I'm officially back in the States, and fully jet-lagged out of my mind...so dead during the day, awake like a vampire at night...eesh.
Anyhow, I got behind blogging during my last week in Korea due to finals, concerts, packing, spending last moments in Korea with friends. In short, my heart is broken, but I'm glad to see family and friends back home too.
Sooooo, my last weekend, I got to go to the rehearsal of Inkigayo, a music show that K-pop groups showcase newly-released songs from the past few weeks. I'm not sure of the details, but during the live broadcast, somebody (either the audience, or the tv viewers, idk) votes on who is #1 single of the week on that show. There's one of these music shows for each of the major broadcasting networks - Inkigayo is on SBS - so it's lots of good music for us, but the poor K-pop bands have to do EACH show EVERY week for 5 weeks at least after releasing a new single. And some bands have released a new song every 2 months all this year. Like, whoa. The groups honestly get NO sleep and NO downtime with their schedules. So I'm torn, not wanting to support this, but people go into this knowing full well what kind of craziness they're getting into...hmmm...is it unethical for me to like this? (but I still like this...)
In short, Inkigayo - SO FUN! We weren't allowed to take pictures or video, so I'm gonna get some links to the live broadcast from the day we went so you can see some of the groups that we saw. A lot of groups I know/like were there, so it was even better. The bus driver wasn't given the right address, so he took us to the main SBS building - which Inkigayo is NOT filmed in - and was totally ticked when he was told the mistake, rightly so. It took us over an hour to get there, only to find out on the way home that it's about a 10-min. drive away. Pffft. But by then, we were still on cloud 9 from the performances, so we didn't care.
About 1/2 of us (they didn't allow any of the guys) got to stand right by the stage on the left side, so we were feet away from the idols' performances. There were a few Korean teenage girls sprinkled throughout the group, and let me tell you - I've never heard such high-pitched, loud sounds coming from something human in my life, and I work with 3-6 year-olds with autism. Someone from the program wanted to record it and use it as a car alarm. And these girls knew everyones' names, like "DONG-WOO OPPA!!!!!!!" or "YOSEOB OPPA!!!!! AAAAHHHH!" *Side note: "oppa" means "older brother" or "older male friend" for a younger girl, and indicates a close relationship, which these girls imagine they have with the idols. Also, typing in all caps does not due the shrillness justice.
On to the performances!
One of the first performers that I got really excited about was Ailee (pronounced Ay-lee), who grew up in the States, and only debuted in Korea last year. She has a diva voice, but she seemed so down-to-earth and friendly with us and her back-up dancers before and after her song. AND she has meat on her bones, which cannot be said about another girl group we saw, who were scary-skinny, as in their upper arms were skinnier than their elbow bones. Not natural, just starvation. Not my girl Ailee. She just gets on with her bad self, while being gorgeous.
Inkigayo Rehearsal...whoa...
Another performance we saw was from the group B2ST (pronounced Beast, since 2 = "ee" in korean). Whoa. I have several songs from them, and I really like the solo album from their main singer, Yang Yoseob (look up his song "Caffeine", I loooove it), so I was really excited for this. This new single did not disappoint! Yes, disregard the Engrish, or if you're like me, RELISH it, and sing "Because I'm shadow, shadow, shadow" everywhere you go for a week. I dare you not to once it gets in your head.
P.S. Yoseob is the really small, skinny one with a tiny head, with long sleeves and a big voice. Yes, I do refer to him as "the tiny one".
I saved this one for last, for good reason: One of the following band members totally grabbed my wrist. Yup. He did it. They're called Infinite, another group I have several songs from and really like. I know about 1/2 the members names b/c they have either done solo albums or were in korean dramas I've watched. They tend toward the 80s-style sound, which I really love, and this song is a very Infinite-sounding song. Plus, they're some of the best dancers in the K-pop world, very crisp, together, and creative, so that also scores big points with me.
On to my story! So during and after the performance, about 1/2 the members were really friendly and playful w/ the audience, waving, winking, generally doing what idols do for their fans (I excuse the rest of these guys, as well as the guys from B2ST, because they genuinely seemed SOOOOO tired - see below footnote about idols' crazy schedules), so on top of their good dancing, it was really fun to watch them. At the end, they came over to us at the side of the stage to wave at us, and one guy came over to kind of high-five all the girls with their hands up. I thought, "That looks like fun, let's get a piece of that action," and put my hand up too. As soon I did, he zeroed in on me, fully looked me in the eyes, grabbed my wrist and shook it then pointed to me as he let go. I think it happened because 1. I'm very obviously a foreign girl, and 2. I have long arms. Didn't notice at the time, but the Korean teenagers in front of me were probably shooting me death glares. I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I didn't know the name of the guy that touched me until someone told me afterward his name is Woo Hyun, one of the main singers, and I verified this by a Google Image search, the fount of all knowledge. If you want to see him up-close, he has several solo parts, but they do good close-ups on him at about the 2:00 and 2:32 minute marks in this video.
There were a lot more performances in the hour we got to be there, but this post is already crazy long. I'm gonna quit fan-girling here now. For the moment.
*Footnote about idols' schedules: They have to get up about 4-5 AM to get ready in makeup and hair, then they have to do music show rehearsals/performances, variety/talk show appearances, music video or photo shoots, radio shows, concert rehearsals, etc. They get home to a dorm all the members share (often not as nice as you'd imagine) about 11 PM, at which time they have to rehearse and get ready for the next day's schedule. Barely time to eat or sleep. I heard one group say they maybe got 1 day off a month. I've also heard stories of one member getting injured, but not getting sufficient time to recover before they have to get back to work. In the case of the group SHINEE (yes, a real name), one member had to get surgery after a car crash, and the label made them record and film a music video WITHOUT the injured guy, who happened to be one of the main singers. Basically the labels control their lives, and often create elaborate backstories or personas for the members, which kinda weirds me out. I just like the songs and dances, I promise!
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1 comments:
Maybe Ailee has some meat on her bones because she grew up in the States. Loved the videos! Pretty cute guy that grabbed your wrist! Hope you tell us about your last concert too. Glad to see more on your blog--I've really enjoyed it!
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