The Cold Hard Truths about KPOP

Hello friends!

Before I begin, this post is really only meant for those who are mature enough to understand my views, and for those who don’t take things too seriously or too personally.

So, I’ve been in the “kpop scene” for truly a good couple of years now, and I practically grew up surrounded by Korean music. In light of MAMA coming up, as well as a bunch of other award shows etc, I’ve just been reminded how gross the kpop culture really is. I don’t remember how or why fan wars have become as prevalent as they are now, but it’s shed such a bad light on kpop culture as a whole. So you could say that this post was inspired by fan wars hehe! 

I remember back in the day when kpop wasn’t as popular as it is now. And we’d have to desperately try to convince our friends that it was cool and we’d even occasionally get made fun of. But now, even I’m finding it hard to support what kpop has become. 

Let me bring up a few points:

1) The Big 3 privilege DOES exist. (Though it may no longer be Big 3 specifically.)
This may be the issue I am the most passionate about. 

Let’s not be silly. This Big 3 privilege OBVIOUSLY exists. I’ve seen so many posts on Instagram and Twitter quoting all these sob stories about how all these groups from more recognised companies likewise had to train and work really hard to achieve their success today, and how they too met with their own various versions of obstacles and set backs along the way. Please don’t get your panties in a twist. Saying the Big 3 privilege exists, does NOT mean I’m saying that your oppas don’t work as hard as others. 

I feel it takes a miraculous amount of self-delusion to truly believe that this privilege doesn’t exist. 

Let me ask you guys a question, and please answer it honestly. 

Would you rather audition for JYP/SM/CUBE/YG/BIGHIT etc or for Beat Interactive/Banana Culture Entertainment? 
Don’t tell me your answer, but I could probably make a wild guess and get your answer right. 

The question now is, why? Well, it’s pretty straight forward actually. Many of these more recognised companies are backed by greater connections, successful ventures, greater budgets, and are simply more experienced in the entertainment industry. And more likely than not, you would be a fan of the artists from these companies too. Did you hear of ANYONE wanting to audition for Big Hit before BTS became famous? 

In fact, since most of us can at least agree that many of these bigger companies are practically veterans in the field of entertainment, is it not rather ludicrous to claim that all the years of success these companies have achieved gave them NO footing or pedestal whatsoever in the industry? 

Don’t get me wrong. I agree that many groups from these companies didn’t get to where they are at the simple click of a button. Yet, the fact that they DID get to where they are now is already indicative of their success and backing. Just think about the hundreds of groups out there, who have been put through the same treatment or possibly even worse, whose names you still don’t know now. 

2) The way the market works is actually kinda disgusting.

There’s truly no other word for it. And in encouraging such morbid behaviour, many fans are often utterly disgusting as well. People seem so fixated on playing the identity game that we try our hardest to find ways in which our favourite celebrities are better than other people’s favourite celebrities. We try to draw lines and make distinctions between “idols”, and “artists” and “musicians”, when in reality, they are all the same, bound by the same few sets of unspoken rules. And as much as you wish to believe otherwise, to these people, kpop is a JOB, entertaining is a JOB, and every album we buy and every concert we attend but only contributes to their pay check. There is nothing personal about kpop, aside from the very facade it hides behind to convince us that it is. 

3) Some fans are plain annoying. 

As much as I can appreciate a cute gif of a member I like, I will never understand tweets or posts that entirely over-exaggerate what kpop idols do. Just because these people are celebrities, does NOT mean that they are no longer capable of being nice people or nice humans. They do NOT lose all sense of moral integrity or chivalry or kindness just because they are famous. It’s alright to appreciate good deeds. But why do fans over-dramatise things and say, 

“OMG Person X IS SUCHHH A GENTLEMAN WE DO NOT DESERVE HIM IN THIS WORLD!!!!”
“PERSON Y IS SO PRECIOUS THIS IS WHY WE MUST PROTECT HIM AT ALL COSTS!”

when these people are often doing things that regular kind human beings are already expected and supposed to do?

4) NOT everyone in kpop is talented.

Fans can be as delusional as they want, but for some reason, this is a point that they will never be able to understand or agree with. I’m no expert, but I’ve been listening to kpop long enough to know that not everyone is talented. Each member of a group plays a different role. You have the vocalist, the dancers, the visuals, the rappers, and once in a blue moon, you have the rarities who are all four things at once. But not everyone is talented, and I’m sure that they themselves are aware of this. 

BUT, there IS something they are good for, and THIS is why they debuted in their groups. They may be good on variety shows, or just look really good, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with them not being as good at singing or dancing. In a market so superficial, I say, SO WHAT if she’s pretty but can’t sing, or WHO THE HECK CARES if he’s handsome and can’t dance? 

All these factors are just as important and marketable as being good at singing and dancing. 

5) Kpop should NOT be your entire life.

I don’t know about you, but I didn’t sign up to join a cult. I just wanted to listen to the music. 
This may sound like an assholish thing to say. But whether or not I want to vote for any group at any award show is MY own decision, and MY own prerogative. I should not have to be victim to people forcing me to vote countlessly on a website, or cursed at for being multi-fandom. This is MY CHOICE, and really no one should be giving me grief about this matter. Kpop is a popularity contest on its own, which is fine. And though I may be a fan of a particular group, I may not always agree that they should win a particular award. 

I’m going to dive into the deep end here and risk death. But I personally don’t feel that Power should be named the best MV of the year, and I’m sure this reflects the deepest inner feelings of many EXO-Ls who voted. (I’m not a hater by any means, if you were to just peruse my blog you would know how many EXO concerts I’ve been to and how big of a fan I am.) I’m not condemning anyone of their actions, because there is absolutely nothing wrong with voting for a group you support. But this popularity game is not one I wish to participate in, and to my self-righteous and annoying self, there are many other ways I feel I can show support with a little more integrity to myself. 

To anyone reading, you are first and foremost, your own person, and I think it is important to remember that you have your own struggles and woes to deal with without needing your hobbies to add on to any of that stress. You should not have to feel obligated to do something you don’t want to do. 

This post was more of a rant than anything, and it kinda exploded out of nowhere, with no specific direction… but yeah… I do feel strangely liberated haha!  

Just be reminded that these are MY opinions and are not meant to offend anyone. You are welcome to share yours (POLITELY) in the comments if you wish!! 

Till next time,

❤ 

MY CUBE ENTERTAINMENT AUDITION EXPERIENCE!

Hello friends!!
It’s been awfully long since my last post and I realised that I always start off all my posts talking about how awfully long it’s been since I last posted. Hmm.

Anyways, I’ve been receiving many comments on my various audition blog posts recently so I figured it was time I wrote about my most “successful” audition. To be very honest, most of this audition was a blur to me considering that it happened more than three years ago when I was 12-13 years old, in the era when I wasn’t all that into blogging or social media. I will put in a disclaimer right here and say that I don’t 100% remember the events that happened and that there MAY be some inaccuracies. Also, it has been quite awhile since then and they may do things differently now!

The reason it took me so long to post about this is simply because I have no proof that it actually happened. As mentioned, the audition happened more than three years ago and I didn’t think of taking pictures/writing about it at that time- this blog didn’t even exist then. I’ve dug around and have seen crazy amounts of hate on blogs where people claim to have made it to the second or third rounds of auditions, and I wasn’t sure if I was willing or able to put up with that kind of criticism, so that was probably the main reason I was so hesitant to post this.

But then I realised, it’s up to you guys to decide if you choose to doubt/believe this and I can’t do anything to convince you if you’re determined to think otherwise! So I won’t try to force anything down your throat! I also have literally nothing to gain from lying but hopefully this will give at least ONE person a better idea of how the audition went down and also provide some helpful tips (?).

So back in March (I think) 2013, I attended the 2nd Cube Star (I think that’s what it’s called) auditions in Seoul. Once more, I was crazy lucky because I didn’t plan for my trip to Korea to coincide with the audition and only found out about it after I had booked my tickets. If I don’t remember incorrectly, there was a way to sign up for the audition online before heading down, but there were many walk-in auditionees who weren’t turned down either.

First and fore-mostly, there were soooooo many people at the audition. More than at JYP or SM for sure. PROTIP: GO EARLY!! I auditioned with 2 other friends and we waited almost 2 hours before we even got a number slapped onto our chests. We were there at around 11am (I think) and I was only done with everything at nearly 6pm. It was pretty standard procedure, we had to fill out application forms with the typical basic information and then from then on, it was just a whole lot of waiting. We were given instructions to look into the camera and not at the judges and to stand behind a tape on the floor. Also, my friends and I were visibly younger than the average crowd there but there was definitely no lack of super young kids either.

So… It was basically just a whole ton of waiting and nervous chatting before my number finally got called. This was just like JYP and SM auditions where they played a bunch of Cube artist MVs in the waiting area. (Oh yes! I was quite surprised to find that there were a decent number of foreigners present as well.) When it was finally my turn, I was brought up a flight of stairs and into a separate room. Since I attended the Seoul audition, it was held at the Cube Entertainment training building itself. And what I realise now is that the judges were a LOT friendlier than those at JYP and SM who just stoic-ly stared at me. The judges (there were 2) were extremely nice and smiley and allowed me to sing all of what I had prepared.

For Cube auditions, you actually audition ALONE. You don’t go in a group of 5 or 10, unlike the other auditions I’ve been too, AND you are allowed to introduce yourself AND showcase more than one talent, both of which are not allowed at JYP or SM auditions. Whilst this makes the situation more nerve-wrecking, it also made me feel a little more special because I felt like they were actually taking the time to truly get to know the auditionees.

I sang “If I Die Young” by The Band Perry and actually managed to finish all of what I had prepared without being stopped (unlike at SM and JYP sigh). I was then asked if I wanted to rap, because I had listed it on my application, so I rapped Nicki Minaj’s “Superbass” but changed some of the lyrics. After which, I was given the option to dance. Now this is an actual CHOICE. If you say “yes”, they’ll put on random music and watch you dance for a good half a minute. And if you say “no”, they’ll simply request for you to take your leave and move on to the next person. PROTIP: ALWAYS SAY YES. TAKE ANY OPPORTUNITY TO SHOWCASE YOUR TALENT AND KEEP THE JUDGES’ EYES ON YOU.

So, obviously, I said yes, and danced to a random piece of music they put on. I have zero recollection of what song it was, but after I was done, I left. As I was walking out, one of the judges instructed me to stay behind, and at this point, I was more nervous than anything. I was in a foreign country and I was 13 and both my friends were missing and I just really wanted my parents HAHA. The same judge then goes on to say that they want to see me dance, and told me that they would play new music and that I had to freestyle…again.

Ok, so this is where the complications began. I do have some hiphop and street jazz dance background but I am by no means an actual dancer or good enough to freestyle for an extensive period of time, so I was kind of shaking in my shoes at that point. I don’t quite remember for sure, but I’m pretty certain they played an Usher song. I tried my best to groove and dance like I actually knew what I was doing, which I suppose I kinda did, but I definitely WASN’T GOOD. I was super embarrassed and awkward.
PROTIP: Be prepared to dance even if you only signed up to sing, and sing even if you only signed up to dance!!!!

After that, they asked me if I could sing a more “powerful” song. I hesitated for awhile because I didn’t plan anything else, but eventually ended up singing “Impossible” by Shontelle (also my JYP audition song), and was then pulled aside by a male staff who told me that they wanted to interview me.

They brought me into a separate room on the same floor, 2 to 3 doors down. The new room I was in was relatively small, and there was only 1 table and a couple of chairs against one of the walls. I was instructed to sit on a chair in front of a huge CUBE ENTERTAINMENT banner and had to wait for around 5 minutes before another lady and the same male staff came in carrying a tripod and a camera. The female staff member sat opposite me with my application form whilst the dude stood behind her with the tripod. (She spoke perfect English by the way!)

PROTIP: Don’t let your race/nationality/linguistic abilities HINDER you from auditioning!

She told me that they were going to ask me a couple of questions about myself and that I should reply as naturally as possible (while looking into the camera) AND in all the languages I could.

So guys, VERY IMPORTANT PROTIP: DO NOT lie about the languages you can speak on the application form, it WILL come back to bite you in the ass right about here.

At that time 3 years ago, my Korean definitely wasn’t as good as it is now, and I CLEARLY REMEMBER fumbling over my words. The super nice female staff actually had to come in and help at some points because I couldn’t remember certain words in Korean and promptly BLANKED OUT HAHA. She scribbled things onto my application form as I spoke into camera and it pretty much went something like this:

(These are all super brief and vague examples because I do not remember exactly what she asked/what I answered. Also, all the questions were asked in English!)

Q: Can you briefly introduce yourself?

A: Hello! My name is _________, I am 13 years old and I am from _________! I can speak fluent English and Mandarin and I’ve been learning Korean for a year or so and I’m very honoured and happy to be here today!

Q: Do you play any instruments?

A: Yes. I can play the piano, bass, guitar and drums, but I like drums the most!

Q: Who are your favourite singers?

A: I really like Maroon 5 and I also listen to a lot of Big Bang.

(I’M NOT SURE IF SAYING THAT I LISTENED TO A LOT OF BIGBANG WAS A GOOD CHOICE…)

Q: What do you like to eat?

A: I love western foods like pasta and steak!

Q: Are you a fan of any Cube artists?

(I KID YOU NOT THEY ACTUALLY ASKED THIS)

A: Ermmmm *hesitates for super long* I listen to BEAST the most but I like many of 4Minute’s and BTOB’s songs too.
–I then proceeded to spontaneously sing and dance the chorus part of BEAST’s “Shock” as a joke…… oh man recollecting this is making me cringe so hard.–

Thank god she was so so so so nice and it felt more like a friendly casual conversation than an actual interview. Both staff laughed when I tried to be funny even though I really truly wasn’t and they tried to put me as at ease as possible.

I also remember that at the “What do you like to eat?” question, I said “steak” really fast and then proceeded to talk about how I had learnt from my Dad that you could tell the done-ness of a piece of steak by clenching your fist and poking your palm (it’s kind of hard to explain) and the staff lady was SO NICE and PATRONISING she actually tried doing it and I wanted to cry of relief because I was sure that she thought I was completely crazy but she didn’t. She asked me a few more questions, of which I don’t quite remember anymore, but they were probably really simple and basic because I don’t recall being taken aback or anything.

After that, they asked me to end off by giving a conclusion, ok conclusion is the wrong word… I mean, more of a closing 인사 (I’m not sure how to say this in English what in the world…) Closing greeting? Yes let’s go with that, and say anything else that I wanted to. (I thought it’d be good to add in here that I didn’t answer ALL the questions in 3 languages because my Korean really wasn’t competent enough, but they didn’t seem to mind!) So I ended off by saying thank you blah blah blah in all the languages I could and was assured by the male staff behind the camera that my Korean was pretty good for a foreigner of my age. I’m sure he was lying.

Before letting me go, they asked me to stand against one of the white walls and took a few photos of me, asking me to tilt at different angles and smile/not smile, and then I was finally truly and surely done! And that was literally it. I walked out of the building and had to borrow a phone to call my parents and then met up with them and my friends and proceeded to recount everything to them and swear on my life that I wasn’t lying HAHA.

But oh well, they didn’t call me back after or try to get into any sort of contact with me so that’s where my kpop dreams quite anti-climatically ended. Maybe big boss didn’t like me enough HAHA! Once in awhile, I actually think back to the audition and wonder what they did with my photos and videos, and if they were perhaps circulating in some entertainment industry underworld somewhere HAHA. Apparently my mum now CLAIMS that she had received both an email and call about it but because she had absolutely no idea what was happening and thought they were trying to scam her, she just simply ignored them all sigh…

All in all, this Cube audition was my first EVER kpop audition and it was what really boosted my confidence to new heights. It was Cube that helped me find the courage to go through with all my other auditions (even though they weren’t nearly as “successful” as this) in later years and it’s probably not quite a good enough reason but it may be why I have such a soft spot for Cube artists even to this day. Hehe.

Once again, I hope that this post was at least an interesting read and feel free to ask me any questions if you have any queries whatsoever! You guys are not obligated to believe me, and I’m fully aware that this post can seem pretty shifty and unreliable coming from someone who has absolutely no proof. But nonetheless, I hope it helped to shed some light on Cube auditions and how things generally work at kpop auditions beyond the first round!

I will try to reply back to comments as soon as I can (and if I remember) but I’ve been really busy (and crazy stressed) with school so I humbly ask for some give hehe.

Till then,

❤

The EXO’luXion in SINGAPORE!

Hello everyone! I’m finally back! After a long break for me to study for my national exams, I’m coming back with a bang! So this post is going to be all about EXO’luXion in Singapore!

The concert spanned across a period of two days; the 9th and 10th of January. Whilst EXO was great, the concert was by far the most unorganised concert I have ever been to. And I’ve been to quite a few.

The EXO’luXion in Singapore was organised by AC Music Entertainment (ACME for short) and they were literally the most irresponsible and irritating organisers I’ve ever encountered. Bear with me for awhile as I rant and explain my terrible experience with them. 

Firstly, they only announced ticket sales on the 11th of December, and I doubt that it was just me who felt that it was EXTREMELY LATE for a concert that was planned for the beginning of January. They had this thing called priority sales, in which you had to be a member of this Korean club in Singapore (membership is free). BUT each ticket would be $30 more expensive EACH if bought through priority booking. This wasn’t too much of a problem for me since I was more than willing to pay a reasonable amount if it meant that I would get better seats. I also helped some of my friends (who were overseas) obtain tickets through priority booking. So can you guys please try and imagine my anger when my friends received better seats and tickets through public sales that were held on the 18th when they returned back to Singapore, as compared to my more expensive priority tickets???? 

Since I wasn’t wiling to be put off or angered for long by such a “minute” detail, I decided to just let it go and sell the tickets away when I received them because there was no point in having those two tickets when my friends managed to get better ones right? I opted for registered mail instead of physically heading down to the company as my mode of collection. Well, that was a terrible idea. I only received my physical tickets on the 4rd of January. 7 days before the concert, which gave me barely any time AT ALL to sell them away. 

But it was fine. It was all cool. I have a pretty high tolerance level and I definitely wasn’t going to let some sh*tty management ruin my time at the concert. Oh, by the way, I only attended Day 2 of the concert, on the 10th. Okay, so on the day itself I was really hyped up. I hand-made a banner for Yixing and I was simply in really good spirits. Now, if you’re one of those self-righteous/really law-abiding people you might not like what I did/tried to do. 

So, I attempted to sneak my dslr inside the venue, just like many other fansite masters who flew to Singapore for the concert. (I’m not a fansite master, I just enjoy taking HD pics and I have NEVER HAD any trouble sneaking my dslr in to any concert before.) I brought 2 additional lenses as well. So the two lenses were hidden on body and the head of the camera was pretty well hidden within a sock and shirt at the bottom of my bag with piles of other stuff on it. However, just because security was incompetent on Day 1 of the concert and realised that they were letting many cameras sneak in, security was RIDICULOUSLY tight on Day 2. 

I have a friend who had a bag of medication in her bag and they made her unzip and remove everything. Her medication and inhaler were everywhere and I personally felt that it was a total invasion of privacy. It wasn’t the usual prodding with a stick that I was accustomed to. The staff physically put their hands in my bag and turned it upside down, even shaking it out and unzipping all the compartments to ensure that there was nothing hidden. Now, by this time I was feeling kind of anxious but I was pretty (stupidly) certain that I wouldn’t get caught. Well I did. The lady at the door even patted me down as I walked in, which I have NEVER experienced before at any concert and I honestly felt a little violated. I’m not sure if this is something they’re even allowed to do? But they confiscated all my equipment and asked my friend and I to head downstairs to bag deposit to leave our equipment there. The queue for bag deposit was literally a snake (with the number of people they caught) and I saw many fansites similarly get caught by security before even entering the stadium. Also, we had to pay $5 for bag deposit. So we essentially paid to get our things confiscated. We had to queue for a good 40minutes and were nearly late for the concert. They also confiscated polaroid cameras and monopods. 

Now, I really wouldn’t be this angry if the whole situation occurred in a normal setting, because photography was indeed not allowed in the stadium, and it never has been. However, when I finally entered the stadium eons later, it was literally a quarter empty. There were so many seats unfilled because tickets were so expensive and sales were announced so late. And you know what topped it off? ACME was giving away free tickets outside the stadium to both volunteers and non-fans. 

Although the camera issue really destroyed my mood for the concert, I was hoping that EXO would help quench my fire and I was super pumped for this elaborate fan event that was planned after all the hard work put in by the Singaporean fanbases. Except… we didn’t even get to do the fan event. 

ACME CONFISCATED all our fan event items, mainly a Kaisoo banner that was meant for their birthdays and the most intricately planned fan event which constituted 5 different coloured hearts. Since we were not given an updated set list, the instructions were to raise the hearts during Promise. However, Promise was determined to not be part of the setlist when they did not perform it on Day 1, which then led to the instructions being changed to raising the hearts up for Angel instead. All was fine and dandy, until they removed Angel from the setlist for Day 2. This was not just suspicious, but was so ridiculously unfair (which was ironically the last song they performed) because they had performed Angel on Day 1. It was honestly just a huge disappointing mess and I felt terrible for all the fansites who had put in not just their time and effort, but money into wanting to make EXO’s visit to Singapore a memorable one. 

Can I just add in here that all these banners definitely fit the rules of 42 by 42 centimetres, and that there was no reason as to why they were confiscated. Apparently it had something to do with paying a fee to the stadium? But all in all, ACME is by far the WORST organiser I have ever encountered and I am definitely going to drop them a long email or visit their office personally to speak to someone. 

Now on the the actual concert.

First, the details:
Date- 10th January 2016
Time- 3.30pm +/- to 6.30pm +/-
Venue- Singapore Indoor Stadium
(My) Seat- Category 1, Row 2, Corner seats (right where Sehun has his Baby Don’t Cry water stage) 

Well, what else can I say other than EXO was amazing. They really were. It was my second time seeing them live after The Lost Planet in 2014 when it was OT11. If they ever felt down by the empty seats or lack of fan events they did not once show it, still performing their absolute best. One thing I was kinda bummed about was that Promise was removed from the setlist. However, we were also the first concert venue where they performed Sing For You and Unfair so I guess that more than made up for it. Their Promise VCR was so emotional and I literally felt like crying HAHA. It’s a pretty amazing feeling to finally see them in person after watching them for so long online and on V app. 

During one of their MENTs, Baekhyun actually vocally said that he was feeling tired and drained. It was said in a pretty joking way because he was all, “I’m so tired because I’m having so much fun!” But it was pretty hard to take lightly because we were all aware that their schedules were literally jam-packed and whilst I was excited for them to be in Singapore, I felt terrible having to watch them rush from place to place. 

It felt surreal to see Yixing. My ultimate biases have always been Chanyeol and Yixing but seeing Yixing in particular that night made me incredibly emotional. It might sound stupid but I don’t really have any other way to put it. HAHA When all the members arrived at the stadium for rehearsals, they quickly rushed in through the doors. But Yixing was the only member who actually stopped to bow at all of us and the staff on duty before heading inside. I have a much greater and genuine respect and love for him after witnessing all he has been through, and I was really just so deliriously happy that he was able to join the Singapore leg of this tour. 

They performed a total of 30 songs (I’m sure you’ll be able to find a proper setlist on Twitter floating around), not including the MENTs and VCRs. And since the concert started really early at around 330pm, I was out of the stadium by about 630pm. I wasn’t really shocked when I saw pictures of Yixing, Kyungsoo and Chanyeol at the airport that same night, because they had to rush off to their other schedules. Kyungsoo and Chanyeol flew back to Seoul whilst Yixing flew to Shanghai. 

What I’m about to say next is probably going to be very unpopular opinion. But watching them rush from country to country really just made me realise how we were probably just another schedule to them. I wish we meant more than just another stadium full of fans, but being so used to touring and visiting so many countries, and even touring in North America for the first time in the first half of the year, another venue and another (half-filled) stadium of screaming fans really doesn’t mean much to them in the long run. This is not to say that they are unappreciative or arrogant, because I’m positive that regardless, they are genuinely grateful for the support they have. However, we are likely to just be another one of their job obligations and another stadium full of people who have immense love for them and contribute to their next pay check. 

I know most fans may not agree with this notion because they genuinely believe that not just EXO, but all idols in general, care, love and appreciate their fans as much as they claim. But the truth is, if I died, they probably wouldn’t care. And if they did care, it really wouldn’t take much for them to get over it. I’m probably more of a realist cum pessimist and I find it impossible to believe when they say things along the likes of, “Singaporean fans are the prettiest!” Or “I’ve been thinking of Singaporean fans every night ever since we last came in 2014!” Those words to me, are just well-rehearsed and overused convenient lines of bullsh*t. (This isn’t to say that I didn’t enjoy hearing them say it anyway hehe.) Harsh, but the truth. 

Just as we are the people we send them lavish birthday gifts and queue for hours to see them at a fansign or music show, they think of us as the same people who endanger lives by chasing their cars or repeatedly spamming calls on their phones and stalking them outside their dorms. 

Still, it was a concert I really enjoyed, solely because it was EXO. I will admit here, that I might have enjoyed The Lost Planet slightly more, not because of EXO, but because of the few factors such as the organisers and the fact that I actually bought mosh pit tickets for TLP and was ridiculously close to the stage. (I also have a post about EXO TLP if anyone is interested!!)

Their showmanship and eagerness to perform and please was incredibly endearing. And I think I’ll allow myself to assume that they meant everything they said for just one more day before the truth of the matter really sinks in. Haha! 

It seems like this post has become more of a ranting/personal feelings session more than an overview of the concert. But I still hope you guys enjoyed this read and have a fantastic day and week ahead!

Till next time,
❤

P.S Yixing sang a snippet of my absolute favourite JJ Lin song 사랑해요/只对你说 (saranghaeyo/zhi dui ni shuo) during one of the MENTs at the concert and my heart literally soared and flew to heaven as soon as I recognised the tune!!!! Go give it a listen if you want to! 

P.P.S Although I can’t provide you guys with any physical proof, I’m pretty certain Yixing read and saw my banner/sign because he took a step down and squinted into my section and the stranger next to me started hitting my arm and was like, “RAISE IT HIGHER HE’S LOOKING!!!! I SWEAR!!!!” So of course I got really excited and panicky all at once. But then again it might just be my delusional fangirl self. HAHAHA

P.P.P.S Don’t mind the terrible quality of the photos here guys 😦 it wouldn’t be this way if I had my camera. :((( 

   
   

  
The following are pictures found on Twitter of the staff taking away all the fan banners and events 😦 all credit goes to the original owner! 

    

 
Also here’s a picture of the banner I made for Yixing if any of you are interested (I don’t see why you might be but oh well!) HAHA. For those of you who don’t speak Chinese, “开心就好” basically means something along the lines of “As long as you’re happy, all is good/it’s enough.” 

  

10 Types Of Kpop Fans

Hello guys! So today I’m gonna do a quick post on what I think are some of the different types of kpop fans that exist in the fandom. So let’s get right into it!

1) The super multi-fandom fans

Okay, so I definitely fall into this category. I stan just about every single group out there in the market. Being multi-fandom is extremely difficult, especially when all the groups you stan comeback at the same time and you have difficulty deciding who to vote for on music shows. And… not forgetting that you’re probably always poor too. Also, I feel like we deserve major credit for dealing with the crap that other fans say like, “you’re not a “true” fan because you like another group.” Oh please. Yes, being multi-fandom is excruciatingly difficult, yet it pays off when you always have new videos to watch on YouTube and don’t have to wait forever for our faves to come back. I guess we win some, we lose some. 

2) The fansite noonas 

So I think that this applies mostly to Twitter. A fansite noona is basically the person behind the computer screen who runs fansite accounts, usually catered to one specific idol. Fansite noonas are the people you have to thank for the HD photos you use of your oppa as your wallpaper. They’re literally at every concert, in every country, regardless what time of the year and they seem to magically be able to speak and translate all sorts of languages. Some of the more popular fansites compile their photos and sell them to fans as photobooks. Alternatively, they’re the reason why photography isn’t allowed in concerts (because organisers don’t want you making profits off photos) but most of us, especially people who couldn’t be at a particular concert, are just more than thankful for their existence. 

[You guys should witness what it’s like when a major fansite closes down or converts. The whole fandom will literally be in mourning.]

3) The wannabe fansite noonas

Now these people are the people who think that they have the ability to be a fansite noona. And sometimes, they actually do. They tweet popular accounts on Twitter to get noticed and request “follow for follows” on Instagram. Now don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a bad thing, and I have countless friends who fall under this category. I also truly understand that everyone does indeed have to start somewhere. But it can definitely get borderline irritating if you make gaining followers your reason for existence.

4) The over-sensitive ranters who are convinced that the whole world hates their oppa

Okay now, these are my “FAVOURITE” kind of fans. The keyboard warriors who enjoy hanging out in the comments section of koreaboo posts on Facebook. The fans who get over-defensive when they (misguidedly) feel that the idol/group they like is suffering from the mean comment of a fellow member of the kpop community. The fans who take EVERY LITTLE FLIPPIN’ THING personally. This is hilarious to me because the arguments are usually just a bunch of overreacting brats who totally misunderstood a comment or post.

Well firstly, if you’re going to post something that you know has the ability to breed unhappiness and complaint, don’t post it. No one gives a sh*t that you think she looks like a slut in this picture, and I couldn’t care less that his dancing seemed kinda sloppy today. Didn’t your parents teach you that if you have nothing nice to say, to not say anything at all? Or at least not say it out in the open for the world to hear? 

Secondly, if you’re about to respond to a mean comment, just swallow it back down. Instead of provoking an immature child with bad grammar and spelling, just laugh at his/her idio-city and scroll past. Trust me, it’ll save you a lot of eye rolls. 

5) The entirely insensitive fans who genuinely disregard the feelings of other fans who might not like their same group

(ie. the salty fans)

I’d say that number 5 and number 4 run pretty hand in hand, but I still felt like they were different enough to each deserve their own spot. Basically, this is the fan who L.O.V.E.S comparing their favourite group to another group, especially when it’s in the favour of their group. 

“Congrats to BEEGBAENG for their eleventh #1 win!!”

“What, eleven wins only? EKSO won TWELVE times when they were promoting. BEEGBAENG is such a nugu group.” 

Or 

“I hate it that EKSO can lipsync on a live stage and still win #1. That’s why my kings BEEGBAENG are the only talented group in the whole kpop industry forever.” 

Or

“What… Why is some EPIC HI nugu wearing the SAME shirt as my KYOOSYOONG oppa?! These people have NO originality whatsoever. I can’t believe a bunch of ahjussis have fans. Ew.” 

To the people who are leaving these types of comments, would it kill you to stop? You might not like/be a fan of a particular group. But every group out there in the industry has their own fans. Wake up and realise that you’re not the only person that’s being catered for. Be respectful and stay in your own lane. Just as you might think that another group is lame and untalented, that’s likely what another person thinks of your group too. 

6) The fashionista fans

If you have a friend out there who often wears (imitation) HBA/Supreme/Givenchy/MCM/Moschino, overuses bandanas, wears face masks for no reason, uses too much foundation or has dyed their hair more than 5 times, it’s likely that they fall under this category. 

The fashionista fans love scrutinising idol airport photos to identify what brands they were wearing, and then they try to use it as inspiration to reinvent/determine their own style. They’re easily influenced to buy new clothes and shoes if their favourite celebrities were spotted wearing them. It’s their attempt at looking and dressing a bit more “Korean” and stylish, considering that Korea is undoubtedly the country that trendsets. 

7) The instagram/tumblr editors and aff/livejournal writers

These are the fans who have my utmost respect. The instagram/tumblr editors are the people who painstakingly touch up on pictures and gifs, re-fitting them so that they can be used as HD wallpaper, or inserting subtitles into gifs and short videos so that international fans can actually understand what celebrities are saying. They’re forced by an unspoken rule to update extremely often or risk losing followers and God forbid they forget to credit the original source on one of their edits. 

For those of you who might not know this, (which I find impossible) aff stands for asian fanfiction. It’s a website where talented writer fans are able to put their writing skills to the test by publishing their stories of fantasy and imagination on a public platform for hundreds and thousands of people to see. The stories’ main characters are usually idols that the writer likes, and a story can be as short as a one chapter or as long as 200 chapters. Many aff writers have found success through aff and now have their very own published books. 

Aff and livejournal are definitely my number one source of Korean entertainment. I haven’t had much time to actually read or browse the websites lately, but I guarantee that some of the stories on it are incredibly well-written. Just to name a few off the top of my head: 10080, Anterograde Tomorrow, Fighting Perfection, Paper Mâché, Zodiac, Arbitrage etc (for some reason I can only think of EXO ones right now). Check those out if you haven’t and be sure to properly explore the featured and recommended fics when you have the time. You won’t regret it!

8) The fans who hate EXO

This may sound biased or defensive to some of you, especially since I’m a pretty big EXO fan myself. But you can’t deny that somehow, on every single kpop video there is out there, whether actually related to EXO or not, there is at least one comment that speaks about EXO negatively. 

It could be the live stage for some random rookie group’s performance and lo and behold, there’d still be a nasty comment about EXO. I’m sure that EXO could be on a 15 year hiatus in Mexico and there’d still be mean comments about them on some random allkpop article. Literally at least 20% of kpop fans are made up of fans who, for some unfathomable reason, hate EXO. 

(I feel the need to draw a Venn diagram to represent the numbers.) 

9) The fans who hate koreaboo, allkpop and eat your kimchi

Now these fans, are pretty much everyone really. Except some are much more vocal than others. I’ve called allkpop and koreaboo out before on how unreliable, misleading and unnecessary some of their posts are. However, I always try give them credit for being fast and efficient with their updates. I found out about Kris’ departure through allkpop. I found out about Luhan’s departure through allkpop. I found out that Lee Joon and Thunder were leaving MBLAQ through koreaboo and I learnt how to properly eat ramen through EYK (Hehe).

I resent it when these people over-exaggerate their posts just to garner views and comments, but I do appreciate the effort that goes into every news article and the making of every video (in the case of EYK).

Last but not least!!!!

10) That one friend who used to make fun of you for liking kpop and now wants to have discussions with you about it like they’re suddenly a huge fan and as if you haven’t been a fan for years whilst they were too busy laughing at you

Can anyone relate? 

I have this friend, my friend has this friend and I’m sure you have this friend. And I personally think that this is the MOST annoying type of fan there is out there. 

Do you not remember me trying to desperately get you to listen to Mr Simple or Haru Haru? And now you talk to me as if I NEVER KNEW that Suju once had 13 members or that TOP used to rap underground? There is absolutely nothing that makes me more irritated than when someone tries to educate me about a group/artist/idol who I already know EVERYTHING about. The only thing that can possibly make this worse, is if your friend suddenly felt COMPELLED to like your bias too. It might just be me, but I’m pretty certain I remember you saying, “There’s no way that’s a guy.” Or does, “EW he’s so ugly!!!” ring a bell? And now you BARGE into my lane and proclaim your undying love for him. 

Now don’t get me wrong, I know my place and I most definitely do not own any of my favourite idols. But we all know how arduous it is to finally pick a bias, so when we actually do come to a final decision, there’s just this possessiveness that comes with it. Do you guys feel that way too? Or is it just me? Because that would make me extremely sad and embarrassed. 

Well that’s it for the 10 types of kpop fans! Let me know if you think I missed anything out and if you agree with any of my points! 

Questions: 

1) Which type(s) of fan(s) are you? 

I feel like I’m a mixture of 1, 6 and 7. And maybe a TEENSY TINY bit of 3. HAHA. 

2) Which type(s) of fan(s) do you hate the most? 

4 and 10. No doubt about it. 

Till next time

❤

Kpop Ultimate Summer Comeback Battle!!

Hey there everyone! I was chatting with a couple of friends the other day and our conversation escalated to a pretty intense battle of preference.

The Ultimate Summer Comeback Battle!!

Most companies try to strategically throw their groups out into the public eye during the summer, mostly in June and July. Summer songs are usually more upbeat and pop-py and colourful and us as fans, are always spoilt for choice with the fantastic line-up on music shows. This summer was definitely no different. Since so many top idol groups had to battle it out to clinch #1 on the charts, I felt like it was only necessary to post about which songs I felt are/were (slightly) more deserving of a win.

Every opinion and thought in this post is entirely my own and I hope that none of you take them to offence. 

I probably won’t be touching much on the earlier comebacks (AOA’s “Heart Attack”, Teen Top’s “Ah Ah”, or BTOB’s “It’s Okay”) because then I’ll just have way too many groups to talk about and this post will literally never end HAHA. I do want to say though, that I loved loved loved loved BTOB’s comeback this time and I genuinely felt that they were more than deserving of a 1st place win. 

I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but every BigBang title song released so far this year has clinched trophies. And whilst this was super exciting news for me as a V.I.P, it gave me so much relief to finally see another group win. 

Anyway, we had Sistar who came back with “Shake it”, and they managed to clinch an impressive 6 wins with the song. I personally felt rather neutral towards the comeback. It wasn’t great, but I guess it was still moderately catchy and fun to sing along to. Bluntly put, I feel that Sistar’s sound is starting to get a little old. All their songs sound pretty similar to each other and their choreography ever since their “Touch My Body” era has been less than good (though that probably isn’t something they have control over); granted that I initially found the choreo for “Shake it” rather similar to JJ Project’s “Bounce”. I will say, however, that Sistar chose the best time to come back, leaving them rather isolated from all the powerhouse groups that only came back a week or so after their promotions. And that was probably what contributed the most to their 6 wins. 

Right after Sistar, came Girls Day with “Ring Ma Bell”. By some unfortunate twist of fate, Girls Day and Girls Generation promotions overlapped entirely. “Ring Ma Bell” was definitely improvement from “Hello Bubble” but I’m sure we all know that Girls Day is capable of so much more. Whilst the song was pretty catchy and fun, Girls Day unfortunately got tied up into a bunch of scandals (Sojin’s underwear issue, Girls Day’s attitude problems on Koon TV, Yura being bullied by the other members). The scandals, along with the cross-promotions left this comeback (and song) completely in the dust. Also, Sojin’s hair has definitely seen better days but I guess that was more than made up for with Yura’s red hair.

(Can I just ask if I was the only person that thought the choreography for “Ring Ma Bell” was super strange?)

Bringing us to our next group, the very girl group that’s dubbed by most as the Queens of Kpop, Girls Generation. “Party” is an extremely cute and bubbly song and the MV is all kinds of sunshine and happy. This is also their first comeback after Jessica’s departure from the group. They’ve clinched 6 wins so far with “Party” and I have no doubt that they’ve already got a couple more first place trophies in the bag. However, whether or not this is because the song is actually good or if it’s simply a result of their sheer popularity is something I have yet to decide. “Party” is definitely not my favourite Girls Generation song and I distinctly remember saying that it sounded like the OST for a Barbie movie when I first heard it. Maybe it’s because I’m just not all that into cutesy, colourful things. (As mentioned above, this is entirely my own opinion. Please don’t give me flak for this. ㅠㅠ) The intro part by Tiffany is definitely my favourite part of the whole song, not because it’s great or anything but because watching her do it live makes me laugh and smile. They’ve winked and giggled more times in this one song than I probably will in my entire life. Regardless, it does take talent to pull all that cute off and whilst it isn’t the best song GG’s ever had, it’s still pretty good. I must mention how GOOD Taeyeon looks with her pink hair and also, I just HAVE to give honourable mention to Yuri’s fantastic tan. 

Oh, I nearly forgot JYP’s money cow, GOT7! They came back with a super upbeat song and exciting song, “Just Right”. The MV was diabetic-ally cute and the lyrics were more than sweet, even causing them to be named “healing-dols” with all the positivity they were bringing with it. This song, similar to the many others I’ve spoken about above, wasn’t exactly my cup of tea and I look forward to them returning with a more hip-hop concept such as during their “Girls Girls Girls” era. 

Next, we have A Pink, who came back with “Remember”. Most A Pink songs sound relatively similar, such as Mr Chu and No No No as well as Luv and Remember. Their concept is pretty safe: cute and pastel, but that’s exactly what works for them. Naeun actually has a pretty decent amount of lines this time and the general vocals are pretty good. Bomi’s bright pink hair was a definite NONO for me though. As much as I liked this song, I still think they have some time before being able to match up/beat Girls Generation. (Considering that very very few girl groups have actually managed to reach that level of success.) Though, I do definitely see that day in their near future. 

Next in line, we have Infinite with “Bad”. This was probably the best summer comeback song in my opinion. The MV for “Bad” is in no way “summer”, for it was filmed in a dilapidated and dark building with broken mirrors and deep dark stuff. I’ve never been this relieved to watch an MV that wasn’t filmed at a beach with overexposure and too much colour (though if that’s your thing I’m really not trying to judge you for it!!!) and I’m always impressed by the amount of talent present in the group. Myungsoo, Sungjong and Sungyeol’s vocals have definite improvement and Woohyun’s voice never fails to give me goosebumps. Likewise, I’m always blown away by Hoya and Dongwoo’s singing ability. “Bad” has clinched 4 first place trophies so far and I must say that they deserved every single one.

Of course, we just have to talk about Super Junior’s “Devil”. The song is amazing in the funniest and smartest way. Their use of sunglasses as stage props makes all their live performances all the more hilarious and entertaining. The song is immensely catchy and it’s great to finally see Yesung back on stage. I’ve never been able to understand why SM seems to enjoy pitting their own artists against each other (as in the case of GG and SuJu) but hey, if it means that I get to see Donghae in funky sunnies, I’m really not complaining. 

Last but definitely not least, G-Friend with “Me Gustas Tu”. The fact that I actually threw a rookie group into this list definitely implies something. G-Friend… is impressive. They’re extremely young and are definitely not the most visual-heavy group, but what they are is a group with pretty good vocalists. I will hold my breath and say this, but “Me Gustas Tu” might just be my favourite girlgroup comeback song this summer. 

Fun Fact: “Me Gutas Tu” was choreographed by BTS’ choreographer, Son Seungdeuk!!!!! Also 5/6 of the girls are currently studying in School of Performing Arts Seoul. Talk about talent.

Again, I hope none of you feel offended by my opinions just as you are all entitled to your own!

More groups are definitely going to be coming back as August rolls around and I really hope to see 2NE1 and Winner in that list, though knowing YG and their extremely busy schedule (releasing Bigbang’s E and Bigbang’s final full album, debuting iKON, Akmu/Lee Hi comeback, and debuting YG New Girls), the likelihood of me debuting is probably higher than the likelihood of us seeing 2NE1 or Winner this year. I also simply CAN’T WAIT for Beast, especially with all the teasers released so far AND also because they’re set to tour and stop in Singapore on the 24th of September!! Ahhhhhh!

I’d love to know which group you guys thought was the best comeback this summer, so don’t hesitate to leave a comment! 
Till next time!

❤

BIGBANG MADE TOUR in SINGAPORE

Hello everyone!!! As promised, I’m back to write about my BigBang MADE Tour experience!
BigBang definitely started off my 2015 concert “schedule” with a huge BangBangBang, being my first concert in 2015! This time round, I was a VIP for BigBang’s Singapore leg of their MADE tour, which meant that I was entitled to a private soundcheck before the concert as well as exclusive VIP merch. The merch included a super cool in-your-face VIP tag and lanyard, a water bottle, and a luggage tag. Oh, and it all came in the official MADE tote bag.  

 Note: Bigbang will be in Singapore for two days, and I attended the first day, 18 July 2015, Saturday. 

The concert was set to start at 6pm and the soundcheck was to be at 3pm. However, the boys were late so the soundcheck ended up being delayed. When we finally got into the stadium, the boys only “performed” 3 songs: BangBangBang, Fantastic Baby and We Like 2 Party. I’m not sure if all the different tour locations only had 3 songs practised for the soundcheck, or if it was because they were running late, but I felt like it was way too short and rushed.

Short Rant: I pride myself to be someone who tries to understand the perspectives of others before saying anything negative, but for the life of me, I have never be able to understand just why photography in Singapore is always SO strict. The staff and crew at the soundcheck were extremely pushy, rude, physical and all-in-all just weren’t pleasant jolly people. Thank goodness photography wasn’t as strict for the concert itself. 

The concert started at around 630pm instead of the set 6pm, and ended at around 9pm. We definitely weren’t short-changed despite the delay and it was a good 2+ hours of quality music and entertainment. 

I’ve seen BigBang live three times in total, and they NEVER fail to impress me. They always come back with even greater music and are somehow able to become more and more charismatic with each visit. It was also amazing to finally get to see Seungri again after he had to miss out on the YG family concert last year. BigBang definitely is the king of stage presence, granted that the fans in the stadium were atrocious (sorry). 

Being in the VIP section, I expected the people there to be a lot more pumped up and excited considering how much they paid for their seat. To my utter SHOCK, the people behind actually told some of us in front to sit down when we stood up to sing and cheer. 

At the end of any concert, I’m always apologetic when I imagine how disappointed the artists must be at the fans’ lack of response and enthusiasm. Unfortunately, today was no different. Sigh. I hope the crowd tomorrow is 10 times more hyped up and excited than today’s. (I’ll probably post this on the 19th so “tomorrow” actually means “today”, if that makes any sense at all.) 

Regardless, the concert was amazing, for me at least. The guy two seats from me had earplugs in his ears. (Like what are you even doing bro.) Well, to each his own. They performed exactly 23 songs, the last five being part of the encore stage. Each member also had their own solo stages, Seungri with Strong Baby and Let’s Talk About Love, Daesung with Wings, GD with Crooked, TOP with Doom DaDa and of course, Taeyang with Eyes Nose Lips.

All the members spoke decent English (GD and Taeyang do speak better English though!) and Seungri’s Chinese, along with TOP’s English, have improved by leaps and bounds. Every single time I see BigBang live, I’m struck by how much better they all look in person. You must be thinking, “How is that even possible?”, considering that they already look like wax figurines in pictures and videos. But somehow, it is. 

The only thing I felt could’ve been improved on was the stage plan. There were two stages, a main stage and a second stage in front. I feel like BigBang didn’t spend enough time on the second stage and were just so far away for a majority of the concert. Maybe it was because the two stages were so far apart from each other and took too much effort and time to get to, because they rarely spent any time there at all.

Then again, that was probably because really elaborate stage props had to be set up, such as that huge statue from the BaeBae MV and a super pretty mirrored pedestal for the Loser stage. Those simply wouldn’t have been able to fit on the second stage. Also, every fan always thinks that the members are too far away so my argument probably isn’t quite valid HAHA. (I still feel that they should’ve spent more time on that second stage tho.

Don’t even get me started on how great HITECH and CRAZY were. For those of you who aren’t really in tune to YG, they’re basically the two dance crews that make up YG backup dancers- HITECH being the male dancers and CRAZY being the female dancers. The live band was also A+!

Fun Fact: YG backup dancers actually have their own fanbases. Their popularity is amazing and if you were to judge based on the sheer number of Instagram followers they have, you’d think they were idols themselves. Come on, everyone knows the super talented and handsome Kwon Twins right? 😉

My Top 3 favourite performances would have had to be “Loser”, “Haru Haru” and “If You”. Oh man, these three stages were amazing. I think why “Loser” and “If You” are in my Top 3 are pretty self-explanatory but “Haru Haru” really blew my mind. They performed it acoustic, accompanied by a beautiful backdrop and fantastic lighting. “Haru Haru” is most definitely a song that will never ever grow old and those of you who haven’t heard it are definitely missing out! (On both the beautiful song and well-directed MV, as well as a foetus, short-sleeved, eyeliner-ed TOP in the MV!!!!) If any of you fans are like me; slightly more on the sentimental side, you’d probably agree that Haru Haru is BigBang’s “representative song” and not Fantastic Baby or any other song. 

Ya know, there’s a reason why BigBang was able to reach a stage whereby they could go on hiatus for years and come back with 5 albums in one year. And with twice the popularity at that. Wording it short and sweet, it’s because they’re amazing. I have no doubt that blood, sweat and tears contributed to their current glory days, but they wouldn’t have ever been this successful if they didn’t have truck-loads of talent as well. 

I can only dream of one day being as successful as BigBang and as happy with my life as they appear to be. And I pray that I end up getting a job and doing something I love and am passionate about. But whilst I chase that seemingly unreachable dream, I’m more than happy to watch BigBang live theirs. 

Thank you for a fantastic night BigBang! You guys NEVER disappoint. 

Till next time,

❤

A loud and proud VIP

What is kpop exactly?

Hello guys! I haven’t written in so ridiculously long but I guess I really have no excuse this time. For some reason, this post took me so long to write. I think I have at least 7 or 8 drafts of outlines in my notes that I really couldn’t finish so I’m glad to finally get something out there. My holidays have just started too so hopefully that means I’ll have more time to write. 😛

Anyways, this time, I figured that instead of commenting on news updates or gossip like I usually do, I’ll discuss more about kpop in general/in today’s context. I mean, I can’t be the only person who has ever thought to myself, “When, how and why exactly did this phenomenon start ruling the world?”

Firstly, for people who aren’t fans of kpop, kpop isn’t just a business where pretty people prance around on stage and lipsync to songs. Kpop is something that is ridiculously elaborate, political, and also something that has so much work taking place in the background. 

The main reason why kpop is so successful today is undeniably it’s training system. Usually, for western music, talented artists are discovered on YouTube, social media, or maybe even at live gigs. They are then signed to a record label and produce an album a couple months from when they were discovered. This sometimes means that despite being extremely talented and capable, these artists simply do not know what to do when thrown in front of a huge audience or on stage. However kpop works in an entirely different way. Talented teens, children even, from the ages of around 10 to 18, audition for whichever entertainment company they like or feel will better suit their talents and needs. For instance, SM definitely requires one to have a pretty face, paired with decent singing and dancing skills whereas YG focuses more on talent and charisma in an artist. There is a different kind of hunger when this happens because it ensures that these young trainees are always kept on guard and are forcing themselves to improve or be at risk of getting left behind. This ensures that the final outcome we, as fans, get is always one that is top notch. 

Of course there are the more popular companies such the already mentioned SM and YG as well as a few others such as JYP, CUBE or FNC etc. (FNC is a company specially for bands. Meaning that their artists actually play their own instruments.) Some extremely talented and good looking trainees may have even been scouted. Such examples are Siwon of Super Junior who was scouted outside his school or Baekhyun of EXO who was scouted at a singing competition.

These already talented trainees are now thrown into a super intensive training system where they practise tirelessly everyday, balancing rap, dance, acting, language, vocal and variety lessons as well as their everyday school (if they’re still in school) in the hopes of not just honing their talents but becoming exceptionally talented. It is a hilariously competitive system where these teens are pit against each other to fight for a debut. It’s incredibly difficult to even pass an audition, (like Park Bom who had to audition multiples times before being accepted into YG) much less actually debut (such as Hyunseung from Beast who was kicked out of Bigbang just prior to their debut). 

Trainees are well trained in each and every area. This means that they know exactly which camera to look into on stage, how to answer an awkward question during a live broadcast or how to smile and pose for photos to capture their best angle and lighting. A trainee can train anywhere from 6 months to 10 years, depending not just on how talented they are, but also if they suit the concept for the group that their company is planning to debut and other external factors as well. 

As mentioned earlier, many things happen in the background. For instance, before an album is produced, the production and artist team have to come up with a good concept for the artist; how the members should style their hair and what kind of outfits they’d wear on stage. How they should behave, which members should speak more on variety, who to introduce the album if asked and the list goes on and on. Honestly, it’s slightly sad and scary how such rigid production works. Because for all we know, the members of our favourite groups may not even get along behind the scenes or even that our OTP was simply instructed to act close for the benefit of fans and weren’t actually all that buddy buddy in real life. But ultimately, perfection sells. And that is what most groups aim to achieve, regardless of how insincere or faux. 

Many people also negatively compare kpop to western music in the aspect that western artists sing live and produce their own music whereas kpop is so commercialised and synthetic. So much so that they not only perpetually lip sync, but also aren’t even singing self-written songs. I will agree with this simply because it is true. However, one mustn’t forget that idols are singing, dancing, rapping and looking pretty for the camera all at once. It’s pretty much impossible to sing perfectly whilst doing all those things. This eventually brings me back to my point that basically everything they do is an attempt at perfection, and it usually works. 

This may be a twisted way of thinking, but sometimes I’m actually glad that idols aren’t singing their own heartfelt music and lyrics. I can imagine that in the beginning, an artist would probably be really excited to share his/her emotions and thoughts with fans through lyrics and music. But having to tirelessly perform on music show after music show, it’s not difficult to imagine how easily they can grow sick of a song. Not only does performing become a boring chore, but the once emotional and heartfelt lyrics start losing its meaning. But of course, a good piece of personal composition is always well-appreciated anyways. 

(Strangely, I’ve just noticed how long it’s been since we had a really incredibly catchy and viral song like Fantastic Baby or Sorry Sorry. I wonder why.) 

Another comparison that is usually made to western music is kpop’s idea of having a “comeback”. In western music, a comeback usually means that a group that’s been on a hiatus for a long time returns back to perform or even maybe disbanded and “reformed” themselves. It carries the notion that an artists had been gone for a long long period of time before reappearing. However, in kpop, a comeback basically means, a new album. An artist promotes tirelessly for a month or two before having a goodbye stage and going on break for a couple more months, usually from about 3-4 months. They then use that break time to rest and recuperate from the never-ending schedules during their promotional period and also to come up with new material for a comeback. This hopefully means that an artist is always well-rested and coming up with good quality music for fans. (Though this is usually NEVER the case.) 

How kpop differs from many other types of music is also that artists constantly interact with fans and always think about the well-being of fans before themselves (which I feel is sometimes unnecessary and overboard). An artist or group has fansigns in different parts of Korea to meet and speak to their fans personally. Fans also get to vote on different websites in the hopes of having their favourite group win, and idols also tour ridiculously often to branch out into the global market. Furthermore, idols don’t usually date or date in extreme secrecy because they’re afraid that their fans would be upset knowing that they’re officially “off the shelves”. This makes fans feel loved and important, and also gives them more of a reason to want to support and get others to support their favourite groups, which is probably one of the main reasons that contributes to the viral spreading of kpop today. 

I was actually a huge anti-fan 4-5 years ago. I thought kpop in general was lame and I just didn’t understand how anyone could find those pretty, scrawny boys and plastic girls appealing or how people could enjoy music they didn’t understand. Well look at where I am today. It’s pretty ironic. But I think that that’s the beauty of kpop. It’s about finding meaning under all those fancy and over-complicated MV plots that nobody understands and it’s how we meet new friends on Twitter and Tumblr and occasionally (unintentionally) participate in fan wars. It’s about how desperately we vote for our bias groups just so they win on music shows and how we open 15 windows on our laptops and have to remind ourselves to clear our caches and cookies and keep our volumes above 50% to increase MV view counts. It’s also how we queue overnight for concert tickets and 5 hours in advance before a concert. However, this is sometimes what makes kpop so commercialised. Half the views on MVs now aren’t because people listened and liked the song, but because the same fans replayed them over and over again to increase views. Which I guess isn’t actually all that wrong either. Regardless, being a fangirl/fanboy is hard hard work. 

Kpop is incredibly influential. It’s because of kpop that more and more people are wanting to visit the country and learn the beautiful language that is Korean. Fans are willing to pay hundreds of dollars for merch and albums and will pay even more to get good seats at a concert. We feel literal pain from the hole that burns in our pockets but we’re always somehow okay with spending more and more if only it means they we have the photocards and posters we want each comeback. It’s crazy. 

I’ve also just recently realised how effective sponsorship and CFs are in Korea. Scrolling through the 2NE1, SNSD and even EXO and BTS tag, I find myself trying to find the origin and brand of clothing they wear just so that I myself can make that same purchase. Seeing EXO’s face on a tub of moisturiser automatically makes the percentage of me actually buying the item increase by approximately 50%. I guess it’s just cool to be able to say, “Hey I have the same shirt CL wore to the airport last week!” Or “I have the same shoes Chanyeol has!” (This only takes place in the rare event that I can actually AFFORD what they’re wearing since most of the time idols are wearing/using things that can very possibly pay my way through college and university 5 times through.) It might be because Korea is known to be the world’s trendsetter. But something about owning the same items as my favourite celebs makes me feel just a teensy bit closer to their level. 

We kpop fans are also not to be messed around with. We can literally fight our way through wars and would probably kill if necessary. When two popular groups promote at the same time or are pitted/compared to each other, this usually results in what I affectionately call a “fanwar”. Basically both fandoms bash each other and bash each group to no end, which usually occurs when immature fans are unable to understand the difference between defending a group they like and bashing another. Fanwars are also usually never resolved. Just when we think one might be over, a tweet from some unknown origin pops up, and the whole unpleasant mess just reboots it’s system.

Since I am quite literally the most multi-fandom person in the entire universe, I’ve decided to end this post off by throwing in a list of tips in order to avoid a fanwar. 

1) Before you type, think. Does what you’re going to say have the potential to hurt someone’s feelings? It doesn’t matter if you didn’t mention any names. If it’s blatantly obvious that you’re trying to bash another group using superior sarcasm or just plain disrespect, take a deep breath, delete the post, and get off social media for awhile. 

2) Don’t say anything about another group/person that you wouldn’t want said to your favourite group/person. Easy peasy.

3) What I’m going to talk about now is a major pet peeve for me. I absolutely cannot stand it when someone uses the word “nugu”. Nugu roughly translates to “who” which implies that when you talk about this group or artist, they’re so “unknown” that people go, “who?”. A nugu group basically means that a group is so unpopular or unrecognised that they’re almost at a stage of irrelevance. 

I cannot even begin to explain just how many times I’ve seen people incorrectly use the word nugu. I feel like I have to reiterate the fact that just because YOU don’t recognise a particular group, it does not mean that THEY’RE a nugu group. Calling a group/person nugu is a foolproof way to get fans of that group/person extremely pissed off and angry, like I have gotten countless times. So please don’t use that word if you have bad intentions.  

4) Let’s go back to basics. If you have nothing nice to say, don’t say anything. I’ll admit that I often find myself wanting to shove a pole up the ignorant ass of an immature tween hater. But I make a conscious effort to keep my mouth SHUT if what’s coming out of it fuels anger and sadness because I know that it’ll only contribute negatively to an already tense enough situation. 

5) When you get angry or read hate comments about an artist you like, just ignore it. This is excruciatingly difficult. I get that. But matters only blow up when too much attention is given to it. So let’s just try to wash our hands off these situations and secretly curse their immaturity in our minds and not on our screens and keyboards.  

6) Realise that every thing you say does ultimately have an impact on the artist. True, your one comment will most probably not be singled out in a sea of 300,000 comments. But if half of those 300,000 comments are hate comments, trust me when I say that the person you’re commenting on will definitely notice. 

I guess I just hope that kpop will soon be just as fun as it used to be considering that now when I log on to Twitter, all I see is an onslaught of mean remarks and comments. Hopefully none of you guys are going through this same situation as I am where you’re kinda sick and tired of everyone arguing on your timeline and feed. Especially when you’re multi-fandom like I am and follow so many different fan accounts of so many different groups. 

Also, I’ll definitely try to write soon and finish up some of the incomplete drafts in my notes and I apologise if this post was really bad or if you didn’t like it. Well, if I don’t update in the next couple of weeks, I’ll surely be back in July because I’ll be going for Bigbang’s MADE concert and I’ll definitely be writing about that experience here!

Till next time,

❤

A Tribute

We watch them cry and sing heartfelt lyrics in desperation. Putting on a show and performing, sweating their guts out as they heave and attempt to catch their breaths. We watch them starve and sleep minimal hours because we know it means that they are always giving their best. We witness them crumble one scandal after another and gasp when they manage to pop back up strong.

Every word uttered with gasping breaths at the end of a concert- words to assure us fans, that they would always be around, only if we were always around in return. Their eyes twinkling as they scan the audience at every performance, almost as if they can never believe the number of people who willingly turn up to watch them. 

We hate when they are able to find someone to love. Not because we’re jealous and immature (though those fans certainly exist) but because we know that no one is good enough. We loathe listening to them sing handwritten ballads, because it means that they finally have someone to sing it to and we’re not sure if that someone would do the same back. 

Then again we love when they thank us for turning up at their concerts. We love being recognised for our fan chants and fan projects, and we love having SNS posts talking about how great we are as fans. 

But we love too much and we sometimes want too much. 

A vast majority of us are insatiable. We want more comebacks, more albums, more performances, more concert venues, more songs, more CFs, more merch. We’ve confused ourselves as fans. We love them as our own when they’re not ours to keep. But they know that and they always try to be okay with it. 

We watch them perform, clad in raincoats, as we whine about the rain. Belatedly realising that they themselves had been wretchedly soaked in their less than comfortable outfits. We complain about always having to wait hours to see them, when they rush from schedule to schedule, cursing the bad traffic and bad weather for holding them up. We notice their occasional weight gain, commenting rude things and pushing a diet across the table. Yet we also hate when they appear too skinny. 

We don’t like their hair a certain style and we dislike how a particular pair of jeans hang the wrong way. And because of this, they let themselves become our personal Barbie dolls to play dress-up with, faking smiles at our pathetic apologies and insensitive comments, saying that our happiness means the most to them and that they’ll work harder to become people that we won’t be ashamed to say we like. 

Helplessly, our eyes can only stare as they sob, “Thank you for coming today! We have so many regrets but we’ll practice harder! We will show you a better us soon!” and unbeknownst to us, tears start to form in our own. They persistently give us all they have, but they’re convinced that it’s never enough. So we promise to fight for them and to show them our support since that seems to matter most. But as soon as something goes wrong, no matter how trivial and minute, we bash them and we give them grief; when sometimes, it’s only because they’re the easiest to blame. 

We assume that they only give up sleep, food and other physical things that don’t really matter. But think about the love, the happiness, all the time they sacrificed, only to get nothing even remotely comparable in return- lousy treatment, injuries, hate, exhaustion. Things we now take for granted are things they can only dream of, seeing our families everyday, eating home-cooked meals, walking around openly in public. Regardless of how much merchandise or concert tickets we buy, how expensive the birthday gifts we send are, or how much money we donate to charity in their name, we will never be able to match up to how much they sacrificed themselves.

Undeniably, they all started out with different intentions. Fame and fortune maybe. But let’s be the people who overthrow that notion. Give them a new reason to want to try harder, fight harder, and press on even when nothing goes right. 

Try coming to the realisation that everything they gave up to stand on that stage, performing their hearts out for us, are things we would have never even considered letting go of. Even though we know that we will never be able to return even half as much as they gave, that’s regrettably not something they understand. So maybe, when they finally do, no matter how long it takes, we’ll know for sure what being a fan truly means. 

Till next time,

❤

MY SM AUDITION EXPERIENCE

Helllloooo guys! So I’m back with another post!! And this time round, it’s about, drumroll please…

SM Global Auditions!

On the 28th of March, SM came to Singapore to hold their SM Global Auditions. They were only in Singapore for a day, so naturally, many people turned up to audition. Everyone had to send in an application form before the audition day itself and had to get a reply from SM confirming the location, date and time. My given time slot was 2pm, but they allocated different timings to different people at 1 hour intervals. This meant that some people got 12pm, some 1pm and so on so forth, all the way till 4pm (if I’m not wrong). It was raining when I was on my way there so I ended up being a little late and only walked into the venue, which was Korean Church Singapore, at around 2.20pm. 

So basically, I walked through the main gate of the church and went up this flight of stairs. I spoke to a nice staff lady and she gave me a number sticker along with a sign up sheet. I then proceeded into a huge waiting room, which was probably the main room where regular church services were conducted. I sat in my bench and filled up the form which was collected by an SM staff member moments later. There were 2 staff in that waiting room itself and around 2 to 3 other staff that were just running around, all of them could speak pretty decent English. Initially, I was worried that they would turn me down since they had stated clearly in the email, “If you are late, someone else will be given your place, so Please BE ON TIME!” And well, I was late. but guess what, the whole audition was extremely delayed. The time I was given stated 2pm, but I was only brought into the audition room at around 5.40pm and left the building shortly after that. The staff had a huge mix up in the audition numbers which delayed pretty much the whole process. Everything was also extremely disorganised. That’s something I felt could’ve been tremendously improved on. 

Regardless, the sign up form you have to fill in only asks for really basic information such as your name, age, school, grade, birthday, height, weight, experience etc. it was not as in depth as the form I had to fill at JYP last year (which was already pretty basic). If I had to make a rough assumption, I think there were a good 700+- people waiting for their turn. When I walked into the waiting room, there were around 300 people in front of me who had not yet been called, so I instantly knew that I was in for a long wait. In the waiting room, they played SM artists’ videos and MVs (Happiness, Ice Cream Cake, Overdose, Everybody, Something etc.) on loop and I literally got through 3 whole loops of 25 videos while I was waiting. Anyway, when it was my turn to audition, they announced my number and called me up in a group of 20, for example, 74591 to 74610. I walked up to the front of the room, in front of everyone else waiting, and lined up in my group in number sequence. Then I waited some more, until another staff, who was in charge of bringing people to and fro the audition room, got the cue from another staff member in the audition room, and led us up a flight of stairs. We were then brought outside a door while another staff (mine was a lady) greeted us and told us to put our bags and phones down in a neat row outside the room, as the other staff guy left to prepare the next row of 20. 

She split my row of 20 in half (74591-74600 and 74601-74610) and the first half of the row was instructed to walk into the room first whilst the other 10 waited outside. When we walked into the room, (it looked like a tiny cinema with those pull chairs) we were directed to sit down in a row of chairs in our number sequence. We got to watch the group before ours (74580-74590) audition. My judge was a lady and she seemed to be able to speak pretty basic English. Behind her was a lady who was managing a camera and tripod stand. Now this part was definitely the most intimidating because it kinda sunk in that I would be auditioning in front of a judge, a camera person, the other 9 in my row, the 10 sitting watching me and the next 10 waiting outside who would most definitely be able to hear me through the super thin walls. 

After that moment of panic, the group I was watching walked off the stage and my group took their place whilst trying not to hyperventilate and explode with nerves. From then on, everything moved super fast. The first person went, then the next, and the next etc until the end of the row. The judge says, “Thank you! 수고했어요!” (which means something like ‘thank you for your hard work’) and we got the routine instructions from the camera lady who spoke fluent English, “Only successful applicants will get an email in a most a months time etc etc.” and that was it. The end of my audition. There were no dancers in my row as all the dancers had already been filtered out in the waiting room. The dancers had to dance freestyle to a random piece put on by the judge and they auditioned in rows of 10 as well. I did have an actress in my row though. Each person only got around 15 seconds to audition on average which was totally contrary to their website instructions which stated that we had to prepare a 2 minute audition. I knew that there was no way the judge would have let us finish a 2 minute long piece, but 15 seconds did seem quite minimal nonetheless. I wasn’t sure if it was because they were running so short on time or whether it was because she genuinely thought that we were just bad. 

The whole experience was really fun and surreal for me. Despite the mess and the horrible organisation, the audition was something I thought I did decently well in, considering I actually practiced my song quite faithfully this time, unlike the impromptu audition I did at JYP in Seoul last year (which I also wrote about on this blog!). I was pleased with my performance and I’m glad I signed up for the audition. 

Well, words of wisdom. I think going into any audition, you should roughly know where you stand and what your chances are. For a company as renowned as SM and the knowledge that no Singaporean has EVER made it big in the K-Pop scene, I felt it would be best to go in with the idea of wanting to have fun and experience something new and emboldening instead of going in with the desperate hope of wanting to be accepted. Trust me, this only completely stresses you out since your chances are already so low. (Unless you think you’re really good and will most definitely make the cut, then by all means think that way.) The harsh truth is that I don’t think SM was planning on accepting anyone from Singapore in the first place. It’s when you go into an audition with high expectations that you meet with extreme disappointment and regret later. Since I already understood that theory a long long time ago, I was able to fully enjoy the experience and did not burst out crying like some other auditionees. 😛

Many people ask me why I audition so often when I don’t even necessarily DREAM of becoming a k-pop star one day. Well, auditioning, especially for SM, is a chance that I will never get ever again. And since they were so conveniently in my country, why not? Also, I think I’ve mentioned this in my JYP audition post, but I still stand by this and I will repeat it again. Auditioning gives you a huge confidence boost incomparable to anything else. Even if you do a crappy job, after you realise that you managed to go through with something so horribly nerve-wrecking, what else could be scarier? Nothing. You’ll find that debates, competitions, public speaking etc are peanuts compared to what you just accomplished, auditioning for one of the biggest entertainment companies in the world.

Auditioning is something I won’t ever regret especially since I know I’ve done my best and had fun in the process. If any of you have the inkling in your heart to want to audition, even if it’s tiny, I strongly encourage you to go for it! Bring a friend along if you think that will help with the nerves! 

If you guys have any questions about how the audition process goes or anything really, leave a comment and I’ll reply to it as soon as I can! 

Till next time

❤

P.S I do want to add in here that despite what they say about only being informed within a month if they’re interested in you, that’s not really the case. If they were really interested, they’ll most definitely get back to you in the shortest time possible. If you don’t get a response after around 2 weeks, I’d say just stop waiting. (I mean this in the nicest way possible HAHA)

K-Dramas soothe your soul

안녕하세요 친구들! 너무 오랜만이야!

Hello guys! It’s been quite a while since we last spoke! 

I suddenly came to the realisation that I haven’t updated here in the longest time. I’ve been crazily busy with school and exams and training and just so many other projects in general. I wanted very much to update today just to show that I am still quite alive. I’ll probably be posting again either at the end of this week or at the start of next week and it’ll be about something pretty interesting! 

So I was having a conversation with my friends today about Korean dramas, and after hearing some of their thoughts on what they felt were the best K-Dramas, I wanted to pen down my thoughts about what I personally think are the best few. I’m quite a K-Drama guru, if I may say so myself, and although it has been quite awhile since I last had the time to sit down and watch a series, I do remember quite well what some of my favourite dramas are and what they’re about. So here we go!

1) White Christmas (화이트 크리스마스)

  

White Christmas was a series broadcasted back in 2011. It consisted of a pretty rookie cast back then; Sung Joon, Lee Soo Hyuk, Kim Woo Bin, Hong Jong Hyun, Kim Young Kwang and a couple others.

White Christmas, unlike its seemingly innocent and pure title, is not a rom-com full of fluff and love and kisses in the snow. Quite the opposite as a matter of fact. The whole series is a psycho-thriller that left me shaking in my boots on quite a few occasions. It is one of the most underrated dramas I’ve watched, considering how I’ve never heard any of my K-Drama obsessed friends mention it before. I must add in here that whilst the acting was far from stellar, the actors and actresses all pieced together in a way that made their flaws all the more simplistic and befitting. I especially like the series as many of the actors were not even remotely well-known back then, but are now some of the biggest names in the industry.

The whole series is only 8 episodes long and is perfect if you’re feeling tingly and feel the need to watch something that isn’t too draggy or too long. The plot is full of suspense and I guarantee that there’s never a moment where you’d find yourself bored or yawning. The series revolves around the lives of 8 students and teachers and touches/shows a lot on suicide, murder and scary psycho stuff. So if you’re not into that kinda stuff or are easily scared, I suggest you give this drama a miss. Alternatively, you could just read about it instead, on websites like DramaBeans that write really good recaps of each episode. 

I’ll give it a solid 9/10! 

2) Shut Up Flower Boy Band (닥치고 꽃미남 밴드) [also known as Shut Up Let’s Go] 

  

A 16 episode series broadcasted in 2012, starring Infinite’s L, Sung Joon, Jo Bo Ah, Jung Eui Chul, Lee Hyun Jae (from indie rock band, Mate), Yoo Min Kyu and Kim Min Suk (contestant on Superstar K3). Kim Ye Rim (contestant on Superstar K3) was also featured in a few episodes. 

I know what you’re thinking: who are all those people and why does this drama have such a stupid name? Well, I thought that too. 

I watched the drama only because of L and Sung Joon (so I guess that’s the success of casting done right) but I will say that this is by far, one of the BEST K-Dramas I’ve watched. I’m aware that the drama does not have the most well-known cast but the acting was pretty good aside from the incidental slips. But the fantastic script made up for it. Most of the characters are intentionally written to appear flawed so the occasional bad acting kind of added up in a strangely good way. Also, the reason for the name is because it was the second installment in tvN’s line of youth-targeted “Oh! Boy” Project, which was supposed to feature a line-up of handsome leading men. Hmmmmm, I can’t say that the cast of SUFBB was massive eye candy or anything but the series did hold its own weight so there was no need for any of that distraction anyway.

The series does not touch too much on love and romance but instead, on friendship. The drama centres around a rock band called “Eye Candy” (talk about humility) consisting of a group of childhood best friends. Unlike those cliched dramas where the boys are heart-breakingly handsome and talented and seek fame and fortune, the 6 members of Eye Candy are defiant, gruff and attend a lousy school where they constantly play truant and get into fights. Even more havoc is created when their school closes down and they’re all forced to attend a posh school known for its state-of-the-art facilities and expensive uniforms. There, they meet rival band, “Strawberry Fields”, and the two worlds collide. 

Despite the slightly ridiculous and grammatically strange title, this drama still holds an unwavering position at Number 1 in my heart. The themes of friendship and sacrifice left my heart immensely satisfied and airy. Just thinking about it makes me smile.  

The first episode of the series is basically a brief introduction about the band and showcases their fighting abilities. Most importantly however, the episode stresses just how important their leader, Byung Hee (cameo-ed by Lee Min Ki) is to the rest of the band and how they put all their trust in him and his leadership. He is charismatic, witty and the soul of the band. I grew to love him instantly. 

[What I’m about to say next happens in episode 2 and isn’t much of a spoiler considering how quickly it happens into the drama. But I’ll give the spoiler warning anyway.]

[SPOILER ALERT] 

But then he dies. In the SECOND EPISODE when he was fleeing from a fight against Strawberry Fields. I know what you’re thinking. SAY WHAT?!?! So it was around this time when I kind of lost all hope in the drama but persevered and pushed on through and realised just how necessary and important his character death was, despite how much I HATED IT. 

[SPOILER OVER] 

This show is all the right kinds of angsty and cute I really have no complains. It distinctly showcases the contrast between the well-off students to the not so well-off in simple but mind-blowing ways. One of the best examples was how the Eye Candy boys all fought physically with their own hands and feet whereas the Strawberry Fields boys would send their bodyguards to fight for them. 

I just wish more people would give this show a chance and not just scoff at its title. 

10/10! You’ll have no regrets watching this!

3) School 2013 (학교 2013)

  

A 16 episode drama starring Kim Woo Bin, Lee Jong Seok, Daniel Choi and Jang Nara. The drama isn’t the most immaculately filmed or the highest budgeted but it still is an easy watch without any overdramatic twist and turns. This drama is one of the reasons for Lee Jong Suk’s outbreak of popularity today. His role in School 2013 also won both him and Kim Woo Bin many awards. 

The story revolves around the infamously mischievous Class 2 in Victory High School and the show starts off hilariously, showing how the teachers would do all they could to  prevent being Class 2’s homeroom teacher. Much like SUFBB, the story does not have many implications of romance or love but still manages to captivate with its storyline. I’m definitely one for bromance so I absolutely loved watching Lee Jong Suk’s and Kim Woo Bin’s characters (Nam Soon and Heung Soo respectively) act alongside each other. The themes of the story mostly depicts the struggles that students face in modern day society such as bullying, money, gangs and suicide. The plot is simple and easy to understand but still has enough of those moments that made my heart flutter in joy or clench in pain. And come on, who doesn’t love a handsome suave actor/character (Nam Soon) who doesn’t talk much but somehow still has killer charisma and character. 

I will admit that I initially thought the story was going to be a typical school drama with rich kids and a pretentious hierarchy system. But the drama completely proved otherwise and took on an entirely different perspective. I will say that the first few episodes are slightly slow and boring but are absolutely necessary in ensuring that the audience is always aware of what’s happening. 

9/10!

I hope you guys enjoyed this and definitely give these dramas a watch if you happen to have the time! See you guys soon!

Till next time,

❤