E.via (artist of the year, 2010)

[koganbot]

For the many people* who ask me "Why Korea?" my answer is love. Yes, and there are plenty of other answers too, one being that people who know more than I do come to my lj and talk to me about K-pop, providing sociability and mindwork, and another being that K-pop is creating a hip-hop, r&b, dance-pop amalgam far better than the Billboard Hot 100's

Comments

[skyecaptain]

Maybe you could split the difference with Sabina and call her Cassie -- regardless of how ambitious or not-fully-arrive or whatever she is, something special is happening and if the world misses out for the most part it's a problem with the world and not with her? I could easily imagine someone saying Cassie is "just another pop girl," and they'd be right, which would be surprising considering how wrong they are

[skyecaptain]

*not only NOT incompatible. Which is to say, er, compatible.

[koganbot]

To put Sabina's comments in better perspective, she was responding to askbask's contention that E.via is an outsider. I think we'd be right to say that Cassie isn't fundamentally an outsider, even if she's not being welcomed onto the charts anymore. It would be hard to claim that Cassie is doing something categorically different from the rest of r&b; rather, she somehow she has something unique in her recessive somethingness. Maybe I wasn't being fair to the intent of Sabina's comment, but for me the issue isn't just that E'via's on an independent label and wasn't coached up through the rookie leagues; rather, she's coming from a whole other sensibility from Korean idol pop - if I'm reading E.via more or less correctly; so I'm disagreeing with Sabina, though not sure I'm right in doing so.

Btw, the performer I'm definitely getting a Cassie feeling from these days is Dev; she's bringing a Cassie feel to Ke$ha party skank vibe. (I could imagine Lex blowing a gasket if he were to read that sentence. But my guess is that Lex'll be down with Dev

[askbask]

I don't think you can say she's 'just another' ambitious k-pop girl who hasn't made it big, because if she was she'd just be a trainee for one of the many studios.

[trevitron]

Hi. I found your writing and your blogs through the 2011 Pazz and Jop poll. Heh, I basically looked up all the critics who voted for different K-pop songs, and I was pleased to find your ballot

[koganbot]

Thank you so much for showing up, Trevor. It may take a while to absorb your essay, but I did look at your mix and heartily agree with many of your choices (2NE1 as best group, Sunny as a favorite idol, ChoColat as up and comers).

I am puzzled as to why you think I describe the appeal of K-pop in a simple way:

she's gonna out-cute the pop cutie-pies while still doing speed-rap and sex; meanwhile, my eyes or ears or my imagination tell me that her attitude towards cute is like Ray Davies' towards sunny afternoons or Mick Jagger's towards hearts of stone: she doesn't believe in it but she'll do it better than you or anybody else, just to show you.

That seems pretty nonsimple me, esp. given that I'm comparing her to Mick Jagger, a complex, self-reflexive, and contrary star who terrorized my adolescence. (And loving stars who potentially terrorize you isn't simple either.)

Here are several links you might be interested in:

Rolling K-pop (though this seems to have hit a dead spot since November

[trevitron]

Thanks for the response, Frank

Banging on a peeve

[koganbot]

The leap: "something clicks." It seems as if it's beyond words, beyond reasons, how we manage to enter something we had no idea could have much to do with us. (Simon Frith, Music For Pleasure, p. 91: "What's 'good' here usually is described by its straight musical elements (a haunting tune, etc.), but what matters is a tone of voice: suddenly there's this stranger, involved in a different conversation altogether, talking about you.") Beyond words or prior to words - except, as writers, our challenge is to find the words, because you don't reach true deep understanding without them. That's another issue, but once you "get" something, it's damned hard to revise how you "got" it, in the event your understanding is wrong or incomplete, unless you've found the words and can retrace the words, replace them. Here's a column from my LVW days that you might get a kick out of, about delving through to reasons, trying to find the words:

"The Boney Joan RuleAs for the "real"-versus-"fake" thing: real versus fake, just like real versus imaginary