(From the left: Victory, G-Dragon, Tae Yang, Dae Sung, and TOP)

BigBang is a 5 boy group- and their name is self explanatory. Right after they’re first debut, no doubt their songs and style was a huge BANG in the Korean music industry. Even before their official debut, they were famous from a Korean version of “Making The Band” with Yang Hyun Suk, not Puffy.

Here are some brief descriptions about each of the five members.

• G-Dragon is the leader of this group and has been apart of the YG family since he was a little child, almost for 8 years now. He produces Big Bang’s album and writes songs that unites the millions of  ring tones in Korea as one- Big Bang’s songs. And he is a fabulous rapper.
• Tae Yang is a vocal in this group. Just like G-Dragon he has been apart of this entertainment for almost 8 years, with G-Dragon. His vocal chords are like a huge trumpet because of his echoing deep voice.
• Victory, _{or Seung Ri} is the youngest of the member. His dancing skills are incredible and has a high pitched voice that adds a little spice to the songs.
• Dae sung is the smiling machine. He also is the vocalist with his husky, unique voice. He is extremely funny with his boring jokes. I adore him for his unique 4D, not 3D, mindset.
• Last but NOT LEAST, is my favorite member: TOP. Yes, he is the ^TOP on my list. He no doubt has an extremely deep voice, sometimes compared to a “creature’s voice.” He is another rapper in this group and brightens up the group with Dae Sung and their unusual jokes.

This is the first boy group I ever went CRAZY with. If you mess with Big Bang, you mess with me..
(Be careful John)

This year, they produced an all-English recorded album called “For the World.” This was for their international buisness. Some of their best hit title songs are: Lie and Last Farewell. They have so much hit songs that it would be easier for you to check out the Korean group- BIGBANG.
Check out their website and listen to their Banging songs!

The Korean music industry has 3 MAIN Entertainment management companies.

They are: SM, JYP, and YG. All the names of these three companies stand for the names of the president of the company.

• SM: Lee Su Man is the owner of the SM entertainment. Although Lee Su Man was not a singer, his company has been extremely successful. All of his idol groups have been successful in Korea. Dong Bang Shin Gi-a 5 member Korean Pop Idol group is mentioned in the book of Guinness World Record for having the most fans in the world..
• JYP, mentioned in the previous posts was an ugly, one of Korea’s sexiest man singer when he was young, and still is today. He works at America with one of the greatest singers as a producer today.
• And lastly YG, was part of Korea’s BIGGES IDOL group- Su Tae Ji and the kids band when he was younger.

Few of my favorite singers- Big Bang, Gummy, Se7en, Jinusean- are part of the YG family, or also called the Yang Goon Entertainment. The owner of this entertainment, Mr. Yang, was part of the biggest Idol Group in the history of Korea, “Su Tae Jee and the kids.” It would not be an exaggeration to describe the YG Entertainment as Korea’s biggest Hip Hop & Pop management company. Check out their website. Because of their international extensions, it is easy to view the English website.

: YG

: JYP

: SM

These videos are the performances of singers during the end of the year concert in 2007. In my opinion, the best overall company is the YG family (my personal favorite), then JYP, then SM. SM entertainment singers are almost products- rather than singers. They can’t sing….

But sure YG can, and maybe JYP (:

Video Credit: http://www.youtube.com/v/ZDKB694kYtI

Video Credit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRWU2DysF30

As I was watching a TV show called Star King, a famous talent show, I had my mouth opened for a good 5 minutes as the child prodigy named Sungha Jung flicked the strings of his small guitar. Unlike a 6th grader, his extremely calm and respectable manners toward the audience and the MC added another ‘+’ sign from me. He started playing the guitar with absolutely no training or guidance when he was 10. It’s incredible how he handles his guitar with his small hands, unlike any child who’s been playing guitar for only 2 years. As I researched more about this young fellow, he was a true star on the world famous video website, Youtube. Most of his 84 videos are viewed over 300,000 times by people all over the world. Furthermore, this kid’s way of absorbing knowledge for sure teaches the Korean society a true moral. Korea’s educational system is nothing but absolute nonsense. Children, starting from age 6 or 7, start going to private tutor academies to learn school subjects to prepare for high school, to be accepted into colleges in the capital, Seoul. This tiny country does not have many famous colleges that can win acceptances from future jobs, unlike America, and cause the extreme competition between students and mostly, parents. Although all kids are not like this unbelievable kid, Sungha Jung, if the kids of Korean society are able to flex and expose their interests, there could be more Korean Youtube stars.
Anyway, going back to the idea of ‘child prodigies’, I am partly extremely jealous but also worried. In Sungha Jung’s case, he seems to be raised in a safe background and growing up doing something what he enjoys, not what others force. But what I am worried about are parents in the world who exceeds the limit on wishing the best for their children and even force their own child into a prodigy and as a result, disable the minds of their own child.
Any exciting case or person can be viewed in two ways. One way is to just accept the new kid with awe and accept the fact that there are gifted people and wish the world fame for this guitar Mozart. The other way is to desire the same incredibility and work for the fame, not for his or her interest. Child Prodigies are not gifted to be examples for parents; they are gifted to develop their gifted part in the world. For this reason, I hope the best for Sungha Jung’s bright future.
* To view other videos of Sungha Jung.

Mc Mong (on the right) and HaHa (on the left) are both musical artists but appear extremely frequently on TV.

Image Credit: http://www.koreatimes.com/photos/LosAngeles/20080214/h1-3.jpg

One of my biggest hobbies is to do absolutely nothing but look at photos and read articles about celebrities for hours. My experience on the internet has been rarely surprising, but at times of eye grabbing news, they are mostly about deaths. Last year, year 2007, there were two extremely goose bump making news about two female celebrities, a singer, and an actress. The two celebrities committed suicide, both for the same reason. In my personal thoughts, the real murders are the normal people, who, because of some odd and idiotic reason, spill unbearable mean verbal criticisms on them. The two famous lives could not bear the unnecessary criticism and decided to end their valuable lives, one hanging her self, and one swallowing pills. Their deaths no doubt caused the depression of the country and mostly darkened up the hearts of fans, families and friends. As an active internet browser in the ‘celebrity’ section of both Korea and US, a big difference is the luxury of these famous people. In Korean TV websites, such as SBS , KBS, and MBC there is a section called entertainment. In this section, celebrities varying from singers, actors, and even announcers show up paying games or having funny interviews to entertain the viewers. But the problem is the extremely frequent visits of the same celebrities. As the entertainer is viewed more frequently by the people, the quality of that celebrity goes down because they do not seem special or expensive anymore. Then, the repetition of their actions to anti-fans starts to become extremely annoying. The annoyed viewers start to type it to their face how annoyed he or she is. On the other hand, Holly wood is completely different. Holly wood starts are mostly seen on Movie screens or pictures of paparazzi. No doubt, these world famous stars are worth a lot compared to the next-door celebrities of Korea, who own cyworld, their own blogging pages for fans to see pictures of him or her, just like normal people. Is it wrong for celebrities to enjoy normal life? No, but in my opinion, the holly wood stars seem to gain their fame and wealth because of their rare show ups on the internet or normal MTV. But in many ways, the Korean celebrities can state the unfair comparison to the worldwide famous stars. Korea is a tiny country, just hanging over the tip of huge China with so many gifted people-celebrities, bunched up. In their case, it’s normal and necessary to fight over the every weak TV series because of the small variety. But sometimes, there are empty minded plastic face girls who show up on TV every single day without any qualification as a singer, actor, or so called-talented people. Honestly, even though I am Korean and have extreme pride of Korea, there are no great musicians and actors of the Westerners. Wow I’m awfully comparing Korea to West a lot. These are some of the mini home pages of Korean celebrities: Tablo (Korean artist), MC mong (Korean artist).

JYP (2nd from left) with Lil Jon and pre-debut Korean artists.

Image Credit: http://devnewsimg.mydaily.co.kr/2007/06/22/200706220854281138_1.jpg

What is the point of being able to speak two languages fluently? Being bilingual is extremely helpful and useful; kids at my school, an international school, are extremely gifted. These days, Korea is expanding all over the world.

• From Asia, where many Korean actors and singers are extremely popular in Japan, Thailand and even world’s 3rd largest country, China.
• To England, Park Ji Sung- an incredibly active Korean soccer player in one of world’s top soccer teams, Manchester United.
• And even America, with three extremely successful Korean celebrities now active in Hollywood such as Rain, who signed his grand contract with America’s top entertainment WMA , which consists of artists such as Eminem, Jennifer Lopez and the famous boob accident, Janet Jackson. And also Ji Yoon Kim, starring actress in the popular TV series, Lost.

There are few idols in my life that made me want to succeed in the sometimes boring American education system. The famous JYP , a Korean singer and producer, succeeded in launching his music into the streets of New York and is working with US’s most popular artists such as Lil’ Jon and the soul of Black R&B, R. Kelly today. Artist Rain, whom I mentioned above, could not have signed his life changing contract with an American company without JYP’s help. Ji Young Park, once a famous ugly Korean singer promised his fans that he would come back to Korea only after succeeding in launching his production of music in America. His story in America, told in a TV interview, was very compelling. He used ‘dogged determination’, what Koreans are famous for, to succeed in making Will Smith listen to the weird looking Asian’s music by buying the pretty assistant girl sitting in front of the office coffee everyday handing her the same exact copy of his CD over a month. Then after being entitled an amateur producer, his way of gaining respect was nothing but selfishness. He says, in front of American people, especially as an Asian person, he needed to act as if he was somebody superior even though he was only one step closer to what he wanted to be. Furthermore, his number one recommendation of ‘how to succeed in the US’ is confidence. He says, his way to gaining respect might seem selfish, but without the fake selfishness and confidence it is impossible to add your name in the list of successful people in the West.

I have attended American schools for over 5 years and completely agree with JYP’s story. After watching his interview, I could not hide my feelings of regrets with my life back in the states. Unconfident actions of Asians at American schools are what gained Asians the nickname ‘nerds’.