A Kelpish Rages On
So there's this phenomenon called Gangnam Style that I've been pretty much avoiding like death.
[I love K-pop, okay? You proabably should too - it's really fuxking INTERESTING]
But I was talking to my Indian friend yesterday - who is an old-school J-rock kid, loves Bollywood, and eats up all the K-pop I send her - and we both remarked on how this isn't the K-pop we love. (And then waxed poetics and I made her watch ["Beautiful Night" by Ulala Session], which is pretty similar in tone of message as Gangnam Style... but I feel HEAPS better about loving it.) And one topic that was mentioned was that how many of our friends - those that know we love kpop - often bring up this song as if they know what it is that we love. They think by watching this video and jumping on the American bandwagon that is "Gangnam Style" that they somehow have an understanding of Korean pop-music/Culture. [NOTE: As I'm writing this, a RL friend posted a video on my page and notes that she wishes she was in school so she could write a paper on this... My life is so fuxking fluid sometimes it's a little frightening.]
Only. Okay - not. Because what I love about K-pop is that there is a REAL negotiation of meaning-making going on in the pieces. There are narratives - not only in the complex, fictional stories that they tell (that can also be retold to redefine/renegotiate stories that we all know in delightful ways), but also in the way the creation and renegotiation of gender, sexuality, identity, and desire is at play. And yes - there are the ones and the ones and the ones that are just really pretty boys dancing (or even just loving each other) - but what I just CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF is that (other than the fact that American pop idols are far too lazy to dance like this) how androgynous they all can be. I used to think of Kim Hyun Joong as possibly one of the most masculine features of my kpop fetish, but his face on my work computer (about a year ago now) prompted a coworker to call him "pretty" and "effeminate" ... which is understandable. The boy can clean up. But it's all so much a part of what is happening - and only a very, very, very SMALL part of how COOL the narrative being constructed is functioning. (Especially in comparison to a lot of the K-dramas, which tend to follow very stereotyped constructions of gender - Except when they don't, they really, really DON'T.) And I don't have time/energy to convince you that the Korean pop industry is FASCINATING. But there are links of links for your viewing pleasure. (Not all of them I even especially enjoy - but there's a broad spectrum linked here... but leaning on the side of the boy-bands b/c that's just my bias.)
The point of this is - the weird fascination with Gangnam Style - is just a new form of minstrelsy. "Instead of Black Face, this is Yellow Face." (To quote one of my advisors I spoke to about this earlier today.) The surge in interest is just like any surge of interest in the "Orient" from the West. Gangnam Style isn't about a growing interest in Korean pop culture - it's just a fetishization of an actually INTERESTING culture, that has been watered down beyond definition. An Orientalizing of the East, yet again. A general search in merchandise on Amazon, etc. - for Kpop products will pull up a myriad of Gangnam Style products/t-shirts. A lot that say "Oppa" on them - and just for the record "Oppa" =/= "Brother" *headdesk* - and I doubt most of the people in the West wearing a shirt with that phrase on it have any clue what it really means or how to use it properly.
Look - I'm a student. Forever. I'm a student of the world, as we all should be. And I know I frack up on a semi-regular basis. And I don't have a clear handle on Korean pop-culture - this isn't about educating you into the ways of this neat thing as if I were some sort of an expert. The idea is laughable - I am anything but! It's about me just taking a moment to say: Hey, guys. THIS IS FUXKKING NEAT. In complex and interesting ways that have nothing whatsoever to do with a cultural bias in which I'm merely making something other-than-me into the Other. Nay - that is not my intent. (Even though my own culture is always with me and to a certain extent, I will always be on the outside looking into this culture with my own biases.) I just love this.
[A playlist with (most of) the links above included. Thank you, YouTube.]
Here, have a playlist for your viewing pleasure:
I'm frighteningly okay with the fact that I love this music - when I've never been a pop fan before in my life.
Note: If ANYONE can figure out what the hell exactly is going on in The Brown Eyed Girl's music video "Sixth Sense" I'd really appreciate it. That thing reads like a Lady Gaga video - I'm pretty sure there's meaning-making happening, but every time I think I have a handle on it - the slippery bugger evades me. I needs the META! (And also possibly fic for Infinite's BTD)
#feeling needy
In other news: WHAT THE HOLY FRACK IS THIS POST? Or the 2,000+ words of Victorious fic I wrote this week? Or the gender-subversion post from yesterday? Guys - I'm supposed to be writing a thesis. *facepalm* I have no motivation for it. I keep getting distracted by shiny, lovely things. I really ought to be thinking such delightful thoughts about Dawnie....
It's this whole problem where I GENUINELY just love things. And I meant to rage and then I just swooned over with love.
My life is tragic and full of pain. (lollolololololol)
[EDIT: And then the second I get this all formatted nicely and posted my flist quite nearly EXPLODES with tVD feelz... trolololol]
[I love K-pop, okay? You proabably should too - it's really fuxking INTERESTING]
But I was talking to my Indian friend yesterday - who is an old-school J-rock kid, loves Bollywood, and eats up all the K-pop I send her - and we both remarked on how this isn't the K-pop we love. (And then waxed poetics and I made her watch ["Beautiful Night" by Ulala Session], which is pretty similar in tone of message as Gangnam Style... but I feel HEAPS better about loving it.) And one topic that was mentioned was that how many of our friends - those that know we love kpop - often bring up this song as if they know what it is that we love. They think by watching this video and jumping on the American bandwagon that is "Gangnam Style" that they somehow have an understanding of Korean pop-music/Culture. [NOTE: As I'm writing this, a RL friend posted a video on my page and notes that she wishes she was in school so she could write a paper on this... My life is so fuxking fluid sometimes it's a little frightening.]
Only. Okay - not. Because what I love about K-pop is that there is a REAL negotiation of meaning-making going on in the pieces. There are narratives - not only in the complex, fictional stories that they tell (that can also be retold to redefine/renegotiate stories that we all know in delightful ways), but also in the way the creation and renegotiation of gender, sexuality, identity, and desire is at play. And yes - there are the ones and the ones and the ones that are just really pretty boys dancing (or even just loving each other) - but what I just CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF is that (other than the fact that American pop idols are far too lazy to dance like this) how androgynous they all can be. I used to think of Kim Hyun Joong as possibly one of the most masculine features of my kpop fetish, but his face on my work computer (about a year ago now) prompted a coworker to call him "pretty" and "effeminate" ... which is understandable. The boy can clean up. But it's all so much a part of what is happening - and only a very, very, very SMALL part of how COOL the narrative being constructed is functioning. (Especially in comparison to a lot of the K-dramas, which tend to follow very stereotyped constructions of gender - Except when they don't, they really, really DON'T.) And I don't have time/energy to convince you that the Korean pop industry is FASCINATING. But there are links of links for your viewing pleasure. (Not all of them I even especially enjoy - but there's a broad spectrum linked here... but leaning on the side of the boy-bands b/c that's just my bias.)
The point of this is - the weird fascination with Gangnam Style - is just a new form of minstrelsy. "Instead of Black Face, this is Yellow Face." (To quote one of my advisors I spoke to about this earlier today.) The surge in interest is just like any surge of interest in the "Orient" from the West. Gangnam Style isn't about a growing interest in Korean pop culture - it's just a fetishization of an actually INTERESTING culture, that has been watered down beyond definition. An Orientalizing of the East, yet again. A general search in merchandise on Amazon, etc. - for Kpop products will pull up a myriad of Gangnam Style products/t-shirts. A lot that say "Oppa" on them - and just for the record "Oppa" =/= "Brother" *headdesk* - and I doubt most of the people in the West wearing a shirt with that phrase on it have any clue what it really means or how to use it properly.
Look - I'm a student. Forever. I'm a student of the world, as we all should be. And I know I frack up on a semi-regular basis. And I don't have a clear handle on Korean pop-culture - this isn't about educating you into the ways of this neat thing as if I were some sort of an expert. The idea is laughable - I am anything but! It's about me just taking a moment to say: Hey, guys. THIS IS FUXKKING NEAT. In complex and interesting ways that have nothing whatsoever to do with a cultural bias in which I'm merely making something other-than-me into the Other. Nay - that is not my intent. (Even though my own culture is always with me and to a certain extent, I will always be on the outside looking into this culture with my own biases.) I just love this.
[A playlist with (most of) the links above included. Thank you, YouTube.]
Here, have a playlist for your viewing pleasure:
Click to view
I'm frighteningly okay with the fact that I love this music - when I've never been a pop fan before in my life.
Note: If ANYONE can figure out what the hell exactly is going on in The Brown Eyed Girl's music video "Sixth Sense" I'd really appreciate it. That thing reads like a Lady Gaga video - I'm pretty sure there's meaning-making happening, but every time I think I have a handle on it - the slippery bugger evades me. I needs the META! (And also possibly fic for Infinite's BTD)
#feeling needy
In other news: WHAT THE HOLY FRACK IS THIS POST? Or the 2,000+ words of Victorious fic I wrote this week? Or the gender-subversion post from yesterday? Guys - I'm supposed to be writing a thesis. *facepalm* I have no motivation for it. I keep getting distracted by shiny, lovely things. I really ought to be thinking such delightful thoughts about Dawnie....
It's this whole problem where I GENUINELY just love things. And I meant to rage and then I just swooned over with love.
My life is tragic and full of pain. (lollolololololol)
[EDIT: And then the second I get this all formatted nicely and posted my flist quite nearly EXPLODES with tVD feelz... trolololol]