Singer Rain basks in strange new heyday
You would be hard-pressed to find a bigger male solo K-pop star than Jung Ji-hoon, aka Rain, from the better part of the 2000s. Rain was then lauded by the South Korean media as the country’s one and only “world star,” coming up with hits such as the album “It’s Raining,” which sold over 1 million copies in Asia, and “Ways to Avoid the Sun.” He even starred in two Hollywood films.
But his career can since be described as lackluster at best, especially following his sixth studio album, “Rain Effect,” in 2014.
While social media and YouTube have provided platforms for younger stars to make unprecedented leaps and bounds, Rain’s post-military career appeared to slowly flounder, as seen in the disastrous performance of the 2017 single “Gang” and the 2019 film “Race to Freedom: Um Bok Dong.”
In mid-May 2020, Rain was back in the spotlight but perhaps for all the wrong reasons. The “Gang” (meaning temerity or audacity in Korean) music video on YouTube has gone viral online for its overly bombastic production, cringe-inducing choreography and mannerisms, and self-absorbed lyrics.
Behind the sensation is an online movement called “1 Gang a day,” known widely to have started with a parody dance video by a high-schooler in late 2019. The popularity of that video ended up leading to a sudden surge in interest in the source material that had mostly been forgotten by the public.
Many parody videos have been produced and uploaded, while the view count for the original “Gang” video is soon expected to surpass the 10-million mark. Leaving snarky and witty critique in the comment section has become a sport in and of itself.
“This song is in essence a vaccination for K-pop. Nearly every other song becomes enjoyable and listeners become more tolerant after listening to this one,” one viewer commented.
Another commenter wrote, “The title itself is too corny. Whoever uses the word ‘gang’ nowadays. It’s like returning to 2006.”
The phenomenon — consuming, leaving comments, producing parodies — has blown up further after Rain’s appearance on MBC TV’s prime time variety show “Hang Out with Yoo” over the past weekend.