Crayon Pop (artist of the year, 2013): bohemia from nowhere near bohemia
Crayon Pop seem to be occupying a social space that doesn't exist in America: not of the mainstream but with no apparent estrangement from the mainstream either, not even to the extent that the mainstream itself is estranged from the mainstream (being estranged from the mainstream is a mainstream attitude). And while Crayon Pop gathered a fanatic core audience before they hit big - people who traveled miles to the Crayon Pop appearances and chanted along with the guerrilla street performances - that audience seemed to be doting-uncle types, not connoisseur types. But then, what counts as "connoisseur" isn't set in stone. For instance, Sunday evenings are an unofficial car show in the parking lots along Federal Blvd. on Denver's Hispanic west side, people hopping into their vehicles and finding spots to show off. There are many venues for discerning eyes.
In any event, Crayon Pop seem to be into music more for the art of it and the process than for fame and fortune or even a career.* Going "trot" this year with "Uh-ee" (and dressing like aunties) fits this: the attitude is "What can we try next?" Makes me think of the otherwise very different "Gentleman," by Psy: not a followup to "Gangnam Style" so much as "What can I do to shift around and fake you out?" But Psy is coming from a well-trod social territory, the outsider hip-hop guy who breaks big but still wants to set the terms of discussion. Whereas with Crayon Pop it's more like, "What color should we paint our house now?" At least that's how Crayon Pop come across. So even if they are secret bohemians (Way did got to art school, for instance), that's not where they live in the public landscape.
Whether or not you think I'm right about Crayon Pop, and even if you don't pay attention to K-pop, I have this question:
Who else - anywhere, present or past - seems to be occupying a social space similar to the one I describe for Crayon Pop?
I'm thinking that certain potential stuff wouldn't count, the reason being it has too much of a chip on its shoulder and too much outsider status: early hip-hop dj's in the Seventies, for instance, or the custom car shows and stock-car races and demolition derbies of the early Sixties that Tom Wolfe analyzed and celebrated in The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby. Or maybe I'm wrong, and we should count these things.
Anyway, bohemia from nowhere near bohemia.
Also, we need a new term. "Bohemia" is played out. Care to coin one?
As delinquent lollipop girls in "Bing Bing," five months before fame [EDIT: Had embedded the Feb. 15 show at Music Bank but it's no longer on YouTube, so substituting Music Core from a couple weeks earlier, Crayon Pop dismayingly without lollipops; RE-EDIT but here's a link to Show Champion on Feb. 27 where they've got the lollipop, though the presentation is not quite as slinky and delinquent as I remember Feb. 15's being]:
Recent disco-trot ("Hey Mister"):
Opening for Gaga four days ago in Milwaukee (tonight they play Boston):
One of the places I've tried to talk about this previously:
http://koganbot.livejournal.com/345281.html
*Not that you can't do it for art and fun and for fame, fortune, and a paycheck; Crayon Pop's guerrilla performances and home-made posted-on-YouTube "TV" show certainly helped garner the audience and attention that eventually led to fame and the paycheck. And of course I may totally be misreading them.
In any event, Crayon Pop seem to be into music more for the art of it and the process than for fame and fortune or even a career.* Going "trot" this year with "Uh-ee" (and dressing like aunties) fits this: the attitude is "What can we try next?" Makes me think of the otherwise very different "Gentleman," by Psy: not a followup to "Gangnam Style" so much as "What can I do to shift around and fake you out?" But Psy is coming from a well-trod social territory, the outsider hip-hop guy who breaks big but still wants to set the terms of discussion. Whereas with Crayon Pop it's more like, "What color should we paint our house now?" At least that's how Crayon Pop come across. So even if they are secret bohemians (Way did got to art school, for instance), that's not where they live in the public landscape.
Whether or not you think I'm right about Crayon Pop, and even if you don't pay attention to K-pop, I have this question:
Who else - anywhere, present or past - seems to be occupying a social space similar to the one I describe for Crayon Pop?
I'm thinking that certain potential stuff wouldn't count, the reason being it has too much of a chip on its shoulder and too much outsider status: early hip-hop dj's in the Seventies, for instance, or the custom car shows and stock-car races and demolition derbies of the early Sixties that Tom Wolfe analyzed and celebrated in The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby. Or maybe I'm wrong, and we should count these things.
Anyway, bohemia from nowhere near bohemia.
Also, we need a new term. "Bohemia" is played out. Care to coin one?
As delinquent lollipop girls in "Bing Bing," five months before fame [EDIT: Had embedded the Feb. 15 show at Music Bank but it's no longer on YouTube, so substituting Music Core from a couple weeks earlier, Crayon Pop dismayingly without lollipops; RE-EDIT but here's a link to Show Champion on Feb. 27 where they've got the lollipop, though the presentation is not quite as slinky and delinquent as I remember Feb. 15's being]:
Click to viewRecent disco-trot ("Hey Mister"):
Opening for Gaga four days ago in Milwaukee (tonight they play Boston):
One of the places I've tried to talk about this previously:
http://koganbot.livejournal.com/345281.html
*Not that you can't do it for art and fun and for fame, fortune, and a paycheck; Crayon Pop's guerrilla performances and home-made posted-on-YouTube "TV" show certainly helped garner the audience and attention that eventually led to fame and the paycheck. And of course I may totally be misreading them.