Girls’ Generation‘s YoonA is out to captivate the hearts of her fans once more with a new set of vacation ready looks for her endorsement clothing brand, ‘Eider‘.
Perfect for the last stretch of summer, YoonA models a variety of refreshing looks that’ll have anyone ready to enjoy their summer vacation out in the sun. Keeping it simple yet sporty, she accessorizes with hats and hairbands to pull together a comfortable look.
A representative of the brand commented, “All of the products she models have earned high popularity with our female consumers and have been earning a hot response at the stores.”
Netizens commented, “The completion of every fashion look is the face”, “She’s cute yet also innocent looking”, and “I want to go on vacation wearing YoonA’s looks”.
Should the voting for the Golden Disk Awards have happened today, and somehow I was a member of the voting committee, Ace of Angels would be my unquestioned vote for the female Newcomer Award. Usually I don’t muster myself to proclaiming such a bold statement shortly after any release, as I am generally one to never be completely satisfied with any musical or visual production. However, FNC Entertainment pulled all the right stops when it came to the creation, production, and distribution of their new rookie group’s release ‘Angels’ Story‘.
Do I think they are the most talented group to have hit the market in K-Pop recently? Absolutely not. Their vocal talent, rapping skills, composition originality, and choreography are far from the skills possessed among the respective elite groups that are already in the K-Pop market. At the same time,AOA does not posses any glaringly weaknesses in these skills either. AOA strikes me as the jack of all trades and master of none: while not powerfully strong, they are not grotesquely bad in any respect either. Other groups delivering this similar overall descriptor, to me, would be Girls’ Generation orKARA, and we all know how successful these groups have been. AOA has simply delivered one of the most polished and solid overall packages in quite some time, and one that is normally expected from a seasoned K-Pop group. This delivery is thus enough—surprisingly—to separate them from the black hole of the music world that sucks in those who cannot pull this off into an abyss of the forgettable.
I must admit that I am relieved that the way the concept of the group ended up being finalized. Despite the imagery associated with the term “angel“, this group has succeeded in not simply casting upon us an overly aegyo or innocent image that has been dotting the mosaic of the K-Pop landscape recently. While there is no doubt that this type of imagery is weaved throughout their music video, the production company does a brilliant job in showing us the multiple facades of the group during its duration. This gives the group a strong visual variety rather than what would have been the almost-cheesy angel concept. This wise choice easily allows them to possess a great deal staying power in the K-Pop market.
The first track of ‘Angels’ Story‘ is “Elvis“, the track that has been their promotional song of choice in the days leading to the groups’ official release. When I first heard the title of this track and was exposed to brief samples of the song, SECRET’s “Madonna” immediately came to mind as a song that could be comparable. While “Madonna” didn’t have the most original lyrics, as it was mostly repeating the word “Madonna” and fragments of the word thereafter, the group succeeded in adhering the ears of the masses by their simple, yet surprisingly catchy melody and music video eye candy. “Elvis” follows along this formula rather closely. Most of their song consists of the word “Elvis, shalalala, dededede, and show me your love“, along with other repetitive vocalized phrasing. While this composition would likely never win an award for originality, the melody, though likewise simplistic, is addictively catchy. It is so catchy, in fact, that I found myself humming this song later in the night while I was running, which is usually a time for me to ponder slightly more philosophical quandaries of the universe. This simply hasn’t happened since I first first encountered Girls’ Generation’s “Gee” x number of years ago. If this song can make such an imprint in my mind, then I can only imagine how strong of an impression it must be on the rest of the K-Pop consumer populace. It likely won’t be a melody that is thrown to the waste side of the mind anytime soon.
The song does a decent job at splitting up lines amongst vocal members, which is always a challenge for any group that contains eight members. It is, however, obvious that ChoA is the strongest vocally of the group, for not only is she given the most prominent singing lines but her voice seems to be the most refined as it possesses a slightly richer timbre than her counterparts. The producers do an effective job in splitting up the camera exposure time for each member in the music video. I’m sure that fans of this group will enjoy the equal share time as while each member is as fresh-faced and highly attractive as any girl group that K-Pop has seen, each individual possesses her own distinctly unique visual quality that will not only garner them their own cult following of fans, but appeal to a larger base of visual consumers with the combination of their visuals.
There are only two worthwhile gripes I have when it comes to the song and music video. First, while I absolutely love the introduction of this track—a combination of straight-ahead electronic funk, despite the overly fake saxophone synth patch, and pop-based rap—I felt the rapping seemed somewhat weak overall. Surely the rappers, JiMin and MinA, do appear to be seasoned, but the short, lyrically tacky lines they churn out prove this to not be the greatest outlet to demonstrate their skills. While I can understand the attempt to give the group a slight level of aggressiveness to separate them from the pure innocent image concept, this simply ends up being a filler rather than an integral part of the song. Second, the choreography of this song leaves much to be desired. It’s not bad, per say, but as this group will clearly not be known as a vocal-only group, it leaves much to be improved upon. The choreography is as simplistic as a half-time show of an average high school dance team, and the suggested sexiness they were attempting to portray seems forced and ineffective.
The rest of the release isn’t quite as strong as the leading track, but then again that’s the case with most single releases. The second song, “Love Is Only You” is a harmless ballad portraying how important the protagonist’s love interest is to that protagonist. Should I have to sum up the song in one word, it would simply be “nice“. It’s not revolutionary, but contains all of the necessary elements of creating a successfully pulled off and easily accessible love ballad. The members are given a better outlet to show off their vocal skills than the previous song, but some voices just come off as annoying and thus fail slightly at their respective wailing, while some are being pulled off rather well. Perhaps the most interesting part of this song is the trade-off of the words of the title, “love is only you”, between the vocalist and slightly synthesized rapper towards the middle and end of the track. Despite it being arguably the most simplistic part of the song, the message that the title of this song tries to express is perhaps the most definitive here, and thus, the most effective at portraying this overwhelming sense of desire and love.
The last track, “Temptation“, is a moderate tempo, electronic dance track. This is by far the most vocally pleasing track musically speaking, despite the other musical elements being somewhat bland. The members are given much allowance in showing off their vocal inflections, and ChoA demonstrates again why she is the vocal leader with her deep voice that just powers the rest of the group. While the vocals are effective, the rest of the track is dull and unvaried. Many dance-based tracks are guilty of this negative aspect, but this track is especially guilty of being overly static in just about every manner. The track stays in the same mood, texture, and dynamic range throughout its entirety, and leaves the overall impression of slight boringness onto the listener. Nonetheless, despite its evident weakness, I again wouldn’t necessarily consider it to be bad, it just isn’t great, despite the opening track of “Angels’ Story” leading us to believe so in the beginning.
I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if AOA grew to be one of the faces of K-Pop within the coming years. They effortlessly hit all of the right elements that the greats of the past are known to have hit, and this comes from only their debut album, which says a lot about the effort their company put into them. I would be astonished if this group was merely a flash in the pan and this would be the last we would hear of them. This just can’t happen; they’re too complete for that.
Rating Overview
Pros: Extraordinarily catchy melody in “Elvis”; no major weaknesses in any viewpoint of group; concept of group doesn’t impede on their overall image; not vocally handicapped; overall effort from production company.
Cons: Jack of all trades, but master of none; lyrics are sometimes overly simplistic; choreography leaves much to be desired; rap sections seem out of place and don’t show off skills properly; “Temptation” musical elements are extremely static.
It may not be the biggest trend out there, but it’s definitely a trend- male idols wearing loose-fitting shorts over leggings. Love it or hate it, it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere any time soon… let’s take a look at who’s wearing this style!
B1A4‘s CNU
CNU’s been wearing shorts with leggings ever since his 2011 debut. On the far right, you can see him in a dressy, black-on-black version of the look that he wore to the ‘I Need a Fairy‘ press conference in February 2012.
SHINee‘s Key and Taemin
In March, Key and Taemin of SHINee brought us their own versions of the shorts and leggings look. While Key tended to opt for patterned shorts with boxy cuts over solid leggings, Taemin was more adventureous. On the left, you can see very baggy grey shorts over sparkly leggings, and next to that you can see him with checkerboard-patterned shorts over striped leggings. It’s hard to see in still photos, but if you watch the dance practice video for Sherlock, you’ll see that Taemin was actually wearing long, asymmetrical, white shorts over white leggings.
NU’EST‘s Ren
Ren has tried many variations on the shorts and leggings combo, starting with his debut in the MV for “Face“. On the far left, you can see him walking the runway in a fashion show in April 2012.
JJ Project‘s Jr
Jr. of JJ Project has been wearing two different pairs of black shorts over black leggings- one with pink and blue designs on the front, and one with a red and white striped inset.
B.A.P‘s Jongup, Super Junior‘s Sungmin and Shindong
Showing that this trend is still current, Jongup wore black-on-black shorts and leggings to a recent performance on ‘Show Champion‘, while Sungmin did a white-on-white style, and Shindong did black-on-black in the recent MV for “Sexy, Free and Single“.
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What do you think? Would you wear shorts and leggings together?
It has been revealed that INFINITE‘s performances will be recreated into a 3D movie.
Produced by director Son Suk, The movie ‘2012 INFINITE Concert 3D‘ will showcase the boy group’s various performances from their concerts. Through the 3D film, viewers will be able to experience the effect of being at an actual INFINITE concert.
Production of the film has been completed and it is currently awaiting examination by the ‘Korea Media Rating Board‘. Once it has been examined and rated, the 3D production will be screened in Seoul cinemas.
Recently, films that capture the activity of idol groups is becoming a trend. Before INFINITE, Big Bang‘s concert was remade into the film ‘2010 Big Bang Show 3D‘, and recently the performances of Girls’ Generation, TVXQ and other SM entertainment artists were showcased in the ‘SMTOWN Live in Tokyo Special Edition‘ movie.
One film industry representative stated, “It can be seen as an example of ‘One Source, Multi-Use’. Although the movie won’t be a large-scale release, the following DVD release will be profitable all the while providing enjoyment for fans. A variety of media content is being produced as a result of K-POP’s world-wide popularity.”
2NE1 will be releasing an acoustic collaboration featuring genius guitarist Jung Sung Ha!
A live performance clip of 2NE1 and Jung Sung Ha’s collaboration will be released on August 1, 12AM KST on Naver‘s tvcast. The talented guitarist was noticed for his cover of 2NE1′s “Lonely” and met up with the girls earlier this month for the project.
TEEN TOP has released the second video teaser for “Be Ma Girl” from their upcoming special summer album!
They’re making a comeback in less than a month after promotions for “To You” have ended. “Be Ma Girl” (titled “Will You Go Out With Me?” in Korean) will be released on August 3rd KST.
Until then, check out TEEN TOP’s previously released teaser photos here, first video teaser here, and the newly releasd “Be Ma Girl” video teaserr below.
2NE1 has released their acoustic collaboration with popular Korean guitarist / YouTube sensation Jung Sung Ha!
A live performance clip of 2NE1 and Jung Sung Ha’s collaboration was revealed via YG Family‘s channel on Naver‘s tvcasttoday. The talented guitarist was noticed for his cover of 2NE1′s “Lonely” and met up with the girls earlier this month for the project.
Check out the awesome collaboration of “I Love You” and “Lonely” below!
A recent picture revealing Girls’ Generation member Sunny‘s gorgeous legs has attracted some attention. The photo is from a shoot Girls’ Generation did for SM Entertainment‘s IT exhibition, ’S.M. Art Exhibition‘. Sunny is sitting on the floor, posing for the shot in a way that flaunts her long legs.
Her black dress and pose accentuate her flawless legs in the picture, surprising netizens with her amazing figure. Already well-known for her small face and shapely body, Sunny stunned with her perfect proportions.
Netizens responded to the picture in awe with comments like, “I knew her body was shapely, but her legs are gorgeous too,“ “Her proportions are great,” and “She may be short, but her body line is amazing and her proportions are great, what a perfect body.”
S.M. Art Exhibition will be held from August 10 to the 19th at the COEX in Seoul, Samseong-dong.
miss ASuzy‘s simple airport fashion has gained attention.
Suzy’s care-free style has caught the eyes of many fans. Though the young star has risen to the heights of fame, her airport style was very casual and normal.
The miss A member was seen in a baby pink shirt with a ribbon-shirring accent at her waistline, matched with black, polka dot pants. She accessorized her look with a large, light blue back pack, giving her outfit a fresh, summer look.
Fans commented, “Suzy looks like she walked out of a manhwa,” “I wonder what’s inside Suzy’s big back pack,” and “Suzy shines even at the airport.”
In related news, Suzy has been announced as an endorsement model for Bean Pole Outdooralongside former costar Kim Soo Hyun. They will be meeting for the first time in one and a half years.
Core Contents Media’s CEO Kim Kwang Soo has demanded that the media cease reporting unconfirmed news regarding T-ara.
On July 31st, he was interviewed by Star News where he revealed that he met with the parents of Hwayoung and Hyoyoung and asked reporters to only report the facts for their sake.
He expressed, “After checking with T-ara’s backdancer team, I was able to confirm that the post claiming to be T-ara’s backdancer was indeed false, as with the content. The reason I terminated Hwayoung’s contract yesterday was because of her tendency to act out, such as refusing to perform on a live broadcast. The decision was made as a reflection of the opinions of T-ara’s staff. However, I believe that this decision will better aid Hwayoung in becoming a better artist.”
He continued, “Like I said yesterday, this decision has nothing to do with the bullying rumors going around. Because of the haters that are spreading rumors, the situation has taken a route of its own. These hateful lies are continuing to spread online, which is only making it harder for T-ara and Hwayoung.”
Kim Kwang Soo added, “I met with Hwayoung and Hyoyoung’s parents yesterday to explain to them my decision, and they were understanding of it. They wished for the best for both T-ara and Hwayoung, so it’s making it greatly difficult for both her parents and T-ara to see these unconfirmed stories coming up on the internet.”
Core Contents Media further emphasized, “We ask that all articles in relation to T-ara be confirmed through our company before they are released on the internet.”
Former T-ara member Hwayoung just tweeted a message for her fans.
She posted to Twitter on July 31 at 10:33PM KST, “To my fans, you’ve loved me until now, and I’m sorry that I’ve only given you disappointment. Please stop now, and look forward to our more mature and improved selves in the future. I apologize for making you worry during this time. I also want to apologize to my Core Contents Mediafamily. I’ll greet you all with a better image next time.”
Fans commented, “You will never ever dissappoint us! Keep your head up, hwayoungie! We are supporting you <3,” “Be strong! Hwayoung! I’m cheering you on,” and “Please don’t cower. You might feel tortured now, but after a little time passes, they’re people who’ll be nothing. Be strong!”
allkpop previously reported that T-ara would temporarily halt scheduling future events, and that the SBS ‘K-pop Yeosu Expo Super Concert‘ on August 1st was the last official event scheduled on their books.
It’s now being reported that T-ara’s special performance at the concert has been canceled. Core Contents Media announced on July 31st at 6:25PM KST: “About 30, 40 minutes ago, due to a variety of reasons, the upcoming concert appearance has been canceled. We’ve finished [consulting] with the producers.”
The performance would have been the group’s first after member Hwayoung‘s exit, and the agency decided that due to the public’s reaction, it would be best for T-ara not to participate in the event.
Furthermore, T-ara will not be appearing on this week’s music programs.
The largest online fan community for T-ara, t-arafan.com, announced that it will be shutting down their site on August 15th KST.
The fan cafe has received over 4 million cumulative visitors, and is the largest gathering of T-ara fans in the world.
The cafe operator posted: “I have decided to shut down the fan site. Since it was my first time running a fan cafe, I’m sure [it wasn't perfect], and I want to thank all the members who have participated. I hope we can meet again if fate allows.”
The fan cafe will be shutting down on August 15, one day after T-ara’s scheduled comeback on August 14.
After Core Contents Media announced that they would immediately terminate the contract of T-aramember Hwayoung, netizens and fans alike stepped up to argue that the other members have bullied and outcasted her, and that the agency is to blame rather than Hwayoung.
The agency, however, is arguing that the bullying claims have nothing to do with the contract termination, and that Hwayoung has until now displayed behavior unacceptable for a member of a girl group, and showed no hope for improvement. Thus, Hwayoung is not a victim of bullying, but rather the staff and group members are the ones who have suffered extreme stress due to Hwayoung.
Regardless of whose fault it may be, fans are shocked to say the least to hear of Hwayoung’s departure from the group. The most ideal scenario that loyal fans are hoping for is for the girls and the agency to resolve these matters and for Hwayoung to return to the group.
CCM CEO Kim Kwang Soo informed StarNews on July 30th, “If Hwayoung realizes her faults and feels genuine sorrow and regret, it is possible for the staff and group members to discuss her return to the group. I say this again, but in order for that to happen, Hwayoung must reflect back on her actions and never repeat them again in the future.”
The chances of Hwayoung returning to the group may be slim, but this shows that it isn’t completely out of the question.
You can read the full press release regarding Hwayoung’s departure from T-ara here.
Are you in favor of Hwayoung returning to T-ara? Toss us your thoughts below!
Among the many that are stepping forward to offer some more insight on the T-ara controversy, is a netizen who claims to be a former T-ara back-up dancer.
The post is going viral online, and in it, the dancer describes in detail of a time Jiyeon had slappedHwayoung across the face.
It reads:
“I am a member of Hot Chicks, an exclusive dance team for T-ara, and am also working withDavichi, KARA, Brown Eyed Girls, Rainbow Pixie, and more.
It was around the time the Japanese concert took place. We were getting big with our “Lovey Dovey” shuffle dance after Hwayoung was admitted, and getting ready to perform “Roly Poly” for our year-end performance.
During one of the rehearsals, it was a situation where Kwang Soo had jam-packed our schedules, so both the dancers and the members of T-ara who had just completed their day’s work were extremely sensitive and on edge.
Still, everyone was mustering up their last bit of strength and practicing, when Hwayoung messed up a little bit of the choreography.
Seeing this, Jiyeon and Soyeon then sarcastically scoffed at her, saying, ‘Since you already decided to join, you should maybe work a little harder.’
Hwayoung then became a little depressed, but the dance leader mediated the situation and the rehearsal resumed.
But Hwayoung maintained an uncomfortable expression on her face, and Jiyeon who saw this slapped Hwayoung across the cheek and told her that because she had come in late to the already-established group T-ara, she needed to act sensibly and to rehearse without that expression on her face.
The atmosphere became extremely tense, and Hyomin took Jiyeon outside, telling her that she should just be the bigger person.
Even after Hwayoung’s ‘exposure’ incident, everyone was indifferent towards her, rather than comforting.
After the incident, T-ara went on hiatus to prepare for “Day By Day” and because of events with Davichi and Brown Eyed Girls, I could only see T-ara on TV.
Seeing them on the small-screen, I thought that the girls’ relationship with Hwayoung had improved, but these girls who are all grown don’t want to sit by her in the car so they blatantly play rock paper scissors right in front of her face.”
Post like these attesting to the bullying attacks against Hwayoung continue to surface on portal site community boards, causing netizens to become all the more eager to uncover the truth.
