We've been waiting for what feels like a lifetime for BIGBANG's comeback. We were teased mercilessly with a plethora of new photos of the boys looking so amazing. We were hit with the news that they're gearing up for an American debut. We were given a freaking countdown to their official comeback date. We had a sneak peek at a teaser for "Tonight."
And then comes this morning. The day we've been waiting for. The day our fangirl and fanboy calendars have been marked, with hearts and smiley faces covering the tiny square of today's date. People who live in California, a whole seventeen hours behind you in Korea, woke up before seven in the morning so they could be there the moment it struck midnight in Korea. And I'm sure some people didn't even sleep.
Midnight hits ... and all we get is a longer freaking teaser?
Dude.
Seriously?
I'm extremely happy that we can pre-order it on iTunes, that the songs have been released. But Papa YG, I was counting on that three and a half to four minutes of staring and drooling and pledging my life and soul to these five men, and I felt like you bitch slapped me and put me back into my fangirl place.
I feel like I have been craving the most delicious cupcake from my favorite bakery all day. This is the best cupcake my taste buds have had the pleasure to taste, the best in the world. It's moist and perfectly baked, and it makes your eyes roll into the back of your head with each bite. The frosting feels like sin made of powdered sugar, butter, and milk. My mouth has been salivating all day just thinking about the piece of Heaven awaiting me ... only to have it be slightly burnt, dry, crumbly, with frosting that is runny and overly mixed.
This teaser is my dry cupcake, Papa YG.
I know you'll make it up to me and soon. Please do not let it be six months before the full album is released. Because then I have to come up with another baked good analogy and that's really hard, man.
I'm going to use my newfound knowledge of actually being somewhat important/relevant in the K-Pop industry to try and plead with YGE and its stylists and BIGBANG to stop making some mistakes. I know the boys are going to debut in America and they're working toward that goal, but now it's serious. They can't come here looking like this or else they will get torn to shreds.
Can we please stop with this disaster print that looks like you've snuck onto a Native American reservation and stole some quilts line-drying? TVXQ did it and they looked awful and ridiculous. There's no need to put a whole outfit of that on Taeyang. I will admit, the hoodie with the fur-lined hood on Daesung looks really good, because it isn't overkill. It isn't too much for my eyes to handle.
The same goes for the pants that are on T.O.P. It looks sloppy and that man never looks sloppy. I get the impression by looking at his entire outfit, that he reeks of marijuana and does nothing but lounge around in a damn bean bag chair all day playing video games. What happened to the sexy, mysterious, smoldering T.O.P we have all come to know and love? I want that guy back, not the guy that looks like he's going no where with his life. I want my sleek and sophisticated T.O.P back. The leather jacket is way too big; if you can barely see his hands, you know it doesn't fit.
I'm not feeling the pants on GD, either. I know that is a little more his style, and I think if there was maybe a different shirt underneath his open jacket, I would feel differently about it. I do however absolutely love the wolf ears on the fur hood. Not only does it tie in my whole theft of Native American quilts, but it's so bizarre and off the wall that it shows us the side of GD that we love.
The only two I don't have a problem with are Daesung and Seungri. They're flawless. There is not one thing wrong with how Daesung is styled. His hair looks fantastic, the jacket, the pants, even the red shoes fit together so well. And Seungri is perfect. He could lose the leather gloves, but he can also keep them and it still looks good.
By this picture alone, in my opinion, the only two who are ready to come to America, image wise, would be Seungri and Daesung. GD could maybe get away with it, but T.O.P looks like an 80's stoner and Taeyang just looks ridiculous.
I have slightly less problems with this picture. First of all, T.O.P looks significantly better. This is T.O.P to me. I'm not too crazy about the shirt, but everything goes together and he looks great. The only problem I have with him in this picture has nothing to do with what he's wearing, it's the fact that the stylist should have known that hats with that kind of pattern in the fabric never photograph well. So it looks blurry and distorted and it takes away from him.
Seungri needs to lose the glittery jacket, but other than that he is absolutely flawless. Daesung, again, absolute perfection. And I really wish I could say the same about Tae and GD, but I can't. This is killing me because you all know that I hardly ever pick on Taeyang for what he's wearing, because he always looks so good. I don't know what happened, but the metallic purple leopard jacket is a heinous idea. That needs to be burned immediately.
Maybe just a solid color purple jacket if they wanted to have that outerwear factor and maybe channel Justin Bieber, but it isn't necessary. Especially when he has a neon pink squiggle of leopard print on his chest. Taeyang is manly, sexy, sweet, passionate. That squiggle is anything but masculine. Then when you add the green belt into the mix? I'm not sure if they just took a color wheel and closed their eyes and played eenie-meenie-miney-mo to see what colors to dress him in or what, but it just doesn't go together. Black pants, black shirt, deep purple jacket, purple belt, black shoes. There you go stylists! It wasn't that hard.
Oh my sweet GD. I know this outfit screams you, but I can't deal with this, bb. Not the leather fringe hanging down your back, not the excessive amount of leopard print. Not the way your jacket looks like it is composed of sequins, not the way it sparkles. I don't understand the pink belt at all. I even hate the way your pants are so tight it looks like you're wearing jeggings. THIS NEEDS TO STOP, JI YONG. YOU ARE BETTER THAN THIS.
However ... thank you for going back to blonde, because it has truly made me the happiest little fan girl ever :)
BIGBANG and their stylists, and even Papa YG if you're reading this, you need to work on this image of the boys. It might be perfect for Korea, but it will not work in America. Back off on the leopard print, I really mean it. I know Koreans gravitate toward it like a bear to honey, but men wearing it in America will NOT be received positively.
All morning I've been trying to keep my cool and not freak out and hyperventilate or cry. And I kind of did a face-plant into failing miserably with that objective.
According to Bernie Cho, President of DFSB Kollective (you can read an interview with him here!), who was interviewed by Bloomberg (a really, really big name in the international business world), the top three K-Pop blogs or fansites that are in English generate more traffic than Korean music portals, based out of Korea that are written in Korean.
And who was the second blog that Bloomberg showed?
CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT?!
And it isn't shown just once. Oh, no. Whoever pieced this article together must have loved this blog, because they decided to feature some of the GTOP love.
And then, right after this clip, you see a bunch of Korean girls all bundled up in the freezing cold and there they are. GTOP themselves at a press conference. AND THEN THEY ARE INTERVIEWED.
So, let's just roll with this, okay? Follow me on this train of thought ... if this blog generates that much traffic ... does that mean that these artists truly do read this because they want to know how they're portrayed outside of Korea?
I think this goes to show that there are a lot of perverted and sexually frustrated people across the world who listen to K-Pop.
Check out the video here! Skip to 10:40 to see the part all about Korean music! And make sure you watch the GTOP interview, as well!
For those of you commenting and tweeting to me asking why I don't blog anymore, I really appreciate that you miss me, however I really have to ask you to stop.
I work anywhere from twenty-five to thirty hours a week, I go to school all day long twice a week and have a lot of homework for my classes. When I'm not working, I'm doing homework. When I'm not at school, I'm usually working. Honestly, at the end of the day, when I get home at almost nine o'clock at night, the last thing I want to do is sit in an uncomfortable chair and blog when I have to eat dinner, shower, and just chill out before have to wake up the next morning.
I really do appreciate the fact that you want me to blog and you miss my posts. It has nothing to do with the fact that I am "over" k-pop. I still love it very much, I simply don't have the time to dedicate as much time as I did when I first started the blog. Trust me I will update whenever I have the time to do it, like right now. I am sick and should be in bed sleeping, but I know a lot of you miss me so I am doing this for you.
Currently, my laptop really needs to be repaired. The battery is dead and my powercord has fallen apart so I can't charge it at all. Once I get that fixed, I will be able to rest and blog and surf the internet and watch videos and tweet with you all while relaxing on the couch or in bed and not sitting in a computer chair in the living room.
Please bare with me, guys. I tweet a lot through my phone, so don't hesitate to talk to me on there. I can watch youtube videos on my phone as well, so if you want me to see something, tweet it to me or email it to me (I get my email on my phone). But every time I am asked why I don't blog, or when I will blog, it puts so much pressure on me and I feel guilty for letting you all down and disappointing you.
Please trust me that I will return and post more in the upcoming future, but for right now I will mainly be on twitter and occasionally I will find an hour or two of free time to post a few things. I don't know if you know this, but some of your favorite posts actually take anywhere from forty-five minutes to an hour to write. With that said, I am not going to just do a quick little update about what is going on in the k-pop news world and take five minutes. This isn't a news blog, remember? It's just a place to have fun. And would you rather me rush through a post or take my time and have it be awesome?
Thank you for understanding, guys :)
I'm always available on Twitter and I never stop thinking of you. Right now I am trying to devise this massive gift project to a bunch of idols, so if you're interested in participating and giving something to all of the male idol groups that have been talked about on the blog, then leave a comment below.
PS -- For all of you who have asked me where I am and why I don't blog anymore ... I realized that whenver I do post something, you hardly comment. I like feedback in the form of comments. Please don't feel shy about posting your thoughts. It makes me feel really down when I put a lot of work into something and don't feel like it was worth it.
So Dalmatian has released their new MV for "Lover Cop" and in my opinion, it is a major step up from their debut MV for "Round 1." Concept wise, at least. I'm not left feeling confused and mindraped over the fact that grown men are wearing suits with dalmatian print on them. That's just wrong on so many levels. But they could be forgiven since they were newbies and all and they clearly did not know any better.
My absolute favorite part of the whole MV is during one of the choreographed scenes when Dari is lifted onto the shoulders of the back-up dancers (1:57-2:02).
I died a little on the inside seeing how perfect and flawlessly they executed that, like it was a bunch of Korean men that became Transformers and turned into this giant robot. (I'm sick, maybe I won't feel this way later). Absolutely flawless, Dalmatian.
And maybe we can also attribute the fact that I am sick to this next little blurb I'm about to ramble on about and point out to you.
Doesn't Day Day, with his eyes closed and that stoic expression kind of remind you of T.O.P? And when he pops open his eyes and arches that eyebrow, doesn't it remind you even more of him? Or am I so sick and deluded and missing BIGBANG am I thinking that every Asian man resembles them? (Remember when I thought Mickylooked like GD?)
Style wise, most of these boys were perfection from beginning to end. However, no post is complete without some negativity, right? I mean, life can't always be sunshine and rainbows. Occasionally you have to have a hurricane to screw things up a bit.
I don't know why Youngwon's hair is smurf blue. I don't really know what was going on in his head or those stylists' heads when they decided to do this, that this would look good. I'm a fan of hair colors ranging on the "natural" spectrum of things, and this to me just screams Gwen Stefani. And I really don't know about you, but when I look at a guy I don't want to be reminded of a woman. Since it's just hair, you're forgiven for this. Please just dye it any shade of color that you'd find in nature and not from a cartoon from the 80's.
And my favorite Dari ... oh, sweetie. I saved you last for a reason. What you did throughout the MV is horrendous. No one looks good with a hat that looks like it has pieces of a broken mirror and soda can tabs glued to it, okay? No one. Not even Inati with that perfect, angular face of his.
But that I can overlook because hats can always be burned or buried in the backyard, out of sight forever so when you ask me if I've seen your hat I can honestly tell you I haven't because I buried it in the earth where all dead things belong, and if it's underground I can't see it.
There is one thing I won't overlook because we need to stop this before it becomes a trend and more idols do this ...
What on earth is with the cat eye eyeliner? ON THE ONE FREAKING EYE?!
No, this needs to stop right now. You are not Angelina Jolie. You are not Amy Winehouse. Is that who you want to be associated with? A crackhead and a chick that kissed her brother? THIS SHOULD NEVER HAPPEN, DARI. WASH THAT CRAP OFF YOUR FACE AND DON'T PUT IT BACK.
I get guyliner, okay? Tons of the guy idols use it and they look good. If you must insist on using it, follow the footsteps of Taeyang and T.O.P, Dari. They use it the right way and do you see them channeling a crackhead and a lady obsessed with adopting babies? NO, YOU DON'T!
Let's just stop it before it becomes a habit, okay? Please. It's bad enough that it's the trend to wear outfits full of leopard print of various colors and eye make-up that looks like you watched a cheap prostitute's make-up tutorial on YouTube, but can we not add the cat eye eyeliner to that list?
