Kim Hyun Joong… [article] OUTSTANDING STAR

By: LazerKim                   If there’s no Kim Hyun Joong update, then we talk about weather forecast! Yesterday’s weather forecast, a typhoon is coming to hit Seoul, SKorea, we pray for everyone’s safety. To make this news a bit lighter, I can probably compare Kim Hyun Joong’s Asia Tour fan meeting concert, like a typhoon. With strong gusty wind heavy rain and thunder-storm as he passes from one country to another!!! Leaving his fans totally mesmerized by the memory of his presence that shake the stage of the countries he visited. I think this is the longest running typhoon named Kim Hyun Joong, the God of Rain as it rolls out for a month in six different countries including Japan!!

The good news, God of Rain Kim Hyun Joong named by the Billboard Japan as the Most Outstanding Kpop Artist in 2012, as he ranked second at the Oricon Music Chart on his Kiss Kiss album debut in January placing the album at gold record status and followed by his second album Heat ranked first place no.one and gained the same gold record status. Japan is one of the world’s biggest market in the music industry, but with the changing time CD album is becoming less competitive in terms of sales to compare with the previous years.

Is this now the influence of computer technology that affects the industry? I’m a computer illiterate I admit, but the way I observe the changing time, one major factor that weakens the sales of CD album is music downloading through the internet. Producers in the music industry now have to consider a larger scale in providing the entertainment needs of public demand. Since Kpop is becoming very competitive in the Japanese market, they tend to push Kpop stars in adopting the Japanese music for local market. Kim Hyun Joong being one of the hottest Kpop star after gaining a huge popularity boost this year, it is very likely that more producers are eyeing now on Kim Hyun Joong within the business arena both local and global commerce.

In my other recent article, I have mentioned that businessmen and producers are the middlemen that can bridge Kim Hyun Joong and his fans. Although CD album may have a weakening sales, the influence of internet in acquiring music does not affect Hyun Joong’s fans in purchasing his album as their support to their idol. Another in high demand is Hyun Joong’s events particularly performing in concerts, which was evident in his recent concert in Yokohama Arena attended by 20,000 fans and Saitama Super Arena attended by 60,000 fans this year. The number of fans attended the concert has remarkable escalated in numbers shown within just a matter of short period.

Are Kpop stars now becoming a threat to the Japanese celebrities in terms of popularity gains? I clearly have seen this trend quite recently as Hyun Joong launched his second single HEAT, or even prior to launching of the album it already topped the pre-sales scale until the time of its release which immediately ranked on top no. one on its first day launching. This event had even gained more attention and curiosity to non-fans probably wondering who Kim Hyun Joong is and what brought him to the top of Oricon Music Chart! Japanese are known to their patriotism but in the changing time slowly bending in support of foreign celebrities particularly the Kpop.

How was Kim Hyun Joong able to penetrate the Japanese market able to win the hearts of his Japanese fans? Well, we fans may share the same opinion at least majority of his fans would probably say Kim Hyun Joong is simple being himself! He doesn’t need extra effort to call for attention, although he worked hard to improve himself to be worthy of the love he receives from many people. Many Japanese fans were asked by media what particularly attracted them and pulled them to Kim Hyun Joong to be captured by him. They would say, he’s cute, he’s handsome, he is honest, and sincere in handling his fans. But among their comments this comment caught me, “he easily translates his music for us to understand and sing it with him.” I got this comment from my neighbors in Tokyo!!

Japanese by nature are music lover, that they can easily appreciate music, actually they are not a hard to please audience. Hyun Joong chooses his own music which one would suit his voice range and a type of music which his fans can easily sings with him. This is priority over more challenging music pieces. Well, evidently during his Asia Tour fan meeting concert, many of his fans who were able to attend these events would say “better memorize his songs otherwise you’ll be left behind”! I was wondering why a lot of fans said it. Then they said majority of those who attended the fan meet literally sings his song with Hyun Joong!! Considering he sings Korean songs and yet his fans can easily follow!!

Honestly, when I first found out that Hyun Joong indeed was a singer in boy band, I started watching SS501 concerts, and I easily appreciate their music until such time I found myself saving a lot of their music in my playlist that I can listen to everyday. In no time I found myself following the melody, eventually getting the song lyrics, and start singing while listening. As Hyun Joong now has a wider repertoire, the longer list of songs I got in memorizing his songs unconsciously!! I never get tired of his songs that anywhere I am his music stays with me any time.

There’s one Japanese song that he sang at the Saitama concert which happened to be my favorite Japanese song. Honestly, I don’t mean to be disrespectful to the original singer since every singer has their own style, but Hyun Joong’s sweet voice made even the song softer and melting that struck my heart. Hyun Joong may not be the best singer but there’s something in his sweet voice that can capture one’s heart as he sings his ballad songs or his up beat tempo that will surely bring your feet to dance away and sing with him!!

Many of his critics would say Hyun Joong is overrated, meaning he gets more praises than what he actually deserves. Alright then, just the sake of argument I can only speak for myself. Rock was never been my taste even during my younger years, but it was Hyun Joong who introduce to me this type of music that I would say now HEAT is one of my favorite among his repertoire and I’m looking forward for more rock music from him. Honestly, I’m not the type of fan to be buying CD just because I want to support my idol, I may be a music lover but quite choosy with the type of music I listen to.

And the other thing that I like in Hyun Joong’s music is variation. I don’t have to listen to just one type of music rhythm since Hyun Joong has a variety types of music. In one of his interviews he was actually asked “what is Kim Hyun Joong style of music”? And he said “since I sing different types of song in different styles, I would say it’s Kim Hyun Joong style!!” One can never get tired of his music, just like his constant changing image, is similar to his changing style in his music which even makes him a unique artist.

A fan critic said, Hyun Joong winning the Best Artist is way too far as yet, there are many artist with much better qualities in terms of talent, but Hyun Joong won the award. There are many excellent singers who barely made it the top 10 music chart, while Hyun Joong even made it to no.one rank, why is that?. Being a star artist it’s not only his talent that counts, I agree there are even better artist than he is, but not all of them has that X factor that Hyun Joong naturally possess in him. And that makes him different above the rest.

We may have different opinion whenever we watch performance of different artist. Again I can only speak for myself but whenever I watch events with different guest artists, the very first thing I look into is the artist stage appeal before anything else. How much can he dominate the stage, how well can he capture the audience attention and stay with him. For me this is important. There are many artist who has that excellent singing voice but after a while my eyes starts to linger around the audience, and ask myself “am I the only one who’s feeling bored?”

May I just mention my recent experience. A friend of mine came to visit me last week. In my house the only music you’ll hear is Hyun Joong’s music whenever I’m at home. While we were talking music just kept rolling, after maybe an hour, she finally asked me what’s this music I got? And since she’s also familiar with Japanese music I told her he’s a Korean singer singing Japanese song. She liked Hyun Joong’s HEAT so I gave one of my extra copy of HEAT. Yesterday she called and she said she never thought how handsome Hyun Joong is and that she was relaying that she started looking him up at the internet. And so I invited her to check on my blog which I hope she’s reading this article!!

If majority of Hyun Joong fans were captured after watching his dramas, with my friend it’s different, she heard him first, now she’s bound to watch his dramas. What we see and what we hear are our first attraction to any artist. It’s like reading a book, if the book is good it is said to be a page turner. If it’s not, then probably reading from the first chapter of the book would end up laying anywhere without knowing what was the book all about. Kim Hyun Joong is like a book page turner, that the more you hear, the more you see from him the more you get to like him and eventually can’t get enough of him.

Am I overrating Kim Hyun Joong? I don’t think so, I’m just stating the truth about what I see, read and hear!! In fact in describing Hyun Joong I’m lost with words on how I can describe him!! Hyun Joong may not be the best singer,dancer or actor, I agree, but he is the Best Artist, an Outstanding Star!! Hyun Joong has a little of everything in one package wrapped with an X Factor that not all excellent artist possess, and that makes him different above the rest. This is how I see Kim Hyun Joong being an Outstanding Star.

This is all I have for today’s daily dosage, how I wish I could have more news updates about City Conquest but the filming is at close doors, so let’s leave Hyun Joong in good hands of the production staffs!! What I have is the weather forecast, that a typhoon shall hit Seoul, I’m just not sure if it has already landed in Seoul, I just hope everyone is safe there. And of course as I have just brought you the hurricane Kim Hyun Joong that hit Japan is still making noise as he was named the Most Outstanding Kpop Artist for 2012!!

Kim Hyun Joong was never overrated as far as every fan or non-fan who knows of him. And for us his loving Aliens, Kim Hyun Joong shall always be the Most Outstanding Star in our hearts in reality and he will always be filled with LOVE as ever…

                                                                                                LazerKim here writing

Photo credits as tagged, Ms. D, thanks!!