Nine Muses in the analogy of Infinite

I've been playing that song for five days straight, since its release on November 24 2015.


"Ticket", the second Nine Muses song that got me hooked on the band after "Figaro", which I've already put on this blog twice. If you happen to be Indonesian and remember the '90s Indonesia, don't you think it sounds a little bit like the disco dangdut genre that was popular at that time?


If you're a Nine Muses fan (henceforth a "Mine") who also happens to be an Inspirit, you should notice by now that Park Minha is like the Lee Sungyeol of Nine Muses. Both are considered the "dead weight" of their respective groups, not as talented as the rest of the group in terms of singing and dancing. While some fans argue that Minha is the visual member of Nine Muses just like some Inspirits consider Sungyeol Infinite's visual member, there's no denying that Park Kyungri is the most famous member of the eight-member girl group. In other words, whether or not Kyungri was meant from the start to be the visual member just like Kim Myungsoo was set to be so for Infinite, she attracts people into Nine Muses just like Myungsoo lures girls to become Inspirits. And let's not forget the fact that both Kyungri and Myungsoo are pretty decent vocalists with more lines than Sungyeol and Minha combined.

And after the departure of Ryu Sera, who is herself a legit all-rounder (a super gorgeous multi-instrumentalist who writes songs, danced well (though not as well as Park Eunji, also a former Muse) and served as one of the main vocalists), a lot of Mines have stated that they stay because of Moon Hyuna. Hyuna is another main vocalist who's turning 29 in January 2016 (international age) and one of those bonafide 'vampire idols' alongside 2NE1's Sandara Park and Super Junior's Choi Siwon. In short, she's the Kim Sunggyu of Nine Muses.

A 'dead weight' member is totally nothing new in K-pop bands. Almost each band in the genre has one such member, another example is Juliane Alfieri of the now-defunct girlband Chocolat. As with the history of all girlbands and boybands anywhere in the world, K-pop bands are formed mostly, if not entirely, for commercial purposes. Visual members are there to attract people to their bands, a duty they share to varying degrees with the main dancers, while main vocalists are usually those that make fans stay. All in all, each member has their own reasons to shine and each has more or less equal amount of chance to become favourites among fans. But what about the dead weight members? Do they serve other purposes besides backing vocalists? Are they there to...make young teenage fans with low self esteem feel as if they have someone to relate to? You tell me.

On Nine Muses' comeback...

After much anticipation, Nine Muses is finally back, having hibernated for one year due to the painful loss of three members: Lee 'Leesem' Hyunjoo, Park Eunji and Ryu Sera. That's rapper, main dancer and main singer respectively. And they're back with two new members: Jo Sojin, who previously appeared in the sub-unit Nasty Nasty with another Nine Muses member Park Kyungri and ZE:A member Kevin Kim, and Lee Keumjo.

It took me a long time to decide what to focus on regarding Nine Muses and their comeback, but I finally decided to focus on their new single "Drama" and Sera's decision to continue her showbiz career apparently as indie musician.

In light of their comeback in mid-2003 with the single "Wild", Sera released a cover of Joss Stone's "Karma." It was professionally shot though it was very low-budget, filmed on the set of "Wild" music video. It kept Mines on the edges of their seats, as promises of her solo career seemed to be looming.



Sera released a couple more cover videos courtesy of Star Empire, but no actual solo career materialised, until news broke that she 'graduated' from Nine Muses.

Now fast forward to January 23 2015 when Nine Muses released a new single titled "Drama." Take a look.



Eldest member Moon Hyuna just celebrated her 28th birthday on January 19. Yes that's her international age, which means in Korean age she's 29 years old. Anyone with any real musical talent and self respect would want to stop prancing around pulling aegyo and looking every bit manufactured past the age of 25. Since her departure, Sera has been very active on her own YouTube channel that she calls RyuTube, releasing cover songs and songs that she writes herself. I guess it was the same reason for Jessica Jung, who left Girls' Generation in October 2014 to focus on her fashion line, Blanc & Eclare.

Crap real '80s and awesome pseudo '80s

Hi kids!

As I grew up in the '80s, I'm familiar with the "Dance Club Barbie" and "Barbie and The Beat" ranges. I have both their cassettes - the "Dance Club Barbie" cassette I bought in 1989 and "Barbie and The Beat" cassette I obtained a little later, maybe 1991 as the songs on the "Barbie and The Beat" cassette were my third grade jam. "Barbie and The Beat" range itself is believed to have come out in The US also in 1989.

After years of perusing through YouTube to find songs from "Barbie and The Beat", I finally came across this.



One of the comments is from a girl who said the songs drove her mother crazy because they sounded like they were "recorded in the garage." Honestly I can't agree more. The songs are probably '80s at its cheesiest. The vocal alone is weak and if you listen carefully, there are parts where the vocal is not well-timed. And don't get started on the rap...

Sick of this at the first listen in 23 years, I found remedy in one song that I always play when I don't know what song to play on YouTube. The one song that sounds VERY '80s yet was actually released in 2011.



Yes, this song again. Isn't it ironic that the video reached one million views only very recently, after the departure of Leesem (real name Lee Hyunjoo) and Park Eunji...