It has been awhile since my premiere K-Pop You May Have Missed post in which I showcased the influential K-Pop girl group, S.E.S. For awhile I was undecided on whom I should do the next spotlight on, but after putting it up to a vote on Twitter, Lee Jung Hyun won the vote against others like Fin.K.L, and BABY V.O.X. I apologize it took this long, so I’m going to showcase the absolute best of Lee Jung Hyun’s amazing talent.
Back in the first few months of discovering K-Pop, the friend who had initially introduced me to S.E.S, found Lee Jung Hyun. I’ll never forget the first time we listened to that CD. It was so different than the soft and cute pop filled music. Lee Jung Hyun brought energetic dance/techno music, and with it truly artistic visuals. Her videos were always interesting and you can’t help but watch when they are on. She mimicks her videos with her on stage performances as well. She truly is a great entertainer, that sadly doesn’t do as much music as I would like her to in recent years. Enough gushing, let’s start the actual showcase of her music, which will showcase her Studio albums first, then some of the more notable EPs and singles.
(1999) Let’s Go To My Star
Lee Jung Hyun came out the gate with a song that immediately grabbed you with “Bakkwo (Change)”, then she dropped the artistic music video for “Wa (Come)”, which I decided to feature below since it showcases her entire package as an artist. The aforementioned songs were the two singles from the album. Other standout tracks from the album are “Bird”, “Ca Tient Moi”, and “I Love X” (Featuring JoPD).
(2000) Lee Jung Hyun II
This second album kicked off with “Peace”, a song and video that carries a very strong message that is anti-war and pro-peace. The video was pretty epic for those days in terms of scale. She would release two more singles from the album, with “Nuh” and “Joolae”, the latter in which she plays a “Barbie” type doll in the video (Seen below). Other notable tracks are “Feel Me!”, and “Tta (Pick)” (Featuring Perry).
(2001) Magic to Go to My Star
For her third album, Lee Jung Hyun dropped her first single “Michyo (Crazy)”, a very dark themed music video. She then came out with a much more dance club track with “Ban (Half)”. The album also featured another song showcasing her global activism, titled “No More Terror”. Other notable tracks are “Surisuri Masuri (Hocus Pocus)”, “Set It Up Now”, and “French Kiss”.
(2002) I ♡ Natural
Her 4th studio album might just be my favorite, as every track I absolutely love. She came out with two techno/dance songs and MVs to accompany them with “Ari Ari” and “Dara Dara”. Other notable tracks (without just saying all of them) are “Tell Me”, “Brighter Than Sunshine”, and “I Hate You”.
(2004) Passion
As is known with K-Pop artists, each album is a new look and sound, a rebrand per se, and Lee Jung Hyun’s 5th album switches a Latin music influence infused in to her dance music. The lead single was “Follow Me”. Other notable tracks are “Geondeuljima (Don’t Bother Me)”, “Domino”, and “Escape”.
(2006) Fantastic Girl
Her 6th album had some great tracks, but her decision to make a music video of “I Love You, Chul Soo” was a strange decision. It was just a mediocre track compared to the rest of the album. Other notable tracks are “FunFun” (Featuring Double K), “Teul (Formula)”, “Welcome To My Style”, and “Dallyeo (Run)”.
(2010) Lee Jung Hyun 007th
Lee Jung Hyun’s final full length studio album brought along with it the single “Suspicious Man”, a house heavy dance track. Other notable tracks from this album were “Vogue Girl (It Girl)”, “Open”, and “Crazy”.
(2003) Summer Party [Special Album]
Lee Jung Hyun brought in a summer flare to her dance/techno style with this special album. “Summer Dance” is a super cute song and music video. The rest of the album features a few more songs, and a bunch of remixes, with “Tell Me” being the most notable track.
(2013) “V” [Single]
Lee Jung Hyun returns true to form and brought her A game for her most recent single from 2013. She even brought in hit film director, Park Chan-Wook (Oldboy, Thirst, The Handmaiden), to direct a short film style music video. I can’t recommend this song enough, and the music video is just superbly done with its creepy vibe and humor.
Also finally below is an image of all the Lee Jung Hyun stuff I own, including Korean albums, some Japanese singles (not very good in my opinion), and even a VideoCD. I own all her albums except 007th physically, with only the 4th album not pictured as it is at my office since I play it often while working.
