IT'S HARD TO BECOME AN IDOL #2 (Group Concept)

Source: www.urbandictionary.com

idol
“Someone human, whose abilities in certain field makes him/her look like god}
by Mario F Monsalve Dec 15, 2005

Idol. Why the boy band and girl band in Korea called idol? Idol concept in Korea is different that idol in general.

“The word "idol" first meant an inanimate object of worship, but it's evolved to include modern celebrities. On the Korean pop music scene, "idol groups" are bands consisting of boys or girls in their teenage years or early 20s. And in recent years they've dominated the industry.” ----- Park Sun-young

So the idol is all boy band and girl band (and some of solo singer). You may be confused when a solo singer like Son Dambi is called diva but Se7en is an idol. What’s different about them? They both solo singer tho. I also don’t know why exactly. :p Maybe because Son Dambi is a girl, so they called her diva, just like Lee Hyori or BoA.

Ouch, whatever, I don’t want to talk about who is idol or not. I want to talk about a talented, pretty, teenager, joined in a group to become an idol for other teenagers.

After a long and tiring training (you can read about the training here) finally the trainees debuted and become an idol. WHOA!

When training time, they didn’t have any idea whether they will debut as a solo singer, group, or even as an actress.

I don’t know why singing in a group is so popular in Korea. More likely because you can share your talent in your group. Because in a group, you don’t need to great at everything. A member dances well, other member sings well, and other have a pretty face. Enough to become a teenage idol.

Sometimes, the idol member didn’t satisfy with her group they belong to. Sooyoung from Girls Generation (SNSD) once stated that she was a little disappointed when she knew that SNSD will be a girl group with 9 members. Who won’t? Nine members is damn too much. With nothing special, she will be just ordinary member. Luckily, she has a pretty long leg. Even though I confused why the long leg is that important for a singer, she really stands out with that leg. :p

  Long leg Sooyoung

 SNSD with Sooyoung in the middle. Look at her legs!

If you think 9 members are huge. So here the hugest idol group ever. SUPER JUNIOR. With 13 members (now 10 active members) sure they’re deserve to be the greatest idol from history. Each member can sing, each member can dance, some can sing so well, and some can dance so well. Trouble come when they split a song to be sing by 13 person. A member just sing a few second. 

Super Junior. Idol with 13 members

Below is part of the study about duration that idol member sing in a performance (I copied from here) 

DongA Ilbo recently did a study about the duration that idol group members get during their music show performances and their results show that they each get an average of 16s.
The study which was released on the 13th, was based on research done on Music Core (July 10th), Inkigayo (July 11th) and Music Bank (June 25th) on 7 idol groups (SNSD, Super Junior, 4minute, After School, Infinite, f(x), MBLAQ), and the duration of singing time that each member got. The average length of their songs came to around 3m 30s, and if you subtract their harmonization, each member sings just 16s on average.

Singing for 16 second and you’re and idol. Maybe this is why many people hate Kpop idol.

Super Junior’s Shindong tell a story about this on variety show Strong Heart. He said, the problem is, when the song was being cut because they will sing more than 1 song. Some members didn’t sing at all. All they can do is dance. WHOA!

In my opinion, the amount of the member is the key of their success. Thirteen members sure have a lot of fans than 5 members. So, yes, it’s the fans that make the huge. Next, I will tell you about fans here. Please anticipate! :)

just a little update. :)

Two weeks ago, there was a new Korean employee in my office. He is the youngest among the others. In my office, Korean is in the manager level, the age is around 40-50 years old, just like my father. But, he’s just 33 years old Korean age, means he is 32 years old! Every Korean called “Mister” but I refused to called him Mr Shin. I talk to him and he agreed to be called oppa by me. WHOA! I have the real oppa beside of Heechul oppa! :p 

 *my heechul oppa* XD

And another big thing happened last week. I have my boss changed. After tons of ramen and udon cups, a bar of red beans, a bowl of samkyetang, moments when we learn Bahasa Indonesia and Korean, and 3 months meets every working day, my first boss ever going back to Korea. So sad, feel like I wanna cry (actually, I didn’t! ;p)

So welcome my new boss, Mr Kim. Kim Jin Pyo, 53 years old, with bright personality. I like him. SO FAR, I LIKE HIM. :p

He cannot speak Bahasa Indonesia or English well, so we communicate with my poor Korean and his poor Bahasa Indonesia. But two thumbs up for the driver (which don’t understand Korean) that he manage to understand my boss well. :))

Yeah, whatever. Next topic! ;p

I always want to write about Korean idol. Because many people always underestimate them. I believe that they done that because they don’t understand the story behind an idol. Therefore, I try to write anything I know about Korean idol, how they train, and relationship with their company, their life, etc. All will be titled “IT’S HARD TO BECOME KOREAN IDOL”. Post #1 just published yesterday. Please anticipate the #2 post about group concept. :)

IT'S HARD TO BECOME AN IDOL #1 (TRAINING)

When it comes to Kpop, most of people (who doesn’t like it of course) can be so mean and negative. Let me explain this first, if you just look from the things that appears outside, you will hate it for sure. Can you imagine, teenage boys wearing eyeliner, fancy clothes, dancing in a perfect combination, and pieces? Or teenage girls with fully make up, blonde hair, new nose and eyelids from plastic surgery, dancing and singing wearing hot pants and stuff?

Those are just the other side of Kpop. Yes, other, I mean I cannot tell it's negative though. Behind those plastic eyelids and perfect hair, there’s a hard work you can never imagine. As long as I know, the only idol with the shortest training time is 2AM’s Changmin from JYP Entertainment. He enlisted army first, then joined JYP on 2008 and debuted 3 months later. Meanwhile, there’s BIGBANG G-Dragon and Taeyang which joined YG Entertainment when they’re on their 6th grade and trained for 6 years until they debut as BIGBANG with 3 other members. And 2AM Jo Kwon from the same company with Changmin. He’d trained for eight years. EIGHT YEARS to become an idol for the whole Kpop addict in the world.

2AM. Changmin (light blue suits) and Jo Kwon (dark blue blazer)

By the way, maybe it comes to your mind when I said training: what “training” I’ve talked about here?

It’s training to become an idol of course. Dancing class, singing class, idol-manner class, body building class, etc everyday. Just like a regular school. Many trainees are in school age so they go to school in the morning, and trained after school time until night. In addition, in red note: they spend years practicing without guarantee when they will begin debut or that they’ll ever debut as an performer. Many give up because of this.

There’s one story from 2NE1 Sandara Park. She took a flight away from Philippines to Korea to become a singer like her idol, Lee Hyori. She signed contract with YG Entertainment. At the training process, she heard issue that YG will be debuting a girl group (soon-to-be 2NE1). And far from her expectation, she wasn’t chosen as one of them. Yang Hyun Seok wants her to debut as an actress, not a singer because her soft and delicate image can be ruined YG image as a “hip hop singer” company. Sandara was so upset but she knows cannot lose her dream. So she changes herself. She changes herself to be more like YG wants. Then, voila! she become one of girl group member with high popularity.

Sandara before and after joined 2NE1

Furthermore, YG Entertainment made 11 episodes of documentary when they trained (soon-to-be) BIG BANG. As seen on the documentary, Kang Daesung, one of the trainees is still on his 2nd grade of high school. However, he left home and move to YG dorm without his dad permission. He attended school everyday like the regular student. After school time, he runs to the practice room where the 5 other trainees are waiting. Practice until night, and so on and so on, everyday.
 

After 10 episodes, one of the trainees for 2 and half years, Yang Hyun Seung (now, B2ST member) wasn’t chosen to become BIG BANG member. Even though his voice is above average, he was failing due to no improvements of his dancing and always-flat facial expression. The documentary shown how Yang Hyun Seok (founder, owner, and chief executive officer of YG Entertainment) choose the members not only by their great singing technique, but also by base on how they look on stage, how they match each other face in a photo shoot, or we can say “star quality”. :)

Jang Hyun Seung after join B2ST, no star quality, eh? :p

More over, I'm pretty sure that the life of a trainee isn't glamorous as seen on the stage after they become an idol. They don’t have time for themselves. The company they signed to, drives their live, whether it’s time to sing or dance, to eat or not to eat, to do plastic surgery or be grateful for what they have. The trainees only live by their dream. The dream that someday they will got what exactly they’ve dreamt about.

After read much about this training thing, I’m sure that they deserved it. They deserved being cheered by thousand girls in a concert, had a glamour life, and lots of great endorsement and facility as an idol.

In the end: I love Kpop because I admire their beauty and I appreciate their hard work. PERIOD. :)

hardest thing in life

 "HAIL YOU ALL MOMMA IN THE WORLD WHO CAN SURVIVE FOR BEING A CAREER WOMAN AND A GREAT HOUSEWIFE AT A TIME."

i never thought that being a housewife is an easy task. you have lotta things to do without people notice what actually you had done. you have lotta work without even think about dressing up or wearing make up (i hate that :p).
my parents has been going to hajj since early November. it means, me, my self as the eldest sister in my family is responsible to all of housewife things and all can say is: IT WAS HARDEST THING TO DO.
i must go to work every morning, cooking every night, washing dishes, making breakfast, plus i have an English course twice a week, and some kind of recitation (or "pengajian" for god sake) every Thursday.

and worst thing is, i can not give up. how can i give up? i have no choice despite of waiting day by day until my parents back and the responsibility of everything is back to normal.

i miss you mom and dad.. :(

cheer up!

"You're miserable, edgy, and tired.

You're in the perfect mood for journalism."

--- Warren Ellis ---

 i hate being miserable, edgy, moreover tired. that's why i prefer not to become a journalist. ;p

another father

in my company, only staff whom indonesian, the rest including all manager-what-so-ever is korean. so yes, my boss is korean. he can't speak english nor indonesian well. people keep asking: "how could you communicate with him?" i always answer: "thanks to google translate."  because i can speak simple phrases in korean but always puzzled with long sentences because of my vocabulary limitation. google translate helps me a lot. :))

everytime he should say long sentences to us (like in meeting or office gathering) he always bring somebody as his translator.

so here i introduce to you one of his translator: Mr HS Park.
Mr Park is manager from another department, he's 50 years old, been living in indonesia for about 8 years, speaks indonesian well, and just like grandfather to me. :p he's so nice and love to tell me everything about life. he loves to tell me how i should take care of my boyfriend and my lil sisters, what age i should married, how i should take my master degree before getting married and lotta things about life. i like him!

here's the photo from last night. we had dinner together and he forced me to eat healthy food without even salt (so i added salt under the table to my spoon. lol).

 

 mr goo (my boss, wears black polo shirt), me, and mr park (wears pink polo shirt)
*sorry for the bad quality, i took this from my phone*

i enjoy my job a lot because of these person. thank you abeoji and harabeoji! :p

ps: abeoji is korean for father and harabeoji is korean for grandfather. :))

dream, believe, make it happen

those 3 phrases follow me everywhere. people make them their bbm or facebook status, and tweet them. who the one who said that at the first time?

yes, agnes monica. after her "go international" comments which been used by her antis to mock her, finally she made it. she's become one of America Music Awards (AMA) red carpet's host and even singing with Christian Chavez (yeah, whoever he is).

i've been agnes monica's fan since ages and somehow i confuse why people hate her because her "go international" thingy.  she does, go international. she won twice as best singer on Asia Song Festival 2008 and 2009. she took a place on 2 taiwan drama. and now she's being a host for AMA as a representative from ASIA, not from indonesia. any indonesian celebrity can beat that?
but maybe those were not enough to narrow minded people who think that go international means hollywood.

however, she dreams, she believes, and finally she made it happen. check out her video singing with that chavez guy below:

another step

went to my office mate wedding last last weekend.

she's marrying a soldier so yes, there was a ceremony named "Pedang Pora" when the other soldier on the same class congratulate the couple with some kind of sword ceremony (geez, i don't know how to explain this). and too bad i couldn't took photo of the ceremony because the security.

with my besties before enter the wedding venue. yes, our gift is huge! :p

i was wearing tailor made top and skirt, and my oh-so-comfy nine west wooden heels. simple outfits but wait till you watch my back. (clue: see the last photo :D)

with the happy couple.

 my accesories. watch: vincci, bracelets: diva, love ring: random online shop (forget, sorry :p), bow ring: random outlet at paris van java, necklace: made by myself.

 with my bf. look at the details on my back. lovely, isn't it?

i saw exactly a "tank top" like this on a local online shop, but the price is unreasonable for a cotton tank top. so i went to pasar baru, bandung and made it from a sleek fabric. love it so much!

and well, happy wedding vio and della! happily ever after!:))

bored, lately

yeah, it's true. i'm not into blogging that much. weird, because i do addicted to another social networking. i love make some artworks at polyvore, make the skinny model on looklet looks awful, just tweet-trashing, or hanging out on kaskus lounge all day. but i can't blog as much as other blogger does, i don't now why truthfully. maybe my journalism background made me feel nauseated with a thought that i should write something despite my college assignment. 

but here i am, graduated, and sitting in my far-related-with-journalism office.
i work as an international officer at a Korean company. i do a lot of things with my head office in Korea. they email me so much, and all can do everyday is waiting the emails, and inform them to factory. ergh, whatever. 

what i try to tell you is, i'm here. bored. so i think i can try to blog since i have so much spare time with nothing to do. so, let's start!