forever 2ne1

so.. one summer night, it was late, maybe 1am, 2am.. the nocturnal owl, decided to flip some channels on his lacking-lots-of-good-channels dish network.

and suddenly CHANNEL 652 popped up.

intrigued with "KBS" and lots of .. odd, asian-dubbed titled shows.. the boy was interested.

suddenly, with one press of a button, a brand new world opened up.

a world that put competition at a pedestal, where talent, appearance, dance, and a lyrical beat mattered most. where music was the most important thing in the world -- musical artists would perform twice or three times live in front of their obsessed fanboys and fangirls.. every single week. and this would go on for months and months.

this was a world the boy was interested in. and so it began...

***

anyways, i've recently become ADDICTED to korean music. k-pop for short, but basically it's the greatest thing ever. in fact, it's sort of revitalized my love for music.. my passion for performing again. korean music is amazing not only because it sounds good, but korea focuses so much on how the group of singers SING, LOOK, AND DANCE. you seriously have to have at least 2 of those 3 to even be considered to have a chance in the korean business.

and they're so competitive. two to three competitions that go on weekly, where groups and singers just perform hoping to sell more records, and get the recognition that they truly deserve. it's great.

one musical group in particular has seriously revived my love for music, and my desire and want to become a performer.. a star...

this group is known as 2NE1. composed of four korean girls from YG entertainment, these girls are the definition of "CHARISMA." now, although korea is great with their music biz, they also have golden standards to meet in terms of appearance. girls must have long, slender legs, and guys must be pretty buff and nice looking. plastic surgery is almost always a must if you want to make it in the music world.

but 2ne1... no, that's not how they go. instead.. they make it through TALENT. through CHARISMA. through the pure joy of wanting to perform, and entertain, and be true musicians. new rookies this year, they debuted in may, and finally came out with their "breakout song" in july -- i don't care -- current song on the playlist right now, you're probably listening to it right now.

this song has won #1 FIVE weeks running on music bank (one of the weekly competitions) and that's a record for a novice group. continuing their feats, they've beasted the M chart (triple crown -- which means they're ineligible to win again.. since they did so well with their first official single) and inkigayo performances. basically, these girls are beasts, and each and every performance, you can see why. yeah, they're beautiful -- they're not up to korea's golden standard, but they're still gorgeous, but they all have this aura of the joy of performing, and wanting to sing and dance, and it just touches me every single time they win.

they're amazing. amazing. amazing. korea's amazing.

and i can't wait to be there too.