The interview was conducted at a cafe near KBS by the Yonhap News Agency with 4Minute's Hyuna, SHINee's Onew, 2PM's Wooyoung, Brown Eyed Girls' Narsha, and KARA's Goo Hara.
These five individuals are the leading "New Hallyu Wave" actors for the rising K-POP boom in Japan, China, Southeast Asia, America, and other places around the world. The interview's theme was for them to respond with their "personal experiences on the reality of the Hallyu Wave," and along with the hot responses to K-POP they experienced themselves they talked with a raw sense of responsibility and hardship.
Recently, Narsha and Hyuna have returned to their country after their Japan promotions, and would like to start off by commending KARA for accomplishing taking a major step up in Japan as they made a record at the number 2 spot on the Oricon weekly ranking chart. "KARA's songs play at Don Quijote in Japan. Within the city, there were KARA posters on billboards, etc. We were happy to be able to see something like that in Japan" (Narsha, Hyuna).
I shyly smiled upon receiving a glance from Goo Hara (KARA). "Well, it was leaked that I went out 'makeup-less' in Japan. I heard that a gagman of a comedic group had declared on his TV show that he was a 'passionate KARA fan' and thanks to him, a lot more people came to know of me" (Goo Hara).
I became extremely mesmerized when they started concentrating on the girl group boom within Japan. Narsha said, "Brown Eyed Girls' 'cheeky dance' was shown on TV in Japan. I was surprised when fans at the events would imitate the song and dance for 'Abracadabra.'"
The girl group members who were gathered on this day had the impression that Japan differed from Korea in that there are more female fans. Goo Hara said, "In Japan there are a lot of female fans from middle school, and they come to the fanmeetings in their uniforms and tell us 'Unnie, I love you. You're pretty.' A lot of younger girls seem to come." Likewise, Hyuna said, "I saw a lot of younger girls at the performances in Japan - it was strange. It was cool and wonderful that they supported us."
Onew and Wooyoung, who will soon advance into Japan, were listening to the girls talk. In December, SHINee plan to hold a solo concert for 10,000 people at Yoyogi Station in Japan, and as for 2PM, their first DVD will go on sale in November, and in December they will open a showcase at Ryogoku Kokugikan. However, the males have already gusted to the center of K-POP. SHINee are called "The Chief Executives of the Southeast Asia New Generation," and 2PM are called "The Beasts Who Sway the Hearts of Asia's Women."
Onew said, "The first time I went to Thailand, the fans came to the airport holding placards in Korean. I was suprised when they followed us by car from one schedule to the next. They would also call out my real name."As expected, Wooyoung also remembers receiving a welcoming exceeding his expectations on last year's trip to China. "Recently, 2PM's 'I'll Be Back' MV reached 1 million views on Youtube, and we were chosen as 'Today's Most Viewed Video in the World.' There were a lot of comments from America and Europe, and I could feel the power of Youtube."
"In September there was an SM Town World Tour performance in America, and a lot of non-asians from America, Spain, France, and Mexico, etc, were there," said Onew, before speaking of yet another experience of his. "Famous in her birthplace of Japan for her choreography, RINO NAKASONE choreographed the dance for the songs 'Replay,' 'Love Like Oxygen,' and 'Juliette.' She received an offer for an interview with the French media through uploading the videos of her teaching the dance steps for SHINee's songs on Youtube."
They are currently doing overseas activities, and I've often heard many say that their "ability excels in terms of music and dance." Narsha criticized, "A lot of groups have been created in the Korean market, and it feels like the competition for true ability is on the rise. I think the result is the combination of amazing music, upgraded performances, and precise character roles for each member such as vocalist, rapper, or dancer."
Their ability is the result of systematical training as well as boosting individual ability and is decided by the common opinions of inside and outside music specialists. "Compared to the other SHINee members, I had a much shorter training period of about 2 years. There was a training timetable I went by that had specific times set for vocal, dance, rap, acting, and language lessons. There were practice evaluations that were periodically taken so I could take complimentary lessons for the things I was insufficient at," stated Onew. Hyuna added, "As soon as school lessons were over, I went to the office's practice room for song and dance and Chinese lessons."
It's good to spread out activities so you can show your abilities, however, overseas activities can be overly stressful on the mind and body. Goo Hara said, "There can be over 10 Japanese media interviews within a single day. It's stressful to progress enough to not need an interpreter. Also, you have to take the connection between Japan and Korea into consideration. As far as KARA goes, Seungyeon and Gyuri are good at Japanese." Narsha added, "It was hard to learn how to make jokes on Japanese TV shows. Although it was good to go overseas, it was essential to learn and understand the local culture."
Wooyoung stated, "During the Wonder Girls' American tour, the schedule was really harsh as 2PM went to 9 cities in 12 days as guest performers. At night after the performances, we had to board an airplane in the middle of the night to move to another location. Going on a plane so many times made our necks swell, and since we were so busy, we had to eat mostly instant food, so we didn't have any strength left."
To say it in whole, one has to be in such a harsh situation immediately ater stepping foot on overseas ground, and carry the responsibility of sprouting with patriotism as well as be the representative face of South Korea. "I don't know why myself, but it's come to the point where I want to show a good image for Koreans when I go overseas. It's not that we try to emphasize ourselves as Koreans, but we want our fans to naturally experience hangul and Korean culture through us," Wooyoung told.
Onew and Narsha continued the conversation, giving it a humorous twist.
"After overseas singers stay at a hotel, it will look like the room had never been checked out. If it weren't done like that, the media would take photos of the dirty-looking rooms and show them to the public. My members and I clean the room up everytime just so that it won't happen (laugh)" (Onew). "If I were to leave chips behind at a hotel overseas, it would surely be written about in a hangul memo. That's what Koreans would do at least" (Narsha).
They spoke about sharing cultures with one another as the way for K-POP to continue. To say it another way: so that it will be impossible for things like "not liking Hallyu" or being "anti-Hallyu" to come into fruition and grow. Onew shared openly, "When I first went to China and Taiwan, I only sang Korean songs. I've been listening intently to [Chinese] lately so that I can sing In Chinese the next time I go to China."
The five of them stated collectively, "In order to walk the same path as our sunbaes Rain, Boa, and TVXQ have overseas, we believe we need to focus on ourselves. After this, we will continue working our absolute hardest so that the business will be able to continue on for our hoobaes," and with this, they decided to do a "fighting" pose.
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