In their first few years they released more singles and full-length albums in Japan than in Korea, though at home they released a slew of mini-albums, a very popular format. There is a big tradition of clever cross-marketing in East Asian pop, and this strategy really fueled the band's career, as it had for so many others their success in one country fed their success in the other, and every time they went back and forth, they had a readymade stream of hits where all they had to do was re-record the vocals in the other language.
I MISS YOU KOREAN SONG CHORDS CRACKED
Two hugely successful Korean mini-albums later, the band went back to Japan, where they then cracked the charts, presumably with the aid of fans who had followed their Korean successes, and landed a major-label deal with Warner Music. After another mini-album, the band returned to Korea, where they were an instant smash hit, with their debut single "I'm a Loner" going straight into the charts at number two. The album failed to chart, but the band picked up some fans who were already aware of frontman Jung Yong-Hwa through his acting role - playing a boy band member, no less - in the TV mini-series You’re Beautiful. They debuted in Japan in 2009 with an independently released mini-album, Now or Never.
"CN" stands for "Code Name," with the "BLUE" standing for the invented personalities (think the Spice Girls) of the four members: "Burning," "Lovely," "Untouchable," and "Emotional." They have been compared to labelmates FT Island, but had a less romantic, somewhat more street-tough sound.
Essentially a boy band with real instruments (think Busted), most of their songs were based on K-pop's basic electro-pop template, with live instrumentation layered over the top. Biography South Korean pop/rock boy band CNBLUE formed in Seoul in 2009, but got their start in Japan, perhaps choosing to debut there because of rock's greater mainstream presence.