K-pop

Possibly problematic video: 2NE1 - Go Away (feat. domestic violence (later, in a live performance of the song, CL convincingly beats down a male dancer)).

I'm surprised at 'pikachu' suddenly at #2. You and the Single Jukebox crew's work on pushing 'Bang!' contributed to me moving it a lot of places upwards.
----

Similarly I've realized that I've underrated SM Entertainment's in-house producer Yoo Young-jin's work last year, partly because of this interview which lead me to put his songs on repeat x 10. Mainly Super Junior's Bonamana and SHINee's Lucifer. I think I was frustrated by the lack of melody when they were released, and how uninterested they were in prettiness. I don't even know how to capture their spirit in words, something about words as bullets and impossibly sharp edges, at least for 'Bonamana', which is the greatest of the two.

He really has found his own sound, and also applied some of it to f(x)'s fantastic NU ABO, which I already had included on my top 10 (and also took a long time to get into), although that song is co-credited to some foreign songwriters.

Not that he's close to being a one-trick pony, as seen on his discography. He's worked with the company from the start and wrote most of their early hits.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFlfCjpI_kU

Interestingly, his only work with SM's big guns Girls' Generation is writing the lyrics for 'Genie'. And this corny little tribute that was shown on their Asian tour concerts:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKqhgoKN9g0

Seo In Young - Into the Rhythm

^^ has a 'katy on a mission' vibe to it

Holy shit holy shit

Reports of KARA splitting from their agency, DSP Media Entertainment, has sent shockwaves throughout the music industry. The members of KARA, excluding leader Gyuri, reasoned that they had lost their confidence in their relationship with DSP Media Entertainment, and that it could never be regained again.

Landmark, KARA’s lawyers, reported on January 19th:

“Despite KARA receiving much love from their activities in both Korea and Japan, the members have experienced inexplicable pain that brought them to this decision. They’ve held it in for a long time, but in order to protect their rights and their future, the members have decided to part ways from their company.

KARA has tried their absolute best in compromising with their company prior to their decision, but their agency used their power in forcing the members to fulfill schedules that they did not want, and continuously added activities on top of a loaded schedule without prior consent or discussion. The psychological damages that the members were forced to endure cannot be explained in words, and their efforts have gone to waste. Their misery is severe, and they can no longer remain under such a company, which is why they decided to declare their withdrawal.

Trust is the most important aspect of a relationship between an agency and its artist, but the agency has been using KARA as a way to make money. A variety of issues that have not been stated are still present. The agency has decided the majority of the girls’ celebrity activities without any sort of discussion or meeting, and has rejected requests asking for explanations or for proper documents. Their relationship has been destroyed to the point that it could never be restored again.“

Representatives of DSP Media commented, “This is ridiculous, we are not sure what went wrong. We have yet to understand the situation. We’ll be releasing an official statement soon.”

The final Big Bang side project before their comeback.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QZo5Ji43u8

^Has k-pop ever sounded more American?

I was a huge fan of Lee Jung-Hyun back in the day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0Mtk9NGpU8

Anyone know if her 2010 album is worth investigating?

Between 2NE1's To Anyone, the GD&TOP album, and now Seungri's album, I see YGE's production heading in a direction much more in tune with current trends in American pop music. This song even has a "My Love"-style part in which the rapper tells the girl to go for the singer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnDNbztO1K8

It makes me curious as to what Big Bang's upcoming album (if it ever materializes...) is going to sound like, because I think Big Bang's output has been steadily heading away from directly American-inspired hip hop to the typical synthy K-/J-Pop sound. Are these solo projects just so Big Bang can keep doing what it's doing without stifling its members?

Mr YG himself said that groups break up because the individual members don't get to display their individual creative ambitions. Or something like that. I hope that doesn't mean they'll abandon the rnb sound for Big Bang. They can still do synths, but in a 'Sunset Glow' kind of way. I heard talks about a rock sound, though? Hmm.

You're right, but is To Anyone that Americanized? Some of the songs probably are, but 'Follow Me' and 'Clap Your Hands' is like a step away from the familiar sounds they did I Don't Care and into a more unique, crazy place.

Hafta say the DBSK tune has grown on me watching ridiculous live performances such as this http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMjQwMzIyNDY4.html -- all that POWER.

SNSD on the same (Japanese) show. Run Devil Run works so well live http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMjQwMjk3NDY4.html

The awesome Japanese-turned-American SM Ent. choreographer Rino Nakasone doing her latest piece for DBSK

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x98_BT22uCY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzv7aHKbz_U

Slant Magazine try their hand at k-pop http://www.slantmagazine.com/house/2011/01/house-playlist-girls-generation-purity-ring-and-rainbow-arabia/

Girls' Generation, "Hoot." This one may be a few months old in its native South Korea, but that doesn't keep "Hoot" from being one of the best discoveries of 2011 on this side of the Pacific. The best K-Pop singles take a truly fearless approach to appropriating different genres for fun and profit, and "Hoot" starts off as a bit of jagged guitar pop as forceful and catchy as any of Max Martin's productions for Kelly Clarkson. But the song shifts its focus to the dance floor once the multi-tracked percussion loops kick in. The layered rhythm arrangement works with the song's overall conceit, which finds the girls giving an overdue brushoff to an acid-tongued boyfriend. His poison-tipped arrows are the "trouble, trouble, trouble" of the simple-is-better hook, and the group's cheerleading-squad-as-girl-group structure gives their off-you-go message its own built-in support group. The choice of violent imagery belies the apparent sweetness of the group's nine members and the single's simply massive hooks, but it's a perfect fit with the James Bond guitar figure that runs throughout. As far as 007 motifs doubling as pop songs go, "Hoot" fully holds its own alongside Britney Spears's "Toxic." Jonathan Keefe

Surprised Hoot is the one they go with, but..

Well I guess they actually named 'Gee' the 10th best single of 2009.

Never paid much attention to Slant, so I don't know what this is indicative of.

Sorry I don't post on this thread more often. My browser is Google Chrome, which has some weird issues with Shockwave Flash, so when I get a thread with a lot of video embeds my computer often freezes and I have to hit ctrl-alt-delete and turn off Shockwave Flash (which turns off the vids). May also be due to a relatively weak CPU.

Weird that Keefe compares "Gee" to Taylor Swift's "Love Story," since the two have little in common, other than both being pop songs about love. Taylor's singing is personal self-expression, with drama in the way the voice goes from wavers to emphasis, all about Taylor's story, no one else's. "Gee" is a girl group dance track, voices scooting in and around each other and chasing evanescent "yeah yeah yeahs" and "oh oh ohs" and "gee gee gees."

The guy writes up a lot of country, too. Wonder if he posts on ilX under some other moniker, since his tastes seem to run close to some of ours (Miranda Lambert, Laura Bell Bundy).

He might be. I know there are k-pop fans here who've never posted in this thread!

Anyone watched the magazine Monocle's new TV show on Bloomberg TV? They spent a good 15 minutes on k-pop, talking about how the Korean pop industry is using the web to make a global push, which WSJ and others have written about as well. Some interviews with both labels and stars, though, and a little talk session at the end. Worth a watch. Video here: http://www.allkpop.com/2011/02/kpop-covered-by-monocle-on-bloomberg

A few odd things are said, like Korea not being culturally protectionist, as opposed to Japan.. um, I'm not so sure about that, even though you can find k-pop on youtube.

Oh, the places my name turns up...

I've only posted in the Rolling Country thread prior to finding my "Hoot" write-up in here today, but yes. Hi. I've bee around for a bit.

I chose "Hoot" simply because, of "Hoot," "Oh!," and "Genie," it's the SNSD single that I've listened to the most frequently so far this year, and it's the one that I think has the most interesting production.

Frank, I didn't actually compare "Gee" specifically to "Love Story," and I agree that it wouldn't make sense to do so. I just quoted the little spoken-word, "Listen boy/It's my first love story" line that Tiffany says at the beginning of "Gee."

The comparison I was making is between what I love about K-Pop and what I love about Taylor Swift's best singles: The deliberate, all-hooks-all-the-time production choices that are far more sophisticated than many listeners might give them credit for. "Gee" also covers much of the same thematic territory as Swift's <em>Fearless</em> era singles, and does so with a similar plain-spokenness that works in context.

Hey Jonathan, hope you drop in more. Convo needs more voices. I didn't even know K-pop existed until a year and a half ago. (I've tried to get K-pop convos going on poptimists, to no avail. But I've enticed Mat and annh and Sabina and Tari to help learn me the subject over on my lj, if you want to join.

Sorry I didn't read your "Gee" blurb more insightfully.

"Hoot" is definitely growing on me, thanks to Sooyoung's screaming fangirl. Plan to do a post when I get the chance regarding my dreams of how it should be looped and remixed.

So, Big Bang's new mini-album. Quoth descriptivist above, "Are these solo projects just so Big Bang can keep doing what it's doing without stifling its members?" It seems like that is the plan: Solo / side-projects: Let them do what they want, experiment according to taste and curiosity, get Diplo to do a single, whatever--- Big Bang as a group: Play it safe, give the fans what they expect. Lead single "Tonight" is a bit disappointing -- pretty, but not huge and meaty like, say, 'Sunset Glow', and it sounds much like their recent Japanese output.

But it's popular. It's currently at #12 on the American main iTunes album chart. A new high for an all-Korean album, surely?

Disappointing is the word. It's "Lies" + Seungri's "What Can I Do" + echoes of "Mazeltov" aka the WORST K-pop boy band song!!! And I thought we weren't doing Autotune any more. (I do like that in the MV they let the least sexy member have the (implied) sex scene.) But I missed Daesung's voice so I'm hoping the rest of the songs are a bit more listenable.

Have Korean albums always been available through iTunes or is this a new thing? Because given the recent increase of articles on the rise of K-pop overseas via the internet, I think appearances by Korean albums on the American digital sales charts can only increase.

I have to say that I've been hoping some more stranger elements of kpop gain traction overseas, maybe provoking something maybe not so much as embarrassment, but an internal re-evaluation of what is culturally valuable. this might be a false hope because in the other direction, glenn branca isn't as much a household name in SK as yngvie malmsteen.

I think in order for that to happen, at least from my North American frame of reference, K-pop would have to jump, if not knock down, the "other countries are so weird and different" hurdle that's been set up here - otherwise, audiences and critics are more likely to perceive the differences ("haha, we're not that weird") than the similarities ("oh, that's what our popular music sounds like to other cultures...hmm"). For some reason the only example that comes to mind is Dragostea Din Tei, which became known here not because it held up a mirror to the North American boy-band craze, but because its hook sounded so hilarious.

I wonder if the Korean diaspora and the huge online communities would make a difference on the mainstream perception of a weird k-pop tune making waves. Pushed from the inside. The k-artists who have tried have more or less attempted to be an exact mirror image of American pop, or just quite bland (Wonder Girls).

'Tonight' ended up peaking at #6 on itunes, but has fallen a lot since, and I don't know how many albums are sold on itunes. Anyone know any figures for a typical weekly #1? Impressive, anyway. I think some companies, like SM Ent, were quick to offer their music internationally on iTunes, with others coming along. I even find some stuff on Spotify, now.

@descriptivist loads of kpop stuff is available via itunes, but they've never been actually promoted or even mentioned. i usually search for artists by searching for one of their tracks that had an english title in korea... kpop artists' data in itunes is not very clean, so searching for the band doesn't always gets you results.

anyway, i checked in after i found this
japanese version of beast's shock
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDKjdBus4xs

Just for laughs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpXJJ71OxAA

^The tables have turned.

This one isn't plagiarism - LPG got the rights to do a remake of 'We No Speak Americano'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ofAaHwrN5A&feature=player_embedded

and I confess a weakness for the sunny sounds of Infinite

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpT4EkgSIQg

New Girl's Day song, "Twinkle Twinkle". It's certainly no "Nothing Lasts Forever", but it's kind of nice, in the same vein as "Rock U"/"Honey"-era KARA. Orange Caramel proves there's a market for this stuff, but I'm not sure how, well, relevant it is right now. (Someone want to jump in with a counterexample?) At least we find out that previously mute member Yura (the blonde one) is actually the rapper.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEEIN-mtN6c

Yeah, sounds a bit like Kara. I don't know if Orange Caramel are comparable.. they sold that crazy aesthetic more than the songs (which I kinda like). But in the aftermath of Orange Caramel, hardly any girl group have gone for cutesy songs NOR silly cute costumes. Now Orange Caramel is coming back (...again) and they've dropped the kids stuff in favor of silly fashion-y costumes.

Quite like new girl group Chi Chi's debut single, Don't Play Around. The "I'm gonna break you" reminds me of E.Via's Shake, but otherwise the chorus reminds me of another song, possibly non-kpop. Any help?

Maybe the middle eight (which, say, 4minute would have made a full song out of) is meant to acknowledge current trends/add an edge? It's true that even Orange Caramel is no longer doing Orange Caramel.

I dig the new girl's day track!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7aFRaKyTfo

Some euro dance, courtesy of Orange Caramel: Bangkok City

As per the discussion of Girl's Day's "Twinkle Twinkle" above, here's some more girl groups getting sexy/adult. First, 4minute's comeback, "Mirror Mirror":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbXMJuzebOI

And then there's Rania's "Dr. Feel Good", which is also of note because this group has been trying to debut for at least a year. They're produced by Teddy Riley and, if I recall correctly, were slated to debut in the U.S. and Korea at the same time, though I'm assuming that plan has been scaled back. Either way, I'm hoping this song is gonna be huge.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aEZJz2c-Vw

Ok, the more I listen to that 4minute song the more I realize it's a damn mess.

Yeah I've held back on scoring Mirror Mirror because I've come to love k-pop tracks that seem like a damn mess before, but I'm not sure about this one. Some good parts, though - I really like the keoura-keoura keoura-keoura of the chorus.

The Rania girls are hot. I wonder if the video will get any rotation on TV.

that twangy synth sounds straight lifted from like a g6... seems like they're mining that song pretty heavily (iirc the double bubble song or w/e also pretty directly references it)

haha the dr feel good video reminds me of those nudie pens that you turn upside down

Feel Good live @ M!Countdown

Killing those moves... but I'm not convinced any lines were sung live.

Endless stream of new releases. Summary:

Big Bang - Love Song
Big Bang - Stupid Liar
New rnb group Brave Girls
Rainbow - To Me
English version of 2NE1's Can't Nobody video

Kim Greem - a lot more 'self-made' artists are finding themselves at the top of charts in the aftermath of 'Superstar K', a Korean Pop Idol-ish show. Ironically, perhaps.
Jang Jae In is another star from the same show.

SHOW ME THE RECEIPTS/MR REMOVED!
Maybe when Rania's dance gets banned they'll be able to put more energy into singing...For a debut stage I think they should have at least done the improvisations at the end live to prove they can, but w/e.

Is this the "rock sound" G-Dragon's been promising? urrrrgh

The first thing I learned about k-pop was to not take promises about how songs would sound seriously. "This girl group will do hip hop a-capella" -> proceeds to release generic electro pop track. "This release will show fans a shocking transformation" -> same old shit.

I can answer my own question from upthread as to whether the latest Lee Jung Hyun album is worth investigating. Sadly, it isn't. Sounds really generic, unfortunately.

Shame.

Mnet have started a performance show, Club MRoot, seemingly in response to complaints that there are no real places for indie bands to show themselves off http://www.allkpop.com/2011/04/10cm-monni-mate-no-reply-perform-on-mnets-club-mroot

I'm not a big indie rock listener in general, but some of these bands have got a nice pop sensibility and what I'd call a very Asian (J-rock-ish) sense of melody. This seems like a nice show, anyway, a good idea.

Bonus: SNSD - Run Devil Run Japanese video, released later this month with their first original Japanese track, Mr Taxi.

Debut of (overhyped?) boy group Block B: Don't Move

I actually get more out of this song by pretending it's Big Bang's comeback and their whole "rock phase" (where "rock" = post-2000 U2) never existed.

Another so-called hip hop group that ends up being totally generic electro crap.

Ahaha, the Love Song video has been released and it's U2 as well! Here.

Gotta say.. I enjoy the new Dal Shabet single more than any other E-Tribe production in a long time. They're often too clever for their own good with the awkward structures and general mayhem of their compositions, and maybe that's the case here as well, but it's prettier this time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Foi2dmN0r4

As far as cutesy rookie groups go, Dal Shabet was made instantly irrelevant when A Pink made their debut in 'SNSD four years ago'-mode. The packaging is way too sickly sweet, but it's an undeniably catchy song and I think they've got an enthusiastic fanbase already.

But let's talk about f(x). How can they sound so f(x)-like on each single when they change producers all the time? The group's got a real strong identity - do any artists sound like them in Korea or elsewhere? - and that's without just copying their recipe each time.

Nu ABO is one of the great k-pop singles, in my opinion, and it's co-written with a Scandinavian team and SM Ent's representative producer Yoo Young-jin, who said in an interview about the fascinating co-op process:

Sometimes I take the sub-melody in the original composition and make it the main melody, or even make a new one from scratch. If a song has a great overall flow but a weak climax, I make it stronger. For example, [Korean girl band f(x) member] Luna's singing part in the latter part of "Nu ABO" -- that part changes the entire flow of the track. But the way it breaks the original flow and changes to a completely different vibe with a definite impact -- I think that is the style of Korean pop music.

Their new single Danger... I really like

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKS12iGFyEA

New SNSD JP joint / 'dance video' for Mr Taxi
Enjoyed the dance.

SM Town World Tour(SNSD, Shinee, TVXQ, SuperJunior, f(x)) will be the first big k-pop show in Europe - at Zenith de Paris, capacity ~7000 people.

I think SM underestimated the k-pop interest in Europe and especially France, because the tickets went on sale today and were sold out within 40 minutes. On ebay now up to 400€.

I may be holding the fort here alone, but we're experience the best month of the year. After School released what is, after initial disappointment that it wasn't Bang! 2.0, surely one of the grooviest summer jams we'll see this season.

After School - 'Shampoo', the most unswerving extended metaphor of the pop year