Minhyuk, Yonghwa, Jungshin, Jonghyun
A South Korean idol rock band who made their indie debut in Japan 2009 before making their official Korean debut in 2010. Short for Code Name Blue (with Blue itself short for Burning Lovely Untouchable Emotional), they are under FNC Entertainment (FNC Music when they debuted in Korea). The band comprises:
- Jung Yonghwa: Leader, main vocalist, rapper, rhythmic guitarist, keyboardist. Also the oldest. His image is "Emotional".
- Lee Jonghyun: Lead guitarist, subvocalist. Also in a subunit with labelmate Juniel called "Romantic J". His image is "Burning".
- Lee Jungshin: Bassist, rapper. Also the maknae. His image is "Untouchable". He replaced former bassist Kwon Kwangjin during their indie days.
- Kang Minhyuk: Drummer. His image is "Lovely".
Former member:
- Kwon Kangjin: Bassist. He was an original member who was there for their indie debut but left in September 2009 to train again. He later became a member of another FNC band N.Flying, who made their indie debut in Japan 2013, followed by their official Korean debut in May of 2015.
Their debut was very successful in Korea, scoring a win with their debut song "I'm A Loner" after 15 days which made them the boy band with the quickest music show win after their debut until 2014 (where YG's new group Winner snatched a win even more quickly). Similar to their labelmate FT Island who debuted before them, they won everyone with their personalities (charming and dorky), good looks and their unique appeal as a band, something rare in kpop. They also made their official Japan debut in 2011 and, in contrast to their lacking indie sales, they have also proven to be great success there.
Additionally, Jonghyun and Juniel's subunit "Romantic J" made their debut in December 2013; and in January 2015 Yonghwa also made his solo debut with the album "One Fine Day", full of collaborations and his self-composed music.
The are one of the most well-known kpop bands along with FT Island, as well as amongst kpop artists. Despite their idol status, they also write and compose many of their songs, especially Yonghwa who is one of the most respected idols for writing countless good tunes. They are continuing to work towards their goal as true artists and show idol-wary people just how capable they are as a band.
Discography
Korean Discography:
- Bluetory (2010)
- Bluelove (2010)
- First Step (2011)
- First Step +1 Thank You (2011) (repackaged)
- Ear Fun (2012)
- Re:Blue (2013)
- Can't Stop (2014)
Japan Discography (singles listed under respective albums)
- Now or Never (2009) (their first ever release)
- Voice (2009)
- 392 (2011)
- The Way (2010), I Don't Know Why (2010), Re-maintenance (2011)
- Code Name Blue (2012) (first major album)
- In My Head (2011), Where You Are (2012), Come On (2012)
- What Turns You On? (2013)
- Robot (2012), Blind Love (2013), Lady (2013)
- Wave (2014)
- Truth (2014), Go Your Way (2014)
Jung Yonghwa Korean solo discography:
- One Fine Day (2015)
Members and their music/acting works show examples of:
- All Just a Dream: The MV for "Love Girl" ends with the girl waking up from a dream that her CN Blue poster came to life.
- Ascended Extra:
- Yonghwa was a well-known ulzzang predebut.
- Jonghyun was also not only a well-known ulzzang but a champion at judo predebut too. He was also used in an advertisement promoting FNC Academy, along with FT Island's Seunghyun.
- Affectionate Parody: A phone CF
features not only CN Blue but also heavy metal CN Black, country musicians CN Green and girl group/effeminate boy group CN Pink. All are performing their own versions of "LOVE". - Anime Theme Song: "In My Head" was used in the anime version of Supernatural.
- Big Eater: Minhyuk's often typecasted as one in his acting works, as seen in "Heartstrings" and "Acoustic" where eating a hearty meal is one of his top priorities.
- Big Little Brother: Jungshin, who is the maknae yet also the tallest at 187cm.
- The Cutie: Minhyuk, who is represented as "Lovely" in the band's name. He takes it further for some characters he plays such as the drummer Joonhee in Heartstrings and more pure-hearted than everyone else.
- Darker and Edgier: "Intuition" - the song has more edge compared to previous songs and the MV has the boys being much more rebellious than usual.
- A Day in the Limelight:
- For Jonghyun and Minhyuk in their segment in the Acoustic movie where they played two broke brothers in "Bakery Attack". They also have their own OST for it called "Fly High".
- Jonghyun, the subvocalist and rarely if not never the main one, has his own OST for "A Gentleman's Dignity".
- Minhyuk, not even a subvocalist, also has his own OST for "Heartstrings".
- Delayed Reaction: Yonghwa was with Infinite's L on Running Man once and spent the whole day with him. Yet:Yonghwa: ...Your name is Myungsoo?!
- Distaff Counterpart:
- Elegant Classical Musician: All the members are attractive but look even more charismatic and the best when performing as a band.
- Face on the Cover: Common for their album and single covers, such as Bluetory and In My Head
- Family Business: Minhyuk's father is a drum teacher and was the one who taught him the drums.
- Fanboy:
- Yonghwa for famous Korean skater Kim Yuna, constantly naming her his ideal type. He's also one for Bruno Mars - he even called him "Mars-hyung" once and was very excited going to his concert.
- Jonghyun for Kim Bum Soo. He was super excited to meet him when they debuted.
- Minhyuk is a big fan of Korean actress Kim Taehee.
- Funny Background Event: Prone to this.
- Yonghwa/Jungshin walking by someone's interview in anything but a discreet manner.
- Did this with FT Island members and Juniel to their CEO during his speech at a Golden Disc Awards show when theynote won Best Composer. He tried to be serious, everyone else's peace signs and whatnot behind him said otherwise.
- Yonghwa/Jungshin
- Fun with Acronyms:
- Code Name Blue.
- Burning Lovely Untouchable Emotional.
- Fun with Foreign Languages: All members especially Yonghwa are very enthusiastic with learning and speaking English, so lots of hilarious Engrish moments are expected if one becomes a fan.
- What Jungshin once wrote as English writing practice:"Do you like mango? I like mango. Thank you. Hello, my name is Jungshin."
- While in Australia:Yonghwa: Very good, very nice place. (faces camera to Jungshin) What're you thinking about?Yonghwa: Ummmm... Yonghwa's face? And... very handsome.Yonghwa: Thank you.
- What Jungshin once wrote as English writing practice:
- Gratuitous English:
- Infamous for their first two indie minis being 100% Engrish. Many prefer the Korean versions because of this since it actually sounds like they know what they're saying there.
- Fans who were excited for "Where You Are" being put on Re:Blue and a possibility of a Korean version... unfortunately had to deal with the new version going from 40% Engrish to 100% Engrish.
- Yonghwa runs on this. Examples range from "Are you understand?" to what should had been "Is it my turn already?" but instead came out as "Is my turtle ready?"
- The mini-album name itself Ear Fun is... awkward, no matter how one looks at it.
- Hired for Their Looks: Jonghyun and Yonghwa caught FNC's attention because of their ulzzang fame.
- Idol Singer: Are an idol group like everyone else in kpop with Yonghwa and Jonghyun as the singers, though they're trying to break away from this image.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: As seen in their discography, their Korean releases started off like this by including the word "blue" but stopped doing it with First Step. They did however briefly do it again by naming their mini-album Re:Blue.
- Jack of All Trades:
- Besides guitar Yonghwa also knows the piano, clarinet, recorder, violin... (though most of them not as well as guitar, obviously). That's on top of his singing, rapping and composing.
- Minhyuk can play not only drums but the flute too, apparently also quite well. Then there's also his decent singing skills that has surprised many.
- Korean Drama: All have participated in a few. Most well-known ones include You Are Beautiful (Yonghwa as Shinwoo), "Heartstrings" (Yonghwa as Lee Shin and Minhyuk as Joonhee) and "The Heirs" (Minhyuk as Chanyoung).
- The Leader:
- Yonghwa's the official one, and so pretty impressive at guiding the group's musical direction and stages.
- Jonghyun's unofficially the "second leader" as he's said to be reliable with keeping the band together. He also briefly took over as the official leader during their indie days while Yonghwa was busy filming for You Are Beautiful - it hilariously worked so well fans were over Yonghwa by the time he came back. When brought up on a show, some MCs joked that each member should be a leader in a different country.
- Master of Disguise: Yes,◊ the old man in the first episode of the Korean historical drama version of The Three Musketeers is also Yonghwa.
- Motor Mouth: Some of their raps, notably Yonghwa's super fast and mouth of a rap in "I'm A Loner". Have fun trying to cover it.
- Official Couple: Not for real, but Yonghwa was made the onscreen husband of Girls' Generation's Seohyun for We Got Married for a while. They were a popular but infamously awkward couple.
- Older Than They Look: Minhyuk, who is a baby-face and is mistaken as the maknae (he's only months older than maknae Jungshin though).
- Power Ballad:
- Though not their speciality, they have a few impressive rock ballads, such as "My Miracle" and "Don't Say Goodbye".
- Yonghwa's solo song "One Fine Day" which he promoted for his solo debut.
- Put on a Bus:
- Rapping-wise; Jungshin initially rapped too but stopped in 2010 after he got braces. He surprised a few people unaware of this when he went back to rapping some time afterward.
- This happened to Yonghwa when he had to film for You Are Beautiful and the others performed without him in their indie days.
- Real Men Wear Pink: Jonghyun, considered the "macho" member in the group, once had a Hello Kitty phase and even had guitar picks of her.
- Record Producer: Yonghwa and Jonghyun who often produce the band's songs; they even eventually got their own rooms to do it.
- Self-Titled Album: Their first (major) Japanese album "Code Name Blue".
- Ship Tease: Jonghyun and Juniel invoked some in their subunit Romantic J. Their song "Love Falls" is a typical love song and in the MV they are high school lovers.
- Sibling Rivalry: With FT Island. It's an awkward but friendly rivalry; both bands are True Companions and a lot of fans acknowledge both groups as unique and equally awesome (others are... not as respectful about it though).
- Similar Squad: With FT Island. Both are idol-rock bands and inspiring-songwriters from FNC, and member counterparts follow as Hongki/Yonghwa, Jonghun/Jonghyun/sometimes Seunghyun, Minhwan/Minhyuk and Jaejin/Jungshin. Amusingly, fans have even pointed out the similarity in some of their names. FNC has toyed with this a few times, and each pair seem to be particularly good friends too, especially 2GtJH and the bassists.
- Singer Namedrop: Their songs often do this, such as the "C N to the Blue" line in "Love".
- Singing Simlish: A lot of their songs. Notably, there's the "Dara diri dara du" lines in "I'm A Loner" and "Duruduru durudu Blah blah Duruduru durudu" in "Hey You".
- Singer-Songwriter: Yonghwa and Jonghyun sing and write their own songs.
- Song Style Shift: "Can't Stop" goes from ballad-like to quite poppy when going from the verse to the chorus.
- Spelling Song: "Love Girl" constantly repeats the line "L-O-V-E girl".
-
Spiritual Successor: When they debuted in Korea, they were immediately noted for sharing similar success and appeal as labelmates FT Island who had debuted about 2.5 years beforehand. Both promote alongside each other and have moulded their own distinct sounds and success since then. - Stalker with a Crush: The "Love Girl" MV has the members, who came to life from a girl's poster, hiding and watching said girl. In her house. The girl catches them but ends up jamming with them. Turns out to be all a dream in the end.
- Supergroup: Jonghyun and Juniel, both previously already well-known for their own music, and their subunit Romantic J.
- Title Track:
- Mini-album and promoted song "Can't Stop".
- Yonghwa's solo debut album and promoted song "One Fine Day".
- Translated Cover Version:
- A good deal of the songs on their 1st and 3rd Korean albums were their Japanese indie songs translated to Korean.
- Subverted in Japan, where they always produce original music unlike fellow Korean idols who remake a lot of their Korean songs. An exception is Yonghwa's duet with Juniel, as their "Babo" duet was translated to Japanese for her debut Japanese album.
- Truck Driver's Gear Change: Common in their songs, such as "I'm A Loner" where it changes keys in the last chorus.
- True Companions: The four of them state that they are very close and protective of each other like brothers. They even admitted once they prefer to stick to each other instead of getting too close to fellow idols and only have few good other friends besides each other (and their labelmates, notably FT Island). They have been more open to other idols since then, making numerous friendships with groups like 2AM and SHINee members such as Kim Jonghyun.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Jonghyun and Jungshin, aka the "Tom and Jerry".Jonghyun: My favourite animal is Jungshin.
- Vocal Tag Team: Yonghwa and Jonghyun - even with Yonghwa as the main vocalist, a song without Jonghyun singing is practically non-existent.
