My Two Cents On the Post-Fair Trade Sanction JYJ Issue

Ok so as you all should probably know at this point is that I'm a huge DBSK/JYJ fan, they got me into Kpop and shall forever be number 1 in my heart regardless of all the other rookies companies are shoving in our faces these days! I know that the Fair Trade Commission's sanction was given out two weeks ago so I probably should have talked about it then, but it's only now, after I got to think it over, that I feel like I should discuss the possibilities with this new chapter in their book.

For those of you who don't know the situation between JYJ and SM Entertainment.. Oh dear it will take too much space to type it all out now.. Basically Jaejoong, Junsu and Yoochun were members of DBSK and took SM Entertainment to court over the unfairness of their extremely long contract that gave them barely any of their earnings and made them work for basically nothing when they should have been millionaires. At the time DBSK were at the top of their career and so SM didn't want to comply, it lead to the three members leaving the group and they formed JYJ which from then on despite still selling out concerts and having great album sales, etc, JYJ have never been on a music show, variety show or talk show in Korea due to SM's power in the industry. They have only managed to be in dramas and theatre musicals. The Fair Trade Commission ordered SM and the Korean Federation of Pop Culture and Art Industry for blocking JYJ in many ways, not only the lack of tv appearances.

Wow I'm surprised I managed that.. I intended on just saying "google it".. Which you should to read up further as I gave a very brief summary!


Anyway! The sanction!


The other day I read allkpop's article, giving two of their authors' opinions on the matter. I found myself agreeing and disagreeing with both authors mainlyjennywill at times. One point in particular was about how if one network allows JYJ on one of their shows, SM will make their idol artists boycott that show. I personally think that the greatest flaw of this article is that they just talk about JYJ's possibility of appearing on music shows, which by far will be their hardest goal to achieve.

The reason that it is the hardest goal as music shows need idols. And SM Entertainment possess some of the most popular idols. PDs don't want to agitate the sole supplier of some of their most valuable stock in fear of it not being shipped to them any more. We probably will never know if SM actually said anything to these networks in relation to JYJ or if it was an unspoken threat that keeps all of the networks in fear of testing the waters. In my opinion, music shows are the ultimate goal of JYJ. They belong on music shows just as much, more, than only artists purely for their music alone.

They need to push for variety shows.


The point made by jennywill on how they are allowed on dramas as SM have less power there but "dominates in music-and-variety land" is debatable in my opinion. Music land? Yes, SM do have a huge power in Korea's music industry. Variety land? I'd say not so much..

As a huge fan of Running Man I will be using it as my main example. So how dominant is SM Entertainment in Running Man? Well it is a SBS show and SBS do have a generally good relationship with SM. However none of the main cast and former main cast are under SM Entertainment, one member, Song Jihyo, is in fact under JYJ's new entertainment company, C-Jes.

I did a tally of Running Man's guests according to the list of guests on their wiki page (with 8 people that I remembered added which were not on the list) , to date from the 1st episode to the 157th episode there has been 211 guests. 24 of those guests belong to SM Entertainment, 19 being idols. A total of 74 idols have been a guest on Running Man. A total of 132 of Running Man's guests have been non-idols, 5 of which are with SM.

That means 11.4% of Running Man's guests have been from SM Entertainment. 2 of which have been on more than 3 episodes - Jessica and Kim Sooro. 25.7% of idols on Running Man have been from SM, yet only ever had 1 group on it at the same time - TVXQ as Yunho and Changmin. YG Entertainment have had both 2ne1 and Big Bang as a whole on Running Man. JYP Entertainment have had at least over 10 of their idols on the show. The most "guested" guest is Jung Yonghwa from CN Blue (FNC Entertainment) and after him in the ranks is Nichkhun from 2PM (JYP Entertainment). Overall I think the only reason that SM have had a quarter of idol appearances in Running Man is simply because their most popular groups have a lot of members. 7 of Girls Generation have appeared on the show which makes up for 36.8% of SM's idol appearances.

So does this mean SM don't dominate the guest list? Well generally speaking, it is difficult to answer. That 11.4% might be the highest total for entertainment agencies but I can't do a tally for them all as I simply don't know a lot of the guest's agencies! When you put the simple figures together 24 does sound very small next to 211. So I guess they don't necessarily dominate.

In my opinion if JYJ/their fans/C-Jes were to put pressure on the PDs of huge variety shows such as Running Man or Infinity Challenge, that don't depend on idols and sometimes don't depend on guests full stop to get their high ratings, they could possibly manage to get on one of those shows. The wide variety of audience that watches these shows will be perfect to bring JYJ back into the spotlight and end up being a gateway back into the rest of the television world.

However I don't know if in reality that could happen the main thing I do agree with in the article was their agreement with what JYJ said about how there still is "a long way to go in the dark tunnel", but I can always keep the faith that it will all work out!!

WOULDN'T THEY NOT JUST FIT RIGHT IT?!

Note: Figures from above may not be 100% accurate, seeing as I noticed 8 people who weren't included in the guest list there may have been a few more, though I doubt the number missing would be high. Take it from me, I've watched Running Man from episode 1 onwards.

My K-pop Drinking Game~!

What's up interwebs?!

Ok so Sunday was my 19th birthday! And so to celebrate it, yes I did celebrate it despite my previous rant about how awful summer birthdays are and how I don't want to have a birthday any more, I invited over my 4 best friends to stay over and inevitably do a Kpop themed drinking game!

Now I do have one friend who usually doesn't drink much/at all so I did allow for her to just drink Pepsi instead but she decided to join the fun and add Malibu to that and have weak shots so...yay for alcoholism and peer pressure!!

Surprisingly only one of my friends got drunk....

Anyway I have decided to give to you my Kpop mv drinking game~

First of all I decided that it would be fun if the game was specific to the person so I wrote up three different categories; words, actions and sets, as well as having various things that we all would drink to. In the end I decided that it was in fact too complicated and annoying to work out and remember when to drink so I edited it down to just the commonly used words and the group drink things!

Drink if your word is:

• oh
• ah
• oh my god
• yeah
• hey
• ___'s back/ ____ is back
• go
• hello
• here we go
• wow
• ok
• girl/boy
• bad boy/bad girl
• yo
• everybody
• swag
• no
• dance
• party
• 소리질러 (sorijilleo)
• 사랑해 (saranghae)
• 오빠 / 누나 (oppa/noona)
• 입술 (ibsul)
• 어떡해 (otteokhae)
• 머리부터 발끝까지 (meori buteo balkkeut kkaji)

There probably was more but you can add/take out whatever ones you want for your own version! 

So I tore up all these and put it in a hat (well actually my headphone's bag) and everybody pulled out 5 words. Every time a person's word was said during a song they took one drink.

For the group drinks I had a long list and so before we started one of my friends, Linnirs, helped me edit it so we wouldn't be constantly drinking.. Well we had a limited amount of alcohol that we already had started drinking! She also picked out what ones we would do a shot to, you can change it for your game.

Everybody drinks if:

• Lip touch *
• Hip thrust
• Company/producer's name said
• A dance we all can do (and do the dance)
• Bias solo - specific to person
• Group name spelt out
• Aegyo
• Celebrity cameo (as an actor) *
• All members/backup dancers all touching one member

*Take a shot

Options that didn't make the cut for our game:

• year is mentioned
• dubstep breakdown
• abs
• unnecessary model
• bad acting
• rapper says their name
• foetus
• all in black/white
• tight pants
• key change
• money note (drink for the length of the note)
• someone is tied up
• wink
• body roll
• drinking

We actually tried to find a Kpop mv playlist for around the year 2010/2011..the good old days that weren't actually that long ago and when all of us got into Kpop properly! We thought we found one but it actually had recent songs in it as well so that was unfortunate but it was still good! You can find that one here!

I might compile my own playlist of songs from 2010-2011 so if I hopefully complete that I will add it to this post! Provided procrastination doesn't take over..

Edit: Here is my 2010-2011 Kpop playlist~ It still is a working progress but with almost 100 videos I'd say you'd be sorted for the game :')

Lastly..

THANKS GUYS FOR A FUN BIRTHDAY! KPOP MV DRINKING GAME WAS A SUCCESS WOO! Pity we didn't have Soju...which is SO GOOD! If you haven't tried it you should!! Wow it is amazing! Yeah so..

BEEP

Why Summer Birthdays Aren't As Fun As People Think..

Hi! Greetings from the terrible heatwave-infected Ireland that is melting the entire population because we haven't had one in years.. (ok it's only about 25-30 degrees *Celsius* but that's very strange for Irish summers!)

So yes in case you haven't guessed from the title I am blessed with having a birthday in summer! July the 21st 1994 was when the world was first forced to put up with me and so far in my life it has proved to be a good and bad date for a birthday, with the bad outweighing the good in my opinion.

Firstly: The Good

Ehh.. I guess there was a chance for me to ever have school on my birthday! 

As in Ireland primary school ends at the end of June, secondary school ends at the end of May/very start of June unless you have exams which means you get your holidays in mid/late June and in university, well it depends on the university, but they are all finished in May anyway! This year I finished my uni exams on the 21st of May which gave me a 4 month long holiday...which I should have spent working but jobs are really hard to find here unless you have a friend or relation who works in the place and gets the opening for you as soon as it is open! Plus I was supposed to go to China for a month on a scholarship but that all fell apart thanks to lack of organisation on the Chinese university's part.. But yes I got off track there! In conclusion, I never ever had school on my birthday or during my birth month at all!

What else...

Harry Potter always tended to come out around my birthday.. But that series is over now.. And I never was a huge fan. I read all the books, watched all the films but I never was obsessed with it or anything. It was grand. I'm more of a Lord of the Rings/Hobbit nerd really.. 

wow i keep going off topic

Misconceptions: That the weather will be good on your birthday.

No. I live in Ireland. You can never guarantee good weather at any time of the year!

Secondly: The Bad.

You're not in school. That's only bad because you are not guaranteed you will see all your friends and also you don't see the people you are friendly with..  

  And then when you're in uni your friends there generally can't be with you on your birthday as they live in another part of the country or abroad and are working or travelling. So you don't see them for another 2 months, in my case, afterwards and by then there's no point celebrating your birthday! 

The definite main thing that is bad about having a summer birthday is that it is holiday season.

Misconception: "Yay! I get to spend my birthday on holiday!"

No, it means your friends will be away on holiday during your birthday, your parents are away on holiday on your birthday, you are travelling on your birthday, etc. Yes my parents once were on holiday for my birthday! I think it was my 15th birthday? Something like that.. They rang me! Once.. Early in the morning... While I was still in bed... Didn't even get a lie-in on my birthday...

  Yes anyway! I also have had the joy of being stuck in a car for hours on end travelling to our holiday destination AND also had the joy of being stuck in an airport waiting for your delayed plane home on my birthday! Fun times!

In conclusion:

I am not going to have birthdays any more. I don't really like getting things from people without earning it and I don't have a sweet tooth. So I don't think I'll miss my birthday much. I'll just age up when the year changes or pretend to be in my late teens forever!

beep

Paranormal Experiences

So recently I have been addicted to the show Ghost Adventures. In the words of my brother I "love to watch crap tv", which is kinda true. I know the show is slightly ridiculous but I can't get enough of it! I also have been watching a bit of Most Haunted on the side but Ghost Adventures has my main attention!


This all led me to think about whether or not I have had a paranormal experience before.


The only thing that I can truly say that I have experienced that I could not explain happened about 2 years ago now. I was in the kitchen in my home when only me and my sister were in the house, she was upstairs, and hearing a voice in my ear say my name. What was strange about this was I thought it might have been my paternal Grandfather's voice who had died 3 years previous. I kind of brushed it off and forgot about it until just about 3 weeks ago I walked into the kitchen and at around the same place where I had heard my name being whispered into my ear, I smelled my Granddad. I got a smell of him. It was a smell that I remembered he always smelled like when I hugged him.
  Upon going through some of my old blogs that I don't post on any more, I found a post in my dream blog (which i haven't updated it like 2 years) describing the previous event of me hearing my name whispered in my ear. In this post also I described my dream the night before of everybody in my family dying, the last of which was my Dad. I stated in this blog post that I thought I saw something in the kitchen in the area where I heard the voice 10 minutes before the voice spoke. At first I thought that I barely had any recollection of seeing something but upon writing this I think I remember seeing a shadow of a figure, however that could just be my head planting that image there.


The one thing that made me think back over these experiences while watching shows such as Ghost Adventures and Most Haunted is that when both of those happened I was not afraid whatsoever. In all these programs, particularly Most Haunted (whichreallyannoysmeandputsmeofftheshow), is that they scream and shout at the slightest bump. Perhaps it was because I was convinced that it was my Grandfather that I had no reason to be afraid. PLUS I never definitely saw anything. Which I prefer really. I don't think I'd like to see anything. But you never really know...

BOREDOM: Random Music Shuffle Game Things..

After my VIXX post I got a lot of views which has encouraged me to post more even if over half of the views are probably definitely spam but anyway!

So here's a random post where I do music shuffle games which might turn out terrible due to my music collection! I just randomly picked these ones from the tumblr tag "ipod shuffle games"


Lyrical poem. 
Put your iPod on shuffle, press play and the next button. Write the first line of the lyrics in the first ten songs to create your poem. Don’t lie, the poems actually come out really cool. oh dear why am i doing this OK I THINK I HAVE TO CHANGE THIS ONE TO ENGLISH LYRICS ONLY.. otherwise I won't have any idea what's going on.. Engrish lyrics included

"SHINee's back
 You know what time it is?
 I am a ghost
 Into the valley
 This is a JYP production
 I've been to Jupiter
 Look down, look down, don't look him in the eye
 I take her down to the aquarium
 I heard a knock upon my door the other day
 If she wants to dance and drink all night well there's no one that can stop her."


Well that was....interesting...

NEXT


Soundtrack to my life~

Opening Credits: Et Ducit Mundum Per Luce by Angels And Airwaves

Waking Up: 알렉산더 (Alexander) by Zico

Falling in Love: 뒤돌아봐 (Look Back)  by Zico feat. Park Kyung

Fight Song: Humiliation by Alan Menken & Stephen Schwartz (The Hunchback Of Notre Dame OST)

Breaking Up: Dying Man by Harim

Life’s Ok: Dancing In The Rain by BAP

Getting Back Together: Heart's All Gone by Blink-182

Wedding: Love Is by Prana

Birth of Child: O Mie (A Thousand) by Aliona Moon

Final Battle: 넌 언제나 (You Always) by DBSK

Death Scene: Ruby Soho by Rancid

Funeral Song: Every Day by U-Kiss

End Credits: VVIP by Seungri

Now I'm gonna do one with just my Korean songs to see how that works out

(note: some songs may be in Japanese but they're by Korean groups so I include them)

How am I feeling today?
Ugly by 2ne1     dun be so negative

Will I get far in life?
Burn Out by Block B    more negativity!

How do my friends see me?
Juliette by SHINee

When will I get Married?
One Kiss by Jaejoong        ......?

What is my best friend’s theme song?
I Swear by DBSK

What is the story of my life?
Believe by DBSK

What was high school like?
Share The World by DBSK

How am I going to get ahead in life?
Burn It Up by BAP     like a pyromaniac!

What is the best thing about me?
Touch by Miss A

How is today going to be?
Phantom City by Phantom

What is in store for this weekend?
I Remember by Bang Yongguk feat. Daehyun

What song describes my parents?
Winter Rose by DBSK      hey they both were actually born in winter!

My grandparents?
Billion Chuck by Zico

How is my life going?
Abandoned by Jay Park feat. Dok2

What song will play at my funeral?
It's Time by U-Kiss     thanks.

How does the world see me?
A Person Like Tears by Changmin     does the world creep on me when i'm watching films? o.o

Will I have a happy life?
Purple Line by DBSK

What do my friends really think of me?
Hyde by VIXX     nappeun saram anide

Do people secretly lust after me?
Oh (rock version) by SNSD performed by Jungmo

How can I make myself happy?
Embrace One's Soul by TRAX      O.O deep

What should I do with my life?
Like Now by DBSK

Will I ever have children?
Something by Harim

What is some good advice for me?
I'll Treat You Better Next Time by Zico

What is my signature dancing song?
Lovey Dovey by T-ara    which is funny because i fail at the shuffle dance

What do I think my current theme song is?
A.D.I.T.O.Y. by 2PM

What does everyone else think my current theme song is?
Over, It's Not Over - Miss$ vs. Block B by unknown?

What type of men/women do you like?

Rising Sun by DBSK

You guys totally can't guess who my favourite Kpop group is... Nope..

New Obsession: VIXX!

WARNING: I literally just wrote this blog post so I could rant about my VIXX feels.


I don't quite know why I have basically fallen in love with another group after swearing to myself no more. I guess they must be taking over from EXO as I just lost interest in them a few months ago.. But here we are! VIXX!

OK no.. I know why I've fallen in love with these guys!

BECAUSE OF LE DERP.
And because of friends being obsessed with them and reblogging funny gifs of them on tumblr..

I had a slight dilemma arising about 13 episodes into VIXX MTV Diary which was that I kinda liked two members instead of the standard one that most people have, or zero if you're picky like me! During the first couple of episodes feels started developing towards Ken but I was never sure if he was actually biasable as, well, half the time I didn't know what he was saying as THE AMOUNT OF RANDOM UNSUBBED EPISODES IS JUST CRUEL and yeah. Then out of nowhere in episode 13 Ravi just popped up and was like "Hi have you noticed I'm pretty well built and hot?" and I was intrigued as nobody had ever before confronted me like that.

So yeah I think I've pretty much settled it and ended up with that derp of a man pictured above.. He shall be my first AB bias! Most of my biases tend to be type B with a handful of Os and two As! Usually I stay away from the ABs.. I guess that one guy who was a brief guest as a token AB type on U-Kiss Vampire has just scarred ABs in my mind.. But I like this Ken Ken derp so he can stay.

In terms of their music.. None of it has blown me away but that isn't a bad thing! I have been singing the "Just can't control" part of Hyde for the past two days and On and On is quite the tune. I guess I need to check out more non-promoted tracks of theirs as the ones on the Hyde mini are the only I've heard and I really liked Light Up The Darkness! Plus the more I listen to songs the more I get addicted and I can easily see this happening with VIXX!

On the other hand in terms of mvs... Wow! Hyde is all kinds of awesome! On and On would have been better if it wasn't for the really awkward singing in the mini rocket pod thing.. I really liked that arcade set in Rock Ur Body. And Super Hero was...well that was their most average one but we'll forgive them for that.. It was their debut so most of them are terrible in my opinion! I guess that makes them like Block B in terms of mvs as their debut one was extremely meh whereas Nillili Mambo is freakin' awesome!
So if you haven't seen it yet here's Hyde~

EDIT: Ravi is a life ruiner.
EDIT2: Oh dear I think I have 2 biases. That NEVER happens.

Oops...

In conclusion I am terrible at blogging.


Nah I just lacked motivation when I had a shitty internet connection and a long walk in and out of uni every day to tire me out! So now that uni is over and I have rested for a week and a bit now I feel it's about time I get on track and start doing productive stuff!

This isn't like the rest of the spurts of motivation I get for one night only. I will persist in actually doing something with this blog *cough* andmaybethisonetoo *cough*

So I have decided to dump the review of Delight's debut as it is ridiculously out of date. All you need to know is that I really liked it and felt people should have given them more of a chance rather than dismiss them as being shouty, in my opinion the that was raw ferocity, and perhaps the fact that everything about them wasn't as high budget as most other groups they never got properly showcased and got lost in all the glitter and sparkles of other groups.

As I believe I have stated before this blog won't be explicitly K-pop although it probably will play a big role. Seeing as it's kind of all I do...all day every day..now that I'm on summer holidays anyway~

시~작!