Korean Music Discussion - Page 2530

9th of March, 태연's birthday!

Who would have thought the girl born 23 years ago on this day, would become the leader of 소녀시대.

Today we celebrate her birthday!

Thank you for being the best singer.
Thank you for being an amazing radio DJ.
Thank you for your dorkiness that makes us laugh.
Thank you for taking care of the other members.
Thank you for making the lives of SONEs happier.
Thank you dear 태연, for everything that is you.

In our hearts you will always be our leader, no matter what.
Happy Birthday, 태연.

Since today will probably be a day with lots of Taeyeon content, I'll keep it short.

On March 09 2012 12:43 Skysec wrote:

Is it that hard to not put random korean in your posts? It doesn't even serve any purpose unlike Xenocide_Knight's post, his use of korean was useful because it preserved the original quote and he also provided translation.

All you did was un-translate Taeyeon and Girl's Generation/SNSD for no purpose at all. And to make it worse, you didn't even translate them. I could understand wtf you were saying through context only, the vast majority of the readers here don't speak or read korean and not everybody has a desire to learn.

FFS stop doing this shit.

PS. I did like the rest of your post though.

Damn, Xenocide got to use some of those viddyas before I could. Aww, whatever. Either way, similar to Xeno, I can't tell you why everyone else likes Taeyeon but I can tell you why I like Taeyeon. It'll again be a bit of a personal story which doesn't really represent the rest of the Taeyeon fans out there but it's my mentality at the very least.

Now to give a little bit of background on me and my experiences, when I was 14, one of my cousins died of Meningococcal, when I was 15 my grandfather died of Lung Cancer (granted he lived with it for about 10 years), and my father discovered that he has bladder cancer.

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He was to have his bladder removed, and they were to take a section of his bowel and re-create a new bladder out of it for him. He had the surgery when I was 15 just a couple of weeks before Christmas. The surgery was successful. He was better, walking and learning to use his new bladder. We were celebrating. We were enjoying ourselves. We were hopeful. That hope was almost immediately snatched away from us. The Ongologist later told us that the cancer had spread to his lymph nodes which meant that his chances were slim that it hadn't spread further. We kept telling ourselves that he survived so far. He can keep going. Hope wasn't lost. Not yet at least.

The months went by. He steadily grew weaker and thinner. Struggling to stay awake, struggle to stand up and walk around on his own, struggling to be the father he wanted to be for us. It was heartbreaking. We kept hoping and wishing and praying that it wasn't happening. He kept reassuring us that it was just a speed bump and that he could still get better. I didn't believe him but I hoped.

He died on Christmas Eve 2006 at the age of 48. I was 16 at the time. It was a bit of a dark period in my life. I'd felt incredibly weak, incredibly vulnerable. Add to this the fact that my curriculum co-ordinator in high school wouldn't allow me to change my subjects from physics/chemisty/biology into visual art/design and I was feeling really terrible. Like I had no control over my own life. By this point he couldn't talk anymore. Each breath was long, heavy, and strained. As though all his effort was going into keeping his heart beating. Not for himself, but for us.Sitting there in the hospital on Christmas eve, as I listened to his last breath slip away from him; as I stood up and hugged him and had to tell him to stop fighting if he was only fighting for us. To only fight if he was fighting for himself.

This left me as a bitter husk of a person. I had some issues with depression, constantly wondering 'Why?'. Why are we living. Why do such horrible things exist and why do they happen. Why did it happen to us? etc. the usually manic depressive scenarios. I stopped caring about myself and anyone around me. It was easier to not care than to care and have what I care about ripped out of my grasp. Insert minor period of drinking and drug problems (just weed, no injecting or pills. Fuck that shit). I just didn't care anymore. I couldn't. I just floated by; going through the motions. My mum tried to get me counselling to get me to break though but if I just didn't talk to the counsellor there wasn't anything they could do. Eventually she gave up on me too and let me just deal with my problems myself.

Eventually this lead to me going from one of the top 5 students of my classes to the absolute bottom of the barrel. I was a failure. Of a person, of a student, of a son. Granted I ended up getting into a business course at a really really crappy uni. I live in New South Wales, Australia and there's only a few really good unis here. So the one I ended up in was full of dropkicks that didn't give a shit either. Being in close proximity to pubs didn't help me either. Drinking when I could afford it. Smoking when I couldn't. Live was a joke by then.

Then; enter my cousin. By now it was the start of 2009. He had just come back from a trip to the Philippines, where my mum's side of the family is from. He was telling me that there are heaps and heaps of Korean students there to study and the kpop was spreading like wildfire. He started showing me videos. Lots of them. For the most part I thought he was just crazy, like all my friends did with me when I started listening to predominantly k-pop. He left a pile of videos loaded on my computer when he left my house that day. All of SNSD songs. I gave them a listen because hey, why not? Not like I'm doing anything with myself.

I watched them and was mildly amused by them. Like many others, I wasn't INSTANTLY drawn to Taeyeon, but rather Tiffany. It was just a simple "well she's pretty cute" experience. It was a fresh experience listening to music that wasn't so dreary and depressing sounding (compared to most of my English music at the time). And I kept listening to it. I had never thought of it very deeply, thinking of what they were singing about, why they were singing about it or whatever. I just simply listened to it. It cheered me up a bit. Made me happier. Whether you like SNSD or not, you've gotta admit that the first album is pretty bubblegum happy clappy. At the time I didn't know whether I really enjoyed the music itself, or just enjoyed how happy it felt. Like all the darkness was receding and I could pretend that nothing had happened. It was unhealthy, I admit. But it was what I was doing. It helped me cope.

Eventually I figured that I would look into the actual band itself. I looked up the singers, learned which was which, and watched some videos of their shows and appearances outside of performances. They were all amusing but Taeyeon was the one that resonated the most with me. Reading about her training experiences was what got me. Reading about her and her father's constant treks to Seoul for training, reading about her running away from Seoul when she was struggling. Yet she came back. She kept persevering. Struggling, fighting against the long hours, the immense pressure that goes into a band, the dedication and the passion she put forward. And to see the rewards when she'd later become part of one of the most successful current bands in Korea. I'm not gonna re-link the things that Xenocide already linked but some of them were relevant.

I spent this time thinking to myself. She wasn't what I considered the prettiest girl in k-pop. nor was she the best singer, or the best dancer. But she still made it. She knew what she wanted, what she loved, and she fought for it with everything she had. It hit me. Hard. She can fight for what she loves, she can give it her all. She can put everything on the line, everything at risk in an attempt to chase her dream of becoming a singer. So what was I so depressed and whiny about? Sure, I'd lost a father, but I still had the brain I was born with, the skills I had worked up, and things I loved. Why was I wasting away and not fighting for them too? It was a wake-up call. The wake-up call that I needed. Everything my dad had given me was going to waste if I had kept letting myself wither away into nothingness like I was doing. So after some effort on my behalf, I dropped the drinking, dropped the weed, and dropped the largely negative attitude. I wasn't going to let myself become a waste. I couldn't. It wasn't too late to start again, turn over a new leaf and get my life back on track. Which is what I did. Eventually I transferred to a better uni, got into Design which is what I truly loved, and am on the way to getting my life back together.

All that aside though, she also felt very human. From her somewhat sheltered and quiet variety show appearances, to her mic dropping, accidental racist remarks etc. to her goofy acts, lip syncing etc. She made mistakes like any other idol would, any other singer would. She was still just a normal person after all that. I don't know how much of it is all a farce but she always seemed happy. That was the icing on the cake. She always seemed genuinely grateful for the support her fans give her, for the opportunities she's received, for the chances she was given. It stuck with me.

Now you could say that a lot of this is largely irrelevant when it comes to Taeyeon itself as every idol takes those risks, and trains those hours etc. But she was just the person that I noticed in my time of darkness. The most conveniently lined up one as I was struggling while she was reaping her rewards for her struggle. She was also just a year older than me so it helped me to connect. She is my postergirl for Never give up, Never surrender, the shining light in my life that helped guide me through a dark period, and one of my favourite idols.

Nowadays, SNSD are far from my favourite band (though my last.fm would be misleading). I only really listen to them to support Taeyeon as I've moved on to other artists and other idols. But you never forget your first celebrity obsession, nor the one that made the most impact on you. She isn't just the posters on my wall or the background on my computer. She is my comfort in dark times and probably always will be. She is a normal person. Just like me.

I wouldn't have bothered to write this up normally as I don't normally give up much personal information on the Internet or spam annoying posts about my favourite idols/songs going EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE etc. but because you asked, Lokk. This is why Taeyeon is my favourite.

Now I'll leave some of my more memorable Taeyeon moments/videos/pictures below.


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Also: Not Taeyeon related but Standing Egg are rad as hell yo. They just linked this on their facebook. Old video but I haven't gotten through all of the videos on their youtube so w/e