After releasing their second album, 2PM said, “We want to come back to our friendly image that we showed when we debuted.”
The “Animal Idol” image of 2PM is undergoing change. 2PM released their new song “Hands Up” after an eight month break, and they frankly expressed their feelings in an interview held on June 21, saying they had tried to express the bright and candid image that they had presented right after their debut. Woo Young said, “I told our producer, Jin Young, that I wanted to play on the stage. I think that we will enjoy our performances along with our fans and we will be shown as ordinary boys who can dance really well on the stage.” Joon Soo said with confidence, “People who watch our performance on the stage for the first time will all think that 2PM members are playing on the stage really joyfully.”
Their second album entitled “Hands Up,” which was released on June 20, contains a total of thirteen songs including the title song with the same title of the album, singles that they released up to now, and two members’ own songs. The title song “Hands Up” is a dance song with a strong beat, and it will show a completely different atmosphere from their previous songs such as “I Will Be Back” and “Without You,” which were about the sadness caused by breaking up. Members explained that they wanted to present a bright and exciting club dance song. Taek Yeon said, “You can think that this song is an upgraded version of our debut song ‘10 Points Out of 10 Points.’ Our songs have been too strong or too sad, so it might harm the sense of friendliness to our fans. I hope that we can come closer to our fans with this album.”
As the members already mentioned, they all seem to be trying very hard to escape from their image of “animal idol” by including bright and exciting dance songs and soft ballad songs in the new album. Joon Ho said, “I like the word ‘animal idol,’ but I think that the same image cannot stay as fresh and people will someday be sick of it. The images that we have shown such as taking off or tearing our clothes were just one of the thousands of images that we can show. I think that we can present many different images to our fans in the future.” Taek Yeon also said, “As we tried new concepts and new trials, we realized one moment that we could not stay the same with the image of ‘animal idol.’”
Joon Soo’s own song entitled “Hot” and Joon Ho’s own song entitled “Give it to Me” are also included in the new album. Joon Soo already showed his ability to compose songs by making the song entitled “Don’t Leave,” which was part of the original soundtrack of the drama “Dream High.” He said, “I have agonized for a long time last year over how I can present who I am in the group 2PM. I came up with an idea that I have to do something that I am good at it, so I began composing songs and giving those songs to other singers.” Joon Ho explained that the song included in this album was his first own song and said, “I tried directing for the first time, so I could not know how to inform other members what to do. I did not know how to direct Taek Yeon's rapping with my own style in a situation where I personally tried to rap for the first time.” He expressed his apologetic feelings.
All the members of 2PM emphasized that they prepared this album with the mindset that they had become rookie singers again because they all thought that they had slackened their focus without noticing, as they have been very successful since their debut in 2008. Taek Yeon admitted, “Our minds themselves have changed a lot. We have worked for a long time and saw and felt many different things while working in this business, and we already lost our freshness and tense energy that we had when we debuted.” Nichkhun agreed, saying, “We feel less tension than before for sure.” Woo Young frankly expressed his feelings, saying, “I think that trying not to lose our own energy as members of 2PM is the most important thing. We reflected on ourselves whether we have asked our fans to always acknowledge our charismatic and nice appearances only, and we realized that it will make our fans become tired of us.”
Park Jin Young’s harsh advice was also very helpful. Taek Yeon said, “When we prepared this album, Jin Young told us that he would give harsh advice for the last time and said that we had to come back to the mindset that we had before when we debuted and try harder. He said that he could sense that our mindsets have been too relaxed. If we grow up and become more successful, he might not be able to give any advice to us, so he mentioned that that was his last advice.”
They decided to appear on SBS Plus’s new reality show entitled the “2PM Show,” and the decision was also made based on the idea of going to back to the basic mindset of beginning again. Right after their debut, they created ar friendly image and gained popularity with their appearances on cable TV reality shows such as “Idol Show” and “Wild Bunny.” Taek Yeon said, “I had to present a gloomy and angry facial expression on the stage for a while, and I wanted to show a different appearance. I anticipate that we can go back to the time when we were rookie singers on the ‘2PM Show.’” Joon Ho said, “We thought that we need a chance to come closer to our fans, so we felt really happy that we decided to appear on the ‘2PM Show.’ We felt pressure for sure, but we want to show everything that we have wanted on the program. We will present what we could not show before on other ordinary entertainment programs, such as my desire, Nichkhun’s love of touching, Joon Soo’s new appearance like a zombie, Taek Yeon’s love for hosting as a sole MC, Chan Sung’s hidden appearance like an animal, and Woo Young’s talent in hosting.”
Chan Sung also expressed his confidence, saying, “People who look at our performance will all think that they might be very exciting if they are larking with members of 2PM.” Are the members of 2PM good at playing? Nichkhun and Woo Young said, “We are larks amongst ourselves. We seldom go out, but we play video games and have fun together. We want to go to a club and have fun, but we actually cannot because we do not have time.” 2PM released a debut DVD in Japan at the end of last year and they are participating in the group of leading singing groups in the Hallyu boom in Japan. Their recently released debut single entitled “Take Off” placed fourth on the Oricon weekly chart. Woo Young said, “I am really surprised when I look at our fans overseas. With the thinking that we have to hold activities more not only in Korea, but also in other countries in Asia, we have to try much harder to develop ourselves. We have automatically come to think that we should not stay as we are now.” Chan Sung said, “When we see many Korean star singers who are successful overseas, we come to have a kind of hope that we can also become successful abroad.”
With the popularity of the program “I Am Singer,” there was harsh criticism of idol singing groups’ music, but members of 2PM presented their relaxed point of view on this matter. Joon Ho said, “I think that people have felt a thirst for good music, and it was the main reason for the popularity of ‘I Am Singer.’ If we can quench their thirst with 2PM’s charms, we might be able to receive a favorable response.”
Source: http://english.kbs.co.kr/Entertain/Enterta...ew.html?No=7824
