My KPop Playlist: 2PM Hands Up
Formed in 2008 under JYP Entertainment, 2PM was originally an 11-member group called One Day that got split up into two groups: 2AM and 2PM. 2PM got 7 of the members:
Jun.K (Kim MinJun): Leader, songwriter and main vocalist
Nichkhun (Nichkhun Buck Horvejkul): Vocalist, rapper, and visual
TaecYeon (Ok TaecYeon): Lead rapper, 2nd visual
WooYoung (Jang WooYoung): Lead vocalist and dancer
JunHo (Lee JunHo): Main vocalist, lead dancer.
ChanSung (Hwang ChanSung): Vocalist, rapper, songwriter and maknae. Also possesses some of the most beautiful eyes in KPop.
Jay Park: Former leader and an American citizen who had to leave the group in 2009 after his disparaging remarks about Korea on social media surfaced. The comments were from his trainee days, when he was 17 and homesick, but there are things one simply does not do as a KPop artist. One of them is dissing Korea. For any reason. He’s managed to repair his image to become a successful solo artist, but he was never allowed back into 2PM, so now they look like this:
Left to right: ChanSung, JunHo, Jun.K, WooYoung, Nichkhun, TaecYeon
In 2018, 2PM’s contract with JYP expired. Five members renewed their contracts with the agency. TaecYeon was the single holdout, signing with 51K, but he will continue being a member of 2PM.
2PM’s hook is that they aren’t a cutesie boy band, and instead are self-proclaimed “beast mode” artists. “Beast mode” is a Korean term for being unapologetically masculine. So it’s rare for them to indulge in gender/orientation-bending fan service games, androgyny, aegyo or any of the usual Asian boy band tropes. You get this group, as they are, and you’ll like it.
In honor of that, 2PM has a habit of featuring “beasts” from the animal kingdom in their MVs. In this one, it’s a horse’s head. Not a live one, but a mask that makes several humorous appearances, so watch for it. There are also women wearing kitty ears in the background of this video.
Other motifs that show up on a regular basis with 2PM MVs:
“Hands Up” isn’t the only video where masks make an appearance, and costumes sometimes show up as well. Anything in green tends to be popular.
Humor, and lots of it. 2PM likes to laugh at themselves and at ridiculous situations.
Water and suds. But not necessarily together. Haven’t figured out what this is about, yet.
In their “party” MVs: Massive quantities of alcohol, and no shyness about how booze can make life fun. Most KPop groups exhibit a great deal of Western influences, but few of them are as close to our stereotype of a hedonistic rock band as 2PM. Life is here to enjoy, and 2PM is all for that. So of course they have a fondness for the finer things in life, and often have MVs featuring lots of hot babes (frequently scantily clad), expensive sports cars, limos, yachts, champagne and fine food, first class airfare or private planes, designer fashion, hot tubs, and so forth.
You’ll see all of those things and more in 2PM’s iconic hit, “Hands Up,” which has to be one of the biggest KPop party songs, ever. You have to give them credit: When they decide to do a banger, they go all out with it, so expect to want to get up and dance to this one:
And here’s a live performance:
Trivia:
Fandom name: Hottest. But of course.
Lightstick color: Metallic grey. You didn’t expect a sissy cute color from a “beast mode” group, did you?
Jun.K’s original stage name was Junsu, but he changed it at the same time that he changed his legal name from Kim JunSu to Kim MinJun, for complicated family reasons that I won’t go into here.
A dual US/Thai citizen, Nichkhun attended high school in suburban Los Angeles and thus is fluent in English. His family is rumored to be quite wealthy, and it is his largesse that enables 2PM to enjoy those finer things in life I mentioned above.
TaecYeon lived in Massachusetts for 7 years, and attended high school there.
All of the 2PM members are on the athletic side. JunHo in particular is known for doing elaborate acrobatics, although it once resulted in a shoulder injury. As soon as he healed, he lived up to the beast mode image to go right back to his old stunts. JunHo also became an internet sensation when he broke a couple of dozen chopsticks with his butt cheeks on a game show. He sometimes is known as “HoButt” for that reason.
For now, 2PM is on hiatus while assorted members are in the military service process, save for Nichkhun, who’s exempt from serving because he’s not a Korean citizen. He has spent the hiatus working primarily in the Thai television and movie industry.
TaecYeon was discharged from the military in May 2019. Since then, he has focused on his acting career. He has a starring role in a drama, The Game: Towards Midnight, which is expected to premiere near the end of January 2020.
The other four members are currently serving their tours of duty. Maknae Chansung will be the last to return to the group in the spring of 2021.
