Dong Bang Shin Ki music review

Riding the success of Hallyu, a number of Korean singers have attempted to expand outside of their home country into East Asia. One arguably successful group is Dong Bang Shin Ki. Dong Bang Shin Ki is a male pop group consisting of five members: Kim Jae Joong (김재중 or HERO 在中), Jung Yun Ho (정윤호 or U-know 允浩), Park Yoo Chun (박유천 or Micky 有天), Kim Jun Su (김준수 or Xiah 俊秀) and Shim Chang Min (심창민 or MAX 昌珉). They are part of SM Entertainment, the pop machine that has represented artists such as Boa and HOT. They have so far released three albums, including a Christmas one, and three singles.
Though Dong Bang Shin Ki is a typical Korean pop group with good, slightly androgynous looks, and a passable singing and dancing ability, I chose to review this group because they represent SM Entertainment’s, and therefore the wider Korean music industry’s, struggle to have its artists appeal to a wider audience in East Asia. In this review, I want to specifically focus on two of their hit songs, “Hug” and “I Believe,” not only because of their wide popularity, but also because these songs have been translated into multiple languages.
I have so far found four versions of the song “Hug,” in Korean, Chinese, Japanese, and English. “Hug” is a typical pop song with a catchy beat. Too sugary to be compared with N’Sync and the Backstreet Boys, it is more reminiscent of the style of 98 Degrees and Savage Garden. The music of “Hug” remains the same in all the versions, but of course the language, and therefore the lyrics, is altered. I found the Chinese version of the song to be a direct translation of the Korean version, with some lines slightly altered in order to fit the beat. A simple example is the lyric “I’m so curious to how much you really love me” changed to “Would you love me, I really want to listen to you say, if it’s as much as I love you.” One problem I find is that a direct translation leads to some of the lyrics sounding, for lack of a better word, strange. Chinese songs don’t usually include lyrics about warming up beds and feeding cats. Wisely, the record company decided for the English version to have completely different lyrics. The new lyrics are much more standardized, such as, “We talk on the phone every night and so came closer day by day.” I find the lyrics overly simplistic, and devoid of the original meaning, but I’m sure the song will be more easily accepted, because it fits into the formula that the Korean-American audience is looking for. I couldn’t find the Japanese lyrics of the song, in any language, so I will refrain from commenting on that version.
“I Believe,” which is more of a smooth ballad, has only two versions, in Korean and Chinese, but is significant in the fact that this song led to the explosion of Dong Bang Shin Ki into the Chinese pop scene. Once again, the Chinese version of “I Believe” is a direct, if rather awkward, translation of the Korean one. Because this song is much slower than “Hug,” it is easier to concentrate on how good, or bad, the group’s pronunciation is. I find that without looking at the actual lyrics, it is almost impossible to understand what the group is saying in the Chinese version. Their Chinese is atrocious, and I believe that if SM Entertainment wants to market its artists in China, they should spend more time teaching the artists pronunciation. For awhile, there were rumors that SM actually wanted to separate the group, and send one contingency to China, with the addition of a Chinese member. Lucky for the group and the country, the idea didn’t pan out. In the performances (that I’ve noticed) Dong Bang Shin Ki has done in China so far, they have only sung in their native Korean, which I believe is wise. Conversely, I actually find the English versions of Dong Bang Shin Ki’s songs rather easy to understand, if only because one of the members grew up in the US.
I believe that Dong Bang Shin Ki is a good example of the way that Korean bands will be marketed in the future, as both a regional and possibly global force. Other artists, such as Bi, have also taken similar paths, performing around East Asia, and collaborating with artists of other ethnicities. I took two songs of Dong Bang Shin Ki’s as a case study of the progression of the group. However, I also want to show that while Korean artists have gone far in spreading K-pop around China and Japan, they still have a length to go in order to fully integrate their music with wider East Asia.

Note: Korean lyric translations were taken from the website http://www.aheeyah.com/index.htm. The Chinese lyrics were translated by me.

YYZ