georgia in: a not-so-brief OT5!DBSK history 101
get your tardis/delorean or any other time travel devices ready to go
buckle your seatbelts, keep your tear buckets at hand at all times
and let's rewind time,
shall we?
warning: THIS WILL BE VERY LONG AND I’LL KEEP IT OT5 ONLY!
2003-2004
(or: stylist noonas hated everybody!)
DBSK/TVXQ debuted 148 years ago, in 2003, in an era of really great talented second generation idols, like fellow company member BoA. Their first song ever was quite the generic hit called Hug (beware of the ridiculous). They were sold as a vocal/acappella group from the start by SME (and had silly member names: Hero, Max, U-Know, Micky and Xiah - so I don’t really judge when people debut under names like “Suga”, haha), and their first performance was on the - behold - Britney Spears&BoA Showcase (YES. MISS BRITNEY SPEARS!). They were also ugly and had awful sense of style and hair (I blame the stylist noonas). Curious fact: they were almost called something along the lines of “the five visceras”. Yep. Imagine that name being used in 2013. Terribly awkward debut performance here, have fun. Back then groups/solo singers sold much more than now (and much more easily, too) - BoA, in 2003, sold more than a million copies of Valenti, in Japan, and 500k copies of No. 1 in Korea, for example. Hug was released in early 2004 and sold a bit more than a 150k back then. It was a good number for a single. Not too long after they released the ~cool~ The Way U Are (♥) - which did much better than Hug - and finally their debut album, Tri-angle, came out in October, 2004. They went for a darker, dramatic, slightly visual-kei-ish concept with their title track, and yeah. Hair. And feathers on their face, apparently. Their hair was out of control. In a period of one year they went for teens-in-love to cool cats in the club to Final Fantasy-gone-wrong characters.
But fret not, despite the hair, Tri-angle is a very good album (especially if you’re into western boybands from early 2000s/late 90s hahaha). I highly recommend: Believe, Whatever they say (it’s a cappella and it’s very nice!), Million men (♥), Will you be my girlfriend?, and the classic My little princess. It was a good start for SME's newest boyband.
2005
(or: free shipping to Japan)
SM Entertainment is known for shipping their artists to Japan as soon as it’s humanly possible. BoA, for example, was basically a child when they took her there, shortly after the release of her first korean album, in 2001 (correct me if I'm wrong!). Yep. It was no different for DBSK. In 2005, they were taken to Japan and released their first single Stay with me tonight (warning: awkward everything in HD, apparently), with Somebody to love following not too long after - both kind of flopped, if i’m not mistaken they didn’t chart ~that~ well. But then again, it wasn’t as easy to sell in Japan as it is today, it was a closed market and there weren’t many Korean acts trying their luck there by releasing actual J-Pop music (it had worked wonders with BoA though! I remember a lot of people thought she was actually japanese!). There are countless interviews where the boys say this was the hardest and darkest time for them - they were alone, depressed, away from their families and friends, they didn’t speak japanese at first so they couldn't communicate with their staff - so yeah. Japan was ridiculously tough on these poor children. As they were slowly saying goodbye to their rookie status in South Korea, it was a harsh change to be absolutely ignored by the japanese media - they literally started their careers again from scratch. It's funny how in a not-so-distant future, magazines would talk about the 'TOHOSHINKI effect' (or how they helped to pave the way to K-Pop artists in Japan, alongside BoA, Rain, and others).
The japanese bad trip didn't last forever - they returned to Korea at some point to bless us with the very good Rising Sun album. Stylist noonas did a good job that time - well, we can ignore Yoochun’s hair, maybe. You can watch the MV here. It’s a very good song, one of my favorite title tracks from DBSK ever ♥. And there's a lot of Changmin screaming and Yoochun in Britney Spears’ Slave 4 U balcony. I see it, I ship it. Other very good songs from that album: Tonight (please watch this live, it’s worth it!), Beautiful life, Dangerous mind, One, Always there. The officially left the rookie status far behind, selling more or less 200k copies of their second album - keep in mind that the selling rates for k-pop albums were slowly but surely starting to slump.
One thing i love about 2005/2006 was the fact they were in multiple variety shows and dramas. Yoochun and Yunho did cameos in Rainbow Romance (see!), they filmed their Vacations drama, the Banjun drama, Dating on Earth was filmed in that era too (though only released later - apparently the kissing scene caused havoc?). It was really fun to watch them on shows and that’s one of the main reasons i ended up loving them. Don’t forget to google tvxq xman / love letter at some point of your life. Seriously.
Oh! They released Show me your love with fellow labelmates Super Junior (who had debuted in November that year!) for Christmas.
2006-2007
(or: ALL THE AWARDS!)
Their japanese career finally started to take a turn for the good. Well. Kind of not really, but still! They achieved many things. Heart, Mind and Soul was their first japanese album and it flopped just like their previous releases despite having the EPIC FANTASTIC AMAZING My Destiny included in its tracklist. Seriously. This song is sex. Aaand if you want to laugh/cringe, you can always watch the japanese version of Rising Sun (that hot dog scene A+ PDs) which is included in the album, too. The singles that followed the album did much better: Sky finally put them in the Top 10 on Oricon, aaand later on Miss you (♥) got #3 on Oricon. Time to celebrate with proper fancy champagne, boys.
In 2006 they returned to Korea for the release of "O"-jung.ban.hap which was the song that basically sealed the deal for me. I was C R A Z Y about this song/the group and it happened overnight like a virus that turn people into flesh-eating zombies. 2006 was the year K-pop sales started to drop like crazy and great artists just didn’t sell that well anymore - but still they managed to sell over 300k copies of “O”, making them the highest selling group that year. Not only that, but they also took home pretty much every single big music award you can think of. Really. Other great songs from the album include: Balloons (follow-up single to “O”/grown ass man dressed like cute animals and please watch all the performances and the different outfits!!!!!), You’re my miracle, Phantom, Hey! girl (♥), You only love, I’ll be there.
Then in 2007 my favorite thing happened: BONJOUR PARIS. If you watch BP's DVD and don’t end up insanely in love with these people, I don’t know where humanity is ending up.
Oh, they released music in 2007, of course - I totally paid attention to that while crying over parisien!DBSK. They spent the entire year in foreign lands. 2007 was the year they were finally recognized for their music and talent in Japan, starting to bask little by little in eternal glory (and money). They released GREAT songs that year, including: Choosey lover, Proud (from their Five In The Black album [2nd japanese album], i dare you not to cry), Summer Dream (which contained the epic Love in the ice as a b-side, THE VOCALS CAN WE PLEASE HAVE A STANDING OVATION), Lovin’ you, Ride on, Forever love, among others. They were featured in a Koda Kumi song, too, which apparently is a big deal. Most of those singles were in their third japanese album, T, which also has Trick, No? (♥), Darkness eyes (♥), Rainbow, Clap!, etc. Seriously, if you have the time, watch their T Tour. it’s awesome.
Some DVD releases that are totally worth the watch are their All About DBSK Season 1 and TVXQ History In Japan (Vol.1), both released in 2006, and All About DBSK Season 2 and TVXQ History in Japan (Vol.2), released in 2007. If you want to get into these men, this is definitely the way to go.
2008
(or: i wish i had a time machine)
Nothing can ever compare to 2008 to me. No other K-pop year will ever be as glorious as that one was. Not only good music was being done, great groups were debuting AND coming back and K-pop seemed to be going back to its former epicness after the 2006-early2008 slump. It was absolutely magical.
And of course, since we’re on topic: DBSK’s korean comeback. I can’t tell you how much we’ve expected that moment, I can’t start to describe how fantastic it was to see them release the teasers for Mirotic, the SPAZZ. It was fucking awesome. As a fan, I was only able to feel that thrill again after falling in love with INFINITE, years later.
But first things first! They’ve spent half of the year in Japan, releasing a few more fantastic singles: Purple line (they performed purple line in Korea ONCE and they never looked so good), the TRICK singles (five singles containing solo tracks: Two hearts/Wild soul (Changmin), Runway/My girlfriend (Yoochun), If/Rainy night (Junsu), Close to you/Crazy life (yunho), Keyword/Maze (Jaejoong), the last one being my favorite!), Beautiful you (also known as my favorite DBSK song EVER released in history ♥), and the absolutely unforgetable Doushite. They release Jumon (the japanese version of Mirotic) at some point of 2008, too.
Now, the korean comeback. /takes a deep breath/
You see, this was SUCH a good album. Their fourth and last korean album as five, too. Mirotic was the highest selling album that year (I remember it achieved that in like, 3 days? And then it became the first album in 4/5 years to sell more than 500k copies), they ended the year with plenty of awards, and TEARS. It was such a wonderful era to be a fan - but now it makes me want to build a time machine out of a DeLorean. Sighs. Mirotic is the sexy title track, but the album has some of the best korean songs they ever released as five: Wrong number, Hey! don’t bring me down, Are you a good girl?, You’re my melody, the korean version of Love in the ice, and the physically painful Picture of you. I cannot listen to that song without ugly crying.
You must watch their SBS Gayo Daejun performance before moving on to the painful part of this 101. It's not an option.
2009
(or: dark times lie ahead of us and there will be a time
when we must choose between what is easy and what is right
- albus dumbledore, former dbsk fanboy)
(Quoting dumbledore like I just don’t care.)
DBSK was extremelly popular in Japan by 2009, breaking records back and forth and even being invited to perform at the Kohaku (a very important music festival in Japan, where only great artists are invited to attend, apparently). they released Bolero/Wasurenaide/Kiss the baby sky early January, another #1, followed by Survivor and their fourth (and last as five) japanese album, The Secret Code. Easily my favorite release from them, it has amazing songs within it, like Secret game, Nobody knows, 9095/9096 and Stand up!. I HIGHLY rec their ~Final in Tokyo Dome~ TSC tour! :)
The last single they released in 2009 was Stand by U. Roughly a month later, Jaejoong, Yoochun and Junsu filed the infamous lawsuit against SME. At first it was really not clear what was going on - but shit hit the fan quickly. Fans were in rage, and the fandom imploded, divided, splitted, shifted sides over and over again. The boys weren’t seen together anymore after a while, traveling in different flights. Rumours spread like a wildfire. It was a difficult time for everyone.
Their previous songs started to taste like really sad omens to me.
Even if a painful fate finds us,
even if we are choked in that pain,
me, who can comfort all those pains,
will only love you more
- 노을 바라보다 (Picture of You)
I am here, still here
I believe that the two of us will meet again
- Stand by U
TVXQ
My Hero
My Max
My Uknow
My Xiah
and Micky
We’re the one, eternally
- Kiss the Baby Sky
If you really want to feel the pain we felt, watch their last performance together.
It breaks your heart.
2010
(or: the end of an era; stop the time)
As five, there were only two new single releases that year, in Japan. Break out! was a positive message that things would settle soon and they’d come back as five, together and happy. It felt like hope. The ‘always keep the faith’ movement was created at some point that year. Toki wo tomete was their last single, and it felt like saying goodbye.
Their Best Selection 2010 was released shortly after. It sold 500k+ copies by the end of the year.
As I remembered each and every single thing about you
I simply believed… in eternity
- 時ヲ止メテ
Final considerations:
I’ve been a fan for quite a while now. I was mad at them at some point, I wanted to slap them all and then hug them and feed them happiness. But it has passed now! I fully support anything they want to do - together or alone. I sincerely hope they’re happy doing whatever they choose to do, whatever brings them happiness. I don’t believe they’re only worthy together. I support them as the fantastic individuals they are, and I look back to the past with loving eyes, not hate or despair - though I must confess there’s a kind of ache in my heart everytime Toki Wo Tomete plays that won’t ever go away. But it's a good pain. I will not forget the good moments they’ve provided me with through their music. I will treasure their music probably forever. I will always keep the faith in their immense ability to impress me with their talent.
Thank you, boys. You're still my heroes.
And here’s to hoping you can love them too.
