It's hump day, and the week already feels longer than it deserves to be. Presenting: Guilty Pleasure Wednesdays! A segment here that highlights some of the things we do but won't admit to that help us get through the week.

Ah, K-pop. Disclaimer: I'm not Korean, nor do I know what is being said, but honestly, in my limited experience with it, I've found more catchier songs, doper beats, and had an inkling of young fanboyness that I haven't had since middle school when random news comes across about some K-pop stars. Besides which, when you live in a region that plays like top 10 hits (more like top 5, because seriously you can hear the same song four times running errands for like two hours), you're going to want something completely different.

Big Bang

I admit it, in junior high/high school, I listened to H.O.T. (among a lot of others like Jinusean, Turbo, G.O.D., Yoo Seung Jun, S.E.S.), but only for like two albums and then I couldn't stand them anymore. Number one reason:

















thanks to http://www.geocities.com/clubplanethot/ for reminding me how freaking lame I was in high school.

They look like girls. Really ugly girls. Either that, or mutant sheepdogs.

So, many, many years later, my good friend Michelle introduces me to this group called Big Bang. K-pop boy band, five members, and even at one time they covered the popular H.O.T. song "Candy"


Scary. I had very low expectations for a group that still got dolled up in furry pink overalls so girls could scream at them. Honestly, seeing some videos of those fans that flock around K-pop bands, I think they would scream at anything.

But really, my first experience with Big Bang came from this little gem of a video. It had everything a K-pop music video should've had.


1. A catchy beat
2. Fobby English
3. 4 minutes to wrench your heart in an impossibly complex situation between a boy and a girl.

And so my interest was piqued. But here's the awesomest part about these guys.



They come across with a unique urban style that no other K-pop band at their inception could pull off. The departure was so refreshing that it was probably what got them their popularity. There's no big mental exercise to accept indecipherable lyrics, strange hair, or outlandish outfits to nitrous-induced electronic beats. They come off as accessible to an American audience.

Since then it's been a slow descent into the madness that K-pop has been for me. In particular, I'm a fan of Tae Yang (Dong Young Bae), the lead singer who came out with a solo mini-album. It's surprisingly insightful, as the songs are written around the process of love attained, strained, and lost. His vocal style is reminiscent of a Korean Usher, of whom Tae Yang is a big fan of, among other male R&B singers from the states.

Big Bang for me came at a time when I kind of needed a healthy obsession. Work kept me stuck in a rut, and injuries kept me from good practice habits. I barely had time in the day for any creative efforts, and long hours were blandly spent waiting for that period of time when I could take a breather doing nothing.

For the lack of anything better to describe it, following a K-pop group had that familiarity of when times were a little simpler, and the welcomeness from a generation raised on the internet could break down language barriers so hunting for information was not something as painstaking to do.

I'm definitely far from a fanboy though. It's kind of fun to read an article now and again, but I pretty much keep it to that. I mean, I think they're dope, their style is fresh, and their music is awesome, but what really keeps me from following their exploits up and down is probably the fact that their oldest member is still three years younger than me. And they got me riding their coattails. Seriously, what did I do wrong to get to this age with nothing to my name?

But that's just one of many groups that I've started to become familiar with lately, and one of many things that I do that halts my productivity that I'm coming clean about.

What do you do on hump day?