Random Musical Facts

The headline tells you all that you need to know.

- Official Hige Dandism’s name means “The Official Manly Mustache-ism”. That is right, the artist behind the best song this decade, a band that makes artistic masterpieces contemplating freedom and our current political situation is named ‘manly mustache’.

- JYJ are the only K-Pop artist to collaborate with a future American presidential candidate when rapper Kanye West featured on their debut single Ayy Girl.

- VIXX was once kidnapped by the daughter of the president of Kazakhstan as she wanted to meet them. You cannot make stuff like this up. They later got to go back after meeting her.

- There was once a K-Pop group called… Kpop. The group was stylized as K’Pop and disbanded for one of the most ridiculous fan-fiction-worthy reasons ever. The members were gay, and one member was dating another, and then cheated with another member. This caused a fight between the members, disbanding the group. The group and the agency have denied this, but it is still an interesting anecdote to remember.

- Miyavi, Yoshiki of X Japan, and Sugizo of Luna Sea were once in a group together. When X Japan temporarily disbanded, Yoshiki formed a new group containing whom he thought were some of the best Visual Kei stars (Miyavi was a visual kei star at the time). The group has been inactive since their debut performance, as X Japan reunited.

- And on why X Japan disbanded, it was because the main vocalist Toshi joined a cult. He later left it, but that is one really strange entry to his resume.

- J.Y. Park of JYP Entertainment and Bang Si-Hyuk of HYBE were roommates at one point, fighting over who had to do the laundry.

- None of the four Beatles members could read sheet music.

- The reason there are no drums for the first minute of Hey Jude is because drummer Ringo Starr was in the restroom.

- Elvis Presley was blonde; he dyed his hair to its iconic black color.

- SHINee was Jonghyun’s second band, he was part of a local school band, and you still find performances of the teenage star playing with his first band.

- Kim Jong-Un is a noted music enthusiast. Ignoring the theory that he is a Red Velvet fan, his wife is the ex-member of a North Korean girl group, and so is his ex-girlfriend. He is noted to be very involved with building North Korea’s state bands and has even reportedly executed some members of his bands.

- The final interview of Bollywood music legend Kishore Kumar was by Bollywood legend Lata Mangeshkar, upon the insistence of Kishore himself.

- Kishore Kumar married four times in his life, he called all his wives ‘Bandariyas’ (monkeys), as they all coincidentally lived in the town of Bandra when he married them (Bandariya can also mean someone from Bandra).

- The Weeknd once refused to perform at a show when Donald Trump was later scheduled to appear. Interestingly enough, he had worked for the Trump Tower prior to his fame.

- According to the previous Japanese emperor, Japanese music derives from the Korean music of Baekje. Baekje’s music is also mentioned in praise by Chinese chroniclers. Despite that, very little modern-day knowledge of Baekjae’s music exists.

- One of the oldest Korean songs still intact is a ballad (Yellow Bird) by King Yuri of Goguryeo (circa 60s BCE), whose favorite concubine left him after a squabble with another concubine.

- Donald Trump’s favorite song of all time is YMCA by the Village People.

- T-Series founder Gulshan Kumar was assassinated by the Indian mafia (it is unclear, but it is commonly believed that the D-Company was behind the hit). This hit is believed to have been ordered by composer Nadeem Saifi (of the duo Nadeem-Shravan). Saifi fled to England and later the UAE, where he runs a perfumery business and occasionally still writes music for Bollywood.

- Several famed musicians of the past have been noted for plagiarizing past works several times. Two examples are Seo Taiji, who often copied and sampled several western acts to create a uniquely Korean fusion of several western acts. Another example of this would be composer R.D. Burman, who often adapted and reinvented old melodies with completely varying tempos and arrangements.

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