Artist Spotlight: Sunny Hill

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The artist this time is…

Sunny Hill

Sunny Hill is a co-ed Kpop group with one guy and four girls.

The name of the group came from the way they wanted their music to sound; warm and sunny. Their goal was never to be the most amazing group, (though they did win a rookie award when they first debuted), but a group that makes music to relax people.
However, since then, their music has evolved. Midnight Circus marked the turning point for their image, (which might be a reason their fanclub changed it’s name from Sunshines to Hillers since then).

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Artist of the Week: Brown Eyed Girls

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Here is the Artist of the Week! Posted on Wednesdays as something to get you through the rest of the week~

This week’s artist is…

Brown Eyed Girls (or B.E.G.)

This group is well-known for the dance they perform for their “Abacadabra” song. It’s often danced in dramas when there’s a party scene.

I feel like Brown Eyed Girls are a more “mature” group; they just have that feeling… probably because three of them are 30 years old and the youngest is 24. While most girl groups go for a sexy image, with Brown Eyed Girls, they have the certain fierceness of a confident woman that’s in control of herself and knows just what she wants. I find it refreshing from the teen groups that have saturated the Kpop scene.

Brown Eyed Girls was created by JeA, who is also a member of this group. Instead of focusing on dancing, it seems they focus on talent. If we had ever doubted their vocal abilities, they took care of that with their latest song “Sixth Sense” this past year. On live stage, three of them collaborated to reach what is known as a “dolphin note”… it was just that high on the musical scale.

All but one of these women have side solo careers as well, though apparently JeA is going to have one soon. Ga In might be the most well-known since she was in the TV show “We Got Married”, where she pretended she was married with Jo Kwon of the boy ballad group 2AM. They have since “broken up” to concentrate on their actual careers, but people still love them together and refer to them as the “Adam Couple”.

Members:

JeA
Leader, Main Vocalist
September 18, 1981

Miryo
Main Rapper
November 2, 1981

Narsha
Lead Vocalist, Lead Dancer
December 28, 1981

Ga In
Main Dancer, Vocalist
September 20, 1987

Videos:

Artist of the Week: 4Minute

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Here is the Artist of the Week! Posted on Wednesdays as something to get you through the rest of the week~

This week’s artist is…

4Minute

Apparently, the name “4Minute” simply stands for “Living 4 Every Minute” or “Show You the Best in 4 Minutes”. Originally, their style was reportedly called “The Candy Funky Style”… and this refers not only to their clothes, but their style of music and dance as well. This means they’re sweet, but rebellious. Personally, I do think their music reflects that concept.

Something interesting about this group is before their debut, Jiyoon always wore sunglasses during promotions. When it finally came time to perform, she took them off, which caused a lot of interest.

This group was created by Cube Entertainment, just like B2ST. As you might remember from that article, Cube likes to use kids that had trained hard in another company, but were ultimately rejected.

HyunA was a part of Wonder Girls for awhile, but left due to health reasons. Cube snatched her up, and it’s actually been said that 4Minute was made to be “HyunA’s group”. This isn’t surprising since HyunA was already well-known.

HyunA in Wonder Girls... 2nd from the right.

Sohyun was a part of Orange back when she was 12. That group was disbanded because of so many anti-fans. (Probably because they were so young. People tend to overly criticize young idol groups.)

Remembering about Orange

HyunA is the only member of 4Minute, so far, that has a solo career as well. In 2010, she released “Change”, then “Outlaw in the Wild”, and in 2011, she released “Bubble Pop”. Two of those videos created a controversy over their sexualization.  Recently, she teamed up with Hyunseung  from B2ST to form the unit “TroubleMaker”.

TroubleMaker

There are rumors of another unit coming that will have Gayoon and Jiyoon in it. Even with these units and solos, 4Minute is still officially together and will perform with each other when the company sees fit.

Next sub-unit?

Members:

Jihyun
Leader, Vocalist, Lead Dancer, Visual
January 9, 1990

Gayoon
Main Vocalist
May 18, 1990

Jiyoon
Lead Vocalist, Lead Dancer, Lead Rapper
October 15, 1990

HyunA
Vocalist, Main Rapper, Main Dancer, Visual
June 6, 1992

Sohyun
Vocalist, Rapper, Maknae
August 30, 1994

Videos:

Artist of the Week: CN Blue

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Here is the Artist of the Week! Posted on Wednesdays as something to get you through the rest of the week~

This week’s artist is…

CN Blue

CN Blue is a fairly unique name. The “CN” stands for “Code Name“, and the BLUE is an abbreviation for each of the member’s characteristics; “Burning“, “Lovely“, “Untouchable” and “Emotional“.  (Scroll down to the “members” section to see which characteristic is for which member of the group). One of the things that stands out about this group is the catchy beats in their music. It’s easy to get their songs stuck in your head.

CN Blue is from the same company as FT Island. They’re both pop rock groups where the members play instruments instead of dance. It has been said that FT Island was an “experiment” that led to CN Blue. This may be true, but it’s not a negative thing as the company didn’t abandon FT Island when CN Blue came around. The two groups are friends and there’s no negative feelings about it between them.

This group’s debut was interesting. They first wandered around Japan, playing in the streets as an indie band. After about half a year of that, they released a Korean album. In Korea, their debut song reached the top of the charts, ensuring their success.

I think I should also note that in the first 3 months of CN Blue’s debut, they had a different bassist. Kwon Kwang Jin left for unknown reasons after their first album failed to reach the Oricon chart and he was replaced by Lee Jung Shin.

Just like Hongki of FT Island, Yonghwa of CN Blue got a big role in the super popular drama “You’re Beautiful” as well. And just like FT Island gaining international fans from it, so did CN Blue. Because of the success Yonghwa brought from this role, and because he became so widely recognized by it, he became the new leader of the group.

Soon, Yonghwa landed another role in the drama “Heartstrings”. This time, CN Blue bandmate Min Hyuk joined the casting. I can’t tell if it affected CN Blue further, but it certainly helped Min Hyuk gain recognition among fans.

Members:

Jung Yong Hwa  ‘Emotional’
Leader, Rhythm Guitarist, Lead Vocalist, Main Rapper
June 22, 1989

 Lee Jong Hyun ‘Burning’
Lead Guitarist, Vocalist
May 15, 1990

Kang Min Hyuk ‘Lovely’
Drummer, Backing Vocalist
June 28, 1991

 Lee Jung Shin ‘Untouchable’
Bassist, Rapper, Backing Vocalist
September 15, 1991

Trivia/Info

OFFICIAL LINKS:
Facebook | Twitter | Youtube
Website | Official Twitter Fanclub

NOTABLE FAN PAGES:
CNBlueStorm | CNBlue4U | Color Me CNBlue

MORE INFO:

TRIVIA:

  • They have their own variety show called “CNBLUETORY.”
  • Yonghwa was on Season Two of “We Got Married” with Seohyun of SNSD.
  • They were also on 1N2D.

 

Videos/Music:

Artist of the Week: FT Island

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Here is the Artist of the Week! Posted on Wednesdays as something to get you through the rest of the week~

This week’s artist is…

FT Island

FT Island stands for “Five Treasure Island” and is an idol band that makes rock-type music. They’re in the pop-rock category, however, since the band was formed by a company that makes music for them… the same way pop groups are formed (though reportedly they did have a say in naming the band). Even though that was how the band was created, and how their music is written, they do play the music completely on their own, (though they just pretend for TV concerts. Something about the live sound is too difficult to film). No outsiders play the instruments for them or anything.

One of the things that makes them stand out is the lead vocalist, Lee Hongki. His powerful voice is full of emotion that’s not very usual for someone his age. Hongki also allowed more foreigners to know FT Island by landing a big role in the popular drama “You’re Beautiful“. Even though his role was generally kind of goofy, there was a serious scene where his acting really shined. He acquired many new overseas fans which led to more fans for FT Island as well. This may have been the reason they were so successful when they debuted in Japan.

Actually, Hongki started out as an actor, but when he was 13 he sang a song for the soundtrack of a drama he was starring in. So many people were impressed by his voice, he was quickly snatched up and began training for FT Island.

FT Island has a kind of sub-group called FT Triple (used to be called A3). It consists of Choi Jonghun, Choi Minhwan, and Lee Jaejin. The purpose of this sub-group is to play kind of intermission songs so Hongki can rest his voice during concerts.

There is a former member of this band that you may want to know about if you’re new to FT Island.  Oh Won Bin left with no hard feelings in 2009. Supposedly it was due to a conflict in music differences, but I personally think it’s just because he wanted to go solo. He was a co-lead vocalist and guitarist.

Another interesting thing about this band is some of their music videos are two-part dramas. Here’s one of them “A Man’s First and Only One”:


Members:


Choi Jong Hun
Leader/Pianist/Vocalist
March 7, 1990

Lee Hongki
Main Vocalist/Visual
March 2, 1990

Lee Jae Jin
Bassist/Vocalist
December 17, 1991

Song Seung Hyun
Rhythm Guitarist/Rapper
August 21, 1992

Choi Min Hwan
Drummer/Vocalist
November 11, 1992

Videos: