Wheeeeeeeeee Jpop! H!P! MM! Irrelevancy!
So many posts in the pipeline, and a lot of them would be easier blurbs work, but I wanted to get this one out while The Boys album was still somewhat fresh.
Also because I haven't done a REAL pimp post on here in a while. Compilation posts don't count. But you have been warned. And this pimp post has a little more of the crack than usual.
So, recall:
AG: Man, I should do a blurb post on the direct song comparisons for The Boys.
JKO: Do it. It's freaking just a compilation of stuff that's already been done, really.
AG: Actually, I got an even better idea than just a comparison, although I'll probably still do it at the end of the post.
The comparison post came and went, (and the September/Telepathy comparison somehow made it on OMNTD, wtf) but what was that "better idea?" ("Better" idea meaning better in my cracked-out Jpop-biased brain, mind you)
While pondering over the comparisons, I came to a revelation.
Hack shoop and animation job because I don't have proper Photoshop available to me right now.
The Boys-era SNSD is equivalent to Blingmoni.
Yes I know the shoop isn't Blingmoni. The comparison still stands though, and Taeyeon-Takahashi is actually a better comparison than Taeyeon-Yaguchi. But I wanted to use a more iconic picture, with Mika still all blatantly otherized and stuff.
WHAT THE HELL IS BLINGMONI
At the height of their popularity, Morning Musume was even more pervasive in the Japanese pop culture scene than can be immediately seen from their sales numbers, because if they weren't doing something as Morning Musume, then they were doing something as a part of sub-units. The only sub-unit that wasn't completely conceived in Tsunku's brain was Minimoni. 2nd gen member Yaguchi Mari(145cm) had an idea for a subgroup of shorties. XD Membership was restricted to those under 150cm. (Sunny is 155cm) At the time, Hello!Project had conducted the Pacific Dream Pop Singer Competition in Hawaii, forming Coconuts Musume out of the winners. One of the members was Mika Todd, and she joined Minimoni as the token foreign member. They also justified dressing her differently from the other members because she was 150cm and not under.
Minimoni initially released songs targetted at children, but the members presented themselves as so over-the-top and sassy on TV that the general populace fell in love as well.
ミニモニ うたばん傑作編(2001.9.13) by glay158
So yeah, Minimoni wasn't EXACTLY children-only. XD
Oh, and one of their TV segments is responsible for Dramatic Prairie Dog.
Exactly how mainstream popular was Minimoni?
So much awkward. XD Oh, Japan.
So that's Minimoni. But what about Blingmoni?
In 2002, Yaguchi graduated from Minimoni and 5th gen member Takahashi Ai took her place. However, Aichan's forte has always been performance first,(she had done ballet and performed in a national singing competition at age 12) and her personality just wasn't in-your-face and over-the-top like Minimoni was.(And for Jpop in general, as a lot of people find her boring.)
This, combined with the fact that everyone in the group was getting older, led to Tsunku updating their image somewhat.
So Blingmoni was born.
Just to recap, we went from this:
to this:
Man, there's something wrong when H!P album covers are better composed than SNSD's.
Anyways, it's a little similar to how SNSD went from being SES 2.0 into trying to re-brand themselves into something more mature, especially in that Blingmoni didn't stop putting out the bubblegum, either.
First, lets compare the promoted tracks: The Boys vs. Crazy About You
Faux-rap, english, long belted notes, melody emphasis, this really is a nice matchup with The Boys.
Now obviously the Minimoni PV is sillier than SNSD's MV on the Pepto-bismol clothing alone, especially with that stupid Mininoni mascot on their pants, but it just makes me grin. Blingmoni know they're just playing at gansta, so why not have a wink and nudge at the audience. Like grey said when we first switched to this Pink Sone Hearts Heaven layout, "We're still us!" And not including the clothing, would you look at that, Crazy About You's video is better produced than The Boys'. There's even like a hint at a story or something. Okay, obligatory bashing on SNSD's MVs done.
I really like Crazy About You's dance. It's fast paced, the formation shifts are dynamic, it's as difficult as T-ara's Cry Cry choreography where at least two of two of the girls had absolutely no dance training before becoming idols, Aichan is perfect in every way, and Tsuji(the tan one) does some segmented stomach crunching during the post-interlude chorus and has some serious abs. Oh yeah, and I might be a little bit obsessed with how smoothly Aichan does that hand wave thing during "watashi no kokoro" and its equivalents in the chorus.
What's especially ironic to me is that Minimoni may have released more proper R&B songs than SNSD.
Awww, look at them all in their pastel pink. XD
Is that David Bowie at the beginning? o_O
Tsunku gets experimental. Although unfortunately we have that damn creepy male voice plaguing this thing. If you thought the dude from Genie was bad...
Some more shallow comparisons to SNSD:
For some reason, I kept thinking of this song dwhen I was putting together the The Boys comparison post. First the piano synth from Telepathy, then the melodic-ness of Say Yes, then the driving nature of Trick. It's not even that similar to any of the songs.
Hah, Tsunku can even write a K-ballad better than Koreans.
So I heard that the last SNSD album had this one Sock-hop based song. But did they learn how to memorize the prefecture capitals in that one?
This is entirely too cute, but it's also always interested me how H!P weaves in traditional asian instrumentation into their uber-Bubblegum. So much that Jetihyun's Mabinogi has always struck me as a Kpop take on the H!P formula. This will probably get its own post on the lj.
And I will stand firm that Minimoni has the advantage over SNSD until the latter releases a metal/osakan folk/baseball anthem.
With hilarious head-banging choreography! 8D (Too bad Tsunku switched this number out for Gyutto Dakishimete)
And Minimoni choreo was The Boys levels of active even pre-Takahashi.
Splits right off the bat that only Yuri has done in performance, and then you have locking footwork that segues into Melbourne Shuffle footwork. Kiddy songs about cake never had dances this technical. Check out that ending armwork and those spins. Even first gen minimoni totally could have done the Break Away routine, judging from this.
And speaking of first gen Minimoni, their music was even more widely varied in genre.
Despite the "for children" label, sometimes the songs were just plain awesome. Their being "for children" let them do some things normally only parody bands can mess with. That rhythm in the pre-verse always fucks me in the head with how it's always one beat offset.
In this performance of the above song, the mix of awkward and second-hand embarrassment plus the sudden competence starting in the pre-chorus makes for a fascinating watch for me. Plus, Momoko (pink) busting out the kicks in the chorus that aren't in the original choreo is always cool to watch. How about those kids and their formation work, eh?
Speaking of the H!P Kids, here's another performance of a Minimoni classic with one original member and three Kids. WTF THEY HAVE ABS. D: *goes to jail* Oh yeah, and this tour is the one in which the original Minimoni member performing here began her descent into the Apop equivalent of a Britney/Lindsay-esque scandal spiral.
Several AKB48 girls were huge fans of H!P to where when given the chance at a Karaoke concert, they covered the above song in tribute.
Minimoni have a vitamin song too. And it's in Neo-Big Band style! *stares at lack of jazz in SNSD's discography*
Tango Minimoni! That switches off with...Eurodance Disco Minimoni? What? @_@
Early rock 'n' roll is also a genre that Kpop doesn't have.
Did I mention Minimoni made several songs for the Hamtaro anime, including this little gem about weddings?
The sudden switch to metal in the pre-chorus always throws me off. It's disturbing how mixing this with a song ominously named "Monkey Dance" can produce crack gold. Watch out, Nyan Cat.
And on that note, BRING ON ZE CRACK. LADLE ON THE CRACK. MORE. MORE.
Lol I can't even.
No one will ever be able to convince me that at 1:27 in this song Tsunku didn't suffer an acid trip of epic proportions in the middle of writing this song.
Remember that unko dance? Tsunku, give me what you're smoking. That place looks amazing.
This is what SNSDxKim Gun Mo could have been IN JAPAN. You're welcome.
And finally, Minimoni have the Greatest Song In Teh Warudo.
If you didn't catch those infinitely meaningful lyrics, Here you go.
My life has been forever enlightened by the existence of this song. Even without them, that funky arrangement(jazz organ!) probably would have me sold anyways.
Also because I haven't done a REAL pimp post on here in a while. Compilation posts don't count. But you have been warned. And this pimp post has a little more of the crack than usual.
So, recall:
AG: Man, I should do a blurb post on the direct song comparisons for The Boys.
JKO: Do it. It's freaking just a compilation of stuff that's already been done, really.
AG: Actually, I got an even better idea than just a comparison, although I'll probably still do it at the end of the post.
The comparison post came and went, (and the September/Telepathy comparison somehow made it on OMNTD, wtf) but what was that "better idea?" ("Better" idea meaning better in my cracked-out Jpop-biased brain, mind you)
While pondering over the comparisons, I came to a revelation.
Hack shoop and animation job because I don't have proper Photoshop available to me right now.
The Boys-era SNSD is equivalent to Blingmoni.
Yes I know the shoop isn't Blingmoni. The comparison still stands though, and Taeyeon-Takahashi is actually a better comparison than Taeyeon-Yaguchi. But I wanted to use a more iconic picture, with Mika still all blatantly otherized and stuff.
WHAT THE HELL IS BLINGMONI
At the height of their popularity, Morning Musume was even more pervasive in the Japanese pop culture scene than can be immediately seen from their sales numbers, because if they weren't doing something as Morning Musume, then they were doing something as a part of sub-units. The only sub-unit that wasn't completely conceived in Tsunku's brain was Minimoni. 2nd gen member Yaguchi Mari(145cm) had an idea for a subgroup of shorties. XD Membership was restricted to those under 150cm. (Sunny is 155cm) At the time, Hello!Project had conducted the Pacific Dream Pop Singer Competition in Hawaii, forming Coconuts Musume out of the winners. One of the members was Mika Todd, and she joined Minimoni as the token foreign member. They also justified dressing her differently from the other members because she was 150cm and not under.
Minimoni initially released songs targetted at children, but the members presented themselves as so over-the-top and sassy on TV that the general populace fell in love as well.
Click to viewミニモニ うたばん傑作編(2001.9.13) by glay158
So yeah, Minimoni wasn't EXACTLY children-only. XD
Oh, and one of their TV segments is responsible for Dramatic Prairie Dog.
Exactly how mainstream popular was Minimoni?
So much awkward. XD Oh, Japan.
So that's Minimoni. But what about Blingmoni?
In 2002, Yaguchi graduated from Minimoni and 5th gen member Takahashi Ai took her place. However, Aichan's forte has always been performance first,(she had done ballet and performed in a national singing competition at age 12) and her personality just wasn't in-your-face and over-the-top like Minimoni was.(And for Jpop in general, as a lot of people find her boring.)
This, combined with the fact that everyone in the group was getting older, led to Tsunku updating their image somewhat.
So Blingmoni was born.
Just to recap, we went from this:
to this:
Man, there's something wrong when H!P album covers are better composed than SNSD's.
Anyways, it's a little similar to how SNSD went from being SES 2.0 into trying to re-brand themselves into something more mature, especially in that Blingmoni didn't stop putting out the bubblegum, either.
First, lets compare the promoted tracks: The Boys vs. Crazy About You
Faux-rap, english, long belted notes, melody emphasis, this really is a nice matchup with The Boys.
Now obviously the Minimoni PV is sillier than SNSD's MV on the Pepto-bismol clothing alone, especially with that stupid Mininoni mascot on their pants, but it just makes me grin. Blingmoni know they're just playing at gansta, so why not have a wink and nudge at the audience. Like grey said when we first switched to this Pink Sone Hearts Heaven layout, "We're still us!" And not including the clothing, would you look at that, Crazy About You's video is better produced than The Boys'. There's even like a hint at a story or something. Okay, obligatory bashing on SNSD's MVs done.
I really like Crazy About You's dance. It's fast paced, the formation shifts are dynamic, it's as difficult as T-ara's Cry Cry choreography where at least two of two of the girls had absolutely no dance training before becoming idols, Aichan is perfect in every way, and Tsuji(the tan one) does some segmented stomach crunching during the post-interlude chorus and has some serious abs. Oh yeah, and I might be a little bit obsessed with how smoothly Aichan does that hand wave thing during "watashi no kokoro" and its equivalents in the chorus.
What's especially ironic to me is that Minimoni may have released more proper R&B songs than SNSD.
Awww, look at them all in their pastel pink. XD
Is that David Bowie at the beginning? o_O
Tsunku gets experimental. Although unfortunately we have that damn creepy male voice plaguing this thing. If you thought the dude from Genie was bad...
Some more shallow comparisons to SNSD:
For some reason, I kept thinking of this song dwhen I was putting together the The Boys comparison post. First the piano synth from Telepathy, then the melodic-ness of Say Yes, then the driving nature of Trick. It's not even that similar to any of the songs.
Hah, Tsunku can even write a K-ballad better than Koreans.
So I heard that the last SNSD album had this one Sock-hop based song. But did they learn how to memorize the prefecture capitals in that one?
This is entirely too cute, but it's also always interested me how H!P weaves in traditional asian instrumentation into their uber-Bubblegum. So much that Jetihyun's Mabinogi has always struck me as a Kpop take on the H!P formula. This will probably get its own post on the lj.
And I will stand firm that Minimoni has the advantage over SNSD until the latter releases a metal/osakan folk/baseball anthem.
With hilarious head-banging choreography! 8D (Too bad Tsunku switched this number out for Gyutto Dakishimete)
And Minimoni choreo was The Boys levels of active even pre-Takahashi.
Splits right off the bat that only Yuri has done in performance, and then you have locking footwork that segues into Melbourne Shuffle footwork. Kiddy songs about cake never had dances this technical. Check out that ending armwork and those spins. Even first gen minimoni totally could have done the Break Away routine, judging from this.
And speaking of first gen Minimoni, their music was even more widely varied in genre.
Despite the "for children" label, sometimes the songs were just plain awesome. Their being "for children" let them do some things normally only parody bands can mess with. That rhythm in the pre-verse always fucks me in the head with how it's always one beat offset.
In this performance of the above song, the mix of awkward and second-hand embarrassment plus the sudden competence starting in the pre-chorus makes for a fascinating watch for me. Plus, Momoko (pink) busting out the kicks in the chorus that aren't in the original choreo is always cool to watch. How about those kids and their formation work, eh?
Speaking of the H!P Kids, here's another performance of a Minimoni classic with one original member and three Kids. WTF THEY HAVE ABS. D: *goes to jail* Oh yeah, and this tour is the one in which the original Minimoni member performing here began her descent into the Apop equivalent of a Britney/Lindsay-esque scandal spiral.
Several AKB48 girls were huge fans of H!P to where when given the chance at a Karaoke concert, they covered the above song in tribute.
Minimoni have a vitamin song too. And it's in Neo-Big Band style! *stares at lack of jazz in SNSD's discography*
Tango Minimoni! That switches off with...Eurodance Disco Minimoni? What? @_@
Early rock 'n' roll is also a genre that Kpop doesn't have.
Did I mention Minimoni made several songs for the Hamtaro anime, including this little gem about weddings?
The sudden switch to metal in the pre-chorus always throws me off. It's disturbing how mixing this with a song ominously named "Monkey Dance" can produce crack gold. Watch out, Nyan Cat.
And on that note, BRING ON ZE CRACK. LADLE ON THE CRACK. MORE. MORE.
Lol I can't even.
No one will ever be able to convince me that at 1:27 in this song Tsunku didn't suffer an acid trip of epic proportions in the middle of writing this song.
Remember that unko dance? Tsunku, give me what you're smoking. That place looks amazing.
This is what SNSDxKim Gun Mo could have been IN JAPAN. You're welcome.
And finally, Minimoni have the Greatest Song In Teh Warudo.
If you didn't catch those infinitely meaningful lyrics, Here you go.
My life has been forever enlightened by the existence of this song. Even without them, that funky arrangement(jazz organ!) probably would have me sold anyways.