Most young male soloists in K-Pop these days lean on a sexy image (Rain when he was active, Jay Park, 2PM‘s Wooyoung, JYJ‘s Junsu, Roh Ji Hoon) or an artistic image (JYJ‘s Jaejoong, INFINITE‘s Sunggyu, Big Bang‘s G-Dragon). Looking at the K-Pop landscape, one has to wonder … where’s K-Pop’s Justin Bieber?
Before you freak out and exile me from the K-Pop fandom for daring to mention He Who Must Not Be Named (I’m a bit amused at the amount of hate some K-Pop fans have for Justin Bieber), hear me out. There’s a reason Justin Bieber completely took over when he showed up with “Baby” in 2010, and that reason was that he was the perfect teen heartthrob. He had the same kind of wholesome, boy-next-door charm of the Jonas Brothers, but since he got his big break by uploading covers on YouTube instead of by appearing on the Disney Channel, he seemed even more down-home and accessible than his contemporaries. He was a singing, dancing, instrument-playing, baby-faced triple-threat, and his songs and image were innocent enough that parents didn’t mind their thirteen-year-olds listening to him.
Henry‘s solo debut album, ‘Trap‘, falls right in line with that kind of image- the whole album is straightforward, easy to follow and has this general niceness to it that doesn’t feel overly processed or like it’s trying too hard. It’s a breath of fresh air in the midst of all the weighty, conceptual music SM Entertainment‘s been turning out this year. Henry’s not being a zombie or a wolf or anything but the singing, dancing, instrument-playing, baby-faced triple-threat that he is, and that’s exactly what his fans want from him.
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