Girl Not Included
So when I posted on A-One, I think I alluded to these guys, but in general I’ve blocked them out of my mind like they never existed. However their first MV is the first look at All’s Well Ends Well 2009, which was the third most anticipated Chinese movie of the holiday season. Creepy isn’t it? The look at All’s Well Ends Well starts a while in…is it worth going through the pink sugary sweetness to get to that and Louis Koo? I’ll let you decide.
Feng Yun Bang – Happy New Year 2009 (Fixed Audio Version)
This one has seven? members. I believe they are from a Beijing-based company. When you think about how many of these boybands are Beijing-based it’s pretty sad considering Beijing is China’s rock and roll epicenter. I would tentatively say that they’re another Chinese boyband for the count, AGAIN, but they’re not trying so much the flashy song and dance technique though as much as cute, which at this point is almost refreshing. What can I say? China’s music scene has completely gone off its rocker. When you pump boybands out faster than South Korea, there’s really something drastically wrong.
I can’t hate them too much… my Wang Yuexin approves of them and at least they have a Chinese name. That boy in the glasses is adorable too…reminds me of a cute turtle for some reason. When A-One debuts we’re so doing a poll on these new boybands…I’m pretty sure this is the last one for 2008 but you never know. One can only hope…since at this point four..five? (I’ve seriously lost count) have debuted in the past two months.
And yes, I realize the video cuts off in the middle with its sound. Couldn’t find anything better. I think it’s a sign.
And remember when I said I wished the boybands would dress up in Hanfu? This wasn’t what I had in mind:
Tang Dynasty never looked so decadent.
December 2, 2008 at 7:29 am
Ah!!!! Must resist temptation to compare to Kpop!!1 Ok, whatever, I watched this and it’s like a freaky hybrid between DBSK’s balloons and SJH’s pj party. Since the sound cut off half way through I didn’t bother with the rest of the mv but I’m not really crying over it.
Oh, and if you’re taking bets, I’ll take Top Combine and A-One. While neither is gonna win any originality awards anytime soon, I can at least pretend they’re sort of cool whereas I really can’t justify to myself in anyway to listen to this again.
December 2, 2008 at 7:34 am
They’re in full body animal body suits.
I think that’s all that needs to be said.
December 2, 2008 at 1:43 pm
@windowwatcher – Bets? I feel like all are going to stick around. Top Combine I feel will be towards the top and this one I’m going to say is near the bottom. China has too many people…there’s a niche for everyone!
But you know…they did open for SHE and FRH at whatever concert they and they already have fans. Probably teenyboppers who like the cute concept.
Really, there’s no direction for Chinese boybands to be original. Japan did the ghey cute fanservice thing to the max, and then America did the hip-pop dancing thing, which Korea took over, and so, what’s left? I guess what would be neat would be if they got five hot students majoring in classical Chinese instruments and put them in a group like Twelve girls band, but just not so many. That’d be original. Otherwise…boybands and originality are oxymorons.
@VII – I’m so proud of you for not knowing this is not the first time an Asian boyband has dressed like this. I wish the same could be said for me.
December 2, 2008 at 1:54 pm
Who’s the girl?
I just remembered the fahrenheit comparison…xin li you shu.
I guess animal suits are popular among boybands, especially since you don’t have to dance in them.
December 2, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Lol…I have no idea, but they need to do a better job with the MV.. When it was her part to sing, they showed the boys lips moving and it was freaky.
December 2, 2008 at 5:13 pm
Do you really think all of these groups will enjoy success in some capacity? I’m not asking rhetorically, I mean, even in Korea and Taiwan (and Japan I’d imagine) there are failed boybands. But you’re right, asian people do love the cute concept, but they love the mysterious, bad-boy-but-not-really thing more. Still, asian boybands go through concepts like they go through hair styles, so who knows what their next mv will be…
December 2, 2008 at 6:39 pm
Well, I didn’t say they’d all be successful, just probably enough to stick around…I’m not looking at it in terms of probability, or statistics where it seems logical that at least one boyband would fail. I’m basically looking at how much success/fans they have already.
I think Top Combine is well on its way to becoming China’s most popular boyband (if you don’t count BoBo as a boyband) for a myriad of reasons, the Superboys connection, all their activites in China (so many) and the fact that they are all pretty unique and add something to the group. None of them annoy me at all, which is rare. Even Liu Zhoucheng the vain one seems like a awesome guy to be around, and help me, I’m starting to ship Ma Xueyang and Jin Ensheng….me! The only other slashy couple I’ve really liked were the two hot swimmers from China in the Olympics, Wu Peng and Zhang Lin. They basically screamed write me fanfic. Ahem…anyway…
HIT-5 – well they’re going to survive for their looks. They are eye-catching and they have enough talent to keep people interested. They’re not perfect but they are really young still and hopefully they can grow to where they deserve those fans.
A-One already has accumulated quite a fanbase, and Wind and Cloud as well, though not quite so much. They both seem to have decent companies though and they both seem to bring something different to the table. One has good choreography and songs with strong beats, and Wind and Cloud has amped up the “Ke Ai” factor quite a bit, more so than everyone else and they also look young. There’s a market for them even if they do end up being the most untalented of the bunch.
Seventeen – I think this is the one that I don’t see actually making it. Poor guys, one of them is uber talented and graduated from a music conservatory. All them seem like they can sing.
And well, BoBo…you could take away two thirds of their fans (like the only fans) and they’d still be the most popular group in China.
There’s also other factors to consider. The Chinese boybands came out all at once, with rather even footing. Boys like TVXQ got lucky that they were the first in a while. Any other boybands that came out after them got less and less attention because people already had their boyband of choice, and furthermore, their company wasn’t as good as packaging them.
Wow, sorry, that was long. It’s an interesting phenomenon though, this boyband wave from China. I’ve never seen anything like it. Two months ago I would have never thought Chinese companies would be putting this much effort into boybands.
December 2, 2008 at 10:11 pm
Hahahaha. This is actually a bit scary. A new boyband every week.
December 2, 2008 at 11:25 pm
Lol, now you’re afraid?
December 3, 2008 at 1:28 am
Didn’t Wei Chen/Yu Haoming/etc. dress in very similar clothing for a certain episode of Happy 2008? I think then Hunan reused it for the SJM Bravely Going Forward mv…. those look so cheap and ugly compared to the kimonos that the Japanese or the Hanboks tha the Korean celebs all wear sometimes.
I remember all the top 4 Super Girls in 2006 dressed in Hanfu…those were actually pretty good.
as did the top 5(?) My Hero contestants.
BOBO was also in that one short video where they dressed up in Hanfu.
December 3, 2008 at 1:33 am
Well…I think they’re vacationing in some city before their concert with SHE and Fahrenheit, and I think they just bought them from a street vendor, so yeah, they are cheap.
I don’t remember those. I like the stuff they wore on Tian Tian Xiang Shang though. The My Hero top 5 costumes looked really awkward, except on a few people. Jing Boran just looked cute.
I really hope that the return to Confucianism signals also a return to wearing these things more, for photoshoots, etc …at whim.
December 3, 2008 at 2:10 am
[...] Read More About Feng Yun Bang (Wind and Cloud) Girl Isn’t Part of the Boyband [...]
December 3, 2008 at 2:47 am
I really don’t like this one.
Other boybands like Top Combine and Hit 5 are 100x better IMO, at least judging from that MV haha.
December 3, 2008 at 2:59 am
Yeah, I’m afraid now xD. And this song is too cutesy D: The animal suits remind me of DBSK’s Balloons video, which I really did not like.
December 3, 2008 at 3:56 am
this is a really random comment, but where are they in that picture? it’s so clean. people are always saying how China is dirty. i’ve only been to Beijing, but it was really clean – but i suppose they were enforcing those Etiquette rules for the Olympics.
for a moment there – i thought they were A-One. i can’t really tell them apart. i’m waiting for a 6 member group to come out since we have 4,5,7 member groups.
i agree to a return to Confucianism values! and nicer Hanfus too!
December 3, 2008 at 4:10 am
Yeah, this group does seem the suckiest. I’m hoping it’s just because of the style they were going for, but I suspect as well it’s because they just suck.
It’s in Han Zhou, near Westlake somewhere I believe since I saw a vid of them at Westlake saying how they wanted to see the pretty girls Han Zhou is known for.
China is dirty in some places, and it does look dirty due to a lot of construction but some of the city centers, with the gardens, and walkways are the cleanest you’ll find, like you see here. In general I think China is getting cleaner, and not just because of the Olympics, because I went in three times before the Olympics in 1997, 2000, 2002 and each time it looked better.
Be careful what you wish for anon…at this rate by Chinese New Years we’ll probably have groups ranging from 2-10 or something.
December 3, 2008 at 4:14 am
^LOL. Maybe they’ll even surpass 13 and make a 14 member group D:
December 3, 2008 at 4:18 am
Lol, the possibilties are endless. Dare to dream. I say I don’t like seeing so many boybands, but in reality I’m really quite indebted to them for probably 80% of my repeat visitors. I don’t know what would become of this site should China popping out boybands.
December 3, 2008 at 4:34 am
well, there’s already the twelve-girls band for 12…
And you can always count the Inner Mongolia 37 member children’s choir ( 五彩呼伦贝尔) as a “band”…
but I think after 13, it should be a choir, or a performing troupe. Actually, 13 is enough for a performing troupe.
December 3, 2008 at 4:53 am
Idk what to say… its really umm Asian. kawaii to the MAX!lol
But seriously, Asian boybands are always like this. reminds me a bit of Bang Bang Tang actually and some other k-pop, t-pop, j-pop, boybands. As for that last pic, those are Peking opera costumes yeah? dont think they would have worn that during the Tang considering Peking Opera originated in the Ching
December 3, 2008 at 5:00 am
this is how i would rank the groups based on vocal talent and what i’ve seen so far:
Seventeen
Top Combine
HIT-5/A-One
Wind and Cloud
seriously, its getting kinda scary how theres a new boy band popping out each week..we can’t keep count! but please quality before quantity!
December 3, 2008 at 5:05 am
@Billy…I don’t know…but this group is definitely the kawaiist of the all, or as I prefer, most “Ke ai”.
@anon
Wow…so basically they got worse as they went on?
December 3, 2008 at 11:15 am
eh, I don’t see anything wrong with all the boybands coming out. It’ll help make the market for it more competitive.
I don’t really care for boybands but I like to see the progress/changes China is making on their way to becoming the world’s largest entertainment market. It’s fun to watch.
I think China needs to get out a couple girl groups too.
December 3, 2008 at 5:22 pm
billy:
….isn’t the dress for Kun opera, not Peking opera?
December 4, 2008 at 1:32 am
@…
China’s music industry is not really mature. I don’t want them to flood the market and not allow really talented artists to survive.
@whomever…I thought they were Tang outfits..:(
December 4, 2008 at 2:38 am
they are Tang outfits…Kun opera uses Tang outfits. That one’s Kun opera, not Peking Opera.
December 4, 2008 at 6:22 am
yeah, sorry… its kun opera. but why would kun opera use Tang outfits when it originated far later than the Tang dynasty? anyway, they definitely wouldnt have looked like that,lol… just go see paintings from the Tang and you will know. They look alot more uhh dignified.haha
December 4, 2008 at 6:35 am
to be honest, my knowledge of Chinese history is not good enough for me to tell Han, Tang, Song, and Ming clothing apart unless it’s really obvious… it could be Ming clothing, for all I know…
and it could also be Cantonese opera, since I can’t tell the difference between yue and kun opera’s clothings (of course, yue opera did come later, so it probably incorporated parts of kun opera)…
I grew up in Beijing…it’s literally the only opera I can tell apart…and even that gets mixed with Sichuan opera sometimes.
May 13, 2009 at 8:30 pm
I actually have their CD the songs are actually pretty good, nothing really stood out but the over quality is still good.
December 20, 2009 at 3:34 am
Just out of curiosity, was this the group that broke up? Or was that Seventeen?
December 20, 2009 at 3:39 am
That was Seventeen. This one…ha, haven’t checked up on them because no one really cares about them.