American Idols: the MJ connection

[arbitrary_greay]

I think most of us were fans in time for the glorious glut of special stages at the end of 2009, when every Kpop awards/end-of-year festival under the sun included at least one Michael Jackson tribute. It really highlighted how much Kpop has been so heavily influenced by the man, both in sound and style.

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[arbitrary_greay]

I was already familiar with Fosse as a performer, and then I learned about his choreography work, and then I found that Billie Jean mashup, which eventually led me to the origin of the moonwalk and the MJ's influences videos. I found the West Side Story video a long time ago while searching for an upload of "Cool," and once I saw Smooth Criminal's MV I knew there had to be a Bandwagon Ballet connection.

Heh, in Mozart's time ballet was SCANDALOUS~. Wonder what they'd think of the pussy-popping dances of today. I'm glad shows like SYTYCD are helping to bridge the gap. But it's interesting that some dances, like clogging, explicitly specify a traditional category. In some respects I can sympathize, as I grit my teeth whenever people try to modernize tango by dancing it to music that is NOT TANGO. (Kpop is one of the worst offenders for this, grrrr.)

Actually, I don't think locking really ever took a hold in Kpop choreography. What they got from Jpop dances was more on the para-para side.
The biggest difference between Asian and current Western pop choreo is that Apop dances almost always aim to be memorable above all, with moves that have names and inspire crazes. Party Rock Anthem was the huge exception that proves the rule.(The other kind of recent examples would be Single Ladies.) When I saw this, it struck me that the majority of people have no fucking idea what Poker Face's dance is, while it definitely would have been a syndrome dance had it been an Asian pop release. (I mean, lol that one "riding a horse" move is already RR21's signature dance anyways.) Chris Brown and Usher are known to be good dancers, but do they have any specific dances associated with them?

Here's a quote about Morning Musume that I found quite interesting:
(Concerning their 2009 performance in LA. Interestingly, this was smack-dab in the middle of an era when MM was much more dance-oriented than they had ever been.)
This is neither praise or critique but, the girls...are...how to say...tv media stars for a reason. When on the screen, even in the concert, you could make them out and appreciate their unique styling, their expressions, and basically how cute they are. Seen as a whole on stage, with no zoom-in or camera tricks, they come off sort of like a messy cheer-leading team: one big mass of girls doing the same number. After the concert, my boyfriend (not a fan, not a hater) said the same thing; he ultimately got bored watching them on stage but in an ironic twist, really enjoyed watching the projection screen.

At the same time, and perhaps ironically, I've tended to enjoy Kpop dances in their MVs, while preferring Jpop lives. Maybe it's that horrible Korean live camerawork, maybe it's that Jpop idols are much more dynamic live than in MVs, maybe Kpop idols are so overworked they never live up to their MV performance live. I don't know. But consider how in the comparison of the TMYW and JGenie videos, it was generally agreed that the cinematography for the original was so much better, in that it made the dance iconic in the moments that it highlighted, that JGenie's dance shot was so eager to avoid copying the original camerawork that it neglected to show off the dance with the same amount of impact. Another one of our common complaints about Kpop concerts is how they rarely make use of the stage space and instead stick in their cramped formations, but at the same time, some of those cramped formations are an iconic part of the dance, and performances that nerf those in favor of spreading the members around the arena feel incomplete. Most groups look their best when they're doing their routine in front of that dance shot camera in a confined space. So Kpop choreo is definitely made for the camera. If the camera knows what they're doing, which the majority of Korean live shows do not. -_-
Of course, bias is usually sufficient to overcome this. The sheer thrill of seeing a live in person is usually more than enough to make up for mediocre staging.