Not a General K-Pop Stan, Just a Lee Jung-Hyun Stan.

It's no secret that I used to be hooked on a different video game about 20 years ago. Back then, Dance Dance Revolution was my jam since I first played it in 2000. If I saw a machine in an arcade, I had to play it. I owned all the Playstation/PS2 games up to Supernova 2. Until 2007, I kept my Stepmania up to date with all the newest officially-released steps. I owned 4 heavy-foam insert dance mats for the annual DDR parties I'd run at Anime Detour, Anime Iowa, and CONvergence.

I wasn't the best at the game, but I did have a couple 10-footers under my belt back when that was the highest level. Eventually though, so many new releases were happening that I couldn't keep up with the Stepmania updates, and between that and the resurrection of my old 1990s radio show, my fever for the game just waned around 2008-09.

What drew me in mostly was the songs, many were hard-driving EDM, which still gets me today, but among the music, one artist stood out for me after I first heard one of her songs played on DDR4+...

"Ba kkwo! Ba kkwo! Ba kkwo!...." -- hooked by the hook!

Mall of America's first DDR machine in 2001 was a DDR3 Korean v2, which has all the tunes from the original DDR3 plus a selection of popular K-pop from the time. This was the first version of DDR that particular song appeared on, and about 3 or 4 K-pop songs from that version got their Japanese DDR premiere in DDR4+ later.

Two of them were by S Korea's "techno queen" at the time: Lee Jung-Hyun. Her first 2 hits from 1999, "Wa" and "Ba Kkwo".

They were two of the most amazing songs I had ever heard in my life... at the time. So I had to seek out more. This was 2001/2002, so getting my hands on an actual CD was pretty much out of the question. Luckily, Aimster existed, and I built a nice collection from that, transferred them to cassette, and looped them in my car nonstop (until I got my first iPod, that is)

Dana deciding to recently order her first album from iTunes re-ignited my fire for this artist, and as for her image at the time, she kinda filled the gap of "artists of presentation" between Madonna before her and Lady Gaga after her, with outrageous outfits and elaborate choreographed dance moves.

But my fave song of hers will always be that song of the gaslit lover who just woke up to the truth: "Ba Kkwo" (which translates to "Change"). It's angry. It's powerful. It needs to be played REALLY LOUD!

And last night, I fell down the "Ba Kkwo" rabbit hole, listening to covers, and found one that had English lyrics, but it was a mashup between "Ba Kkwo" and "Wa" done in 2013 by Jason Ray. Unlike some other songs I could mention (coughQueenOfLovecough), these English lyrics actually fit the gist of the original lyrics, but rearranged and reworded for cadence, scanning, and rhyme. It's a process I call "WordFit", named after the same process Viz Media used to do for theme songs of anime shows.

However, in the mashup, only the first verse and chorus of "Ba Kkwo" and the chorus of "Wa" were WordFitted.

See, one of my holy grails of karaoke is to perform "Ba Kkwo" with full English lyrics. I tried my hand at a WordFit about 15 years ago to no avail. Jason Ray's mashup gave me impetus to try again, since now part of the work was done for me.

I did it. Finally.
And yes, I have obtained the karaoke track.

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[Existing WordFits from Jason Ray]
What do you want me to say to you?
You drive me crazy with the things you do
I don't believe your words, and don't know if you're telling me the truth.
Quit tryin' to sell me all your dirty lies
You know you're guilty and you can't deny
Stop pointing fingers, and just think about the things that you have done.

[Official English lyrics]
Thought it was a must to trust you, now I’ll crush you
Analyzing my brain, feel nothing but pain
The pain inside, I just can't take it no more
Now I’ve got to let you go so just…

[Wordfits from me]
All you do now is bring up the past
Can't I be forgiven for my acts?
If you feel that way, then why did you think this was gonna last?
Now I've changed because you hurt me so
No longer the naive girl you used to know
It's too late now to apologize for how you let me go.

CHORUS
Ba kkwo. ba kkwo, ba kkwo, change everything
Ba kkwo. ba kkwo, ba kkwo, change all the love
Ba kkwo. ba kkwo, ba kkwo, change all the lies
Ba kkwo. ba kkwo, ba kkwo, change all our world
Ba kkwo. ba kkwo, ba kkwo, change everything
Ba kkwo. ba kkwo, ba kkwo, change all the love
Ba kkwo. ba kkwo, ba kkwo, change all the lies
Ba kkwo. ba kkwo, it's time to make a total change, ba kkwo!

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EDIT: I just finished "Wa" too

[WordFits From Me]
I didn't want it to end this way, no, my heart can't believe it's real
Whatever could have gone wrong with our love, why did we change the way we feel?
Although it hurts inside, I can't bear to look your way.
'Cause goodbye would only increase the pain.

[Existing WordFits from Jason Ray]
CHORUS
How could you play me like a game and walk away
Tell me the reason why you act so strange
You said you'd never ever play me like this way
Now is the time for us to make a change
Oh OhOhOh Oh Oh Oh Oh
We're gonna change the way we play
Oh OhOhOh Oh Oh Oh Oh
I won't let you walk away

[WordFits From Me]
Too often I've been betrayed by love, thought my bad luck was finally done
I thought that you would stay with me forever, I thought that you'd be the one
And now I'm all alone, left here crying out in pain
I'll never heal from this, never be the same

[Official English Lyrics]
Back to my fantasy, My own legacy
Let me dream on and so on, Let it go on and on
Now take me back to my fantasy, My only legacy
Let me dream on and so on, Let it go on and on

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