After what seems like my week vacation (while Michelle took over the reigns of the weekly update), I realised how much I enjoyed writing these up. And I hope that you guys do enjoy them. With a thanks to Michelle, lets go ahead with this weeks news.

The Legend is Here.

And it’s damn good he is. Musical God Seo TaiJi has made his comeback sooner than expected and we are not complaining. He dropped his album earlier this week and unsurprisingly it’s been selling like hotcakes. Let me be honest for a sec here and tell you how I reacted to the news, I fangirled when I heard he was coming back sooner, I fangirled when the teaser started, and I super fangirled when I heard his voice again. Funnily enough I am no fangirl, but you guys need to know how awesome this man is. He didnt just pave the way with pretty bricks for this generations biggest creative singers but he also planted flowers and added shrubbery. His impact breathed life and enriched the soils of the K-Music industry, as his single “Moai” sold an astounding 37,408 copies on the first day of release. (thats not even including preorders and illegal downloads throughout the week ). This breaks Brown Eyes record in June, that shook up the industry itself, (they only sold 15,000). This is more significant as it is a single album (commonly known as mini-album), as opposed to Brown Eyes’s full studio album. How is that for you? Seo TaiJis re-introduction in to the Music Biz, breathes life in to it and makes things more exciting! Bring it on.

Check out the super awesome MV teaser, that he shot on Easter Island:

Held Up Due to Heavy Rain

Is apparently the reason why Big Bang is not back. They were originally scheduled to release their MV and mini-album on August 1st. But, due to the downpour their MV filming had to be delayed as they are filming outdoors. They have set both their album and MV release for the novel date 08.08.08, those dates over the years are usually left for gimmicks and marriages (I prefer the date 11.11.11 wait for my album then). Oh right and on the day of the Olympics, I’m anticipating the release as the teaser was entertaining and the words “stand up stand up wake wake up” have been ringing through my head ever since I heard it. I like these boys more now since they also mentioned that they regard Seo Taiji as “the best of the best”. Oh little Big Bang you are after noonas heart. <3

Malaysia and MTV go hand in hand

Huzzah! All thirteen! I counted it three times!

Hello to all the Malaysians first of all. Last week Malaysia were hosts to the 2008 MTV Asia Awards. Where the 4 nominees for Best Korean Artist were Big Bang, SNSD, Super Junior and Wonder Girls (in alphabetical order). Super Junior won that night and a big Congratulations to them! To those that didnt win, it’s an honour to just be nominated. And for Super Junior I was expecting an “You like me, *in between sobs* You REALLY like me” acceptance speech, ah well, maybe next time.

It pays to be pretty

No it really does. When formerly faceless star Zia revealed her entire face on Music Bank last week, people went nutso. Let me refresh your minds about Zia, when it took so long for her to show her face, netizens went around labelling her as “ugly” and “fat”. This naturally made the poor girl upset and took a little time off from the Biz. Netizens dont seem to remember that the faceless singer technique is tried and tested in Show Business and has been successful for some, you don’t just hide your face cos your ugly. O_O They have paperbags for that. Anyhow, Zia performed, people liked what they saw, she was the number 1 on the searchlist and her album sales increased to 1000 per day from a previous daily high record of 500-600 orders. Being pretty really does pay. Wow how shallow.

Here’s the performance that converted those non-believers:

SBS is powermad and reckless

I love the running man, he’s almost mocking

As international fans its hard not to notice the latest crackdown on Korean Entertainment videos on Youtube. The most popular users have been suspended and videos have been deleted. SBS is behind it. They allied with youtube to delete any SBS videos due to copyright. Funnily enough, SBS can dish it out but they cant take it. Not too long after that, they were hit with a copyright violation themselves. How’s that for ha-ha worthy? They stupidly leaked a video of the Chinese Olympics Opening Ceremony Rehearsals on their channel. I don’t understand why they would do such a thing as I’m pretty sure they were told explicitly to keep ‘mum‘, but alas what goes around does come around my powermad friends. Ironically that very segment was put up on youtube and deleted due to copyright infringement. What do netizens say again, oh yes, LOL.

BoA returning to Korea?

We covered not too long ago a case of two concerts being held on the same night. It was unclear to some the true purpose of the comparison, but nevertheless it was relevant. Now it seems that poor SM is suffering and had to pull BoA out of Japan to increase ticket sales of his SMTOWNLIVE ‘08. We never knew it was that dire a situation SM, perhaps the ticketsales were actually lower? BoA fans are complaining as to the real reason why she couldnt perform in the first place. She was scheduled for the Chinese performances and not the Seoul performance. it was thought it was due to schedule problems but now people are thinking otherwise. Not our problem…..

Davichi are Vitchin’!

Yeah, that’s really them, I just loved the picture.

These girls are undoubtedly talented. And their efforts are finally paying off. Ok, the ex-ulzzhang needs to work a little more on her vocals, but they have a lot of decent and excpetional music out there. Davichi are also quite the performers, they beat out so much great competition to hit the number 1 spot. Their first and most significant in my opinion (if my memory serves me right). They beat out competition from killer balladeer Sunbaenims Brown Eyes, and awesomeness Sunbaenim Uhm JungHwa. Well done girls, count me as a supporter!

Here is also the weeks top 10 from good ol’ Edward1849 of Soompi.
Weekly Music Chart – 1st Week – August
1. Davichi – 사랑과 전쟁 (Love and War)
2. Uhm Jung Hwa (feat. T.O.P) – D.I.S.C.O
3. Brown Eyes – 가지마 가지마 (Don’t Leave Don’t Leave)
4. Shinee – 누난 너무 예뻐 (Noona’s Pretty (Replay)
5. Wonder Girls – So Hot
6. Mighty Mouth (feat. Sun Ye) – 에너지 (Energy)
7. Sung Shi Kyung – 안녕 나의 사랑 (Goodbye My Love)
8. Alex – 그대라면 (If It’s You)
9. Lee Hyori – U-Go-Girl
10.Super Junior Happy – 요리왕 (Cooking? Cooking!)

And also, awesome rocker, Host and all round great guy Yoon DoHyun, is going to start an English Radio Program with KBS.

For more news just head over to our forums. Check out exclusive celeb photos and videos by becoming an SYP member >>>
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Full Credit When Posted Elsewhere
Source: Youtube, Soompi, Empas
Credit for ShenYuePop.com: noonoo_shoo
SYP Forums list full credits.

Back again this week with an update on the past weeks’ news, events and gossip. This week in terms of news was somewhat slow, but keeps us anticipated for what’s to come. Check out our own news compilation:

Kim JangHoon still in Hospital

The gold hearted legend that is Kim JangHoon, has been admitted to hospital and is there to this day. On the 28th he was performing in his “SoHaean Festival” which was in support of the West Coast Oil Spill residents in Taean, which is till plaguing them to this day. While performing in the middle of the stage, it started to rain and Mr. JangHoon slipped. He couldn’t get up again, and it was later revealed that he had fainted and was sent to the emergency room in a nearby hospital. Kim JangHoon has been in the business for years, donating a percentage of his profits through out his career to innumerable charities and graced the stage with plenty of the new generations best loved stars. We hope he gets better and takes a good rest.

It’s starting to get frustrating the amount of celebrities weekly being admitted to hospital due to exhaustion. He joins this weeks other exhauastee Micky Yoochun of DBSK. I’m thinking of dedicating an entire section of this weekly segment just for this. It is after all a recurring theme. However, I think these incidents might have been prevented if these celebrities engaged in yoga and other relaxation activities.

WonderBang

A lot of this week’s news surrounds teen idol groups, Wonder Girls and Big Bang.

Two of the Wonder Girls girls are proving that they can multi task like no other. As well as promoting their own group Single “So Hot”, SunYe and YeEun are featuring on Mighty Mouth’s “Energy” and OneTwos “Bad Girl” respectively. They’re also riding high in the charts, in their 4th consecutive week as Number 1. JYP must be dancing the “Tell Me” in celebration. Here’s the Singles Chart for this week. Credits go to edward1849 of Soompi.

-June Week 4-
1. Wonder Girls – So Hot.
2. Tae Yang – 나만 바라봐 (Watching Only You)
3. SHINee – 누난 너무 예뻐 (Noona’s Pretty (Replay))
4. V.O.S – Beautiful Life
5. SG Wannabe – 라라라 (LaLaLa)
6. Gavy NJ – Lie
7. Jewelry – 모두 다 쉿! (Everybody Shhh!)
8. MC Mong – 서커스 (Circus)
9. Kim Jong Wook – 그대만이 (My Only)
10.Super Junior Happy – 요리왕 (Cooking? Cooking!)

Big Bang has also been riding high in the news, not to be outdone by their female counterparts.

T.O.P is accepting acting gigs.

It seems he’s been cast in the Drama “I.R.I.S“, set in the states where T.O.P is an undercover detective hunting an assassin. Besides the plot being very ambitious and the production costs being over 20 million Dollars, it shocks me that they would cast such an inexperienced actor in a lead role. But it seems that talent is never really an issue nowadays. T.O.P was previously cast in the mini-drama ‘I am Sam‘ with Yang DongGun. His acting was somewhat bland in that, let’s hope he does a better job this time.

DaeSung cast in world famous musical.

‘Cats‘ the well loved musical has been translated in to Korean and will start its rounds in Seoul in September. DaeSung of Big Bang was cast as Rum Tum Tugger, the ladies man of ‘Cats’. For some reason I really doubt that DaeSung knew what he was getting in to. For one, he needs to wear LYCRA, get face painted to death and shake his pelvis like no other. If you guys don’t know the Rum Tum Tugger, check out this youtube clip and get well acquainted.

Credit:Cindyphantom

Now I cant wait to see that performance. I wonder if the V.I.Ps are eager to see it too.

You don’t have to be seen to be Number 1

Brown Eyes have made their comeback in the form of a new album. The management companies that use the “spread your artists around real thin” for publicity angle must be angry, since Brown Eyes are nowhere to be seen and their album sold a respectable 15,000 copies since its release the previous Thursday to the last. Its bizarre to me how a number 1 spot in singles goes to a group like the Wonder Girls and the album top spot goes to Brown Eyes, they just seem like polar opposites to me. The Korean Music Industry is ever surprising.

Tribute to Jewelry

Son DamBi, Bae SeulGi, Brown eyed girls’ GaIn and Joo

Besides this quartet being the most random group of all time, the ridiculousness doesn’t end there. They will be laying tribute to Jewelry this coming week on Music Bank. Why they’ve picked this particular four I do not know, but apparently the higher ups at Music Bank think Jewelry are more worthy of a cover than perhaps, Fin.K.L, Baby V.O.X (without the bloody ReV) and S.E.S. Worse yet, they’re covering “One More Time”. So please don’t make any plans this Friday, make sure you catch Music Bank, if you’re not wowed by the performances I’m sure you’ll be laughing. Son DamBi is getting busy lately with anything and everything under the sun, besides living up to her ‘Female Rain’ hype. She’s featuring on Sung SiKyung new music video as his love interest and heats it up with a kiss scene. A hard day’s work for Son DamBi.

Channel S

It’s difficult enough in South Korea to download music, search for pictures and view videos, and for that reason, the new technology saviours that are Channel SBSi and SM Entertainment have concocted a new revolutionary service called ‘Channel S’. Yes, of course this is not another ploy to get money; it’s a gift to the unresourceful public. I’m being sarcastic of course. This is a new system for mobile phone users that provides them with pictures, videos, ring tones, shows and all the other things you don’t need on your mobile, strictly SM and SBS related. The commencement ceremony took place on the 25th June and SHINee and Super Junior Happy were present. It’s available now and I’m sure it’s going to be insanely popular.

Dongducheon Rock Festival

We gave you news last week of the Seo Taiji’s comeback Rock festival, but now there seems to be competition. Dongducheon Rock Festival is taking place on August 15th to 17th, which is the same time ETPfest is supposed to be taking place; both are annual summer rock festivals. International as well as national stars will be contributing to this festival as well. The line-up includes artists such as Moon HeeJun, N.EX.T, Guyz, Crying Nut, Dr Core 911, Vanilla Unity, Cherry Filter, Boohwal, Transfixion, Maya, Super Kidd and many more. The only downside to this is picking which festival to attend.

It’s also great news that Epik High are preparing a new single for this coming Autumn.

For more news just head over to our forums. Check out exclusive celeb photos and videos by becoming an SYP member >>>

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Full Credit When Posted Elsewhere
Source: Youtube, Newsen, Soompi
Credit for ShenYuePop.com: noonoo_shoo
SYP Forums list full credits.