Kim Nana (Cute Vs. Sexy #1)
If you were to ask me do I think T-ara are sexy or, instead, do I think they're cute, you've asked me an insane question, since their cuteness makes them sexy and their sexiness makes them cute. Not that there's a complete overlap: cuteness is only a part of their repertoire of sexiness and sexiness is only part of their repertoire of cuteness. And they generally avoid cutesiness, which is a turnoff. But what I'm noticing is that "cute vs. sexy" is something of a meme in K-pop, even though as an actual dichotomy it hardly seems usable. But there is even an officially designated "sexy version" and an officially designated "cute version" of T-ara's "Bo Peep Bo Peep" vid. Recognizing that "cute" and "sexy" are being used as generic, symbolic terms - so not encompassing something like "Minzy has a cute ass," where "cute" means "she's really hot"; but more like how a nightgown symbolizes sexiness while a business suit symbolizes seriousness even though someone can look really sexy in business clothes and look unsexy in a nightgown (not sure what a "cute" costume would be: a bunny suit comes to mind, but that's problematic) - there are nonetheless performers like Sunny (of SNSD) and HyunA who are also adept at interweaving the symbols of sexiness and cuteness (and the word "interweaving" is misleading in that it still implies too much of a difference), not to mention seriousness and the business suit when those performers are so inclined.
And that's how far I've gotten in stating the issue. If all goes well you'll hear more from me in the future about the "cute vs. sexy" meme and how Sunny, HyunA, et al. mix it up. For now I'll say briefly, provocatively, that, for all the posts I've run into about the Asian idea of cute ("aegyo" and such), "sexy" actually seems to be the stranger term, not just in Korea but in America.
But now, as kind of a tangent, I'm going to the idea of sexiness and heartbreak. There was a post a couple of months back in Beyond Hallyu entitled "Sad But Sexy," the author noting that the sexiness in videos that accompany sad songs (e.g. Sistar's "Alone") is treated more leniently by the K-pop censors than is the sexiness in other videos. Of course I have no idea if this is true, since I generally don't know what is and isn't being censored.* But it sure seems plausible. Just as, for a while now, there's been gay romance content in Korean pop music videos, but with a few exceptions it's all been heartbreak stuff. (The vid for San E's current big hit, "Story Of Someone I Know," is a half exception: it pulls the K-pop vid trick of adding gay or lesbian content to a song that hadn't had it in the lyrics, and the lesbian love has a happy ending. But the protagonist is unhappy and the song is unhappy. So, sad but sexy it gets to be. It's not really steamy, though.) I was going to designate GLAM's "Party XXO" as a truly notable exception, in that the lyrics are upfront about the girls wanting the right to kiss other girls, and the video is all celebration. That said, the partying skips its way past any such kissing, avoids the "Are they or aren't they?" question as it pertains to the GLAM girls, is all bright and kiddie-pop friendly in the dancing and the colors. It does have Dahee dancing in a T-shirt that says "GL," the absence of anyone else in a corresponding "AM" shirt allowing us to complete it in our minds however we want, "BT" for instance. But otherwise the vid is heavy on the conventional "cute" signifiers and light on the "sexy" (speaking generically, not sexually). So...
One thing I noticed, looking at that and the other GLAM vids, is that view totals are edging up and there are all these recent comments to the effect that "Kim Nana brought me here." So who's Kim Nana? Turns out she's a character in the TV miniseries Monstar, the actress portraying her being GLAM's own Dahee. And talk about SAD AND SEXY! She's absolutely smoldering - despair, anger, and heat all at once. And in the TV show, straight, as far as I can tell. I'll confess I haven't had time to actually watch an episode, and it looks like I'm not going to; frankly, from the clips I've seen it doesn't seem very good ("Monstar depicts the lives of ordinary teens who are injured psychologically and heal themselves through the power of music"). And while the ballads are passable, the bravura pop-rock showpieces are utterly tedious: big blundering TV-contest ideas of what impressive, powerful song presentation is supposed to be. Yet there's Nana as a character, introduced to us first as the dangerous, dark brooding sexy girl from the wrong side of the tracks - don't mess with her - whose heart, we're to learn soon enough, is secretly breaking. That's pretty much all I've gotten from quick-skimming the clips; I can guess how everything plays out but I don't know, or what surprises I missed, or what I got wrong. Nonetheless, there's Kim Nana. I can't tell you, not having watched more than scattered scenes, how good Dahee is as an actress. It may not matter. All she has to do is to look out at us through her long hair and to never smile. If I'm fourteen years old I know who I'm in love with.
*My guess is that the censors aren't all that representative of the K-pop mindset. Anyway, "censoring" can mean various dif. things depending on whether it's the TV or the government that's doing the "banning" and "censoring," those terms referring to when and where something can be shown rather than to restricting or banning what's in it.
UPDATE: Unfortunately, I've had to add an update ( here) regarding Dahee and her attempt at blackmail. Maybe if I really knew the circumstances, the incident wouldn't be as sad and ugly as it seems. I didn't have the heart to really explore, or even to recount. If you want to look further, here's the Dahee tag at Allkpop.
And that's how far I've gotten in stating the issue. If all goes well you'll hear more from me in the future about the "cute vs. sexy" meme and how Sunny, HyunA, et al. mix it up. For now I'll say briefly, provocatively, that, for all the posts I've run into about the Asian idea of cute ("aegyo" and such), "sexy" actually seems to be the stranger term, not just in Korea but in America.
But now, as kind of a tangent, I'm going to the idea of sexiness and heartbreak. There was a post a couple of months back in Beyond Hallyu entitled "Sad But Sexy," the author noting that the sexiness in videos that accompany sad songs (e.g. Sistar's "Alone") is treated more leniently by the K-pop censors than is the sexiness in other videos. Of course I have no idea if this is true, since I generally don't know what is and isn't being censored.* But it sure seems plausible. Just as, for a while now, there's been gay romance content in Korean pop music videos, but with a few exceptions it's all been heartbreak stuff. (The vid for San E's current big hit, "Story Of Someone I Know," is a half exception: it pulls the K-pop vid trick of adding gay or lesbian content to a song that hadn't had it in the lyrics, and the lesbian love has a happy ending. But the protagonist is unhappy and the song is unhappy. So, sad but sexy it gets to be. It's not really steamy, though.) I was going to designate GLAM's "Party XXO" as a truly notable exception, in that the lyrics are upfront about the girls wanting the right to kiss other girls, and the video is all celebration. That said, the partying skips its way past any such kissing, avoids the "Are they or aren't they?" question as it pertains to the GLAM girls, is all bright and kiddie-pop friendly in the dancing and the colors. It does have Dahee dancing in a T-shirt that says "GL," the absence of anyone else in a corresponding "AM" shirt allowing us to complete it in our minds however we want, "BT" for instance. But otherwise the vid is heavy on the conventional "cute" signifiers and light on the "sexy" (speaking generically, not sexually). So...
One thing I noticed, looking at that and the other GLAM vids, is that view totals are edging up and there are all these recent comments to the effect that "Kim Nana brought me here." So who's Kim Nana? Turns out she's a character in the TV miniseries Monstar, the actress portraying her being GLAM's own Dahee. And talk about SAD AND SEXY! She's absolutely smoldering - despair, anger, and heat all at once. And in the TV show, straight, as far as I can tell. I'll confess I haven't had time to actually watch an episode, and it looks like I'm not going to; frankly, from the clips I've seen it doesn't seem very good ("Monstar depicts the lives of ordinary teens who are injured psychologically and heal themselves through the power of music"). And while the ballads are passable, the bravura pop-rock showpieces are utterly tedious: big blundering TV-contest ideas of what impressive, powerful song presentation is supposed to be. Yet there's Nana as a character, introduced to us first as the dangerous, dark brooding sexy girl from the wrong side of the tracks - don't mess with her - whose heart, we're to learn soon enough, is secretly breaking. That's pretty much all I've gotten from quick-skimming the clips; I can guess how everything plays out but I don't know, or what surprises I missed, or what I got wrong. Nonetheless, there's Kim Nana. I can't tell you, not having watched more than scattered scenes, how good Dahee is as an actress. It may not matter. All she has to do is to look out at us through her long hair and to never smile. If I'm fourteen years old I know who I'm in love with.
*My guess is that the censors aren't all that representative of the K-pop mindset. Anyway, "censoring" can mean various dif. things depending on whether it's the TV or the government that's doing the "banning" and "censoring," those terms referring to when and where something can be shown rather than to restricting or banning what's in it.
UPDATE: Unfortunately, I've had to add an update ( here) regarding Dahee and her attempt at blackmail. Maybe if I really knew the circumstances, the incident wouldn't be as sad and ugly as it seems. I didn't have the heart to really explore, or even to recount. If you want to look further, here's the Dahee tag at Allkpop.