Yellow Fever/Yellow Immunity
You probably don't know who Yani Tseng is. But that's ok, because I don't even remember why I know who Yani Tseng is. She does, however, have a few things in common with SNSD: she's an '89er who's claimed a heaping chunk of #1s and just happens to be Asian. She's also the non-face face of the LGPA . . . at least in America
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If it were 2004, SNSD could have at least made a grab for the TRL Live audience, gotten fans that stretched from tweens to early 20s, maybe getting part of the crowd for Pink and Ashlee and Avril and Kelly Clarkson while being something of a dance alternative to those acts' teenrock confessional. But when High School Musical and then Hannah Montana went massive, that basically established Disney as its own musical universe and stole the younger part of that audience. Now, Taylor Swift was able to unexpectedly swoop in as a country crossover and occupy the actual teen market, while being girly enough for the teenyboppers and enough of a singer-songwriter to get credibility with adults. But she's hardly a model for SNSD. A couple of years ago there was a kid-to-young-adult market for Jason Derulo and Iyaz and Jay Sean, so I don't say that there's no potential market for SNSD. And if SNSD were to hit with something that sounds like "Genie" or "Gee," which are hardly exotic or incomprehensible but at the same time don't match what's on the U.S. charts, they would own the territory, since we have no one here who sounds like that. But also, for that reason, I'm really skeptical of their having much of a chance. I'm not seeing who their audience is. As I said, I hope I'm wrong.
I could see 2NE1 having more of a shot.
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A couple of years ago there was a kid-to-young-adult market for Jason Derulo and Iyaz and Jay Sean, so I don't say that there's no potential market for SNSD. And if SNSD were to hit with something that sounds like "Genie" or "Gee," which are hardly exotic or incomprehensible but at the same time don't match what's on the U.S. charts, they would own the territory, since we have no one here who sounds like that.
Can you elaborate on that, especially the connection to Derulo et al? For that, did you mean the sound, or just the fan demographic, and why SNSD would be able to capture that?
It'll be tricky. Preexisting SNSD fans are clamoring for harder beats, but in the direction of what's already B-list in America like "Evacuate the Dancefloor,"(To which I always twitch because of Son Dambi's uncanny Cascada impression.) or "DJ Got Us Falling In Love Again." SNSD's Ke$ha affectations were clear in "Run Devil Run," too, and there is no distinct vocal sound to be found on their albums, so I don't know that they want to continue along that "hardly exotic or incomprehensible but at the same time don't match what's on the U.S. charts" direction.
Do you have an opinion on the new SM boyband's song? It's Teddy Riley again, but unlike "The Boys," Yoo Youngjin(who was also responsible for "Genie" being different from "I Just Wanna Dance") also got his hands on this one. Do you think that kind of modification in arrangement is the key to being familiar but still uniquely not?
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I really like how you phrased that.
For reasons probably both bad and good, that doesn't play the same way in Korea. HyunA gets to cause an outrage with stuff that'd be considered mild and rather sweet here.
Because they haven't had their Madonna. XD Which I say only half in jest. As far as I know, Asian countries haven't had the same type of sexual revolution that happened in America. And I won't include Europe in this because they're much more open about and accepting of sex than we are. Americans have a very contentious relationship with sex and sexual expression, partly because that revolution, when it happened, was very divisive. As a result, On one hand, we're inundated with sex through imagery, song, advertisement, even sometimes depressing reality. On the other hand, there's still a force that wants to push all this sexualization under a rug.
There's another layer to this, too, that involves what we perceive to be the make up of our attitudes and the reality of those attitudes. The other day I was watching the news about how political conservatives were trying to push this idea that requiring that contraceptives be covered by health care would cause this rift in the American public, how Catholics wouldn't stand for it, etc. Which, on the surface, sounds really plausible: the Catholic Church's stance on contraceptives is that they're not to be used. But once citizens were actually polled, what was revealed was rather the opposite. Many Catholics supported that health care should cover contraceptives.
What media pushes out there doesn't necessarily reflect or lead public opinion of the majority. So that while we do have an influx of these sex-focused songs, there's still room, I think, for that breath of fresh air. I'm thinking about Taylor Swift's immense success with generally very sweet songs. And where would we place Justin Bieber's repertoire? On the other side of the spectrum, you could also consider the impact of like Adele, whose songs are usually very much depressing and about the fallout of relationships. (I don't know how much longer I can stand to hear "Someone Like You.") But Swift and Adele also stand on their feet as singer-songwriters. So they really, as you said, may not be the model we're to look at, but I do think the flavor of their sentiments suggest that the listening public wouldn't mind a different approach to age-old subjects. In fact, I know the listening public doesn't care all that much because 90% of the lyrics I hear are crappy. Like people just open a rhyming dictionary and fill in words in the front. If even that!
Ugh, Jason Derulo.
But I think I would agree that SNSD would probably not be leading the charge into the US market. I can't imagine "The Boys" having that kind of impact.
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What's curious is that Asian countries aren't having the same "revolutions" that the West has had (Industrial, Economic, Sexual) because the West has already had them. I read a now-deleted blog post postulating that one of the reasons why Jpop is so quirky is that they got inundated with American pop culture, without any of the context. So they went with what they saw on the surface and developed their own takes. (And ironically, now America is doing the same thing with kid's shows with anime visual aesthetics, and usually failing horribly for not taking into account context of anime content aesthetics)
You say that Korea hasn't had its Madonna, and yet it's clear that many Kpop groups are drawing some inspiration of Madonna's spiritual successor Gaga. Again, they're jumping right into and emulating the aftermath of the revolution, and thus having an even more blurry line between the worship and denial of sexualization.
I don't even want to make any guesses about Japan and their sex culture, because Jpop seems to be much more divorced from the rest of Japanese culture than Kpop and Korean culture.
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You say that Korea hasn't had its Madonna, and yet it's clear that many Kpop groups are drawing some inspiration of Madonna's spiritual successor Gaga.
I've been pondering how much of a spiritual successor Gaga is to Madonna. That Gaga is following in that tradition is clear, but the contexts are so different that the definitions of "outrageous" seem to be on different levels. And it seems like you can't like Madonna and Gaga? Apparently being a fan of the one means you shouldn't be a fan of the other, as if putting down one changes the music of the other. I can say that that one song Madonna sang with Nicki Minaj and MIA at the Super Bowl halftime show was terrible.
Certainly what people keep trying to say is how divorced anime is from the existence of most Japanese. Again, the weird consequence of only exporting parts of cultures and the importer's impression of the originating culture.
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