Confessions of an Uncle Fan: The Series (episode 30)

Happy Tuesday K-pop fans! I hope everyone had a fun Halloween and a good weekend. It's been a busy week for many of our favorite girl groups and K-pop in general with comeback teasers, award wins, and huge news from an old school group. Let's get to all of that and more with this week's Confessions of an Uncle Fan.

Cool Things of the Week

Girls' Generation For The Win, GG to the competition

I was pleasantly surprised to see that Girls' Generation's "I Got a Boy" won theVideo of the Year awardat the inauguralYouTube Music Awardsheld this past weekend in New York City. The win is an impressive accolade and just underscores how much K-pop has grown over the past six-seven years. Having said that, in no universe do I think Girls' Generation is more well-known thanLady GagaorJustin "Brazilian Brothel" Bieberbut the YouTube Awards are unique in that they left the voting entirely to the fans. This is where GG (and most K-pop groups) had the advantage because while their ranks in numbers are smaller, when it comes to mobilizing an entire fan base and causing disruption, nobody beats K-pop fans (seeKim Heechul trending worldwide on Twitter). Even so, the win had to have been somewhat unexpected when you're going up against big time international stars and that jolt showed a bemused (and very well dressed)Tiffanytook the stage to accept the award. While winning the award itself is a big deal, what's even more important is that Girls' Generation and K-pop as a genre is continuing to establish itself on very large stages. There were probably thousands of people who had never heard of Girls' Generation, saw that the group won the award, and then checked out the video to see what it was all about. K-pop fans tend to live in a bubble and think that everyone should know about their favorite artists but in reality, the percentages aren't huge. A big win like this though will surely begin swaying the needle in the right direction and is just another cog in the big K-pop machine as it slowly begins taking over mankind.

g.o.d Comeback?

The old school K-pop fan Twitterverse exploded yesterday with rumors that g.o.d would be coming back with a new album after eight years. Even though those rumors were quickly tempered bySon Ho YoungandYoon Kye Sang'srespective agencies, the fact that these rumors even leaked means that talks have been taking place and that the conversations have moved past just old friends meeting for a drink. I personally thought that a potential reunion would have been nearly impossible given Son Ho Young's recent turmoil with the tragic suicide of his girlfriend and his own attempt at harming himself. Maybe this is a way for him to move on and what better way to do that then with the support of old friends. I hope that each of the members can work out a solution and even partner back up withJ.Y. Parkto produce a new album; one for which fans have been holding out hope for quite some time.

Narsha and Miryo a.k.a M&N

Brown Eyed Girls' Narsha and Miryo teaming up to form a unit is like the NC-17 version ofSISTAR19.You have the velvety singing of Narsha and the incomparable rapping of Miyro but with a more grown-up vibe. I'm looking forward to the tandem and you can bet that they'll go the sexy and sleek route and I wouldn't surprised if the group focused more on Miryo's rapping and using Narsha as a complement to that.

Barefoot Friends Cancelled and Running Man Drops
Every week I read the variety show ratings article onaskkpopto see how my favorite shows fared and it didn't surprise me at all to see the announcement that 'Barefoot Friends' has been officially cancelled and that 'Running Man' saw a big drop in the ratings. 'Barefoot Friends' was one of the first productions of the newly formedSM C&Cand while the initial idea might have been a good one (going to different countries and seeing how other people live), it was poorly executed and recently devolved into seeing how much foodKang Ho Dongcould fit into his mouth. I am a huge fan of Kang Ho Dong but his return to the industry following his tax scandal has been mediocre at best with a number of this shows failing to stay on the air (although the sports show is going strong). On the 'Running Man' front, I've said that the show is just boring and this past week's episode was among the most boring I've seen in some time with the members and guests taking on a 'Wizard of Oz' concept that made no sense. I don't thinkSBSis going to give up on it quite yet but it needs to do something because it's becoming almost unwatchable… even with my massive crush onSong Ji Hyo.