Wednesday, May 16, 2007

I was browsing through one of the Dong Bang forums as usual the other day & then came upon this topic about a newspaper article published in The Star. Surprisingly, it contained album reviews featuring Rain, TVXQ & Super Junior. Since the topic starter didn't post up the actual article, I decided to look it up myself. After reading it, I thought I might as well put it up here.

I wouldn't blame the author for not giving a good review as I don't expect him/her to fancy Korean boybands; what's more boybands are a thing in the past. The author gave a fairly good review about the Dong Bangs but not in the case for SuJu. They practically got bashed for having only pretty looks. Taken from the article: "...13 members. Why 13? Perhaps to to make up for the lack of talent?". Geez~ The 13 of them certainly have talents, unlike モーニング娘 (Morning Musume). Fyi, SuJu was formed based on the 13-member model of Momusu but way more talented than the female counterparts. I shall not elaborate more on the girls cuz you can easily find their videos on YouTube to gauge their level of talent.

Another excerpt: "But surprisingly, they are still around, thanks to their charm and immaculate packaging". Helloo?? Idols are all about charms, good looks & talent. That's how they are marketed to attract fangirls. Even singers need a certain degree of charm to succeed in the market. I've seen talented singers who failed to create a strong presence in the music industry. It's because they weren't attractive nor appealing enough. Simple as that. I have to disagree with the author about her remark.

On the vocal aspects, SuJu is not comparable to the Dong Bangs as the latter is one level higher. The Dong Bangs is in fact an acapella dance group; possessing better trained vocals are a sure thing. I wouldn't deny that SuJu might have been trained to sing acapella during their trainee days but they're supposed to portray a different image as a group. What's more, SuJu debuted later than Dong Bangs which means they're less experienced. The author made an unfair comparison between SuJu & Dong Bang. He/she must've been deaf or something. Dong Bang was also lip-synching in the concert, only fast songs though.

And if you read comments on Rain, there were quite a number of positive views. Rain has his own distinctive style but definitely weak on vocals. He is not even close to any of the Dong Bang members. The author seemed to favour Rain more no matter how hard he/she tried to be unbiased in writing this review. *sighs* He/she is free to express his/her opinions neway...

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Source: StarTwo, Thursday 10/5/07 (The Star)
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