Happy Tuesday K-pop fans! I hope everyone had a fun Halloween and a good weekend. It's been a busy week for many of our favorite girl groups and K-pop in general with comeback teasers, award wins, and huge news from an old school group. Let's get to all of that and more with this week's Confessions of an Uncle Fan.
Cool Things of the Week
Girls' Generation For The Win, GG to the competition
I was pleasantly surprised to see that Girls' Generation's "I Got a Boy" won the Video of the Year award at the inaugural YouTube Music Awards held this past weekend in New York City. The win is an impressive accolade and just underscores how much K-pop has grown over the past six-seven years. Having said that, in no universe do I think Girls' Generation is more well-known than Lady Gaga or Justin "Brazilian Brothel" Bieber but the YouTube Awards are unique in that they left the voting entirely to the fans. This is where GG (and most K-pop groups) had the advantage because while their ranks in numbers are smaller, when it comes to mobilizing an entire fan base and causing disruption, nobody beats K-pop fans (see Kim Heechul trending worldwide on Twitter). Even so, the win had to have been somewhat unexpected when you're going up against big time international stars and that jolt showed a bemused (and very well dressed) Tiffany took the stage to accept the award. While winning the award itself is a big deal, what's even more important is that Girls' Generation and K-pop as a genre is continuing to establish itself on very large stages. There were probably thousands of people who had never heard of Girls' Generation, saw that the group won the award, and then checked out the video to see what it was all about. K-pop fans tend to live in a bubble and think that everyone should know about their favorite artists but in reality, the percentages aren't huge. A big win like this though will surely begin swaying the needle in the right direction and is just another cog in the big K-pop machine as it slowly begins taking over mankind.
g.o.d Comeback?
The old school K-pop fan Twitterverse exploded yesterday with rumors that g.o.d would be coming back with a new album after eight years. Even though those rumors were quickly tempered by Son Ho Young and Yoon Kye Sang's respective agencies, the fact that these rumors even leaked means that talks have been taking place and that the conversations have moved past just old friends meeting for a drink. I personally thought that a potential reunion would have been nearly impossible given Son Ho Young's recent turmoil with the tragic suicide of his girlfriend and his own attempt at harming himself. Maybe this is a way for him to move on and what better way to do that then with the support of old friends. I hope that each of the members can work out a solution and even partner back up with J.Y. Park to produce a new album; one for which fans have been holding out hope for quite some time.
Narsha and Miryo a.k.a M&N
Brown Eyed Girls' Narsha and Miryo teaming up to form a unit is like the NC-17 version of SISTAR19. You have the velvety singing of Narsha and the incomparable rapping of Miyro but with a more grown-up vibe. I'm looking forward to the tandem and you can bet that they'll go the sexy and sleek route and I wouldn't surprised if the group focused more on Miryo's rapping and using Narsha as a complement to that.
Barefoot Friends Cancelled and Running Man Drops
Every week I read the variety show ratings article on allkpop to see how my favorite shows fared and it didn't surprise me at all to see the announcement that 'Barefoot Friends' has been officially cancelled and that 'Running Man' saw a big drop in the ratings. 'Barefoot Friends' was one of the first productions of the newly formed SM C&C and while the initial idea might have been a good one (going to different countries and seeing how other people live), it was poorly executed and recently devolved into seeing how much food Kang Ho Dong could fit into his mouth. I am a huge fan of Kang Ho Dong but his return to the industry following his tax scandal has been mediocre at best with a number of this shows failing to stay on the air (although the sports show is going strong). On the 'Running Man' front, I've said that the show is just boring and this past week's episode was among the most boring I've seen in some time with the members and guests taking on a 'Wizard of Oz' concept that made no sense. I don't think SBS is going to give up on it quite yet but it needs to do something because it's becoming almost unwatchable… even with my massive crush on Song Ji Hyo.
Girl Group Variety Round-Up
A list of all the girl group appearances on variety shows (that I saw) this week.
- 'Weekly Idol' - SPICA
- 'Happy Together' - IU
- 'Star King' - SPICA, Girl's Day
- 'Infinity Challenge' - BoA (see Song of the Week)
- 'We Got Married' - A Pink cameo
- 'Barefoot Friends' - Hong Jin Young, Kim Ji Min (The comedian. Not a girl grouper but my current favorite K-celeb)
- 'God of Food Road' - Kim Ji Min (again)
- '1000 Song Challenge' - T-ara, Kim Ji Min (she's everywhere)
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.
Following GG's big win, Taeyeon took to Instagram to thank the group's fans for the many votes over the past few days to help them win. She also thanked those who helped make the video itself.
Pic/.Gif/Video of the Week
The teaser for miss A's big comeback single "Hush" is out and while I totally don't understand what's going on, the girls look good. It's been too long since their last single so I think all fans are ready for more.
Uncle Fan Mailbag
Good call. "Check out Sojung from 'The Voice Korea'. Her rendition of the LeeSsang song is on point".
-rufio2201
Thanks to your suggestion, I saw it and was equally impressed. Great pipes and hope to see more of her soon.
Unfortunately, not enough people felt the same way. "I love 'Chuck' too! What ever happened to that show?"
-rikkuju
Sadly after 5 tumultuous years (including a many "Save Chuck" campaigns to save the show), 'Chuck' met its demise and was cancelled. It really was an amazing show the first few seasons but things got a little weird towards the end. Even though I was a huge fan, I didn't have the energy to defend it at the very end.
It's coming! "I wish there [was] as Confessions of a Noona Fan."
-IheartK
It won't be a "noona" series per se, but there will be another fan girl episode soon!
A Few Non-K-pop Related Things
New York City Marathon
After a year off following the devastation of Hurricane Sandy, the New York City marathon was back with its 26.2 mile route winding its way through the five boroughs of New York and past some of the city's most famous landmarks. I am too fat and slow to run a marathon but I have friends who did and it's amazing to see how hard they train and the dedication needed to do this. Of course when I asked my coworker what she wanted to do after the race she said, "eat fries, drink a beer, and then eat some more fries".
Usain Bolt and 1,000 Chicken Nuggets
Speaking of running, in his new memoir, Olympic gold medalist Usain Bolt claims to have eaten one thousand McDonalds chicken nuggets during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He states that he wasn't a fan of the Chinese food so he turned to the fast food chain and proceeded to eat chicken nuggets for ten days. That's freaking incredible… and absolutely disgusting. I think everyone knows by now just how bad McDonalds' chicken nuggets are as they have very little actual chicken and are filled with chemicals and preservatives. He was basically eating nearly 5,000 calories and 300 grams of fat a day. The normal man should be eating about 2,000-2,500 calories and 93 grams of fat daily. Now, his saving grace is that he runs… a lot… so he was probably burning most of that off but still, that's just gross. See the ingredients that go into nuggets.
Top 5 Favorite Girl Groupers Right Now
- Tiffany - Gracious speech in what seemed to be a chaotic enviroment.
- Sojung - Watched all of her 'Voice Korea' performances and came away even more impressed.
- Kim Ji Min - The current "It" girl of Korean comedy. Funny + Cute = Dream Girl
- Narae - More SPICA!
- Jia - Looking good in the miss A's latest round of previews
Song(s) of the Week
'Infinite Challenge' finally aired the much anticipated concert episode featuring the members teaming up with some of today's biggest singers and musicians. As usual the songs from the episode swept the music charts but overall, I have to say that I was a little underwhelmed by the final products. Still, each team had a unique sound and it's always fun watching musicians work. Here's my ranking of the performances:
- Seventy Fingers (Haha and Jang Gi Ha and the Faces) - "Super Weed Man"
- Rose Jaw (Rose Motel and Noh Hong Chul) - "Call Me Oppa"
- How Do You Dool (Yoo Jae Suk and Yoo Hee Yeol featuring Kim Jo Han) - "Please Don't Go My Girl"
- Sick Guy & Fat Guy (Jung Joon Ha and Kim C featuring Lee Sora and Beenzino) - "Things That Will Disappear"
- Geumary (Park Myung Soo and Primary featuring Gaeko) - "I Got C"
- G.A.B (BoA and Gil) - "G.A.B"
- Hyun Yong Don Jong (Jung Hyung Don and G-Dragon featuring Def Con) - "I Want to Try"
That's it for me. Have a great week and I'll catch you next time on the next Confession of an Uncle Fan. Don't forget to send me any tips or updates via Twitter @KpopUncleFan or email KpopUncleFan@gmail.com. Uncle Fan out!
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