Music defines a country and a culture as well. Therefore, when I first heard about 24:7 and GULA-GULA as the first ever K-Pop group in Malaysia, I have tried to reason out the logic and relevance behind the news. However, no matter how much I have tried to think and think, I can't seem to be able to connect why Malaysia would need these two groups.
One is all-male:
[The original]
[The Imitation]
One is all-female:
[The Original]
[The Imitation]
The only possible answer to my question could be:
Malaysian music industry has been desperate to rise to the top again (Have they ever been to the top? Well, just assume they have.). So what they do? Creating and producing more and more cheap celebrities, hoping that people will accept and spend money to buy or download their songs/albums! And because of the desperateness, they just copy-cat and reproduce something which other people have spent huge amount of money, time, sweat, and tears on!
When we say we need something 'fresh' and 'new' in our music industry, we don't mean GULA-GULA or 24:7. Look at our talented mainstream artists such as Siti Nurhaliza, Yuna, Faizal Tahir, Pop Shuvit, Jaclyn Victor and Aizat Amdan. They are great singers/songwriters who still uphold Malaysian identity while singing and performing. What we need is our music industry to produce more promising young talents as good as or better than them.
In addition, what is the point of listening to Malaysian K-Pop music when the Hallyu Wave is so strong to start with, most fans would just go on listening to original K-Pop music rather than almost seemingly "pirated" stuff (airportsandme, 2011).
Simply put, the debut of GULA-GULA and 24:7 has somehow re-enforced the fact that Malaysian entertainment industry is so left behind as compared to the other countries.
This is just my point of view. You don't have to like it :)
