Singer “Mr. Jeon” paid for sex with 16-year-old

Recently, Seoul police arrested pimps who prostituted 16-year-old runaways to clients. One of those clients was a famous singer, “Mr. Jeon,” who lives in the Jong-no district of Seoul.
When netizens began pointing out that Jeon Lee-soo (real name: Jeon Kwang-cheol), the lead singer of MC the Max, lives in Jong-no, the police changed the name of the suspect from “Mr. Jeon” to “Mr. J.”
So far, Mr. J has failed to obey a summons to the police station, and they may have to issue a warrant for his arrest.

Do you know the “Godfather of Soul”? It’s not James Brown

From the Korea Herald comes news of a big rap performance to be held in Lotte World next month. Among the stars described in the article is …

“Godfather of soul” Bobby Kim

Actually, even though I’m not a fan of rap, I do admire Tiger JK (formally of the group Drunken Tiger) for trying for commercial success while not selling out. His wife, Yoon Mi-rae (a.k.a. Tasha) is one of Korea’s best rappers. When four other female rappers heard that they would share a stage with her at the first Mnet Asian Music Awards (MAMA), they became very nervous.

I guess we can now add “Korea’s ‘Godfather of Soul’” to “Korea’s Madonna” (actually, there are three of them), “Korea’s Pussycat Dolls,” “Korea’s Ricky Martin,” and all of the other Korea’s This-and-Thats.

Big Bang’s Tae-yang has some sick moves

Tae-yang, of the boy band Big Bang, has some impressive dancing on the music video for his single, “Where U At.” Those are some crisp, precise moves.
And check out his performance at the recent MAMA (Mnet Asian Music Awards) show. He does a forward somersault, his sunglasses fly off, he smoothly catches them, strikes a pose, and then starts performing. Craaazy.

The Wonder Girls really have made it onto Billboard’s Top 100

Earlier, it was reported, with some skepticism, that the Wonder Girls’ single “Nobody” had made it onto Billboard’s Top 100 chart. It appears to be true. The evidence is here.
Now let’s see how long they can stay there.

Super Junior’s Kang In confesses to drunk driving, hit-and-run

Remember Super Junior’s Kang In? After being caught on tape participating in a bar brawl last month, he more recently drove under the influence of alcohol, during which he committed a hit-and-runs on two taxis. He turned himself in at the police station, where he confessed.
Some netizens have called for him to be kicked out of the group. Other netizens have come to his defense, though.
It’s interesting to contrast this with the incident regarding 2PM’s Jae-beom. Jae-beom was run out of Korea by a torches-and-pitchforks Internet mob for writing some rude comments four years ago. On the other hand, this guy has been caught red-handed committing three serious offenses: drunk driving, hit-and-run, and assault. And it looks like he’ll get off more lightly (by the public) than Jae-beom.

The Wonder Girls Finally Appear on the Billboard Charts

Ever since they first entered the American market last June with the English version of “Nobody,” the Wonder Girls have barely registered as a blip on the music radar, despite opening for the hugely popular Jonas Brothers on their national tour, but no more.
According to JYP Entertainment, “Nobody” has entered the rotation play list of 18 of 167 “Top 40 Radio Stations” in the U.S. Being on said play list means that a song may be played once or twice a week for four consecutive weeks. More importantly, “Nobody” has finally become visible in the all-important Billboard chart.

Question: Where on the Billboard charts does “Nobody” currently stand?

a. # 1
b. # 91
c. # 107
d. # 123

(The answer is here.)

Sony formally complains about YG Entertainment (G-Dragon, 2NE1, Big Bang) plagiarism

According to PopSeoul and the Korea Times Sony ATV Music Publishing has sent a letter of warning to YG Entertainment. They made accusations that four songs by G-Dragon, 2NE1, and Big Bang were plagiarized from songs by Flo Rida, Oasis, Lionel Ritchie, and Joe, respectively. YG Entertainment has yet to respond to these accusations.

Member of boy band Super Junior booked after bar brawl

A member of the boy band Super Junior, Kang In, was booked after a bar brawl in Gangnam.

According to Gangnam Police Station, Kang, whose real name is Kim Yong-un, got into a fight with a patron, identified as a Kim, in a bar early Wednesday morning.

Kang and his friend moved outside the bar and continued to fight with Kim and his friend.

Police said that Kang was fully intoxicated.

Since Super Junior has 13 (!) members, does it really matter if he’s sidelined for a while?

Finally! A sensible father asks his daughter not to do “sexy dances”

Singer Jeon YeongRok has asked his daughter, Jeon BoRam, a member of the girl group T-ara, not to do “sexy dances.” Why not?

“I thought her that she should never do sexy dances. There are so many kids who do that, and they go nowhere far.”

And as Brian has pointed out, they’re not sexy, so the whole name is a misnomer.

Despite apology, fans refuse to forgive 2PM member for four-year-old comments about Korea

The Korea Times and Herald have the story of fans who are enraged at a member of boy band 2PM, Jae-beom. Four years ago, when he was still a trainee at JYP Entertainment, waiting to debut, he wrote some negative comments about Korea on his MySpace page. (You can see screen captures of them here.) He apologized profusely, in a way that bordered on grovelling, but that’s not good enough for some fans. As a result, the promotional activities of 2PM have been put on hold for an unknown amount of time. However, Park Jin-young (JYP) has said that neither he, nor the other members of 2PM, want to kick him out of the group.
Personally, I can understand how he could have felt culture-shocked and upset. He was, at that time, an 18-year-old kid, in Korea for the first time and all alone, since his family was still in America, where he was born and had grown up. While his comments from four years ago are definitely childish and show very poor judgment, it’s clear from his apology that in the years since he’s become much more mature and articulate.