I am a fan of Super Junior. I really like them, I’m just not really an ELF.

A quick background first:

Super Junior was originally a 12-member group that debuted with the single, ‘Twins’, then they promoted ‘Miracle’ off the full-length album that followed their debut. I personally thought that the choreography for ‘Twins’ was impressive and made use of their strength in numbers, something a regular 5-person group would only be able to do with back-up dancers. ‘Miracle’ was cute and since most of them were in their early twenties, I think a lot of girls would fall for their ‘flower boy’ concept. Then came new maknae Kyuhyun and made the group 13 and they had a mini-album ‘U’. I won’t go through the rest of the background. Go read it on Wikipedia. I’ve even hyperlinked the page for you here.

If one looked at the group from a business/marketing point of view (I think), their unique selling points would be that

1. They were a 12-member group – The members had different strengths and therefore allowing the management to place them in different areas of entertainment. As a group, they sang and danced and guested on variety shows. Individually, or in smaller groups, they could branch out to act, host, DJ or even release individual singles, which seems to be popular these days.
2. Since there were many members, their personalities and looks were different (and can only be grouped as ‘good-looking, I guess), so they appealed to many different types of fans (from tiny tots to ahjummas) though the main audience would be teenage/adolescent girls.
3. They had a Chinese member, Han Geng (who is my favourite!), so they could do promotions in China as well. It would be good to note that Han Geng was the first Chinese artiste (and therefore considered a foreigner in South Korea) to debut in Korea. Legal problems with his visa occurred, but were sort of settled later. But this smoothed out the process for other foreign trainees who were set to debut in Korea. So thank Han Geng (and SM) for taking the rap for all the foreign artistes out there!

Okay. Finally the main point. I’m really upset that Super Junior has only 10 members left of the original. Although it’s always been said that some members have less exposure, but with the release of ‘Bonamana’ (which I think is a lame song title. Come on, SM producers, you can easily come up with something better!), I really think that Super Junior has lost a little of its lustre without 13. It feels like something is missing. Though Han Geng seems to be doing pretty well on his own in China, where he won’t feel like an outcast, but honestly, he wouldn’t have the popularity or the ability to do what he is doing now if he didn’t debut with Super Junior. I never really bothered about Kibum, since he is rarely there and easy for me to miss, and I’ve always felt Kangin had a bad boy tendency, but I hope they do come back soon, even Han Geng. *Hopes, wishes, prays*

So I was put off Super Junior for a while, just keeping up with the minimum news and performances. Although Bonamana has a unique sound (Latin? Salsa? Something along those lines), I didn’t really like it. And then they came up with their new song ‘No Other’. And I really like it! For some reason, I’m back on the Super Junior bandwagon! Here is a live performance:

I love the song better than Sorry Sorry and Bonamana! And I love Heechul‘s hair too!

Meanwhile, here is a new girl group from JYP: miss A

They are good, and I don’t know much about them yet but I think most of them are Chinese. They have pretty good voices and dance skills (boy can they split! The only thing I’d split is my pants…). Doesn’t seem like the voices are autotuned, as is common these days, and the song’s not high pitched, so a person with a voice in a lower key can actually sing it without getting a sore throat. However, I have a feeling that something is missing from their performance/song… Any ideas?