[series] Inkigayo Chronicles: A Rain Retrospective – Rainism (10/19/2008)
Cloud cover by: Michele, Staff Writer
Hold on to anything that is not securely fastened down because things are about to go primal and wild!
Rain ended 2006 and rolled into 2007 on such a high note with the success of Rain’s World and his critically acclaimed performance in I’m A Cyborg But That’s Okay. His schedule was jam-packed for 2007 with touring as well as landing a supporting role in a Hollywood film (his first), the Wachowski’s Speed Racer. Momentum was indeed building.
In 2007, he also left JYP Entertainment and began building his own entertainment empire. He was, to put it mildly, unstoppable.
Rain released Rainism, his 5th album, on October 16, 2008. If we thought he could not come at us with any more explosive and aggressive sensuality than he did with It’s Raining, we were sorely mistaken.
Having that two-year hiatus from making new music was certainly not a deficit for Rain. Oh no, not at all. On October 19, 2008, he arrived back on the Inkigayo stage with a comeback special and tore the place up proper with the title track from the new album. He also performed Love Story, the first single released from the album. In order to keep the hot quotient to a minimum, however, I will feature that performance in a separate post. I also want to give it some special love because it is my favorite Rain song. 🙂
Simply put, Rainism is a force to be reckoned with. It comes at you with an energy I cannot even describe nor can modern technology measure adequately.^^ It is provocative and sexy and intense. As Rain was maturing, so was his music. The more he embraced his sensual side, the more he shared it. The censors were none too pleased, but his fans — well, his fans loved it.
The choreography for Rainism is an all-out assault on the senses. I can only hope that each and every one of you who has yet to experience Rain live sees this one performed live and up close. It must be experienced.
Rain can swag it up with the best of them and, better than most. However, he has that secret weapon others do not (at least in the quantity and quality he carries). He has that genuine humbleness and sweetness that sits at the core of who he is and he never forgets that it is there. It is an intrinsic part of who he chose to be from the very beginning, and who he remains to be to this very day.
I mean seriously, first we get raw, explosive intensity:
And then absolute adorableness:
This is what continues to capture our hearts over and over. I love that he loses himself so completely in a performance and equally adore the unimaginable cute he throws at us time and time again. He is an incredibly adept showman but more importantly, he’s an incredibly endearing man.♥
Michele@CloudUSA.wordpress.com/CloudUSA.org
[Image credit: crunchyroll and soompi/Video credit: CGirlsxRain]
[…] mentioned in my previous post in this series, Rain returned to the Inkigayo stage with a comeback special in October of 2008, […]
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AMEN!! Rainism is another level of excellence Rain achieved in his career and to this day, I love that song, the awesome video and the album that is a work of art! 😀
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