Ethan
Ruan dispelled rumors of trouble brewing in his romantic life when he spent
Tiffany Hsu’s 28th birthday with him. The 29-year-old, who is currently serving
his mandatory military service, took a day off to celebrate the special
occasion.
Eagle-eyed
netizens spotted the gorgeous couple at a karaoke joint the day before and
alerted reporters, who rushed to the venue only to catch the two emerging from
it at almost 1am. Ethan was dressed in black and wore large sunglasses, making
a beeline for his car before speeding away.
Commenting
on the reason behind the approval of Ethan's special leave, authorities
expressed that Ethan graced many promotional events, even on weekends, and used
his celebrity status to attract more audiences, thus contributing to the
special allowance given.
Tiffany
shared, "Ethan gave me the best present by taking a special leave to
celebrate my birthday with me and my good friends."
Korean
female duo Jevice debuted just recently and people have been showing interest
to the beautiful ladies’ individual careers way back then. Juri debuted as a
solo artist in 2009 and Jiae was one of the original members of the now
controversial group T-Ara. She was confirmed as a member of the group with Eunjung,
Jiyeon, Hyomin and Jiwon through a soundtrack entitled Good Person for tv drama
Cinderella Man. However, she withdrew for personal reasons.
Hana
(Jiae) said, "Before I debuted, I was free enjoying different music
styles and band live performances and also went to Russia to experience
different music. Then, through a friend, I found out and prepared to audition
for a girl group. I felt like being in a girl group would be interesting. I
thought singers are also in groups, so I could join a group to continue
singing. I dreamed to be a singer and even a girl group seemed fine to
me." she said.
She
further continued, "When the time came closer to debut there were
restraints. I wanted to try a lot of music styles and show different colors,
but I felt like the music we would do in the group was not what I wanted. When
the group came out (T-ara) it was hard to endure because I was a kid still, I
didn't know what the future would hold for me and it was hard to think about."
Three years later,
Jiae is back and swears she’ll show a much better side of herself for everyone.
"Now that I'm in a group that focuses more on vocals and I can try various
musical styles. It's fun and not what I expected. I'm free to do whatever
styles I want."
2NE1’s wacky and sassy noona Sandara
Park had fans drooling over her once
again with her latest uploaded youthful image.
The
funny lady posted on her me2day. “Hello, this is Dara, 2NE1’s refreshing vocal,
sexy 11-abs, and wild child who’s currently busy being a lovely doll for Etude
House. Aaack! (I must have had a heat stroke) I’m sure everyone’s getting antsy
after our last concert, but alas! Etude pink play concert.”
She
included a picture of herself dressed up as that lovely doll. Her outfit
departs from her usual strong, “2NE1 image,” bringing out a very feminine and
princess-like side of Dara. Notably, her explosively fresh hairstyle from
2NE1’s I Love You disappeared as she momentarily hid her signature half-bald
hair. She donned a soft, wavy-hair wig to match the doll look, complete with a
pink-tone makeup.
During
a recent broadcast of FM Music City – This is Sung Shi
Kyung, solo singer Sung Shi Kyung said a few words in regards to BoA‘s lip-syncing
performances.
Before
playing BoA’s “Only One” for his listeners, the singer remarked, “A lot of
people seemed to have a lot of things to say about BoA lip syncing, but BoA is
not a robot. In order to show the fans all of the choreography on stage,
sometimes lip syncing may be necessary. Everyone knows that BoA is a good
singer. They sure expect a lot.”
He
then added, “Psy hyung’s
song is doing so well. BoA needs to get a #1 win.”
BoA
put on her first Only One stage on July 29th, but the entire performance had
been lip synced. The singer was criticized when her comeback stage was lip
synced as well. In regards to this, the singer remarked, “There is no one that can
pull off that dance while singing live. My performances will be centered around
the choreography, and I will be promoting this album with lip sync stages.”
Fans
commented, “I really dislike when singers go to the lip-sync route. It´s such a
turnoff for the performance viewing experience. I honestly rather have artists
try and give their all to sing great than lip-syncing to bring a fake 100%
perfect live”, “All SME artists usually lip-sync on their comeback stage
anyways”, “Maybe it's a sign that it's time for that old timer BoA to go to the
retirement home”, “BoA did sing the song live in the later performances. She
practiced VERY hard to satisfy and to face the criticism. She is indeed the
best performer out there. She made the impossible possible”, etc.
Boybands V Music, 365, Harmony and MTV are
becoming new music icons for many young people in HCM City. Pop and dance music
is making waves in the southern provinces as well. The teenage-pop bands have also
attracted the attention of music producers and impresarios.
"We were fans, but now we have fans. It's a great thing for us," says
Isaac, leader of 365, which includes five members. The band's first album,
Awakening, featuring five pop songs in both English and Vietnamese, was a hit
with teenagers after it was released in 2010. "We are trying to hone 365's
performance and improve their voices," movie star and pop singer Ngo Thanh
Van, the band's producer, said.
But like pop acts the world over, the band has its critics. "365 and other
pop bands are simply a copy of its Western and South Korean counterparts and it
lacks a Vietnamese identity," wrote music critic Doan Hoai Trung of HCM
City.
This has not deterred the bands, many of which have gained national recognition
and many young fans. "We know our style is similar to South Korean pop
bands, but that's not strange or bad," Isaac said. "We admire them
like all young people over the world. Why shouldn't we follow their
footsteps?"
More and more, boy bands are receiving enthusiastic responses from young
audiences. It may only be a matter of time before pop emerges on top. "We
are not children who love music. We are singers and we have to work hard to
divide our time equally between our life and performance careers," said
Son Ngoc Minh, a member of V Music.
Most members of pop bands have just finished high school and plan to pursue
careers in music. They often work 10 hours a day to improve their vocal music
and dance skills under professional artists from the HCM City Music Conservatory.
In the past, some pop bands like 1088 lasted only a couple years, and then
folded so their members could attempt solo careers.
If it works out, this is how 365 would like to end up. "Why not? We're young and we have opportunities
in our future. One day we will become top singers," shared Isaac.
In
an industry where only idol groups were thought to be the only ones with the
potential to succeed globally, singer Psy completely blew away that assumption
with Gangnam Style. Psy has always possessed a completely different
characteristic from that of idol groups ever since he first debuted. In a
global industry that was thought to be a place only for beautiful idol groups,
Psy drew in a significant number of foreign fans of K-Pop with his unique sense
of humor that was understood and accepted by the rest of the world.
In
the US, global stars like T-Pain as well as the main news source CNN spoke of the
comedic K-Pop artist Psy’s Gangnam Style and its entertaining music video. As a
result of all the unexpected media coverage, Psy’s fame began to spread amongst
the people in the online communities in the U.S. People in the U.S. expressed
their amusement as they watched Psy’s music video for Gangnam Style over and
over again. In the music video, Psy is trying to act all cool in a playground
for children, swimming in a public bath house and riding in a marry-go-round
screaming out Gangnam Style to express the comedic scenario of a pathetic guy
day dreaming about the women of Gangnam.
It
appears as though Psy’s Grad B humor was understood and taken in by the people
in the U.S. On August 2, CNN reporter Shanon Cook announced Psy’s Gangnam Style
music video as “viral” and stated, “The response in the U.S. is unbelievable. I
have to admit, I must have watched it about 15 times.”
Representatives
in the music industry in Korea claim they expected Gangnam Style to be
a big hit but in reality, nobody expected it to be as successful as it
currently is. Psy, himself, didn’t even expect his song to gain as much
recognition internationally. Psy originally aimed at the current trend in the
Korean music industry. Psy stated, “I was trying to go with the current trend
in the music industry. I wanted to make people laugh more. I thought, right
now, people want to laugh more. I prepared this hoping to portray the most
pathetic of pathetic with this music video.”
A
representative involved with Psy stated, “We focused on the song’s success in
Korea but we never expected this from the U.S. I think the people in the U.S.
are feeling the sense of freshness after watching it just like
Koreans felt when we saw Psy’s Bird.”
Psy
explained that there is nothing holding him back from going abroad to become a
global star in the future. Psy has recently agreed to be interviewed by a news
media source in the U.S. and may even pay a visit to the states sometime soon.
According
to Psy’s representatives, they are trying to react and adjust quickly to the
response in the U.S. Psy even revealed in an interview with OSEN, “It’s like a
dream. It feels more like a dream than when I released ‘Bird’ and I’m more
nervous than ever before. Nothing is settled for sure but it seems as though
the positive response in the U.S. is stable. Since Psy studied abroad in the
U.S. he speaks English very well so we’re trying to take this all in very
positively and seeing where we can go from here.”
