Chuli & Miae 1993 (Freestyle Tuesday)

[koganbot]

Hope to post about GLAM in the near future, as they're Socially Important in a good way, and not just because they copy or sample a vocal curlicue from the Cover Girls. But it's that curlicue which is the subject of this post, since, from the way GLAM use it, I'm pretty sure they got it not directly from "Because Of You," but by way of "Why You," a

Comments

[davidfrazer]

GLAM have released a dance instruction video for "I Like That". They specifically mention "Why You" in the introduction, saying that their choreography incorporates the "ttaemiri dance" from that song. (The subtitles call it "Why Do You".)

Perhaps Bang Si Hyuk (GLAM's producer) isn't even aware that he was sampling a sample...

[koganbot]

In order to increase my confusion, I see that, according to Generasia,* Bang Si Hyuk, a.k.a. "hitman" Bang, is president of Big Hit Entertainment, a JYP subsidiary - BUT GLAM are listed in the category "Former Artist," and if you go to the Generasia page for GLAM, their company is identified as "Source Music," the entry for Source Music consisting entirely of this useful information: "Source Music (쏘스뮤직) is a South Korean record label," followed by a short list of artists and some links. Clicking the links, I see that GLAM's vids are among the "favorite videos" on the Source Music YouTube page, and that the Source Music Website has as its front page a massive embed of the YouTube vid for GLAM's "Party(XXO)." Clicking on "Artist," we only get three of the five (Kan Miyoun, 8Eight, and Lee Hyun, the latter being a member of 8Eight but currently serving his mandatory stint in the military). Unfortunately, the little text there is on the site is part of picture embeds, so I can't copy and paste into Google Translate. Source Music Twitter

[davidfrazer]

The dance tutorial video says clearly at the end "Artist Label: Big Hit Entertainment". Allkpop says "GLAM have joined forces with producer Bang Si Hyuk, their mentor and creator, once again for the upbeat track, “I Like That”", which suggests that he produced this song but might not be GLAM's overall producer or manager.

I wondered why Big Hit Entertainment would use Loen as their distributor if they're a branch of JYP, but and Wikipedia says that Loen Music is distributor for JYP as well. It was actually the fact that both Loen and JYP both put English subtitles on their videos that led me to look for a connection.

P.S. You might know this already, but GLAM member Dahee's voice was sampled for the first Korean Vocaloid, SeeU. Here's SeeU's demo song "I=Fantasy", produced and co-written by none other than Bang Si Hyuk:

...the original teaser for which sneakily included Dahee on backing vocals:

And here are GLAM covering it as a fanmeeting. Note that ex-member Trinity is singing, unlike in "Party XXO":

[sub_divided]

Yes, and if you go to this video of the performance, you can find hilarious comments like:

"I get that, but it seems seeU is the only one who did the dance, 'right.'
i=fantasy is not a sexual song, (as most people see it)
GLAM, by there dancing makes it seems that way. Not that they didn't do a great job."

and

"I like Glam and all, but can SeeU's Hologram/Projection perform without them for once? They block Her alot and the camra stays on them rather than her for a good bit of the videos. no flame please I like Glam but honestly.."

[davidfrazer]

P.S. Here's a clip of Chuli & Miae on a television show, singing "Why You" and doing the "ttaemiri dance".

Yubin and Sohee cross and uncross their arms

[koganbot]

Ack, I can't tear myself away from this. Here are Yubin & Sohee of the Wonder Girls trying their hand (and arms and mouths) at "Why You" and the ttaemiri dance - this was uploaded on YouTube in Dec. 11, so we know it's at least five months prior to GLAM, if not many more.

[sub_divided]

I wish you were on tumblr, we were all spazzing out about Party-XXO when GLAM debuted over the summer XD. (Although as you said, "I Like This" is a better song.)

Actually, I am on Tumblr

[koganbot]

Actually, I am on Tumblr, and Twitter too, but I mainly use them as feeds for this lj. Tumblr is fascinating and I wish I had time for it, and its capacity for ad hoc conversations and sudden new connections is excellent. I like the platform, its ease and freedom. But to be honest, Tumblr is also deeply frustrating, not the platform but the culture. In their more complex and educated way, people in what would be my Tumblr circle* act out every bit as much as the K-pop Netizens who went to war over T-ara. Not that I have anything in principle against acting out, or think it's incompatible with self-knowledge and insight. In fact, acting out is where people get a lot of their self-knowledge, when it dawns on them where their acts come from and what they mean. The acting-out often is where the thinking begins. And seeing people in action is often as instructive as reading an analytic essay. But in this particular Tumblr World, the acting-out seems fundamentally peevish and unhappy, and comes at the expense of real thought. And it brings

Re: Actually, I am on Tumblr

[sub_divided]

Followed you on tumblr so I could send you a message, but there's a certain amount of time you need to have been following to do that

Re: Actually, I am on Tumblr

[koganbot]

You can send me a message through Livejournal, if you want. You can email me, for that matter: edcasual at earthlink dot net lion223 at ecentral dot com.

[sub_divided]

Oho, Chuli and Mirae were even on hand to perform Why You at one of end-of-year megashows:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzfOTRh8Oj8#t=2h0m53s

From this I conclude that this is a fucking huge song in SK.

Freestyle ninjitsu?

[davidfrazer]

Chuli and Miae and NINJAS!

From 3 Ninjas Kick Back, produced (but not directed) by famous Korean film-maker Shin Sang-ok.

Hat tip to eehreum at reddit/r/jpop.

Re: Freestyle ninjitsu?

[koganbot]

The YouTube caption says "Hilarious use of a Korean pop song during a Japanese 'ninja tournament,'" though I don't know one way or another whether Chuli & Miae ever got airplay in Japan. I wouldn't expect that they did, since I don't think many Korean songs got international airplay at the time. But I don't know this, either.

I gather from the YouTube comments that use of the word "Ninja" is even more problematic than use of the song. I wouldn't know, since I understand little more than zero about the martial arts.

Btw, William Deluca, a guy saying he's Miae's husband, posts on that comment thread. According to his own YouTube page, she's now a dance teacher in New York City. He (or she, using his account) uploads vids of her dancing (on her own, with friends, and with students):

Er, they're not letting me embed with the right ratio. Go here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyXrmv9M56M

Re: Freestyle ninjitsu?

[davidfrazer]

Another comment helpfully points out that 3 Ninjas Kick Back also features a classic Seo Taiji and Boys song, Nan Aroyo. I imagine that back in 1994 Korean songs were much, much cheaper to license than J-Pop.

From Miae's husband's channel, here's Miae teaching a student the ttaemiri dance, alas not with Why You.

And here's Miae rehearsing a dance routine for a remix of Why You that samples We No Speak Americano. No, really.

Why you no speak americano after school?

[davidfrazer]

Chuli and Miae and Kahi, with yet another familiar sample thrown into the mix and stirred with the Cover Girls curlicue.