KARA, nerd rants, and Japanese singles from K-pop girl groupers. All this and more in this week's Confessions of an Uncle Fan (I wrote a lot this week so trying to cut down on the fluff).
Cool Things of the Week
The KARA Teasers Have Arrived
I keep reading about KARA's waning popularity among casual K-pop fans and some of that is a factor of them promoting in Japan for a long stretch (where apparently K-pop groups are also losing their luster). But the ladies are finally coming back with their new album which is scheduled to drop in September. This album will be a good test to see how much influence they still have in the industry and among fans but I think they'll be just fine. KARA is still a big name with a huge fan base and they also have the advantage of a major label behind them. I wouldn't worry if I were them (although I've been wrong before).
New YG Boy Band Show
I'm going to briefly touch on YG's new boy band reality show 'Win' on Mnet. I watched the first episode and I think the premise of the show is fun but the end result behind it doesn't make any sense to me. In order to drive up the drama, the show keeps harping on the fact that the losing team could be cut from YG Entertainment or that it might take another four years for them to debut. Both highly unlikely. J.Y. Park said it best that YG Entertainment is doing this show because they have faith in both teams and are ready to promote either one. The winning team might debut first but the other guys probably won't be far behind. You don't invest this kind of money and time to cut them or stash this kind of talent away for another four years. What I'm most concerned about is, when are they going to do something similar with the girl group that is supposedly starting from scratch because YG just wasn't pleased with the progress?
'Super Match' A Super Dud
There was a lot of hype for the show 'Super Match' which premiered this past weekend but it turned out to be one of the more disappointing shows of the weekend. The concept of the show is to pair veteran singers with "newer" artists getting that multi-generational synergy thing happening (that's the second week in a row I've used the word 'synergy). In theory it's a good idea especially with the talent they had (CL, YB, Bobby Kim, etc…) but the show turned out to be really boring and tedious. The main problem I had was the definition of veteran vs. newbie. How can Bobby Kim - who debuted in 1998 - be one of the veterans when Kim Tae Woo - who debuted in 1999 - was considered a "newbie"? It doesn't make sense. There were other artists who were in a gray zone like Dynamic Duo and Clazziquai who just can't be considered "new". If you're going to do this right, you need to find artists who really are new and that distinction has to be very clear. Also, of the two hours devoted to the show, over half was the selection process of matching up the singers, interviews, and a bunch of stuff I didn't care about. I would have loved to have seen more rehearsals, practices, how the artists worked together and interacted with one another. That's the cool stuff. Fans are used to these types of shows now with the successes of 'I Am a Singer' and 'Immortal Classics 2' so there are expectations that I don't think 'Super Match' was able to meet.
Park Han Byul - Se7en = Single and Ready to Mingle
While there's a dispute as to whether the long time couple has actually broken up, here's a nickel's worth of free advice to Park Han Byul: if you're in an 11 year relationship and there's still no ring, it's time to move on. I suppose having your boyfriend visit random massage parlors in the middle of the night while he's in the army doesn't really help matters either.
Girl Group Variety Round-Up
A list of all the girl group appearances on variety shows (that I saw) this week.
- 'Radio Star' - Sulli, Krystal
- 'Star King' - Girls Day, Brown Eyed Girls, A Pink
- 'We Got Married' - A Pink
- 'Super Match' - CL, Lim Kim
- '1000 Song Challenge' - Girl's Day Hyeri, Sojin
- 'God of Food Road' - 2EYES
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.
All I need for her to do is post this same picture but with the Uncle Fan on a computer in the background. #hope
Pic/.Gif/Video of the Week
KARA's Jiyoung has been updating her Instagram pretty frequently ahead of their album release including this manic, headache inducing video with the whole team.
Send me the best pics and videos of your favorite girl groupers. Email me at KpopUncleFan@gmail.com or tweet me @KpopUncleFan
Uncle Fan Mailbag
I can't see it happening. "I'm hearing netizen rumors of Sunmi rejoining Wonder Girls. What say ye?"
-buffallobiff
It would be great for fans and I would love to see it, but she already left the group. Everyone's moved on and she's doing her solo thing now. My opinion is that ship has sailed. But I'm not calling the shots at JYPE so don't give up hope!
Beware what you wish for. "Uncle Fan, can you show us your face?"
-Farahanani
I have a face made for anonymous blogs and radio :)
I haven't thought it through yet. "I hope Taeyeon one day really does post a picture of her reading [The Taeyeon Experiment]. But does that mean that it ends and no more Taeyeon pics?"
-luxchu
That's a good question. In the rare event that she does in fact post a picture of herself reading the column, then after passing out, recovering, passing out again, and then sitting in a daze for a few days, I'll have to think about what to do next.
A Few Non-K-pop Related Things
- I haven't watched MTV's VMAs in years but I definitely tuned in Sunday night to catch a glimpse of the premiere boy band of the late 90's and 2000s, *NSYNC. I wasn't a huge fan when they were originally performing but over time I realized that I knew way more songs than I thought I did and they were kind of the soundtrack of my high school years. Weird I know. Anyways, the performance was way too short but it was still very cool; except for the 57 cutaway shots of Taylor Swift dancing.
- You should have seen the geeks completely go nuts over the news that Ben Affleck was tapped to play the new Batman in the Superman sequel. Some of the hate stems from the fact that he ruined the 'Daredevil' franchise (not to mention that terrible 'Elektra' spin-off that starred wife Jennifer Garner), but more than that, people are still giving him crap for a single movie that is still haunting him,'Gigli'. I haven't seen the movie and don't plan on ever watching it as long as I remain a human being but I've heard all the stories about how it's an enormous pile of movie poop. Having said that, let's look at what Affleck has done since: directed 'Gone Baby Gone', directed/starred in 'The Town', directed/starred in 'Argo'. Those three movies alone are a pretty impressive resume. The most important point is, Ben Affleck knows better than anyone the perception about him and the very thin line he's walking with movie fans and yet he still chose to do this movie. Even with the ridiculous amount of pressure on any actor following in Christian Bale's footsteps, Affleck chose this. He knows what he's doing and his recent work has earned him the benefit of the doubt. Also, let's not forget that the fan boys hated Michael Keaton when he was first cast as Batman and they really hated Heath Ledger when he was cast as The Joker. I'd say both decisions turned out pretty good.
Top 5 Favorite Current Girl Groupers
- Eunji - Watch 'We Got Married'
- Woori - Watch 'Star King'
- Taeyeon - Always
- IU - Drama over *sad face*
- Yuri - Still haunted by last week's .Gif of the Week
Song of the Week
I got a little curious over the weekend about all of the Japanese promotions that K-pop girl groups participate in so I started some research on YouTube and, if I knew the Japanese word for "bubble gum pop", I would use it here... but I guess that's what the Japanese market likes.
Programming Notice
The Uncle Fan is taking a vacation next week so I won't be around but we'll have a very special guest writer filling in. Everyone who's been asking for a female version of this article will need to make sure and come back next week *hint* *hint*.
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