Seoul-Sydney-Bucharest juggernaut keeps rollin' along

[koganbot]

Okay, three data points constituting a trend, Miss A, putting "Time's Up" on their new Independent Women Pt. III EP, become the latest K-pop group to mix trot beats and Austral-Romanian int'l rhythm moves.*

Click to view

(Also, unrelated to trot or to Romance Australianisms, the lead track and single is "I Don't Need A Man," and the second or third track (

Comments

[davidfrazer]

Meanwhile, lower-tiered idols with an indie dance pop name name Crayon Pop have re-emerged as disco queens with orange tracksuits and white bobble hats.

[koganbot]

Yes. This is hilarious (or, as Mat says, silly). I'm still a bit meh on their melodies (this isn't bad at all, but as neodisco it doesn't come close to "Lovey-Dovey" or "Roly-Poly" or "Figaro"). Of course, I was disappointed it wasn't a cover of "Dancing Queen."

[davidfrazer]

Incidentally, I went to see a Korean film this evening, and I swear there was a Korean-looking girl/young woman in the audience wearing a white bobble hat, so perhaps it's a current fashion trend over there.

Anyway, dancing in tracksuits (with jackets zipped up to the neck) and woolly hats under hot stage lights can't be very comfortable.

[koganbot]

Probably not as uncomfortable as ski outfits!

Notice how, at about 1:58, YG abandons his jacket. He's more resolute here:

[EDIT:This video has been taken down, unfortunately]

[arbitrary_greay]

Know where to place these? (Said to be "J-POP which sights on K-POP")
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ro3T6TLnTuE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_JDbJmw3C4

Is there enough of a driving bounce for it to qualify on the scale?

[askbask]

Trot is mentioned here so I have an excuse to post this. I just came across it on youtube, which is how I've found trot stuff so far. But I feel there are things to discover. And the lyrics are simple so I mostly understand them, which adds some to it (although the singers' intensity tells more interesting stories).

I initially placed trot in the same category as I do with the Swedish/Norwegian distilled country and swing music tradition called danseband, a genre associated with the Scandinavian versions of 'rednecks'. Some of the tacky gloss and formula of the modern performances of it suggests this, and the peculiar stylized singing, bordering on an accent of its own as well (perhaps more pronounced in Norwegian bands that try to emulate a Swedish twang).

But while those 'dance bands' tend to steer clear of anything that feels like actual emotions there's so much power here. THat goes for the 80s trot songs we've discussed before as well:One. Two.

[koganbot]

The trot track Mat embedded is no longer up, but the danseband is this: