South Korea’s secret weapon in MTV USA’s World Cup of Rock is…
… RAIN. 😀
MTV Newsroom Blog 6/10/2010 — In the spirit of our March Madness competition, we pit rock bands against each other… fans decide who wins!
Every four years, the international community comes together to decide which nation has the most dominant soccer team (or football team, provided that you live anywhere but the United States). The 2010 FIFA World Cup is upon us, and the first matches start in earnest on Friday.
Coincidentally, that’s also the day that will see the launch of the 2010 MTV World Cup of Rock tournament. Just as we did with our very popular Musical March Madness matchup, we’ve taken a huge sporting event and translated it to the music world. And once again, it’s up to you the readers to decide which country rocks hardest and best.
The 16 countries that qualified for the World Cup of Rock are grouped into four groups of four teams each. Play will begin on Friday with a matchup between the first two teams, and every day will see a different matchup. Once each team has played the others in its group, the two top seeds from each group will qualify for the bracketed tournament. From there, it’s single elimination until one nation is left standing.
Each country will be represented by a contingent of particular artists…
…Group B
England: The English do a few things exceptionally well, with soccer and rock just behind drinking and reality television. With Coldplay, Damon Albarn, Muse and Radiohead leading the way, it should be able to assert its dominance early and often.
South Africa: The host nation doesn’t have the strongest soccer team but it does have a solid batch of musical representatives, including arena hippie Dave Matthews, prog icon Manfred Mann and tongue-twisting rapper Jean Grae.
South Korea: Though it doesn’t have a great shot at the Cup, South Korea has a secret weapon in the World Cup of Rock: His name is Rain (a.k.a. MTV Movie Awards [Badass], and he is a one man dynamo.
United States of America: Easily the favorite, considering that it basically invented rock and roll, and with any number of massive international superstars at its disposal — including the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, Foo Fighters and 75 percent of Metallica — there’s no reason it shouldn’t run the table….
» You can read Kyle Anderson and James Montgomery’s article in its entirety on MTV.com HERE.
This looks like a lot of fun and a unique way to watch the World Cup this year. We do believe we’ll give it a shot! (Just good clean competition, no serious attitude, hard feelings, or flame wars. Hopefully other folks that show up there will feel the same way.)
It also seems that MTV looks at Rain a little differently now, don’t they? A very cool thing.
— Stephe ^@@^ 12:08 am EST
Cloud USA 
Sigh…
Can I be infinitely YOURS, Rain, dear?
Terri :-}
LikeLike
i remeber this last 2009 with park ji sung he was very cute in their i glad rain finally make USA list and they finally make some noies for rain he dream have come true and make all his fans trun with a big smile on him rain and next contract it would be so awesome i hope they have rain up coming filming what all say???
LikeLike
OMG! I super LUV this pic of him!! That SMILE ….. gives me the UMMPH….
LikeLike
Thanks for the heads up on this. Yes, MTV finally seems to have listened to all the noise we were making :p
LikeLike
Yes, it does appear that Rain has finally gotten MTV’s attention.
All I can say is IT’S ABOUT TIME!
Terri :-}
LikeLike