Britney--Not going to bore you with the history of kpop, which I find fascinating, not as a fan of all the music but as a fan of pop culture in general. But just wanted to make the quick point that, without diminishing Korea's own contribution, the U.S. was central to its creation in two ways--kpop wouldn't exist in its various forms if it wasn't for African American music, plus, Korean-Americans from L.A. were key in transforming Korean pop music in the 1990s and early 2100s. In fact I don't know if you've heard the group Solid, made up of Korean-Americans, a group which was big in Korea in the 1990s. They were key to the early formation of kpop sound--harmony and melody. Pure soulful R&B given a Korean-American twist and brought over to Korea. Here is 1995 t.v. performance if you want to give it a listen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9VrNu94yno

I've read about that group and two kind of funny things that are relevant to your comment:
1. their Korean wasn't that good--probably only spoke it regularly at home so they had to undergo the same language training process that a lot of kpop group members do today, regardless whether they are from Korea learning English or from other countries learning Korea.
2. They were shocked by the kind of intense fandom they experienced in Korea, and in fact the group broke up in part because one member, John Lee couldn't take it anymore and went back to L.A. because in Seoul young women were breaking into his house, harassing his girlfriend, etc. He became a successful real estate developer in L.A., which fits kdrama stereotypes--kpop stars buying buildings !

Looks like fun, with a nice sprinkling of seasoned actors. Junho not a favorite (I gave up on King the Land but because of script, not the acting) but he's not on my dislike list either.

I was already planning to make this a "scheduled" watch (as opposed to watching when I get around to it), but Oh Na-ra as a baddie???

Guess I'll need to figure out when Prime releases vis-a-vis when it airs in Korea and I'll hope it's early in the morning (PDT) when nothing else is going on.

Another one to look forward to.

@joanna
I don’t mind entertainment news as long as it’s actually news (how the person is doing, what is the situation, etc.). I tend to stay away when it heads into gossip territory— especially if it’s meant to talk bad or slander or defame someone (celebrity or not)— and will also stay away from melons (瓜), especially unsupported/unsubstantiated melons about casting news

Summer colds, the worst! Take care of yourself.

Did I read that right, 62 million views of his anniversary concert online with 10 million "interacting" which means, what?, sending comments during the concert?

I keep having to adjust my head to these mind boggling numbers in China, for audiences at live concert performances -- for streaming shows -- for fan interactions. Seems scary. This is scary, right?

I'm using DuckDuckGo too!
My phone was messing up and the tech deleted the previous ad blocker broswer I was using for this site

It's always hard for me to log in to this site so i try to stay logged in

I hope you feel better soon @gikata!

Yes, about half the time I can't get the Show Replies button to work.

The loss of threading, forcing us to use @ mentions for everything but first level commenting, has to be slowing down the site more than allowing multi-level threading. To say nothing of how difficult it's become to interact with each other :-/

@kiara, @jillian, @zindigo, @isagc, @wonhwa, @seeker, @mochakat9, @wishfultoki, @cliosservant1846

Few songs from the event officially titled 817 Festival, starting with “Facing death bravely” (BURNING FLAMES OST). His must've feel really good that day because the song is very hard and he complaints about chocking on fast lines every single time he performs it lol:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SrA71D-84U

Something more positive and energetic – Jolin Tsai's “Say I love you”. He and his giant collection of sunglasses are having a blast with it lol. Also, forgot to mention – all sunflower decorations, awww!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXyYbs-wCG4

And a melancholic one - “That's it” by Power Station:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rdNESA4o1E

Some pretty to wrap this entry up - Sorrento vlog:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EjA6IDdb4Q

Small correction about last week's OST - it is not drama's opening theme, but battle theme or, per singer himself, "gods killing theme". Cool, right?)))

Happy Friday, Beanies! I'm sick with a cold (and it's not even autumn yet!), so forgive my short-ish essay today. Yuning is currently in Xi'an (ex-Chang'an) filming final episodes of WOW THE WORLD, shopping, dancing and singing again (in hanfu! Tang dynasty one, I think). He'll be back in a few days - waiting to see what he has in store for upcoming galas. Meanwhile, we have a new single! And fanclub anniversary livestream. AND a drama rumor I'm sure there's zero need to take seriously. Pretty scholar (?) in purple:
https://x.com/builenciaga_/status/1958587392736337980

Back to adorable sunflower saga that continued flower's growth, culminated in opening an actual mailbox for fan letters back in his hometown (in exact place he used to busk before) and planting a whole metaphorical field of sunflowers. Look:
https://x.com/LiuYuningIntFC/status/1958792715572842931

The mailbox in question:
https://x.com/lalawolf_pook/status/1957792508559106067

As for new single - “Your eyes/gaze” - I told you I didn't hear the entire thing before, so it blew me away upon first listening. What an emotional song! Wonderful piano too, esp into and outro. Trivia is that initially Yuning rejected the demo, thinking it was a love song, only for composer to reach out and clarify it's actually about artist's feeling toward fans. That did the trick))) Which is... interesting, because the lyrics are DEVASTATING, to put it mildly. Listen and read for yourselves (but that cover image is so cute! and looks very much like him for once):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdXCe8An_b0

Live version from Wuhan concert:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUgwvzG_8gM

Spotify link for “Share the stars” at last. Odd thing is that last weekend his artist name on music sites - both local and global - has been changed from “Modern Brothers Liu Yuning” (in traditional Chinese) to just “Liu Yuning” (in simplified Chinese), which I couldn't find any explanation for. There's no strife between him and his bandmates as they were together for 817 livestream on Sunday and he still kept his MD LYN name on Weibo etc, so I'm at loss what was the reasoning here – some legal issues? Anyway, if you plan to look him up somewhere, now you know specific name to search.
https://open.spotify.com/album/1mQjSbIrWlyzx0Swp6iKy8?si=aaakZq_jQciePFsFUcMQ3Q

As for anniversary livestream, it was essentially yet another free concert full of music (but not another Carnation, that one still stands in the future), jokes and even signed photocards giveaway. Last one apparently broke Weibo servers a little with insane demand – so much that platform had to apologize for lag and promise to do better next time. Let's hope they indeed will make all necessary preparations and won't fail Weibo King itself again:
https://x.com/AJLYN456/status/1957150412131409998

If you're talking about the replies than yep. I was saying that last week's open thread. I can't see replies on my phone and I can only see the replies to my comments if I get notified about them.

It never worked for me ever since "upgrade", but everyone else I asked has no issues with it. Finally I'm not alone, yay!

Recently, I saw there was some controversy over rookie groups not getting paid or something for their appearance at the recent KCON and the official response was like "those groups are here for the experience and exposure, that's what the companies signed up for."

It makes me think that there are audience members who don't speak/understand Korean watching groups they don't know so they don't know what's being said and the success of the performance is wholly dependent of how vibey and entertaining the idols are.

Happy weekend Beanies and keep Beaning On!

My leave is nearly over and it is back to the office on Tuesday. I was on another holiday for three days and switched between unpacking and meet-ups for the remainder of last week. This week was staycation without any plans and it turned out well. I had the bad habit this spring of filling my leave days to the brim and not getting enough rest. In two weeks I start working four days a week, better get the most fun and rest now I still can!

I wouldn't consider myself a kpop fan, I just like what I like but I just had this moment of realization while watching a kcon LA performance when it really registered that most of the audience does not speak or understand the language haha.

I don't know when Kpop broke into the US and I don't even know why. Maybe cause it was different when US music was lacking in resonance and then you had these brightly colored haired, coordinated dancing groups and it was like ooohh, ahhh. I have no idea.
The last time I remember being a music listener was around middle/high school and at the time, the music felt reflective of how I felt or it was played ad nauseam (such as Bad Day by James Blunt) so it became an earworm and a soundtrack of your life. Actually, I remember finding much of the music I listened to from the shows I was watching so that was mostly The WB/The CW haha as well as MTV's TRL and BET's 106 & Park.

My point is I completely missed the early days of Kpop in the US and I imagine even less people knew what was being said cause even the older kpop MVs don't have english subs and their content definitely doesn't have any (and nowadays companies are being stingy with early content being included in videos or shown so it's even more unavailable for fans but I digress).

I know people will say American or western music has been successful abroad for years and okay but also I think alot more people were familiar with english than they were with Asian languages or music but I could definitely be wrong.

I think it's interesting and fascinating how kpop has become such a thing even with the language barrier.

Yes often. Sometimes it finally opens after a long pause. On the whole the site is very very slow

I've been loving how mainstream Kpop Demon Hunters is getting. I've heard "Golden" on the local radio a bunch of times now. I'm going to see the singalong screening in theaters with my friend and her daughter tomorrow.

But, as I watch people I know who have zero knowledge of Korean culture talk about how much they love it, I also kind of feel like this meme https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/judgmental-volturi