KARA wins a lawsuit against an advertisement company

KARA won the lawsuit against an advertisement company.

Eastern Seoul 11th civil case division went through a lawsuit when a clothing company sued Kara's entertainment company DSP media for the damage made due to KARA’s separation issues on July 5th.

The court favored with KARA’s side saying that “Because celebrities had conflicts with their company and contracts, it doesn’t confirm that it affected the celebrity’s image” and “It is hard to judge that the clothing company and its reputation was harmed because of KARA.” 

Before, clothing company brand ASK had a modeling contract with KARA last year from Feburary to July, which was worth 2 million dollars. But after a while, member Han Seungyeon as well as 4 others claimed they wanted issues with their entertainment company resolved and told the clothing company they wanted to end the contract.

With that news, the clothing company sued DSP media, saying that they lost about 4 million dollars that included filming fees.

Release of SHINee's "Children of the Sun" as an E-Book!

SHINee's travel book in Barcelona, "Children of the Sun", has been reborn again as an E-Book through Apple's iBooks. 

The paperback book, "Children of the Sun", was published in Korea last year in December. It showcases each of the SHINee members' thoughts and feelings as they travel through Barcelona, with included pictures of their journey. The E-Book has been launched in two versions, Korean and English, with a price 60% lower than the paperback at $9.99, so that the overseas fans can easily make their purchase on iBooks.

The E-book, "Children of the Sun", will include additional unpublished photos of their travel, book trailers, as well as other aspects that was not shown in the paperback book. On January 19th, this year, Apple has released a Macintosh version for the E-Book production, an authoring software for children books (iBooks Author), that features a variety of multimedia rather than just reading books by allowing you too watch, touch, and enjoy digital content you can meet.

T-ara to utilize a 70-member orchestra for their comeback performance with Ahreum

Core Contents Media has revealed pictures of the T-ara girls, along with new member Ahreum, pre-recording for their performance on MBC‘s ‘Music Core‘.

In the pictures, the T-ara members pose playfully while looking rather lovely in their white outfits. This appears to be the agency’s way of introducing Ahreum, as the new member fits right in with the pretty line of girls.

In other news regarding T-ara’s comeback, the girl group is scheduled to perform both their catchy yet sad title song, “Day by Day”, along with their ballad, “Don’t Leave”. Composed by Cho Young Sooand written by Ahn Young Mi, “Don’t Leave” is a piece featuring a beautiful chord arrangement that is said to bring a new sound to the ballad genre.

T-ara is scheduled to also perform along with a 70-member orchestra at both MBC’s ‘Show! Music Core’ on the 7th and SBS‘s ‘Inkigayo’ on the 8th. The fact that world famous Jonte Moaning has also choreographed the dance to “Day By Day” leaves fans in high anticipation for this weekend’s performances.

Photos of Sulli from 'To the Beautiful You' set surface

Photos of f(x)’s Sulli from the set of upcoming SBS drama ‘To the Beautiful You’ have surface on various online communities.

In the photos, Sulli ditched her long, feminine locks for a short boyish haircut. Going in a complete transformation from her girly image, Sulli has undergone her disguise as a male student for the drama.

‘To the Beautiful You’ is the Korean adaptation drama of the popular Japanese comic “Hanazakari no Kimitachi e” also known as “Hana Kimi” which will begin running in August. Sulli will be taking on the lead role with labelmate Minho.

KARA becomes third K-Pop artist to sell over a million total singles in Japan

Girl group KARA proved its overwhelming popularity, breaking one million of cumulative sales in Japan.

The group’s sixth Japanese single, ‘Speed Up/ Girl Power’, which was released last March had 155, 177 copies sold leading them to the total album sales of 1,000,999 copies of all six singles. KARA marked this achievement in just a year and 11 months since their entry into the Japanese market.

KARA has been named the third K-pop act to sell over one million singles in Japan following TVXQ and BoA. Compared to their predecessors, KARA took the shortest amount of time to achieve the feat. BoA took two years and 10 singles to hit the one million mark, while released 24 singles in a span of three years before attaining this.

Meanwhile, Girls’ Generation, who advanced into Japan at a similar time, is following closely after so far releasing 4 singles with current record of 569,896 copies sold.

CEO Kim Kwangsoo answers "Why are 5dolls and Gangkiz not as popular as T-ara?"

"Midas Touch contradictory name report"

T-ara's new song "Day by Day" is dominating music charts one day after release. Once again, this proves the strong power of T-ara's agency, Core Contents Media's CEO Kim Kwangsoo.

When it was announced that T-ara's new song swept the #1 spot on music charts, CEO Kim Kwangsoo said he could relax and smile again. Despite Kim Kwangsoo's production of T-ara and their ambitious and growing success, T-ara is not his only girl group. Gangkiz and 5dolls are showing far less results compared to T-ara.

5dolls and Gangkiz are not under T-ara's current agency Core Contents Media, but part of GM Contents Media. GM Contents Media's CEO is Kwon Sibong who worked for Kim Kwangsoo for a long time. Kwon Sibong was placed as the CEO of the newly created company, but Kim Kwangsoo still exerts a powerful influence as the content producer for the company.

◇ T-ara, music site/sales jackpot 

T-ara's new song "Day by Day" was released on music sites on the 3rd and swept the #1 spot on the charts. Today (the 4th), T-ara are still on top everywhere including Mnet, Bugs, Olleh and Soribada.

With the big success on the music charts, Kim Kwangsoo has established to be a strong competitor in the music industry. T-ara's "Roly-Poly" was the #1 song of 2011 on Digital chart sales, beating out all other Korean singers, something which Kim Kwangsoo is proud of.

"Roly-Poly" isn't T-ara's only song ranking high in the digital charts, because currently "Lovey-Dovey" is the #1 song so far this year. T-ara's previous songs "Like The First Time" and "I Go Crazy Because of You" also had a longevity on online music charts and topped them as well.

With the trend of electronic dance music, "ppongi," amongst girl groups, T-ara's distinctive and addictive melodies with retro beats are always solid in their songs and lead to their popularity.

◇ 5dolls and Gangkiz poor results.. Why?

After T-ara's success from their debut in 2009, CEO Kim Kwangsoo decided to unveil a new group, 5dolls, in February 2011. Prior to 5dolls, Kim Kwangsoo made an ambitious decision to debut a mixed group with male and female members in 2010 named Coed School. After poor reactions, he put aside the female members of the group to debut in 5dolls instead. Last year, they revealed "It's You" and "Like This or That" one after another, but since then they have disappeared.

Gangkiz debuted in May of this year with "Honey Honey". Actresses Hwang Jihyun and Lee Haein as well as CF model Choi Sooeun were some of the members who boasted good visuals for the group. Their debut seemed like it would be a big success when the members went to Italy and Switzerland with T-ara to shoot their music videos, but their song's popularity was less than expected. T-ara's same style of music, "ppongi" was used on "Honey Honey" but with a trot twist and fun dance. Because of the lack of success of "Honey Honey" they decided to follow-up with a more powerful image with "Mama" but they also did not get much reactions.

T-ara's CEO Kim Kwangsoo who is also known as the "Midas Touch" in the music industry debuted two girl groups after T-ara who received poor results: 5dolls and Gangkiz. In response to why this happened, he responded.

"The groups both had a reminiscent style of songs similar to T-ara, and what was missing was an 'ace' to officially represent them. T-ara is unique in having a lot of members who can be the 'ace.' Jiyeon, Hyomin and Eunjung have unique individual looks and personalities which lets them shine in various fields of the industry. 5dolls and Gangkiz both had one member to represent them as the 'ace,' but they were unable to stand out."

Another problem is that T-ara already has their own individual group color (retro dance), while 5dolls and Gangkiz don't. In response to this, Kim Kwangsoo said, "5dolls and Gangkiz's song have the same 'retro' feeling as T-ara. A lot of girl groups stand out from the other competition, but it's hard to differentiate both the groups (5dolls and Gangkiz). Rather than the two groups standing out, the problem is their songs are too similar to T-ara's hits."

宝蓝和恩静童话般的自拍

Hyomin announces T-ara's comeback this week

T-ara member Hyomin announced their upcoming comeback with another gorgeous selca.

On July 4th, the T-ara member tweeted, “It’s not an exciting or bright song fit for the summer, but ‘Day by Day’, the perfect song for the rainy season is scheduled for comeback this week. Our stage won’t go overboard this time so please don’t worry. This Friday, we’ll appear on ‘Star Life Theater’ followed by ‘Music Core’ on Saturday. Here is my outright promotion!”

Attached with the post is a photo of Hyomin holding the slate for the program KBS ‘Star Life Theater’. Her newly dyed brown hair and doll-like appearance captured the attention of the public.

Super Junior is "Sexy, Free & Single" on M! Countdown

The boys are back! Super Junior finally kicked off their highly anticipated comeback stage for “Sexy, Free & Single” on this week’s episode of M! Countdown.

With their charismatic presence and awesome Devin Jamieson-assisted choreography, Super Junior, with the return of Kangin, has once again stunned the crowd with a jaw-dropping performance.

“Sexy, Free & Single” is a soulful house genre music and features easy and addictive chorus with lyrics about the successful life of sexy and free single men.

Check out their performance below!

Super Junior mentioned the performers of today's M! Countdown!

Super Junior introduced the performers that will perform on M! Countdown tonight,check out the video below.

Stay tuned for the highly anticipated Super Junior's comeback!