Introduction

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Wonder Girls is the only K-pop group that I am fanboying on. They are also the only girl group that I became a fan of. I'm not really that much into K-pop before I discovered the Wonder Girls because, first of all, I can't enjoy a song in a foreign language that I do not speak or understand. I also do not follow any musician or artist except for the two female singers (one is a famous american blonde bombshell and the other is a member of a Norwegian  duo group) that I used to had a very huge crush on back in my high school days. I was just a casual music listener that enjoy songs for a while without having any interest at it's artist/s and will eventually forget it as time pass by.

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Back then, my addiction is only focused on arcade/computer games and anime (japanese cartoons). My obsession to anime was a very serious one to the point that it affected the way I draw pictures (I am gifted with the talent for drawing) and went as far as choosing animation as my career ambition. My love for anime made me appreciate J-pop music which led me to discovering the existence of an asian girl group, the Wonder Girls.







The phenomenal virus breakout

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It was around the month of October in 2009 when I heard the song 'Nobody' for the first time. I was strolling at a shopping mall with a friend, looking for Capcom and anime gashapons that could be added to my fast growing collection of expensive figurines (I used to be a hardcore otaku).  Suddenly the mall sound speakers are blaring this catchy  song that made people singing and dancing along with it. I was also surprised that my friend started singing "I want NOBODY, NOBODY but you!" pointing his right hand index finger upwards, swinging it like saying NO then points on me then rapidly claps twice before pointing both his index fingers on me again. I told him "Hey man, what are you doing? Cut it out would you? You're freaking me out!" but he doesn't seem to hear me, he kinda look funny doing that clap-clap-point dance step whenever the "nobody nobody but you" part comes in. When I looked around, I also saw a lot of people doing the same dance step. I felt like a total noob because it seemed to me that everybody knows the song and I'm the only one who looked clueless about it. I was like "What the hell is this?! The song is too damn catchy!" Though I wasn't sure that time whether the artist group is singing in english or in part-english-part-japanese. My friend told me that the song is the current dance craze in the country and is popular among the local variety shows. He said the artist group is japanese which made me think it's j-pop. He chuckled "Where in the earth are you living? on top of the mountains?" well, I can't help it because I rarely watch TV shows (except anime) and haven't listened to the radio for ages. As I've said before, I am just addicted  to anime and games. Though I gotta admit that I instantly did liked that song.



My encounter with that song did not end there for that day. We parted ways to head back to our homes that afternoon. I decided to hail a taxi because it was raining outside. The taxi driver was tuning in to a local radio station that aired that viral Nobody song around half way of my comfortable trip. This time, I get to hear the song clearly and had the chance to focus on the voices of the group members. The ones that got much of my attention were the voices of the one who sings the pre-chorus parts and the other one that sings the first half chorus parts and the high note bridge part. The two voices has a huge contrast from each other and hearing it one after the other is kinda interesting, the one with a cute wee voice and the another one with a thick rich voice, you can tell that she's a good singer by how she easily shift her pitch from middle to low to high.  I was thinking of anime characters singing it and imagined Ingrid of Capcom singing the cute wee pre-chorus part, Morrigan singing the chorus and bridge, Chunli sings the second half of chorus parts, Cammy on the stanzas and Psylocke doing the rap parts. I had a nice laugh with my imagination LOL! I realized that the song already grew inside my head and played on it again and again for the rest of my trip.







 Encounter with the virus-carrying video





When I finally reached home, I decided to search the song on the internet. The only thing that I can type on google search bar is the "I want nobody nobody but you" line. The first result is a YouTube video with the title "{HQ} Wonder Girls - Nobody [MV]" so I clicked on it and watched. The video is of bad quality even if the title says "HQ" then this asian male singer was the first to appear, I was like "Maybe I got the wrong result" I was about to click on the 'Back' button when the scene switched to backstage showing the guy rehearsing the song while his attractive backup lady dancers are being choreographed by an older lady. It made me curious about the MV and decided to continue watching. The part where he was unable to get out of a cubicle after taking a dump (or leaving a dump? lol) due to shortage of toilet paper had me laughing so hard! He ought to be performing on stage on that very time and yet he's stuck inside the restroom LOL! The managers panic and had the backup dancer ladies to perform instead. When the music started, I recognized the familiar beats and I was like "OMG This is the SONGGGG!!! I FOUND IT!!!" but then my excitement turned to confusion again when I realized they were singing in an accented english. I wasn't aware that they have two versions of that song during that time.  I was in the middle of that thinking when I was stunned by what I just saw! I clicked the 'Pause' button to take a good look at it.