More K-pop and J-pop

[koganbot]

Some excellent, excellent commentary on K-pop and J-pop (and a bit of Chinese pop) by Anonymous down in the comment thread to my mid-year lists, along with over a dozen video embeds.* Anyway, I'd like to stir up the local hivemind on what you think is going on in these three videos (and K-pop and J-pop in general, if you have any ideas; you're

Comments

[anonymous]

The guy behind AKB48 is Akimoto Yasushi and he is a lyricist, so that is the nexus between all songs (hundreds of them). There are happy songs, sexually camp songs, sad songs, romantic songs, rock songs, etc. Should check but probably there is no other with such negativity or social intentions, but there are other songs that touch things with rawness (like “Seifuku ga Jama wo Suru”, probably with more meaning if you know that the main singers are 14-15-16 years old girls, what “enjo kosai” means, or another hit Akimoto had with his former mega girl band, Onyanko Club) or strange emotions (one that I remember, girl that is travelling on the train with her family and thinks that the guy she is in love with never will correspond her, so instead of letting all of this get lost, she will give it to old guy that is on front of her on the train, because she really don’t care). But most of the songs are about interpersonal relationships, fears, anxiety, loneliness, searching for love, sex instead of it, etc.

After that phase they went to a more pop side of them, changed record label and started another sound of them, the epicness of everyday life, more uplifting and at certain points almost self help music. But the thing is that I don’t think that they “sold out”, didn’t change the negativity for a false happiness, they still see all that is wrong in the world but they try to overcome it, even when they know that they are going to fail on that mission. If you want try to read “River” on the light of “Keibetsu…”

On “10nen Sakura” a graduation song, they talk about being able to keep this moment of happiness forever with them and to try to get together again in ten years even if, to quote the lyrics “Even if the hurt keeps coming/ and things don’t go so smoothly/ As the number of passing springs add up,/ I can become lonely,/ but if I believe in the future,/
I can keep going”

Or in this year “Sakura no shiori” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakura#Symbolism), with a music video by the director of “All About Lily Chou Chou”,
“Happiness and sadness are/ passing away with the season/ We’re starting to walk/on a new path
This cherry blossom petal is a/ bookmark of parting/ It brings back my friends’ expression/ when they waved their hands/ This cherry blossom petal is a
bookmark of tears/ So those important moments/ won’t ever be forgotten...
When I look up to the sky/ within such wideness/I’m starting to grasp the length of/this never ending path
Be it sunny day or rainy day,/ tomorrow will surely come/ So with a smile,/I’m taking one step forward”

[anonymous]

(only found it here without going to Chinese stream sites: http://www.veoh.com/browse/videos/category/music/watch/v20031807gTyCDmgj)

One of the b-sides of the last single, “Boku no Yell” picture some of the girls as soccer team, and even if they try their best, they loose the match.

On “Choose Me”, that ends this way “Please choose your love/ from among your classmates/ Only one person/ Yes, your lover/Please choose your love/Everyone is cute/Everyone also has a good personality/For sure, I am out of range/ Just one thing that I can win in/I like you more than anyone”, there are stairs that you can never reach the top, watching beautiful landscapes (through the window), the sea, open, immense at their backs but they never look at it, playing DS while you are almost crying, etc. But maybe that is one of the subtleties that make me connect with the group…