A lot of bad things happened in 2014, which is making fans say that this was the worst year in the history of K-Pop and that it should be erased from our memories. But was it all bad?
So many good things also happened this year, and we shouldn’t let the bad ones wipe them out just because they seemed bigger. People usually receive the impact of bad things in a greater way than good things, which can make it seem like the good ones didn’t happen at all.
For this reason, we from Officially Kmusic decided to make this post remembering some of the things that made 2014 a unique and unforgettable year. We, together, bring you the 14 reasons why 2014 shouldn’t be forgotten and hope you enjoy it.
1. 2NE1 And SNSD Had Their Much Awaited Comeback At The Same Time
Let’s face it, this was epic. The year had barely started when we found out that both 2NE1 and SNSD were having their awaited comeback on the same date and time. The fans went crazy. The two biggest girl groups from Korea, both having pink as their fandom color, would compete face to face for the first spot.
Well, both had their problems too. While 2NE1 had their music video for “Come Back Home” delayed, SNSD lost part of the footage of “Mr.Mr.” and had to work out with what they had. Still, it was an epic month and if you want to remember more of how it was like, make sure you check this article and this article.
Also, let’s re-watch both music videos in order to remember how awesome they are:
2. “Eyes, Nose, Lips” And Its Covers
It doesn’t matter what the music awards say: Taeyang‘s “Eyes, Nose, Lips” was the song of the year. Not because of the song itself, but because of the repercussion it caused.
Not only YG artists like AKMU, Tablo and Lydia Paek did their own covers, but also many fans and many other K-Pop artists (including Tablo’s cute daughter Haru). If you want to remember the best covers of the song, you can do it here, and also make sure you watch the original video to feel that moment once again:
3. The “Frozen” Overdose
If there’s a movie that can describe K-Pop in 2014, it’s definitely Disney‘s “Frozen“. I’ve lost count of how many covers of “Let It Go” and “Do You Wanna Build a Snowman?” I’ve seen during the first semester of the year, from official stage performances to acoustic covers, from big artists to rookie groups.
“Frozen” not only reached us through covers. Orange Caramel wore a “Frozen” inspired outfit in one of their performances, Girl’s Day’s Yura made an incredible drawing of Elsa, the Crayon Pop twins dressed as Elsa and Anna, SBS “Rommate” used “Frozen” in their promotional teasers, Super Junior dressed as Elsa for their concert and let’s not forget Heechul‘s crescent obsession with Anna.
To remember this awesome movie that gave 2014 a new color, let’s watch one of the best (and probably funniest) “Let It Go” covers from South Korea:
4. Leeteuk Came Back From The Army and Super Junior Finally Had Their Comeback
Super Junior stayed two whole years without releasing a Korean album and it was probably due to the absence of their leader Leeteuk. In 2014, however, Leeteuk was finally discharged from the army and the member gathered to release their album “Mamacita“.
The comeback was everything the fans waited for. “Mamacita” had a Super Junior vibe from the beginning to the end and they were able to make up for the two years away. Also, after releasing their comeback MV, they released MVs for “This is Love” and “Evanesce“, once again warming the fans’ hearts.
Let’s watch “Mamacita” MV once again and laugh about the funny story:
5. Zhoumi Finally Received His Deserved Solo Debut
Super Junior-M‘s Henry surely graced the year of 2013 with his powerful solo debut. However, it seemed like the other Chinese member of the group, Zhoumi, had been forgotten in SM’s caves.
This year, he finally crawled out of it and dropped an amazing music video for “Rewind“. Zhoumi totally proved that he has talent enough to have a solo career and fans were extremely happy to see how much he had grown up.
Check out “Rewind” below:
6. Heechul And His Controversial Statements
When I look back to 2014, one thing surely comes to my mind: what would this year have been without Heechul? He was already making a fuss when he got out of the army, but his comments and Instagram posts totally changed the year’s mood.
We not only laughed about his obsession with “Frozen” Anna, or smiled upon his onscreen relationship with Puff Guo on “We Got Married“, or shipped him with his best friend Gunhee. He’s role as MC in “Ssul Jeon” was definitely important to carry the course of news this year.
Among the many controversial statements that Heechul made on the show, we have to remember when he talked about Hyuna‘s sexy eyes, and when he said that he had asked Sulli not to tell him anything about her relationship with Choiza so he wouldn’t have to lie on the show.
It was certainly sad when he announced that he was leaving the show, but it was probably the best decision before he said something that would compromise his career or his friendships.
To end with a golden key, let’s watch the most recent funny moment involving Heechul when he was totally not focused on Suju’s performance:
7. Much Awaited Debuts
2014 was the year in which the most awaited debuts finally came. The year started with the debut of GOT7, JYP‘s newest boygroup in a long time that had already gathered attention by competing against Team A and Team B from YG’s “WIN: Who Is Next?“. The boys quickly got lots of fans and made a successful comeback afterwards.
Following GOT7’s debut, we had AKMU in April. The duo had already gathered many fans through “K-Pop Star 2” and we waited for about a year for their debut. The waiting was totally worth it because AKMU’s album “Play” hit the charts and they won many music shows within weeks, which rarely happens with rookies.
Later, we had two consecutive debuts that overcame everyone’s expectations. The first one was from WINNER, whose debut had been pushed forward many times, and they surely pleased the fans who waited for about a year since the end of “WIN” for their debut.
The second one was rather unexpected since it came from no where, but there’s a reason why it’s in this topic. Many months after revealing SMROOKIES, SM Entertainment announced the debut of Red Velvet, which pleased many fans who were waiting for a long time for a new girl group from SM. Despite the controversies regarding their debut, the girls managed to succeed and gathered many fans.
To end the year with a golden key, we had Nicole‘s solo debut. After half a year from KARA‘s break-up, Nicole was finally back to the music scene with a powerful solo debut that overcame all expectations.
Apart from these, we had many other expected debuts, such as Lovelyz (Woolim Entertainment‘s first girlgroup), the “K-Pop Star 3” contestants (Bernard Park, Almeng and Nam Youngju) and, of course, SHINee‘s Taemin, Wonder Girls‘ Yenny and Super Junior‘s Kyuhyun and Zhoumi solo debuts.
2015 seems to be a promising year as well, with the debuts of SONAMOO (TS Entertainment‘s new girlgroup), CLC (CUBE Entertainment‘s new girlgroup), IKON (YG’s new boygroup), Pink Punk (YG’s new girlgroup), 5URPRISE (JYP’s new boygroup), 6Mix (JYP’s new girlgroup) and the solo debuts of 2NE1’s CL (in the US) and f(x)‘s Amber. Which one are you more excited about?
8. VIXX Found Their Niche
VIXX has been one of those groups that seemed to struggle for reasons that no one really pin down. They had a pretty much magical line-up of good looking, well mannered young men who’s varying talents had already set them above the rest and landed them their spot in the group. They had the backing of a label that had an unblemished record who seemed dedicated to their success. And, perhaps the most important of all, they had a dedicated fan base with manners,who cared about the group so much that they wrote a letter to the CEO of Jellyfish Entertainment when they felt like things weren’t going the way they should be. People were baffled by the struggle VIXX was having, why weren’t they more popular, what could the fans do to help them succeed?
If you looked closely at the releases and concepts, you could see Jellyfish finessing the members and their sound until the most wonderful thing happened this year: “Error“. Not only is ‘Error’ a stellar song for VIXX, it’s got strong implications across K-Pop as a whole. The fact that a group can have such success with a concept that does not match the one that they debuted with means that there is now proof of what fans have been saying for years: if a concept isn’t working, find one that will. Not only does the success of ‘Error’ hopefully signal the start of a long and illustrious career but the chance for other groups that aren’t getting love and attention to see that they to can crawl out from under unflattering and ill-fitting concepts and become publicly amazing. I’m looking at you M.I.B.
9. YG’s “Who’s Next?” Teasers
No matter how much YG stressed us with their trolling, this year wouldn’t have been the same without their “Who’s Next?” teasers. This thing began in 2013 with CL’s solo debut, but only gained strength in 2014.
YG used this promotion style to tease Taeyang’s “Eyes, Nose, Lips”, AKMU’s debut and their single “Time and Fallen Leaves”, Epik High’s comeback, HI SUHYUN’s debut and most recently their two hip-hop projects.
The phrase became YG’s mark this year and although some people are getting a bit tired of it, I hope it continues in 2015, because it’s the perfect way to tease fans and leave them guessing.
10. T.O.P Went Shirtless
One of the most known K-Pop urban legends is the fact that T.O.P from BIGBANG had never appeared shirtless anywhere. This led many fans to make collages with his head and shirtless bodies and gave material to many fanfics around there.
This year, however, the myth was destroyed by a movie called “Tazza 2“. In the movie, T.O.P play the role of Ham Dae Gil, a young gambler, and to play this character he went completely shirtless. We’re not talking about those bits of skin some fans used to find in photos or fanarts. We’re talking about completely. shirtless. abs.
If the above topics weren’t enough to convince you that 2014 was a good year, this has to do it!
11. Haru And Her Cuteness
We might not have had a “Hello Baby” this year, but Tablo’s daughter was here to grace our lives with her cuteness. Like Choo Sarang did in 2013, Haru was certainly the kid of the year!
She made us laugh uncountable times with her smart comments and filled the world with aegyo while playing with YG Artists such as 2NE1 and BIGBANG. She supported her father’s comeback and showed her knowledge of YG song by making her own covers and singing along in YG Family concerts.
She ended the year in the perfect way by appearing at Epik High’s concert, which forced Tablo to cutely change the lyrics of their songs so she wouldn’t learn swearing.
Let’s stay with a cute compilation of her:
12. Ladies Code’s Car Accident
Ok, now you might be thinking “why would I want to remember that?”, but here is the thing: just because something was bad, it doesn’t mean that we have to forget about it, and there are many reasons why Ladies Code‘s car accident mustn’t be forgotten.
The first one is that we lost two precious angels in K-Pop, EunB and RiSe, and surely shouldn’t forget about them and how talented they were. Also, as Ladies Code will probably make a comeback in the future, we mustn’t forget what happened to them in order to show them all our support and respect.
Another reason is that it was one of the most terrible accidents in the history of K-Pop, so we must always remember it order to not make the same mistakes and prevent accidents like this from happening in the future.
Let’s stay with the special MV made for EunB and RiSe:
13. Love Was In The Air
Romantic relationships have always been an issue in K-Pop, especially because of sassaeng fans who can’t handle their bias being in a relationship. Many companies also put dating bans to their idols and they can’t legally date that way.
This year, however, it seems like something has changed, since many couples went public, starting with three members of Girls’ Generation in January and February. What happened? Are the idols getting old enough to be allowed to date? Are the fans taking it easy? Are the companies becoming more liberal?
It doesn’t matter, what matter is that we came to know many couples this year, which include SNSD’s YoonA & Lee Seung Gi (who went public in the last day of 2013), SNSD’s Sooyoung & actor Jung Kyung Ho, SNSD’s Tiffany & 2PM’s Nichkhun, SNSD’s Taeyeon and EXO’s Baekhyun, Girl’s Day’s Minah & Soccer player Son Heung Min(who have already broken up), BEG’s Gain & actor Joo Ji Hoon, BEG’s JeA & YG producer Choi Pil Kang (PK), f(x)’s Sulli & Dynamic Duo’s Choiza and Super Junior’s Sungmin & actress Kim Sa Eun (who have recently got married).
SNSD’s Hyoyeon also confirmed to be dating a non-famous idol but having broken up with him earlier this year, and the rumors regarding G-Dragon’s relationship with Kiko Mizuhara are still up.
Do you think we’ll see more couples in 2015?
14. K-Idols Finally Spoke Up
Okay, many examples of this didn’t really work out well since many groups were disbanded or lost members, but we must remember that something very unusual happened this year when it comes to the relationship between idols an their companies.
We are aware that many K-Pop groups work under slave contracts and terrible conditions, but they almost never talk about it, fearing that their dream will be shattered if they go against their companies. In 2014, though, many of them decided not to put up with those conditions anymore.
The year started with the shocking news that EXO’s Kris had decided to take action to nullify his contract with SM Entertainment. Back then, everyone freaked out, because it was something very rare to happen. A few months late, though, when Luhan did the same thing, the impact wasn’t so big, since we had almost got used to the idea of idols going against their companies.
One of the most shocking examples was when ZE:A‘s leader Lee Hoo decided to talk about the conditions of the groups under Star Empire, and he did it by posting them on Twitter. The whole situation was very controversial and at the time it felt like a revolution in K-Pop, but in the end they went back to what they were, which was kind of sad.
The most recent news were about B.A.P deciding to nullify their “slave” contract with TS Entertainment due to their conditions, since apparently TS didn’t let them rest properly or shared the profits the right way. Both their case and the one from EXO’s members are still being judged, so we don’t know what the future is keeping for them.
Also, despite the company messes that ended up badly, we’ve seen some idols stand up in a good way as well. For example, when Sulli felt that she couldn’t go on with her promotions, she talked to SM Entertainment and they agreed to let her rest for a while.
Many people are seeing this as the worst part of 2014, but we must see the good side as well as it represents a big change in the entertainment structure in Korea. There’s no way of knowing what is waiting in 2015.
These were the reasons why we from Officially Kmusic believe that 2014 shouldn’t be forgotten. Did we manage to convince you that the year wasn’t as bad as it seemed?
We hope 2015 brings a new light to K-Pop and that all our readers have a wonderful year!
Edited by: LeighDarling
- Excited
- Fascinated
- Amused
- Bored
- Sad
- Angry
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
RSS