POPSEOUL!

Kick back, you’re in for a lot of performances.

Six months have gone by in a flash, and that means a lot of fresh (and not so fresh) music to fill the moments of silence in our lives. For the DaeBak special on KBS Music Bank, all the musical acts that reigned between January to June came out to play in special stages and performances of the hottest songs of 2009, as well as the hits of the past with their “Idol Parade.”

Let’s get started. Girls Generation’s comeback was slightly stained by their controversial album cover, but that won’t stop them from having an anticipated stage with their new song, “Genie.” The girls aren’t wearing their white marine girl outfits (tough luck ahjusshis), but I personally find these brown pilot outfits cuter. Still wish the choreography offered a little more than just a lot of leg, maybe that’s just because I’m not a dude.

Remember the endless amusement brought to us by the SBS creation, Wonder Boys? Well, Music Bank wants to emulate that success with their own boy band parody hybrid, Boys Generation, which features Super Junior’s Eun-hyuk, Sung-min, Shin-dong, Ye-sung; 2PM’s Jae-bum, Tae-kyeon, and Nickhun; Shinee’s Key; and of course, 2AM’s Jo-kwon. Please somebody just give that boy a variety show, so we can watch his histrionic hi-jinks. Even though “Genie” is SNSD’s new hit, everyone still has “Gee” fever and it gave Girls Generation an easy win for the first half of 2009.

Let’s slow it down and get a little touchy-feely. Showcasing their powerful vocal abilities, K.Will, Baek Ji-young, and Jo Sung-mo performed the song “That’s what friends are for.” Although you wouldn’t understand them completely without the English subtitles, the three singers convey a lot of emotion in their performances. It’s good to see that Music Bank didn’t just give us idols, but also some bonafide vocalists. Fo’sho.

It wouldn’t be complete without some hot dancing skills from fine looking boys. The three top contenders for the next solo dancing fiend, Chung-lim, AJ, and Tae-goon, duke it out in a pretty weak dance battle. Let me break it down for you: Chung-lim is the eye candy since he’s packing guns, AJ brings us boyish charm with that killer smile, and then Tae-goon rips it out with power dancing. All three may be locked in a rookie rivalry, but joining forces to form one group doesn’t sound like a bad idea, they have a lot of “boom boom pow.”

Paying respects to the late Michael Jackson, 2NE1 donned his image on their outfits during their performance of Rihanna’s “Umbrella” and gave him a shout-out before their “Fire” performance. Don’t really enjoy the rain effect because it just results in some flimsy dancing with umbrellas, and…

…caused SHINee’s Onew to slip during their performance of “Juliette.” He quickly recovered, followed by some stage ninjas with towels to wipe away any additional residue, and handled it professionally because the show must go on. I kinda wish that SHINee paid some sort of tribute to Michael Jackson during their performance because their style has MJ written all over it.

SM Entertainment sunbaes Super Junior had their official goodbye stage, performing a portion of “It’s You” and “Sorry, Sorry.” Sung-min injured his knee during one of the rehearsals, so he has to stand off to the side of the stage. I find this kind of amusing and sad because he only has one solo line where they gave him a close up, so the fans can either watch the whole performance or just watch Sung-min by himself.

I’m not going to put every single recap performance up because they are pretty much the same as the ones from the past. I’ll indulge myself a little and put another one of them up. I do love myself some DaVichi.

I’m going to conclude things with the “Idol Parade.” KARA performed Fin.K.l’s “To My Boyfriend,” which feels very befitting because KARA did debut as Fin.K.l 2 and they are currently the girl group closest to that old school girly pop flavor. SHINee performed H.O.T’s “We Are The Future,” and of course, they dance their butts off. SNSD’s Jessica, Seo-hyun, and Tiffany get all sweet with S.E.S’s “Oh My Love.” 2PM offer some smooth player flavor with their homage to G.O.D’s “Friday Night.”

Whew~that was a lot of show. Which performance got you most pumped up?