Stockholm, November. Yeah…
November 23, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Sometimes I desperatly try to force myself to write stuff and usually it does not work out well. To run a blog goes from epic happiness to total depression over and over again. To share my thoughts turned out to be one of the best things I ever could have done, but to get them down on paper… Seriously, this is learning by doing, constantly.
I am actually one of those people who really like the autumn and I will never ever complain about this part of the year, but the autumn is turning into now winter and Sweden is pitch black for most of the day. Most of all, I am working harder then I ever have done before in my life.
/The Future is Idol
Fan account: JYJ in Berlin
November 21, 2011 § Leave a Comment
We kinda overslept the morning of the concert since we intended to start queing at 4 AM. But we didn’t get to the que until 6 AM. Queing was a bit boring and at times it was hard to communicate with other fans since all the people that surrounded us were Germans that spoke a limited amount of English. But the ones in front of us were nice and explained to us how everything worked. We got our tickets and left Tempodrom around 11:30 to go get lunch. We came back after that and qued again to get some merchendise. Sadly, I didn’t buy a t-shirt, since I didn’t have enough money on me. But anyway. I bought pins and the posters were for free.
Naturally there was A LOT of Cassiopedias and I really didn’t fit in much since I’ve never really been and probably never will be a Cassi. But I managed. We met some nice Swedish fans. I was surprised to see that there where at least 6-7 people from Sweden that went. It was nice.
There was a huge amount of Korean and Japanese fans, which was nice as well. The Korean and especially the Japanese fans were very friendly and shared their love for JYJ with handing out free merchendise such as banners and stickers. I was totally ecstatic when I got hold of a Junsu fan (not a person fan… but a fan you use when it’s hot outside XD). There were fans from all over Europe, so it was really cool.
This was the first K-pop concert I’ve ever been too and it’s totally different from the concerts I’ve been to with Japanese rockbands. First thing first… the artists are SO FREAKKIN FAR AWAY.
But it was still amazing. They were all flawless and really gorgeous and beautiful and omg JUNSU.
They opened the concert with their song Empty, a song that I really enjoy. And they continued with… I think it was AYYY GIRL… I never really approved of that song much, but it was SO MUCH BETTER when they sang it live than on the CD-recording. They wore white suits for the first part of the concert… but the real gorgeous clothes were put in when they preformed Mission, which me and my Maknae agreed was the best song that they preformed that night. The three of them all preformed one solo-song each, but because I’m biased I really only remember Junsu’s (You are so Beautiful).
Overall, the concert was great. It was really great, except for some minor stuff. Like the sound was really off on a few of the songs that you could barely hear them sing (the background music was too loud). And there was absolutely NO USE looking at the big TV-screens that they had, because they only filmed their dancers. And well.. the dancers was great. But we didn’t pay 60 euro to come see the back-up dancers. Like really. But during the ballads, the screens were very convenient indeed. But other then that, they only made one annoyed.
AND THE CONCERT WAS SO SHORT.
Like really. We got in at, what was is, 6PM? The concert started a while after 7PM and then ended around 9PM. That’s what, less than 2 hours? And well… they did say that they hadn’t had any time to prepare that many songs for the concert, but it was such a pity.
They snuck in smaller interview-sessions between the songs just to fill it up a bit, and I think those were the highlights of the concert! It was really fun to see them joking with each other and answer questions. There was a whole lot of Yoochun and Jaejoong teasing Junsu. It was adorable.
And when they got the question of what they wanted the audience to bring back home from the concert, all three of them answered “Junsu’s behind.”
I was happy to hear that they had actually got some time to be tourists and see Berlin. It’s very common that artists are too busy to even see the city they’re preforming in properly. So I was very glad to hear that. They had even tried some German food. A lot of sausages apparently.
So to sum things up… the sound could’ve been better, and the cameramen could’ve been more concentrated on filming JYJ instead of the dancers. But the energy from the fans and from JYJ was an amazing experience.
/Niki
Press here if you want to read the spazz in it’s original at Live Journal.
Greatest thanks to Niki for sharing her spazz with us!
The Making of A Superstar
November 21, 2011 § Leave a Comment
So I just watched the fancams of Ryeowooks performance at Super Show 4. I had read about it in fan accounts and worried that I would cringe at Ryeowooks sudden sexiness. That man has always had a cute image, and he didn’t enter SME for his looks or his dancing, but for his voice. He always mentions non-showy ballad singers as his rolemodels and idols, and studied composing and piano in school. All and all, although his image seems to have changed a little during these last promotions, it could have been a bit of a gamble for him to put on a sexy image like this.
But it turned out to be really awesome. Just watch it:
Over the time that I’ve followed Super Junior, I’ve gradually become fonder of Ryeowook. He’s not really one of the artists that make me go HNNNG!!!!!!!1 but I like him to the point that I would say that he is one of my favourite SuJu members. One of the reasons is just his sweetness (combined with sudden displays of evil) and his undeniable nerdiness. And I usually don’t like these kinds of displays of charismatic, manly sexiness – I often suspect that their performers were teenage bullies that just keep getting attention from girls. But this time, I was happy for him. Has he hoped to do something like this for a long time and not gotten to do it because of his image? Has he simply not dared? But although I did ask myself if this was really something he wanted to do, I would be surprised if it weren’t. I was happy for the high school nerd who only had female friends, who dated a girl for a year without kissing her, who was overweight as a kid and never really got to have a sexy or cool image until now. Ryeowook wouldn’t take sex appeal for granted, he’s earned it – and I feel like he deserved it.
/Mis
The MV
November 16, 2011 § Leave a Comment
It looks really good, but I have to tell you, I do not at all understand this MV, I do not understand what happens when the men walks through the x-ray machine and one of them appears to be a Marilyn Monroe copy. Is Seo In Young disappointed that he is not manly enough or the fact that he didn’t tell her the secret outside the machine? There are screws standing up in some picture frames and they jump to the music…
Have to go to work, enjoy meanwhile, more later!
/The Future is Idol
Not patient enough
November 15, 2011 § Leave a Comment
to wait for the MV, heh. Here it is, Oh My Gosh from newly released mini-album Brand New Elly.
This woman, she had me from WGM. How she managed to invent herself I do not know.
/The Future is Idol
Oh My Gosh Seo in Young. Oh My Gosh
November 14, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Epic teaser. 16th of November, comeback.
/The Future is Idol
In reality, it is actually the other way around
November 13, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Just recently, I found an interview in a Swedish history magazine concerning historical research about popular culture and what it can tell us about our society. The researcher interviewed, Eva Kingsepp at Stockholm University is at the moment studying how nazi germany is presented and used in our modern popular culture, in movies, games, novels etc.
When asked what the study of popular culture can contribute to the understanding of the fascination for Nazi Germany in todays society, she answers:
”Popular culture is often seen as something trivial, less urgent. In reality, it is actually the other way around – everything important in our culture is reflected by it’s popular culture. As we study the diffrent genres we are able to find significant perceptions of ethics and moral, and how they change over time. The popular culture affects us far more then any pure propaganda and furthermore, usually on a subconcius level.”
The Future is Idol is a blog that is aiming to do eaxactly this. By focusing on the modern popular culture of South Korea and to not just give you it’s latest news, we want to find truths and and unweil thoughts hidden within the boundaries of popular culture. At at the same time, kpop is a love affair of ours.
morals
ethics
magic
All fired up/The Future is Idol
The quoted part can be found in it’s original in the Swedish historical magazine “Populär Historia” on page number 10 in the ninth issue of 2011, and is written by Anna Larsdotter. We do not in any way try to take credit for it’s content and the translation was just made to prove our points regarding the importance of studying popular culture, such as in our case, Kpop.
After rain comes sunshine (and new idols)
November 9, 2011 § 1 Comment
OK so I have been a bit bored with a lot of kpop groups for some time and most lately, disappointed with the Wonder Girls. An MV that after the release, just felt like a heavy cloud of rain over me, even though the song wasn’t all that bad.
AA, don’t know anything about this group really, heard the song So Crazy - 미쳐서 그래 a couple of days ago and was pleasently surprised. Now the MV is out and I can’t help thinking that if this MV was given to Wonder Girls, I would have been more then happy with their comeback. But no, it was given to this random new boyband. Good for them!
It is really a most ordinary story, one piece set with flickering lights and colours, something we have seen so many times before, but love. Think MBLAQ – Y etc. And sometimes it’s for the best to keep it simple and to the basics. The coreography is great and the clothes are quirky kpop nice looking. This is a hit for me. Classic kpop-style boyband stuff. Also, they don’t look that macho at all and that is something that I think is a nice touch.
So, I had kind of a lousy day at work, the weather is terrible in Stockholm and soon I have to go to work again. But as it turns out, after rain and the wonder girls, comes sunshine and new idols.
/The Future is Idol
Wonder Girls, you are failing me
November 6, 2011 § 9 Comments
The wrong song, the wrong MV
After watching the new Wonder Girls MV Be My Baby a couple of times I have decided that this blog is not the right place to give it any room, I simply do not like it. Maybe later, maybe not.
Instead, lets focus on the songs on their new album I like after listening to it just a couple of times this late evening in Stockholm. Wrong choice of single anyone?:
Stop:
G.N.O. (girls night out)
What do you think about all of this? Am I just being mean?
/so disappointed – The Future is Idol
R U?
November 1, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Wonder Girls. OMFG.
First of all, I’m not the biggest Wonder Girls fan around. The popularity of single “Nobody” is still somewhat of a mystery to me, even if the remix by Jason Nevins did good to the track, and I’m in general extremely tired to see the news about their whereabouts in the US, they are pushing the american fame a little bit to hard, without the credibility to match.
On the other hand, “Tell Me” is a true classic and “Two Different Tears” is a really good track when you loose the MV.
I have so long wished for them to make a real comeback in South Korea and East Asia. Now it’s finally time.
This first MV teaser for 2nd album is so extremely good looking that I could not have wished for anything else. The track itself is hard to know anything about just yet(ofcourse) but the emphasis on their vocals is not a bad decision for a first teaser. A nice beat kicks of in the middle of the teaser making me anticipate even more. They stated earlier that there would be nothing retro in their comeback concept and thank god it looks to be true. I kind of hate the retro concept. This first teaser is a complete success.
/The Future is Idol
