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Let RAIN pour -Korean popstar heading for the US market
You can find RAIN everywhere...that is the Korean R&B singer, dancer, and actor named RAIN (real name: Jeong Ji Hoon) who's also known as Bi in Korea; Pi in Japan; and Yu in China. Extremely popular across Asia, RAIN has been riding the Korean culture craze known as Hallyu, and has even begun to infiltrate the coveted US-market with two sold-out concerts in NYC and Las Vegas in 2006, and a nod as Time Magazine's 2nd most influential artist in 2006. More intriguingly it's through new media outlets targeting "hyphenated Americans/Canadians" that RAIN has garnered attention as they tap into their ethnic roots through popular culture.
The US market is the holy grail and RAIN has moved an inch by being the first Asian performer ever to be invited to the US MTV Video Music Awards (2005). Quite an accomplishment since RAIN encountered rejection time and again for being "too ugly" and was told, "Your dancing is great, but...you don't have double eyelids". Fast forward to 2006 when RAIN peeked the interest of P.Diddy, and made plans to become the first male Asian popstar to succeed in the US: "I would really like to see an Asian make it there. I would like that Asian to be me." RAIN might just make it...he intends to avoid being "another Asian dude trying to do black music" by "embracing his inner delicacy and emphasize his Asian-ness" (whaa the?).
More on RAIN, who's often called the Asian "Usher" or "Justin Timberlake":
*Read CNN's "Talk Asia" interview with Rain from Dec 2006 @ www.cnn.com
*Watch video of "Avoiding the Sun" or "How to Avoid the Sun" (with English subtitles), one of his first hits:
*Watch video of "In My Bed" (with English subtitles) from RAIN's 4th album released in October 2006
*Read "A strong forecast for Korean pop’s Rain" by Deborah Sontag from the New York Times, January 2006 www.iht.com
*Read Han Eun-Jung's "Rain Gets Ready to Pour It On" from Korean Times
times.hankooki.com
* Bryan Walsh's "The People Who Shape Our World" from Time Magazine, 2006-05-08, Time Magazine’.
*Rain official English website rain-usa.com
*Rain Korean website www.jype.co
*Rain Japanese website /www.rain-official-club-japan.jp
*Rain Chinese website www.cloudchina.com
*News about Rain's first staring role in a feature film called "I’m a Cyborg, But That’s Okay" by director Park Chan Wook of "Old Boy" fame english.yna.co.kr
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Comments
i think rain is the most hunkable korean actor next is lee dong wook
Posted by: desiree | February 13, 2007 7:14 PM
Bi's smile makes me smile too. I can't wait for him to hit it big here in the states. I want to see that smile more often.
Posted by: Tyra | June 12, 2008 8:07 PM