Big Bang’s G-Dragon and Taeyang to be featured in CL’s music video

It is confirmed that Big Bang members G-Dragon and Taeyang will be featuring in CL’s (2NE1‘s leader) first solo music video that is due to be released on the 28th of May. YG Entertainment artists are known for their great bond and support for one another. This tradition can be seen in G-Dragon and Taeyang’s appearance in JinuSean’s music video for Phone Number back in 2004. Recently Se7en, Teddy and Taeyang also did a cameo in G-Dragon’s music video for MichiGO.

It is reported that the genre for CL’s solo song  is not easily heard within the domestic music industry, which is the ‘Dougie’ genre with a dub step sound and will be of the latest style in the hip-hop genre. For years, the Korean music industry emphasizes girl groups with a cute or sexy concept. However, as a female rapper, CL’s concept is the opposite of what the industry usually promotes and there is a lot of anticipation from her upcoming solo debut.

CL’s solo debut will be concurrently going against strong female solo singers like Lee Hyori, Seo In Young and IVY. Despite the intense competition, CL was given confidence and extra boost from YG’s president, Yang Hyun Seok‘s words of encouragement: “Even if you’re last, enjoy the moment with all your heart.”

This will be CL’s first solo venture since debuting as the leader of 2NE1 back in 2009. It is expected that her debut will amaze and impact the music industry.

Source : News & Photo- OSEN , CLTheBaddestFemale

G-Dragon drops MV for ‘MichiGO’

G-Dragon has finally dropped his music video for MichiGO.

On 2nd April, the K-pop superstar released the audio for MichiGO through LINE, a mobile messenger app. After a grueling wait, fans are finally able to watch the full music video for Michigo, which was uploaded onto Big Bang‘s official YouTube channel.

G-Dragon lives up to his name of being a fashion icon by donning different styles of clothing and wearing different striking hairstyles. The music video features a series of fun acts, similar to Crayon. Taeyang, Se7en and Teddy also made special appearances in the music video.

Check out the MV for MichiGO below:

Also, do install LINE so as to get updates from G-Dragon!
App Store: http://goo.gl/l9TU6
Google Play: http://goo.gl/UiEn1

Source: (News, Photos and Video) Big Bang’s official Youtube

Male Idols and diets

We all know that K-pop stars maintain their figures by dieting and this has sparked a number of articles already. But while we mostly tend to associate dieting with great figures for women, it is easily forgotten that male stars also need to maintain their bodies. They do this not only by working out in the gym like crazy, but also by adhering to strict diets, just like the ladies do.

I personally believe that the crazy dieting trend of K-pop is bad. It’s bad because it gives all the wrong impressions to gullible teenagers, and distorts their own body image. Yes, being pretty or breathtakingly muscular is what everyone wants to achieve, but it’s important to note that you can do it without torturing your body too. It will take longer, of course, and that is why celebrities turn to ruthless diet programs, because they yield results faster. K-pop is an extremely competitive industry, where artists have back-to-back schedules and new projects follow each other like ducklings at the waterside. They might need to launch a new image every six months or so; a new comeback, a new TV series, or a new endorsement (you name it) may require them to lose or gain weight or work out more. This doesn’t mean that you need to follow them blindly yourself. You can bet that while they smile into the camera they go through hell at home to maintain that body.

Back to the guys now. From time to time, we read snippets of news about guys dieting, but they don’t get as much attention as girls do. Probably because we think men are tougher, and thus it is easier for them to go through the hardships of dieting. Well, ask a guy his opinion. Guys I know like eating, and I love a guy who knows how to eat well. It’s just… manly. When a guy needs to give up his regular delicious Korean food for eating nuts, fruits and a diet shake, like  J.Y. Park did, you can bet it is difficult. If my husband did this to himself, I would be heartbroken for sure. You can’t live on nuts for weeks. Others also followed strict diets to achieve or maintain their admired chocolate abs. 2PM‘s Junho lived on a meal comprising of steamed cabbage, sweet potato and one tiny chicken breast – once a day. Sure, we all love his abs, but one meal a day?

2PM’s Junho

A famous dieting no-no is what Rain did to his body back when he was preparing for his role in the movie Ninja Assassin. He talked extensively about how he had to stick to eating salmon or chicken breast with eggs and nuts for months, without sugar and salt, along with training day and night. The result was breathtaking, but it sure did involve a lot suffering and nerves of iron to achieve.

Rain shows his diet during the shooting of Ninja Assassin. (From 6:00)

For me, one of the most shocking weight losses recently was Kim Jaejoong‘s, especially because he is known to be a big eater, who loves to cook and eats like a healthy Korean guy would eat. He loves his tummy, period. Roughly a month and a half ago he posted a photo on his Twitter, where his scale read 57 kgs (126 lbs). That’s extremely thin for a guy standing at a 180 cm in height. Even though there is no news about him being on a diet, and stress and hectic schedules might account for some of his weight loss, I doubt he would be this stressed.  Especially since his individual and band activities are all going well recently, and he enjoys much more personal and artistic freedom compared to idols under big company contracts. Now he has gained around 4 kgs, but that is still far from what a guy of his height should normally weigh.

Jaejoong in February 2013. His skinniness looks terrifying.

Dieting is OK to a point. We have all done it, or will do it at some point in our lives, although not everyone needs it. These men, who have breathtaking bodies anyway, certainly do not need to lose more weight. Of course, you could argue that the industry demands it, that they do it for their roles in movies (like Hyun Bin lost 8 kgs for Secret Garden), that they want to present better images of themselves - but this is still not healthy. When you are slim and brawny already, and you decide to lose more weight, it’s not what your sane doctor would approve of, unless you pay him to shut his mouth. What I worry about is the reactions of netizens to such diets, be it male or female celebrities. Many young girls take these idols as idols, as in: examples to follow. Artists and management alike should be more conscious about what they represent and what enormous influence they have on youngsters’ lives.

Don’t be excessive in your diets. Just because your bias started shredding kilos for whatever reason, it doesn’t mean that you need to follow along. Healthy meals, regular exercise, less sugar and more veggies – this is all you need to look good.

Source: Chosun Ilbo
Photo sources: W Korea, Jaejoong’s Twitter

BIGBANG vies for ‘Best Dance Video’ with “Fantastic Baby”

BIGBANG is nominated in MTV Video Music Awards Japan 2013 for ‘Best Dance Video’ with FANTASTIC BABY  -Ver. Final-, directed by Hyun Seung Seo.

The five-member group, consisting of G-Dragon, T.O.P, Daesung, Taeyang and Seungri, will face the following nominees:

• group_inou “9” (Directed: Ryu Okubo)
• livetune adding Megumi Nakajima “Transfer” (Directed: fantasista utamaro × Kazuma Ikeda)
• SKRILLEX “Bangarang” (Directed: Tony T. Datis)
• ZEDD “Spectrum feat. MATTHEW KOMA” (Directed: Petro)

Watch BIGBANG’s Fantastic Baby –Ver. Final here:

MTV Japan’s annual biggest music event, MTV VMAJ 2013, is set to take place at Makuhari Messe in Chiba Prefecture on Saturday, June 22. The show will premiere on MTV Japan on Sunday, June 23 at 8PM (Tokyo), and will air across MTV’s global network including MTV Asia, with details to be announced later.

Voting for all categories is now available at MTV Japan’s official Facebook page until 5pm on June 11/Tokyo time (in Japanese only).

“MTV Video Music Awards Japan” debuted in 2002 as one of the biggest music event in Japan.   Paying tribute to the art of music video, the show will award both Japanese and international artists selected by audiences based on artistic and technical excellence. Hosted by the first combination of Japanese powerhouse actor Nobuaki Kaneko and actress Atsuko Maeda, MTV VMAJ 2013 will be broadcast worldwide on MTV channels, with potential viewership expected to reach over half-billion households.

Pr: MTV Japan

Video, image: (1)

2NE1′s CL holds interview with the UK’s ‘Dazed Digital’ magazine

2NE1‘s very own CL recently took part in an interview with dazeddigital.com. A digital version of the British Dazed & Confused magazine. During the interview, CL mentions 2NE1′s upcoming new album, her family, and her thoughts on fans shipping her with her YG Family label mates G-Dragon and Taeyang of BIGBANG.

You can check out the full article here, but below are some excerpts:

Dazed Digital: What has been your favourite 2NE1 moment of recent times?
CL: “Actually, I can’t pick one, it’s really hard but I love travelling with them and meeting our fans from all around the world. I love when we’re on tour and when we’re on stage. That’s the moment for us. It was our first show in Seoul when we started the second tour, we had the eye contact on stage and were like, ‘okay, it’s starting’ and you feel that butterfly. It was a good moment to start the show and start to our first global tour.”

DD: What’s happening with the new 2NE1 album?
CL: “We’re still wrapping up our album. We did one video but we haven’t had an album out in a year and a half and we’re working very hard to make it special.”

DD: Is there a favourite track off it?
CL: “Well, I can’t talk about the title but there’s a slow song that we did. It’s very emotional and kind of different from Lonely and the other slow songs we did. And I love that song. It’s about me missing somebody and it was easy for us to connect with it because we were missing our fans and our stage.”

DD: Have you ever worried about what other people think of you?
CL: “Yes. I went through that phase when I was kind of thinking about other people. It was in 2011 and everybody was trying to put me down because of my confidence. So I was going through, like, do I think about that or do I do what I love and just be me. I was struggling for a while but you live once and you can only be you, you can’t be somebody else. I don’t want to live my life regretting things. I want to say what I want to say, do what I wanna do. This moment will never come back. You have to capture every moment you get and appreciate it. You have to have respect for other people and appreciate everything in life but you have to trust in yourself.”

DD: In the forums, the practice of shipping (placing two celebrities with each other in an imaginary relationship) has put you with your YG label mates, in particular G-Dragon and Taeyang of BigBang.
CL: “It’s cute that people do that but that’s not true at all, it’s funny. (laughing) I’m happy that people do that ‘cos I never thought that people do that to me!!”

DD: People think there are real but secret relationships going on because you often have Instagram photos with both boys and seem very close.
CL: “I wouldn’t do that (post photos online) if we were a real couple!!”

Sources: (News & Photo) – Dazeddigital.com