PSY will most likely be headed to One-Hit WonderVille here in the US, even though in Korea dude is ancient, having a serious career for over a decade; but no worries as there is a lot more from where that can from. Literally, there’s 25 million people in Seoul and they churn out pop stars like we churn out reality stars.
Here’s a breakdown of the K-Pop Stars you need to know.
F(X)
I love how every Korean Pop song contains English lyrics. It sounds something like this:
“go zha nee na ga da All Right
go zha de ga doo da blah blah All Night”
… which strangely is also how I sound singing along to FloRida.
But you can tell that the artists don’t really understand what they are saying. I mean, Electric Shock sung seductively using cardiac defibrillators?! You had me at hello.
JANG WOO YOUNG
Despite my best attempts, I can’t seem to get Electric Shock out of my head, but there is someone’s head I would actually like to have. And by head, I mean head of hair. I want to look like Jang Woo Young. I don’t care that he’s a boy; he might just have the greatest colorist that ever lived.
GIRLS’ GENERATION
K-Pop puts a whole new meaning into boy and girl groups. They don’t do 5 boys or girls per group. No, they double that to 10 9. Close enough. This is Girls’ Generation and get ready, because they are trying to break into the US market. I legitimately heard a radio advertisement for them here in Los Angeles, and I may have been the only person that knew who they were. In all honesty, they are not my favorite, BUT these pop-ettes know how to dance.
SUPER JUNIOR
And then there is the yin to the Girls’ Generation’s yang, or is it the reverse? Anyways, Super Junior has 14- yes FOURTEEN- freaking members!!! (10 of which are currently active).
This video for Mr. Simple looks like it was shot on the same sound stage as Girls’ Generation’s The Boys. Hey, with that many mouths to feed, you’ve gotta cut corners somewhere, and thankfully it wasn’t with the hairstylist. Stop it at 1:07 and you’ll know what I’m talking about. Oh, and his ring is fierce, too.
Welcome to K-Pop. Korean Fluency not necessary.
