I really didn't know whether to post this on my personal blog or at Nuna's so i'll cover all bases and go for both, sorry if you follow both, but I can only think of 2 of you who that might be so deal with it.
COMPARE & CONTRAST:
80s metal pioneers Baekdoosan and 2010 k-pop/rock/indie/"emotional" newcomers CN Blue, both from South Korea, both guests on a recent episode of a TV quiz(?)/talk show called "The Beatles Code". So that's the connection, but stranger yet I like both those songs, really I do. I get so much flak for liking CN Blue, even from the innermost circle of my sympathetic conjoined brain twin k-pop loving counterparts, apparently no one actually listens to CN Blue except for me. Part of me admits that maybe the music is quite terrible, but there are just so many excuses and reasons to like them, I lose any sense of guilt (as if I have any at all relating to k-pops multiple crimes against popular music) and wind up listening to 외톨이야 one more time...
Here are the most convincing arguments for justifying an appreciation of CN Blue (and clearly i'm still trying to convince myself because everytime I listen to their album I do get a slight guilty sickness in my stomach and I feel uneasy, like I hope no one catches me...)
1 - Jung YongHwa - He's motherfucking SHIN WOO from You're Beautiful and if ever there were a fictional character so perfect that it would make you fall unwaveringly in love with the actor who plays him and continue to blend the line in your head between reality and fiction so much that you are completed deluded and start to imagine that the watered down k-pop lite version of his already mediocre j-pop indie rock band is actually quite good and worthy of you downloading all releases and watching multiple performances of the same song (even songs like the one above that contain disgusting 10 second breakdowns where you are cringing so much that you wish the earth would split in two and swallow you whole, screw you 3mins25 -3mins35), then this fictional character would be the one to do that. KAN SHIN WOO.
2 - Lee JongHyun - Aside from the fact that he is more beautiful than the most beautiful spiritual being and you marvel at how such a vision could have been brought to this earth and placed in front of your undeserving mortal eyes, he has a gorgeous voice. I really love it. I have to be pretty sold on a voice to not even care too much about what they are singing but just be desperate for YongHwa to hurry up and get over his repeatative toned slack raps (I just coined the term slack rap to describe that kind of half singing, half talking, ever so slightly aggressive but not really, rap they pops up all over k-music) so I can here Jonghyun cooing "haneuri eotgallyeo noheun sarangira keuraetni keu mareul mideul sun eobseo" and I feel like i'm melting into a puddle. What the hell is wrong with me?!
3 - They play their own instruments. OK, so thats obvious and largely unimpressive, but I'm a total sucker for it. Lets hop in my time machine and visit my youthful self in 1993, I loathed Take That, I was disinterested in East 17, I thought NKOTB were stupid (the fool I was!) but I loved Let Loose. Who? y'know 3 member boy band Let Loose who reached about #44 in the charts with their first few singles and wait for it ... PLAYED THEIR OWN INSTRUMENTS. You see k-pop is my modern boyband world, only this time around I am so into the concept that it's beyond ironic, and CN Blue are a boyband (or an "idol group" if you want to use more authentic terminology) despite their former busking glory / independent Japanese career, and so they are to me A BOYBAND WHO PLAY THEIR OWN INSTRUMENTS, and therefore, its an autonomous reaction that I like them.
The only reason I have written any of this is so that I can tell you about a 5 second moment that exploded my brain (as only k-pop can). On the previously mentioned "The Beatles Code" with guests CN Blue and Baekdoosan (which i'll state here and now I did not watch, I read a 10 line summary and then skimmed through a clip by chance to find this so I could make a GIF of it), the hosts of show made a fleeting comment that Baekdoosan guitarist Kim Do Gyun looked a bit like The Undertaker from WWE/WWF !!! As a pro wrestling fan and a K-pop fan I can tell you it is a rare and special day when the two are intertwined like this hot mess of young Rain dancing inside a wrestling ring or who can forget the time Rain wrestled 5 guys in Myung-dong. Well yes, those were both fairly tenuous and irrelevant to "pro" wrestling, but I get desperate sometimes, and this one is tiny but features actual WWE footage on a South Korean TV show, but more importantly CN Blue's unexpected reaction like its the funniest thing they ever heard, which (and i'm finally getting to the point here...) means that CN Blue know who the Undertaker is!! and that's what exploded my mind. I have no idea if WWE is popular in S.Korea, or if it ever was, but YongHwa cracking up and applauding like this, (with added "side teeth" appeal) he gets the joke and thats what matters:
(its kind of a long GIF so be patient if your loading this somewhere slow)
It was hardly worth outing myself as a pathetically less than proud CN Blue fan over it, but there it was, CN Blue X The Undertaker. And I wrote this post to remember this moment forever, who knows when my next microscopic wrestling X k-pop crossover will come. In the meantime I can always rely on Arashi doing impressions of Antoni Inoki, and nothing, NOTHING will ever beat "Large man slaps Kinki Kids while Gackt watch" (For the confused this translates to mean a video clip of legendary Japanese pro wrestler Antoni Inoki slapping the Johnny's J-pop duo the Kinki Kids across the face whilst enigmatic pseudo vampire weirdo amazing singer musician guy "Gackt" is seated in the background watching on, hence the title.)
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To go back to k-pop bands who play their own instruments you are probably thinking I have severely overlooked FT Island (CN Blue's labelmates) and you'd be right, initially I did severely overlook them (and self postponed the onslaught of Hongki mania), but I soon rectified that and have since caught up in bounds. I am currently swaying in melodic pop rock ballad harmony whilst dreamboat/dream beau experiemntal hair coloured emotional rocker Lee Hongki (and lets not forget this is JEREMY for "You're Beautiful") is serenading me with his unique powerful vocals "sarange sarange sarange", yep I love love love you too boys, probably a lot more than CN Blue to be honest, but don't tell them that... More on this another day.
- BUNNY
3 comments:
Oh Bunny bestest, what a lovely post. Making CN Blue cool, or at least so much cooler than they usually are.
I like your reasons for liking them. I agree with there reasons, so why am I so unsupportive? Terrible yeodongsang that I am. Maybe the next album? Autumn comeback?
Really, really like the GIG for three reasons:
1) Yonghwa's enthusiasm
2) Yonghwa's incredibly tentative listening at the start of the GIF, just waiting, waiting... look how hard he is always trying.
3) Whichever member it is to his left who HEADBANGS with delight. Precious.
I like CN Blue a little more now, well done.
x
ha, on re reading this comment i can almost hear sarcasm in "what a lovely post" , i will endeavour to make them slightly cooler for you, one GIF at a time, really though if there were ever a real life opposite to calm and cool Shin Woo, then dorking clumsy side teeth would be it. bless him.
I love the tentative listening, thats why I kept it in, it actually is the end of the GIF!? after spazzing with laughter he suddenly looked concerned, like "was it ok to laugh??"
its beautiful jonghyun guitarist who slams down on the counter in the black t-shirt, i knw we have some confusion over "the beautiful one" as youve always had a thing for the Minhyuk the drummer, second form the right in a lovely cardi.
x
Ok, so, since this was the post that brought me to you, I had to comment...
I feel like I go through phases, and as a (quasi/imaginary) musician, I really DO get excited when bands play their own instruments (although when bands dance in a totally awesome manner, it is really just as acceptable). I tried FT Island and CN Blue and just couldn't get into them... ...until I watched You're Beautiful, and then I was hooked on Kang Shin Woo, er YongHwa... because they're definitely still the same person in my strange little mind... Ok, still not quite up on FTI yet, but CN, I've found a few songs I can definitely listen to without *too* much cringing...
...and seriously, how very rare to have a WWE x Kpop moment, and how very wonderful! ...I admit, I am in complete awe of your gif-making skills.
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