KPop CloseUp #1

I have been promising (threatening?) to write blog posts about KPop for some time now, and here I am - finally getting started. What held me back so long, you ask? (Even if you didn't, just hush and follow along anyway.) Well, I started to think too much about myself and what I was doing. Who am I to talk about KPop when I've only really been a 'committed' fan for a year? Who am I to talk about things that I don't even fully understand it myself? Who am I to write about KPop on a blog where I mostly write about books and tea?

But, the thing is, I never intended these posts to be anything other than getting my own thoughts down and perhaps connecting with others in the meantime - there are a few things that are quite unique to KPop idols and fans, and I wanted to talk about them on my blog. Because that's what I do, really. I talk my way through things.

Some of the topics that I'd like to look at are: obsessive fans, love for your bias and OTP (if you're not familiar with the vocabulary, here, I will explain further down the road), idol 'slave' contracts and legal battles to escape, and also how KPop idols lead their nowhere-near-close-to-normal lives.

To start this first blog post, though, I wanted to talk a little bit about my favourite KPop group and my bias within that group.

bias [buy-us]: a fan's favourite member within a group. sometimes used for more than one member, but usually just one. [example use in a sentence: my bias from SHINee is Jonghyun.]

So, as you may be able to tell from my little definition above, I have a soft spot for SHINee. They are my favourite group and have been for a year now, at the very least.

image source

SHINee (pronounced like 'shiny') are a five-member boy group who are well-known for their amazing dance abilities (particularly Taemin, the youngest member of the group, shown above second from left) and wonderful singing/rapping combo. My bias, shown above on the far right, is called Jonghyun, and he is one of the main singers in the group, along with oldest member and the leader of the group, Onew (shown above in the center). [Oh, by the way, it is normal for each group to have a leader. I will try to let you know which member is the leader of a group as I go.]

The other two members - Minho (shown above second from right) and Key (shown far left) are wonderful singers, too, but are more known for their rapping abilities.

I love this group because they all have really individual personalities, but they work so well together as a group. In the last year or so alone Shawols (fans of SHINee - derived from the fan group name SHINee World - also the title of three concerts and an album by the group so far) have seen each member do their own stuff, and that has been wonderful, but I am always happy when the group continues to come back together to put out albums and do concerts. This year saw Key release a mini-album with another artist, Woohyun from another group called Infinite, under the band name ToHeart, and also saw Taemin release his first solo album - leading many Shawols to stop calling him Taemin, and start calling him TaeMAN. Evidence below...

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The group has been active since their debut in 2008, when they began performing their first single 'Replay'.

For now I will leave it at that! Next time I will talk about some of my other favourite artists and groups, and then we shall move on to other things within the KPop world! I hope you enjoyed this, but even if you didn't I will be reviewing some tea soon, and will still be writing about other things anyway :D

Annyeong!

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