E.via (artist of the year, 2010)

[koganbot]

For the many people* who ask me "Why Korea?" my answer is love. Yes, and there are plenty of other answers too, one being that people who know more than I do come to my lj and talk to me about K-pop, providing sociability and mindwork, and another being that K-pop is creating a hip-hop, r&b, dance-pop amalgam far better than the Billboard Hot 100's

Comments

[trevitron]

Thanks for the response, Frank

Banging on a peeve

[koganbot]

The leap: "something clicks." It seems as if it's beyond words, beyond reasons, how we manage to enter something we had no idea could have much to do with us. (Simon Frith, Music For Pleasure, p. 91: "What's 'good' here usually is described by its straight musical elements (a haunting tune, etc.), but what matters is a tone of voice: suddenly there's this stranger, involved in a different conversation altogether, talking about you.") Beyond words or prior to words - except, as writers, our challenge is to find the words, because you don't reach true deep understanding without them. That's another issue, but once you "get" something, it's damned hard to revise how you "got" it, in the event your understanding is wrong or incomplete, unless you've found the words and can retrace the words, replace them. Here's a column from my LVW days that you might get a kick out of, about delving through to reasons, trying to find the words:

"The Boney Joan RuleAs for the "real"-versus-"fake" thing: real versus fake, just like real versus imaginary

Re: Banging on a peeve

[trevitron]

Thanks for these links. I've been a little busy lately, but I will definitely check them out

Re: Banging on a peeve

[koganbot]

A couple of weeks ago I lobbied the selectors at The Singles Jukebox to run "The Grasshopper Song," so far with no success. Hadn't seen it with subtitles, though, which indeed changes my experience - but not enough to change my mind about what makes the song work, which is the "Ring-a-ring-a-ring" line.

I have a sense, not based on any research but just on the sound and presentation, that Sunny Hill didn't come up through the usual idol process. Checking Wikip, I see that they were sponsored or something by Narsha of Brown Eyed Girls. I don't know much about LOEN Entertainment either; I gather that so far it's fundamentally a distributor, not a talent agency; I'm not sure what the story is with an act signing directly with LOEN rather than coming through a label/agency. Wikip only lists five, with IU the massive success.

Fascinated by the fact that Tiffany seemed to be exaggerating a Korean accent at the start of the interview with Kelly - though maybe I'm wrong about that. From the little I've heard her speaking English on YouTube,

Re: Banging on a peeve

[arbitrary_greay]

Thanks for the name-drop, Frank, although my own livejournal is more of a place for me to express my frustrations about the undervaluing Jpop vs. Kpop.(Although the opposite definitely happens, too. But Jpop was my second love after Golden Age of Film idols, so undervaluing Kpop vs. Jpop doesn't irritate me as much)

And it works in another way that's interpersonal too:
iacus at snsd_ffa linked me to this.
I wonder if the crowdsourcing trend that the Rock Critic Roundtable talked about is more effective in terms of numbers (more people have listened to/recommended this) or from that interpersonal angle.(this person I trust has recommended this) Because I do have friends where I know that we have different tastes, so that when they like something it may sometimes have the opposite effect on my anticipation. Then again, just recommendations are different from exposure.

Regarding aegyo: there is indeed something more going on. Perhaps it's just my love of semantics, but I associate "aegyo" with the Japanese term "burikko", that is,

Re: Banging on a peeve

[arbitrary_greay]

I don't have a tumblr account to comment with, so forgive me is I discuss that manifesto here.

This article also works well with the pleasure portions

Re: Banging on a peeve

[koganbot]

Sooyoung can be cute as she wants 'cause she looks as if at a moment's notice she could toss you over a railing or use her legs to wrap you in a vise and squeeze out your innards.

Re: Banging on a peeve

[koganbot]

Read that "Why Jpop? Part Five: The Cult of Authenticity" article you linked, and I think its analysis of the "Cult Of Authenticity" is way too shallow. E.g., "In most cases, [the cult of authenticity] is a person's desire to exoticize a cultural experience based on how accurately it reflects a 'real' or 'actual' source - that source being a different culture far removed from the daily experience of the person, which the person considers a more spiritual or more humane or more enlightened culture than his own." Now, this is an unbelievably bad explanation of why beats liked bebop in the '40s and '50s or of why Brits played rhythm & blues and rock 'n' roll in the early '60s or of why the Eminem types were inspired by NWA and so forth. It leaves out the content of the music that's being used and the behavior (and art) of the people who are using it. Now Ray Mescallado, the author of the article, could say, "Wait, I said 'in most cases,' not 'in all cases,'" but he cited two of those three in his post, and I don't see how you can avoid

Re: Banging on a peeve

[arbitrary_greay]

Of course, one can argue that the gangstas, or punks, or beats, in keeping it real, are/were actually settling for too little
Can you please elaborate? Are they settling for too lax an adherence/rejection of their standards?

There's also, of course, the nit-picky response about the difference between "real" authenticity and "the cult" of it, and possibly Ray only criticizing the latter, but splitting hairs about what's "real" and what's not usually goes wrong, as the line between two such abstract things isn't usually so much a line as a gradient, as the debate about pop music itself goes.

Re: Banging on a peeve

[koganbot]

Can you please elaborate? Are they settling for too lax an adherence/rejection of their standards?

Yeah, either that or they're making lazy or bad choices as to what standards to adhere to in the first place.

As for what Ray's criticizing, you're not making a nitpicky response, that's exactly the distinction Ray is trying to draw. He's not opposed to authenticity per se. But he actually doesn't know what he means by "cult," or "authenticity," really. Whether or not I thought the hardcore punks were real punks (I didn't, and don't) had to do with my standards for punk, not my standards for "authenticity."

[More anon.]

[koganbot]

I continue to be nonplussed by aegyo and burikko etc., but that's not getting in the way of my enjoying the music; in fact, it may contribute to my enjoying the music. It brings up the question, "How is it that a style that doesn't work in America - or that doesn't seem to be equivalent to the American 'cute,' but that nonetheless feels cute - is so effective in Asia?" But there's the question of context: is aegyo tied to a social world where women are still financially dependent on men, or has it freed itself from such dependence? How does it function? Why? Sunny fascinates me because she's obviously very capable and commanding, you can imagine her running the corporation, and is in command of the cuteness - it's hers to deploy when necessary - yet is quite natural at it too.