#jyj3

and yes, let's use glasses for a stereotype for highly intellectual beings.

a genius ass who's genetically blessed, and who'd make fangirls swoon over him.

Remember how much you hated him for being so perf in PTB? yes. Remember how much he tore your heart to pieces because you would never be as pretty or handsome as he?

Don't worry if you miss those days because they will happen again, and another layer of hatred for the brilliance of his character! And shit, smart is damn sexy!

Of course, it'll all be in drama land. In real life, I doubt Changmin would hand over the genius role to him.

But still, I know I'll hate SunWoo (his character) for the future feels, insecurity, more feels, and ovary explosion.

The author of a recently released book on K-pop has revealed that SM Entertainment pressured his publisher to remove references to JYJ and the TVXQ! lawsuit.

This came to light when one of our favourite bloggers, Oegukeen (who has previously written a guest post for us on inter-cultural relationships) wrote an in-depth review of Mark James Russell’s book K-pop Now!: The Korean Music Revolution’.

Like we (and other reviewers) previously noted, she pointed out that there were odd inconsistencies in the book in the way TVXQ! and JYJ were covered. However unlike those other reviews, this time the author took the time to directly respond to the criticism in the comments of Oegukeen’s blog.

Russell confirmed, as we had suspected, that this effective deletion of JYJ from K-pop history was the result of interference from SM Entertainment. He said:

“Yes, I agree with you about the JYJ/TVXQ issue. But, alas, that was not my call. SM Entertainment was quite adamant about how TVXQ was covered. Which is too bad, as I really liked Xia’s “Incredible” (among other songs).”

Of course this did not go down well with fans of JYJ who questioned the author’s integrity and, rightfully, used it as further proof of SM’s meddling in the group’s affairs despite being told to stop interfering by the Fair Trade Commission.

While JYJ fans’ frustrations are understandable, it is unfair to throw the author under the bus for something which is not really in his control. Aside from anything, his 2008 book POP GOES KOREA is one of the absolute best books on the history of Korean entertainment written in English and is a must-read for anyone with a serious interest in the topic.

In order to pull together such a shiny and attractive book with all those high-quality photographs, Mr Russell and his publisher Tuttle would have to work with Korean entertainment companies in order to get the rights for various promotional photos and artworks. The publisher wanted to create an anthology of K-pop groups and that is difficult to do without any kind of input from their agencies.

Mark James Russell actually took to his blog earlier in the year to address the issue but it didn’t seem to get much notice:

“Now, I was not interested in embarrassing anyone or making anyone look bad, and I know that the whole TVXQ history is a very sensitive one, so I tried to write a very positive article on the band, which mentioned them starting as a five-member unit, then transitioning to a duo. I did not mention anything controversial about what happened and just looked at the positive — i.e., that everyone is doing well now, and fans have a lot of great music to choose from.

However, SM Entertainment did not like that approach. They were worried that any mention of the group’s history would upset the fans. I tried being flexible, and repeatedly pointed out that not addressing the group’s history at all would likely just draw attention to what happened and upset people more. But, in the end, SME had its approach and was firm. So that is how we ended up with the book the way it is.”

The excuse that it might ‘upset the fans’ is hilariously ridiculous and yet it is exactly the kind of thing that SM would say.

Amusingly, because the company most likely only checked (or were given to check) the parts of the book that regarded their artists specifically the break-up of the group is still alluded to in the profile of KARA further on.

Although it’s not great that the publisher caved to SM’s requests it is understandable to a degree and it’s good to see that the author is not trying to cover up what happened despite the backlash he might receive from the more… passionate parts of the JYJ fandom.

But for SM… this is, yet again, more bad press. 2014 really is a year they will wish to forget.

Source: beyondhallyu

***

‘K-POP Now!: The Korean Music Revolution’ book review

Front and Back Cover

[JYJ3's Note: Omitted unrelated parts of the review, please read the Full Review Here]

… One thing that did always leave me in awe when it came to K-pop was how incredibly hardworking these performers are. The hours they put in, and the amount of sleep they get, put even the most diligent of us at shame.

The authors covers this in chapter 2, titled “What is K-pop” and while he does mention how difficult it is for the stars, I couldn’t help but feel that his source of information came only from the companies.

Which brings me to the biggest issue I have with this book. Far from a K-pop expert but not living under a rock either, I have heard of one of the most dramatic and famous events in K-pop history – the TVXQ! split. Which is why I found myself very puzzled when I reached the TVXQ! section.

Chapters 3 and 4 are structured around introducing 15 boy groups and 13 girl groups. They are listed alphabetically, save for the first three groups in each chapter which my guess is have been chosen for their popularity, and as such come first and have four pages dedicated to them, instead of the usual two that other groups get. For boy groups it is Big Bang, Super Junior and TVXQ!, and for girl groups it’s Girls’ Generation, 2ne1 and Wonder Girls.

So obviously the author gave TVXQ! plenty of attention. However, throughout the whole article he makes it sounds like TVXQ! always were a duo, even when talking about their previous achievements as a five member group. At first I didn’t find this too strange, because while it may not be perfectly accurate, the book is called K-pop now, not K-pop before. But the more I read, the more it bothered me.

First of all, every other band seemed to have their former members listed. I looked into it a bit more (i.e. I opened Wikipedia) and for example, Hyuna was part of Wonder Girls for only a half of a year and yet was mentioned as having been a member, while ex-TVXQ members who were there for 6 years, haven’t.

 Second of all, in Kara’s section the author mentions that they were on verge of breaking up and their fans “were shocked and worried that this would turn into another TVXQ!…”, which for someone who was finding out about them just from this book would be confusing as according to the author TVXQ! have always been a happy duo.

The three former members, now in a band called JYJ, are mentioned twice at the beginning of the book, once as an example how Kpop bands have strange names, and once for holding concerts in Europe.

Now, if you’re not a TVXQ fan this may all seem irrelevant, but honestly, the real problem is that it made me question the authenticity of other things the book said, and made me unsure of the exactness of what I was reading since I don’t have the knowledge to verify it.

A pity, because other than that, I really do feel like thanks to this book I learned and got to understand a lot more not only about about Kpop but about Korea as well, and just as importantly, I had fun in the process.