Music Junkie

Worth noting that Go appeared in several movies from other infamous creep Sono Sion. All these dudes are covering each other's backs. Poor Chiho, I hope NMB fans won't slutshame or victim-blame her, but I've lost any hope in male idol fans for a while.

Yeah plus it's not like she was essential to the the group musically or in terms of image anymore. Sihyeon has been the group's face for quite a while now, and if they really need a visual who can dance, Onda is still there.

the not-so-subtle racism that reeks from this miserable troll attempt... It's hard of course to not feed the troll, but K-pop is Korean Pop. Us I-fans are mere guests.

About that woman going to see a musical with Ren, I think we must keep in mind that bi men exist, and him being flamboyant doesn't mean he is gay. The "flamboyant gay" aesthetic was propelled into the mainstream by men that would be considered as bisexual nowadays, like Little Richard, Marc Bolan, or David Bowie. East Asia's biggest gay icon, Leslie Cheung, was openly bi, and his campy & androgynous fashion sense is amongst the reasons why he's still loved and fondly remembered by the general public even two decades after his passing.

There was the case of Kodama Haruka (former teammate of Sakura in HKT48) who underwent numerous procedures after her first symptoms of bipolar disorder appeared. Like, she had done her eyes before, but her procedures accelerated after 2016, which was the year where she suffered her first hallucination crises. Also ofc, as we all know nowadays, Bom has ADHD and was refused her ordinary treatment in Korea due to their ban on Adderall, which must have been absolutely awful for her mental stability. As for J-Pop idols, the industry seemingly came a long way since the 2000's, where the Idoling!!! girls were constantly talking about their diets on TV. Though, yes, I've wondered why Asuka didn't grow out of her frail frame. While we're on her subject, it's likely she has lied about her height, as she's always looked smaller than Nanase who's supposedly the same height as her.

Doping is often mentioned as professional sport's biggest issue, but to be fair, nowadays, EDs are much more prevalent than doping and no one does anything to stop that. I'll be mostly talking about cycling since it's my fave sport and the one I know best, and man, the amount of worryingly underweight dudes who suddenly retired after being diagnosed with depression or after sustaining rare bone fractures over the past decade is frightening. Some pros have opened up on the subject, such as Davide Cimolai or Rohan Dennis (very interesting article on the subject here), but alas, the pressure seemingly comes from these middle-aged coaches who learned the job in times where mental illnesses and EDs were not taken seriously. As long as there won't be any generational shift, the situation is not bound to evolve... And sadly, by looking at who's heading K-pop agencies, this conclusion works for K-pop too. Relics from the ancient times are still dictating their image of what a marketable woman is, and what they believe a man that's marketable to women is. It can't be a sustainable model on the long run.

Just compared today's Billboard charts to my country's and to the UK Charts (Europe's biggest music market). The only song present in all three rankings is Harry Styles' latest release. But, you know, American exceptionalism.

Oh but these vocals totally suit Sunmi's mannerisms! It makes so much sense!

^ in mild cases, like most connective tissue disorders, it often goes unnoticed (framed as simply "taller than average" and "myopia") and only gets diagnosed in adulthood or after heart issues arose. Troye Sivan, whom I have mentioned, just has the big stature and the very fragile joints, but for now, that doesn't stop him from dancing and singing on stage. Connective tissue disorders in general are quite common compared to other orphan diseases, yet underdiagnosed and not well known. It's very likely that many of these extremely flexible idols just have mild hEDS cases. I have EDS personally, which causes me the TMJD I talked about earlier, and I waited until 23 to be diagnosed. Coupled with extreme diets, and invasive bone surgeries (jaw), you get a very explosive cocktail. But agencies are not ready for this conversation yet.

To be fair, I have always wondered if Wonyoung doesn't have a mild form of Marfan syndrome, quite like Troye Sivan. She's always been much taller than the average for Korean girls of her age, and even back in her PD48 days, she had the characteristic elongated & emaciated hands and limbs of Marfan sufferers. If that's the case, she could eat 15000 kcal per day and still never put on weight, but her heart and joints must be closely monitored. However, for cases like Rosé and Lisa, who are of average heights and physical frames, a forced diet seems like the only possible option.

It's very likely a revision surgery. She was rumoured to have had a nose job around 2013-2014. She still had her original nose in HKT48's debut music video, which is linked below. Some months later, her nose seemed much slimmer. Infamously around that time, AKB48's Watanabe Mayu had a private Instagram where she called Sakura and her teammate Kodama Haruka (short bob hair with no fringe) "plastic monsters", in amongst other horrible things she said about Sakura. Their plastic surgery was a not-so-open secret. The problem is that Sakura was 15 at that time (and Haruppi was 16) which is crazy young to have such drastic work done. Itano Tomomi and Miyazaki Miho, two other AKB members who had obvious work done, at least waited to be 18.

I suggest for you to look up BALCO scandal, state-sponsored doping in Russia or East Germany, Ben Johnson's 1988 gold medal, the numerous controversies around the attribution sites, or more recently, Alberto Salazar. Hell, even Lance Armstrong won a gold medal at the Olympics. From the moment where "soft power" and a country's image is involved, rigging is almost a prerequisite. Speaking of soft power, because Hallyu definitely is one, I would not be surprised if Hybe used it as an argument to not let BTS go to the army. But to be fair, they've got no real excuses. Coming back to sports again, asking a guy like Son Heung-min to leave Tottenham for two years would be a disaster for his team (who relies heavily on him on the field and for sponsoring, as he's hella popular), for his skills, (a two-year inactivity for any pro athlete has too big of an influence on performance), and for Korea's image (they would be seen as "the country that ruined the career of their best football player ever"). For musical artists, it's easier to make up for the lost time. But, will the public still be there after two years? If Hybe are any clever, they won't send the boys together. Three or two at a time, and the remaining guys either make up a subunit or focus on solo activities just to keep the BTS brand alive as long as necessary. Like SM does with EXO, or like YG did with Bigbang and Winner.

2 years is a lifetime in K-pop industry, and Hybe knows that well, since it took less that 2 years for BTS to go from nugudom to their generation's strongest fandom. 2 years were enough for Bigbang to see their reputation stained with all kinds of scandals. It also took less than 2 years for SNSD to dethrone Wonder Girls as the nation's girlgroup, and it took the same amount of time for Twice to steal the spot from SNSD seven years later. God knows what could happen in 2 years on a global and national scale. There's always this risk of the Hallyu wave bursting in the Western world, too. Hence what's why they're rushing to debut all of these younger boygroups and slightly neglegting BTS' musical output. They're trying to forge a backup business plan. It's pretty clever to be fair, as many agencies didn't put much effort and simply introduced their brand new group as a prettier or upgraded version of their inactive bands.

I'm dying to see Jongup and Zelo on stage together again. Go, my boys!

as someone who gets Botox done every year to manage my TMJD symptoms, Yunjin's jaw seems like a typical case of masseter Botox. The shape is slimmer, but her chin and mandible angle haven't changed, and her shape seems to fluctuate over time, as if Botox wore off. TMJD being a disorder most common in women in their 20s-40s who are put under stressful situations, it's pretty clear than many idols have it. It can be debilitating at times, especially for an idol ; in 2006, J-pop icon Matsuura Aya notably slowed down her career because her TMJD did not allow her to move her jaw anymore, restricting her vocal range. Botox is the most efficient treatment for this disorder along with physiotherapy. Moreover, there's no difference between jaw Botox done for aesthetical purposes and Botox done for medical purposes, as the injection areas and the dosing are the same in both cases. Orthognatic surgery or joint remplacement is however extremely rare for young patients, but I would not be surprised that Korean plastic surgeons would not care about these guidelines. It's also likely that poorly done jaw shaves can cause TMJD due to the strain put on the joint afterwards. That would explain why some idols who had obvious jaw shaves in the past seem to keep on correcting the shape of their jaw.

Ouch, that's kinda disrespectful towards EXO-Ls and his former bandmates to announce it today. Dude had 5 years to do so...

happy birthday Aries king

someone from Breda who's not an EDM DJ, that's a rare sight.

To be fair, Sakura went through a lot of shit management moves in her 48 career. The underage gravure, that time Watanabe Mayu threatened to kill her and called her a plastic monster on her private Instagram, the mistreatment of HKT48's first generation in their first three years of existence, her controversial center position for AKB48's 10th anniversary single... I'm not worried for her, she went through worse in her teens. Chaewon also had these rumors about her and Yuri being the rigged members of IZ*ONE, which must'nt have been easy for her to handle. Regardless of what happens, the both of them and pehraps Yunjin are popular enough on their own to bounce back somewhere else. The two unexperienced members, on the other hand...

^ indeed, let's not forget that Trinity was fired from GLAM after proof of her being a sasaeng of SuJu's Leeteuk resurfaced. to be honest, the number 6 seems very crucial to the group's concept and image. unless they can find her an unproblematic replacement, she will not leave the group.

Yank award shows have always been utterly boring, though. Moments like The Slap look like a child's lullaby next to the usual BRIT Awards drama...

Whether it's for the atmosphere, the structure, the use of the girl's vocals or these anthemics "woo", it sounds like a something out from Lorde's Melodrama album. Huge compliment for me, one of the greatest pop albums of the past decade. It's also refreshing to see a girlgroup ditching once for all the raps and the high-pitched vocals. Rei cements her status as my favorite member, once again. Absolutely adore her voice tone and blunt bangs.

I adore the guitar work on the verses, gets me back to some of my favorite BB tracks such as Love Song or Stupid Liar. YG artists should really stick to acoustic/instrumental tracks, that's where their songwriters excel. They do love that rabbit on the moon metaphor though, it was already present in Bae Bae.

Having followed Sakura's career for nearly 10 years now, she looks about the same in these teasers as she did back in 2016-2017. It's just that her hair is longer, her skin is obviously bleached, and the contact lenses she wears in the video are giving uncanny valley vibes. I could hardly recognize her in her IZ*ONE days, as the amount of fillers she was getting back then diverted the attention from her trademark big eyes.

Simply impressed at how well their voices blend together, this quality is usually hard to find in bands from other agencies than YG or SM. Good job from everyone involved. BAE and Sullyoon have my favorite tones of this batch, aside obviously Lily, who's simply in a league of her own.