Summer is the perfect time to find your first love–school is out, the weather is great and fun is to be had. Now you might be thinking how a half-naked picture of Kim Hyun-joong relates to first love? Well, he was my K-pop first love–and these teaser pics for his come back album Round 3, which will be released on July 22nd and feature Jay Park and DOK2, reminds me of why I fell in love with K-pop in the first place.

  • 20120628_seoulbeats_tara_ahreumCore Contents Media posted a video of Ahreum in which she said that she would be leaving T-ara and pursuing solo activities. Of course with the group still being on the bad side of most netizens, this announcement was met with much speculation and a new round of ridiculous and vicious rumors.  To make matters worse CCM also announced news that they would be adding and/or reshuffling members of  The SeeYa, 5Dolls, and Speed.  CCM just never learns–they really shouldn’t mess with their groups–especially like with Speed who were doing so good after their debut.
  • C-JeS publicly called out LOEN for reneging on its agreement to promote JYJ‘s Junsu, aka Xia’s newest release offline (they were going to continue online promotions, they kissed and made up, probably due to the influx of complaints by JYJ fans, so expect to see his live showcase on Melon on 7/15.
  • Newly wed trot singer Jang Yoon-jung‘s family troubles surfaced again as the singer’s mom announced that she is suing the CEO of her daughter’s agency for 700 million won with claims that she lent the agency money from the singer and was never paid back. She’s also suing her daughter for defamation for saying that she (the mom) and her older brother squandered all of her earnings for the past 10 years.  Mo’ money, mo’ problems. (enews24)

In K-pop:

  • Congratulations go out to Dynamic Duo who won their first ever music show win after 14 years with their newest song “BAAAM on this week’s MBC Music‘s Show Champion. The winning didn’t end there as the duo went on to win #1 on Mnet‘s M! Countdown and KBS’ Music Bank MBC’s Show! Music Core. Inkigayo, anyone? (SportsSeoul)
  • Rain was released from his military as scheduled on July 10th, now to repair all the damage his military service escapades did to his image. (The Wall Street Journal)
  • Jay Park released “I Like 2 Party,” A-Jax made an “Insane” come back, Stellar made a comeback after 20 months and asked you to “Please Study“… no comment, and Sunnyside made a comeback with their “First Love” featuring Song Ha-ye who was a part of the group YouU who were contestants on K-pop Star2.

 

  • Rude Paper released the reggae jam “Fight Like The Lion” and the Geeks released the MV for their song “Fly” which showcases some of the promotions they have done for their newest album Backpack.

 

  •  Untouchable finally made a comeback after completing their military service with “Call Me,” which is a nice summer jam.

 

  • K-pop’s newest diva, Ailee made a comeback trying to blow away “U&I” with her power vocals.

  • New girl group BESTie debuted with the song “Pitapat,” The Voice Korea‘s season 1 winner Son Seung-yeon released “It’s Not Crazy” featuring MC Sniper,  another new girl group Turan debuted with “Bang Bang Bang” and I really should have known to stop watching the MV from the opening sequence.
  • Rookies 2EYES released the drama version of their debut song “Don’t Mess With Me,” starring hot young actor Kim Woo-bin–I’m thinking they should have spent the extra money on a better choreographer, A Pink released the dance version of their new song “NoNoNo,” Dynamic Duo also released a dance version of their new hit “BAAAM,” Lunafly released a fancentric MV for the English version of their song “What’s Your Name” and Lim Kim released a new MV for a re-mixed version of “All Right.”
  • On July 9th, Teen Top celebrated their 3rd anniversary.  They uploaded videos on their YouTube channel showing them eating cake and doing a reaction video to the MV for their song “Clap.”

 

In K-drama:

  •  I Hear Your Voice continues its climb in the ratings surpassing the 20% mark this week.  It has also been announced that the drama has been extended by 2 episodes making it 18 episodes long and prolonging its run by one week.
  • On the latest episode of Monstar, Superstar K‘s Jung Joon-young, Lim Kim and Kim Tae-hyun of the DickPunks made a cameo appearance as the high school versions of Min Se-yi‘s parents and the mysterious ajusshi.  They performed the song “Someday” by the Departures in the episode.
  • Many upcoming dramas recently released teasers including actress So Yi-hyun and 2PM‘s Taecyeon‘s Who Are You?, JTBC‘s Her Legend, Joo-won’s Good Doctor and the Hong Sister‘s Master’s Sun.

 

  • Awesome child star Yeo Jin-gu has signed on for his first sitcom on tvN’s Potato-Shaped Sweet Potato Star 2013QR3—yeah, I hope they change the title. The drama will air Monday-Thursday beginning the end of September and will have 120 episodes. Uh, that’s like a 100 episodes too long for me.  Julien Kang is also in talks to take a role in the drama.
  • ZE:A‘s Hyung-sik is in demand in the K-drama community.  News recently broke that he might have to turn down a role in the Hong Sister‘s new drama Master’s Sun due to a conflict in schedule with ZE:A’s comeback, but now it’s said that he was offered a role in the upcoming Lee Min-ho drama Heirs.  Love the Hong Sisters, but go with Heirs!  Also confirmed to be joining the cast of Heirs, Kang Ha-neul who is currently co-starring in Monstar.
  • Shin Seung-hoon sang “Words You Can’t Hear” for the I Hear Your Voice OST and the MV for BTOB and Jun-hyung‘s song “First Love” from the OST for Monstar has been released and features scenes from the drama.

 

In K-variety:

  • 20130713_seoulbeats_exoDid everyone see Exo on this week’s Weekly Idol?  It was definitely one not to miss.
  • BEAST‘s Yoseob, Kikwang and Dongwoon will be appearing on Happy Together 3 as part of the promotions for the release of their new album Hard to Love, How to Love which will be released on July 19th.
  • 2NE1 will return to variety via Running Man for their “Falling in Love” promotions.  It was reported that all four members will participate in filming for the show next week and the episode will air later in the month.  In other variety news, YG Entertainment released a teaser vid for the new show Double Park TV featuring the unnies of 2NE1,  Dara and Bom. They have formed a promotion team and will be communicating directly with fans.  The show is a no holds barred–meaning it will be a single take show–no reshoots or NGs.  This could possible be really funny. (wowstar, YG-Life)

  • Mnet America is looking for diehard K-pop fans to star in a new reality show for their channel.  The show will document these fans lives and will culminate in a trip to KCON 2013 in August.  If you’re interested, get more info here, but you gotta act fast because the are only accepting submissions until July 19th!

(KeyEast; CCM; YouTube [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7]; SMTown)