SS501 - Triple S Philippines Blog

More virulent than H1N1 and still showing no sign of abating is the Korean Hallyu Fever. The Fascination with movies, TV dramas, pop music and stars from South Korea seems to have hit new highs this year.

Leading the charge of the K-pop brigade is boyband SS501 (Deo Beul E Seu Oh Gong I1 in Korean or DoubleS-Five-O-One in English). A quintet of five fresh-faced poster boys, its albums of urban and R&B-inspired pop have chalked up phenomenal sales in and outside their home country.

Now that their albums are being released here, you can catch up with the hype at more affordable prices.

Start by checking out the compilation CD SS Super hits! This contains many SS hit singles that are already out of press.

Trudge through Warning, its 2005 debut, as well as tunes such as White lover, Never again and more recently, DejaVu.

Fans will go rabid over the Chinese subtitled DVD of band interviews and footage in the deluxe edition released here.

K-pop has a trademark melancholic, melodic lilt differentiating it from its Japanese and Chinese counterparts. Over the years the South Korean music industry has also earned a reputation for precision production of pop and R&B.

Hence, though boyband pop is not the most inventive of genres, the variant offered by SS501's producers is polished ad rather fetching.

In the same vein are the boyband-centric soundtracks to hit Korean TV dramas Boys Over Flowers and its sequel Boys Over Flower 2 (both adaptations of Japanese manga, Hana Yori dango, starring SS501 member Kim Hyun Joong)

Thus the use of boyband's tracks as end-title theme songs ( Because I'm Stupid, a breezy ballad, for the first season, and the more upbeat Making A Lover for Boys Over Flowers 2.