Top Stories of 2009

by OMGKPOP Writers

Credit to OMGKPOP 
REPOST ONLY WITH FULL CREDIT

OMGKPOP's certified list of the biggest kpop culture events of 2009. Stories that defined 2009, from the moments that made the kpop world stop, the train wrecks that rocked the news, to the creation of amazing performers. Now lets take a look back at 2009, shall we?

We started off the year with a nice round of comebacks and debuts, but as the year went on, it was soon obvious that 2009 was the year of the comebacks, debuts and new and lost members.

Debuts  :

When we started this year, little did we know that 1 girl group, would soon turn into 30. With practically half of the Korean population making their big debut this year! We started off with a nice, fresh, "Korean Pussycat Dolls" group, After School. Soon after we saw Sori and her "Real Lips," 2NE1 debuting with Big Bang with "Lollipop," and 2NE1's ultimate rival, 4minute. By then it was still the beginning of year, and most of us were already tired of girl groups, but more were to come; T-ara, f(x), Secret, JQT, 7size, Navid, Big Queens, Yo Girls, Brand New Day, Honeysh, TwiNy, HAM and Lady Collection are just a few of the many girl groups that made their debut this year. Girl groups were not the only debuteers this year though, we had many boy groups like SHU-I, MBLAQ and BEAST. Along with the list of groups, some solo singers such as Run, ChungLim, TaeGoon, AJ, and YooSung made their debuts.

Comebacks :

In the beginning of the year, ultimate bad girl, Jessica HO, made her comeback with minimal success after her infamous dissing of BoA over MySpace. Lee Jung Hyun, or AVA, also made a great comeback working with some of the biggest names in the industry. We also had Lyn make a comeback later in the year, as well as Ivy.

New Members and Lost Members :

We sure had a lot of new members this year, too! After School gained 3 members, UEE, Raina and Nana, as well and lost a member, Soyoung, on the same year the debuted. U-Kiss welcomed a new member, Lee Kiseop, totally the male count to seven. SeeYa emotionally lost their leader, Gyuri, over financial difficulties, but also gained a new member, Soomi, the same year. Like SeeYa, 2PM also lost their leader, Jaebum, but over the rude comments he made towards Korea as a trainee.

This year, we saw numbers of singers try their luck in acting. You're Beautiful took a risk at casting singers in the major roles-- Uee of After School starred as Heyi, C.N Blue's Jung YongHwa played Shinwoo, and F.T. Island's Lee HongKi played Jeremy.

Boys Over Flowers also found success from singers. SS501's leader, Kim HyunJoong, got his first major role in this drama as JiHoo and KimJoon of T-Max helped complete the foursome with his role as WooBin.

With an average rating of 8.23 in Seoul, Son Dambi had her acting debut in the sport drama, Dream. She played the lead actress, Park SoYeon.

Other notable mentions are Lee SeungKi (Shining Inheritance), TOP of Big Bang (IRIS), ChungLim (Dream), Yunho (Heading to the Ground) and JaeJoong (Heaven's Postman) of DBSK and YoonA (Cinderella Man). All singers have had previous roles prior to theirs in 2009.

One of the year's biggest drug scandal involved five people who were busted for drug trafficking, using and selling, with three of them being celebrities. The most shocking of them was the involvement of Joo Jihoon, famous for his roles in Goong, Antique Bakery, and The Naked Kitchen. This wasn't the first drug scandal involving celebrities but it was the first time with celebrities involved in smuggling and selling drugs. The key players in the drug scandal were Actress Yoon Seol Hee and model Yeh Hak Young but since Joo Jihoon had the most recognizable name, he got the most attention.

Yoon Seol Hee recieved about 100 million won ($75,000USD) from Yeh Hak Young where she made about 14 trips from South Korea to Japan between August 2007 and December 2008. During those trips she purchased, smuggled, and sold Ecstasy and Ketamine. Yoo Seol Hee smuggled them into the country by concealing them under her clothes and alledgedly made it past customs by inserting the drugs into her menstrual pad (gross!), which she wore over an extra pait of underwear.

Yoon Seol Hee was arrested on April 26 along with the other members involved in the incident. As for Joo Ji Hoon, the once beloved actor caught in the mist of using and abusing drugs with his involvement, his career is virtually over. His punishment was six months of jail with one year of probation and 120 hours of community service, plus a penalty of 360,000 won ($280USD). Yoon Seol Hee was given three years in jail, while model and financer Yeh Hak Young and the unidentified Mr./Ms. Jeon were both given two and a half years of jail, with four years of probation, plus two years of probation and 200 hours of community service.

Super Junior found success this year through two of their hit songs, "Sorry Sorry" and "It's You." Their third album, Sorry Sorry, was their first to debut at #1 on the Hanteo Charts. For "Sorry Sorry" the boys turned to Nick Bass, choreographer to the likes of  Usher and Justin Timberlake, to come up with the catchy dance. Only after two weeks since its promotion, "Sorry Sorry" became the #1 song on KBS' Music Bank. In addition, the song earned a triple crown, three consecutive wins, for the Mutizen Song award. "It's You" was made by E-Tribe, producer or previous hits such as "Gee" and "U-Go-Girl."

The boys did not make headlines only for their success. Kangin was in the news on several different occasions. He was involved in a brawl at a pub, but police ruled his action as self-defense after seeing that he tried to avoid the conflict. In the next month, he was involved in a DUI accident. He crashed into a parked taxi and fled the scene. Six hours later, Kangin turned himself in. As a result, Kangin was suspended from activities to reflect on his actions.

A story still in development is HanKyung's request for contract termination from SM Entertainment. There were rumors that five members of Super Junior followed after HanKyung, but SM Entertainment has released a statement that the rumor is false.

Singing :

BoA was the first to dip her feet into the American market with the release of her self-titled album. "Eat You Up" peaked at #8 on Billboard Hot Dance Club Play. With her success, other Korean singers soon followed. Se7en tried his luck with his single, Girls. With fan support, his music video had a spot on 106 & Park. Unfortunately, Se7en was unable to produce a complete album in 2009. A few months later, Crown J released his English single, I'm Good.

JYP Entertainment's Wonder Girls has found some success in America. The girls were the opening act for the Jonas Brothers World Tour in North America. "Nobody"  made a debut on the Billboard Hot 100. In addition, Wonder Girls landed a performance on Fox's So You Think You Can Dance. After their performance, the group became the #1 search on Google.

Acting :

While some celebrities tried their luck in singing, others resorted to acting. Jeon JiHyun, known as Gianna Jun, starred as Saya, a 400-year old half-human half-vampire, in the live action remake of anime horror film, Blood: The Last Vampire. Like Jeon JiHyun, Lee ByungHun made his hollywood debut playing Storm Shadow in a live-action adaptation of G.I Joe: The Rise of Cobra. Rain takes the lead role of Raizo in the martial arts film, Ninja Assassin. LeeJoon, a member of Rain's boy band, MBLAQ, also appeared in the film as the teenaged Raizo.

Daniel Henney played Agent Zero in the movie, X-Men Origins: Wolverine and later on went to play Dr. David Lee in the CBS TV series Three Rivers. The series aired 8 episodes, but was eventually pulled.

Move over solo artists, 2009 was the year of the groups. After all, wouldn't you rather look at the smoking hot bodies of a group of people at the same than a single person? In terms of Battle of the Sexes, the girls definitely brought home the prize. Girl groups dominated this year, from comebacks to debuts, girl groups soared in popularity as they took over the kpop world by storm. From groups like So Nyuh Shi Dae (SNSD) with their "Gee" dance craze, Brown Eyed Girls with their hit "Abracadabra", to 2ne1 with their unique styles, Kara with their "butt dance," After School's comeback with two new members, Jewelry and newcomers  4minute, T-ara, f(x), Rainbow, HAM, and Secret.

In later half of the year the boys took over the reins and showed the girls a thing or two. Super Junior came back full force after a two year hiatus with hits like "Sorry, Sorry" and "It's You," SHINee who showed a more mature side and replaced their bright and colorful skinny jeans with more dark colors, Big Bang and DBSK promoting in Japan, pushed out big hits that topped charts there, U-Kiss with the addition of their new member and SS501 with the "Rebirth" of their comeback, and newcomers BEAST and MBLAQ.  Let's hope the group phenomenon continues in 2010 with even greater hits!

Home of 2NE1, Big Bang, and Se7en, YG has had a lot of difficulties this year over plagiarism claims.

The first claim, flying in at 2NE1 for their #1 hit single, "I Don't Care," didn't come as a surprise. Many fans had pointed out before that "I Don't Care" sounded a lot like Lionel Richie's "Just Go," and it wasn't long before Lionel's company, Universal Music Group, began to investigate.

YG's second claim, third claim.. and fourth.. all came at G-Dragon's debut solo album. His title song, "Heartbreaker," has been announce that it IS in fact a plagiarism of Flo Rida's "Right Round" track. The third claim came for his song, "Butterfly." "Butterfly" sounds a lot, and I mean a lot, like Oasis's song, "She's Electric." The fourth claim comes for the song, "Boys." "Boys" was said to sound like Katharine McPhee's "Not Ur Girl," but thankfully, G-Dragon was dropped of any plagiarism claims for this song.

The successful male group DBSK/TVXQ was hit with rocky scandals of disbandment earlier this year. Three members out of the five in the group, Xiah Junsu, Hero Jaejoong, and Micky Yoochun filed lawsuits against SM Entertainment wanting to terminate the 'exclusive belonging rights' contract that made they exclusive 'property' of SM Entertainment. The ground breaking lawsuit revealed the shady 13 year contract that DBSK and other SM artists signed with SM Entertainment. This prompted the Fair Trade Commission of Korea to reevaluate the contracts of all artists and create one that is more fair.

The lawsuit has been going on for almost half a year, which has been causing adverse effects and much tension amoung the members themselves, with one side against SM and one side for SM. DBSK was able to win the case, forcing SM to remake the contract. However, SM is still repealing the ruling. Whatever happens, lets just hope that things will get sorted out soon in 2010 and things will turn out the best for both DBSK and SM.

It’s been about three months since Jaebum left 2PM, but Hottests all over the world are still waiting for his return. In September, somehow, a netizen found old Myspace comments made by Jaebum speaking to his friend. These comments included rude remarks like “Korea is gay and I hate Koreans.” The Myspace comments were made in 2007, when Jaebum was a trainee and having a hard time as a foreigner.

Korean netizens, of course, did not miss the chance to write hateful comments toward his immaturity. JYP himself stated, “Jaebum was a bad, immature kid during his trainee yeas, but he’s a completely changed person now.” Jaebum immediately took action and apologized publically, but the anger did not seem to calm down. A couple of days later, Jaebum resigned from his leadership in 2PM and left the group with an apology letter in 2PM’s fan café. Jaebum soon left for Seattle, Washington and is still resting there, practicing his b-boy skills from time to time.

Ever since Jaebum’s departure, Hottest have been doing everything they can to let Jaebum know that they are still supporting him and are waiting for his return. They have tried from putting post-it notes all over the JYPE headquarters in New York and Korea, silent protests, flash mobs, and sky banners. They still continue to include Jaebum in the 2PM chants during performances. So when will Jaebum come back? We’ll just have to wait until he’s ready.

On June 25, 2009, the world lost one of their most beloved entertainers of all time. Michael Jackson's sudden death was the biggest musical lost for the entire world this year. At only 50 years old, he suffered a cardiac arrect on June 25 and died a few minutes after the paramedics arrived.

Michael Jackson's music reached across the world, even to korea where he had a major influence on the kpop scene. Many kpop stars have attributed him as the person that got them into the music business. After his death, countless kpop stars paid tribute to their beloved idol by performing songs in his memory.

To many, not only was he a performer but he was an inspiration, a genius, and most importantly, an idol that many looked up to. He truly UNITED the world with his music and brought joy everywhere. He will surely be missed. Where ever he is, we hope he is in a better place and is sleeping with angels in heaven. Goodbye Michael, may you find peace on the other side.