Problematic Korean Video Friday over at Poptimists: Piggy Dolls TREND

[koganbot]

As usual, I'm double posting this video here and at poptimists, on the off-chance that someone there will have something to say. The track is stomping r&b that's intensified rather than compromised by the four-four and the Autotune, and has strong singing. Main issue I raised at poptimists is that, if the point is that fat can be sexy, then the singers

Comments

[koganbot]

Searched to see if Two Tons O' Fun ever had any videos prior to abandoning that moniker, and they don't seem to have. Their big hit came after the name change:

[askbask]

The Korean media is so obsessed with conceptualizing outwards appearance, what with the honey thighs, chocolate abs, bagel girls, flower boys, s line, v line, x line, EGG-LINE ideals etc that I'm not surprised a 'chubby group' pops up. They probably didn't mean for the group name to sound so insulting, though. The Korean comments I've read have been along the same line as those youtube ones, "these girls are all about their talents" and so on, although whether the positive response will fade away when the 'novelty' (of the framing) wears off I don't know.

Right now was the first time I actually listened to the song. It's OK, I guess.

[koganbot]

But one thing that disturbs me about the "they're all about the talents" line - which reminds me of how Adele was sold in Britain, too, and I can understand why people would fall into it - is that it actually ducks the issue that the band concept is trying to raise: that these can be sexy/sexual young women. And sexiness needs to be understood as part of "talent" too, and I don't just mean the talent of make-up artists and plastic surgeons and calisthenics coaches etc., and natural-born appeal, but something you can learn to project or suppress, that you can build on or let go, and that can be formed into different styles.

[koganbot]

Glad there was some dance interaction and touching with the boys in the vid, though I wish there'd been more (e.g., like the Weather Girls lounging on their bed in their night clothes as the men move in on them, though I don't know if something like that might be pushing the boundaries of what's allowable on Korean TV).

[askbask]

Well we could've hoped for something like the scene at 1:50 here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofwFr8o8p0Y

Subbed Piggy video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGbeYJpvcrg

the other thing is:

[anonymous]

only one of these people* is discernibly overweight! Like, go to 1:53 or so.

Half of this seems to be the costuming; if you're wearing big ol' hoodies and boxy overcoats and sweatpants and animal-print shirts that flare out at the waist, of course you're going to look bulkier.

[askbask]

Looking forward to that post. I have issues with the recent focus on those MR videos, because people use them as some sort of 'final judgement' on the vocal talents of the idols... and of course how good the MR sounds depends greatly on a whole lot of other things, like the intensity of dancing and the type of song and even the sound system. Take Taeyang's Where U At - I've seen performances where he hardly sang at all because the dance moves are so crazy. And his voice is great.

I like those radio live videos where someone in studio films them and we only hear their voices, though.