Idols/Music
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IU: The Perfect K-pop Idol

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Written by On November 13, 2011

Miss Lee Ji-eun. Korea’s little sister. Current IT girl and the hottest trend over the past few years. The perfect idol among all fans of all ages. Younger girls look up to her. Older women see her as a cute, vibrant girl with simple charms. Men of all ages are her fans as well. (Let’s not discuss why she’s popular with ajusshis, all right?) What’s IU done that’s made her so pristine and untouchable? Inspired by her father and successful school performances, she decided to pursue a professional singing career. We all know her “sad” story with trying to audition at JYP, where she was promptly rejected. Then, IU got picked up by LOEN Entertainment, who took her in with open arms. Like Cinderella, her story is wonderful and enchanting. A few albums, singles that top the music charts, numerous commercials, and a hugely popular drama later, she’s mega famous and did it all without a scratch of serious controversy. Singer, songwriter, musician, actress, TV host, figure skater – is there anything IU can’t or won’t do?

IU is flawless by Korea’s rigid, demure culture surrounding female celebrities. She’s never too sexy, but doesn’t have too much aegyo either. She pulls off her cute image so well, and yet never leans too far with it. IU’s unique charisma and balance of possessing cute, approachable and loveable attributes was even the basis and influence of rookie group C-Real, whom IU has personally supported. She remains relatable and girl-next-door friendly, and struck a chord with young women when her intense, very public crush on BIG BANG‘s Taeyang was outed and displayed in numerous TV shows. Her reactions were very adorkable – who wouldn’t act the same way, right? IU’s even given away Korean rice cakes to her high school’s senior class fervently studying their college entrance exams as a gesture of good luck. Awwww! She’s young, energetic, talented, and backed by a wonderful label who (wisely) focuses on showing off her strong, clear, emotion filled voice as a solo artist rather than hide her skills in a random girl group. No, I’m not saying K-pop groups are bad – quite the contrary. But feeding off of Chloe’s recent article about the slow demise of solo artists, seeing one like IU who flourishes as one is refreshing and helps her stand out as an anomaly, albeit a very good one. 

While it seems like she’s been around forever due to her constant public appearances, IU Is actually a relatively new artist. She officially debuted in 2008, but it wasn’t until her single “Boo” in 2009 that catapulted her into super stardom overnight. The next few whirlwind years had her sing the theme songs for multiple dramas and TV shows, record collaborations with other famous idols, score tons of music awards, at least five separate company endorsements, countless fashion shoots, and even some fun covers of other popular K-pop songs. You’d think with her packed schedule, she’s exhausted and possibly cursing her new-found celebrity status. Yet, she’s still able to put on a happy face for her fans, and shines brighter than any solo artist out there.

Even with the few controversies that’s surrounded her career, she still ends up arising from the ashes as innocent as ever:

  • In January 2011, Dream High’s theme song “Someday”, sung by IU and written by Park Jin-young, was struck with accusations of plagiarism. The song in question was “To My Man”, a little known ballad by Ash, which was released in 2005. The choruses sound very similar.  The result? JYP was sued for about $105,000, and IU was left untouched. After all, it wasn’t her fault! Funny, Hyori only sang the songs on her 4th album too, yet she got absolutely bitchslapped for it.
  • In April 2011, a minor rumor about her being rude and arrogant in reality was quickly shut down by IU herself. She explained that because her speaking and singing voice were drastically different in tone, she sounds angry or indifferent when speaking in interviews. IU has also been accused of not showing her music seniors proper respect by not doing a full bow when greeting. She explained that she’s a naturally shy person, and not many people at the time were aware of her celebrity status. Said seniors never acknowledged her at all, hence her awkward bows and rushing away. She naturally apologized for the rift and continues to sparkle regardless.
  • In May 2011, a photo of IU with a plastic surgeon was leaked online. Traditionally, idols and celebrities who get work done by a doctor take a picture with them as well if they have sponsorships. Naturally, people thought IU received secret jaw surgery, but it was clarified to just be a routine skin care procedure, and she graciously took the picture as any good little sister would.
  • In September 2011, IU announced that she wasn’t going to continue her higher education for the moment, and would instead focus on her fledgling music career. In Korea, education’s a pretty big deal, so this naturally garnered a few eyebrow raises and frowns. What ever happened of it? Nothing much – her fans and netizens accepted her choice, saying it was smart of her to do so. She’s still so young and obviously has the talent to make it, plus her career’s just getting started – she can go back to college any time! It also helps that literally any Ivy League there would accept her without hesitation. Even with those tempting offers, IU said that she’d rather get in through her own volition, not due to her star status.

Regardless of these minor shadows, IU is still the reigning queen of innocence and can simply do no wrong. Has anyone worked as hard as she, given the pressures of constantly being pushed into the limelight? Nevertheless, she’s growing up, and fans are noticing. Will her late November 2011 comeback show this older, mature side of the nation’s dongsaeng? Don’t forget, she’s also going to be debuting in Japan next month – looks like her schedule’s still as busy as ever! Will IU coast by the rest of this year with flying colors? How about 2012? Hey, even the equally pristine Taylor Swift is still flashing that million dollar grin among her recent fake nude photo scandal. I guess with some idols, you just can’t beat perfection.

My only question is: why doesn’t she have her own fan group by now?

(Nate, Nate, Naver, Yahoo! Korea, Nate, Naver)

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  • http://colourmesplendid.wordpress.com Ree

    I always thought of IU as like the ‘Taylow Swift’ of South Korea– they both give of that same, relatable image. And isn’t what people love about them the same? They’re the girls next door, who sing with heart, and strum a guitar.

    But, I haven’t really loved any of her tracks since ‘Missing Child’, I feel like in terms of promoted material she’s gone downhill. So I can’t correlate her fame with her music, not that she can’t produce good music, or that she isn’t talented, but the music she’s hitting home with isn’t very deserving of popularity. Either way, she’s young, cute, sweet, a surprisingly good actress, a endearing MC, and a fantastic singer. How can I not love her? 

    • Hate Or Aide?

      I think the image of IU “might” be akin to Tay-Swifty, but IU reminds me a whole lot more of Taeyeon. They have similar personalities and judging from how popular the dorky leader is, there is no question IU is seen in the same light or greater.

      IU needs complete control of her singing career to be compared to Taylor Swift. Taylor Swift is loved by a lot of adolescent, teenage girls because Taylor Swift relates to her fans through her lyrics.

      IU can definitely “become” Swift if she writes a song or songs about her relationship with Wooyoung, lol…

      I think that she had to sell out her original, very unique image to become popular. She is now just another cute girl who can strum the guitar. Universal fans love her because she reminds them of a friend or daughter who hasn’t had any missteps yet.

      Surely, down the road, she can fall in the pittfalls that have befallen a lot of idols, but she’s on track to be better.

      I’m not sure that she’ll ever be as popular as most people are expecting her to be, but she can definitely carve out a history of her own.

  • aqsgirl

    I discovered IU during DBSK’s Mirotic comeback period, when she was an awkward 15 year old ballad singer.  The sight of a very cute looking face singing a sad song about a lover who passed away was both intriguing and jarring. But she disappeared pretty quickly, lost in the sea of idol groups debuting and making a comeback in late 2008. 

    I saw her gain popularity slowly until Good Day came out, but I’ve never thought that IU was a perfect idol. She wasn’t popular for a couple of years b/c she didn’t have the required variety show idol personality, with its emphasis on impersonations, dancing, and telling stories.  Even now, she sucks at variety shows.
     
    But I loved the unpopular IU that appeared on radio and music shows like Sketchbook, who sang so many beautiful covers while playing her guitar, b/c I felt like she was growing as a musician, not an idol. 
    This past year is the first time I really saw her as an idol, and I just hope IU will go back to emphasizing her music, rather than her image.  Popularity built on a cute image falls quickly, but good music is a legacy that will last a lifetime.  Interestingly enough, I feel like both JYJ and IU, my two favorite kpop groups, are trying to blur the line between artist and idol.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jane-Kim/100003098287400 Jane Kim

      more of them want to see pictures and stories? Accordance with the
      http://www.enewsworld.com/

  • Anonymous

    I totally agree! I always thought of IU as the Taylor Swift of Korea too. They’re the girls next door; they’re friendly and relatable and nice to everyone. They’re cute, but in a very comfortable type way. You just want to be best friends with them.

    I like both of them, but I’m not a huge fan because… well, because of WHAT they are. They’re the GIRLS next door. I feel like they’re pushed into this sort of eternal child-like image and there’s a slight air of insincerity to it. Taylor has released many, many songs and albums but she still seems to be singing about the same thing. And I think IU is the same way. I really want to see them mature. I love that the girl-next-door image catapulted them to fame, but I think it’d be really interesting to see if they could still be loved by the masses if they presented a more mature image of themselves. You can still be the universal bestfriend without having to seem like the cute little girl that lives next door.

    But don’t get me wrong! I really really like both of them. I can see why South Korea is absolutely in love with IU. She’s so damn loveable :)

    And we both fangirl over Taeyang so… She has good taste :P

  • Anonymous

    I liked her first mini album compared to anything she’s released after. I guess she’s had to sacrifice that type of music for a more cuter image so that she can be more mainstream. I’m not blaiming her for her choice, afterall, she’s gotten so popular and is now so well loved. I’m just hoping that one day she’ll go back to that music. I felt it was more raw, emotional and beautiful.

  • http://twitter.com/MonicaDBSK Monica

    I’m really glad I decided to look up more on IU a while back. I watched her on Dream high and loved her guitar performances on variety shows but I never liked any of her promotional songs (except for her debut song). Then I looked into most of her old mini-albums and ended up with a bunch of her filler songs in my ipod. Actually some of her songs in the Good Day album were good too. Most of her songs that I have in my ipod are those laidback acoustic-y sounding songs that suits my taste in music.

  • Anonymous

    IU can do no wrong with the talent she has and her personality. I expect her to be more bigger in later years but I just hope she keeps doing what she’s doing and she grows maturely in music and personally. With all the fame and recognition i also hope she doesn’t sway off to something different than she is. 

  • Guest

    her crush on taeyang is the cutest, most adorable thing ever and it’s still going strong. it’s also nice to see a female soloist consistently topping the charts with non-ost music. but i do feel like the quality of her music has dipped as she has gotten more popular. i prefer the young iu who was doing acoustic covers of kpop hits (iu’s sorry sorry > suju’s sorry sorry imo).

  • Anonymous

    I feel bad. The first thing that crossed my mind was “Taylor Swift was in a nude photo scandal?! How did I not know this?!?!”

  • Naia

    I didn’t know she didn’t have a fan group. Maybe that is better. She’s still successful without an official fangroup. Anyway I didn’t actually get into her singing until her most recent album, which I enjoy immensely. Then I went back to look at her older music and found only a few that I really enjoyed. I really like her and like you said it’s hard to dislike her but music wise, I don’t think her musically quality has dipped with her fame. I find it hard to like everything a group I like puts out, her music is the kind that grows on you.

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  • http://twitter.com/TigerHolland Tiger Holland

    IU is wonderful. I fell for her music after I saw some of her covers of English songs. She did a lovely version of “Put Your Records On”, and I thought she was even cooler after seeing her cover of Super Junior’s “Sorry, Sorry”. I didn’t completely love her last album, but I still completely love her, which says something about her charisma as an artist. 

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  • Anonymous

    i love her music. i can’t wait for her comeback.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jane-Kim/100003098287400 Jane Kim

    more of them want to see pictures and stories? Accordance with the
    http://www.enewsworld.com/

  • Anonymous

    she already wrote ,but you dont now that much about her so why you even comenting

  • http://www.facebook.com/haggood Sami Swan Sion

    i didn’t know IU didn’t have an official fan club?!  That’s horrible! I’d totally call her group IQs, because it’s the smartest choice you can make, or something like that. 

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