It was Chuseok this past week in South Korea, so here’s a few things that happened this last week in the K-popiverse to be thankful for.

  • 20130908_seoulbeats_gdragon17It seems as if more than a few US journalists are willing to be a part of G-Dragon‘s ‘Revolution.’  Within the past couple of weeks, articles about GD from various news sources have popped up highlighting his career and the advancement of K-pop into the US–really guys we’ve known about it for years.  If you’re interested in joining the GD revolution, check out Complex.com‘s week long ode to GD, Noisey Music by Vice‘s dissertation of K-pop’s advancement into the west with GD leading the way and the New York Times‘ article of how the sum of all of G-Dragon’s talented parts could in fact one day be greater than GD himself.
  • 20130921_seoulbeats_jisung_leeboyoungActors Ji Sung and Lee Bo-young released pics from their wedding photo shoot in Spain for Grazia magazine.  They’ll be finally getting married next week on September 17th at the W Seoul Walkerhill Hotel in Seoul. (SNSCNBC)
  • JYP‘s latest release “Had Enough Parties” seems all the more appropriate now. In a tweet to fans Park Jin-young revealed that the song “You’re the One” was ‘inspired’ by a friend 9 years his junior who leads a non-celebrity life who he will be marrying on October 10th. (ChosunBiz)
  • Looks like the K-popiverse can expect some rain soon as Jung Ji-hoon (aka Bi, Rain) has officially signed with Cube DC, a branch of Cube Entertainment. Coincidentally, Cube Entertainment is following the big boys by collaborating with iHQ (parent company of Sidus HQ) in diversifying and expanding its presence in the Korean entertainment and global music industries. (SBSCNBC, SSTV)
  • 2PM‘s Taecyeon is becoming quite the entrepreneur. He created an Okcat cartoon character in random drawings and would sometimes also include an Okcat pic when giving an autograph.  Okcat took on a life of its own and now Taec has created Okcat emoticons available for purchase on Kakao Talk and there will be more Okcat products to come. (Star MBN, Newsen)

In K-pop:

  • The Electroboyz made a come back with “Let it Rain,” Lee Na-rae croons “Raining in Amsterdam,” Bizniz made a comeback with “Get it Wet” featuring Mighty Mouth‘s Shorry J, Ailee released the ballad “Higher” featuring pianist Yiruma, and the group What Women Want debut with the song “Curious” with the help of Brown Eyed Soul‘s Jung Yup, female vocalist A.T. released a fun MV for her song “Don’t Be” with the help of the Geeks.

 

  • JYJ released the MV for the song “Only You” for the 2014 Incheon Asia Games

  • Core Contents Media (CCM) continues the vanilla promotions for F-VE Dolls with the release of the MV for their next release “You Cheated.” I don’t know if there were budget issues, but can’t think of any other reason for having the six girls in those sweaters with jumpers on a bench for the whole MV.  They have also released a second version of “Can You Love Me” which looks almost exactly like the first. If anything CCM at least made good MVs, but these have to be the most boringly bland ones they have ever made.

  • Are your ready for BLOCKtober? Just in case you aren’t, the reborn Block B will pre-release the song “Be a Light” on September 23rd and have already released a teaser for the MV, Busker Busker announced their long awaited return with a cool old school video game style teaser that shows the passage of time from their hit debut album Cherry Blossom Ending to their second album which will drop on September 25th.

  • 2AM‘s Seulong released the song “Summer Night” with the help of Epitone Project, 15&‘s Park Ji-min did a cover of Ke$ha‘s “Tik Tok” and Lunafly did a cover of Chris Brown‘s “With You.”
  • Rookies BTS continue to impress as they released a behind-the-scenes video of their “N.O” dance practice and appeared on an episode of Loen Entertainemnt’s I’M (Introducing Myself) in which they conducted a freestyle rap interview of each other to introduce all the members.

 

In Kdramas:

  • 20130803_seoulbeats_whoareyouThis week hailed the ending of Taec and So Yi-hyun‘s Who Are You. I was really excited about the drama after the first two episodes because the drama had a solid start.  It kind of fell apart a little after that as the story became a bit predictable and the acting of Taec and So Yi-hyun was a bit weak at times, but I still enjoyed the drama.  It did well though and will be exported to 33 countries. (eDaily)
  • The Hong Sister‘s hit horror dramedy the Master’s Sun would have a 1 episode extension since SBS preempted Wednesday’s time slot for Chuseok programming.  I’m sure it being the K-drama with the highest viewer ratings right now had nothing to do with it. And the children’s book featured in the drama has just had a surge in sales catapulting it into the Top 10 Best Sellers list at #9 in South Korea (FNNews, ReadersNews)
  • As we get closer to October, we get closer to the onslaught of new K-dramas set to debut in October and steal away all our waking hours.  Reply 1994 has already released three teasers and they’re already bringing back the 90s feel with Magic Eye books?!  Also releasing teasers were Medical Top Team and the one that may rule them all… Heirs whose teaser was played at the end of episode 13 of Master’s Sun.

 

In K-varieties:

This week in K-variety is all about Chuseok, the Autumn Festival also known as the Korean Thanksgiving.  So don’t miss out on all your fave artists’ Chuseok greetings, special programming and all the idol challenges! Here’s Exo‘s D.O. Chanyeol, Chen and Lay sending “All My Loving” as they channel The Beatles in SBS’ Star Face Off.

And VIXX just being a little bit too wonderful and hot as the Wonder Girls.

(Starship Entertainment; YouTube [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7])