The surprisingly fierce battle for Silly Song Of The Year has a new, unexpected leader: Lee Jung Hyun's "V." People who've been following electronic dance music in Korea from the beginning (i.e., no one who reads this blog) know that Wikipedia has its head heading up buttward in saying that in 1999 Lee introduced techno to Korea and to Asia.* ( Read more... )

Given that Crayon Pop recently recorded "Bar Bar Bar," and last year gave us "Bing Bing," it is pertinent to ask whether Crayon Pop member Gummi, therefore, Boom Bing Bings:

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Gummy Bear "Boom Bing Bing"

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[EDIT: This was the 130215 Crayon Pop "Bing Bing" at Music Bank. but the vid was scotched for copyright ( Read more... )

I've finally made a YouTube playlist for the Austral-Romanian Empire.

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For my Austral-Romanian thesis, go here. Tracks are:

1. In-Grid "Tu Es Foutu" (Italy 2002). I'm starting in Italy - and therefore in French - rather than Australia, since Mat identifies "Tu Es Foutu" as a progenitor of the no speak americano syndrome ( Read more... )

This song's been on the Billboard K-pop chart for 12 weeks, whereas the Gaon chart refuses to acknowledge that stuff like it exists.

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If anyone has any music-theory insights, feel free to post them. Is not my strength. The crucial chords seem to be I II V (as opposed to I IV V), though my guitar is tuned about a quarter tone off from this so I'm ( Read more... )

Solbi's "Ottogi," yet another "Lipstick"-like half-trot bridging the silly rhythms of Americano speaklessness and Romanian saxobeats. I missed this when it surfaced last August during the T-ara hysteria. Most notable for 4minute's Jiyoon on the rap:

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And a witty Latin house version:

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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.*

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(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 ( ( Read more... )

Something amazing has happened this year with Orange Caramel's singing, though I can't put my finger specifically on what. All I've got is adjectives. Last year Orange Caramel had two terrific songs ("Bangkok City" and "Shanghai Romance"), each dragged down a little by vocals that I'd describe as "adequate": going for cuteness but sounding blah, ( Read more... )

Of the top fifty songs on last Thursday's Billboard K-pop chart, seven of them have been charting for ten weeks or longer. Here they are, in ascending number of weeks ( Read more... )

Not at all clear yet as to what I'm hearing when I listen to the new 2NE1 single. I express my confusion over at the Jukebox. Can't say I'm able to pick out the non-Western sounds the band are talking about in interviews* (trot, enka). Sounds like R&B-based dance-pop to me, but pushed into interestingly disparate melodic sections. But then, I'm not ( Read more... )

Anybody know anything about this? According to Billboard, it's been on the K-pop chart for 39 weeks, never getting above 35. A trot rhythm, ballad-like but definitely Asian. In the olden days, this would have been my stereotype of what Asian pop sounds like. Touches of what seem like country & western, but the resemblance may be a coincidence ( ( Read more... )