Comments | koganbot: Some videos, 2009

koganbot

Some videos, 2009

Jan 02, 2010 00:08

I had an ongoing list of videos I liked, then back in May I forgot to keep up with it, so here are some vids from early '09. For further viewing pleasure visit Kat's tumblr.

( Will Young )

year-end lists, second k-pop post, boybands, j-pop, snsd, akb48, wonder girls, trot

Comments 37

petronia January 2 2010, 11:05:36 UTC

A tad conflicted on the I Blame Coco; it's a good song I guess but it doesn't sound like what she was doing before...?

koganbot January 2 2010, 13:18:14 UTC

Not sure how to interpret your question mark at the end. Does it mean that you think this does sound like what she was doing before? (I've only heard a couple of other things by her, half-attentively, and none of them were scratchy or punky like this.) Or is it that you liked what she was doing before, and this is different, and the ellipses and question mark are there to signify that you're still thinking the matter through?

petronia January 2 2010, 21:13:56 UTC

Still think it through! Immediate impression is stylistic kinship with Florence + The Machine (more beatboxy), which does suggest to me that she was pushed toward a "fashionable" sound. Which maybe shouldn't matter - Florence was pushed too, and IMO it improved her songs immensely, although I like Coco's original reggae-pop better than Florence's original shambolic indie rock. (The true original of this micro-genre sound is Patrick Wolf, but all his successors are women; not sure what that says.) "Bohemian Love" was one of my Songs of 2008, although that's a ballad.

Oh hmm, I like this one better, actually, and it makes the stylistic progression more apparent/natural.

anonymous January 2 2010, 17:34:58 UTC

'Tell me why' is nice... do you follow korean pop in any way or was this a one off suggestion made to you?

koganbot January 2 2010, 19:24:48 UTC

Iirc, petronia linked "Tell Me Why" on her Tumblr. I know almost nothing about K-Pop, though I did blog a Wonder Girls track last June, to which petronia added a few Korean pop and rap and r&b embeds down in the comments. I reviewed Korean-American hip-hop group Drunken Tiger nine years ago; according to petronia, Tiger JK of Drunken Tiger is now married to Korean pop star T (Tasha Reid).

And that is my knowledge in full.

askbask January 2 2010, 23:33:07 UTC

interesting talk about k-pop fan culture in the wonder girls post comments. If I knew korean I swear I would do some in-depth study of that. SNSD, mentioned in those comments, had a year of being 'the most hated group in korea' in 08, before enjoying by far their best year in 09 with several hits, omnipresence on talkshows and their own reality shows, winning every award, and finally venturing forth on that rare korean girl group event; their own solo tour. drama ( ... )

koganbot January 3 2010, 00:51:36 UTC

Yes, the fan club hostilities immediately grabbed my attention. Also the fact of the diaspora input ("diaspora" mostly meaning the U.S., I assume ( ... )

Thread 31

askbask January 4 2010, 19:46:52 UTC

SNSD have sounded more asian than in 'Gee', for example, 'Into The New World' (perfectly danced here)*, their absurdly infectuous but thoroughly conservative debut single -- a song I can never imagine being made outside those two J and K countries. What's exciting about 'Gee' is that it is 'fairly Asian' and also something else, without the X factor being clearly identifiable.

Are most people aware Taylor Swift is smart and complicated? Is her cleanliness excused or is it an appeal in itself? Although I suppose in the electro pop market personalities such as Lady Gaga set a certain tone for what's hot, which is the outrageous. SNSDs latest single 'Genie' is more in line with the dirty electropop, both sonically and in presentation, but again the question is if they'd want to copy the successes or try to stand out. The gimmick of having nine members combined with an almost gimmicky catchphrase of GEE GEE GEE BABY BABY BABY is in my opinion the best shot at grabbing headlines*. Not murky electro, not smooth rnb, and while their hip hop ( ... )

askbask January 8 2010, 09:33:19 UTC

The last time we talked about it didn’t have any demographics backing me up, so first a couple of them (the second link has embedded audio) (http://snsdkorean.wordpress.com/2009/06/30/snsds-new-album-ranked-1st-place-thanks-to-male-fans, http://popasian.blogspot.com/2009/07/big-bang-top-favourite-singer-chosen-by.html... )

askbask January 8 2010, 09:34:44 UTC

About the marketing thing and trying to get famous on USA, I’m not very sure. Probably is much more complex and has as much to be about a business than a cultural thing. You can read for example, the Pink Lady case (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_Lady_(band)) in two directions and see how it informs the new attempts: you shouldn’t waste all your resources on that adventure because maybe there will be no home to return (BoA I think is more famous in Japan than in Korea, but she always publishes records and singles there, both Utada and BoA ‘american records’ topped the charts on Japan) and also that you can do your thing without being labelled an ‘exotic thing’. Also the ‘normalization’ thing just happens to be a strategy to avoid the images and stereotypes the media projected about Japan on the 80’s or China on the 00’s (devils with lots of money that want to buy everything and blah, blah, blah). Anyway is always very strange. Right now I’m into AKB48, a ( ... )