Words of the Wise: Verbal

[maiaide]

"For me fashion links directly to music," he says. "I even care what color underwear I wear. When I'm tired, people ask if I use vitamins and supplements and stuff, but I just wear red underwear to remind myself 'today I'm going to be hot!'"

Smart man. I need to invest in some great power underwear. The rest of the article is here. I think he

Comments

[iaoiua]

I love m-flo, have since Lisa was still a member, and long long before I ever heard of Arashi or even JE :D. But, I contend that while Verbal is of Korean ethnicity, he was never a a pop star in Korea - unlike BoA. I can't stand the girl, but she can't be considered remotely zainichi Korean and really can't be directly compared to Verbal, Miyavi, or even Wada Akiko. BoA, for what it's worth, is one of the first (if not the first) examples of a popular cross-over artist in Japan. Other kpop artists had released Japanese versions of their singles before BoA (such as S.E.S, who also belonged to BoA's management company at the time), but none of them could be considered successes.

Trouble is, my guess is very few completely non-Japanese people have any interest in breaking it into the Japanese market. (I've never listened to HIMEKA, but I've heard the girl can barely speak Japanese x:) Honestly, I'm not sure how the Japanese view fully gaijin artists? At the risk of sounding judgmental, I get the impression that Japan likes gaijin-

[maiaide]

Well. Unlike Japan, I say Wada Akiko and Miyavi ARE Japanese because their parents (and grandparents?) were born here. And by now they're like, 1/8th Korean so who cares. Verbal on the other hand, is fully Korean and I didn't think they immigrated, but were just here as expats, though I don't know for sure. He wasn't born here so that's different. BoA's an import and is undoubtedly the first successful Korean cross-over, I agree. She may be the first big cross-over of any kind in Japan. I know Wang Leehom did 1 Japanese album but it wasn't very big at all and he only did the one

[iaoiua]

I definitely see your point; I think it's just a matter of nuance. BoA is not regarded the way she is just because she is Korean, but because she is a cross-over arist. The fact that Verbal is Korean has, for what it's worth, never been a "selling" point for (or highly emphasized in) m-flo, in my opinion (I always thought Lisa's mixed ethnicity was more interesting). In contrast, BoA was always marketed as a Korean pop star. She is the first artist from SM that embarked on a serious Japanese career, i.e. releasing Japanese singles that weren't just versions of her Korean singles in Japanese - to the extent that her career in Korea waned (relatively) while she concentrated on Japan so seriously