Idol Analysis : Concept

Idols concepts are a lot but if you take all the unnecessary adjective from the description, it really goes down to just Sexy vs Cute.

Cute

I love cutesy stuff, and cute concept is the thing that made me a Kpop fan in the first place! It's something only Kpop can pull of. Well, Jpop can be cute too but naah Korean bromance FTW! If I were to name 10 favorite idol performance, 8/10 of it are cute concept. I love group members interact with each other during performance, I love the playfulness of the song and I love they are smiling on stage!

However, cute concept can be bad sometimes like T-ara's Bo Beep Bo Beep, DBSK Balloon, or SNSD Kissing U. I don't even want to let anyone non kpoppers watch those, I'll let them discover it themselves.

Sexy

It's a tricky concept because the line between "confident sexy" and "cheap sexy" is thin. I love looking at choco...ahem, you know but it feels uncomfortable to watch sexy concept. 1. Because I know how their diets are, 2. It looks cheap at times. I can't count how many time I stopped mid way because it was so distasteful. Ahemhyunaahem.

There are positive things about sexy, it shows confidence and hardwork. I love charismatic sexy male concept and female groups do need to grow up from cutesy concept too.

Short post, but I want to at least write a post everyday.

Idol Analysis : B.A.P.

Based on my knowledge, I don't think there's ever a rookie who worked as hard as BAP! A total of 6 songs were promoted this year! I'm very impress on what TSE has done with this group, but seriously, I think they're overworked! Magnae Zelo is still growing, I hope you gave them enough rest when Stop It promotion ends. Let's focus on Secret okay? I miss Untouchable too.. i think they'll return next year TSE fighting!

I wasn't sure if I was going to watch Stop it MV because I read it's 90's music inspired. I'm a fan of 90's music but I'm not liking the idea of bringing back old genre kind of thing..Retro song is always fun (nobody, roly poly, twinkle, madonna) but it gets stale quick. 

What do ya know, as soon as I click play, I love it! I wonder if it's the combination of beautiful video (the colors are soo pretty!) and fun music or just the bright concept, I felt so happy to play the video. 

I'm thankful that I've learn their names before this promotion starts, they're blond again!! I only started learning their names while watching their weekly idol episodes. I already know Bang Yong Guk, Zelo and HimChan, so I only had to learn 3 names. They actually had different features..but it can be confusing when they shared the same hairstyle.. good luck if you're a new fan! Let me help you for a bit, Bang Yong Guk is the main actor, DaeHyun is the one who drives the car, Zelo and JongUp in the classroom, curly hair is Zelo...Young Jae is the one with flowers and HimChan kinda slap the girl.

I'm all for cutesy video but some fans didn't like it too much.. During Crash promotion it's a little weird because they were all badass in previous 3 promotion.. But instead of seeing it as cutesy, I thought they were having fun. I think they are only cutesy in the video, I am expecting another round of fun performance. Musically I think they have showcase their true self even if it's a different concept.

I would rank BAP songs as follows, Warrior> Stop It> No Mercy > Crash> Power > Secret Love

Yes Sir!

P/s initially I wrote this for "I'm loving/I'm hating" post but I thought it's more like idol analysis kind of post so hence the confusing post. Will edit when feel like it. Lol

Idol Analysis : Secret

I think it's time to change things a little bit on Idol Analysis..so I wanted to blog about Secret, who just completed their promotion on Shy Boy and now Song Ji Eun is back with "Going Crazy"

This is probably the first group that even before their official debut that I'm already a fan. Does help being Untouchable fan, who with Secret is from TS Entertainment.

SeonHwa

Who is probably the famous one in the group thanks to her stint on variety shows. I knew SunHwa first out of all the other member because she caught my attention on the following video.




This was back in 2009, I thought she was super adorable in the performance and made me watch all Untouchable performance of this song! Not that I didn't like this song, I just like watching idols more...:P I was surprise and excited when she's going to debut, and till today she remain my favorite member. So what she's a "Blank paper"? She's adorable.


Ji Eun



The "voice" in the group, I like her instantly because her voice is soothing. She's the first to debut solo. From the above video, the voice is hers but not the girl. Because SunHwa replace her in the performance, she is often confuse with SunHwa. I hope with her solo debut people would pay more attention to her.



The Blue freaking hair! Gaah. I wanted HyoSung to have that hair..now Song Ji Eun stole her silly haircolor...huhu but she looked great. The horror : It's real hair.

HyoSung

G.na, After School Uee, Wonder Girls YooBin...What is the relation of HyoSung with them? All of them used to be in a group called Five Girls but disbanded before debuting due to financial difficulties.



Before debut too, she along with Sunhwa collaborate with Untouchable for My Boo



My favorite song off from Untouchable Oh Mini Album.

Zinger

If I have to choose my favorite idol rapper, it would be Miryo of Brown Eyed Girls..but Zinger come close in second. The following video (with cameos from the other girls) proves her smooth rap to 50 Cent Candy Shop.

Idol Analysis : Image, Concept and Theme

Whether it's to shape up the idol or to prepare for the comeback, these are the 3 basic things a producer look at. While I never went behind the scene to prepare an idol debut or comeback, more frequent that idols talk about these things on variety shows.

Image

"Image" in Korea has a slightly different meaning in Korean text. It basically means the main characteristic of the artiste. 2PM are the perfect example who markets themselves using their image. Everyone knows them as Beastly-like idols and use it as their nicknames. JYP (the company) cleverly catapult the image into consideration when choosing songs and style. Though, they aren't exactly manly anymore when you flashback on their Brown Eyed Girls Abracadabra video...or parody other girl groups. Erm..yeah.

Concept

Whenever an idol makes a comeback, watch any interview...the word concept is always there. More often the words can be overly flowery for the news article. Early this year, the concept is edgy, darker and sexier..The current one, has more varieties...I don't spot any trends. If it's a male idols, they've become manlier. For the female idol, it would be sexier.

Theme

This is very boring. There can be a lot of theme but many limit to the list below

1. recruiting love (Oh, Bonamana, I need a girl,)
2. love only you (No Other, Better Together, It has to be you)
3. I don't need you (Go Away, Lucifer, Man man ha ni)
4. Comeback to me (Shock, Y. Comeback Again)
5. I'm better than you ( Bad Girl Good Girl, run devil run, HUH)

There are other theme, but these are overly use.

Idol Analysis : Age appropriate

Before I continue, the drama discuss for Playful Kiss will be postponed as I couldn't watch it on Viikii (something wrong with the video..hopefully will be fix soon). As the post for Se7en MPV..it's next post! :D

I'm 20 and I already feel old. No offense to those who are older than me but I'm sure you feel the same way with younger idols debuting each day. I started the whole obsession with Kpop on 2007, where most idols are older than me. I can just call "Oppa" to any male idol but now, I got to think twice before calling them "Oppa". Oh gosh, I think I was super annoying when I first started because I keep on saying "Oppa" all the time.

It struck me to discuss about this issue as I read an article not too long time ago about Krystal and SulLi of f(x) were scolded for their behaviour. Many complain that they should act professional and how rude they were in a society that treats elderly at its highest. A little information about the Korean culture is that position and age is one of the first thing to ask in introduction. Formal language must be used around those with higher position or older than you or it would be consider rude.

I'm not old enough to be on the girls side regarding rudeness since I am a little rude at times but I think the society is asking too much from these underage. Some might forget that these girls are underage! I don't blame them though, I have to remind myself that Krystal and Sulli are still underage when I'm seeing them on stage.

As a young kid, I did have some silly dreams about being on stage. Fame is something we all secretively wanted. Now, I think otherwise. I don't admire at all that idols are getting younger instead, I pity on them having to work hard. The fancy outfits and all that glamour comes with a lot of energy being drained out. Those who is still in school not only have to practise dance routine but also doing their school revision.

I began to wonder if this whole thing is right. Isn't there a law about underage workers? What makes them so different from kids working in a factory? I remembered watching Lee Soo Man interview and he once said that it's good to debut someone early so you could fully prepare them to be bigger stars like Boa. Yes, the preparation to be a star is not done in a day but stealing a children normal exprience is cruel.

Hopefully this trend would die soon. I don't want to feel old whenever I see another 1995 debuting.

Idol Analysis : Time

Recently the hot topic regarding idol is how long the duration of their singing part..reportedly some idol group doesn't even have a single line!

What's my stance on this? well..obviously I would want the parts to be distributed evenly. Having said that I can't denied that I do know why it's like that. It's up to the producer who get the most line. Who sang which part the best will get it. It's that simple.

Having less lines means idols don't have talent then? Wrong. Talent is what makes them get notice first. Looks is easy to change but you can't change talent. It's wrong to look only at their promoted single. VERY wrong indeed. As you could observed, they do showcase their talents on variety shows and radio shows. Like Sung Min, he's an amazing guitar player and sings well but he doesn't have much lines in Bonamana. Seo Hyun is one mad piano player and she's only getting little part in Oh. They don't have talent now you say? Rubbish.

I often listen to the whole album and there's no doubt they have talent. The thing I hate about Kpop is that they always promote dance songs first no matter what. In the whole album, there's a lot of awesome ballads but they choose dance song. I don't hate dance song, I just wished they promote more ballad song.

Another example is Son Dam Bi, she choose to promote Queen over Can't You See..Can't You See is an amazing ballad song that just stuck where as Queen is annoying cute song. Urgh, tell me you prefer Can't You See because I really can't stand Queen!

It's good to do the whole packaged thing but I would love to see something different.

Hey let's do a mini research. Let's count the seconds together!

DBSK and SuJu Show me your love.



Oh forget it..All I know is Kibum didn't have any lines..I miss this stuff. Summer is almost over and still no freaking summer album. what happen hah?

Idol Analysis : Name

While I'm no CEO of an entertainment company, I think selecting a group name would be the hardest part to do.

There's so many consideration you need to think of..it's like naming your child, except your naming a group. I've been doing group works a lot since school years..it's always hard to pick a group name because I'm so analytical that I want the name fits every personality in the group. So I always give in to whatever they want because I would want a week to decide..LOL

So if you were to ask me now to name a group..I can't give you the answer right away! My blog name, HallyuSurfer took about a week to come up. The tagline was changed a couple of times before I settle with "Unleashing the Obsession".

That's my story..you know I take serious consideration in names, so understand me why I comment on certain group names.

List of Names I like

1. Dong Bang Shin Ki
2. ShinHwa
3. So Nyuh Si Dae
4. Super Junior
5. Cheong Sang Ji Hee

Notice the similarities..? With the exception of SuJu..who only there because of my biasness, all the names above are Korean. I always like Korean names better because I don't have to think about the meaning.

List of Name I dislike

1. f(x)
2. SHINee
3. 2NE1
4. ZE:A
5. 4Minute

Basically..as a writer, I don't like names that are hard to type..SHINee is just troublesome...I would be fine if it's Shinee. f(x) tops the list because I never fail to get it wrong! I love f(x) by concept but to type it? I hate it. I actually really like ZE:A name compare to the original one, Children of Empire is simply too long! 4Minute..I dislike it because I don't get it.

List of Name that I laugh

1. Teen Top
2. After School
3. MBLAQ
4. Fin.K.L.
5. H.O.T.

Abbreviation, I hope there won't be anymore of it...if there is, please do it like MBLAQ, because I hate ............. ARGH!!!! MBLAQ is funny because the meaning is Music Boys Living in Absolute Quality. After School name just doesn't fit the group style..that's why I laugh! I was going to add B2ST but they're using Beast so it's okay..it's better if it's "Boys of EAst Standing Tall" rather than "Boys 2 Search Top" LOL

Idol Analysis : CDs

The trend of CDs now is releasing Mini-album as you know the sales of CD isn't encouraging and the cost of production doesn't come cheap.

I never like the concept so I won't be buying mini album and just wait for the full length album because as I notice, all the songs from the mini album also appear on the full length album.

Die hard fans might purchase everything but I can't do that..I'm not that crazy yet and I don't see I'm going to be like that!

It started with DBSK, I remembered Mirotic had several version and then repackage version. I only bought the repackage version because I didn't like the pictures of the other version plus it has more songs. As for SuJu's Sorry Sorry album, I bought version A and repackage because I love both pictures..yes, the main reason of me buying the album is the pictures.. I saw the Oh album by SNSD but as I hate the song..I didn't buy it and waited for the repackaged Run Devil Run.

Today, wanting to waste time at Speedy..the worker show me SuJu 4th Album in both version! She save it for me of course..I was initially shock by two version until I remember it's SuJu...The fans were given about a week difference on the release date but I was given both at the same time...how am I to save? While I do have the money for both (cost about RM50 each) but I just spend on Beast album. I wished I didn't enter the shop today, because I had to buy right away...She told me that the both version were the only copies send to their shop. It's bad enough for me to ask them to book it for me (it's a business thing) so I took the version A.

I sort of tell them I'll buy the other version later...I hope she sells it anyways..I don't think I'll be buying that because I'm waiting for the repackage one which is going to be released any time soon in Korea.

Sneaky SM sure knows how to get fans buying albums. I open the CD and pop! there's a little card with Leeteuk's signature...does that mean there are 9 other ones? Oh goodness..I can't spend to buy another 9 to get the other members!!!DIE LA

Okay this analysis is barely informative but this is a blog remember?

UPDATE : OMG!! It's Teukie Bday today! WOW Daebak! I actually buy SuJu Album on his birthday..so freaky that it's the same with SS501 5 year anniversary when I bought SS501 DVD.

Idol Analysis : The leaders

Yes, HallyuSurfer has a new special post and it's "Idol Analysis". This special post is similar to my "Random Talk" post but only talking or discussing about the Idol culture.

Leader as you know does play a huge role..he/she is the person that ties all the lose knot. He/she is the image of the group for he/she is the one would be speaking a lot in interviews.

Usually in conducted polls, Yunho of DBSK always get the top place. It doesn't come as a surprised as Cassiopeia (DBSK FC) is amazing and a lot. Plus, YunHo does have the charismatic presence of a leader. However looking at the current situation of DBSK, I don't think so.

I'm sure you have gone through this..it's hard to pick a leader. I for one dislike to be chosen because you felt like been given a burden. I think that's why U-Kiss doesn't have a leader. I think it's doesn't matter though..U-Kiss seems just fine without a leader. After the departure of JaeBum, looks like 2PM doesn't have a leader too. I think..I don't read 2PM articles. I'm glad though, JaeBum is irreplaceable and I can't handle more heartbreak.

I think there are three type of leaders.

The eldest

Ranking is very important in Korea and respecting the elder is a must. It's no wonder why this is the most popular way of selecting a leader. I think it's better, it might be awkward if you're the leader but you're younger especially in Korea. Examples are LeeTeuk of SuJu, GaHee of After School, DooJoon of Beast, TaeYeon of SNSD and lots more.

The born leader

Although being eldest in the group, he/she may not be the right leader. Leader is someone that knows how to represent the group but let other shine. Despite being way younger, CL of 2NE1 definitely rocks being the leader, you see her and you think she's the leader immediately. Same goes to GD of Big Bang, He has the presence of a leader, TOP is charismatic too but no doubt GD is the one destined to be the leader. Other examples are EunJung of T-ara, YunHo of DBSK, Jo Kwon of 2AM and others.

The shy leader

Not exactly shy but I'm using a kinder words to describe them. You can't be an idol if you're a shy person! Would you believe me if I told you that Hongki isn't the leader of F.T.Island or HyunA isn't the leader of 4Minute? There was one time JongHyun of SHINee mistakenly introduce himself as the leader when actually Onew is the leader. Onew is getting better and I do see him as a leader now. JiHyun of 4Minute is almost invisible to me and I think it's best that the leader is the vocalist although JongHun is one talented guy. It's hard because all the attention is given to the other member..I observe that SeungHo of MBLAQ is going to be categorize here because Joon presence is a little too much.

(can't find the video of JongHyun mistake..but I've seen it)

So who do I think is the best leader?

It's hard to tell. YunHo was someone I thought who make a great leader, but I think GD is one great leader, he just brings the title well. DooJoon also makes a good leader too as well as TaeYeon and EunJung. I think it's all decided by their group members whether their leader is DaeBak or Jjang. LeadJa Hwaiting!

Analysising the Idol formula.

I'm so happy a new person followed me so I'm excited to blog more often, okay..honestly more like guilty of not blogging much..stop following me! LOL kidding.

Idols..thanks to Kpop it totally change my understanding of "idol". In Kpop terms, it is used to refer popular groups like DBSK and SuJu. These days I'm seeing newbies too garner the title idol. Probably it's changing to idol = groups because groups always do well.

Typically 5 is a good number for idols group, but the current trend is the more members the better, as seen with U-Kiss and After School. I guess we can thank SuJu and SNSD for that.

Although I love seeing more group members it can be hard for the members because fans can't remember well sometimes. Yes, I still having a hard time memorizing ZE:A. Someday I will, I promised. Another thing is the share income..as you know, they don't get much from CD sales and the sales aren't great either.

From my observation, 5/6 is the best number of members. Unless it's from the big three SM, JYP and YG, I would think it's best they stick with the rule. These big three have loyal fans that know trainee and get better exposure when they get ready for debut.

Apart from having talents, appearance is a major factor in marketing idols. SM tactics is to have at least one member that have strong appearance like JaeJoong, HeeChul, TaeMin, Amber and YoonA. These listed are usually the one first noticed by fans.

As for JYP, don't have a great face? it's okay..just wear some glasses and work out. It's all about the body at JYP. YG is famously known for searching talent rather than looks which indirectly garners fan curiosity.

We as fan would love to dig up stories on our favorite celebrities would love an idol with personality. I do think the background of members are taken into great accounts. Entertainment agency usually accepts more potential trainers who have stayed overseas. It's also good if they're interested in expanding their market in China or Japan with having multilingual singers.

I see that there are rules that shapes the idol personality after a long observation.

1. Idol members are usually prevented from smoking and drinking in public for fear of ruining their image despite they're not underage.

2. Best vocalist, get less talk on variety show. It's to show mysterious image for viewers.

3. Best dancers are usually rappers

4. Ability to speak English too are usually rappers.

5. 1st debut stage is cutesy or safe..the next album is 180 degree makeover and claim that they have become manlier.

6. Manlier or sexier always comes together with dark concept.

7. Everyone had their bad hair days..*shudders at YooChun's long hair or GD's pineapple hair..

8. They always dance. ALWAYS..I don't get it why won't they perform ballads more often!

9. Their songs are like Beat It. The have the same line over and over again.

10. No matter what, someone has to rap in a ballad song..except SNSD because they don't have rappers.