Tag: K-pop

Here is the latest K-Pop controversy:

Goods that are tribute to K-pop girl band GFRIEND have angered fans because the objects can apparently be used as sex toys.

The life-size pillows, 180 centimeters long and 60 centimeters wide with a full body image of each member color-printed on top, are the source of the controversy. People criticized the goods for encouraging fans to hug the objects and perhaps do more than just hugging them.

Source Music released the products on Dec. 29 ahead of the band’s first exclusive concert on Jan. 6-7 at Olympic Park in Songpa-gu, Seoul. They were introduced on the band’s social network site with hashtags “#GFRIEND 1st Concert 2018” and “#Season_of_GFRIEND.”

Each object in the six-piece package costs 60,000 won ($56). They were among 25 new products including cheering wands and shopping bags. The goods are worth a total of 1 million won.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

Members of girl group Elris form a heart during a showcase in Seoul on Sept. 13, 2017, on the release of their second mini album. (Yonhap)

South Korean girl band P.O.P performs during a showcase for its debut album, “Puzzle of POP,” at a performance center in southern Seoul on July 25, 2017. (Yonhap)

I guess in Brazil they haven’t gotten the memo that you are not supposed to make slit eye jokes about Asians:

Fans of a rookie K-pop band have criticized a Brazilian TV show host for disrespecting them on his program by making a “joke” derogatory to Asians.

Raul Gil, host of musical and variety TV show “Turma Do Vovo Raul” broadcast on SBT, angered fans after four-member band KARD were guests on the show on July 15.

The joke was sparked after Gil asked the DSP Media band that debuted this month if there was a romantic relationship among the band of two men and two women. They all said no, which drew shouts from the excited audience.

The host then jokingly asked the crowd whether they would marry the Koreans, adding, “Your eyes will become smaller if you date these Koreans,” making slit eyes with his both hands.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

South Korean rapper T.O.P, a member of the South Korean boy band Big Bang, is being moved on a wheelchair from Ewha Womans University Medical Center in western Seoul to another hospital for recovery on June 9, 2017. He was treated at the hospital’s emergency room after he fell into a coma due to a drug overdose on June 6. (Yonhap)

Shown is a photo of the last album, soon to be released, by girl group Sistar. The group has said after seven years together it will disband after dropping its last single album titled “Lonely” on May 31, 2017. (Yonhap)

Just when you thought you have seen it all this comes around, good luck guys!:

Over the past few years, South Korean pop music, or K-pop, as a whole has grown into a legitimate cultural force to be reckoned with. And while the scene has moved and evolved at lightning pace, some also began to look back and wonder: what makes K-pop K-pop?

EXP Edition, an experimental boy band which released its debut single “Feel Like This” on Monday in South Korea, is the brain child of Kim Bora, through which she asks that exact question in a unique and interesting approach.

The four-member team, artistically speaking, seems to fit the generic K-pop mold, exuding confidence in its K-pop cred and style. The catch? Its members are mostly white and all American, as opposed to being Korean or at least of Korean descent.  [Yonhap]

You can read the rest at the link, but the band is part of a project from students at Columbia University’s fine arts program to see what defines K-Pop.  Interestingly they are facing criticism from people outside of Korea for appropriating Korean culture.  Didn’t South Korea appropriate pop music in the first place from western countries so why can’t four Americans make a K-pop band?

This K-pop group SixBomb has pulled off a pretty good publicity stunt to get them noticed by releasing a video about their $90k worth of plastic surgery to enhance their looks:

Rounder eyes, narrower faces, bigger breasts: a South Korean girlband is celebrating the country’s obsession with surgically-enhanced beauty by going under the knife to praise the virtues of “Becoming Pretty”.

All four members of obscure K-pop outfit SixBomb went through extensive plastic surgery, from nose jobs to breast implants, before releasing their new single on Thursday.

A series of videos showed the four women visiting a clinic, strutting into an operating theatre and lying on the operating table. Another had them practising dance moves in sunglasses with their heads wrapped in bandages.

“Everyone follows me, they know I’m pretty,” they sing in “Becoming Pretty” — an electronic dance number with a hook reminiscent of South Korean singer Psy’s 2012 global phenomenon Gangnam Style.  (………)

SixBomb’s lead singer Dain had her breasts enlarged and her cheekbones shaved to make her face look smaller for the song.

This guy may want to stop having sex with women in bathrooms to stop the false rape allegations:

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office on Tuesday indicted another woman on charges of falsely accusing singer-actor Park Yu-chun of boy band JYJ of rape.

The 24-year-old woman, identified by her surname Song, had consensual sex with Park in the toilet of a hostess bar in Gangnam in December of 2015.

But prosecutors believe she became aggrieved when Park left without saying another word to her, even though he had had flirted and asked for her phone number before he had his way with her.

In June of last year, Song read press reports about another woman who accused Park of rape and decided to take the same steps. She gave two media interviews falsely accusing Park of rape.

Earlier, the Seoul Central District Court sentenced a 25-year-old woman identified Lee of falsely accusing Park of rape and trying to extort W500 million from him (US$1=W1,150).  [Chosun Ilbo]

I still believe the people who make these false allegations should receive the same punishment as someone convicted of rape.

More Chinese retaliation for the deployment of a THAAD battery to South Korea:

China has blocked access to newly updated clips of South Korean music and dramas on the country’s online video sharing platforms, sources said Sunday, in an apparent bid to retaliate against Seoul’s move to deploy an advanced U.S. missile defense system.

The move followed China’s decision to prevent South Korean pop stars from appearing on Chinese entertainment programs since October as South Korea decided in July last year to station the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system on its soil.

A website uploading South Korean dramas said on its social media account on Weibo that it will stop updating video clips of South Korean entertainment programs for the time being.

“Everybody should be aware of the reason for this,” it said, hinting at China’s toughened restriction on Korean pop culture, widely known as “hallyu.”  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.