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Kpop Groups, Kpop Idols.. Ever Heard of Kpop Bands?

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Are you one of those people who get frustrated when you’re told that you’ll listen to music from a “boy band” and what you get is a bunch of pretty boys with flawless skin and jaw-dropping dance skills? Where are the guitar riffs and the noisy percussion, you ask? Well, wonder no more as we present to you four Korean bands with members who actually play musical instruments.

Warning: No dance breaks and dance version MVs for these acts, though.

F.T. Island

During the time when K-pop was all about boy groups (TVXQ! Super Junior! SHINHWA! H.O.T! Sech.Kies!) and a smattering of girl groups (Fin.KL! S.E.S! Baby Vox!), bands – not “boy bands”, but bands with members playing musical instruments were mostly relegated into the Korean music indie scene. That was until FNC Entertainment released F.T. Island, a band that made its mark in the country’s music landscape. Suddenly, being in a band that just rocks — no elaborate choreography, no members who may just bank on their looks — became accepted and prompted even the rise of more rock bands into mainstream Korean music.  

The band has undergone three changes in its member lineup – the first being guitarist Oh Wonbin leaving the group two years after their debut to try his luck with a solo career and play other genres of music. He eventually became a soloist and actor and just in January, announced his marriage plans and his impending fatherhood. The second change introduced Seunghyuin as Wonbin’s replacement as the band’s guitarist, a position he held for more than 10 years, after which he left FNC and subsequently the group so he could focus on his acting career. The band’s leader and one of its founding members, Junghoon, had to quit the band and his career in the entertainment industry after it was revealed that he was involved in the Burning Sun scandal, where he was part of a group chat that had members exchange videos of sexual activities without the consent of the other party.

This brings the current band lineup down to three, with the remaining members enlisting and getting discharged more or less at the same time.  Drummer Minhwan was discharged in September 2021, main vocalist Hongki was discharged in April 2021, and bassist Jaejin was discharged on August 1, 2021. In December 2021, the band released Unthinkable, their first song as a trio. 

All throughout their now close to 15-year career, the band has had chart-topping albums, EPs, and singles not only in Korea, but also in Japan. With the emergence of actual bands like Day6 and Wonder Girls (later in their careers) of JYP Entertainment and CNBlue and N.Flying also from FNC, we can safely say that it was F. T. Island that pioneered the concept and made bands trendy.   

Top 3 F.T. Island Songs

The thing about F.T. Island is that they are actually more known as a band that plays power ballads, not the dark and hard rock songs bands are usually known for. Think Meatloaf or Journey versus Metallica. So, a trademark F.T. Island song is more centered towards Hongki’s soaring vocals that only a few K-pop male vocalists can challenge – only the late Jonghyun of SHINee, Yeoseob of Highlight, Woohyun of INFINITE, and lately, Hwesung of N.FLying come to mind. For a mind-blowing extravaganza that will leave you speechless, look for the track Still Love You with the two power vocalists of FNC’s two bands. 

But I digress. The power ballad Severely is definitely the first song that comes to mind when we’re talking about F.T. Island. The 10-year-old song (yes, the song was released on January 30, 2012) also has an iconic music video featuring AOA’s Seolhyun. So you can see two of FNC’s talents that have also ventured into acting – Hongki and Seolhyun. Otherwise, you will experience Hongki’s heart wrenching vocals in this track that feels like a decades-old Korean standard ballad. 

If you’re looking for something a bit hard-hitting in the thread of hard rocks, Take Me Now is the song for you. The heavy guitar riffs alone will really convince you that F.T. Island can rock it with the best of them. 2009’s Bad Woman features a balance of haunting melodies and Hongki’s vocal range, making it a perfect gateway F.T. Island song.  

CNBLUE

Following the massive success of F.T. Island, FNC Entertainment may have felt the need to corner this niche market they have created with groups that have members that actually play musical instruments. Thus, two years after debuting F.T. Island, the company introduced another band to the public, CNBLUE. True enough, the company was rewarded with success anew as Yonghwa, Minhyuk, Jungshin, and Jonghyun experienced success in both Japan and Korea from the get-go. 

As with a number of acts in this period in K-pop that were exposed to the Japanese market first before debuting in Korea, CNBLUE also had their debut stage in Tokyo. After finally charting decently in Japan with their second EP (their first release was completely in English and did not chart in Oricon) and with original bassist Kwangjin replaced by Jungshin before the year ended, the band finally made their Korean debut in January 2010 with the EP Bluetory and the single I’m a Loner. The rest, as the old adage goes, is history. 

All of the band’s title tracks until 2017 have charted high and all their EPs and albums until 2017 have sold over 50,000 copies, a rare feat for a band. Even F.T. Island only averages 40,000 copies sold with their releases. All members also started to venture into acting only a year after their debut and were nominated and won accolades for their television work. Not only were they successful in their home country and Japan (having been the first band since 1971 to top the Oricon charts), but also charted well in Taiwan. While it took F.T. Island 53 days from debut to win in a music program, CNBLUE for a time held the record for winning in a music show in the shortest time since debut, with I’m a Loner winning in Music Bank 15 days after their debut. 

With the band’s massive success came controversies and intrigue, with the first being their awkward rivalry with their labelmates F.T. Island. Since they were the only two bands that dominated the “mainstream” K-pop scene in the late 2000s to early 2010s, it was a bit inevitable that the two groups were always pitted against each other. Primadonnas (F.T. Island’s fandom name) assert the superiority of Hongki’s vocal skills and the fact that F.T. Island is the more senior group that blazed the trail for acts like CNBLUE to follow. Through the years, news about competition between the two groups have not died down. From the alleged preference of FNC towards the more junior group, Hongki claiming he earns more than Yonghwa and again, Hongki accidentally spilling that Jonghyun has had plastic surgery to make his ears prettier, BOICE (CNBLUE’s fandom) had to endure quite a lot. 

As for their music, CNBLUE’s music sounds more pop, which makes it more radio-friendly, and thus, more successful commercially. It also doesn’t hurt that all members took on acting jobs way early in their careers, making the group popular to more people, not just to followers of K-pop. But then, the group has also gone through a lot in terms of controversies involving the members, particularly Yonghwa and Jonghyun. And no, these doesn’t involve Hongki, although Jonghyun and F.T. Island’s Junghoon suffered the same fate later. 

In 2016, both Jonghyun and Yonghwa were accused of obstruction of business / insider trading, aka the illegal act of buying a company’s stocks after being given beneficial information by people inside the company. In this case, the two were supposedly tipped to buy stocks of their own company, FNC Entertainment, when the price is low before they dramatically increase in value as they will be welcoming a high-profile celebrity in their talent stable. It was revealed later that it was Yonghwa’s mom who bought the stocks on his behalf, as she has been managing his son’s finances for years already. On the other hand, Jonghyun held on to his stocks even though he was advised that having them would result in legal issues for him. He was fined for this offense and the public’s perception of CNBLUE unfortunately took a bit of a hit. 

A couple of years later, Yonghwa was involved in another scandal, this time regarding his admission to Kyunghee University’s PhD program. It appears that during the time he was applying to the program, he invited his professor to his studio to catch up with him and show him his work. In hindsight, that was a wrong move considering that one of the requirements to the PhD program is an interview with a faculty member. Thus, it looked like Yonghwa was trying to influence his professor into admitting him to the program. Alas, some speculated that Yonghwa was trying to get in the PhD program so that he could avoid his military enlistment schedule. Yonghwa explained in a handwritten letter that the entire professor-PhD affair was a miscommunication and he was not aware that part of the PhD application process was an interview with one of the faculty members and that he has not plans of ever avoiding his conscription. 

Finally, the Burning Sun scandal dealt a huge blow to the careers of everyone involved, including F.T. Island’s Junghoon and CNBLUE’s Jonghyun. Jonghyun immediately left CNBLUE after he was named as one of the parties in that controversial chatroom, although he did not release a statement about his status in the entertainment industry. He has not appeared on TV since then, though. Since his departure, the band has had two Korean comebacks and one Japanese comeback.

Top 3 CNBLUE Songs

Not considering their banging debut track I’m a Loner, which the group and FNC had to pay fines when it was proven that it was plagiarized from an indie band’s song, CNBLUE’s singles discography features one catchy tune after another. Intuition, Hey You, and Can’t Stop are stand-outs and if you haven’t heard any of these, it’s high time you do. 

N.Flying

After immersing ourselves in the world of K-pop’s first two mainstream bands, let’s talk about the maknaes of FNC Entertainment, the company of the two aforementioned “pioneers”. N. Flying is the product of FC feeling they have caught lightning in a bottle with the success of F.T. Island and CNBLUE, so why not tempt fate by producing a third band, because after all, third time’s the charm? Like their senior CNBLUE, N. Flying also started their careers in Japan where they first performed and released an indie single album in 2013. They also served as F.T. Island’s front act in their 2013 Japan tour. And just like their predecessors, N. Flying’s Japanese activities were met with success.  

In May 2015, N. Flying finally debuted in Korea, which was postponed for a bit as the band’s leader, Seunghyub, got injured in July 2014. The music video for their Korean debut single, Awesome, also featured FNC labelmate Seolhyun of AOA. But alas, unlike F.T. Island and CNBLUE’s high-profile Korean debuts, this did not do as well. True, the EP peaked at #4, but it only eventually sold close to 4,000 copies. Considering Cheerful Sensibility, F’T. Island’s debut album, sold over 83,000 copies in 2007 and CBBLUE’s Bluetory sold a whopping 219,000 copies, the 4,000 copies N. Flying’s debut EP sold significantly pales in comparison.

The band entered 2017 with promise as they welcomed a new member in Yoo Hweseung, who despite looking like a formidable contestant/trainee in the second season of Produce 101, got axed quite early in the show’s second elimination round. In his limited exposure in the show, Hweseung was shown to be a very competent trainee, knowing the full choreography to INFINITE’s Be Mine while doing vocal runs. It, unfortunately, did not do his team a lot of favors as the opposing team had Kenta (who eventually debuted under the project group JBJ) who snatched a whole lot of popularity votes. Eventually, he was eliminated in the 35-conterstant cut-off (aka Episode 8) where it was revealed he was ranked 39th, four places short of continuing with the show. It was later revealed that FNC did not really plan on having Hweseung go all the way to the finals and only wanted him in the show for a bit of exposure. 

Thus, close to a month after his last PD101 episode was released, Hweseung was announced as N. Flying’s newest member and would be the band’s other main vocal on their second EP, The Real. This was followed by two other EPs in 2018, The Hottest in January and How Are You? in May. The sales of the three EPs with Hweseung did not experience major increases with only 6,000 units sold for The Hottest and 7,900 units for How Are You? 

The Real, Hot Potato, and How R U Today, the band’s three singles did not really make a splash commercially, with the music video for The Real generating some buzz as it featured a cameo of Jang Moonbok, a popular PD101 S2 contestant. People continued recognizing Hweseung’s superior singing skills but unfortunately, the band struggled in amassing a solid fanbase. An EP that sells less than 10,000 units is something both F.T. Island and CNBLUE have not experienced in their entire careers! Those are sales figures only nugu (that term for obscure groups from new entertainment labels) groups would be familiar with. N. Flying needed a breakthrough. 

If the lack of significant success wasn’t enough, later in 2018, bassist Kwangjin (before you scratch your head, yes, he is the same Kwangjin that Jungshin replaced in CNBLUE) was embroiled in a scandal where people accused him of acting inappropriately towards fans. Initially, he said he would be taking a break from group activities before officially leaving the group a day after Christmas, 2018.

Almost three years to the day he officially left N. Flying, Kwangjin announced that he has been freed of all harassment allegations against him. He explained that it was true that he dated a fan who later became her girlfriend, causing N. Flying fans to request his removal from the group. To protect his band and then-girlfriend, he did quit the group, but rumors persisted that he sexually harassed fans. So, he spent three years taking legal action to clear his name. Days before posting this announcement, he also posted pictures of his marriage.    

Anyway, back to the breakthrough. Probably derailed by the Kwangjin drama, the band had to wait until the New Year of 2019 before releasing Rooftop which they promoted on music programs, and by holding a concert series starting January 19. The song charted in the lower 100s before going viral on social media when the group was already in the final days of promoting it in the last week of February. The song then shot up to the top of most Korean music charts, including the Gaon Digital Charts where it took the top spot for two consecutive weeks. The band also took their first music show win on March 5, close to four years since their Korean debut. 

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Rooftop became that single break the band needed to sustain their career. They haven’t had a massive song to match Rooftop’s popularity since then, but their songs have continued to chart and more importantly, their albums (one full-length studio album, one reissue album, and two EPs from 2019 to 2021) boast of five-figure sales, a far cry from the anemic average 5,000 units average their previous releases sold. 

Top 3 N. Flying Songs

N. Flying’s discography is filled with bops, but if we have to choose three standouts, we shall go for three that were released in the different stages of the band’s career: Obviously, Rooftop, during the time when the band was reduced to four members and they didn’t have a bassist (although Dongsung was already present as the band’s bassist during the song’s recording, he was still not an official member); Oh, Really? with the current line-up; and The Real with the original line-up (this one is really catchy).

Day6

Finally, let’s talk about a band that’s not from FNC! Day6 actually started off as 5LIVE in 2014 with Sungjin (main vocals and guitar), Jae (guitar), Young K (bass and vocals), Junhyeok (keyboard), and Wonpil (synthesizer), performing in the Mnet reality show Who is Next Win (aka the show that produced Winner and iKon) before drummer Dowoon joined the line-up in mid-2015. The band was then renamed Day6 and debuted in September with the single Congratulations from the EP The Day. Both the song and the EP met considerable success, with the EP selling more than 10,000 copies and the single peaking at #48. Internationally, the EP peaked at the second spot on Billboard’s World Album Chart. The band spent the rest of 2015 promoting overseas in Singapore and Taiwan while also holding their first live concert in Seoul in November.

The band was about to make their first comeback in March 2016 when JYP announced that Junhyeok has left the group in February “for personal reasons”. However, rumors revealed that Junhyeok had decided to date a fan, which is in violation of JYP Entertainment’s rule that their artists are banned from dating in the first three years of their career. Whether it was Junhyeok’s decision to leave the company or JYPE’s decision to let go of him once they found out of the violation is unclear, but the band was left without a keyboardist when Letting Go was released on March 30. This comeback was the band’s music show stage debut on M Countdown, as they only relied on live performances and their music video to promote their debut single. 

2017 was a very productive year for Day6 as they kicked off the Every Day6 project, where the band would be releasing a couple of songs every month with concerts and music videos. In the middle of the year, they also released their first full-length studio album, Sunrise which contained the first five releases they had for the year plus versions of their singles Congratulations and Letting Go and two new tracks.  They concluded the year with another full-length album Moonrise, which contains their releases from June to December, three new songs, and final versions of their B-sides from their debut EP. The year-round project raised the profile of the band, with the two albums faring better in terms of sales, reaching more than 48,000 copies for both releases. 

The band spent 2018 launching their career in Japan while releasing two EPs in Korea: Shoot Me: Youth Part 1 in June and Remember Us: Youth Part 2 in December.  July 2019 had the group release The Book of Us: Gravity, their first (and so far still their only) EP that peaked at number 1 in the Gaon Album Chart. The band also had its first music show win while promoting Time of Our Life, four years after debuting. In May 2020, the band released The Book of Us: The Demon that contained the lead single Zombie, which peaked at No. 4 on Melon’s real-time chart and went up to the No. 1 spot in Bugs. Zombie continues to be the band’s most successful single to date, as it peaked at number 18 on the Gaon Digital Chart. In August of 2020, the band’s first sub-unit, Even of Day composed of Young K, Wonpil, and Dowoon, debuted. 

In 2021, Sunjin and Young K have enlisted in the Korean military. In the absence of the two, the remaining members launched their solo releases one after the other. However, on December 31, 2021, Jae announced via Twitter that he will be taking a hiatus from his promotions as a member of the band. However, JYPE announced on the same day that he has already been released from his exclusive contract with JYP Entertainment and therefore, from the group. 

Jae complaining about JYP is nothing new. Through the years, he has been vocal about the company’s lack of support when it comes to his solo efforts, including his personal YouTube channel where he has also posted his rants. But then, a lot of artists (all GOT7 members come to mind) have been direct about their dissatisfaction with the way JYPE runs things. But this, along with Jae’s seemingly personal problems, has caught the attention of fans and casual observers alike. In one of his live broadcasts this year, Jae used a derogatory term against Jamie, one of her closest female friends, and his former co-hosts in the Arirang music show, After School Club. This has made people think that Jae has more issues than just his dissatisfaction over JYPE’s poor treatment of him. 

But back to the group – not a lot of activity these days as three members are already in the middle of serving their military enlistment. Wonpil has dropped his solo release, Pilmography in February.      

Top 3 Day6 Songs

Day6 doesn’t come short when it comes to releasing high-quality material. In terms of commercial success, the band’s highest-charting songs are Zombie (peaked at #18 in Gaon), their debut track Congratulations (peaked at #58 in Gaon), and their latest single as a complete band, 2011’s You Make Me (peaked at #73 in Gaon). 

If you’re into music videos with a continuing storyline, check out the MVs of Congratulations and You Were Beautiful, which features Choi Wooshik of Parasite and Our Beloved Summer fame. 

Here’s hoping we’ve given you your fill of Korean boys who rock with this list. And we’re also hoping more bands with members who actually play instruments will join mainstream K-pop in the years to come.  

Featured Image: CNBLUE official Japan Twitter

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Finding Joy in Unboxing Exo’s Don’t Fight the Feeling Album

I have been a K-pop fan since at least 2015. I’ve always enjoyed jamming to the songs—my Spotify playlist is 80% K-pop. For most of my stanning years, I was okay with just supporting my biases by streaming their songs. The last couple of years, however, found me buying my favorite artists’ physical albums. 

My first few purchases gave me pure, unrestrained joy—I loved seeing how concept ideas and storylines are brought to life, not just in the song and the music video, but also in the album jackets, photobooks, and other inclusions. 

Picture credit: Paula Abiog

EXO, in particular, has been very consistent over the years with their storyline, incorporating elements of their origin story and superpowers in every comeback—whether as a group or in their solo endeavors. Their most recent special album, Don’t Fight the Feeling, just added to the group’s already rich lore. The album was a pleasant surprise to all EXO-Ls—and I didn’t waste time getting my own copy of the physical album (even if I had to wait for more than a month to get it because of shipping delays). 

The special album commemorated the group’s 9th anniversary, and their first comeback in 19 months after 2019’s Obsession. It also marked the return of Xiumin and D.O from the military, and the participation of Lay (who last participated in 2018’s Don’t Mess Up My Tempo/Love Shot album). 

The album jacket and photobook show the EXO members go on a journey across space, and with each member landing on a different planet. The photos are stunning, and I am so happy I decided to order a copy! 

Looking at the photos, I think the storyline of this album concept is a continuation of, or parallel to 2016’s Power. So, after I’ve basically admired each and every photo, I tried to figure out the story behind them. All of EXO were traveling together in a spaceship, but somehow, they were separated and they all landed on different planets (or alternate universes?). Where were they going? Kwangya? Were they trying to escape the Red Force, or were they pursuing it? Honestly, SM Entertainment needs to release a book that details everything—from EXO’s origins to the present! 

Now onto the music—and this album didn’t disappoint. The mini album has five songs, and opens with the title track Don’t Fight the Feeling, a snappy, energetic number about believing in yourself and looking ahead towards the future even in the face of difficulties.

Picture credit: Paula Abiog

The rest of the tracks are perfect easy listening songs. Paradise is a catchy song about not being afraid to be with the person who’s stolen their heart. And D.O’s “Thank you” at the end of the song was so adorable. No Matter is another laidback song that’s perfect for lazy weekends—I just wish they’d laid off the skrrt skrrt bit (why is this even a thing?). The song reminds me of 90s R&B jams. 

The mood shifts from upbeat to moody with Runaway, a track that encourages the listener to make that leap towards a fresh start. Wrapping up the track list is the sweet and sentimental Just as Usual, which is a nice song to listen to when I’m relaxing with a cup of coffee. 

This lovely mini-album—and the equally beautiful package it came in—proves EXO‘s staying power even as the members enter mandatory military service one by one. It’s a wonderful present to all EXO-Ls (including me). It quenches some of the thirst, but ultimately, it leaves everyone hungry for a full OT9 comeback. 

2022 update: Main vocalists Chen and Baekhyun, and main rapper Chanyeol are all still in the military, but EXO’s beloved leader, Suho, was discharged from his military service last February 13. With Suho back, will there be another album this year? I (and all EXO-Ls around the world) sure hope so! 

Featured Image Credit: Paula Abiog

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The Power and Legacy of iZ*One

When one talks about project girl groups nowadays, it is inevitable that we will mention Iz*One. The Korean-Japanese girl group that started on Produce 48 went on to become a record-breaking group with members who are well-loved by both Korean and international fans.  They were loved despite that all-too-big elephant in the room: Their involvement in one of the biggest scandals in Korean TV history. 

Let’s go on a trip down memory lane and review the group’s career trajectory.

Not-so-humble beginnings

It all started with Produce 48, the third season of the reality competition show Produce 101, which by that time was THE standard for what would now be referred to as “idol survival” shows. As with its predecessors, the public is supposed to have the biggest say in the girl group that the show will produce as they will be voting for members out of a pool of 96 contestants. What the “twist” of this edition is that a good number of “trainee” contestants will be from Japan, and in fact, will be from the J-pop idol mega group AKB48 and its various clusters in numerous Japanese cities. The final group, whose name will also be determined by the public, will be composed of 12 contestants this time and its composition will not be capped according to nationality. Although as with Produce 101 Season 2, only Korean viewers were given the chance to vote for their favorites. The group will be promoting in both Korea and Japan for two years and six months.

The number of Korean and Japanese trainees staying in the program and getting included in the top 12 were more or less equal. In fact, going into the finals, there were eight remaining Japanese trainees as opposed to the 12 Korean trainees, which isn’t too bad, considering the two contestants who occupied the top two spots were Japanese (Sakura and Miho). Episode 11 of the show had 7 of the twelve spots occupied by Japanese. 

However, in true MNet style, things went weird when during the announcement of the final 12 members (which coincided with the revelation of the group’s official name), during the show’s finale on August 31, 2018. Miho (ranked 2nd in Episode 11), Miyu (ranked 6th in Episode 11), Miru (ranked 8th in Episode 11), and Miu (ranked 10th in Episode 11) all disappeared in the final lineup, joined by former After School member Gaeun (ranked 5th in the previous episode), to be replaced by Yuri, Yena, Yujin, Chaewon, and Minju). Granted that the “one account, one vote” policy MNet always implements on the final episode of the Produce shows affected the results drastically, it still comes as a shock that a contestant can rise 15 places (Yuri) and someone who was in the top 12 in the previous episode would come dead last in the finale (Miru). Not to say that fraudulent things were happening, but these things feel sketchy, to say the least. But just like other Mnet reality shows that have the tendency to leave a bitter taste on the viewers’ mouths, things are swept under the rug as buzz for the winning group’s debut intensify.   

The attack of the monster rookies

Following the footsteps of the show’s earlier groups, the highly experimental I.O.I and the phenomenal WANNA ONE, Iz*One was expected to debut big, and debut big they did. The group’s debut EP Color*Iz was released two days short of two months after Produce 48’s finale, with “La Vie en Rose” as its lead single. Their debut showcase concert held at the Olympic Hall, tickets of which were sold out within a minute of being on sale.  Their music program debut happened on Mnet’s M Countdown in November 1 and after a week, they got their first music program on the same show only 10 days after their debut. This means they became the fastest girl group to win in a music program.

34,000 units of the EP sold in its first day of release, which set a new record for the highest number of albums sold on the first day of a girl group’s debut release. The music video for the La Vie en Rose was viewed more than 4.5 million times within the first 24 hours of its release on YouTube, which made it the most-watched debut music video by a Korean act in 24 hours at the time. As expected, Iz*One won the “New Artist of the Year” category at the several awards ceremonies, including Mnet Asian Music Awards, Golden Disc Awards, and Seoul Music Awards. Billboard Magazine named Iz*One as one of the best K-pop debuts of that year. 

Overseas Boom and a Scandal Erupts

Iz*One started 2019 by debuting in Japan, holding their Japanese debut show-con in Tokyo Dome City Hall on January 20, where they performed their debut Japanese single Suki to Iwasetai for the first time. Five days after the event, the music video for the song was released, and the single itself was released on February 6. The single charted at number 2 on both the Oricon Singles Chart and the Billboard Japan Hot 100, with more than 200,000 copies sold on its first week alone. A month after, it was certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) with more than 250,000 unit sales, which was also Iz*one‘s first Platinum certification.

After a successful Japanese debut, the girls went back to Korea in April to release their second EP entitled Heart*Iz and the lead single Violeta. The EP’s domestic pre-orders went over 200,000 copies and over 130,000 copies were added in the first week of its sale, which gave the group another new record. The EP went on to receive a Platinum certification on October 10 in Korea by the KMCA after selling more than 250,000 shipment figures. Violeta peaked at numbers 18 and 5 on Gaon Digital Chart and Billboard K-pop Hot 100 respectively and won its first music program trophy on SBS MTV’s The Show on April 9. The song went on to win six more times on M Countdown, The Show, Show Champion, and Music Bank, the last being what people consider to be their only “legit” music show win, as the others are music shows in cable channels.  

Two months later, the group released their second Japanese single, Buenos Aires, which this time topped both the Oricon Singles Chart and the Billboard Japan Hot 100. On July 6, the group debuted in the US by participating in the annual KCON, on that year held at the Madison Square Garden in New York City. Another two months went by and by the end of September 25, Iz*One released their third Japanese single titled Vampire. The girls topped on both domestic charts in Japan with its first week sales exceeding 200,000 copies. It is also the group’s only Japanese release to chart on Billboard K-pop Hot 100, peaking at number 52.

As it was clear that the group was as successful in Japan as they were in Korea, Oricon declared them the country’s best-selling new artist for the first half of 2019, earning an estimated ¥510 million (₩5.5 billion or USD 4.5 million) of total sales in Japan in just six months (December 2018 to June 2019).

By that time, the group weren’t really embroiled in any major controversy and it may seem that the public, especially rabid K-netz, have forgotten their earlier misgivings about the group, particularly about their lineup. Their debut single, La Vie en Rose, was already recorded by active group CLC, which had a number of fans smarting, knowing that CLC is a group of Cube Entertainment, whose contestant Han Chowon ranked 13th in the final episode of Produce 48. People also questioned why a song that would have guaranteed a hit for struggling group CLC had to be given to Iz*one. 

Fans also noted a bit of a discrepancy in the quality of music videos of the group’s Japanese releases with their Korean MVs, claiming that the latter were too “staged” and had the girls in less photogenic and flattering shots. Finally, nitpicking fans have pointed out that despite her second place finish, Sakura has never been allocated substantial lines in their songs, whether it’s Korean or Japanese releases. 

But those controversies were quite minor, considering the extent of the success the girls have experienced until that time. That is, until the mother of all scandals broke. 

Iz*one was scheduled to release their first studio album on November 11, 2019. However, the release was postponed due to an investigation that was launched over allegations of vote manipulation in the Produce shows. The initial investigation started with Produce X, as ordinary fans noted that there is a pattern in terms of the differences of votes contestants got. The investigation went on to include all other seasons of the Produce series as well as the other Mnet-produced idol survival show Idol School, which produced fromis_9 and also featured Jang Gyuri and eventual Iz*one member, Jo Yuri. 

Investigations revealed that the Produce 48 producer Ahn Joon-young had selected the twelve members of Iz*One from the top 20 just before the airing of the finale. Meaning, the contestants who were not in Producer Ahn’s list but were voted by the “public producers” were excluded from the group. These contestants, who were unjustly “kicked out”, were later revealed to be Pledis’ Lee Gaeun and Cube’s Han Chowon, who apparently placed 5th and 6th.

What was not revealed, of course, was who were pushed into the group that caused Chowon and Gaeun’s displacement. Although the investigations clearly revealed who these contestant are, the courts chose not to reveal the identities of the contestants who benefited from the scam. For the rest of 2020, Iz*One‘s activities were either were cancelled or postponed.

The final act before disbandment

2020 started great for Iz*Ones as CJ ENM and the agencies of the members agreed that the group would resume their activities until their contracts ended. In February, the much-awaited first studio album of the group, Bloom*Iz and its single Fiesta was finally released. The lack of activity at the tail end of 2019 worked to the group’s advantage, as the album broke the record for the highest first-week sales on Hanteo (actual unit sold versus Gaon’s actual units shipped) for an album by a girl group with 356,313 copies. Bloom*Iz is also the first album by a girl group to surpass the 300,000 copies mark in Hanteo’s history. If that wasn’t enough, Bloom*Iz also topped Oricon Overseas Album Chart, following their previous two EPs.

Five months after Fiesta, Iz*One released their third EP, Oneiric Diary, and its lead single Secret Story of the Swan. Oneiric Diary peaked at number 2 and has recorded over 510,000 sales on the Gaon Album Chart. The group garnered another record as the EP became one of the first two albums by a girl group to be certified Double Platinum by the KMCA.

Despite the pandemic, the group did not put any breaks to their activities as they inched closer to their disbandment date. On October 21, the group released their first Japanese studio album Twelve, which debuted At #1 on the Oricon Albums Chart. Before the year ended, Iz*One released their fourth EP, the Korean release One-reeler / Act IV, accompanied by its lead single Panorama. The EP brought the girls back to the top of the Gaon Album Chart, where they debuted at #1.

On April 29, 2021, Iz*One officially disbanded after the end of their contract. The official fanbase of the group, WIZ*ONE, started an initiative called Parallel Universe on April 21, 2021, in an attempt to prevent the girls from disbanding. The initiative raised ₩1,000,000,000 (roughly USD900,000), which was successful considering it was the goal of the initiative; however, Iz*One still disbanded as planned. CJ ENM confirmed that negotiations were underway to potentially relaunch the group, in consultation with the agencies which manage the members, but as of July 6, and the group’s re-debut has been cancelled.

The aftermath: Where are the girls now?

As with I.O.I and WANNA ONE, there is a mix of the activities and career paths for the 12 members of Iz*One after their disbandment. Some have launched solo careers, while some will be in groups with their mother agencies. Here is a rundown of their current and future activities:

Yuri: Known as the group’s man vocal who miraculously ended Produce 48 at number 3, Yuri is actually a “veteran” of the idol survival show genre, as she participated in Mnet’s Idol School where she finished in 15th place, six places short of being included in fromis_9. After Iz*One, Yuri contributed to a couple of OSTs, namely My Love for SBS’s television series Do You Like Brahms? and Story of Us for JTBC’s Monthly Magazine Home.

On September 23, Jo released Autumn Memories, a collaboration song with Lee Seok-hoon, who was a mentor in Produce 101 Season 2 and Produce X 101. On October 7, Yuri finally released her first single album titled Glassy with lead single of the same name. The album peaked at number 5 in the Gaon charts, selling more than 84,000 copies.

Eunbi: After Iz*One‘s disbandment, Eunbi and labelmate and groupmate Chaewon returned to Woollim Entertainment as trainees. She started a career on TV as a presenter as she became the new host of FashionN’s beauty program Follow Me along with Ha Sung-woon, Pentagon’s Kino and Freesia. She was featured in her labelmate Rocket Punch’s debut Japanese album Bubble Up! as a composer and producer for the track Let’s Dance.

 

On August 25, Eunbi was finally launched as a solo artist with her first extended play Open, the lead track of her EP, Door, peaked at number 3 in the Billboard US World singles chart, while Open peaked at number 8 in the Gan Albums Chart, selling more than 58,000 copies. 

Hyewon: Known as the contestant who frustrated everyone, fans and trainers included, with her blank expressions and seeming lack in drive and variety, Hyewon went on to become one of Iz*One‘s visuals. She has further surprised a lot of people when she guested in some variety shows with her members and showed her quick with and academic intelligence, showing that she’s not as slow and ditzy as most regarded her. 

While the group disbanded, Hyewon returned to 8D Entertainment, her original agency. She is set to star in My K-Star Family, a new variety show with Super Junior’s Yesung, BTOB’s Eunkwang, former I.O.I leader Lim Nayoung, and AB6IX’s Lee Dae Hwi, among others. The show’s format is to form virtual “families” among the idols in various combinations.

Yena: Known as the lively vitamin of the group and even during her stint in Produce 48, Yena has since then been very active as an actress and variety show personality. She was still in Iz*One when she embarked on her first variety show, tvN’s Prison Life of Fools, with Lee Soogeun, Seventeen‘s Seungkwan, and Got7‘s JB, among others. The show was basically the cast playing a more elaborate version of Mafia on every episode and in prison. She was also one of the cast members for mystery variety show Girls High School Mystery Class, TVING’s first original content variety show that ran from December 2020 to January 2021. 

Yena also participated in King of Mask Singer before Iz*One disbanded. She was confirmed as the sole MC of Studio Waffle’s web variety show Yena’s Animal Detective, which started airing on August 24. She also became one of the cast members for TVING’s Idol Dictation Contest, which reunited her with her Prison Life of Fools castmate Seungkwan. She has also been part of the fixed MC panel for tvN Story’s Fireworks Handsome. Finally, she is preparing for her debut as a solo artist. 

Chaeyeon: Known as Iz*One‘s main dancer, Chaeyeon is also another veteran in the idol survival show genre after participating in JYPE’s Sixteen with her sister, Chaeryeong. While her sister opted to stay with JYP Entertainment and later on debut with Itzy, Chaeyeon moved to WM Entertainment (B1A4, Oh My Girl) and represented the company in Iz*One. 

After Iz*One, Chaeyeon’s next high profile appearance was in the dance survival show Street Woman Fighter, which was another Mnet production. The show became a trend as it featured all-female dance crews being all sassy with each other, as what you would expect from street dance crews in dance battles. She was eliminated in the 6th episode with her dance crew WANT, placing 7th out of 8 participating groups. Her stay in the show was marked with controversy, as many contestants voiced their disagreement with her participation in the program, citing that she was an “idol-dancer” and not a legitimate dancer. She was usually challenged into dance showdowns and had a noticeable loss record. Mnet’s character development angle was utilized on her to the max, although everyone is in agreement that she may not be a true-blue dancer, her dancing skills are definitely a cut above your generic idol.  

Chaewon: As noted earlier, Chaewon returned to Woollim Entertainment with her labelmate Eunbi after Iz*One‘s disbandment. However, while Eunbi continued to flourish under Woollim, it seemed Chaewon wanted to break away from her company as months later, her profile was removed from Woollim’s artists website. Her agency being listed as Woollim has also been removed from her Korean website profiles. 

Soon enough, news about her moving to Source Music (former agency of GFriend which is now under HYBE) has been reported in more news outlets. No official statement has come out from HYBE, Source Music, and Woollim have been released. 

Minju: One of Iz*One‘s members known for having arresting visuals, Minju has always leaned towards an acting career. While she was still with Iz*One, she already starred in a film entitled The Fault is Not Yours, released in 2019. Even before that, she played the role of the young version of one of the main characters in MBC’s drama Tempted, a drama based on the French novel Dangerous Liaisons. She also appeared in the talk show Happy Together in 2019 as a special host. 

As of the moment, Minju can be seen in MBC’s Show! Music Core as one of its main hosts with SF9’s Chani and Stray Kids’ Hyunjin. She was also host of MBC’s variety program Save Me! Rooms and is actually listed in her agency, Urban Works as an actress. Fans have speculated that she was one of the factors that delayed the reboot of Iz*One under Source Music/HYBE because she has expressed her intention to pursue an acting career rather than continue her career as an idol-singer. 

Nako: The smallest member of Iz*one has since returned to Japan and with her HKT48 group after the Korean group’s disbandment. She has even appeared in a Japanese TV drama Kao Dake Sensei. However, things lately haven’t been super rosy as just in November, various news items have sprung up regarding the poor treatment Nako has been receiving from her HKT48 groupmates. 

Recent social media videos and posts have pointed to her being made fun of by her Japanese groupmates when she posted content on her social media accounts in Korean for her WIZ*ONEs. Another video allegedly showed Nako finding her lost airpods in a trash can. No official statements addressing the matter have yet been released by her Japanese agency.     

Hitomi: Hitomi has returned to promoting with AKB48’s Team 8 after Iz*One‘s disbandment. Since her return, she has participated in two AKB48 singles – the A-side single Nemohamo Rumor and the B-side Seikoutoutei, both in 2021. She has also launched her own cosmetic beauty brand named NOTONE in October. 

Wonyoung and Yujin: Two of Iz*One’s visuals, Yujin and center Wonyoung have returned to their mother agency, Starship Entertainment after their group’s disbandment. Wonyoung has been a widely sought-after endorser and model for local and international fashion brands and is currently the host of KBS’ Music Bank with ENHYPEN’s Sunghoon. On the other hand, Yujin shares main host duties in Inkigayo with Treasure’s Jihoon and NCT’s Sungchan. Both are very busy for the debut of IVE, Starship’s newest girl group. 

Sakura: Finally, we have Iz*one’s Japanese center, Sakura! After the group’s disbandment, Sakura returned to Japan with Hitomi and Nako. However, rumors of the Japanese members pursuing idol careers in Korea were loudest with Sakura, with rumors of her leaving HKT48 complicating her Japanese comeback. But alas, she confirmed the rumors herself when she announced the schedule for her graduation concert on June 19. The short version of the music video of her graduation song, Omoide ni Suru ni wa Mada Hayasugiru was released on YouTube on June 14 and she staged her final performance with HKT48 on June 27.

Despite the end of her connection with HKT, Sakura has continued to be very visible in public, bagging modelling gigs for international brand such as Kerastase and the Chinese cosmetics brand Flower Knows.

Finally, on November 1, 2021, Vernalossom, the company that manages AKB members’ careers, announced that her contract with them has ended. This makes a lot of sense because since May, it has been reported that she has already signed up with Source Music (GFriend’s former agency), a company now under HYBE Labels (aka BTS’ company that also houses Pledis of NU-EST and Seventeen). This means that the new Source Music / HYBE girl group will have her and Chaewon (as mentioned above) as possible members.

With all of these exciting developments, we are super happy for the girls and we can only hope to see all 12 girls in a reunion stage in the future! 

Featured Image Credit: Official Iz*one Twitter

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FEATURES K-POP ARTISTS LATEST STORIES SUPER JUNIOR

15 Songs for 15 Years of Super Junior–K.R.Y.

Super Junior sub-unit Super Junior K.R.Y. performs When We Were US on SBS Inkigayo.

Super Junior’s vocal powerhouse trio—Kyuhyun, Ryeowook, and Yesung—has continuously blessed our ears with their different, yet harmonious vocals as Super Junior–K.R.Y. for the past 15 years. They made their official TV debut on the November 5, 2006 broadcast of KBS’s Music Bank, where they performed The One I Love. They have since made several official soundtrack (OST) appearances, such as Stop Walking By from the 2006 SBS drama Snow Flower. More recently, they sang Shadow of You from the OST of the 2021 KBS drama The King’s Affection.

They have also launched successful solo careers. Maknae Kyuhyun was the first to debut with At Gwanghamun in November 2014. Ryeowook followed suit in January 2016 with The Little Prince. Finally, Yesung released his first solo mini-album, Here I Am, in April 2016.

To celebrate 15 years of Super Junior–K.R.Y., here are 15 of their sub-unit and solo songs that will make you fall in love, warm your heart, and soothe your heartache.

1. Super Junior–K.R.Y.: The One I Love (2006)

A very young Yesung, Ryeowook, and Kyuhyun sang The One I Love from the K-drama Hyena in 2006. Even from this first sub-unit song, their voices were already so full of emotion.

2. Super Junior–K.R.Y.: The Night Chicago Died (2006)

The trio released another OST single for Hyena, The Night Chicago Died. This song was a Korean-language cover of a 1974 British pop song. The song’s title and melody were the same, but the Korean version had completely different lyrics.

3. Ryeowook: One Fine Spring Day (2010)

Ryeowook’s sweet vocals were on the spotlight in One Fine Spring Day, his solo song from Super Junior’s 4th album Bonamana. SJ’s eternal maknae sang about missing someone as he watched flowers bloom in spring.

4. Yesung: It Has to be You (2010)

Yesung’s distinct voice and husky tone took center stage in It Has to be You, his solo song from the K-drama Cinderella’s Sister.

5. Super Junior–K.R.Y.: Fly (2011)

Fly is probably the only Super Junior–K.R.Y. song that doesn’t bring listeners to tears. The trio recorded this single for the South Korean audition show Superstar K3; the track served as the theme song for the season.

6. Kyuhyun: At Gwanghamun (2014)

Kyuhyun was the first Super Junior member to officially have a solo debut. This sentimental ballad has a soothing melody that makes it very easy on the ears. The lyrics, though, are a bit heart-wrenching, which was further emphasized by Kyuhyun’s emotional singing.

7. Super Junior–K.R.Y.: We Can (2015)

Kyuhyun, Ryeowook, and Yesung sang about getting through the good times and the bad together, as well as their hopes for the future in this moving ballad. The song was part of Super Junior’s 10th anniversary special album, Devil.

8. Super Junior–K.R.Y.: Dorothy (2015)

Dorothy is a soft, emotional ballad about yearning for a lover to return. The sub-unit recorded this song for the group’s Magic album (Devil repackage).

9. Ryeowook: The Little Prince (2016)

Ryeowook made his solo debut in 2016 with The Little Prince. The song’s lyrics tell the story of a heartsick man in conversation with the Little Prince (yes, that Little Prince from the Antoine de Saint-Exupéry novel).

10. Kyuhyun: Still (2016)

Kyuhyun’s vocals have this uncanny ability to make people feel things. He sang about a lost love in Still, from his third EP Waiting, Still, which was released before his enlistment. His sadness was so palpable in the song, that you can’t help but want to go to South Korea and give him a long, reassuring hug.

11. Yesung: Pink Magic (2019)

Pink Magic marked a departure from Yesung’s usually melancholic songs. In the song, Yesung sang about love and seeing the world through rose-tinted glasses. The single was from his third mini-album of the same name, and is a bright, bubbly song with hints of retro. This song would be a nice addition to your playlist on your next summer road trip.

12. Super Junior–K.R.Y.: When We Were Us (2020)

Mention Super Junior–K.R.Y. and everyone’s first thought would be “beautiful ballads,” and When We Were Us is another lovely track to add to the sub-unit’s long list of mellow songs. This was the lead single off the trio’s first Korean mini-album (!) after 15 years as a sub-unit. The song is about longing for a past lover, and reminiscing about happier days. It’s a ballad track fans have come to expect from the trio, but is still a gorgeous song that shows off their powerful vocal chops.

13. Super Junior–K.R.Y.: Traveler (2020)

After releasing their debut Korean mini-album, the sub-unit made a Japanese comeback with Traveler. It’s a refreshing song that’s perfect for sunny days with a dash of light rain.

14. Yesung: Beautiful Night (2021)

Yesung continues to draw inspiration from retro as seen in his fourth mini-album Beautiful Night. The lead single, which shares the same name as the album, has an 80s city pop vibe—light and soothing, perfect for easy listening.

15. Kyuhyun: Love Story (2022)

Love Story is the final song from Kyuhyun’s four seasons project series, and the lead single of his latest mini-album of the same name. The song expresses the emotions of someone longing for an old lover, with a melody that matches well with fall and winter.

What is your favorite song from Super Junior–K.R.Y.?

Featured image: Super Junior sub-unit Super Junior K.R.Y. performs When We Were US on SBS Inkigayo. Photo: KOCOWA TV/YouTube.
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The Great, the Mysterious, and the Sad Plight of Chinese Idols in K-Pop

Featured image: [Special Video] SVT JUN&THE8 'MY I' KOR ver. Photo: SEVENTEEN/YouTube

The recently concluded finals of the idol survival show Girls Planet 999, which included contestants from Korea, Japan, and Chinese territories (China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong), has the public wondering again if Chinese idols don’t get a fair break among K-fans. Throughout the show, at least 2 or 3 Chinese contestants figure in the top 9 contestants of the show, which by its end, will compose a nine-member girl group. One of the Chinese contestants, Shen Xiaaoting, was ranked number 1 in three of the five episodes that have the contestant’s rankings revealed. And on the final episode, she ended up 9th.

With the Korean public becoming a tad weary of Chinese idols for a good number of reasons, such as the government implementing stricter guidelines towards idols and fans – from discouraging “sissy” idols to spending excessive amounts of money on voting in idol survival shows (which may also be a reason the Chinese girls ended up not performing well in Girls Planet 999) to several Chinese idols making highly patriotic political stands (e.g. Jackson Wang siding with the government on the Xinjiang cotton issue), fans of groups with Chinese members are crossing their fingers on the plight of their idols. Let’s have a look at three different cases of Chinese members of some K-pop groups.

Chinese K-pop Members on Top: The Case of Jun and The8

Perhaps, the most active Chinese idols in the K-pop industry are Jun and The8 of the 13-member group SEVENTEEN. Jun (who was born in Shenzhen, China) and The8 (a native of Anshan, China) have not been able to have a homecoming until last October. As the group debuted in 2015, Jun and The8 have not returned to China ever since, until recently, which means they haven’t been with friends and family for more than six years. Even the pandemic did not stop the two from continuously staying in Korea for the group’s last four comebacks in Korea – Hengarae (with the lead single Left and Right), Semicolon (with the lead single Home;Run), Your Choice (with the lead single Ready to Love), and Attacca (with the lead single Rock With You). The group has also had three Japanese comebacks since the pandemic started – Fallin’ Flower in April 2020, 24H in September 2020, and Not Alone in April 2021. All three releases have topped the Japanese Oricon charts, despite the group not actually holding in-person live events in the country due to COVID-19.

For the latest comeback, the two Chinese members were part of the recording of the entire EP and making the music videos. This means that they have versions of the songs with 13-person choreography and 11-person choreography. It has been a tad unfortunate though that when the EP Attacca was released on October 22, the two members are back in China. Both are still quite active in promoting the song on their social media accounts, though, and have also uploaded videos on the group’s TikTok account of them dancing to the “killing parts” of their single Rock With You. According to Pledis Entertainment, the two boys will be back in Korea in the New Year, which may most probably mean after the Chinese celebrations of Lunar New Year.

Judging from June and The8’s social media posts, there’s little to no reason why CARATs have to be worried about them and their status with SEVENTEEN. Besides, all thirteen members, including Jun and The8, renewed their contracts with Pledis, which is now under HYBE (aka BTS’ company) a year ahead of their expiration. It seems that the commitment of all members to the group is quite strong.

The Curious Case of the Chinese Members of WJSN

Here’s a story of another 13-member group: the Cosmic Girls or WJSN. From the group’s formation in 2016, the Chinese presence in the then-12-member group has been established, with Xuanyi, Meiqi, and Cheng Xiao holding prominent positions in the group. All of WJSN’s title tracks have been released in China and even have Mandarin versions. The three members were also present when the group welcomed a new member to their fold – Produce 101 alumna Yeonjung in late 2016, when her project group I.O.I allowed some of its members to join groups of their agencies.

Things went a bit awkward when the three Chinese members suddenly grabbed opportunities in their native China all at the same time while still promoting with the group. Fresh from the promotions of their latest EP Dream Your Dream (with the lead single Dreams Come True) from late February to mid-March of 2018, Meiqi and Xuanyi were pulled out from group promotions to compete in the first season of Produce 101 China. On the other hand, as early as January, Cheng Xiao went back and forth between China and Korea, as she was appointed as a dance mentor in the male idol group formation show Idol Producer. Fun fact: Cheng Xiao’s fellow coaches included EXO’s Lay, then GOT7’s Jackson, and then Pristin’s Kulkyung who were in various stages of activity/inactivity with their respective groups.

Meiqi and Xuanyi did well in Produce 101 China, so well that they were actually the two top-ranked contestants of the show. Due to their ranking, they automatically became members of the show’s project girl group, Rocket Girls 101. For her part, Cheng Xiao accepted acting jobs in China and did not return to Korea to reunite her group and participate in their next comeback, WJ Please, which had the lead single Save Me, Save You.

What happened to the two Rocket Girls? On August 9, Yuehua Entertainment (Starship’s partner in WJSN) and Mavericks Entertainment released a joint announcement stating that they would be withdrawing Meiqi and Xianyi, along with Mavericks talent Zhang Zining (who placed 7th in the show) from Rocket Girls. However, a week later, both companies confirmed that after coming to an agreement with Tencent (Rocket Girls 101’s company), that Meiqi, Xuanyi, and Zining will be returning to the group.

The Cosmic Girls continued to promote all throughout 2019, releasing three EPs. During this time, Meiqi and Xuanyi continued to promote with their new group Rocket Girls 101 while accepting acting and TV appearance jobs. While still promoting with her Chinese group, Meiqi released her debut EP in April 2019, which subsequently sold more than 2.5 million copies. Xuanyi also got casted in Chinese variety shows even during her time as a Rocket Girl. Cheng Xiao also continued appearing in C-dramas and variety shows.

Rocket Girls 101 disbanded in 2020, yet the two (plus Cheng Xiao) have not returned to promoting with Cosmic Girls. With a ton of activities in China, the three are not expected to reunite with their WJSN groupmates anytime soon. For their part, WJSN have had two successful comebacks despite the pandemic, with their two EPS, Neverland and Unnatural, selling more than 105,000 and 92,000 copies, respectively.

Chinese members of Cube’s Groups: CLC, Pentagon, and (G)I-dle

Three of Cube Entertainment’s groups have Chinese members – Elkie from Hong Kong, Yan’An from Shanghai (though born in Japan), and Yuqi from Beijing. There’s not a lot of weird activity solely happening with the three, with their careers taking rollercoaster rides because of the company’s (mis)management of their groups.

Let’s start with Elkie who’s supposed to be from the most senior of the three groups, CLC. Unfortunately, despite their “seniority”, it seemed that Cube had always been weird towards its treatment of the group. CLC was a sort of bridesmaid to 4Minute, which until their disbandment in 2016, was Cube’s leading girl group. When the group finally disbanded, the company showed their efforts in “prioritizing” CLC by adding two new members – Elkie who was then already a popular TV personality in Hong Kong, and Eunbin, who was at that time fresh from her stint in Produce 101 (eliminated in the second to the last episode). CLC showed promise with their High Heels Japanese comeback and their Hobgoblin Korean comeback, the latter featuring an image change for the group that showed them sporting an edgier concept resembling that of the then-recently-disbanded 4Minute.

The group felt like they were on their way to finally break through the local market when something weird happened – the company debuted a new group, (G)I-dle, which includes another Produce 101 alumna, Soyeon, and Chinese member Yuqi. The public instantly warmed up to (G)I-dle’s girl crush image with a slight softness. So, it seemed like CLC skidded a bit to the sidelines yet again.

For the part of Pentagon, they went the normal boy group career trajectory, as, during their debut in 2016, Cube was still holding a bit of hope for their “Legacy” group, BEAST, while now putting more effort into the promotions of their second boy group in line, BTOB.  Things took an unexpected turn for the better when the group’s song, Shine from ther sixth Korean EP POsitive became a sleeper hit, thanks to positive word of mouth from listeners who got hooked with the group’s trendy choreography and the song’s earworm quality. The song started out in the Gaon charts in the 500s, then rose by hundreds of places until it peaked at number 27.  It did feel like the group was finally on its way to attaining superior-level boy group levels of fame.

Then Yan’An got sick, making him take a health break from the group. Also, E’Dawn was revealed to have a relationship with Cube’s biggest stars, former 4Minute center HyunA. At first, the company denied this, then the two actually admitted to the relationship, after which the company dropped her and E’Dawn. Yan’An took another health break (a longer one this time for most of 2020). Members Junho and leader Hui (who was also in a group with HyunA and E’Dawen called Triple H) are currently on military duty, so the group is practically on that weird state exclusively occurring among boy groups: a hiatus with awkward and poorly promoted releases by still-active members. Yan’An is back with the group, but with its weird status, we’re not exactly sure what the future holds for the group.

This brings us back to CLC and (G)I-dle. With the company obviously preferring the newer group, CLC was pushed back and forth from sweet and innocent songs to edgy girl crush releases, while (G)I-dle getting better songs.

Their latest/last release was Helicopter in August 2020 and before the year ended, Elkie sent a legal notice to Cube Entertainment requesting termination of her contract, citing that she has not received payment for her acting activities and that Cube Entertainment had already stopped their “developmental support” of CLC, putting the group in an uncertain future. On February 3, 2021, Cube Entertainment confirmed that Elkie is not with the group anymore and her contract has been terminated. Fast forward to September, when member Yujin, who joined Girls Planet 999, said in an interview on the show that the group has been “dismissed.” As fans, we can only interpret this as CLC disbanding.

Finally, what has happened to the rather successful (G)I-dle? With EPs that sell more than 200,000 copies (AMAZING considering 100,000 units sold for girl groups is already a lot) and all lead singles charting notably high (the group’s last single, Hwaa, peaked at #4), the three-year-old group has achieved top-tier status in record time.  Considering they’re not from SM, JYP, or YG, their sales and chart performances are unquestionably commendable. They even won new fans when they participated and eventually placed third in the idol group competition Queendom, only placing behind MAMAMOO and Oh My Girl. everything is turning up roses for (G)I-dle until something gets messed up.

Only several weeks after the promotions ended for the group’s latest release, Hwaa, Cube announced that Soojin would temporarily halt all activities after bullying accusations by former classmates rose. The company has since encouraged individual activities, with Yuqi releasing her first EP as a solo artist, A Page, in May and Soyeon releasing her solo EP, Windy, the following month.

Finally, on August 14, Cube Entertainment announced that Soojin has departed from the group. (G)I-dle is now down to five members, but there hasn’t been news about a comeback. Several weird developments have happened since Soojin’s departure from the group, with various reports claiming that the members did not agree to Soojin getting booted out of the group and have become disappointed with Cube. Many also pointed out the lackluster support the company gave to Yuqi’s debut.

Finally, only days after the announcement of Soojin’s departure, rumors of Soyeon leaving Cube and therefore, the group spread like wildfire. On August 28, Soyeon hello a vLive session and eagle-eyed watchers were quick to point out that there was something tucked in her phone case – a business card with the logo of PNation, Psy’s relatively new entertainment agency that houses, surprise, surprise – the banished duo of HyunA and E’Dawn! That it has been months since the last comeback and the year is drawing to a close, fans can’t help but wonder if it is also “buh-bye Cube” time for (G)I-dle.

So, there you have it- the great, the mysterious, and the perennial mistreatment among Chinese idols. Let’s hope there’ll be more Juns and The8’s in the future of K-pop.

Featured image: [Special Video] SVT JUN&THE8 ‘MY I’ KOR ver. Photo: SEVENTEEN/YouTube
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Se7en, Katie Kim, and Gummy: What Exactly Happened to These OG K-pop artists from YG Entertainment?

Before BIGBANG there was SE7EN, one of YG Entertainment's former artists.

In May of last year, the inevitable finally happened: Dara, formerly of the mega girl group 2NE1, announced that she has parted ways with her entertainment agency for more than 17 years, YG Entertainment. 

It was indeed the end of an era, as the groups that we have always associated with the company are pretty much gone or are on an extended hiatus. BigBang remains quiet despite everyone in the group being done with military duty, Seungri left BigBang and the entertainment industry altogether since his scandals became public, all four 2NE1 members are with new agencies after Dara’s departure, Lee Hi is now with AOMG, Nam Taehyun has been out of WINNER since 2016, B.I has been out of iKon since 2019, Psy also left the company to make it on his own with the establishment of PNatio, and the company’s resident hip-hop group, Epik High, also called it quits in 2018. 

And if you think that these have been only the huge departures from the company, here are three YG artists that have left the family before the ones we mentioned finally decided to pack their bags, too. 

Se7en: Was he dismissed or did he decide to leave?

Back in the days when there is still an option for Korean male singers to find fame as soloists of any genre and not be confined as balladeers, rappers, or group idols, Se7en debuted and shot to fame. It was 2003 and the likes of Usher, Craig David, Mario, and Chris Brown (not to mention Latino singers like Enrique Iglesias and Ricky Martin) were dominating American, European, and even Asian music charts, so becoming a male R&B or soul soloist somehow became trendy. 

Thus, when YG Entertainment introduced Se7en to the Korean public as a soloist who’s not particularly associated with sappy ballads or trot, people took notice. He also received several Rookie of the Year awards in his home country, a testament to his popularity throughout the first decade of the 21st century. And having a signature fashion statement such as wearing roller shoes or heelys (for Generation Z readers, they’re shoes with retractable wheels in them, which distinguishes them from roller skates as the wheels in the latter cannot be hidden) in every public appearance and music video really helped in Se7en‘s name recall. 

He continued to maintain his popularity through Korea, which eventually spread throughout the rest of Asia, as he also debuted in China and Japan. As with most K-pop acts at that time, there was a clamor for Se7en to debut in the rather finicky and fickle-minded American market (something which the Wonder Girls and Girl’s Generation attempted to do), so, he made his American debut in 2009 with a song Girls that featured rapper Li’l Kim. And like all K-pop acts attempting to make it big in the American music scene, Se7en received a lukewarm welcome in the US. 

The lackluster US debut did not diminish Se7en’s stardom in his native Korea, where his comebacks until 2012 were still unquestionable successes. He even figured in a first as his 2012 comeback, When I Can’t Sing, was written and produced by Park Jinyoung aka JYP of JYP Entertainment himself. That title track was the first official collaboration between YGE and JYPE and it was also his first number 1 under the Gaon chart system.  

Se7en enlisted for his mandatory military service in 2013 and was finally was discharged from the military in December 2014, but not without scandal. Not only was it reported that he broke curfew, but he was also spotted visiting a massage parlor famous for prostitution. His contract with YG was slated to end two months after his discharge, but maybe because of the scandals during his military service, both parties decided mutually not to renew his contract. To add to this, two days before Christmas, the agency of his then-girlfriend for 12 years Park Hanbyul announced that their talent’s relationship with Se7en has ended.  

Se7en then established his own agency, ELEVEN9 Entertainment, but it took more than a year before he released new music. He first released a single entitled I’m Good in July of 2016 before releasing an EP entitled I Am Se7en, with the carrier single Give It to Me in October. The EP managed to sell more than 8,000 copies, although his songs failed to chart.

Se7en has been busy with musical theater, having headlines a number of musicals such as Dogfight and I Loved You. He also hosts a web show on YouTube entitled Seven Golf Courses. He signed with a new agency, Dmost Entertainment in 2020, although he hasn’t released new music since 2016.  

Katie Kim Breaks Free From the Dungeon

If there is one thing YG Entertainment is very famous for when it comes to how they treat their artists, it’s that they rarely give them comebacks. Once an artist is established and has acquired some semblance of popularity, the company opts to make sure that his or her next releases are of premium quality. 

Unfortunately, the process of ensuring this takes a long time, and for most YG artists, it takes years. Lee Hi famously cried on an episode of Party People hosted by JYP (the guy we mentioned earlier, as in Park Jinyoung) expressing her frustration that she has had only four half-albums in her four-year career. Thus, the birth of the YG “dungeon,” where the company allegedly keeps their artists until they (or an in-house YG producer like Teddy) give them materials of superior quality. 

If you think that Lee Hi’s time with YG was tragic, wait until you read the entire story of Katie Kim. Like Lee Hi, Katie was also thrust into the spotlight via a singing audition program – K-Pop Star 4 in 2015. Not only did she participate in that season, she actually won the show and got offered contracts with the companies partnered with the program. She decided to sign a contract with YG Entertainment. And that may have been a not-too-good decision. 

For the next three years, as in the moment she won until 2018, she recorded several songs and produced music videos, and went back and forth between Seoul and the US, as YG noticed that her style leaned more towards American music – jazz and R&B, to be precise. So, she participated in songwriting camps and wrote songs for her album that has been a year two years three years in the making. With her songs finally available, what does YG do? Continuously delay the development and release of her solo album to ensure the finished product is up to “YG standards”. 

The release of Katie’s album has been exaggeratedly delayed that even the creative director who was in charge of Katie at YG Entertainment had quit the company and started a new record label. Katie with nothing to show for her “career” after three years followed him to his new label, AXIS Entertainment. Finally, in June 2018, Katie debuted with the album Log under AXIS, but guess what? YG Entertainment was still involved with her career as the company was the distributing arm of her new company. Even the music video for her debut single, Remember, is housed in YG Entertainment’s YouTube channel, where, as of press time, it has amassed close to 15 million views.

Alas, it seems that the search for perfection and high standards that is YG’s signature trait has rubbed off on Katie, who only released her second EP, Our Time is Blue, with the single Our Time, in December last year. She had not promoted any of her songs in Korea. Her second single off the EP, Faux, has been seen by casual listeners as shades against her former record label. In an interview, she claims that “The song was inspired by “an experience with a record label. I thought everything went super well and we were getting ready to sign the paperwork, but everything fell through. I later learned that they were looking for a K-pop artist and I wasn’t really K-pop. They were interested at first, but later realized I wasn’t what they were looking for.”

If that’s not a reference to her time in YG, then I don’t know what that statement is all about!

Gummy: When the Queen Left Her Kingdom

If we’re talking about the pillars of YG Entertainment, there’s Gummy. When she debuted in 2003 (coincidentally the same year as Se7en‘s debut as well), she immediately took the position as YG Entertainment’s biggest female artist with her title track We Should Have Been Friends.” After all, not everyone (if not anyone else) can boast of winning the Bonsang at the 19th Golden Disk Awards with her debut single. Close to 20 years later, We Should Have Been Friends remains one of the most popular Korean pop songs ever. It is constantly being used as a contest piece in singing competitions and is still one of those songs Koreans recognize and pick in their noraebang sessions.  

The awards and recognition continued in her debut year as Gummy won earned the Mobile Popularity Award for Memory Loss, the lead single of her second album, It’s Different, at the 2004 Mnet Km Music Festival. Despite suffering from vocal nodules between preparing her first and second albums, Gummy was on a roll. Her third album, For the Bloom, kept her at the top of both album and song charts. Then, she altogether stopped releasing music and went on a hiatus that lasted for three full years.

In 2008, she released her fourth album titled Comfort, which saw her officially ending her hiatus. The lead single I’m Sorry features BigBang‘s T.O.P and immediately charted at #5 in music charts in the first week of its release. She then took another two-year break before releasing a mini-album, Loveless, in April of 2010.  

Things between SM and Gummy finally came to a close after the singer marked her tenth anniversary in the music business. After celebrating with a fan meeting and releasing her OST for the drama, That Winter, the Wind Blows entitled Snow Flower (which charter as high as #3), she also released a Japanese album, Fate(s). She also had a duet with Daesung from BIGBANG.  Then, just like that, it was reported that she has left YG Entertainment, her home agency for 10 years, and has transferred to C-JeS Entertainment in October 2013.

https://youtu.be/Z2U1HX6GMCw

Gummy hasn’t looked back then, as she has thrived in every aspect of her life. Since leaving YG, she has married Hospital Playlist actor Jo Jungsuk in 2018 and gave birth to their first child in August 2020. As for her music career, she has continued her reign as the OST Queen while still releasing new music, the latest being a single titled It Was Still Love in October this year.

Which brings us to: Why did Gummy leave YG in 2013? In a 2014 interview, she said,  “It has been a little over half a year since moving to a new agency. My former agency had a [particular] tendency [in the way they do things]. YG is not the type to release albums often… When good music comes out, you release an album. Artists agreed on that, and each artist had a lot of ambition to promote with good music. I also made an album at YG, which fell through about two times. After thinking about it a lot, I decided to switch agencies.”

Quashing rumors of bad blood between Gummy and her former agency, she clarified, “We did not go our separate ways on bad terms. [Yang Hyun Suk] CEO actually felt sorry towards me. He told me that if there is a place where I can get cared for more, then let’s do that comfortably. I think it came about naturally.”

Therefore, we conclude that even the queen of YG during her reign still felt like she languished in the YG  dungeon as a lot of her work was refused. 

So, who are we left with in YG? The depth of talent is still mind-blowing. Sechs Kies, the legendary 1st generation boy group that joined YG when the members decided to revive their group in 2016, just released a top 10 single in February this year, still under the company. Digital monsters AKMU just released an EP in July, with a collaboration with The IU entitled Nakka topping the charts, and is still charting as of press time. WINNER is still with the company, despite having changes in their line-up and inactivity due to Jinu and Hoony currently serving in the military. While iKON members won’t be starting their enlistment until next year, they have also experienced a line-up change with B.I’s departure and the sudden revelation of Bobby being a father as he plans on marrying his partner. Of course, there’s the biggest girl group BLACKPINK and the promising Treasure. Finally, we still hold out hope for a BigBang comeback.

Featured image: Before BIGBANG there was SE7EN, one of YG Entertainment’s former artists. Photo: YG ENTERTAINMENT/YouTube
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FEATURES K-DRAMA K-POP ARTISTS LATEST STORIES

5 Female Idols Who Turned Into Full-Fledged Actresses

Krystal Jung of f(x) fame plays snob but kind-hearted Lee Bona in the SBS K-Drama, The Heirs. Photo: SBS Drama/YouTube

For us K-pop fans, being in a girl group and maybe graduating into a soloist would be the be-all-end-all for our favorites’ careers. But as a lot of idols have proven time and again, there are enticing opportunities awaiting them in the field of acting, whether it’s on television or the movies. Yes, a good number of them have been harshly criticized because of their sub-par thespian skills, and sometimes they get called out for being hired as actors only to raise the popularity of the show they are a part of. But then, there are quite a number of female idols who have proven their acting mettle, so much so they have already successfully transitioned into focusing on their careers as actresses rather than as idols. Here are five of them:

Hyeri

Any K-drama fan would remember Dukseon, the most adorable picket girl for Madagascar in the 1988 Seoul Olympics and her neighborhood gang. With that one drama, Reply 1988, Hyeri became a household name.  But K-pop fans would argue that Hyeri was already popular thanks to her girl group, Girl’s Day and that she had already starred in a couple of TV dramas (Jekyll, Hyde, Me and Tasty Life) before Reply 1988 started. Both are true, but it so happens that Reply 1988 just became a phenomenon. And as what Reply 1997 and 1994 did to Apink Eunji and Go Ara’s popularity respectively, Reply 1988 cemented Hyeri’s star status as well, not to mention that it became more popular than the previous Reply versions. 

Alas, although the members of Girl’s Day decided not to renew their contracts with the group’s agency, Dream T Entertainment, it has been years since the group’s last comeback – I’ll Be Yours in 2017. Moreover, Hyeri hasn’t gotten involved in solo projects when it comes to music. So, suffice to say that until a Girl’s Day reunion comeback truly materializes, we may not see the return of idol Hyeri. 

Last singing activity: The 2017 EP Girl’s Day Everyday #5, with the single I’ll Be Yours

Latest acting activities: KBS’ When Flowers Bloom, I Think of the Moon with Yoo Seungho and Kang Mina has finished and is slated to be released soon. 

More idols like EXID’s Hani and Jeonghwa, SISTAR’s Dasom, I.O.I and Pristin’s Lim Nayoung, and AOA’s Seolhyun have expressed intentions of focusing on acting. For the first four mentioned, this means signing with new agencies as actors – Hani and Nayoung actually share an agency, Sublime Artist Agency, Jeonghwa is with J-Wide Company, and Dasom is with Story-J.  As for Seolhyun, with MIna’s erratic behavior and Jimin’s departure from the entertainment industry, her group AOA’s future is most uncertain. But then again, AOA’s agency, FNC Entertainment, is quite experienced in having idols who straddle between singing and acting careers.

Seohyun

Now, this is one weird career shift. Seo Juhyun, known to all of us as Seohyun, Girl’s Generation‘s golden maknae and one of the group’s main vocalists (anyone still holding out hope for a TaTiSeo comeback?), has turned her back completely on singing. Which is quite weird considering other GG members who have ventured into acting still have dabbled into recording. For example, Sooyoung, famously known for saying she never considered herself the best singer after being with a better vocalist during her time with the group, still recorded a single in 2020. Yoona and Yuri, who are also more known in their careers as sub-vocalists, have still recorded singles and contributed to OSTs.

Not Seohyun, though. Her last activity related to singing was her 2017 EP Don’t Say No, and that was when she was still with SM. No promotional singles, no OST contributions, not even a single musical theater role. Not that we’re complaining about our girl’s three lead role performances on TV since 2018 and two upcoming movies, but it has to be said, not hearing our SONE maknae‘s singing voice ever again is one sad thought.

Last singing activity: 2017’s EP Don’t Say No

Latest acting activities: Two movies slated for 2022 release: Netflix’s webtoon-based Love and Leashes and Holy Night: Demon Hunters with Ma Dongseok.   

Uee

While not necessarily one of the pioneers of the legendary group that during their peak was dubbed the “Pussycat Dolls of K-Pop,” Uee’s time with After School was quite remarkable. She was seen as a replacement of Soyoung, who although was still there when she joined the group, was actually the first AS member to “graduate” and pursue acting. But then, Soyoung only stayed with the group for 10 months, while Uee stayed with and was very prominent in almost all of the group’s most iconic comebacks, including Bang!, Diva, First Love, and Flashback. After eight years with the group, Pledis Entertainment announced that Uee has graduated from the group with the expiration of her contract with the company. 

But Uee’s shift to acting did not really come all of a sudden. Long known for her beauty, she was already appearing in several dramas even as she started with the group in 2009. She debuted earlier as an actress, playing the young Mishil in MBC’s popular historical drama Queen Seondeok, which was shown in May, a clear four months before her idol debut. She regularly appeared in dramas throughout her career as a girl group idol, and when she finally left Pledis for Yuleum Entertainment in 2017, she practically focused on her acting career. She has not sung for anything since 2014 when After School was last promoted as a group. As of this year, she has again signed to a different agency, Lucky Entertainment, making her current agency her 4th in her entire career. 

Last idol activity: Japanese promotion for Best, After School’s 2nd compilation album that featured a new song, Shine.

Latest acting activity: Will be seen in tvN’s Ghost Doctor, slated for a 2022 release.      

Nana

Well, since we have already mentioned Uee, why not go ahead and mention the other After School actress Nana? Nana, of striking visuals and Orange Caramel fame, did not actually start acting until late in her idol career. She debuted in After School in late 2009 and started off her acting career with cameo appearances in a couple of movies, White and Fashion King in 2011 and 2014, respectively. Her first main role was in a 2015 Chinese film entitled Go Lala Go 2, which starred Taiwanese actors Ariel Lin, Vic Zhou, and Chern Bolin. Her first TV role was also in the Chinese drama Love Weaves Through a Millennium, which was shown on Hunan Television in 2015 as well. 

Nana’s acting career has a number of hits and misses, with performances in the Korean remake of The Good Wife (she played the equivalent of Archie Panjabi’s role and shared screen time with Jeon Doyeon, who played the Korean version of Julianna Marguilles’ part), Justice, and Into the Ring earning her praise, while her 2021 drama Oh My Landlord is considered by media observers as the start of drama powerhouse MBC’s downfall. But not to worry, fans, as Nana will continue with her acting career, with shows such as Netflix’s Glitch with Lee Donghwi and Jeon Yeobeen. Also, unlike the idol we mentioned before her, she is still quite close with After School members and cheered them on when some of the members reunited in MMTG to perform Bang! and Diva earlier this year. Also, she is the only member of After School who hasn’t really graduated, and is still with Pledis Entertainment, which technically, is now under HYBE.    

Last idol activity: Contributed a song to the OST of her own show, Into the Ring in 2020. Not promoted, so this doesn’t really count as an “idol activity”, but rather a singing one. 

Latest acting activity: Netflix’s Glitch, which was slated for release in 2021, but now that it’s early 2022 with no confirmed date in sight.

Krystal Jung

Who could forget snob yet kind-hearted rich kid Lee Bona in K-drama The Heirs/Inheritors?

Here is another idol who has managed to combine her idol and acting career seamlessly, until unfortunately, one of the two sort of waned. Just like the Pledis group After School, Krystal’s group in SM, f(x), also debuted in 2009. The next year, Krystal first appeared on the small screen with a supporting role in More Charming By the Day, and since then, both her idol and acting careers flourished. But as she got more recognition for playing snobbish ice queen types on TV to perfection, f(x) activities became scant. In fact, so scant that the group’s last legitimate comeback was in 2015. They contributed a track to SM Station, All Mine, in 2016, but that wasn’t promoted at all and it was practically the group’s last activities. 

https://youtu.be/C0SSU8U87I4

Krystal’s fans were not left in the cold with the acting jobs, though, as even without her group, she has steadily been part of popular programs such as The Bride of Habaek and Prison Playbook. With the possibility of an f(x) reunion practically non-existent since all members are now with different companies (Krystal is now with H& Entertainment since her official departure from SM in October 2020), we can only hope to see Krystal go full speed ahead with her acting career. 

Last singing activity: I Don’t Wanna Love You, a 2017 single 

Latest acting activities: KBS’s Police University with former B1A4 Jinyoung and a Chinese film Unexpected Love, which doesn’t have a release date yet. 

Well, the idol world’s loss can be TV and films’ gain and we fans can’t really complain. 

Featured Image: Krystal Jung of f(x) fame plays snob but kind-hearted Lee Bona in the SBS K-Drama, The Heirs. Photo: SBS Drama/YouTube
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BTS FEATURES LATEST STORIES

Taking the Spotlight: BTS Members’ Solo Music

I am sure that the ever-faithful ARMY has been counting the days since Permission to Dance and My Universe were released. So while we are patiently waiting for the next group comeback, here’s a look at the individual activities of the six members.

BTS Jin

Let’s start off with the oldest among the seven, the world-renowned “worldwide handsome,” Jin. Known for his falsetto voice nowadays, things didn’t start as rosy as it is with our visual, at least in the vocal department. As the member who would often have the fewest lines in songs recorded by the group, it used to be that Jin was dismissed as the member whose main contribution would only be limited to his looks and not much else in other facets like dance, song production, and vocals. Even his inclusion in the group really started off that way – with so many people having not a lot of confidence with his skills as a singer. After all, as early as his junior high school years, he was already scouted off the street by SM Entertainment, which he declined at that time. Years later, Big Hit Entertainment scouted him again while he was walking down the street, proof that talent scouts really saw star potential in him with just his looks.

However, try to watch even just one video of the group in BTS and you will realize that of all the members, it is Jin who is known for being the most industrious in terms of improving his skills, particularly in singing and dancing. Thus, through the years, you will most likely notice the improvement in his vocal skills. What used to be rather plain and emotionless singing from Jin noticeably became more secure and layered, complete with a wide emotional range you can hear from his performances. Thus, nine years after debuting, while Jin is obviously still primarily known for his undeniable good looks, he has also gotten recognition for his emotional rendition of his portions of BTS songs and even in his solo performances. You know when it’s time for a powerful Jin performance when you see a vein popping on the right side of his neck, which you’re almost 100% will get when he sings his solo track Epiphany from the compilation album Love Yourself: Answer.

Aside from Epiphany, Jin has also released two solo songs in BTS’ albums — Awake in 2016, which was part of their Wings EP, and Moon, which was part of their 2020 EP Map of the Soul: 7. Epiphany is so far his most successful solo song, while Moon is his highest-charting locally. Aside from collaborating with V in It’s definitely You for the Hwarang OST in 2016, Jin has also contributed to the OST of the 2021 drama Jirisan with the single Yours, which topped Billboard’s World Digital Song Charts in late November last year.

Have we mentioned Jin also treated ARMYs with trot song Super Tuna?

BTS Suga aka August D

Now it’s time to talk about the sleepyhead but perhaps the most successful record producer among the seven, Min Yoongi, aka Suga, aka Agust D. The number of his stage names can only be surpassed by the number of roles this multi-hyphenate portrays – rapper, songwriter, record producer, and just overall slayer of life. Just by looking at the seven members, you wouldn’t really point out Suga as the most successful of the bunch, definitely not with his seemingly introverted demeanor and his unexcitable ways. Considering he is a rapper and his fellow rapper in the group are the leader and chatterbox RM and the eternal ray of sunshine Hobi aka J-Hope, the first impression everybody has of Yoongi would be that of a reserved, if not internally intense rapper. But a quick browse through his profile and you’ll know he’s not some shy passive personality who’ll just let his members claim all the fame.

His personality considered, it may be true that Suga will let his members take more of the spotlight, as it’s not really his style to be overly engaging with fans. We can see how benevolent he is in BTS concerts when he lets the entire group perform Daechwita with him instead of keeping it a solo act. However, when Suga (better yet, Agust D) comes out of the shadows of Yoongi, we see a confident performer who spits fire when he raps and owns the stage. When you’re listening to an Agust D track and you’re keeping still without grooving to it, you’re dead inside, I tell you.

As expected of a bonafide artist, Suga writes, composes, arranges, mixes, and masters all of his releases. According to the Korea Music Copyright Association, he has been credited with over 100 registered songs, which most definitely has caused him to be promoted to a full member of the association as early as 2018. He has dropped two mixtapes, Agust D in 2016 and D-2 in 2020, which charter in numerous international charts, including Billboard. He has several songs that have charted both in Gaon and Billboard, with Daechwita peaking at #1 in the Billboard World Digital Songs Chart and Strange (featuring RM) peaking at #2. He scored a number 1 in Gaon’s Digital Chart in 2020 when he was featured in IU’s Eight, a song he also produced. Aside from IU, Suga has also produced songs for D-Town, Suran, Epik High (who also happen to be his idols growing up), Heize, and OMI.

BTS J-Hope

From one rapper to the next, we move from Suga to J-Hope. While Suga is known to be intense and quiet, J-Hope has all the energy and brightness cornered. You simply cannot hold your smiles when you see J-Hope. He’s just a bundle of positive and delightful energy, a source of cheer for both his members and his fans. Of course, J-Hope has his moments of seriousness and formality and his gleeful personality isn’t really on 24/7.

In fact, if you watch interviews of BTS members talking about each other, they are quick to point out that before debuting, Hoseok or Hobi wasn’t particularly overly cheerful and bright as he is now. Members claim that J-Hope used to be clueless as to dealing with stress, as he used to get easily overwhelmed with facing the challenges of his career as an idol trainee. In addition, during the early years of BTS, it seemed like the first ARMY had J-Hope as the weakest of the seven members as he was pretty much a lead and not the “main” in everything – Jimin is the better dancer, Suga is the better rapper, V is the most charismatic, Jin is the most handsome, RM has natural leadership skills, and everybody just loves Jungkook. Good thing, despite his threats of leaving the group as far as their pre-debut days, the rest of the group did not allow him to quit and talked him out of it. RM, knowing his worrier personality that obsesses on things until they become what he wants them to be assigned him the role of being the mood maker of the group. And with that role, it seems that J-Hope has developed a passion for making himself and the people around him always positive, smiling, and looking at the bright side of life.

The upbeat and energetic characteristics he has developed while in the group have bled into his music and style of performing. If you listen closely to his songs in his 2018 mixtape Hope World, you will notice that although his songs may be energetic and upbeat, they also present stories of his challenges as an idol and how he overcomes them. Thus, his music is quite relatable to a lot of people who choose to be positive and optimistic even when faced with difficulties. Talk about artistic genuineness!

His efforts have not gone unnoticed, as Hope World peaked at #1 in the Billboard World Albums Chart in 2018. Daydream, Airplane, and Chicken Noodle Soup have charted in the Billboard World Digital Singles Chart. Chicken Noodle Soup actually got into Billboard’s main Hot 100 Chart, making J-Hope the first and so far only BTS member to have a solo song that charted in the Billboard Hot 100. He has also recorded solo tracks that have been included in BTS EPs and has written a good number of songs for his group and even for 2 AM’s Jo Kwon as early as 2012.

BTS RM

Next to Suga, the next member who can be considered the most successful in their solo careers in music is RM. The group’s leader isn’t just a highly skilled rapper, but just like his two co-rappers, is also a prolific writer and music producer not just for himself and the group, but even for other artists. But then, who can question RM’s skills? Even as a tween, he already posted poems online and was interested in pursuing a career in literature which he decided not to pursue.

Fans would also know that RM is intellectually gifted and didn’t have difficulties getting high scores in the national university entrance exams, so he could have chosen any career path. His parents were even opposed to his choice of pursuing his interest in music, but he prevailed in the end and got his career started by becoming active in the Korean underground hip-hop scene and later auditioning for Big Hit Entertainment.

As the leader of BTS and with his handy proficiency in the English language, RM has taken the role of being the group’s spokesperson. It goes without saying that his intelligence and way with words have an impact on the songs he has written and produced for himself and his group. A certified bookworm, you would know which pieces of literature have had a tremendous impact on RM. A good number of songs that he has written for his group heavily reference books and literary characters.

As part of 2015’s The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, Pt. 2 EP, the song Butterfly alludes to Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami, which is about a teenager who runs away from home and experiences various situations where he asks himself if what’s happening to him is true or just figments of his imagination. Another example is 2016’s Blood, Sweat & Tears from the album Wings, which has a ton of symbolism from Hermann Hesse’s Demian, which narrates the struggles of a man on whether to side with the good and the evil.

A year later, from the You’ll Never Walk Alone comes the title track Spring Day, which from the Omelas signage shown on the music video is an obvious reference to Ursula K. Le Guin’s story The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas, which is about this magical place that has to sacrifice an individual to keep its blissful state. And that’s just three of more than 170 songs the Korean Music Copyright Association has attributed to him. If those literary references don’t convince you of RM’s excellence in writing, then nothing will!

https://youtu.be/e0PCwdF7USI

Armed with skills and a brilliant head above his shoulders, it comes as no surprise that RM would succeed in his career as a member of BTS and a solo artist. He has produced two mixtapes for himself, RM in 2015 (which was a critical success but went unnoticed commercially as understandably, BTS was still a bit obscure that time) and Mono in 2018, which was both a critical and commercial success. Aside from being a top contributor in BTS’ releases as a songwriter and producer, he has also collaborated with other artists like Steve Aoki and labelmates TXT to produce songs for them. Not bad at all for an intellectually-gifted student who ditched his academic career for a shot at being a hip-hop artist.

BTS Jimin

Jimin is one of those people who you would think of as an idol with even just one glance. He just looks the part – he has a unique face, the way he moves confirm an affinity to dance, and his overall aura just reflects the charisma of someone who’s part of the entertainment industry. Alas, his life before BTS reflects this, as even before he became a trainee, Jimin was already studying different dance genres in dance academies in his native Busan. When he passed his auditions in Big Hit Entertainment in 2012, he transferred to Seoul and as they say, the rest is history.

Though Jimin is primarily considered as BTS’ main dancer, which is testament to how his skills in dance are more highly regarding than his skills as a vocalist, this hasn’t stopped Jimin from releasing solo singles every now and then. In 2016, he released Lie as part of the group’s studio album, Wings. This dark and dramatic song was praised for being in line with the album’s overall moody concept. The next year, his solo track Serendipity, which was included on the Love Yourself: Her EP of 2017 was described by Korean music critics as “unraveling the joy, conviction, and curiosity of love.” It took three years before Jimin contributed a new solo track to BTS’ discography with Filter, which was included in the group’s 2020 studio album, Map of the Soul: 7. People described his latest solo song as radio-friendly with a noticeable Latin pop influence. All three songs charted at the top 20 of Gaon’s Digital Charts and reached the top 3 in the Billboard US World Digital Songs Chart.

In 2018, both Serendipity and Lie have surpassed fifty million streams on Spotify. A year later, Serendipity’s full-length version from BTS’ Love Yourself: Answer (2018) compilation album also achieved the same feat. With this, Jimin joined a rather exclusive set of Korean artists — that so far only has Psy to have three solo songs with more than 50 million streams each. Both Serendipity and Lie have also been the only solos by a BTS member to be included in the Official Chart Company’s list of the top 20 most streamed BTS songs in the UK.

Jimin’s winning streak continued in 2019 as he became the first BTS member to have a solo music video achieve 100 million views on YouTube with the MV for Serendipity. He was also the only BTS member with multiple solo songs in the January 2020 update of the Official Chart’s top 40 list. Filter continued its predecessor’s record-breaking tradition as it set a record for the biggest streaming debut among all Korean songs on Spotify with over 2.2 million streams in its first 24 hours of release. It eventually went on to become the fastest Korean solo in the platform’s history to surpass 20–60 million streams. It is also the first and so far only solo BTS b-side track to receive a Song of The Year nomination at the Gaon Chart Music Awards.

Jimin has also released a solo song that hasn’t been included in a BTS release with Promise, which was made available for free on BTS’ SoundCloud page in 2019. SoundCloud then announced the song had surpassed the record set by Drake’s Duppy Freestyle for the biggest 24-hour debut in history. Aside from his solo tracks, Jimin has also co-written some songs for his group, including Christmas Day in 2014, which he performed with Jungkook, Friends in 2020 that was included in the Map of the Soul: 7 album, and Dis-ease, which was a track in the group’s Be album. Considering that it is accepted that he is the group’s most popular member (ranking 1st as the most popular idol in an annual survey conducted by Gallup Korea in 2018 and 2019), we expect nothing less from Jiminie.

BTS V

Arguably the most popular member of BTS (pending the objection of Jimin-stans, of course), V also happens to have the most diverse career trajectory in the group. He is the first BTS member to have appeared in a television drama via a supporting role in 2016’s Hwarang: the Poet Warrior Youth, a feat that up to now still hasn’t been replicated by other members and even by himself, as he hasn’t acted after Hwarang. V’s versatility (for all we know, his stage name also stands for versatile aside from the commonly accepted ‘victory’) has been noted from the start, even before his debut with BTS. After acing his audition, BigHit Entertainment named… or rather hid V’s identity, announcing him as a member of the company’s soon-to-debut group without revealing his identity. People did wonder why V’s identity wasn’t revealed until it was time for BTS to debut.

Since BigHit did not offer any explanation up to now as to why they made V a hidden member prior to the groups’ debut, people eventually presented their own theories. Perhaps the most popular conspiracy theory on this issue was that at that time, the company wanted to avoid bigger companies from pirating V from them after his successful audition. As V was (and still is) an all-around ace with a unique husky voice, passable dancing skills, and arresting good looks, BigHit didn’t want to alarm the bigger companies and give them the opportunity to strategize and lure this diamond in the rough. Thus, the company made an effort to hide their gem until it was time for BTS to actually debut. Smart, eh?

Since his debut, V has figured in a good number of solo projects. His first solo track Stigma, which was included in the group’s 2016 album Wings, went on to top the Billboard World Digital Songs Sales Chart. Two of his solo songs appeared in 2018 and 2020 in the group’s next two full-length albums, Love Yourself: Tear and Map of the Soul: 7, respectively. Singularity and Inner Child also topped the Billboard World Digital Songs Sales Chart during their release.

In 2019, V released Winter Bear—an MV he also directed and starred in.

Aside from his solo tracks, V has also contributed to a number of OSTs, his first being It’s Definitely You with Jin, included on the Hwarang OST, a show which he was also part of. He also recorded Sweet Night, which was part of the Itaewon Class OST in 2020, and Christmas Tree, which was part of the Our Beloved Summer OST months ago.

V has also flexed his songwriting muscle several times, contributing to the group’s catalog su0ch as Hold Me Tight in The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, Part 1 EP, the group’s breakout hit Run, which was part of the EP The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, Part 2, and Blue & Grey from the group’s Be album, to name a few.

As of the moment, V’s Christmas Tree has posted another record for landing at No. 1 on iTunes in over 80 countries including the eight largest music markets in the world: the United States, Japan, Germany, United Kingdom, France, Canada, Australia, and the Netherlands. His OST for the K-drama Our Beloved Summer is his second song to claim the top spot in those countries following his Itaewon Class contribution Sweet Night.

So, what does the future hold for BTS’ resident Good Boy? Only time can tell, but ARMY is assured that only good things are in store for V, with his boundless charms and talent.

BTS Jungkook

Last but not the least, it’s time to talk about the Golden Maknae, Jungkook! We know that all members of BTS are all-rounders, being skilled in singing, rapping, and dancing, but everybody would agree that Jungkook just takes everything to the next level as even those who don’t have him as their bias would have him as a bias wrecker. That’s because he’s just so good in all facets of being an idol.

He is the main vocalist of the group, with his voice fitting each BTS song to a tee and remaining stable even with the most intense choreographies, and we know BTS has a lot of that. He has also rapped on various occasions and his skills are commendable as well, especially for someone who has already established a reputation in the vocal department. His dancing skills, although not as flashy as Jimin’s, are more precise and very controlled, which makes him a perfect sight at the center. Finally, there’s his magnetic stage presence which for some reason compels everyone to look at his direction despite being on stage with six other people who, depending on who you’re asking, can perform better than him.

In terms of likeability and being the total package, Jungkook is among the top idols in the industry, which makes him a popular pick to be a guest in TV shows. With his music career, he has released three solo tracks in BTS releases — Begin in 2016’s Wings, Euphoria in 2018’s Love Yourself_ Answer, and My Time in 2020’s Map of the Soul: 7. All three songs have topped the Billboard World Digital Sales Charts upon their release and charted in Korea’s Gaon Singles Chart as well.

His latest solo effort is an OST for the group’s webtoon 7FATES: CHAKHO entitled Stay Alive, which, as expected, has been breaking music chart records left and right. It has been reported that the song has hit No. 1 on iTunes in 105 territories.

This track, produced by Suga, achieved that feat in only ten days. Obviously, it is expected to make a killing on the World Digital Song Sales Chart.

Kookie is also a skilled songwriter, having been credited with the writing of several songs in the group’s discography, including familiar hits such as No More Dream, Run, Your Eyes Tell, and Stay, among others.

With the sheer volume of solo activities the hardworking BTS members have, fans are assured of so much music to last them until the next group comeback, which hopefully will be really soon!

Featured image: 7FATES: CHAKHO with BTS (방탄소년단) | Official Story Film (Full ver.). Photo: 7FATES: CHAKHO by HYBE 7FATES: CHAKHO by HYBE/YouTube

 

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TikTok and the Dance Challenge Insanity in Today’s K-Pop

I’m sure you’ve come across a ton of dance challenges the moment you open your TikTok account. In the K-pop world, the trend has been used to the point of exhaustion for some people. But then, it wasn’t exactly like this. Let’s look book at arguably a couple of the earliest uses of TikTok to amplify a song and one that has proven to still be effective despite the fatigue a lot of users have with the trend.

‘Any Song’ by Zico

We cannot talk about K-pop songs that have gone viral on TikTok without mentioning the song that started it all – Zico‘s Any Song. It’s not actually that this song was the first to have ever exploded on the platform, but the way the song utilized TikTok to bump up its popularity was at that time, quite new. Zico does not usually go to variety shows or promote his songs on music shows, so bringing his singles onto public consciousness solely depends on his reputation for releasing bops. Everybody knows that any Zico song would be a hit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiyxhaS_xwQ

However, the rapper did not leave anything to chance this time, as Any Song would be one of his last songs before his military enlistment last year. Thus, the marketing minds of KOZ Entertainment (which he is also CEO of) thought to use the power of this emerging social media platform to their advantage. So, they had a video of their CEO singing his song and doing the choreography with some of the biggest names in K-pop and posting them on his TikTok account. 

TikTok-verse caught on the craze of the song’s choreography, which was usually done in pairs as Zico did with his first two guests, MAMAMOO‘s Hwasa and Chungha. The song was already a hit, with its release very well-timed as it only had to battle on the charts with one other major release – Red Velvet‘s Psycho. However, its virality was aided a million times with what then became the #AnySongChallenge. 

@kozico0914

#AnysongChallenge#ZICO #지코 #화사 #아무노래 #Anysong#아무노래나틀어주세요#KOZ

♬ 오리지널 사운드 – kozico0914 – kozico0914

The trend became THE thing that even celebrities who meet Zico by chance posted themselves dancing with him on their own social media accounts. For example, 2NE1‘s Dara, who only met Zico at their common hairdresser’s, also did the challenge and posted the video on her Instagram. Ultimately, the TikTok craze spread to other social media platforms, with dancing pairs doing the Any Song choreography and posting their videos on their personal accounts. Since then, the song itself has also been used in the background of other TikTok videos, even those that do not involve people doing the dance challenge.    

‘Dumhdurum’ by Apink

If two songs that charted well were not enough to prove to the public that then-9-year-old girl group Apink had a successful change of image from teenybopper tweetums (from Mollayo to Five) to sophisticated elegance, the group released the third song in April 2020 to complete this trinity of “Apink is all grown-up” songs. And just like the group’s two previous releases, the song was successful in reminding the public that Apink has successfully transitioned to being more adult. Both the EP Look and the single Dumhdurum peaked at number 2 in the Gaon album and download charts, so it goes without saying the song was a hit. 

The song itself was a huge departure from the usual Apink fare. For one, lead vocal Namjoo opened the song, a responsibility that maknae Hayoung usually carries. Then, you can hear main vocalist Eunji spit lines in almost-rap cadence in the chorus. And things only got better with the song’s music video and live stages. The unique choreography of the song on its first 30 seconds alone had people trying it out for themselves, because why not? That’s what social media is for, isn’t it? To show to the world your skills in copying K-pop choreography less than a day after the live stage and dance practice videos are released? 

So, there’s this move when visual goddess Naeun sings her part in the first stanza, which has been referred to as “illusion choreography”. It is when Naeun combines her arms with Bomi, who until then was behind her. Their arms get tangled, then she’s free the moment she finishes her line. It got TikTokers so confused that they did the only thing they could do whenever they get confused with something – make a video out of it. Netizens shared clips demystifying the dance that reminded a lot of people of childhood games where kids tie their limbs in confusing knots. 

@jazlynebaybee

THANK YOU EVERYONE WHO SENT ME A LINK TO THIS SONG! ALSO THANK YOU EVERYONE WHO KINDLY ASKED ME TO ADD IT☺️ performed by @official_apink2011 on 4/13

♬ Dumhdurum – Apink

 

Alas, with success, is a bit of controversy ever far behind? A couple of  TikTokers posted a video of them doing the illusion choreography and not crediting the group or the choreography studio Freemind. When the Pink Pandas came out in full force in the video’s comments section, it was first turned off. Then, the post was taken down. After a couple of days, the video was re-posted with credits to Apink with a disclaimer that they didn’t know that it was a K-pop video. 

‘Permission to Dance’ by BTS

Any K-pop list these days won’t be complete without mentioning THE group of the moment year century, BTS. When the group’s third all-English single Permission to Dance came out, TikTok was already rife with a gazillion dance challenges, but obviously, there would always be room for RM and the group. After all, the music video for the song featured seemingly ordinary people dancing and performing sign language moves to the song, so it was practically a TikTok challenge waiting to happen. 

The HYBE marketing team wasted no time and collaborated with YouTube in issuing the #PermissiontoDanceChallenege. As with anything BTS-related, the trend spread outside the video-sharing website and reached other platforms, where ARMYs posted videos of them dancing to the song and posting them on TikTok. The challenge went full steam ahead with everyone from self-professed ARMYs to K-pop idols and even international celebrities joining the craze. Everyone from medical front liners to senior citizens and neighborhood ladies who miss their zumba group sessions and even the likes of Elton John rose up to the challenge. 

Inevitably, the song’s profile rose (well, come to think of it, anything BTS-related is bound to explode) and it peaked at number 1 in Billboard’s Hot 100 Charts. Back home, Permission to Dance won the group eight music show trophies and the song peaked at #3 in the Gaon Singles Charts. 

Now, almost every song released by idol groups would most likely have a TikTok challenge to accompany its release. Nothing beats organic popularity, of course, but if TikTok virality works, then who are we to stop its use in promoting the latest releases of our favorites?  

Featured Image: Screengrab from BTS – Permission to Dance Official Video

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The Genius of the Genius Game: Exploring the Brilliance of the Game Show

Has the Netflix hit Squid Game have you pining for more Korean shows where people play games for money? Don’t worry, there has been quite a number of Korean game shows that have been produced that had contestants compete for money, just like in Squid Game. The good thing is, the contestants in these shows don’t have to resort to violence and death. 

The show we’re going to explore is The Genius, a game show that ran for four seasons, from 2013 to 2015. When it was aired, it became a huge fad in Korea.

The Genius was a reality game show with 13 contestants from different backgrounds. There are some celebrities known for their social skills, professionals known for their particular skills in their work, and finally some “regular folk” known for their exceptional intelligence. These participants compete to be on top in every episode, which provides them with immunity from elimination. On every episode, one contestant is eliminated after two rounds of games – a Main Match and a Death Match.

During the Main Match, all players who have survived the previous episode’s elimination will play to win and to be immune from elimination via a token of life. There have been some Main Matches where more than one contestant receives the token of life and therefore, is exempted from elimination. In Main Matches, the winner receives an additional token of life which they can give to a fellow contestant, sparing the recipient from elimination as well. 

The contestant who performed the worst in the Main Match will face off with an opponent of his or her own choosing from among the contestants without a token of life in the Death Match. There have been episodes where there are joint losers, in which case the winner(s) of the Main Match will have to nominate the Death Match player from among the losers. Obviously, the Death Match loser is the eliminated contestant of that episode. 

Aside from the token of life, the winner(s) of the Main Match also win a number of red garnets. A red garnet is equivalent to 1,000,000 won (approximately US$1,000). In the final episode, only the total garnets of the winning contestant are exchanged for his or her prize money. Throughout the show, garnets can be given to other contestants as a form of leverage when negotiating some aspects of the game. Some Main Matches also allow the use of garnets for clues or implements that may win a game for a contestant. 

As the show’s title denotes, it would take a genius to win – but not just a genius in the conventional definition of being someone who has superior academic intelligence. As the start of the third season’s first episode showed, there are different kinds of intelligence, according to Harvard psychologist Howard Garner. To win this game show, it is believed that the contestant needs to employ the kind of intelligence that would benefit him or her the most, at least for a particular Main Match or Death Match. It can be interpersonal intelligence, verbal-linguistic intelligence, logical-mathematical intelligence, etc. 

The key is for the contestant to realize what skills are important for a victory. Thus, having a high IQ may not be assurance of success in the show, as understanding and grasping concepts quickly also aren’t – other contestants may notice this skill and may consider you a threat, prompting them to ally with other contestants to plot your downfall.  Some watches may require more of quick scheming, others may require superior logic, yet others may demand alliances and betrayal.

What are the games played in the Main and Death Matches? 

Most, if not all games are made to look like contestants need to be astute in using logic and mathematical skills, but that might only get them so far. A good deal of one’s success in the games also involves strategy and negotiations and building cooperative relationships and alliances with co-players to ensure favorable outcomes. Outthinking and amazing strategic mindsets can also help a lot in giving a contestant a win.

https://twitter.com/colinstone/status/1462612587154132999

For example, in Season 2, Episode 11,  TV personality and politician Yoo Junghyun faced comedian Noh Hongchul in the Death Match that required them to play Same Picture Hunt, a game that was also Season 1’s final Death Match. The game involves 16 picture tiles hidden behind 16 letter panels and arranged in a 4 by 4 board for the contestants’ reference. Tiles corresponding to the pictures are then dealt out on a conveyor belt with 20 spaces on it. The candidates then try to locate the picture on the board that matches the next tile on their belt. If correct, they move to the next tile, their conveyor belt not moving. But if they’re wrong, the belt is sent one space backward and the erring contestant loses their turn.  This continues until either the winning candidate reaches the end of their conveyor belt or until the losing candidate loses all his or her tiles because they have fallen off the belt. 

Seems to be your usual memory game, right? In Season 1, former idol and TV personality Lee Sangmin and former newscaster and TV personality Kim Kyungran played the game in a straight laced-fashion – a battle of memory. That did not happen in Season 2 as politician Jonghyun used his advantage of going second in the game to block out Hongchul. How?

For example, Hongchul wanted to know the picture behind the letter S. As Hongchul’s picture and the picture behind S do not match, it becomes Jonghyun’s turn. Jonghyun does not use his turn to discover what’s behind another letter and instead just repeats Honghul’s chosen letter, S, for his round. Thus, Hongchul is not given new information. Since he comes first in the game, he used up all his tiles before Jonghyun lost his. Smart, eh? 

Another popular Death Match that was frequently used in Season 1 was Winning Streak, or simply put, rock paper scissors with politics. The point of the game is to make sure you have more allies with your fellow contestants compared to your opponent, so that you will have a longer winning streak, as you will play rock paper scissors with the contestants who aren’t in the elimination block. If the contestants you have allied with are few and far from each other, then the chances of you getting a long winning streak is slim.  

A lot of games were like this, proving that while you can get ahead in the contest with just a thorough understanding of the game’s rules, being strategic on how to use this understanding to win the game is also important. 

Who were the players in The Genius?

The Genius ran for four seasons and had popular personalities as contestants. In Season 1, aside from Sangmin and Kyungran who were mentioned earlier, other contestants include former member of the short-lived girl group Tinus Choi Jungmoon (who also happens to be a MENSA member, eliminated in Episode 5), controversial MC and DJ Kim Gura (as in the grouchy panelist in Radio Star and King of Masked Singer, eliminated in Episode 6), INFINITE leader Sunggyu (who was actually quite successful, reaching Episode 10 before getting eliminated), webtoon artist Kim Poong (eliminated in Episode 7), and weather reporter Park Eunji (eliminated in Episode 9). The season was won by former professional Starcraft player and TV personality Hong Jinho, who faced off with Kyungran in the final episode.

Season 1 champ Jinho (who was unfortunately eliminated in Episode 7) and Sangmin returned in Season 2. Aside from Hongchul and Jonghyun mentioned earlier, they were joined by Jaekyung (leader of girl group RAINBOW, 2nd to be eliminated). Jiwon (as in the leader of 1st gen mega group Sechs Kies, who like Season 1’s Sunggyu was also eliminated in Episode 10), magician Lee Eungyeol (who was always in coattails and sunglasses throughout the show, 4th to be eliminated), and former Starcraft professional player Lim Yohwan (as in Jinho’s mortal adversary in the gaming world), who faced Sangmin in the finals. 

Season 3 included academy math teacher and KAIST lecturer Nam Hweejung (who rose to fame after becoming the first contestant eliminated in Season 2 as many disliked his arrogance, though he fared better in Season 3, where he got eliminated in Episode 4), former singer and actor Kim Jeonghoon (as in Prince Lee Yul in Princess Hours, eliminated in Episode 6), and eventual winner, comedian Jang Dongmin, who beat then 19-year-old KAIST student Oh Hyunmin. Hyunmin, who then was the youngest contestant to ever appear in the show’s four seasons, went on to become a TV personality. 

Season 4 is sort of the show’s “greatest hits” season, where the most popular players of all three seasons reunited. 

What was the best season? 

The answer to this question really depends on the viewer’s personal preference. I personally prefer Season 1 the most, since the contestants were pretty much left to their open devices on how to play the games and strategize, while the two other seasons already have references from previous seasons and thus, came more prepared. 

Season 1 set the bar with the brilliance of the eventual winner, Jinho, whom showed amazing performances in the three Death Matches he participated in and won, as well as winning three Main Matches as well. How he played the games and avoided betrayal as much as possible was also remarkable. The season also showed fantastic runs from Sunggyu, who led on other players by pretending he was mostly clueless of the games to hide his brilliance in tactical thinking and Kyungran, who managed to always be in the right place and the right time and thus, avoiding Death Matches (she only played one Death Match – the last one before the final episode). 

Season 2 was a bit of a damper in the sense that most of the season was spent on something that wasn’t really a part of the games – the immunity token. This was introduced only in Season 2 and was not used in the following seasons, which allowed the owner to skip a Death Match. A good amount of play time during Episodes 3 to 5 were spent on players who have clues on the whereabouts of the immunity token looking for it, so they weren’t able to focus on the Main Matches. 

Moreover, thing went awry in Episode 6 when Jiwon took the ID of contestant Dohee (known for hacking Seoul National University’s website), which was an important element of playing the Main Match of that episode. As a result of  looking for it until the last round, Dohee wasn’t able to properly participate in the game and was automatically sent to the Death Match. Things became more uncomfortable to watch when Sangmin gave him a fake immunity token, which he used, only to find out that he was duped for the second time in one episode. For a show that stated right from the start of Season 1 that  “violence or theft is not allowed,” it was very disappointing how the producers did not step in and forced Jiwon to surrender Dohee’s ID. 

Season 3 had a very different player dynamic from the past two seasons because of the backlash the show received with the Episode 6 mess and the alliance among celebrities and non-celebrities. Thus, the third season had more “normal” and “regular” people as contestants. The alliance between Hyunmin and Dongmin pretty much ruled the entire season, but what was great about it was the two did not make their relationship too obvious and still allowed the other players to display brilliant gameplay, especially Yeonseung who considered himself an outsider the entire season, yet managed to be part of the final 3. The games themselves were not as dynamic as the first two seasons, but we were allowed to see the vulnerabilities in all the players.  

Sadly, The Genius is not streaming on any platform, although subtitled episodes have been available on YouTube and Dailymotion. International diehard fans have also made it something of a cult classic, with reddit and Discord forums still alive six years after the last episode was aired. It can be said that the show’s popularity can be narrowed down to three factors: The novel but interesting concept, the genius-level editing of the show’s episode (the fast forward and flashback scenes get people to anticipate what’s happening and why things turn out they way they eventually did), and finally, the relatability of the contestants who really made sure they played the games to the best of their abilities, which made the show all the more watchable. Hopefully, we can get tVN to release the show’s four seasons in a streaming platform for more audiences to experience it. 

Featured Image: Screengrab from Tvn Youtube Channel “The Genius Game” trailer

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