K-pop 2013

Irish maybe, although I was immediately reminded of more local Scandinavian sounds. 'Featuring' star Harim also plays the swedish instrument Nyckelharpa (which produces similar sounds to the Norwegian Hardinger fiddle), but even the vocals during the 'lalala' part sound very, very Swedish 'trad' in my head. The dance supports the connection.

In LOEN's description of the track on YouTube:

"The song has a Bohemian polka-rhythm along with Jungle and Rock feelings with it as well.... the musician 'Hareem' joined as a session to make the music even more fun. The greek bouzouki, nyckelharpa, Drehleier, and the Irish Whistle is personally owned by Hareem himself. These instruments are rarely found in Korea, and in this song they make the polka even much more fun to listen to."

I claim over on Rolling Country that the polka element makes it country, and the Bohemian element makes it folkie. (I'm joking about the latter, but only partly joking about the former.)

Song credited to Kim Yena (I'm guessing this is not a spelling variant on frequent LOEN songwriter Kim Eana, though obv I think the latter is a possibility) and LOEN in-house producer KZ. Neither name seems Swedish, or Greek, or Bohemian. Or Irish.

Unfortunately it is Kim Eana spelled in yet another way.

Well, it's an interesting song, so I'm not unhappy that Eana had a hand in it (the lyrics about being the shoulder everyone else cries on while not having a romance of one's own to cry about are likely her contribution). Do you know if Hwang Soo-ah did the vid?

Are you saying we should all be crossposting to other threads, Frank? Because I've had a hankering to put Smoky Girl in the RnB thread for a while...

Appreciated the twist and noted together with some youtubers theme similarities to GLAM's I Like That.

Directed by Hwang Soo-Ah, yes.

I think of Girl's Day as one of the more flavourless and dull groups in k-pop (who only found real success with their last single), but they deliver the weird with the lyrics for their new single 'Female President'. It's a love song, but it gets to its point via this chorus:

"Even our president is a woman
why is it such a big deal
is it a crime if a girl steals the first kiss?"

(1) Girl's Day do seem kinda workaday and generic and not distinctive. But this just goes to show how great K-pop is at the moment, since Girl's Day to my mind have had two great and one very good single, which is a lot (as much as Sistar/Sistar19 including wondrously talented singer Hyorin): "Nothing Lasts Forever," just a bit of knock-it-out-in-a-(girl's)-day dance r&b that yanks an emotive pang out of their ordinary voices; "Oh! My God," a switch in concept to cartoon kiddie martial arts that's got even more bubble than "Bubble Pop!"; and "Expectation," kinda splits the difference between the two; sparks and yet another emotive melody that reminds me of the bodega pop I left NYC too early to experience first hand.

(2) I don't really have time for ilX at the moment, so I'm not actually here; this post is just a mirage. Anyhow, I'm too busy to attend to yet another thread. But as a matter of fact this week I had the exact same thought as forapper, that "Smoky Girl" needs to be on the R&B thread as Terius and Tricky goin' to the disco. Damn intense song, even if the singing barely gets by. Go to it, Sonya. Also, someone should post Lee Hi's two Kpopstar audition tracks there, which are still the best things I've heard from her: "Bust Your Windows," the incongruity of centuries of dark pain coming from the mouth of that hopeful cute girl; I really think her version is a better approach than Jazmine Sullivan's; Hi doesn't overpower the song, she just sits in it; and then is even better several weeks hence on "For You"; she fleeces and dissects what should have been an impossible ballad, is too strained on the high notes but returns immediately to controlled passion. I don't think K-pop knows what to do with her. She should be in America.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=yMqL1iWfku4

yessssssssss

http://www.whereisgirlsgeneration.com/

xpost: done! I didn't bring up Lee Hi, for one because her audition was last year and for two because I'm not as into the nuances of vocal performances as you, Frank. But Gummy's All for Love is another contender for that thread.

that 2pm song you posted in the rolling r&B thread is great, forapper

:D

I usually post stuff here that was omonatheydidnt first, but here's a great thing they missed:

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

Also on Lim Kim's excellent mini-album are Number 1, Colorring and Alice!

Seems like an indie song, but looking into it a bit more Lim Kim is Kim Ye Rim is one half Two Months (also known as two gaewol), third place finalists of the same Superstar K season that gave us Busker Busker and Ulala Session.

Also! This! Is awesome!

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

Beating out MYNAME for the boyband-falsetto-of-emotional-turmoil spot in my heart.

Well indie flavored artists have been dominating the Korean talent shows for a while now. "All Right" has done very well on the charts.

Ha, that's true

Tymee gets down and angry (I definitely recommend the angry, though it's nsfw) (h/t David Frazer, yet again).

so you guys... is it poppin'??

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

Not sure yet if it's poppin'. Don't think so. Is bright and summery, and the beats push but clumsily. That's often my opinion of Brave Brothers, that his tracks are blatant in a way that only sometimes works. Except...

You'll prob'ly be pleased that After School's Brave Brothers-produced "First Love" has been a beautiful grower for me. Is a crème brûlée kinda sound, which I usually pass over, but this one just seeps in (appropriate enough, for crème). Mr. Brothers has had a lot of la-la-la in his mood recently.

Two other tracks on the Maxi Single I like almost as much, "Love Beat" which snatches every hook and technique it can find; remember that Hi Tack remix of "Say Say Say" that builds off of a repeating riff and vocal? This repeats like that but then shifts into surprising chords; adds processed vocals that manage to combine wailing and chirping. Crowded, but I like that crowd. Also like "Dressing Room"; the writing credits include Linda Sundblad, whose "Lose You" made my top ten back in 2007.

"First Love" fanchant code.

I think that I shall never see a poem ugly as a twee, and Togeworl's "Number 1" makes me reach for my hatchet. But Lim Kim's "All Right" is better than all right, is more matter-of-fact, has a steady uninflected "Girl From Ipanema" thing going on.

respect to the guy w the SATAN 13 shirt in that 4minute video

Is It Poppin' has been a big grower for me, at first I thought it was too light and breezy to pop but now I like it a lot.

wow at 'birthday cake' popping up in the middle of dressing room

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEVd9pSG85Q

Minzy <3

Minzy <3 x2

Lovely! Maybe a bit slight for a comeback single, but they look so relaxed and gorgeous that I can't complain. Didn't realise how much I've missed Bom's voice too.

I like it a lot. Nice hot summer night tune.

this song is amazing

incredible beat + white reggae vibes + extremely slight chorus = idk

great video though

minzy <3 x3

would love a solid gold soda fountain cup

BEG meet Primary on new single. Killer! http://youtu.be/oAzppvv6xjw

that's great

awesome song, Primary has been on fire this year.

"There's a new update. It looks like I'll be seeing you all as a solo artist. Don't forget T-ara's Ahreum. Thank you for giving me so much love. I felt so much love at the fan meeting and while promoting with T-ara. In the future, I'll be meeting you all with an image that's a few thousand times better than the Ahreum you saw in 'Countryside Life'. The time I had with the unnis will be a fond memory, but Ahreum will most likely be returning solo. Still, the unnis will continue to be active, so don't forget them and don't forget Ahreum either. Ahreum fighting and T-ara fighting. Thank you so much for loving Ahreum until now. Please don't ever forget the songs or performance I had with T-ara. I miss you. I love you." (allkpop)(h/t David Frazer yet again.)

I'm not even gonna comment, except that I'll mention that - finally - I actually like a rap by Ahreum, on "Target," and I like that her remit now includes wit as well as wails. Oh yeah, and over on my lj I made a callout to Subdee to comment on the blatantly obsessive predatory love-seeking in the lyrics.

(By "wit" I mean the way Ahreum delivered her rap; the farewell statement seems straightforward enough, though not exhaustively informative.)

You mean the predatory love-seeking on Target? There are suddenly a whole bunch of girl-takes-the-lead songs out, but Target does go a step further into being more blatantly about manic love than most. But then T-ara have always come on pretty strong. I like the little dig at Apink's Hush, a song where the lyric about not wanting to approach the guy first has always seemed disingenuous to me, at odds with the full-steam-ahead backing music.

Once upon a time, a pretty witch came to the town. One day, she pushed(?) back, to bring out the...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_MeX2_dAu8#at=15

Turan!!!

I also kind of like Rania Up, an advertisement for a water park. But mostly Shinhwa This Love is growing on me, more and more.

One day she put a spell to bring out the...

Double!!

Oh, put a spell. That makes so much more sense...

BESTie, containing three ex-members of EXID, debuts with the most stereotypically Kpop song ever made: http://youtu.be/gtyi5LQdfBE

It's not a bad song, actually it's fairly decent. But next to the dictionary definition of late aughts/early teens Kpop, you will find this song used as an accompanying illustration.

Speaking of songs that play it safe, A Pink's NoNoNo is decent as well!

BESTie are way more interesting in their interview than they are in their song. I especially like Dahye responding to the question about who plays what role in the group with "I'm in charge of waist-hip-pelvis line." Also love their playing with the cute-vs.-sexy concept thing, since obviously they don't buy into the dichotomy. A thought I've been working on: you can't possibly understand K-pop if you actually believe that "cute" and "sexy" are opposite to one another. Sunny* of SNSD would be completely beyond your comprehension, as would E.via/Tymee. As would T-ara, as would the video-to-video image shifts by Girl's Day, as would the Orange Caramel/After School shenanigans. Even HyunA as sex princess / haughty moll / lovable dork / pikachu cutie-cake / bubble-pop pie would be pretty disorienting. Nonetheless, the idea of cute vs. sexy is obviously a common reference, the idea having force even though no one can possibly believe it. And since it has force, performers can play with it.

BESTie are with YNB Entertainment so I'm guessing have no ties left with AB Entertainment or Shinsadong Tiger, the producer/writer whose baby EXID is. YNB also seems to share control of the hip-hop-leaning girl group D-Unit with D-Business Entertainment. Someone'll have to diagram it all for me.

*The cutie-pie hottie who'll show leg on a lark and will pout for fun and make no bones about the fact that she's the smartest person in the room.

*The cutie-pie hottie who'll show leg on a lark and will pout for fun and make no bones about the fact that she's the smartest person in the room.

^^my eyes jumped to this and i thought it was like an engrish press release

Meaning what?

Distressingly, I've been spending a couple hours unable to find any remaining Eng Sub versions on the web of SNSD And The Dangerous Boys Ep 8, for which I apparently wrote the (imo) dead-on accurate press release. The available clips of the leg-showing, jammed together and out of context, come off as just wanton and ridiculous, rather than the short diversions they actually were (but here they are if you want to see), but there is a decent excerpt of the Cross Examination Of Yoona. What strikes me about that second bit of business is how incredibly humane Sunny and Yoona are being to the boys. It's a reality show, and the idea is that the members of SNSD are mentoring some teenage boys who've been in trouble in school. (Pause for a moment to think of the equivalent on American TV: Britney Spears and Rihanna take in hand troubled teenagers, gently demonstrating to them how to negotiate the difficulties of adolescence. Nine episodes. Edifying.) While the boys were trying to sleep, one of them kept getting on the nerves of another, wouldn't let up, so the other threw a small desk lamp at him, hard, but (says the perpetrator) deliberately missing. So SNSD concoct a mock trial, Sunny as Clarence Darrow for the defense. So what Sunny and Yoona are doing, in effect, is coming up with a way to tell the kids, Look, it's human, you get tired, you screw up and you spin out, we're like that too. But my feeling is that if you say that directly to a kid, with warmth, you're actually making him feel weak, as if he needs your reassurance (and who are you, adult superstar, to tell me you understand me and that you're like me?). Whereas if you show it, in a mock trial, with hilarity rather than "sympathy," they maybe are able to receive the (genuinely sympathetic) message.

(Too bad the clip cuts off when it does; right afterwards, Yoona is saying what she'd have done in the boy's situation, rather than what the boy actually did, and Sunny immediately tries to get her ruled out of order for going beyond the scope of the question.)

Ah, found it. Here's Eng Sub of the final two segments (last half) of episode 8. Court starts at 3:43 of the second-to-the-last segment, Sunny's examination of Yoona starts at 4:02 of the final segment. Sunny does leg stuff at 11:25, 11:56, 16:31, and 17:29 of the second-to-the-last segment.

GGDB8 3-4
GGDB8 4-4

Sunny is the best

On a slightly different note, EXO's Let Out the Beast!

Emotional-manly-man/flowery-cutie-boy is the boyband equivalent of the cute/sexy divide, and it doesn't really work either. Though in general boybands have more leeway outside of that binary.

Also, the insistence that girls can either be cute and innocent, or sexual and deviant, makes a bit more sense when you consider how huge the sex trade is in South Korea.