed of genius musical talent — the album is half-decent, I’ll agree (though also half-meh), but not extraordinary. I don’t see how this rap duo attracted such big names from the get-go without some major behind-the-scenes maneuvering going on. Until that reason becomes clear, I consider myself at leisure to conjure up plausible explanations myself. Right now I’m going with servicing sexually.

Via International Business Times

SONG OF THE DAY

Mighty Mouth featuring Horan – “Cry” [ Download ]

RELATED POSTS

• News bites: April 5, 2008
• News bites: March 10, 2008
• Mighty Mouth, featuring Yoon Eun Hye

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Post tags: Horan, Mighty Mouth, Wonder Girls, Yoon Eun-hye

• Ara and Jang Geun Seok are dolling up and gettin’ down in an online teaser ad for a cosmetics brand, showing off what is being dubbed their “techtonic” Tecktonik dance. Touted as sexy and cute, I’d use any another term — dorky-cute, disco-lite, uber-goofball? — instead.
• 21-year-old Moon Geun Young opens up in an interview about her feelings about how her fame has affected her younger sister, who has explained that it’s hard being the little sis of Korea’s Little Sis — she’s always being compared or treated with awkward curiosity. Now a high school student, younger sis lives abroad and studies in Australia, where Moon Geun Young explains that she can hopefully “stand on her own without being in my shadow.”
• According to the director of Rain’s company JTunes, Rain hasn’t mentioned any interest in a woman in the past seven years. (What about guys?)
• Fashion designer Andre Kim (who’s had a long career but hasn’t seemed to have a new idea in years) tells The Star Show that of all the numerous celebrities he’s worked with, sob queen Choi Jiwoo is the star with the perfect body. (He lists Lee Byung Heon as the most charismatic male actor.)
• Yoo Seung Ho (that young cutie who played young Yonsama in Legend) has been cast in the music video for “Don’t Go, Don’t Go,” R&B duo Brown Eyes‘ comeback single. (Starring opposite is new Japanese actress Ishizaka Yuri.) His role entails “emotional” and “heartbroken” acting; looks like he’s trying his best to shed the child-star image.
• With only a week till his new drama airs, Lee Dong Gun is lining up the CF offers, promoting pre-harvest rice sales and fielding more proposals from beverage, clothing, and construction companies. While it’s common for a new drama to bring the CF offers, it’s cited as being unusual for the offers to come in before the drama has even begun. Maybe they’re just happy to see him back onscreen after his recent rough patch.
• Some of JYP‘s teen-sex-kitten proteges the Wonder Girls had a few words to share about their Svengali-master on MBC’s Brain Battle (isn’t that shooting a little high?). Apparently JYP gets “sensitive” when he’s hungry (unlike the rest of us robots); Yoo Bin explained that while recording their album, he’d gotten so hungry once that he’d scolded her. After a snack, she saw him being affectionate with another member and felt sad. (Maybe he was upset with, I don’t know, her work? I’ve seen her performing.)
• Singer JOO cites an occasion prior to her debut when JYP had commented on her weight, saying, “What’s with this [flab]? It’s like tofu.” Because teenage girls don’t already have enough issues about their looks — thanks, Mr. Monkey-man.

 
SONG OF THE DAY

Alex – “깍지껴요” (hold hands), from his recent first solo album “My Vintage Romance.” Overall, the album sounds a lot more mainstream than his previous work, going more into ballad and pop territory. He does have the voice for it, even though I prefer the more innovative music of Clazziquai. [ Download ]

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Post tags: Choi Ji-woo, Go Ara, Jang Geun-seok, Lee Byung-heon, Lee Dong-gun, Moon Geun-young, news bites, Rain, Wonder Girls, Yoo Seung-ho

It’s graduation season in Korea, and as with everything else, stars always attract the most attention.

Fifteen-year-old So Hee of the teen pop group Wonder Girls has just graduated from middle school (ceremony was held on the 15th) — MIDDLE SCHOOL — which just tinges the group’s exaggerated flirtiness and coquetry with unsavory overtones, doesn’t it? I mean, it’s one thing for an adult to dress up as a schoolgirl and indulge one’s own adult fantasies, but when you put a middle schooler into that role and teach her how to dance and dress suggestively to cater to that same sexual fetishization, it kinda grosses me out. (And that doesn’t even have anything to do with the Wonder Girls’ tepid brand of weak-vocaled bubblegum pop. I will forever resent JYP for inflicting “Tell Me” upon the world.)

Graduating on the same day, but from high school, were So Hee’s fellow groupmate Ye Eun and actress Go Ara (Sharp 1 & 2, Snowflake). Ye Eun plans to enroll in Kyung Hee University’s art design school (postmodern music department) as a vocal major. Go Ara, who seems to be dropping her last name more and more to go by simply “Ara,” will move on to study theater and film at Joong Ang University’s performance and media school.

Other new high school graduates include Girls’ Generation‘s (Sonyeo shidae) Tae Yeon on the 11th and Yuri on the 14th. Both SoShi girls have decided to forgo education in favor of their, um, artistic pursuits, and gave up any ideas of taking the national college entrance exam. (Wonder Girl Sun Ye, on the other hand, failed her attempt to pass the exam and plans to retake it.)

As for college grads, the 15th was ceremony day for actress Lee Yowon and comedian Choi Hyung Man, both theater and film majors at Dankook University. Lee Yowon, who starred in last year’s popular medical drama Surgeon Bong Dal Hee and the recent melodrama Bad Love, graduates late (after nine years), while Choi Hyung Man has accomplished the task in just six semesters, graduating early with honors.

Lee Yowon

Via Sports Seoul, Sports Khan

SONG OF THE DAY

Garina Project – “공부해” (Study) A little literal, perhaps. Oh well. [ zShare download ]

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• The brainiacs among us — stars with high IQs
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Post tags: edumacation, Girls Generation, Go Ara, Lee Yo-won, Wonder Girls

I like Kim Bum (not to be confused with Suju pop singer Kim Ki Bum). I think he’s adorable. I love the fact that they gave him an unabashedly homoerotic relationship storyline that was at once funny, innocuous, and not blown up into any big deal in the *family* sitcom Unstoppable High Kick. (Plus both boys were depicted as straight and had no qualms about their friendship lurve for each other.)

And I love that Hankyung.com describes Kim Bum in these new photos as striking his best “Jo In Sung pose.” Cause yeah, they totally ARE Jo-In-Sung-y.

For your reference: Mr. Jo In Sung

 
Kim Bum makes his film debut in the upcoming I Like It Hot, which recently sparked some online shenaniganery (it’s a word ’cause I say it is) because pics were released showing him kissing a Wonder Girl. Whoop. De. Doo. Online kerfuffles are pretty much par for the course when you’re a budding hot young thang in Korea, partnered with another budding hot young thang. All those flying hormones are bound to hurt somebody.

In the film, he’s coupled with Ahn Sohee (aforementioned Wonder Girl) as a young pretty boy who prefers spending time with games and motorcycles than his girl, but manages to pull off a cute kiss scene with her (spawning aforementioned shenaniganery).

The reaction to his new look? “Is that really Kim Bum? He’s so manly!” “He’s just like James Dean!” “Wow, he seemed so boyish before, but not now!”

Via Hankyung

SONG OF THE DAY

Every Single Day – “Wonder.” Every Single Day is a rock band that’s been around for a while that’s out with a new (third) album. They kinda remind me of Rocket Diary with their sometimes-upbeat, sometimes-mellow melodies and youthful energies, although they’re more indie and less punk. Or, since Rocket Diary is newer, I guess I should say they sound similar to Every Single Day. (You can hear more Rocket Diary here.) [ zShare download ]

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• Is celebrity education really education?
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Post tags: Jo In-sung, Kim Bum, Unstoppable High Kick, Wonder Girls

 
Photographer Cho Seihon has unveiled his special photo spread featuring lots of top stars in his collection “Letters from Angels,” which is the fifth installment in the series begun in 2003 to raise awareness and support of domestic adoptions.

Cho said in regards to the aim of his photography, “I’d like for these photos to give someone one more chance to think about these children who have no homes. I also hope that many of these childrens will be able to find warm homes and happiness.”

See the photos at the official site (http://lovefund.or.kr) and behind the jump…

SONG OF THE DAY

Humming Urban Stereo – “Baby Love” [ Download ]

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Read the rest of What’s with all the babies? (371 words)

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Post tags: Han Hye-jin, Jang Hyuk, Kim Jung-eun, Lee Seung-gi, photo shoots, Wonder Girls, Yoon Eun-hye

“Please just lip-synch!” … “It’s arduous listening to your songs”… “I should be able to watch these singers comfortably, but they make me nervous”… “Watching them sing makes me wonder where they’re messing up”…

What could provoke such a response?

What I like about the article below (and not just because I totally agree with most or all of the points made) is that it’s rare you see such a critical article printed in Korean press. Usually they’re cloyingly sycophantic, like they’re afraid of offending the big industry machines. But this one is surprisingly frank, and pretty accurate in its assessments, as far as I can tell.

(Btw, I youtubed a bunch of live program clips to form my own opinion, since I don’t typically watch most of the pop-music programs — and boy, does pop music suck these days. There are your exceptions, naturally, but by and large, WOW.)

And now that this is posted, I promise to do my best to avoid making mention of the Wonder Girls ever again. Oh good lordy how I’m sick of hearing about the Wonder Girls.

SONG OF THE DAY

(Park) Hwayobi – “36.5 도” (36.5 degrees), from the pop/R&B singer noted for her strong vocals.
[ zShare download ]

(...)
Read the rest of “Please, for the love of god, lip-synch already!” (589 words)

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Post tags: Wonder Girls

I suppose this makes Part 3 in my unplanned Child Stars series (Part 1, the Golden Age, and Part 2, the oversexing thereof).

I’ve always wondered at the way these kids are (over)worked, and why their activities aren’t more regulated. There ARE laws, but as the article points out, they’re largely ineffectual. I suspect the bottom line always wins out, and with management companies running what amounts to basically short-lasting-celebrity machines, these Lolita-bots are milked for all they’re worth — ew, sorry, unintentional (mixed!) metaphor — before being cast aside into old has-been territory (at the ripe old age of twenty?). Or whatever.

I suspect legal ramifications need to be enforced, and strongly. In the States, you work with child actors for your allotted hours in a day, and once they’ve maxed out their limit, you’re done. No “one more take” or “but we’re almost done!” You work with them while you legally can, and then you deal with it.

Child Actors and Singers and their Killer Schedules

“In Japan, teenage entertainers are prohibited from appearing on air after 10pm.”

Young teen stars were the center of attention in 2007 in the entertainment industry.

As adolescent entertainers win over fans, concerns have been growing about whether their excessive schedules could cause harm or have unwanted repercussions on their health. …

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Read the rest of Working child celebrities to the bone (692 words)

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Post tags: overworking, Wonder Girls