Korean Men and Western Women, Part I

One thing that you might notice while in Seoul is that there are far more Western men-Korean women couples than Korean men-Western women couples.* Why is this, since whenever I visit Canada, I see a more balanced ratio?

One big reason is simply numbers. The majority of Western expatriates in Korea are ESL (English as a Second Language) teachers, and the majority of those are male. Is this because Korea fails to attract female teachers, or fails to keep them? My guess is that it’s both.

An interesting phenomenon is the “Charisma Man Effect.” This refers to a comic book written by expatriates who lived in Japan. It describes an ordinary westerner who, upon his arrival in Japan, is transformed into “Charisma Man,” who is very attractive to Japanese women.[1] The Charisma Man Effect holds true in Korea too. Even if a white man is balding, obese, and has a gangrenous skin disease, you can guess that some Korean woman, somewhere, will think that he looks “just like Brad Pitt.”[1.5] This phenomenon affects western women too, and even more so. The Charisma Man Effect only applies to white men, but it applies to foreign women of all skin colors. There is a television show, Mi-nyeo-deul-ee-su-da, known usually by its abbreviation “Misuda,” which could be translated as “Chat with Beauties.” The “beauties” are foreign women who can speak Korean, and not all of them are Caucasian.[2] There are also chat groups on Daum and Naver, Korea’s most popular portal sites, that are dedicated to discussing ways to find foreign girlfriends.[3], [4], [5], [6]

The attraction is not just one-way, either. Anecdotes from talks with expatriate women indicate to me that Korean men are just as attractive as their Western counterparts. In fact, they have the advantage of being naturally lean and also of not becoming too bulky when they lift weights. Also, even though it’s common in Korea to have plastic surgery to widen one’s eyes (particularly among pop singers and actresses), westerners do not find anything at all unattractive about their almond-shaped eyes.[7] For example, actress Megan Fox and model Jessica Gomes both find singer Rain to be very sexy.[8]

Some might point out that most intercultural couples in the movies are Asian woman-Western man couples. For me, it’s simply that the hero gets a girl, be she white, black, Asian, Hobbit, or green-skinned alien, and the heros are usually not Asian. When the hero is Asian, he gets the girl just the same. Examples are Chow Yun-fat, Jet Li, and John Cho in The Replacement Killers, The One, and Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle, respectively.** There is also the implied mutual affection between Chow Yun-fat’s character (the Thai king) and that of Jodie Foster’s character (Anna Leonowens) in Anna and the King. One exception to this is Jackie Chan. In both his Hong Kong and Hollywood movies, his characters are often too Charlie Chaplin-esque to have real girlfriends. Another exception is the “martial arts master” character. He’s usually too busy perfecting his Kung-fu skills to have a girlfriend.

So, why aren’t more (of the relatively few) female western expatriates in Korea dating Korean men? I believe that it’s rooted entirely in culture.

[ To Be Continued ]

* It should be pointed out that the majority of inter-cultural marriages are between Korean men and non-Korean, Asian women. Most of these men are farmers out in rural areas, and their wives come from developing Asian nations like Vietnam and the Philippines.[9]

** Noteworthy is the fact that Harold is Korean-American, and his family and Korean friends try to set him up with a nice Korean girl, but he has his heart set on the sexy latina girl next door, whom he finally kisses at the end.

P.S. If you would like to see the presentations that my students made (with help from me), please go to http://richardlstansfield.wordpress.com/category/student-presentations/.

The Chaebolization of the Korean Music Industry, Part IV

In the same way that the Korean economy is dominated by chaebol (multinational conglomerates) like Samsung and Hyundai, so too is the Korean music industry heavily influenced by three music companies, JYP Entertainment, SM Entertainment, and YG Entertainment. In an interview, the Brown Eyed Girls, one of the few groups not affiliated with one of the Big Three* to have a hit song, said that it was very difficult to achieve success.[1], [2]

Though the Big Three are ostensibly competitors, they in fact have friendly relations. Park Jin-young, the founder of JYP Entertainment, said in an interview that he has consulted with Lee Soo-man and Yang Hyun-suk. of SM and YG Entertainment, respectively, for advice on how to break into foreign markets like Japan.[3] Now that his Wonder Girls have made it onto Billboard’s Top 100, they now ask him for tips about the American market.[4] Since all three produce similar groups and music, the consumer in Korea has a choice similar to that of Coca Cola vs. Pepsi. As a result, the music scene in Korea has been rendered a bland wasteland of sameness.[5], [6]
Recently, however, one of these titans has been humbled by an even larger goliath. The first annual Mnet Asian Music Awards (MAMA) were held, and SM Entertainment boycotted the event. The reason initially given was that they disagree with the way that they ranked music sales. (Korea does not have the equivalent of the Billboard chart, so there are various, often conflicting charts.[7]) Since the awards are given exclusively on the basis of sales, they protested.[8] However, the issue seems to be bigger and deeper than that.

Mnet is owned by CJ Media, which is part of CJ, which is, according to some reports, one of Korea’s top five chaebol. (For example, if you go shopping at a supermarket, you can often see the CJ logo on many food products.) Mnet is involved in most aspects of the entertainment industry, and account for 44% and 20% of album sales and online music sales, respectively. Mnet and CJ own up to 20% of the shares of YG Entertainment and DSP Entertainment. Smaller entertainment companies are also affiliates of CJ. Thirty percent of JYP is held by SK, another large chaebol, so JYP has someone to lean on in times of adversity.

Relations soured between Mnet and SM when SM turned down Mnet’s offer to distribute their music. Since Mnet already had distribution rights with JYP, YG, and DSP, adding SM to their roster would have given them total domination of the music market. CJ then attempted a hostile takeover of SM, but failed.[9]

This brings us to the MAMA awards. SM fired a shot across Mnet’s bow, but Mnet responded with a volley. Mnet put on a good show, gave awards to non-SM artists, and the coup de grace was when members of TVXQ (a.k.a. DBSK) appeared and gave a speech.
TVXQ are in a contractual dispute with their company, which is … you guessed it … SM.[10], [11]

So what’s next? Will SM be able to mend frayed relations and yet retain their sovereignty? Or will they surrender? Stay tuned.

* 4Minute, for example, is part of Cube Entertainment, which is an affiliate of JYP Entertainment.

Related Columns:

- The “Chaebolization” of the Korean Music Industry

- The Chaebolization of the Korean Music Industry, Part II

- The Chaebolization of the Korean Music Industry, Part III

A Pizza With Everything On It … Literally

If you don’t like Asian food, Korea could be a tough place to live. The vast majority of restaurants are Korean, and the majority of those who aren’t are either Chinese or Japanese, with the recipes changed to suit local tastes. Three exceptions to this are hamburger chains (such as McDonald’s, and local versions such as Lotteria), family restaurants (such as Bennigan’s and Outback), and restaurants serving Italian food (pizza and/or pasta). Of the three, the third is probably the most ubiquitous.

When a type of food becomes internationally-popular, the country of origin loses control over how it is made in other countries. (Korea itself is an example, as the “kimoochi” served in Japan is slightly different from the kimchi of Korea.) Korea has taken particular liberties with pizza, since pizza lends itself very easily to additions. The end result has been that you can find almost anything on a pizza in Korea (e.g. chicken, crab, shrimp, potato, and the perennial favorite, corn). One blogger used this as inspiration to create a parody, the Noah’s Ark Pizza, called such because it features “two of every creature known to science.”[1] A few months ago, this fictional pizza almost came to life, as I had a pizza with the following: shrimp, olives, sweet potato, squid, green and red bell peppers, mushrooms, onions, and bacon. The crust was utilized too, to house within it a sweet, cream cheese-like cream.

I’m not saying that this is bad. In fact, it’s fun to be treated to such a cornucopia of flavours in one single meal.

A Tale of Two Singers

Recently, two singers, Park Jae-beom and Kang-in, from the boy bands 2PM and Super Junior respectively, were involved in scandals. What struck me most was the different ways they were treated, in light of what they did.

Park Jae-beom is an ethnic Korean who was born and raised in the United States. After a successful audition with JYP Entertainment in the United States, he moved to Korea to train to become a singer/dancer. It was around this time that he wrote to his friends in the U.S. via MySpace. Last month, some of these four-year-old comments resurfaced. They provoked intense ire, since they included comments like, “korea is gay,” “I hate koreans,” “i wanna come back [to the United States],” and “korea is whack.” While these comments are undoubtedly ill-mannered and rude towards the country that he was living in, we should take several things into consideration. At the time, he was an 18-year-old who was living in a foreign country and culture. He was suffering from culture shock and loneliness, since his friends and family were still back in America. Lastly, his future was uncertain, for it was very possible that his attempt to become a professional entertainer might end in failure. As criticism mounted, Jae-beom decided to come clean. He admitted to writing the comments, tried to explain himself, and apologized profusely.[1] He revealed himself to have matured a great deal in the previous four years. However, some netizens refused to be satisfied, and anger continued to rise to the point where one online group began a petition that demanded that Jae-beom commit suicide. Soon afterward, Jae-beom bowed out of 2PM and returned to his family in America.[2]

About a week later, Kang-in, another singer, was booked by police for participating in a bar brawl.[3] Evidence included video and eyewitness accounts.[4] The next month, Kang-in again visited the police station, this time to admit to driving under the influence of alcohol and being involved in two hit-and-run incidents.[5] Some netizens criticized Kang-in, and others defended him, but at no time was there any evidence of the kind of groundswell of outrage that Jae-beom suffered.

I am perplexed by this. Jae-beom was very rude, but being rude is not a crime. Yet he was driven out of Korea, almost literally, by an Internet mob. Contrast this with the reaction (or lack thereof) towards Kang-in, who committed not one, but four criminal offenses (physical violence, driving under the influence, and two hit-and-runs). How can this be contradiction be reconciled? I suppose that the message is clear: Commit crimes if you will, but don’t ever call Korea “gay.”

From Cowboy to Mercenary

When I first arrived in Korea, it was the time of the “ESL cowboy,” but nowadays, like real cowboys, they are a dying breed, being increasingly replaced by what I personally call the “ESL mercenary.”

The ESL cowboy shared some characteristics with their historical counterparts. They didn’t have professional training (e.g. freshly-minted bachelor’s degrees that were unrelated to education, and/or no teaching experience). They had a reputation (rightly or wrongly) for drinking and having a good time, including chasing women. They worked in a “frontier town” that was devoid of law-and-order (English as a Second Language, ESL, was new to Korea, and regulations were either poorly-enforced or nonexistent.). They liked to explore and had a sense of adventure. Their carefree attitude was sometimes criticized as careless or even reckless. Their rugged individualism made a workers’ (or teachers’) union almost impossible. As one person put it, it’s like trying to herd cats. They freelanced for extra money, setting up (illegal) private tutoring lessons. To this end, they all had pagers to keep in touch with their clients. (At this time, cell phones were very rare in Korea. Pay phones were more numerous, and usually had long lines.)

Gradually, the “ESL cowboy” gave way to the “ESL mercenary,” who have certain characteristics that lead me to call them thus: They have some training and/or credentials. Because they’re professionals, they expect to be paid well. This is, of course absolutely reasonable, especially since many of them have responsibilities, such spouses and/or children to support. What leads me to call them mercenaries is the single-minded drive to make money. Like the cowboys, they freelance to this end. The difference is that the money goes to things like stocks or wide-screen plasma TVs, instead of things like beer or movie tickets. Also like the cowboys, they work in a lawless land –lawless not because it’s a frontier, but because law enforcement is hindered by things like corruption and politics. (ESL has now been in Korea for almost fifteen years, but because of a lack of will or ability to enforce regulations, it remains quite lawless.) They don’t have the same reputation for debauchery as the cowboys, but neither do they have the sense of adventure. If they like to travel, it’s to other countries, during their vacations.

While some cowboys have moved on, and mercenaries have taken their place, some cowboys have evolved into mercenaries. They improved their teaching credentials, but also lost their curiousity about Korea. What remained was the desire to make money, though it may be spent differently.

If Korea wishes to attract teachers who are professionals (unlike the cowboys) but are not overly-focused on money (like the mercenaries), then it is going to have to do some decisive, concrete things. But that is the subject of another column.

“You can’t handle the truth!”

Anyone who’s seen the movie “A Few Good Men” probably remembers the scene in which Tom Cruise’s character demands that Jack Nicholson’s character come clean, and Nicholson bellows the response, “You can’t handle the truth!”

Such a sentiment may help to explain the tales of Vera Hohleiter and Shunpei Mizuno. These two foreigners, German and Japanese respectively, became celebrities in Korea, and went on to write books. Given that they had hardly ever publicly said a negative thing about Korea, there was surprise when their books were found to contain criticisms of Korea. Some Koreans reacted with hurt and anger, and accused them of being two-faced.[1], [2], [3], [4]
However, every foreigner in Korea learns soon after their arrival here that even the smallest criticism is met with indignation. When a fellow teacher pointed out to a student that Korea’s choco pies were similar to the much older moon pies and wagon wheels (82- and 51-years-old, respectively, as opposed to the choco pie’s 35-year history), the student became very upset. Also, one of my students once described Rain/Bi as a “world star.” I replied that while he was very well-known and successful in Asia, his attempts to break into the American music market didn’t pan out (as evidenced by his canceled concerts).[5] He seethed and growled that Rain was, beyond a shadow of a doubt, a global superstar because … he had read it … somewhere. If Koreans can react like this about such trivial matters as snacks and pop music, then one can imagine the fury and accompanying histrionics if one were to touch upon anything the least bit more serious. So if expatriates in Korea are two-faced, then it’s because there is a lack of tolerance for any expression of one’s honest opinion.

Obesity: Good News and Bad News

Obesity: Good News and Bad News

Recently, in terms of obesity, Korea received both good and bad news. The good news was that Korea has the lowest obesity rate among OECD countries.* The bad news was that the average South Korean adult is now overweight.[1] The statistics illustrate how the Koreans have been slowly but surely increasing in weight over the last decade. This comes as no surprise to me.
When I first came to Korea, I worked in a private institute, called “hogwons” in Korea. (I left after my first and only contract and went on to better jobs.) At that time, I taught all ages. In the adult classes, obesity was exceedingly rare. However, the younger the classes were (e.g. high school, middle school, and elementary school), the more common being overweight was.
One culprit is undoubtedly the increasing popularity of western food such as hamburgers, pizza, french fries, etc. In every Korean supermarket there are rows (and rows) dedicated entirely to snacks: potato chips, brownies, shrimp- or squid-flavored crisps, “chocopies” (Korea’s version of Wagon Wheels or Moon pies), etc. However, Korean cuisine also bears some responsibility. Meat used to be rarer in Korea. It was either eaten on special occasions or chopped, cooked, and mixed in with other things such as rice and/or vegetable. Nowadays, there are many restaurants that serve fried chicken or dishes composed mostly of meat. Also, meat of some kind is in most Korean food. Vegetarians who come to Korea often have a hard time sticking to their diet.[2] Add to this the fact that the red pepper paste that is common in Korea dishes often has a high amount of sugar.[3]
Also, many Koreans are sedentary. The availability of high-speed Internet, and of Internet cafes**, means that many Koreans spend hours sitting in front of a computer, either working, surfing the Internet, or playing games. There are even TV programs in which you can watch computer game champions competing against each other for titles and/or prizes. Additionally, Koreans work the longest hours in the OECD.[4]
Korea is clearly a case study for how wealth leads to increased obesity levels. Fortunately, there is increasing awareness of this issue and there are indications that Korea will take concrete steps to try to reverse this trend.

* Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, and the United States.

** called “PC Bahngs,” “PC” as in personal computer, and “Bahngs” as in the Korean word for “room.”

Related Topic: Super Size Me

The Chaebolization of the Korean Music Industry, Part III

In the West, if people want to be musical performers, they’ll typically begin playing or singing, perhaps with people that they know, and begin at ground level by performing at places like clubs or weddings, and work their way up. In Korea, if you want to be famous, and not just an underground act, then you basically have to successfully audition. There’s a show called “Superstar K,” which is like the shows “American Idol” and “Britain’s Got Talent.” Those who fail to audition their way into the first round are invariably in tears, for they know that their dreams been shattered.[1] If you are accepted as a trainee by one of the large music companies, you’ll be trained for years before debuting. A result of this is that Korean performers, such as BoA and DBSG (a.k.a. TVXQ) have world-class singing and dancing skills, while Westerners are better at writing music, which in turn results in Westerners creating new music genres. It’s not surprising that Korean musicians have often been accused of plagiarism.[2] This dates back to when Seo Taiji used Cypress Hill’s “Insane in the Membrane” as a template for his huge hit “Come Back Home.”[3], [4]

Due to dramatically decreased music sales, Western performers now make more money selling concert tickets than albums, since tickets are many times more expensive and you can also sell merchandise, such as tee shirts. This is not an option for many Korean musicians, since they don’t have enough material for a full concert. For example, the Wonder Girls, one of Korea’s most successful groups, has only released one full-length album, shortly after their debut in 2007. Since then, they’ve only released mini-albums which contain two or more remixes of the same song.[5] They are a perfect example of how a group can become famous upon the strength of, literally, only a few songs. Performances are usually only one or two songs, performed on music shows such as Inki-gayo, Music Bank, and Music Core. The importance of these shows is evidenced by the fact that, when they were cancelled in the week following the death of former president Kim Dae-jung, two major artists, G-Dragon and 4 Minute, delayed all promotional activities for one week.[6], [7] However, that’s not to say that these artists aren’t busy, because they certainly are. They just aren’t busy performing full concerts. They appear on all kinds of TV programs that have nothing to do with music (such as slapstick comedy), do photo shoots, and endorse everything under the sun (e.g. air conditioners, stationary, fried chicken, clothing lines, etc.). They have so many appointments that some have been injured, or even killed, in traffic accidents that occur as their managers rush them from one place to the next (called “manager driving”).[8] In the West, appearing in too many commercials is seem as overexposure, selling out, or being a has-been. In Korea, it’s a cash cow for celebrities, even those whose movies are box office flops and who rarely appear on TV.[9] Since Korean celebrities have a very short “shelf life,” so to speak, it’s understandable that they try to make as much money in as short a time as possible. In the West, it’s relatively rare for a singer to act in movies (e.g. Beyonce Knowles) or vice-versa (e.g. Russell Crowe). However, in Korea, they’re almost interchangeable. This weakens the idea that to be a musical performer requires specialized skills.

This situation is likely to continue, at least until more Korean artists adopt the mindset of Motorhead’s Ian “Lemmy” Kilmister. When told that they could reach a wider audience if only they cut their hair, his response was, “That’s it then, I guess we are not going to reach a much broader audience.”[10]

Related Topics:

* The Chaebolization of the Korean Music Industry

* The Chaebolization of the Korean Music Industry, Part II

The Chaebolization of the Korean Music Industry, Part II

So how did the chaebolization of the Korean music industry begin? Korea used to have a vibrant live music scent until the mainstream success of Seo Taiji and Boys. Seo wrote his own songs for the most part, but performed to pre-recorded music while his Boys danced behind him.[1], [2] Seo wrote about the frustrations of Korean youth, and one of his songs was nearly banned by the government for its veiled criticism of the status quo. However, having dropped out of high school it’s unlikely that he truly understood the pressures of the students he sold music to. Seo revealed his true feelings regarding freedom of speech when he sued into silence a young singer who had made a parody of one of his his biggest hits, “Come Back Home.” It wasn’t a malicious parody but a playful one, very similar to the ones that Weird Al Yankovic has been making, unmolested, since the early 1980s.[3] Clearly, Seo only believes in freedom of speech only so long as it doesn’t remotely threaten his legendary status. Through his “rebel-who-speaks-for-Korean-youth” image, Seo has become the richest man in Korean show business, worth an estimated 180 billion won, through enterprises like his own credit card, cell-phone, and entertainment company.[4], [5] Also, in the same way that Ozzy Osbourne props up his sagging credibility through his annual Ozzfest music festivals, so too does Seo regularly renew and revive his legendary status by inviting some of the biggest names in rock (e.g. Limp Bizkit, Nine Inch Nails, etc.) to a music festival named after his Royal Phoniness.[6] Legend paints him as a rebel, but he’s all corporate.
Not surprisingly, one of his Boys, Yang Hyun-suk, later founded YG Entertainment.[7] Also not surprising is the fact that one of first groups that it produced, 1TYM, looked, sounded, and acted like the Boys, Mark 2.0. They copycatted Western gangsta gestures, clothes, slang, speaking styles, and rapping, so as to created a tough, rebellious image.[8] In reality, they probably studied six hours a day and went to church on Sundays. Such “gangsta lite” faux rebellion cans still be seen with artists like Crown J.[9], [10]
Watching and learning from Seo Taiji was Lee Soo-man, the founder of SM Entertainment, who saw that there was money to be made. In 1996, SM Entertainment debuted their manufactured group H.O.T., an acronym of High-five Of Teenagers (Korean groups love acronyms, abbreviations, numbers, and times of the day*).[11] Though its members undoubtedly felt some pressure, it was surely dissimilar to that experienced by the teenagers they targeted and purported to speak to and for. In that sense they too, like Seo Taiji, were faux rebels who cashed in handsomely on teenage angst.
This paved the road that Korean pop music now travels along. Though it appears that the “music chaebol” will dominate Korean music for the foreseeable future, there are faint hints that things could be in the process of changing. Songwriter Brave Brothers (a single person, despite the plural) recently left YG Entertainment, released an album on his own label, and described why he left YG.

“The reality is that people in the music industry cannot challenge themselves to be creative in fear of losing funding. Therefore, I’ve found out that people want trendy songs, and they want me to make those trendy songs. Truthfully, I can’t ignore this aspect of the public. However, I have made songs varying in genre instead of creating a few popular hit songs. In the future I’ll continue to make music I want to make.” [12]

* S.E.S., 2am, 2pm, 4minute, 2NE1, FinK.L., g.o.d., etc.)

[To Be Continued ...]

Related Topics:

* The Chaebolization of the Korean Music Industry

* BoA Releases First U.S. Album

* BoA, Break a Leg (But Please, Not Literally!)

The “Chaebolization” of the Korean Music Industry

(originally appeared in the August 18, 2009 edition of Seoul Weekly newsletter)

In the same way that the Korean economy in general is dominated by a relatively few multinational conglomerates, called chaebol, like Samsung and Hyundai, so too, is the Korean music industry heavily influenced by a comparatively small number of music companies, such as SM Entertainment, JYP Entertainment, YG Entertainment, etc.[1], [1.5] While there is an independant music scene, mostly centered around the Seoul district of Hongdae, if you want to become a famous star, you pretty much have to join one of these “music chaebol.”[2] While Hyundai has factories producing cars, these music chaebol almost literally have factories producing pop music singers. If you want to be a performer, you audition with them. If one accepts you, then you become a trainee. Most trainees are young, pre-teens or teenagers. A few are accepted in their early 20s. While other young Koreans spend their free time preparing to take the College Entrance Exam, they spend hour after hour being trained in singing, dancing, rapping, and learning foreign languages, since many of these companies hope to eventually penetrate foreign markets. Sometimes, they succeed, as with BoA in Japan. Some drop out because of the effects of the pressure.[3] While we have seen similar phenomenon in America, such as with Maurice Starr and Lou Pearlman producing New Kids on the Block and ‘N Sync, respectively, Korea has brought it to a whole new level. Outside of clubs, non-indie, non-pop music almost doesn’t exist. It’s certainly not talked about by any of my college students.

Some of the bigger music chaebol have dozens of trainees waiting to debut. Many will fail to be successful enough to justify the resources that the company has invested into them, but the few that do will generate great profits for the company that groomed them. Because of this, some companies go to great lengths to maintain control over these potentially golden-egg-laying geese. After the suicide of actress Jang Ja-yeon, who, in her suicide note, detailed great injustices done to her, the National Human Rights Commission has investigated entertainment agencies and the contracts that their charges sign.[4], [5] The Fair Trade Commission has found that 19 out of 20 management agencies had unfair contract clauses, which applied to 230 entertainers. Some singers are virtually locked into 13-year contracts, and it’s possible that the reason some groups are so large (nine or even thirteen members) is so that each member will be proportionately weakened, in terms of being able to complain or take legal action.[6]

Anyone who’s ever bought a product from a chaebol knows that while some are of good quality, others definitely are not. In the same way, the music chaebol have found ways to get away with cutting corners. It’s been acknowledged, even by industry insiders, that things like good looks, dancing ability, etc., are just as important, sometimes even more important, than singing ability.[7] In most groups, there is one member who can really sing, and does most of the heavy lifting, vocally. For example, in the groups Fin.K.L., the Wonder Girls, S.E.S., Jewelry, and Girls’ Generation, they are Ok Ju-hyun, Ye-eun (Yenny), Bada (Sea), Park Jung-ah, and Tae-yeon, respectively. If you are interested in knowing who can sing, and who can’t, you can listen to uploaded videos labelled “MR removed,” in which the background music is minimized.[8], [9] You would think that, instead of spreading four talented members among four groups, somebody would pool their talent and make one solid group, but that never happened. At least, not until the group called 2NE1 (pronounced “To Anyone” or “Twenty-one”).

[ To Be Continued ...]