T-ara's Sub-unit of Epicness

This has actually been on my brain for a long time, but there was a lot of uncertainty surrounding the topic, so I didn't feel confident talking about it until two days ago. Then I got into my blogger mode and took a stand!

I suppose it will be most effective to get to the meat of the matter first, and then explain the treacherous backstory.

Okay, here it goes.

T-ARA IS MAKING A KOREAN COMEBACK.

OR SHOULD I SAY...

T-ARA'S SUB-UNIT!!!

That's right. Considering that they have been around for four years and had reached the status of third most popular girl group in Korea, it's surprising that they haven't taken this step a long time ago. They might have been preparing it when Hwayoung left the group, heavily denting their popularity.

Anyways, guess who the members are?

EUNJUNG

HYOMING

AREUM

AND FREAKING JIYEON.

Y'all know me, cuz y'all ARE me, so you understand that this is like a dream come true. It can't go wrong! They'll each get so much more screen time and lines too... so happy.

The name of the group will be revealed tomorrow (Friday the twelfth) and the single - "Country Life" will be released May 1st. The concept seems to be similar to their Breaking Heart look. I hope the name is something jewelry related. Like "Diamond" or "Ring" or something. Because that would match with T-ara/tiara!

Luckily for us, we have been gifted with Jiyeon's amazing teaser picture... I don't know when she had time to do that to her hair, but it looks epic. It kind of reminds me of the weird hair changes that occurred with SNSD's "I Got a Boy" comeback, but this is kind of cooler, if I'm aloud to say that...

I have mixed feelings about this teaser picture. It's obvious that Jiyeon will look stunning in this concept, and I'm eager to see how it suits the other members... but at the same time, this isn't the most Jiyeon-ish picture possible. I know that that happens all the time with kpop pictures, but her expression is just... a non-familiar expression on Jiyeon's face. I can't wait to see her in the music video too.

Okay, so what happened with this story? Well, maybe two weeks ago, Allkpop reported CCM announcing this sub-unit and I was soooo happy. Then t-araworld.com had an article, and all the other sites fallowed some time after... but, the very next day, there were some comments on the allkpop article that said "No, this is fake, the company denied it, they were hacked..." or something like that. 

I didn't really believe them but when I went to check t-araworld.com, the article had been TAKEN DOWN, probably just due to uncertainty. I was so confused and it made my heart break because it WOULD have been the best sub-unit ever.

Then allkpop released another article saying that there were more details about the concept... it was just fuzzy. 

Luckily, everything has been cleared up. The company reassured the fans, t-araworld.com posted another article and everything is good now.

The one icky-ish feeling I have is that the comments that the company made about the comeback were a little... over-confident. They made aspirations to dance anthems like YMCA and Gangnam Style, which frankly I just think is a BAD IDEA. I'm sure the comeback will be amazing and catchy and sexy and will blow everyone out of the water, but comparing it to Gangnam Style... I just doubt it will work. Nothing can match Gangnam Style, and T-ara might receive hate for not living up to the hinted glory.

Sigh. So excited!

T-ARA

T-ARA

Source of the most epic music videos EVER! No powerhouse vocals here, really,
but they are popular for their catchy pop tunes and arrangements.

Members:

AREUM (Maknae)

QRI

HWAYOUNG (former rapper)

JIYEON (AAAAH!)

EUNJUNG (B's Crush)

SOYEON (Current leader)

BORAM (Sasha look-a-like)

HYOMIN

Former member Hwayoung:

We shall miss her!

Joining member Dani:

To debut in December.

Debuted: 2008           Company: CCM Entertainment
Popularity: 7/10         Subgroups: None

Leader: Soyeon
Former Leaders: Boram, Eunjung, Hyomin
Maknae: Areum
Former Maknae: Hwayoung, Jiyeon
Lead dancer: Jiyeon
Other main dancers: Eunjung and Hyomin
Lead rapper: Areum
Other rappers: Eunjung and Hyomin
Former Lead Rappers: Hwayoung and Eunjung

General Rankings of Member Usage:

1) Hyomin	Soyeon	Eunjung
2) Jiyeon	Areum
3) Boram	Qri

More Defined Individual Rank:
1. Soyeon
2. Hyomin
3. Eunjung
4. Jiyeon
5. Areum
6. Boram
7. Qri

Hit Songs:
-Bo Peep Bo Peep
-Like the First TIme
-Breaking Heart
-Make Me Crazy
-Roly Poly
-Why are You Being Like This?
-Yayaya
-Cry Cry
-Lovey Dovey
-Day by Day
-Sexy Love

My Member Ranking:

	Beauty	Singing	Favorites
Hyomin	2	1	2
Eunjung	6	2	5
Boram	6	4	5
Jiyeon	1	2	1
Soyeon	4	1	5
Areum	3	3	3
Qri	5	5	4

Benjamin's Member Ranking:

	Beauty	Singing	Favorites
Hyomin	3	3	2
Eunjung	1	2	1
Boram	4	4	4
Jiyeon	2	1	3
Soyeon	5	4	5
Areum	4	4	5
Qri	5	5	4

T-ara Chair Count

On the prophet blog there was an article about the dance music video for Day by Day. It said something like this:

"In the new visual, the girls can be seen performing Jonte Moaning’s expressive choreography in an abandoned brick building, in between individual cuts of them looking like flawless beauties as they pose on a an old brown arm chair (okay, it’s mostly just cuts of Jiyeon, but whatever)."

I was like "Okay, that's likely, since Jiyeon is the face of the group as well as unbelievable sexy, but is that really true? There was a lot of Eunjung in there too, as I recall..."

So I went back and watched, keeping careful tally. The results were as follows:

Areum	5
Boram	3
Eunjung	11
Hwayoung	8
Hyomin	15
Jiyeon	20
Qri	6
Soyeon	4

As predicted, Jiyeon outstripped the competition by a wide margin. The range in chair shots was actually surprisingly large. For some reason Qri, who unfortunately has often been ignored by the company, has more shots than Soyeon, the leader.
...
I mean, Soyeon had a lot of close up shots. I dunno. So did everyone. I didn't count those.
Hyomin came in second, then Eunjung.

I feel sad about the unbalanced-ness, but let's just revel in the glory of Jiyeon in a chair and forget about it.

Kpop Crushes

My friends seem to think that I crush on every hot Asian girl. That is not true. Asian girls just tend to have a higher frequency of hotness. Especially in kpop groups from selective manipulating companies.
I made this scale to clarify how much I'm not crushing on everyone.

Scale of Crushness:
1- Hot/Attractive
2- Almost a crush (more-than bias)
3- Crush

Jiyeon - 3

Hyomin - 2

Areum - 1

Min - 1.5

Jia - 1.5

Taeyeon - 2

Tiffany - 2

Jessica - 1

Seohyun - 1.5

Yuri - 2
Yoona - 1
Hyorin - 2
Soyu - 2.5
Bora - 2
Dasom - 2
Suzy - 1
Fei - 1
Soyeon - 1


So there. Jiyeon's my only full fledged crush. Even when I'm assailed by the overwhelming hotness and general wonderfulness of other korean girls, it's not the same as a crush. Although, I have to say that Sistar comes pretty darn close.


Seriously, Jiyeon is like the hottest thing on the planet right now.