K Pop- now popping up everywhere

Not too long ago… to be specific, about 1-and-1/2 years ago, us poor little K Pop starved souls in the little red dot would be salivating whenever we read about the concerts, fan meetings, appearances by these K artistes in other countries like Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan etc. Sure, we had the occasional visits by the occasional artistes (normally for movies promotions).

“Come here!” we cry.
“We want to see you!” we begged.
“We are willing to pay!” we shouted.
“Please visit us!” we whined.

And like the genie in the bottle, we got our wish. And now we can’t seemed to stuff the genie back in the bottle.

Starting from the resounding success of the Sundown Festival in December 2009, we have been ‘blessed’ with the various concerts, show cases, fan meetings, autograph signing sessions, photo taking sessions etc from big and not-so-big artistes. The number of event organisers holding such events have jumped, to be matched only by the ever increasing number of K Pop online sites. As one of the first site to report on such events, I have attended enough events to begin to wonder….

This was my tweet last Sunday:

With more & more K artistes coming & a K Pop event almost every other week, juz curious- is anyone experiencing a K Pop fatigue?

Had some responses almost immediately- some were tired, some were not tired but their wallet were and some wanted more and more.

Me?

Hmmm… how do I put it…

I’m more like suffering from a K Pop sameness fatigue. I don’t mind these artistes popping up (often at short notice, though no fault of the organiser) but I do wish there was a little more variety in the events.

How exciting is it to watch and write about 2 dozen squeeling fans squashing a dazed-I-don’t-know-what’s-happenning-but-I-better-smile-my -megawatt-smile Korean man in a photo session?

Or to see the artistes give the same standard answers to the the same standard questions over-and-over again…

“What’s your first impression of Singapore?”
“It’s nice and green”, “the fans are passionate”, “I would like to visit the place again”.

I’m convinced there is a standard Q&A booklet somewhere out there.

Though to be fair, some of these artistes are here for less than 24 hours, so the only place they see is the hotel room, the event venue…and the road to/ from changi airport. I guess there’s not much impression they can form about Singapore.

And…. to be even fairer… I have to admit that not all the artistes who come to our little red dot are performers and it may be difficult for them to do a song-and-dance item, hence they have to stick to the standard fan meeting format.

But with so many K Pop events coming up, organisers better bring in exciting artistes or else hold interesting events, otherwise, it’s going to be one tough fight for the wallet amongst the fans.

So with the view in mind that there will be even more K artistes gracing our shores, here are some ideas that’s bound to loosen those wallet strings and have a sell out event and excite even the most jaded reporter.

1) Have a fashion show
Get the the boy band members (or girl band members) to strut down the fashion runway in formal to casual wear to beach wear.

2) Organise a beach volleyball match
I must emphasise- it must be beach volleyball. That way even if the artistes can’t sing-and-dance, we can at least have our eye candy. But please make sure the bodies are pleasing to the eye hor.

3) Stage a durian eating party
It will be a messy but interesting affair. For added measure, get them to drink water from the durian husks and then sell the ‘kissed’ durian husks later.

4) Hold a sports day
Egg race, three-legged race would be a good start. Fans love to see their idols get sweaty and dirty (oops…sounds a bit naughty here. ^^)

5) Get them to cook
Not only can the organisers sell tickets to the cooking class/ lessons, they can even sell the food made by the artistes after the event. I’m sure there will be tons of fans fighting to buy that egg tart baked by T.O.P.

Don’t you agree my suggestions sound alot better? ^^ So who wants a boring normal fan meet? Wahahaha!

This has been another mindless, silly post. Don’t worry, I’ll be back with the normal posts later on the Korean Music Wave 2011 upon the announcement for the final & 10th group to appear in the concert (the ticket prices have been announced), the ticketing details for Rain’s concert and confirmation for Kibum’s event.

Don’t go away.