Welcome back girl group fans to another Confessions of an Uncle Fan. We're in the middle of the dog days of summer but as usual, the K-pop girl group scene is still in high gear with enough comebacks, teasers, and TV appearances to keep all fans busy. Let's check out what's going on this week.
Cool Things of the Week
The Anti-Sexy
I've talked about the way sex has permeated its way into K-pop (allkpop writer gracelim has covered the topic in much more detail here) and is now just a standard part of doing business. But while sex may be the new normal, there are still groups out there who are heading in the other direction and succeeding. Case in point is the popularity of Crayon Pop whose concept is about as far from "sexy" as you can get yet they are quickly gaining an ardent (and vocal) fan base. I have no problem with a girl doing her thing but I think fans may have seen enough barely covered butts and don't mind a group with a clever idea and a catchy song.
Lee Jung Hyun is Weird and I Love It
We'll take a more detailed look at Lee Jung Hyun's past work in tomorrow's Way Back Wednesday but her latest video for the song "V" proves that she is the queen of weird... but in a good way. The video goes with a stylized, 1970's horror film vibe complete with cryptic 'Halloween'-esque piano background music but the real kicker is that the director of the music video is none other than the famed director of 'Oldboy', Park Chan Wook (very interesting). As a fan of Lee Jung Hyun, I don't think the song is overly original but it's certainly weirdly entertaining.
KARA and the Contract
KARA's contract with DSP is about to end and fans are waiting for the quintet to make their next move. I think everyone remembers the drama surrounding the group and their company when four of the five members tried to end their contracts early because they felt they weren't being compensated properly. Even though they resolved it, there has to be some bad blood, no? If I were a fan, I would hope for the best but prepare for the worst.
Yubin + Instagram = How Have I Survived Until Now?
My favorite husky voiced Wonder Girls rapper is on the 'Gram and the world is a better place for it. You can follow her @Yubstagram88.
Girl Group Round-Up
A list of all the girl group appearances on variety shows (that I saw) this week.
- 'Weekly Idol' - A Pink (see Uncle Fan Mailbag and Song of the Week)
- 'Yoo Hee Yeol's Sketchbook' - 2EYES
- 'Star King' - SISTAR, Girl's Day (See Top 5 Current Girl Groupers)
- 'Running Man' - Suzy (See Top 5 Current Girl Groupers)
- 'Barefoot Friends' - Rainbow, SISTAR
- 'Hello' - Rainbow Jaekyung and Jisook
The Taeyeon Experiment
Each week I will post a picture from Taeyeon's Instagram feed in the hopes that one day she'll post a picture of herself reading this column.
I mean, how can you not be a fan?
Pic/.Gif/Video of the Week
While filming her drama, Suzy was on the downlow but she's back with a vengeance on all the variety shows including next Monday's 'Healing Camp'. [insert smiley face]
Send your pics and videos to the Uncle Fan via Twitter @KpopUncleFan or email KpopUncleFan@gmail.com.
Uncle Fan Mailbag
Love the new song. "A Pink already won on Show Champion."
-yoonaph
I finally got caught up with A Pink's new song and I'm a fan. They're another group that is going with a more cute, wholesome image and that's totally fine with me. I think I read on the site that they were being compared to 1st-gen idol group S.E.S and that's a fair comparison; although as much as I like Eunji (and now Naeun), no one beats Eugene.
I took your advice. "Watch 'All the K-pop', this way you can see GLAM (Zini) and Crayon Pop (Ellin) at the same time".
-heavenrise
So, this was the best recommendation I've received in a long time. I've never seen the show before and found the episodes you were talking about and I've decided that Ellin is officially awesome (see Top 5 Current Girl Groupers).
2 for 1 question. "I've never seen you talk about Kara, why?" and " Why no article on T-ara's successful concert at Budokan?"
-kkangji and ezequiel
As much as I love girl groups, I just can't keep up with their promotions in Japan. I don't listen to the Japanese singles and I don't follow their schedule over there. I hope they all do well of course, but even the Uncle Fan has limits.
A Few Non-K-pop Related Things
- Nerds from around the globe have converged on Comic Con in San Diego (I've been to the NYC one and that was just TOO nerdy for me) to see the latest sneak peeks of all the cool movies and TV shows coming out soon. Of all the announcements though, the one that caught everyone's attention was that the next Superman movie will also feature Batman. I don't want to go into a whole geek-rant but my initial reaction was: this movie will either be a fantastic triumph or a complete failure. #betterbegood
- Move over Suri Cruise because the new Royal Baby is totally taking your spot as the most loved baby ever. By the way, everyone should read the Suri's Burn Book on Tumblr because it is hilarious.
- I saw a Heineken commercial the other day that showed an elephant lifting a man over a wall and the TV version included the disclaimer, "Do Not Attempt". So everyone with a pet elephant and a wall to climb, don't say Heineken didn't warn you.
Top 5 Current Girl Groupers
- Suzy - How do I love thee? Let me count the ways... (uh, that sounded much less creepy in my head).
- Taeyeon - The girls wrapped up a concert in Taiwan and I can only imagine the insanity.
- Ellin - I was able to watch the episodes of 'All the K-pop' when she was a guest and who knew this girl was such a bad ass? Love it.
- Narsha - No other reason than that in BEG's latest teaser picture, she's holding a box of Cheez-Its; my favorite snack ever (sorry to Doritos Cool Ranch and Cheetohs Flamin' Hot).
- Dasom - No other reason than she spoke pretty good English to Hugh Jackman on 'Star King'.
Song of the Week
Even though I'm about a month behind on all things A Pink, I thought it was only fair to feature their latest hit, "No No No" and that catchy twist dance thing they do. Don't forget that A Pink will be live on allkpop Live this Wednesday at 10:00 PM EST. Technology is awesome... wish we had this type of stuff 15 years ago.
That's it for me. Have a good week and see you next time for some more Confessions of an Uncle Fan.
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