On the set of Mnet's "Director's Cut Season2"

Clockwise from top left, Na Yoon-kwon, Girls Day members Sojin and Minah, Yoon Jong-shin, Cho Jang-chi, Lee Jung, Hareem and CNBLUE members Jonghyun and Minhyuk sing and perform on cable music channel Mnet's "Director's Cut Season 2" in the South Chungcheong Province, South Korea on April 18, 2011. [Lee Jin-hyuk/10Asia]

"What was the first pop song you listened to?" (Yoon Jong-shin) "Jo Sung-mo's song." (Minah) "It was 'Damdami' for me." (Sojin) "See, that's how big the gap is between you two." (Yoon Jong-shin) "Mine was Kim Hyun-sun's 'Heaven.'" (Jonghyun) "The Backstreet Boys song for me." (Minhyuk) "I think the first time I came in touch with pop music was through John Denver's song. But... It's been a while since he passed away." (Yoon Jong-shin)

John Denver may not have died of old age but it was through MC Yoon's confession that the gap between him and high schooler Minah of Girl's Day emerged. However, Byun Jin-sub's song which the first for Hareem, Ju Hyun-mi's song for Na Yoon-kwon and Glen Medeiros for Cho Jung-chi, positioned themselves between the former two songs to create a spectrum well representing a wide range of generations. This is how the filming for cable music channel Mnet's "Director's Cut Season2" started.

"Who on earth in Nam Ki-sang?" (Yoon Jong-shin) Yoon mumbled the name of the composer to Girls Day's song "Twinkle Twinkle" as he rearranged it. Creating the acoustic version of an extremely fast-tempoed dance tune was not easy even for street musicians Yoon Jong-shin, Cho Jung-chi, Hareem and Lee Jung. Cho checked the songs beat by listening to the tune through the earphones connected to his iPhone and Yoon suggested they take the song even slower after figuring out how many words were in a single beat. This was the gap that continued to exist between Yoon and this new girl group which Yoon had yet to see perform the song. But after worrying how "Twinkle Twinkle" would sound on the guitar, the two girls quite easily sang to the transformed slow-paced acoustic version of their song. And when they even showed the dance to it, the faces of these singer-songwriters who had struggled rearranging the song lit up. They lit up a lot.

If turning a guest's music, such as "Twinkle Twinkle," into street-style music is the union that allowed everyone on the show to join in and enjoy, CNBLUE's Jonghyun and Cho Jung-chi forming an impromptu ensemble to perform of Eric Clapton's "Tears In Heaven" was the moment an intersection formed to share musical tastes. Jonghyun in particular played well enough to make all-around musician Hareem say, "You play this well when you only started learning in high school?" Of course, Jonghyun too was continuously in awe over Hareem's performances which moved between the guitar and percussion instruments. That was when the gap or the wall blurred. Although everyone's faces were not as bright as when Girls Day performed.

"Things are extremely busy and hectic here so it won't be easy for you to cover," the producers said apologetically before going into shoot but the camera truly did not cease to stop rolling and the emcees and guests constantly chose, rearranged and sang songs. Things were the same at the restaurant everyone moved to for lunch. The shoot was behind schedule by about two hours but the live performance continued on the second floor of the restaurant which "rang well because the ceiling is high." (Yoon Jong-shin) After Nam Ki-sang's "Twinkle Twinkle" followed Jonghyn and Sojin's pretty harmony for Jason Mraz's "Lucky" and Jonghyun's medley of "I'm Yours"-"Bad Girl Good Girl"-"Shy Boy"-"I Don't Care" won him praise as being 'The Yurisangja of the Idol Scene.'

"Many guests want to become regulars for our show. Kim Tae-woo said it would be his dream come true to age doing what we do here." Just like the program's main writer said, a life of singing songs at various regions would definitely be romantic for a singer. Even more so if you got to eat fresh sashimi for dinner. The cast for the show, after eating "sashimi different from Seoul" (Sojin), recharged themselves and again, got ready to sing. Now there was even a keyboard for Lee Jung, as well as a printer for printing the necessary musical scores on the spot. By now, everyone looked like a street musician. This happened around a very quiet midnight of April 18.

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Reporter : Wee Geun-woo eight@
Photographer : Lee Jin-hyuk eleven@
Editor : Jessica Kim jesskim@, Jang Kyung-Jin three@