The Rookie List: Niki Introduces Cross Gene

History- From announcement to teaser to  debut MV in just 12 days, Cross Gene hit the K-Pop scene pretty unexpectedly. Cross Gene is Amuse Korea‘s first music group and consists of 3 Koreans, 2 Chinese, and 1 Japanese member. Their name sounds interesting, but the reasoning behind it is a tiny bit… silly. Their explanation goes like so: “Cross Gene is a group that will “cross” the best genes from each country to create a superior group”. Like I said, silly. The group was announced on May 26 and their debut showcase, plus the date of their music video release, was June 7th. Their album was titled Timeless: Begins and was released on June 8th. And by album, I do mean a full fledged album. Where as most groups only have two or three songs on their debut album, Cross Gene’s first album had 5 unique songs  on it. Pretty impressive. Or it would be if I could remember the songs after listening to the CD. But we’ll get to that in just a little bit.

Out of all of the members, only two of the members have no entertainment background. At least I can’t find anything for Yongseok or J.G., where as Sangmin was in musical theater, Takuya is a veteran Japanese actor, Casper was a Chinese model-turned-actor, and Shin? Shin Won-ho has been in two Korean Dramas and a Japanese film. Well, looks like this is another actor-turned-singer pop group. And while I’m not exactly ecstatic about that, it is good for two reasons. 1- Even if they aren’t that good at singing, at least they’ll look pretty on stage, and 2- they know how the entertainment world works, so they probably won’t die out of exhaustion after their rookie year.
 
Members-

Casper- Zhong Ze Xiang 中泽祥
Date of Birth: March 20, 1991
Position: Rapper, Main Dancer

Shin- Shin Wonho
Date of Birth: October 23, 1991
Position: Vocalist, Face of The Group

Takuya- Terada Takuya 寺田拓哉
Date of Birth: March 18, 1992
Position: Leader, Vocalist

Sangmin- Kim Sangmin
Date of Birth: July 7, 1992
Position: Rapper, Lead Dancer

Yongseok- Kim Yongseok
Date of Birth: January 8, 1993
Position: Main Vocalist

J.G.- Gao Jianing 高家宁
Date of Birth: January 12, 1993
Position: Maknae, Main Vocalist

 

 
Debut: La-Di Da-Di: I could definitely hear this being played in a club. It has that repetative club beat while still having moving vocals. The chorus isn’t bad either. All in all a good song I think. Don’t know how memorable I will find it though. You know, it reminds me of some of those club songs you hear on the radio here in the US. I wish it had a little bit more music behind it, rather than just the electronic beat. Maybe even if it was a tiny bit faster? But that is just me. I like the bridge a lot as well, but the ending is a bit sudden. Of course, that makes it unique, so maybe that is what they were going for? Who knows. After listening to the whole thing, I think I can say that while I like it, it isn’t a song that I would put on my iPod to listen to all the time, but I would definitely put it on a party mix soundtrack. The MV… I don’t know how I feel about it. I think it would have done better if it had been set in a club instead of, well, somewhat random locations. I don’t appreciate the dancing too much, but I DO appreciate the acrobatics. More handstands! If I’m right I think that is mainly Casper? Overall, I like the song. I don’t love it, but the song is alright. The music video? Nope. I don’t care for the music video. Sorry dudes!

Other Songs: One Way Love, Sky High, For This Love, and My Lady. Hm. What to say about these songs. I think they chose their title song well since La-Di Da-Di seems to be my favorite out of all of the songs. The others aren’t bad per say, they just aren’t very memorable. What they all are is catchy. By the end of the song I found myself humming along, but as soon as the song was over I couldn’t remember the tune at all. Perfect club songs, just not my thing at the moment.

Random Facts: La-Di Da-Di was produced by DJ Frank E, who has worked with B.o.B (airplanes) , Flo Rida (Right Round), Enrique Inglesias (Tonight (I’m Loving You)), and The Lonely Islands (I Just Had Sex). This? Explains a lot. And the songs he has produced? I love most of them. Even the ones that didn’t place well on the song charts.

Stalker Info (lol):
Official Website: http://crossgene.net/
Official Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/CROSSGENE.Official
Casper’s Twitter: http://twitter.com/caspertrue1991
J.G.’s Twitter: http://twitter.com/Gaojianing