At the beginning of this year and going through all the way until recently, there had been a slew of new girl-groups debuting in the k-pop world. As adorable or sexy as they all are, the fandom was beginning to get just a liiiittle tired of seeing girls, girls, girls. This was worsened by the fact that the boy-bands that were available for fangirling began to go through scandals one by one, making the boy-band fandom a rather unhappy one all around.
Things started to pick up as word of new bands came around; first, YJ entertainment decided to give us SHU-I with their track 'Bomb Bomb Bomb', who I did a
brief write-up about, and the general consensus on them seemed to be that they'd need to do a little more to get people's attention but that they were on the right track, and with the lack of new bands they were happy to give them a go, since it was
something.
Teasers for
BEAST--then known as B2ST--had been circulating for a while due to the documentary leading up to their debut (now being subtitled by
b2stlysubs). The band was interesting because it involved a lot of boys who had already been part of other projects before, such as Hyun Seung who worked hard to be a part of Big Bang, but didn't make the final cut. Fans of the individual boys were already on board, and the group was beginning to look mighty promising.
Then news of
MBLAQ appeared. It seemed Rain had decided to produce his own boy-group, and this news was received with some amusement at first, but it soon became easy to get excited--after all, it was Rain in charge, these guys were going to able to dance like WHOA. The teaser pics we got first were a bit...
sparkly, and the reactions were mixed between 'LOL' and 'HOT'. Oh, and 'LOOK AT THE PORN-STACHE GUY'.
Both BEAST (who had changed their name from the original 'B2ST') and MBLAQ moved fast, though, while SHU-I stayed in one place, with only one song (they also had 'Please Help Me' but haven't yet promoted it, which is a shame because it's much better than Bomb Bomb Bomb). As much as I wanted to support SHU-I, I was quickly getting distracted by the new groups. BEAST released not just
one, but
two album teasers, both of which were
FIERCE, while MBLAQ opened for Rain's concert and released their MV for their title track 'Oh, Yeah' super fast. BEAST soon-after released an MV for their album's title song 'Bad Girl' and both bands were enthusiastically received by the fangirls starving for some sexy male newbies in the industry.
So which of the two bands that debuted around the same time is better?
Well, let me throw my own little personal opinion out into the world-wide-interweebz.
BEAST/B2ST
L-R: Doo Joon, Dong Woon, Yo Seob, Ki Kwang, Hyun Seung and Jun Hyeong I was on team BEAST from the get-go; I kind of felt I had to be, since I'd watched member Hyun Seung in the Big Bang documentary. Plus, the boys looked great and their teasers showed an awesome bad-boy street style which is what I originally loved about Big Bang as well. I eagerly anticipated their first full length song, especially after the second teaser they released which showed some awesome dancing skills.
But then... they came out with '
Bad Girl'. Don't get me wrong. It's a great song, it's very catchy, but it isn't at all what I wanted, and sadly neither was the rest of their album. Again; they were fun songs... but 'fun' was not what I was after. They seem to be pursuing a bizarre 2PM and Big Bang mix, and the hard-hitting intensity of the teasers melted away into typical boy-band pop. I like them enough to keep them on my MP3 player and I get the feeling I will be fangirling individual members (Yo Seob is bloody adorable and Doo Joon is just UNF--and together they make
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dooseob , don't ask me why but it WORKS AHH). But ehh... I'd like to see them pursue the street-style hip-hop more D: The boys also seem very 'young'. There's something about their image, or the way they dance or
something that I can't put my finger on... it's kind of like the problem I have with Big Bang and 2PM; they're around the same ages but 2PM actually seem a lot younger to me, I don't know why. With BEAST for some reason that bothers me, I was hoping they'd pursue a more mature look.
MBLAQ
L-R: Cheon Dung (aka Thunder), Mir, Seung Ho, G.O and Joon Then there's MBLAQ. Excited for and focused on BEAST, I wasn't paying a great deal of attention to them at first, beyond the point of responding with 'lol, Rain'. When their MV was released though, I was happy to sit back and watch it.
My initial reaction to '
Oh, Yeah' was something along the lines of o_O; since it was so different to the electro-pop k-pop bands had been churning out recently. I found the Spanish guitars in the song weird at first, but the more I listened to it, the more I LIKED the fact it was different. The repetitiveness of the song annoyed me a little after a few listens as well, though, so I can't listen to the MP3 for too long, but funnily enough it's just FINE when I'm watching
a performance of it 8D these guys are HOT. They're dancing is HOT. Their singing is HOT. ASJFHJFAHDSAJK. Joon's smile is adorable, leader SeungHo is bad-ass, little Thunder is a cutie, rapper Mir is awesome when he's doin' his thing and adorable when he's behind the scenes, and once G.O takes off the stupid aviator sunglasses he always wears, I'm totally his.
I like both of the new rookie groups, but I'll be keeping a close watch on MBLAQ. Whenever Inki or MuCore are on I'm still happy to watch BEAST, but I'm preeeeetty sure I'm on the MBLAQ bandwagon. With only three songs out on a single cd, they have to catch up to BEAST who already have a mini-album, but I hope they're totally going to pwn the music industry.
MBLAQ fighting~
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bouncy
excited
pleased
SKAGSHGS
enthralled
awake
bored
fangirly~
frustrated
sad
chipper
content
blank
giggly
peaceful
listless
