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.

[koganbot]

Well, this is where my ignorance of the Korean biz is a big drawback, but is being a trainee the only route to success in Korean pop? And here I'm using "pop" in the sense of "popular," rather than as a specific poppy-sounding subset of popular music that's called "pop." But E.via uses elements of the latter also, quite obviously. The fundamental point I'm making, though, is that even if she's the only potentially popular young woman who's coming up neither as a ballad singer or as a trainee, what sets her apart is that what she's doing is different; rather than her being someone who's doing what the others are doing but merely putting her training and marketing in her own hands rather than waiting on the majors

[koganbot]

neither as a ballad singer nor as a trainee

[askbask]

IU's Loen entertainment distribute for JYP and others but I don't think they operate the same kind of studio model. She's making a lot of money for her label and for herself (now with the writing credits) and I'm intrigued by the idea of her as a figure of power in k-pop

[koganbot]

What about rap? Does any of that break big? (I was going to write "Break onto the charts" but I don't trust the Korean charts.) If it does, where does it come from (other than GD&TOP, since I know where they come from)?

[askbask]

All things considered I don't see anything untrustworthy about Gaon's sales reporting. Their numbers fit with information we've got from other sources. Before they entered the scene getting reliable info was a crapshoot

[askbask]

Kinda funny how all the other female rappers with Tasha on stage are girl group members.

[koganbot]

From Wikip:

Physical album sales from LOEN Entertainment, SM Entertainment, Sony Music Korea, Warner Music Korea, Universal Music, and Mnet Media are synthesized in the album chart. All music sales except physical sales is estimated by digital chart. The digital chart is the combination of the mobile chart and the online chart. The mobile chart estimates the best selling ringtones, while the online chart calculates downloads and bgm sales as well as streaming services. All charts are offered monthly and weekly. [emphasis added]

It's that first sentence that jumped out at me as making the chart particularly untrustworthy. I can't tell if the companies are doing the sales reporting themselves; but otherwise, why list them like that? Not that physical sales are dominant anymore, or albums, but how can you be trustworthy if you're getting your figures from the labels, not the retailers. Or course, retailers can accept payola and lie too, which is why Billboard started using Soundscan in the U.S. And any system can be gamed, and it's the

Chuck Eddy

[skyecaptain]

can't tell if the companies are doing the sales reporting themselves; but otherwise, why list them like that?

From global pieces that I edited when I worked at Billboard, I got the idea that that's how music sales are tallied in many, many countries around the world -- So, where physical product is concerned, what you're really seeing are shipments, not actual sales, and you're trusting that the shipment numbers record companies give you are reliable, when obviously the labels would have good reasons to artificially boost them. I don't know off hand whether Korea, specifically, adds up numbers that way, but I wouldn't be surprised. And if they do, they are hardly alone -- SoundScan's use in the U.S. is actually the exception to the rule.

Re: Chuck Eddy

[koganbot]

Also, it looks as if they're not even asking the indie labels/distributors, though maybe they have some way of tallying those, too.

[askbask]

You're right about that- I guess I've mostly paid attention to the digital charts, since that's the only one with weekly sales figures.