By VICKY CHOU
For those of you who know what I’m referring to in the title of this blog, I don’t blame you for wanting to laugh at how corny it is. But for those of you who don’t, that’s okay because I am going to use this entire blog to talk about what it means.
First, let me introduce you new K-pop fans to Big Bang. Big Bang is no doubt one of the most successful K-pop boy bands out there, and I am saying this as a non-V.I.P, V.I.P being the name of their fandom. Unlike Super Junior, who I feel became popular mainly because of their size and promotions, Big Bang is known by many because of the talents and personalities of each member. It’s not a surprise if someone actually knows about some of the members of the group before even knowing about Big Bang as a whole because that’s exactly what happened to me. I blame my sister for constantly replaying Taeyang’s “Wedding Dress” and “I Need A Girl” – a part of my K-pop history that I ignorantly forgot to mention in my previous blog, though I guess blaming may not be the right word…
Anyhow, for the past few years, the members of Big Bang have focused primarily on their individual promotions and activities, including guesting on variety shows, releasing solo albums, etc. It wasn’t until this summer that they finally came together again to release their latest album. And unlike what most artists usually do, they filmed music videos for all of their songs and are releasing five different versions of the album, namely M, A, D, E, and MADE. Big Bang still did not beat EXO, though, who released 20 versions of their EXODUS album just a few months before, but that is a story for another time.
So after I listened to their newest songs and watched most of their music videos, I ended up really liking “Let’s Not Fall In Love” – doesn’t the title itself sound touching already? – which I consider a feat because Big Bang’s songs are getting weirder and weirder (though still catchy), but this one was spot on. And when I found out that Big Bang was holding a concert in New Jersey, I knew I had to go. I called my sister that night and together we bought tickets for the balcony seats slightly diagonal from the stage. But that wasn’t where we ended up sitting.
It turns out that while tickets for Saturday’s concert were completely sold out, tickets for Sunday’s concert, which is the one my sister and I went to, were not, so the entire balcony section in front of the stage was closed off on Sunday and everyone who was supposed to sit there was given tickets for seats in the balcony next to the stage. Long story short, my sister and I ended up sitting much closer than expected.
When the concert finally started, after a long wait of watching Big Bang’s music videos play on the large screens, everyone jumped out of his or her seat and screamed. Big Bang hit the stage with “Bang Bang Bang” and continued the concert with all the other songs from their latest album as well as the solo songs that a few of the members released including, of course, Taeyang’s “Eyes, Nose, Lips.”
The most memorable part of the concert, I have to say, is when Daesung asked if we wanted to see his big eyes. If you search Daesung, you will realize how ironic and funny that question was, but he lifted his hair up, opened his eyes really big for the fans to see, and made everyone laugh because of it. But while Daesung warmed fans’ hearts with his humor, T.O.P did it with a simple opening of his mouth. Once the concert ended, my sister told me that T.O.P was going to be her new bias because of his deep voice. Seriously, his voice is the death of many fans.
If there is one thing I was disappointed with, it is that I wish Big Bang had sung more old songs, especially since they repeated a few new ones for the encore. They did sing “Stupid Liar” and “Blue” but I was looking forward to a more even distribution between old songs and new songs.
Aside from that, it was an amazing night, and it goes without saying that I went all out during the concert in terms of screaming and cheering and spending money – both my sister and I bought two $45 shirts from the concert, officially making me broke and in desperate need of a job. But I don’t regret it because the shirts are a memento of the wonderful time I had that night. And all this explains why I named this post, “Big Bang ‘MADE’ My Day.”
