Oh, Taiwanese entertainment, never change!

[dangermousie]

What is it with Taiwan and creating groups based on fictional characters the group members portrayed?

I thought F4 was an abberation, but I found out today that the five guys who play the Wu Hu Jiang (a.k.a. Five Tiger Generals) in K.O. 3an Guo were all put in a band called...what else? Wu Hu Jiang...during the filming of the drama and continued

Comments

[fivil]

In a weird way I find this way of assembling boybands more organic than the Korean/Japanese format of training them from teens to becoming these idols who can supposedly all sing and dance and act and everything in one package. Essentially the Taiwanese format is cashing in on fan interest, as opposed to having to form that fan interest from the bottom up.

Not that either of them is a truly organic way of making a band, but you know what I mean. I was shocked to discover recently that there's a large portion of kpop fans who have zilch interest in kdramas unless the kdramas have idols in them. I'm kind of the opposite - idols make me suspicious, not excited.

One girl I talked to recently told me she didn't like You're Beautiful, her first kdrama, but loved IRIS. I was like, "yeah, obviously, IRIS was brilliant!" and asked why she decided to give it a go, assuming she'd say something about the plot or Lee Byung-hyun or just the megalomaniac budget put into good use. Her reply, however, was that TOP from Big Bang is in it.. er. I love that dude, but I was still like, "er, seriously?".

Anyway, that's a rather random anecdote, but I guess my point is, I'd rather it be that people get into Fahrenheit because they like Wu Zun and Jiro Wang's acting, not the other way around. To me it seems like in Taiwan, for the most part, the music is secondary to the idol dramas. I could be wrong about that, though -- will have to keep an eye out for how into twpop the people over there seem to be when I go.

[dangermousie]

I just think it's weird to have it after fictional characters. I don't know, the whole Asian pop world confuses me.