So I just said that I miss DBSK a lot in the Korean music scene.
But.
There is the one and only music act that I miss even so much more than five hot sexy talented Korean men.
........
The proclaimed Beat of Angel, Best of Asia, BoA!!
Er, I mean, BoA undistorted!!
And I JUST heard that she will be making her Korean comeback in time for her 10th anniversary this August.
It's been FIVE LONG YEARS.
She currently sports short hair now, though I do miss the awesomeness that is her signature long hair. BoA has just also released her 7th Japanese album "Identity" and is preparing for her Japanese tour. My brain is too sluggish right now to adequately explain the details of why this is such epic BoA news so I'm just gonna copy paste the info:
"BoA will return to Korea after a five year absence from her home country. This year’s August 25th will mark a ten year anniversary for BoA. Yes, it has been ten years since this singer debuted. Surprisingly, it’s been five years since she’s been in Korea. Which means she’s spent half her career in Japan.
"The last Korean song she promoted was Girls On Top and now as a ten year anniversary celebration, she is returning. At the moment, she is on tour for her album Identity, but after the end of this tour, she will start to prepare for her Korean comeback.
"SM Entertainment said on March 1st, “2010 means a lot because it marks BoA’s ten year anniversary. Since Korean fans haven’t gotten the chance to see her since Girls On Top, we will work hard for a very meaningful album for BoA. We will shoot for the album to release on August 25th but depending on how preparations go, it may move around a bit.”
"SM Entertainment also added, “BoA shows a lot of passion for her music so she might be a producer for this album as well. We will decide after a thoughtful discussion.”
credits: Allkpop
So what this means to a lot of fans right now is that the year 2010 marks the comebacks of the LEGENDS. Not only BoA but also the queen of sexy kpop Lee Hyori, singer/actor Rain, and even Se7en who also attempted to break in the US music scene around the same time as BoA and the Wonder Girls from JYP Entertainment.
What this could mean to BoA is a revival of energy and passion that's been on decline ever since her last Korean album that solidified me as a fan of hers in 2005, "Girls on Top." In order to concentrate on her career in Japan, she had to stop Korean activities for awhile because essentially, it's much harder to make income as a music act in Korea, and also the work of interviews, variety shows, and performances every other day is very demanding and taxing on Korean singers. Plus, she was already juggling careers in Japan and Korea since she was thirteen years old.
Dude. This now twenty-three year old has accomplished so much in ten years, NO ONE in Korea or even Japan have been able to top her success.
Yeah, she may not have the best vocals or the best music all around but just look at her history. At the age of thirteen, the baby BoA captured the hearts of Koreans everywhere. At fourteen she flew to Japan and began her career as one of the earliest most successful crossover artists in Asia. With the crazy success of her second Japanese album, she was able to bridge the cultural social gap between Korea and Japan through her performances and music, a pair of countries with so much conflict in history.
I'm just gonna go crazy with the biggest hits she's responsible for, and why she was pretty much the evolution of Asian pop back in the day, from the beginning to now.
2000 ID; Peace B - Debut song.
2002 No.1 - One of her first biggest early hits in Korea
2002 Every Heart - One of Inuyasha's ending theme songs. This is how I discovered her music, back in the good ol' junior high/high school days.
2003 Valenti - Japan. Girl went platinum with this.
2003 Atlantis Princess - This song is how I found out she's actually KOREAN not Japanese :O. It was also the song that started my interest in dancing =D. The first Kpop dance I ever learned! Such a happy song, one of my old favorites.
2004 Rock With You - The beginnings of the mature BoA. Edgy, personality, character.
2004 My Name - She went from bubbly cute Atlantis Princess to this. o_o Fierce and sexy~
2005 Quincy - I would say this is the last of her "addictive" songs of her early Japan days before the decline.
2005 Girls On Top - Almost every fan out there would say this is her most epic Korean work to date. Solid concept, great dancing, amazing live performances. Everything was near perfect with this album. The highlight of her career.
Since "Girls On Top," BoA has released four more albums in Japan and one in America, continuing to be influential but the spark that was usually there in her music was gradually getting lost somewhere. Overworked much? Most definitely. Three countries and all those albums and she's not even in her mid-twenties yet.
Her US Music Videos:
BoA is a household name, you cannot be an Asian pop fan without knowing that name. With that said, during her decline, negativity was just everywhere. People wanted the amazing BoA back, people wanted her to return to her homeland and stop releasing subpar material in other countries, etc etc.
Even celebrities go through identity crises, you know? Her most recent Japanese album is the first album to not reach the #1 spot on the charts in her career. It reached #2, but goes to show what's going on with her life as an artist right now. Ironically, this album is also the one that's mostly self-produced, so there's a lot of "real" BoA in "Identity." So what's the deal?
There was negativity everywhere, in the forums, in news blogs, wherever, that rubbed me off too. Hearing all this criticism for venturing into the American scene, for abandoning Korea, for mediocre singles in Japan, just ugh. People didn't want to see her in a shlump that is necessary and inevitable for everyone. They want to see her always in her prime.
They want to see this kinda thing again:
Watch BoA_Over_the_Top_Girls_On_Top_Remix_Live_MNet_Awards_27.11.2005_ in Music | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com
As opposed to this:
What does this mean to me, and why do I look up to BoA so much?
Well, if it wasn't for her, I wouldn't have been into music and art as much as I am now. I wouldn't have learned how it was possible to be so hard working, so dedicated, so passionate about her work as much as this girl two years older than me had been. I wouldn't have had the guts to admit to myself and to my parents that I wanted to draw and perform for people and me, not treat sick people in hospitals for the money. I wouldn't have discovered the potluck of refreshing Asian pop when I needed an outlet so much as a teenager, would not have experienced how cool it is to be a part of a dance team, the thrill of being on stage in front of people with music beats pounding in my blood, would not have appreciated the complexity and art of dancing and expressing with your body, with your hands. (Yeah, I miss dancing a lot. Like, REAL choreo dancing with other dancers.)
I would not have appreciated my Asian blood as much, would not have pushed myself to keep a hold of my Vietnamese, and encouraged myself to learn Korean and Japanese. I would not have been fascinated by the concept of language barriers and the power of music being a universal language, would not have looked up lyrics to understand and appreciated the poetry behind it, and who knew that I'd eventually venture into an area of writing myself? I would not have wanted to make an impact on something somewhere somehow as bad as I do now had I not seen what a petite Asian girl on the other side of the world who had the wonderful opportunity to influence so many and so much. BoA's not just an idol, she's an artist. She's in that very difficult stage of transitioning right now, just like most of us are at this time of our lives, and more so for her as a public figure in the entertainment business
To hear that she's returning to her birthplace to remind the overcrowded music industry there and remind fans of the legend that she is, it's just really exciting. What if this comeback reminds HER even of the fire she had once before, before the stresses of work and adulthood brought her down? That's what I'm really hoping for. Her successes at home factor in to her successes abroad, I find that really plausible. And maybe, just maybe, I would get that awe-inspiration watching her come back to life, and maybe that can really lead me somewhere. Not that I don't appreciate her Japanese stuff at all, quite the contrary. It's just that I am guilty of missing the bright BoA as well, and I'd rather have her take a real break from the music biz altogether and disappear for a year or two instead of spreading herself too thin for too long.
Well, the point I see now is that BoA will always be busy year round, and so will I. So will everyone. She's been stuck in the down slides for awhile, and I've had my ups and downs since I sort of figured out who I am and who I want to be and what kind of work I want to do, aka college.
I wrote in a comment on BoAjjang that this year seems brighter for me already because of this news. I mean,, despite the good stuff of going to Korea and graduating soon, it was a real rough start to 2010 for me. Plus, I am so over winter weather now. It's easy to blame the weather for my moodiness but I swear, I live on sunlight. Thrive in it.
So for the first half of 2010 is the anticipation of the comeback album, hearing news in bits and pieces of track listings, album covers, promo plans. Then the actual release of the album mid year to the explosion of epicness, and THEN performances and interviews and shows and awards ceremonies that will be available to download in high quality all the way towards the end of 2010. Well, that's definitely gonna keep my spirits up for this year, God willing.
Okay, so I think I
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