^^^^^both very good
I do think that the first one touches on an interesting point, acts from non-English speaking countries that try to hit it big in America are going to have a hard time if they just try to emulate Western music. Falco and Rammstein were very German, Daler Mehndi was obviously straight Bhangra, then there's a handful of Spanish-language hits that are all bastardized forms of salsa, reggaeton, etc. What else? Maybe Dschingis Khan? Was there ever a foreign-language hit in America that sounded like everything else on the radio?
― frogbs, Wednesday, 29 August 2012 14:33 (eleven years ago) link
99 luftballons
― goole, Wednesday, 29 August 2012 14:36 (eleven years ago) link
though i guess it was the english version that was a hit? idk
o-zone? eiffel 65?
― jack chick-fil-A (dayo), Wednesday, 29 August 2012 14:37 (eleven years ago) link
Falco was very Austrian!
99 Luftballons was a hit in the original German in the US.
― Temporarily Famous In The Czech Republic (ShariVari), Wednesday, 29 August 2012 14:38 (eleven years ago) link
Of course. But I don't know much of the Austrian music scene. Germany had a lot of acts similar to Falco though.
The point is that all these tunes are things that would have worked in their own country. When they start trying to pandering to Americans, things almost always go downhill.
― frogbs, Wednesday, 29 August 2012 14:52 (eleven years ago) link
Generally 'pandering to Americans' means 'singing in English', though, so you won't find too many US-focused records released in Spanish or Korean.
― Temporarily Famous In The Czech Republic (ShariVari), Wednesday, 29 August 2012 14:58 (eleven years ago) link
a friend was telling me about some Senegalese records, i think it was Youssou N'Dour, where the original versions have all these insane drum breaks related to traditional music. the drums are the first thing to get dumbed down/stripped out when the records are released internationally, and you pretty much have to go there to get the real versions.
― 40oz of tears (Jordan), Wednesday, 29 August 2012 14:59 (eleven years ago) link
xp a surprising amount of those guys do speak English!
― frogbs, Wednesday, 29 August 2012 15:06 (eleven years ago) link
Pretty sure both versions of the Nena song were hits. That's kinda cool.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 29 August 2012 15:11 (eleven years ago) link
Wasn't "Major Tom (Coming Home)" released in German first, but a hit in English?
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 29 August 2012 15:13 (eleven years ago) link
After the Fire is a good circuitous cross cultural tale: British band gets hit in America by doing English language cover of Falco song, a couple of years before Falco had his own US hits doing Falco in English.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 29 August 2012 15:15 (eleven years ago) link
Falco is kind of a one-and-a-half-hit wonder. I'm surprised he never had another hit after that.
― frogbs, Wednesday, 29 August 2012 15:19 (eleven years ago) link
man, gangnam style is all over my fb feed.
here's a gangjeong style vid made by people participating in the struggle against the building of a naval base in gangjeong village on jeju island.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3g5j4CrzBw&list=UU2yyX9b_8H7KhD0Y3PrOGBQ
― rayuela, Wednesday, 29 August 2012 15:23 (eleven years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYFmxgzPP3Q
― The Reverend, Wednesday, 29 August 2012 20:28 (eleven years ago) link
Heard a Cantonese karaoke version of this blasting from the backroom of my Korean dry cleaners this afternoon...? All middle-aged++ employees...
― lil queequeg (peter grasswich), Saturday, 1 September 2012 02:12 (eleven years ago) link
girl at 29 seconds in the last video (Jade) is an obv. ilxor/future ilxor
― Cunga, Saturday, 1 September 2012 02:46 (eleven years ago) link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=zPP5Bvtr2Dg
― kinder, Sunday, 2 September 2012 21:38 (eleven years ago) link
p good
― catbus otm (gbx), Sunday, 2 September 2012 21:54 (eleven years ago) link
has this been mentioned?
BIGBANG & PSY & 2NE1 - I AM FANTASTIC GANGNAM STYLE BABY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AU_p_8pXiF4
― I don't even know wtf this band sounds like I'm just trollin (fffv), Sunday, 2 September 2012 22:05 (eleven years ago) link
http://www.billboard.com/news/psy-signs-to-scooter-braun-s-label-will-1007922152.story
― teledyldonix, Wednesday, 5 September 2012 07:24 (eleven years ago) link
"Dress classy, dance cheesy."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=bzVKxd6y6dk#at=97
― Roz, Tuesday, 11 September 2012 13:11 (eleven years ago) link
^^That's Britney Spears getting a dance lesson from Psy, btw.
― Roz, Tuesday, 11 September 2012 13:12 (eleven years ago) link
omg I just watched that 2NE1/BIGBANG/PSY mash-up and that is like the pinnacle of human achievement right there
― Roz, Tuesday, 11 September 2012 13:20 (eleven years ago) link
so they played this song (not the mash-up) at the bar i was at Saturday. i demonstrated the horsey dance for the girl I was chatting with. she suddenly had to go find her friends :(
― Porto for Pyros (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Tuesday, 11 September 2012 15:43 (eleven years ago) link
this song is incredible -- it's totally LMFAO-core btw, for a minute there i thought the beat might be a straight rip
― J0rdan S., Tuesday, 11 September 2012 16:03 (eleven years ago) link
It's close, at least.
― Johnny Fever, Tuesday, 11 September 2012 16:05 (eleven years ago) link
is this going to catch on with indie-types? has it already? that would interest me for various reasons
― J0rdan S., Tuesday, 11 September 2012 16:06 (eleven years ago) link
It already has, hasn't it? And I think LMFAO did to a degree.
― Johnny Fever, Tuesday, 11 September 2012 16:08 (eleven years ago) link
was there a lot of ironic appreciation of "party rock anthem" as well?
― J0rdan S., Tuesday, 11 September 2012 16:10 (eleven years ago) link
pretty much ime. i think the indie reception of "gangnam" otoh has been totally unironic, most people i know who are really into are like stereogum readers.
― een, Tuesday, 11 September 2012 16:16 (eleven years ago) link
nothing ironic about that
― da croupier, Tuesday, 11 September 2012 16:23 (eleven years ago) link
mostly i'm just trying to suss out how much of this is, like, "lol crazy foreigner!" ... aka would lot of the people into "gangnam style" ironically be decrying the state of pop music if this was an english-language redfoo solo track
― J0rdan S., Tuesday, 11 September 2012 16:25 (eleven years ago) link
I don't really think "crazy foreigner" has much to do with it, it's pretty clear that Psy knows exactly what he's doing. I do think the reception would be different if it were in English but I think that's mostly because this type of music is about dumb vocal mantras, and in this case nobody really knows what that mantra is besides "Heyyy, sexy lady!" Could definitely be wrong here but I think the lyrics being in Korean at least adds a new wrinkle for the type of person who would just dismiss LFMAO off-handedly
― frogbs, Tuesday, 11 September 2012 16:33 (eleven years ago) link
think you're giving ppl too much credit
― J0rdan S., Tuesday, 11 September 2012 16:37 (eleven years ago) link
the "knowing" take on this is that it's a social critique -- how pointed is it really? i don't know what that means in context.
― goole, Tuesday, 11 September 2012 16:40 (eleven years ago) link
i did learn about gangnam via psy, which seems like the most insane place on earth
― goole, Tuesday, 11 September 2012 16:41 (eleven years ago) link
It's not really much of a 'critique'. An interview with PSY surfaced quite early where he says it's just a joke - a guy who says he's high style yet acts like a crazy fool. Not sure what's so insane about Gangnam, though. Your average rich people district.
It's by far the biggest hit of the year in Korea.
― abcfsk, Tuesday, 11 September 2012 16:43 (eleven years ago) link
oh cool the academic phase
― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Tuesday, 11 September 2012 16:43 (eleven years ago) link
from what i've read, no, it's not even your average rich ppl district! but that may be a consequence of korea being a huge economy on a tiny landmass
― goole, Tuesday, 11 September 2012 16:45 (eleven years ago) link
― J0rdan S., Tuesday, September 11, 2012 9:25 AM (20 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
my feeling on this is that it isn't an "lol crazy foreigner" thing and more like a "lol funny vid" thing because the humor in the vid is like idk pointed towards american sensibilities, like it's funnier than american music vids idk I don't get the sense that people look down on it but then again who knows I'm not white and I live in a korean world for a good amt of time
― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Tuesday, 11 September 2012 16:48 (eleven years ago) link
I finally watched the video / heard the song for the first time after seeing this phrase show up with more frequency over the last couple of weeks. I was confused why everyone was excited about something that I assumed had to do with mechanized anime robot suits.
― joygoat, Tuesday, 11 September 2012 16:50 (eleven years ago) link
again the only thing I can really compare this to is Daler Mehndi, which yeah had a lot of "lol India" reactions at first but I think a lot of people legitmately loved the song + video. in the case of Gangnam Style the music itself is not really different than what we're used to here. the whole video is obviously a parody of something.
― frogbs, Tuesday, 11 September 2012 16:51 (eleven years ago) link
― een, Tuesday, September 11, 2012 11:16 AM (31 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
the only people that keep trying to put this on at parties are me (internet!), my friend that everyone seems to think is my brother (internet!), and another friend (korean!). usually results in one or three of us doing the horsey dance, and...ppl suddenly having to find their friends.
is this how bronies feel all the time?
― catbus otm (gbx), Tuesday, 11 September 2012 16:52 (eleven years ago) link
btw i'm not chalking up its entire popularity to "lol foreigner"... i think there's tons of people that are genuinely into it. i mean it sounds exactly like an LMFAO, so that's no surprise. they're very popular. i'm just wondering about a certain subgroup of music fans (sorta strawman-ish admittedly, but still)
― J0rdan S., Tuesday, 11 September 2012 16:57 (eleven years ago) link
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/newsfocus/911426-can-psy-hit-gangnam-style-bring-k-pop-to-a-global-music-audience
(includes a bit of "lol foreigner" handwringing)
― Jeff W, Tuesday, 11 September 2012 17:21 (eleven years ago) link
hearty irl lol
― Porto for Pyros (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Tuesday, 11 September 2012 17:37 (eleven years ago) link
lol Thermo and gbx
― DARING PRINCESS (DJP), Tuesday, 11 September 2012 17:37 (eleven years ago) link
if you don't hear how much better this is than lmfao then there is no hope for you
― ogmor, Tuesday, 11 September 2012 17:39 (eleven years ago) link
can't both be really good
― J0rdan S., Tuesday, 11 September 2012 17:40 (eleven years ago) link