Wanna Get To Know Me

Humble thanks from us here at The Future is Idol to the massive amount of readers out there, from all over the world, that joined us during the last couple of days. Hopefully you will find your way back to us again soon and wait with anticipation for new, bolder and better posts.

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Hugs, kisses, K-pop and queer.

The Future is Idol – L

BOOM BOOM BOOM like it like it – a 4MINUTE fanbash in Stockholm

Stockholm, Sunday 25th of May 2014, election day for the European parliament amongst other.

Steaming summer outside and steaming anticipation inside the concert venue (and an increasingly hot humidity due to broken A/C). We, a group of ten friends that met up at my place a couple of hours earlier to have some drinks, listen to music and watch MVs to get in the right mode (4MINUTE-mode), were finally there.

It was a rather surreal feeling riding the Stockholm Metro, to get off and walk down the sloping street towards the concert venue in a city so familiar, towards something not so familiar in Stockholm at all. To stand in line for K-pop in Seoul or Paris I have done. But this is Stockholm, not such a usual thing…

We were kind of late but so was the show as well. The line moved quickly and suddenly we were inside. I have been to this place many times before, for clubs and concerts. To be here now with the agenda to see one of my favourite K-pop acts felt kinda strange. As me and my friends made way through the packed, hot concert hall to find the best spot in front of the stage I could still not actually understand what we were about to experience. Not until the lights were turned off and the music, a remix version of Whats Your Name, blasted through us all I started realizing that 4MINUTE was actually about to perform in Stockholm that evening. This is the remix versions they performed:

I didn’t want to have any expectations at all for this event. Also, I have not been that in to K-pop at all lately. My interest have been fading as I have gotten other things to think about and the K-pop scene of lately has felt a little bit… blank. The outlook of getting really disappointed by this historical event hung over me as a dark cloud many weeks in advance.

There was absolutely no reason for worry though.

They gave it all.

After a similar showcase in Barelona a couple of nights earlier, the five members of 4MINUTE entered the stage looking super-relaxed and like they really enjoyed it.  It was an instant atmosphere of party that lasted through out the evening. There is of course a reason for this being one of my favourite groups. They are super cool and could pass for hard as stone. Cute is not what primarily sells them and sometimes they almost have an angry feel to their music. But with no language in common with the audience, the group made their best efforts communicating anyways and they felt really warm. Som lines and words in English, an interpreter on stage during the breaks and a few words in Swedish (Sohyun made the crowd go crazy as she shouted TJENA! (hi!) over and over again). It felt like these five women were quite moved with the responses they got from Stockholm. The constant sing alongs, roars and atmosphere that came from of a crowd consisting of women and men in different ages from not only Sweden but actually from all over Europe could not be mistaken for anything else but love. As the members asked if there were people from other countries than Sweden present they got Norway, Finland, Denmark, Poland and Germany and more as reply. It then felt like they might have been able to fill one or two shows more in Europe somewhere, not just Barcelona and Stockholm.

As earlier said, all five of the members put on an excellent show but actually Hyuna stood out a bit with her super-energy and focus, together with Sohyun who was extremly happy and shouted words in English and Swedish over and over again as she constantly interacted with the audience. Performing hits like Muzik, Mirror Mirror, Change, Huh and Hot Issue it sometimes felt like the floor would collapse due to the jumping crowd. Next to me during the concert stood a guy in my age (3o-ish) and looked absolutley mesmerized most of the time. Like it was the best day of his life. And I was there with him. Not strange at all those feelings and reactions, but quite logic. The group handed out water bottles, flirted, threw glow in the dark braclets far out in the audience and answered questions. The temperature was constantly rising (didn’t care at all about this though and I don’t think anyone else did either) at the venue and after repeatingly explaining how hot it was the members eventually started pouring water on each other and on the crowd. It felt like there were no boundaries for what would be allowed, and that is quite a refreshing feeling comming from a South Korean girl group, as you always expect everything around to be very restrained.

4MINUTE performed most of their hits and single releases. Here’s the set-list from the showcase (updated version AND please comment if more corrections should be done)

Whats Your Name (DJ remix ver.)

Watcha Doin Today

Muzik

Mirror Mirror

Wanna Get To Know Me

Change

24/7

Huh

Pretend

I’m OK

Come In

I’ll Teach You

Wait a Minute

Is It Poppin’ (remix)

I Love It + DJ remix

Heart To Heart

Hot Issue

What’s Your Name

As you see, there was no Volume Up nor any I My Me Mine in the set-list and that was of course a bit disappointing, but on the other hand I wanted them to go on for another hour… Although they sang a piece of it acapella during their chat with the audience.

I was anticipating the worst for this evening, just in case. But ended up happier then I thought possible. Clearly, this group is no joke. Talented, charismatic, sweet and extremely cool.

So was it all perfect? Well nothing is and there could have been better light on stage, the stage could have been bigger and sometimes the group and stage gave a messy feeling and the coreography did not present itslef perfectly during parts of the concert. But added up these are just small things in comparison.

And yes of course I bought a lightstick. Expensive but what the hell, fuckin 4MINUTE doesn’t come to Sweden every day. People might have stared at the sweaty me during the Metro-ride home and I wanted to tell them all about the brilliant evening I just had. No one asked though, so I sat there. Silent but happy.

Such awesome, and as I have written before, epic on the scale like seeing Patti Smith or Morrissey for the first time.

 

The Future is Idol – L

 

Huge thanks to Julyssa at Kpop Nonstop for the arranged concert and sending me the set-list.

K-pop Queer

Just a reminder of the ambigous queer stuf out there.

More to come

The Future is Idol – L

4MINUTE in Stockholm

I guess they are already here by now. On of the coolest K-pop groups, here in my city. 4MINUTE In Stockholm.

They were never my favourite group, but from the beginning of my K-pop fandom, I kind of trusted them to deliver something good, briliant and hilarious with every relase. Quality-cool K-pop-not ever to be ashamed of. The latest release was absolutely briliant, toilet-queer-sassy-Mv and all:

And their 2013 release, ‘이름이 뭐예요? is one of my most played K-pop tracks ever.

The 4MINUTE showcase will take place tomorrow Sunday 25 of May at Debaser Medis concert venue at Medborgarplatsen, Södermalm Stockholm. and is arranged by Kpop Nonstop.

This is seriously one of the coolest things happening in years to tell you the truth. And yes I compare this with epic concert moments like seeing Patti Smith and Morrissey for the first time. Who would have guessed back in 2009 that this would happen?

Me and my friends will meet up at my place(after voting in the European Parliament elections to make the world better and shutting racists out of the parliament),listen to music , watch MVs and have a drink to get in the right mode early Sunday afternoon. And I made a YouTube playlist with 4MINUTE as a preparation for TOMORROW.

So happy, so cool.

The Future is Idol – Lars

 

Happy Birthday to a friend on the other side of the world

It’s the birthday of one of my best friends. She was one of the first to introduce me to K-pop and for that I’m forever grateful. One day, now quite a few years ago, she posted a recently released MV on my Facebook wall, and I fell madly and deeply in love with it, the group in it and a lot of other things within the K-pop scene/world. This is the epic MV:

Since then we have experienced so much together, connected both to K-pop and to life in general. She is one of the smartest and coolest people I know. She is at the moment a resident in Seoul so I can’t be with her for this day of celebration. Elin, here’s another epic oldie for you:

Happy birthday and I love you! This changed everything.

The Future is Idol – Lars

ALIVE

Yes we are.

And we love you all (and K-pop)

The Future is Idol

Mis in Tokyo

One of the reasons that I haven’t been writing anything here for quite some time is that, well… I just moved to Tokyo, and am going to stay here until August at least.

While I am definitely physically closer to the kpop industry  operations, as well as in a totally different way than in Sweden often encountering kpop and hallyu in my daily life, I am not mentally as close to it as I usually am. I am busy exploring a very new, very physical world, and I’m having, living, an adventure. My need for escapism looks different, and my head filled with too much other stuff to also harbor a lot of kpop love and worries.

In either case, I went to Shin-Okubo (Tokyo’s Koreatown) today to have lunch with a friend. The streets were filled with hangeul, and the to me so familiar faces of various kpop idols watched me as I passed. For lunch, I had dolsot bibimbap, a really really tasty one, and awesome banchan, and the background music included Dal Shabet’s “있기 없기” and Orange Caramel’s “Lipstick”, and I felt so homely, so familiar, and yet so far away.

/Mis

Dual Life

It’s impossible to miss out on the sex, she stole the beginning of the MV from Madonna, the kitchen dance scene coreography is completely lol and random, and the track is amazing. Out of the blue comes Dual Life with long lost love Kim Sori.

Best release of 2013 so far?

So awesome

The Future is Idol

I Got a Boy – the stupidest thing

If they perhaps would have cut the first 1:35 of the song or maybe some other part of it, and changed the lyrics for the rest or something, and got another video-director, then perhaps I would have been able to really enjoy this. Because the teaser pics were really kind of awesome. But I have to tell you this is not good enough. And out of all the terrible lyrics in the world of SNSD, and I’m telling you, I’ve put up with a lot of stuff from them concerning women and men, hatred agaisnt women. This is perhaps the stupidest? WHAT IS IT EVEN SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!!!

Am I’m having it especially hard this time because it’s impossible to interpret humor in to it? Because even though it’s too much it’s not even close to enough? They could have looked cool, fierce and sexy, but they don’t even make it to cute. And don’t get me wrong, I REALLY like the I Got a Boy-part…

Read the lyrics and then watch the MV below if interested. And this comes from someone who has Genie as his alarm-signal.

Ayo! GG! Yeah Yeah, shall we start?
Gosh! Look at her, look
What happened to her that she cut her hair? huh?
Gosh! Again look at her, look!
From head to toe, her style has changed
Why did she do that? I’m curious to death
why did she do that? Tell me

Ha ha! Let me introduce myself!
Here comes trouble! Follow after me!
Oh oh oh yeah oh, oh oh yeah oh
You really are something else!

Who is she? Ridiculous
Do you know you’re too self-assertive? She thinks I’m average
Yeah, I guess she really liked him!
No way! No way!
She became so pretty and sexy, it’s because of him, right?
I almost asked her what her new makeup was

Truthfully, I’ve seen it for the first time
The deep eyes, like a scarred beast
I was dizzy by just talking to him!
You really are something else! You really are something else!

Oh ohh eh oh
(Here’s come trouble, hey girl listen!)
Oh ohh eh oh
You really are something else! (something!)
Oh ohh eh oh (Hey!)
Oh ohh eh oh (Na na na na hey!)
You really are something else!

Ayo! Stop! Let me put it down another way.

I got a boy, a handsome one! I got a boy, a kind one!
I got a boy handsome boy, who took all my heart
I got a boy, a handsome one! I got a boy, a kind one!
I got a boy awesome boy, I must have really fallen for him

Ah, my prince! When are you gonna come save me?
Will you lift me in your arms and fly, like a white dream?

I’m like, surprised, mental collapse!
He wants to see my face without makeup.
I really like him, would it be okay to show it to him?
Oh! Never! Right? Right?
Let’s keep what needs to be kept, right! right!
Don’t ever forget this until you take all of his heart!

Oh ohh eh oh, Oh ohh eh oh
Even if I stay up all night, it’s not enough, everything everything
Oh ohh eh oh, Oh ohh eh oh
Our biggest interest, everything everything

Listen to me, you all know him, right?
He’s a bit young but he’s full inside
Sometimes he is as reliable as an oppa but when he acts charming, he is so cute

Oh ohh eh oh, Oh ohh eh oh
You’re crazy, crazy
Oh ohh eh oh, Oh ohh eh oh
You’re crazy, crazy

I’m really angry, my boy doesn’t look at me as a girl
What should I do when I feel hopeless?
Should I make him feel jealous? I’m so upset! What do I do?
No way! No way!

Don’t stop! Let’s bring it back to 140

I got a boy, a handsome one! I got a boy, a kind one!
I got a boy handsome boy, who took all my heart
I got a boy, a handsome one! I got a boy, a kind one!
I got a boy awesome boy, I must have really fallen for him

Always next to me, it’s you, who’s on my side and listens to me
You oh oh oh oh~ you oh oh oh oh~
I’m happy as it is right now, cause everything will work

I got a boy, a handsome one! I got a boy, a kind one!
I got a boy handsome boy, who took all my heart
I got a boy, a handsome one! I got a boy, a kind one!
I got a boy awesome boy, I must have really fallen for him (x2)

I got a boy, a handsome one!

God I really wanted this to be awesome. 😦 Gonna love them still though

The Future is Idol – L

(and thanks to Johanna and Danni for talking to me on this matter)

Lyrics from http://www.kpoplyrics.net/snsd-i-got-a-boy-lyrics-english-romanized.html#ixzz2HJi19Kha

Sunday Evening Angst

I am going back to work tomorrow after a rather long vacation and the feeling is perhaps not the greatest. When you are gloomy as I have been for parts of this evening and the Sunday angst is spreading, it happens week after week for me, you can always have a chat with a friend and listen to your favourite tracks and get some strength back out of it. Thats what I did.

The Future is Idol  – L