The first time I saw John
Park was from the small, second-hand television I bought from ebay, which
specifically for practicing my listening skill. After I finished setting up the
television and connecting it to the cable, a big boy wearing a simple white
shirt appeared on the scene and caught my eyes. He was sitting on a chair
peacefully, having his eyes half-closed, and singing "Gravity" by
John Mayor.
During the same year, he rejected offers from many American entertainments, choosing to move back to Korea, his hometown, and joining the Korean American Idol "Superstar K2." His decision surprised his family, fans and most of the Americans. Many critics questioned the reason he chose to abandon his popularity in America and to start over in Korea. John Park, during many interviews, explained that he wanted to experience different music environment.
2012 He released his first album on 23 February, 2012. Not only did his album become popular in Korea, but also in America. People listened to his music at Billboard and watch the music video on Youtube.
Considered "the most influential artist of the decade" by The Japan Times, Utada Hikaru has led a long and successful career at the young age of 31. Also known by her stage name Utada, she released her first album, "First Love," in 1999 where the album eventually became the top selling album in Oricon history (one of the top authorities on music charts in Japan, similar to Billboards in the US). Throughout her career, Utada has released a total of 5 Japanese albums and 3 English albums, estimated more than 52 million records sold worldwide.
In America, many know Utada Hikaru for her song contributions to the Kingdom Hearts series: "Simple and Clean," the theme song for Kingdom Hearts and "Sanctuary," the theme song for Kingdom Hearts 2. Growing up as a young Japanese American, I couldn't help but be entranced by games like Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts. I clearly remember playing the opening songs over and over again until my parents were annoyed with it. Utada Hikaru was my "gateway drug" into J-pop as I'm sure it was for many others. I started listening to her other songs in Japanese; I didn't understand a thing she was saying but it didn't stop me from enjoying it. i'm not really sure myself, but I 100% prefer the Japanese versions of all of her songs (and everything else). It feels much more natural and... just sounds better. With that I will post the Japanese versions of each; the Japanese version of "Simple and Clean" is Hikari, while the Japanese version of "Sanctuary" is "Passion."
Utada has been in the spotlight for an extremely long time, I compare her to a more successful and less crazy Britany Spears, and her personal life has definitely been affected. Utada married photographer and film director Kiriya Kazuaki in 2002, but reportedly separated due to her extremely busy schedule. For 15 years, Utada has captured the hearts of fans around the world (including mine) but, deservingly so, has taken a hiatus to get remarried. Her last active presence in the music world was the DVD release of her tour footage "Utada: In the Flesh 2010." I have watched the DVD countless of times and it doesn't even surprise me how good her live singing voice is.
This short blog is no where near enough to encapsulate the brilliance of Utada Hikaru. She is a classic, a legend, an icon. I leave you now with her last single: "Goodbye Happiness."
I grew up in a very cookie cutter kind of suburbs where everyone was really Americanized and the population was predominantly white and Asian. So when my friend started to do the dance in our high school halls to the "Gee" song made by the South Korean all girl group Girls' Generation, it caught me off guard.
She shuffled back and forth with her feet, turning in and out while holding a peace sign horizontally up to her face, eye peering through her peace sign eventually bringing it against the side of her head. She sang, "Gee, gee, gee, gee baby, baby."
(That girl in the middle, Samantha Wong, started it.)
Jessica Jung was born and raised in San Francisco, California until she went on vacation with her family to South Korea and was scouted by a talent agency, SM Entertainment. When she was 11 she made the move to South Korea to train for seven years before joining the group that would be known as Girls' Generation.
She is fluent in both English and in Korean, but also can speak Japanese and minimal Chinese. Jessica's Korean name is Jung Soo-yeon and is also nicknamed the "Ice Princess" because of her cold personality. She is also known as a real life "tsundere" which is a manga/anime character who is cold upon the first couple of interactions, but warms up eventually when she gets to know you.
On August 5, 2007, Girls' Generation made its debut but it wasn't until the release of their popular hit song, "Gee" that made them known. The song was call the "song of the decade" in South Korea.
Jessica did a lot of side work as well, with a collection of singles, collaborations, modeling and even acting. She released three songs with group members Seohyun and Tiffany, "Love Hate", "Bad Older Brother" and "It's Fantastic!" She also collaborated with 8Eight, though she is not the one in the music video but is singing the harmony and adlibs.
The singer was also nominated for and won the popularity award from the Musical Awards in South Korea as well as the award as "Korean Barbie".
Girls' Generation had Jessica and Tiffany as the main spokeswomen for this interview on television. Access Hollywood is aired on NBC and the interview reveals that Jessica and Tiffany are from the United States. At this point Girls' Generation had just broken into America's music scene and that's a pretty big deal, because they were one of the first girl groups from Korea to enter the music scene.
Ailee is a South Korean-American singer who moved from
the U.S. to South Korea to pursue a professional music career. Ailee was born
as Amy Lee (Korean name: Lee Yejin) on May 30, 1989 in Denver, Colorado, but
she grew up in New Jersey. After attending Park Junior/Senior High School and
graduating from Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School, Ailee went on to study
communications, journalism, and criminal justice at Pace University. However,
she later dropped out to pursue a music career. She took her first steps
towards a singing career by creating a YouTube channel called “mzamyx3,” which
later evolved into another channel called “aileemusic” that was meant to garner
in more attention for her singing on the Internet. Her video, which proved to
be pretty popular, caught the attention of the program director of NBC’s Maury Show, who contacted her in hopes
of obtaining her participation in a program similar to American Idol. Although her win of second place in the competition
opened some doors in the U.S. music scene, Ailee was determined to debut in
South Korea first.
Ailee's performance of Rihanna's "Unfaithful" on the Maury Show
Prior to her K-pop debut in South Korea, Ailee was singed under
an independent agency based in New York and New Jersey Muzo Entertainment,
where she collaborated with many artists, including Johnnyphlo and
Philadelphia-based rapper Decipher. She later landed an audition in 2010 and,
thus, moved to South Korea. Her performance of Big Mama’s “Resignation” landed
her a spot in YMC Entertainment as a trainee. During her trainee days, she
performed on MBC’s Singer and Trainee,” where she performed Usher’s “My Boo” with
Wheesung, a South Korean R&B artist, and Beyoncé’s “Halo” solo. Judges and audiences alike praised
Ailee for her professionalism although she had not yet officially debuted.
Ailee's performance of Beyoncé's "Halo" on Singer and Trainee
In
February 2012, she made her official debut with a song written and produced by
Wheesung called “Heaven,” which had a strong run and peaked at #3 on GaOn, Korea’s
real-time digital charts. She dominated the Cyworld Music Awards where she
snatched two awards for “Song of the Month” and Rookie of the Month.” Several
months later in October 2012, Ailee released her debut mini album entitled Invitation, which is composed of six
tracks. Ailee’s sophomore mini album, A’s
Doll House was released the following year on July 12, 2013. “U&I,” the
album’s single, quickly shot to the top the music charts within four hours of
its release. After releasing a Japanese single for “Heaven” in November of 2013
and a six-month hiatus in South Korea, Ailee made a comeback with “Singing Got
Better.” Not surprisingly, as hinted by her previous two immensely popular
singles, “Singing Got Better” reached #1 on many of Korea’s major music charts,
including Mnet, Naver Music, and Daum Music.
Check out three of Ailee's hit singles, "Heaven," "U&I," and "Singing Got Better," respectively.
f(x) is a multi-national K-pop girl group who debuted on September 5, 2009 as "Asia's Pop Dance Group" under SM Entertainment. It is comprised of five girls- Chinese leader Victoria Song, Koreans Luna and Sulli, and more notably the two "American" members Krystal Jung and Amber Liu. The name for the group originates from the mathematical notation for function which stands for their aim to adapt to different situations. From left to right in the picture below, the members are Sulli, Amber, Krystal, Victoria, and Luna.
Krystal Jung is a native of San Francisco, California. She was scouted at just 5 years old by SM along with her sister Jessica when they were on a family vacation to Korea in 2000. Since then she has appeared in various commercials and music videos as a child actress before officially joining SM in 2006 to begin training. Sulli debuted as a child actress in 2005 while Luna was recruited in 2006 after her performance on Truth Game. Victoria was scouted at a Beijing dance competition in 2007, and Taiwanese-American member Amber joined two months later after being casted in SM's Global Auditions in LA.
Here is a timeline of their major musical releases:
September 5, 2009 - Debut digital single "LA chA TA"
October 8, 2009- LG promotion song "Chocolate Love" with label mates Girls' Generation
November 9, 2009- First digital single "Chu~"
January 2, 2010- Chinese cover of "Lollipop"
May 4, 2010- EP "Nu Abo" released with lead single "Nu Abo" topping charts
April 20, 2011- First album "Pinocchio" released winning 8 times on Korean music shows
June 14, 2011- Repackaged first album released under "Hot Summer"
June 10, 2012- Second EP "Electric Shock"
July 29, 2013- Second album "Pink Tape" released with lead single "Rum Pum Pum" to sweep the top of all Korean charts
f(x) is known for their electro-pop music that is different from most of the songs traditional K-pop churns out. It is for this reason that they are more popular overseas than in Korea. Their 2012 release "Electric Shock" gained massive response overseas and currently has over 59 million views on Youtube. In March 2013, f(x) had the honor to be the first K-pop group to perform at 2013 SXSW South By Southwest. Their second album "Pink Tape" also received critical acclaim for being quirky and experimental and was the only K-Pop album released in 2013 to be ranked as "The Best 40 albums of 2013" by American music channel Fuse TV. Considering K-pop's almost non existent influence on the U.S. music industry, this is considered a big achievement. The American members have also done collaborations other SM artists during their SM Town concerts all over the United States.
Here are two SM Town performances by Krystal with Jessica and Amber with Key from SHINEE and Kris from EXO singing American songs which really cater to their American fans.
Tik Tok
Like A G6
And here are f(x)'s two most recent lead singles.
Electric Shock
Rum Pum Pum
The next two posts will feature on the American members Amber and Krystal.
Hello everyone, my name is Justin, and I hail from the far mountainous wastelands of the United States formerly known as the Utah Territory; a land so unwanted that the U.S. government practically gave it away to a highly persecuted group (it's terrible really..), a land of strongly enforced gender roles and where diversity means having a couple Asian kids in a class of 50, and surprisingly, a land where the music of Taiwanese superstar Wang Leehom thrives in popularity.
Pictured: Utah, 5 months of the year.
Ok, so maybe I jumped a little too far back in time there when I was describing my hometown (in reality, things now are only half as bad as I described them). But my point still stands: Salt Lake City is not widely known as a metropolitan center of culture. So how is it that a foreign pop singer has any attention at all in such a remote bubble of U.S. society?
Let's start at the beginning. Alexander Leehom Wang was born in 1976 in Rochester, New York to 外省人 (anti-communist fugitives) Taiwanese parents. Following in his brother's footsteps, he asked his mother to enroll him in violin lessons, which she refused until he was 6 years old. In high school he picked up the guitar and drums. He showed a strong interest for a career in music, double majoring music and Asian Studies at Williams college.
In 1995, Wang released his debut album 情敵貝多芬 (Love Rival, Beethoven) with Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG) with little success. His next few albums with Decca Records were moderately successful. However, Wang insisted on finishing school before pursuing his career. After graduating with honors from Williams College, he released his first award-winning album 公轉自轉 (Revolution) with Sony Music Entertainment, with several more following in the years after.
Now back to my original point: how did I, living in a state whose population is dwarfed by that of most large cities, come to hear the angelic voice of Wang Leehom? Well it started when he hired Wongfu Productions, another immensely popular Asian American group, to direct his music video for 依然愛你 (Still Love You).
The original music video no longer seems to be on Youtube, which makes me extremely sad, but it had a significant impact on me. That music video launched my interest in Chinese pop music and prompted me to begin looking into my own Chinese heritage (maternal side) that I had almost resented in years past. The group kind of poked fun at me when we were proposing blog ideas because I wouldn't shut up about WANGLEEHOM, but it's because of this identity crisis in Jr. High that his music will likely be forever close to my heart.
