I’ve decided to give my love for all things Asian an official place on the blog! So why the name Korean Keumyoil though if it’s all things Asian? The majority will be Korean. But don’t be too surprised if you occasionally find things from Japan or even China.
“Keumyoil” is the Korean word for “Friday”. That couldn’t have possibly worked better for me since I use alliteration in all of my normal weekly posts. I sometimes find “keumyoil” romanized as “geumyoil”, but I can’t find that one or the other is exclusively correct so for our purposes we will spell it with a ‘k’. (It’s also the most common spelling I’ve found so far.)
This week I’m gushing over a new band that is carving a new path in the industry: Exo. Exo just debuted last month as a creation of SM Entertainment. What makes them so special? They’re split into two groups, Exo-M (Mandarin) and Exo-K (Korean). That’s right. There are 12 boys that split into two groups of 6 and perform all of the same music, but in their respective languages. This could be very plain if done wrong, but SM knows how to spice it up. The boys aren’t just copycats of each other, they interact with each other both on stage and in their music videos. And what’s even more awesome is that a myth really was created to explain who they are and why they’re split. Plus… they have superpowers. Seriously. Awesome concept.
So I’d like to share both the Exo-K and Exo-M versions of the song “Mama”. There are similarities of course, but both videos are different and the song is amazing, so it’s well worth listening to twice. (Not to mention the fact that it does sound different due to the different voices of the boys from each group and the different languages.
My bias is Exo-M. I honestly figured it would be Exo-K, but the M boys really astounded me in a lot of ways.
(It’s also worth mentioning that I’m pretty certain my heart stopped when I first saw Wu Fan. I’m not responsible if you hyperventilate or shriek loudly when you first see him too.)
Image courtesy of Google Images
Screenshot from "Mama" video by SM Entertainment
So on to the videos! The myth is spoken in English in both videos, but if you just want to hear the music skip to the 1:25 mark and you’ll be at the beginning of the song. Who’s your bias?
Tagged: china, chinese pop, exo, exo mama, exo-k, exo-m, korean pop, music, sm entertainment, south korea, wu fan
