New Chinese Boyband A-One to debut on Happy Camp

I was going to post this later when this episode airs on 12-6, but I changed my mind. I think my first reaction upon hearing about this group when they first posted on their blog that they were going to debut on Happy Camp a couple of weeks ago, was to be appalled because I thought two were enough (I’ve given up on Seventeen). If the Chinese music scene were a person I’d shake him/her and ask her are you going out of your mind?

Fancam of their song, Insect Whirlwind. (I’ll add better the official vids to this post once this thing airs…after watching this I’m definitely tuning in because their choreography is my favorite of the boybands)

I’m going to use an economic analogy here, because a country’s entertainment is characterized by 25% innovation and 75% economic status. It’s an economic principle that developing countries, who develop later, develop at a faster rate. I think this principle can be applied here. Not only have four Chinese boybands debuted around the same time but this last one is one of those funky-membered boybands that usually don’t show up until a few years after a country has tested the waters and already had their requisite 5-member boybands for a while. But China’s already started the experimenting.

According to the early reports there are 3 + X members. Three are supposed to perform at a time, and X means that the others better work hard to get the opportunity next time. The number performing at a time in their performances has ranged quite a bit. In total there are 7 members. They at first had just three members and they just kept adding until this particular number. Each one represents a different insect, hence the “Insect Whirlwind” song and dance. Odd but ok, it did produce some cool, unique choreography.

That being said, I’ve really enjoyed some of the songs I’ve heard on their blog (I actually just left it on repeat in another browser while typing this) and they still sound like cpop despite dabbling in that dance/rnb/hiphop/rap stuff. In particular their most-ballad-type one…It was their first MV and features their 3 earliest members. But the compliments stop there. Just the fact that they have 7 members (not to mention the good songs and brilliant choreography) shows that this company is quite willing to put out some money and that they’re probably going to stick around.

Does the fact that there are now 6 boybands (including BoBo and SJ-M) in the Chinese market scare anyone else? Like to death? I think it’s good that Chinese fangirls who need idols now can spend their money on Chinese artists but I’m quite afraid because the Chinese music scene is not developed and I don’t want it to be like Korea (no offense) where the most well-known groups are boybands simply because that’s where most of the money goes. I mean, if there’s 6 now…how many are there going to be in a few years time? There’s already another one waiting to debut, but they look lame and I’m not going to worry about them.

I think the rock scene is pretty well-established in China (well, mainly Beijing) to the point where they wouldn’t be affected, but what about other artists/composers who want to go mainstream? Would this help or hurt the underground Chinese hip-hop scene that hiphop.cn has been painstakingly promoting on their website? I don’t know anymore. I can’t predict it at all, and I guess we just have to see.

I’ll add more clips of their debut to this post when they show up.

Singing 青春 (Youth) Fancam

And what is with every single Chinese boyband getting trashed by Super Junior M fans? A-ONE never said anything about Super Junior M and they’re getting insults even before they debut. Of course they’re going to try to compete with another boyband in their market! It’d be unreasonable for a boyband not to try to gain as many fans as possible!

Tags: A-One