Artist of the Month - November 2009

November has come upon us again and it's time to announce who this months Artist of the Month is and it is.....


2PM!


2PM are making their comeback but this isn't the reason for me making them the artist of the Month. The reason I've made them the artist of the month is that both the groups and the fans have shown so much strength and loyalty to each other after the whole Jay thing and I for one am pretty impressed by that.

Until next time

Previous Artists of the Month

November 09 - 2PM
October 09 - Zhang Li Yin
September 09 - Arashi
August 09 - Navi
July 09 - BoA

P.S. This had been written up last week but I've only just found time to post it up ^_^

Swine flu's ripe in the K-pop World

With five members of the K-pop realm, who have either had swine flu or currently have swine flu. Those five known cases being SS501's Kim Hyun Joong, who has no recovered, K. Will, who like Hyun Joong has now recovered, Jo Kwon, who is still suffering and also unable to film for 'We got Married', SHINee's JongHyun, is one of the newest cases and SHINee will go on as a four member group until he recovers and Gavy NJ's Noh SiHyun also having been just diagnosed with swine flu as well.

I send out my wishes that the current threes stars that have been struck with Swine flu make a quick recovery and are able to re-join their groups soon.

At the moment it seems bad to be in the singer business in Korea this year, what with KangIn's recent run-ins with the law, DBSK's lawsuit and the Jay Park scandal...if you can call it a scandal. I hope next year and what's left of this year runs smoothly.

P.S In more happier news the new Artist of the Month should be up by the end of the week

Here come the boys

Recently there's been an influx of female K-pop groups, we finally have some men!!! In the form of SHINee's comeback very soon however in this entry I want to fangi...I mean focus on B2ST, who have just been renamed to BEAST, M-BLAQ and Child of Empire.

Both BEAST/B2ST and M-BLAC have released their mini-albums, with M-BLAQ also releasing an MV and BEAST/B2ST releasing a teaser. Child of Empire are planning to debut at a later date but have released a video introducing it's members.

Let's start with BEAST/B2ST. These guys got a lot of attention before they debuted due to the members, who are Yoon Doo Joon, who was a on Hot Blood from which 2PM and 2AM were formed, Jang Hyun Seung, who was a member of Big Bang under the name So-1 but was dropped from the group after the 9th episode of Big Bang's show, Yong Jun Hyung, who was a member of Xing, Yang Yo Seob, Lee Ki Kwang, who debuted as a solo artist under the name of AJ and Son Dong Woon.



I haven't had a chance to listen to their full mini-album yet because of college but I'll put sure to rant about it in a later post. The teaser, which is posted above, highlights the boys dancing skills and the song itself it pretty good. It was a good beat behind it. I look forward to seeing these guys perfing.

Now onto M-BLAQ, these are Rain's boys. So they of course have gotten a lot of interest though that. The members are Seung Ho, G.O, Joon, Mir and Cheon Dung, who is Dara from 2NE1's little brother!!



K-pop fans may recognise the female voice as being that of 4Minutes' Hyun Ah. This MV shows the boys ability for dancing and also their good vocals. Although Cheon Dung doesn't really get that of a showing, however he was a last minute replacement for another member. The 'Oh yeahs' will most likely get stuck in your head, I know there stuck in mine >.<. Again the Mini-album will be spazzed about at a later time. I was expected a lot from these guys because of Rain and they didn't disappoint me.

Now finally we move onto the 9 membered group, Child of Empire. Oh K-pop how you hate me with throwing large groups at me when we least expect it. They have only released a member intro vid and plan to debut at some point over the coming months. They are Jun Young, he looks like Yoochun from DBSK, Hyung Shik, Si Wan, this guy already has my full attention, Tae Hun, Dong Jun, Kevin Kim, Min Woo, Kang Hee and Hee Chul, another Hee Chul? This is going to get confusing. Two Hee Chuls in large groups.

I'm already in love with Si Wan, the last guy featured in the intro vid. I think they will have a lot of work to do to compete with the other two new rookie groups and as I said years ago when this blog entry first started SHINee are also getting ready for their comeback. I personally think they are the underdogs but in my minds they are the underdogs with a pretty good chance of pulling up. If they get promoted right and Star Empire, their company call the right shot I really think they can do it. May I also add Star Empire also currently manages Jewelry and V.O.S so I know they can promote extremely well.

So thank you for reading this one, and I'll see you next time!

The ones to watch - Chemical Pictures

Wooooo a new section.

Many of us in the Realm of Madness which is the bloggers world will know of one Mr. Jimi. A Visual Keier, is that a real word if not deng I'm good, who happily graces us with his blogging about this daily life over here http://eleclutier.blogspot.com/. If you do know him then you should also know that Jimi's currently playing with Chemical Pictures.

I've finally been able to see the PV for their first single, Praparat, which has taken me waaaay to many time to spell correctly, who the hell came with that name >.<. I've dropped the PV below for you if you haven't seen it yet.

Praparat is an awesome song. It comes nice and calmly with some guitar and vocals, then really kicks off. It becomes a catchy and kinda fun tune in my opinion, one of those that you bob too esp when you get to the chorus of the song. You get a nice smooth solo and then once again that darn bobbing starts again XD. I love it. Oh and I have to admit it took me a while to click that it was lip-stick on TenTen's face...I wear glasses! That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

Sadly Schwarz has pulled out of the group, with that I wish him the best with what he moves on to. Chemical Pictures is still going on and kicking ass of course.

Chemical Pictures has a very good formula going and I most certainly can't wait to hear what they've got planned for us.

Artist of the Month - October 2009

First up MASSIVE apologies! I've a lot busier then I thought since I went back to college so here's Octobers Artist of the Month...which is a tad bit late.

This artist like Navi, I feel doesn't get the attention she deserves, she has one hell of a killer voice but only a small crowd of fans seem to hear it. She debuted in Korea and released her first album back in the home country of China, rumours are going around that she is going to release a new Korean single soon.

For those who already haven't cottoned on yet, October 2009's Artist of the Month is...

Zhang Li Yin!

Here's a sample of that voice that I was telling you about!

Until next time, Sarah Out!

Previous Artists of the Month

October 09 - Zhang Li Yin
September 09 - Arashi
August 09 - Navi
July 09 - BoA

The Departure of Jay Park. 4 Years gone in 4 Days.

I would have written this sooner but I guess it just hadn't really suck in.

Those that follow K-Pop will know by now that 2PM's Leader Jay has stepped down from his place in the group and gone back to the USA with the intentions to return at the later date.
For those who don't know, a netizen released pictures of captions of Jay's MySpace page saying that he didn't like Korea and he wanted to go back to the US.

My reaction when this first happened, I was confused. I forgave him. He had written the comments when he first became a trainee under JYP. I would've hated it, being in a different country away from your family and friends and not really understanding the culture and not knowing much of the language. It sadly kept going further and further with more people showing their anger toward Jay be shown and the love for him sadly came too late as he chose to leave.
I personally felt disappointed in the netizens as they managed to take 4 years of hard training and destroy it in 4 short days. I also felt incredibly sad, we had just lost what was most likely one of the funniest and most entertaining leaders going.

So I like many other fans, will sit and wait for Jay to come back. I respect his choice and will wait for him when he feels he is ready to return.

Artist of the Month - September 2009

Within the craziness that is the start of the new college year for me, I bring you, September's Artist of the Month.

So September's Artist of the Month goes to...

Arashi

Because this year the celebrate their tenth year. They marked this by releasing a Best of Album 'All the Best! 1999 - 2009' and not only did it reach Number One on the Oricon Chart and became their best selling album. They also reached Number One on the World Music Chart beating the likes of the Late Michael Jackson and Black Eyed Peas.
So that is the reason why Arashi is my Artist of the Month.

Previous Artists of the Month

September 09 - Arashi
August 09 - Navi
July 09 - BoA

On another note, JCK-Rev had gone back down to a one-person team. So it's just back to me now, good old little Sarah.