In this blog, you'll find news, events, music video/song reviews, new album releases, and anything you want to know about K-Pop. I will also try to share some of my own pictures from previous K-Pop concerts. I just hope I can bring some light to the genre of K-Pop to those that are new to it, or are completely confused by it.
There is a group called KPOP UNITED that gives back to the K-Pop community all over the world. They are based in the U.S. but have helped fans all over. KPOP UNITED raises money to help fans in need whether it's a health situation or a financial need, and they will try to make their dreams come true. They have helped fans fly across the country to go to K-Pop concerts and meet their favorite stars. And now, they are currently planning a trip for this summer to take fans to Korea! They are taking one fan for free on this trip, but they have to fill out an application about why they are in need. So, I think it is really cool that they are giving fans the chance that can't afford the trip to be able to apply to go for free. During the trip, the fans will get a chance to check out some of the big agencies that I have mentioned in a previous post.
Their current event they are trying to plan is a big K-Pop concert. The fans are able to vote on the lineup, date, and location. They wanted to give a chance for fans all over the U.S. at having a K-Pop concert because they are only usually held in LA or NYC. The lineup poll has been closed and they are looking through the results currently. But! The poll for location is still up! Chicago is one of these locations on the list and at one point was in first! I would love it if you guys could help vote at the link below...
This concert could be HUGE. I actually like that the current 1st place holder isn't NYC or LA. It's actually Houston! So this poll is really giving us a chance to speak out and say, "You have fans here too! Don't forget about us!". There is nothing more frustrating than seeing your favorite artists skip over your area. So, KPOP UNITED is really helping us out in trying to make a dream a reality. If you want to check out more things about KPOP UNITED, their website is...
So today I wanted to talk to you guys about my favorite vloggers, Eat Your Kimchi, and they happen to be "YouTube Famous" among K-Pop fans and the like. Eat Your Kimchi (or EYK) is made up of a couple, Simon and Martina, who are originally from Canada and have since moved from there to Korea in 2008. They went to Korea to teach, which they both have degrees in education, and decided to pick up a hobby while they were in Korea. They started making vlogs about living in Korea, Korean culture, K-Pop, and from there they exploded! They do weekly "K-Pop Music Mondays" where they have the fans vote on which song/music video they want EYK to review. EYK also has other videos they post weekly about food, random viewer questions, day trips, etc. all while being in Korea. Recently, they made a video about how they felt being called "YouTube Famous" and I wanted you guys to see it! Here it is....
EYK has become a household name for K-Pop fans all around the world. Simon and Martina have now been able to make a living out of their hobby because of their popularity. They call their fans Nasties (which is an inside joke from one of their vlogs) and love running into them. I found it interesting to hear their view on being YouTube Famous and how they wouldn't want to be celebrities.
Let me know what you guys think of this video and being "YouTube Famous". How would you react if you were YouTube Famous? Do you think you would enjoy it or hate it?
KDrama OSTs (Original Sound Tracks) are jammed packed with some awesome songs. I wanted to use this time to show you guys some of my favorite songs from different dramas. Most of these songs are performed by popular K-Pop artists! So let's get started!
"Almost Paradise" by T-Max (from Boys Over Flowers)
This catchy song is from the drama "Boys Over Flowers". This drama was one of the first ones I ever watched, so this song is just one of those that brings back memories from the show and the different scenes where the song was on in the background. It is also the theme song of the show.
"As Ever/ Still" by ANJell (from You're Beautiful)
This song is performed by the 4 main character in the show under the fictional band name ANJell (which the show focuses around). Two of the characters are from well known K-Pop bands. The one is the lead singer from CNBLUE, Jung Yong Hwa and the other is the lead singer in the band FT Island, Lee Hongki. You can hear both of them in this song! This is another one that just brings back memories of the show for me. You will find this to be a common trend....
"Ready Go" by B2ST (from God of Study)
Now, this final song is actually from a drama I've never watched. So, I can't comment on the show. But as B2ST being one of my favorite groups, I just HAVE to listen to all of their songs! So when this song came out, I was pretty stoked. This one came out really early in their career, so it brings back memories of when they first debuted for me. There are just some songs that make you feel uncontrollably happy and this is one of them for me. I just like being able to see how far they have made it. The song is super catchy and addictive. I've actually had it on repeat while writing this! So give this one a listen to as well.
If you didn't notice, a good song from a KDrama should bring back memories of the show or something else after you hear it again. (think of "My Heart Will Go On" from Titanic) All of these songs do that for me. I can easily hear a certain song and tell you which drama it is from and that's because they are memorable! They might not even be enjoyable songs, but they bring back memories somehow. Let me know what you think of these songs or any of the dramas I posted about previously! Do any of the songs from those shows get stuck in your head too?
This week, I wanted to talk about some of the different Korean Dramas that have K-Pop idols in them. I will also get to some of the soundtracks of the dramas as well, but look for that in my second post!
So, it isn't very unusual to find a member of your favorite K-Pop group starring in an upcoming KDrama. It is the same way here in the U.S. One thing I have to say about KDramas are that they all AREN'T just dramas. It is more of a term than anything because you can watch action shows, romantic comedies, sitcoms, etc. I tend to watch more of the action/romantic comedies shows because those are what are interesting to me. There is something about KDramas that feels different than some shows here. It's really hard to describe. If I find a better way to express this later, I will. Anyways, a nice thing about these different dramas is that they are only usually one season long and have about an average of 14 episodes that run about an hour long. I think the longest show I've watched was 25 episodes long and then it was over. That show was called "Boys Over Flowers", which is actually the first show I'm going to talk about!
"Boys Over Flowers" (Romantic Comedy)
So, in "Boys Over Flowers", we have an actor named Kim Hyun-joong who is one of the F4 boys in the show. I'll explain that in a bit. Hyun-joong is actually a member of the K-Pop group SS501, which have a few songs on the show's soundtrack. So in "Boys Over Flowers", a girl named Jandi attends the exclusive Shinhwa High School, and she finds all of the privileged and rude students to be quite annoying. No one is as bad as F4 though. F4 runs the school. It is made up of the 4 most popular, handsome, and powerful boys in the school. If you don't follow their commands, then you get the cut. (And by that, I mean all sorts of different punishments and humiliation.) Newcomer Jandi stands up to them and then becomes #1 on their hit list. I don't want to give much away here, so check it out if you want to find out what happens! This is definitely one of the most KDramas out there and many people start out with this one. I do believe you can find this one on Netflix!
"City Hunter" (Romantic Action Thriller)
The latest KDrama I've watched is called "City Hunter" and has a ton of action packed scenes. This one runs on two seasons, with 10 episodes each. It is a completed series as well, so you can finish it when you check it out! In this drama, the President's daughter is played by Goo Hara who is a singer in the girl group KARA. I absolutely loved the change of pace with this drama because I became used to the girly, romantic comedies and this one is in no shape or form "girly". But it definitely has a romantic story behind the main one. So, this drama is hard to give a quick introduction to without giving away parts of the story or making it confusing. To keep things simple: a secret revenge mission against North Korea backfires and kills the main character's father right after he was born. The boy's father's best friend was also part of this mission and was the only one to make it out alive. He comes back to steal the baby boy from his mother unseen to raise as his own and begins his revenge for all of his friends' deaths. He trains the boy to be a killing machine to get his revenge against those that he thought was on his side back when the mission failed. (You'll have to watch it to find out more about the situation.) So basically, once the boy is trained and old enough, he goes out and seeks revenge for his "father" and begins to kill the 5 traitors. He goes undercover with the President's company to get close to all of these important people (aka the traitors) and soon finds out it is making matters worse by killing these people. He tries to change his ways but his "father" disagrees with his actions. Will he fulfill the revenge plot or stand up to his "father"? I STRONGLY urge you guys to check this one out. It is all on Netflix for you to watch, so check it out! You won't regret it. It has become my favorite KDrama to date.
"Heartstrings" (Romantic Comedy)
The final drama I'll lightly discuss is called "Heartstrings". This is the next KDrama I will be starting to watch. I've tried watching it once before and got busy with school. So, the main male character in this show is actually the leader singer of the band called CNBLUE. His name is Jung Yong Hwa and has been in a previous show called "You're Beautiful" with the female lead of this show too. (That's another good one, check it out too.) A smaller character is in the show, who is not only the drummer in the fictional band in the show, but also the drummer for the band CNBLUE! His name is Kang Min Hyuk. Anyways, show focuses on the two leads pictured above who both are majoring in music. The boy (who is majoring in Western music) is in a band called The Stupid and slowly falls in love with the female lead who is majoring in Traditional Korean Music. The two characters are total opposites, the boy who doesn't have a care in the world or his future and the girl who only focuses on her studies and is humble. Will their relationship grow? You can also check this one out on Netflix! (That's what I'll be doing tonight.)
Let me know if you guys happen to check these out and want to discuss things! Feel free to comment if you want other suggestions from different genres, etc. Thanks again!
Hey guys! I wanted to take the time to sort of go over just briefly the stuff I've been posting. I'm only doing this to recap the past few weeks so you guys can then tell me what YOU want to see! I don't want to just keep posting stuff I want to talk about. I want to post about things you want to learn about! So, I've talked about...
-"The Big Three" agencies
-Music Reviews
-Songs in English
-Random news
-The Hallyu Wave
-The Ladies of K-Pop
-Album designs/manufacturing
-K-Pop basics
Now, I want you guys to tell me what YOU want to see and hear! I wanted to create this blog with the class in mind. I wanted to expose you guys to K-Pop and show you there is more to it than just Gangnam Style. After reading the awesome comments I've received, I've seen that some of you are becoming more interested in K-Pop. Some of those comments have had requests and I've posted what you wanted. Now, here is your chance again! I'm asking you guys to comment below about what more you want to learn about, hear, see, etc. I'm trying to reply when I can to give you guys more information, but it's easier to write in a blog post. I gave you guys a basic overview of K-Pop first, but now I want to take requests from you guys. This will hopefully give my blog a little bit more variety! So comment below letting me know what you want. Thanks for reading everything so far!
Just as a little bonus, I'll leave you guys with a K-Pop song I've been listening to recently. This is B2ST's "Beautiful Night" and they filmed it in NYC! Enjoy! Let me know what you think of this one too.
This week, I've decided to review U-KISS's "Neverland" for you guys. It's about 2 years old but still makes me want to dance.
Two things stood out for me in this song/music video. The first thing: the catchy dance beat. It is so addicting and makes me want to move! It's a great electronic track that sounds pretty mainstream to me. What do you think of it? I could totally hear this song at a club. This was a big club hit in Seoul when it first came out. It is easy to dance to and follow the beat.
The second thing I love about this music video: the dance moves. My old roommate loves K-Pop because of their dance moves and how talented the groups are at dancing. U-KISS never disappoints when it comes to their dancing. I try to jam out and dance around my apartment to this, while failing at the moves at the same time. My old roommate just so happens to be sitting next to me, so I showed her this video. The first thing she made a comment on was the dance moves. We both agree that you don't see moves like this in America nowadays.
U-KISS is another group that has some members that are from America. Kevin is from California and Eli is from Washington D.C. The group usually has some pretty decent Enlgish lyrics because of them. You guys should check out U-KISS some more! They have a new album coming out soon too!
My posts this week are going off of the replies I got last week! So, these are for you guys! Another comment I received last week had to do with hearing more K-Pop videos in English. This I can definitely do for you! Most of the time, a song will be released in both Korean and English. I've posted a few examples already that are in English (2NE1's "Can't Nobody", SNSD's "The Boys", Wonder Girls' "Nobody", etc.) but here are some more.
Taeyang's "Wedding Dress"
Taeyang from the group Big Bang released a solo album and included was the iconic "Wedding Dress". This is the English version (I will be including the Korean version to compare with, if you wish) and I think the lyrics flow just as nicely. I happen to really love this version because sometime the English versions of the songs just don't seem to...work. Give it a listen! Here is the Korean version as well with the music video...
miss A - "Love Alone"
miss A's "Love Alone" is near flawless. The lyrics are easy to follow and the song has a dance-y beat to it. I'm sure this one will get stuck in your head in no time! It reminds me of Cascada a bit. I think this release was very successful and I applaud miss A for this track. This song does not have a Korean version.
Wonder Girls - "The DJ is Mine"
Along with the School Gyrls, the Wonder Girls released this song in the U.S. which was featured in their made-for-TV movie. I think this song is the catchiest of the three and more mainstream. The dubstep influence is obvious in this track and it works. I think this might be a favorite for you guys. The Wonder Girls have released a lot of songs and even a full album in English. Check them out!
So, here are just a few more English tracks. Give them a listen and let me know what you think! Good? Bad? Comment below!
So, after reading a response from my "Ladies of K-Pop" post, I saw that maybe some people want to hear more examples that are "unique" to K-Pop. This will be more of the bubblegum pop, playful K-Pop that many people identify the genre with. To some people, this might be an enjoyable experience. But, to some others this might be a horrible experience. It all depends on the listener's taste! I will try my best to show you guys some of the best, unique examples that stick out in my mind.
4Minute - "Heart to Heart"
Cube Entertainment's 4Minute caught everyone's attention and made people laugh with this video. This upbeat number EASILY got stuck in my head when it first came out back in early 2011. The cute plot line matches the lyrics of the song, which sometimes doesn't happen in K-Pop video. Anyone can sing along with the phrase "Let's have a heart to heart to heart" in the chorus because it's super catchy. Try singing along too!
B2ST/Beast - "Beautiful"
Another group from Cube, B2ST (also pronounced/stylized as "Beast"), brought out this song in late 2010. I apologize for the long intro in the video, but it has a great story line to it! They continued the story in another music video called "I Like You the Best", if anyone wants to continue on with it. B2ST happens to be my favorite K-Pop group and one of my favorite bands overall. This dance number will have you out of your seat and moving! This song is just as energetic when performed live, which I got to see in person. So, check it out!
Girl's Day - "Twinkle Twinkle"
I wanted to save one of the best for last. When it comes to K-Pop, this playfulness tends to be its signature style. Girl's Day's "Twinkle Twinkle" and SNSD's "Gee" portray this perfectly. The addictive beats and dance moves add to it. It gets to the point where it's so cute it hurts. Girl's Day and many other girl group tend to play off this cute image better than the guy groups, but I've seen it done. Try dancing along to "Twinkle Twinkle" and show off your moves!
Let me know what you guys think of these few videos! Were they what you were looking for? Do you want to see more of this style of K-Pop?
Because of the large number of males in class, I wanted to show you guys some of the popular girl groups in K-Pop and how different they are. Some of them are based in bubblegum pop, some in hip-hop, some in R&B, etc. And here are a few examples of popular artists...
1. Girl's Generation/SNSD (SM Entertainment)
Girl's Generation is seen as a bubblegum pop/electropop group. This above video is all in English and they actually performed this version on Live! with Kelly and Late Show with David Letterman early 2012. They also worked with Teddy Riley on this song and the album it's from. To me, this is a little different than their usual style that I'm used to, like in the example below.
When I think of K-Pop, this is one of the songs that come to mind. The playfulness is a characteristic to K-Pop and is seen in other groups. Girl's Generation (also known as SNSD) is made up of 9 girls. Some of them were born in America and are fluent in both English and Korean.
2. Wonder Girls (JYP Entertainment)
Now, let's look at the group which got me into K-Pop in the first place in 2008. The Wonder Girls were one of the first groups that tried to break into the American music scene in 2009 while touring with the Jonas Brothers. Though unsuccessful at first, they tried again in 2012 and appeared in a Teen Nick movie starring themselves. They also released this song with Akon...
This electropop and R&B group are ones to keep an eye on as they continue to break into the American music scene. The 5 member group will soon be a 4 member group due to one of the members getting married last month and will be taking a break from the group.
3. 2NE1 (YG Entertainment)
This hip-hop/R&B group are one of the hottest names in K-Pop. With the above video in English, one can see how they might make it in the American music scene. They had concerts in both LA and NYC last year and have been working with the Black Eyed Peas' Will.i.am on releasing an all-English album for the US with completely new songs. We are all still waiting to hear them.
The leader, CL, has the nickname in the business as the "baddest female". This group has attitude and a lot of spunk that most of the K-Pop girl groups lack. They are different and are definitely something to watch out for.
4. G.NA (Cube Entertainment)
G.NA (pronounced like Gina, which is her real name) is a Canadian-born solo artist. She debuted in 2010 and is taking the K-Pop world by storm. She performed with other K-Pop artists in New Jersey for a free concert in October 2011, which I got to see. She is very popular among the fanboys and I think would be successful in the U.S.
She has a new album coming out in 2013, so keep an eye out for her!
5. EvoL (Stardom)
EvoL is a rookie group that just debuted this past summer. They are suppose to be like the female equivalent of the hip-hop group Block B who are from the same agency. Some even say they are the new version of 2NE1. The song above sounds very mainstream to me and I think they would have a chance in the U.S. This rookie group is another one to look out for!
Let me know what you guys think! Post your opinions! Thanks!
I have been waiting on more information before I posted about this one, but about a month ago Block B announced that they would be suing their agency, Stardom. They are asking for their exclusive contract to be nullified.
According to their contracts, the members of Block B are suppose to be paid on the 25th of the following month. But, they have claimed that they haven't been paid for over a year. Also, the CEO of Stardom has apparently disappeared with roughly $66,000 that was collected from the member's parents for promotions and production costs. The thing about this though is that this money taken from the parents never had the chance to be used....And here is why.
Last year, the group was caught in a controversy due to poor translations. While they were in Thailand for an interview, one of the members made a comment about not being able to donate towards the flood relief. This comment was translated to make it sound harsher than what it was meant to be. The member said that he hardly had enough money to donate, which to some people seemed absurd because he was a "well-paid celebrity". People felt that he was mocking Thailand and that his actions were immature. But, he actually tried making a comment about how he really didn't have any money, which we now see what he meant way back then. You see, during this time the band was not being paid and the legal actions they took recently brought that incident to light. They also were not being paid before that even though they had released an album and appeared on many shows. So, there was some money that was due to them. Right after the scandal, the group took a hiatus to reflect on their actions from the interview because of the harsh response they got from people and fans. They even received death threats during this time. According to their contracts, they were still suppose to be paid during their hiatus, even though they weren't.
But 8 months later, they dropped their album 'Blockbuster' in October 2012. That promotion money the CEO collected was never used for this or anything. The group also has yet to be paid for any money and appearances made from this album, which was a hit. Actually, the song I included (titled "No Joke") is from that album and seems like it is about the scandal in Thailand and how they are coming back from it. Here are a few of the translated lyrics which speak for themselves...
"Most people are like this, do you earn money easily? My answer is never. "
"Yeah its the rebirth
It’s been a while, my body felt itchy, we back, aight~ we got the power back
No matter how much you copy, the real people will find out what is real when we warm up a little"
"I suspended Twitter and gave up my youth to working like a housewife and laboring on lyrics A guy with eloquent speaking skills, who will block me huh?" (The leader, Zico, quit Twitter during the hiatus.)
This song was basically their response to the scandal and saying they did nothing wrong, due to the poor translations which misrepresented them. They are fighting back.
So, even now they have yet to be paid and are suing the agency. The agency has denied that the CEO has ran off with the money, but the group has replied back saying he indeed has, and there has been no proof that they actually received the money. This lawsuit is currently up in the air and is bringing to light a lot of issues the company was hiding from the fans. They are still deciding on an agreement and seeing what will happen with Block B. Many people worry that the group will not be picked up by any of the other agency due to the Thailand scandal. But no one is worrying about the group splitting up because they are in this together. We will just have to see where this goes.
Hey everyone. For this post, I wanted to talk to you guys briefly about "The Big Three". The Big Three are the 3 top, most popular agencies in K-Pop because of their strong market shares. I'll go into more about what exactly these agencies do and how these artist debut. So, your Big Three are the following...
-SM Entertainment
-YG Entertainment
-JYP Entertainment
I'll give you guys a few of their artists too if you want to check them out. (Some I have mentioned on this blog already.)
YG Entertainment...
-Big Bang (this is G-Dragon's group)
-2NE1
-PSY
-Epik High (Tablo's group, who was interviewed by BBC)
-and others.
JYP Entertainment...
-Rain (Lead actor in the movie, Ninja Assassin, too!)
-2PM
-Wonder Girls
-Miss A
-and others.
So, what exactly do these agencies do? They double as both record labels and agencies. The agencies recruit, train, handle finances, promote, record albums, EVERYTHING. It's quite a nifty little package. A lot of the stars first start off by auditioning at a very young age and train for many years under the agency (sometimes 5+ years) before they are allowed to debut with a group or as solo artists. This training includes dance lessons, singing lessons, English lessons, and more. Once they get closer to debuting, the agency places them in a group or if they are good enough, as solo artists. They then begin to record their first single/album/whatever and then promotions begins. Then promotions are done by appearing on music shows and other competitions, which we would view as places like TRL, except the artists perform live. Before a single drops, the agency releases many teasers of the audio and of the music video to spark interest in fans.
All of this is done by and under the agency. All of it.
I am always so amazed at how much work gets put into these artists by the agencies. Some may call it harsh to train such young kids for many years. But some may say that the final product benefits from this training. Are the agencies being too harsh? I'll let you be the judge.
This is just a brief description of the Big Three and what these agencies do. If you have anymore questions, let me know! Just comment below.
Hi everyone! I recently recorded an interview with Mike Leggitt asking him a few questions about K-Pop. Before we recorded this, I showed him his very first few clips of K-Pop music. He listened to a wide range of it from hip-hop to cheesy, boyband pop. Mike basically got K-Pop in a nutshell. I was able to show him the examples without him having any clue I was going to interview him, so his first impressions are real.
I wanted to get someone that wasn't very familiar with K-Pop and ask them their first impressions of it. I love hearing peoples reactions to K-Pop, whether good or bad, and getting their thoughts on this strange, new phenonmenon. I wanted to give my readers a chance to see how other people are seeing K-Pop and how people are reaching out to K-Pop. Mike and I talked briefly about the music I had shown him before the interview and his answers never changed later, which I appreciated. I thought Mike's answers were pretty cool, so check them out in the audio above!
For this recording I used a Microtrack recorder and edited and mixed in Pro Tools. Due to a time limit, I thought this way would be the easiest and quickest way to get this interview recorded. The Microtrack is simple to use and set up and I am familiar with Pro Tools, so it was easy to edit and mix.
So, comment below if you agree or disagree with anything mentioned. I'd love to hear any extra opinions. Don't be shy!
This week, Tablo from Epik High was interviewed by BBC News about the rise of K-Pop.
Tablo talks about how fans overseas are helping spread this craze through social networks. This is something I definitely have to agree with. YouTube is most likely the main source as to how K-Pop is spreading so quickly. In November of 2011, K-Pop videos became so popular that YouTube created its own channel for them. It also has been recently announced that PSY's "Gangnam Style" is currently the most viewed video of all time on YouTube at 1,239,333,913 views! (and still counting) I know at least for myself, when a new song or music video is released, I go straight to YouTube to check it out. You can easily get lost while on YouTube as you start clicking different videos and then all of a sudden you find yourself watching a K-Pop music video. This is how many K-Pop fans are born. And from there, these fans share the video with their friends on Facebook and other social networking sites. T-Pain was one of the first celebrities to spread PSY's video by using Twitter and I think that was when "Gangnam Style" became huge in America specifically.
From there, Tablo talks about how PSY and K-Pop have benefited from each other. K-Pop obviously has become more popular or well-known because of PSY. But, PSY had many other artists like Big Bang, 2NE1, Girl's Generation, and the Wonder Girls to pave way for him to be this big internet sensation. What most people don't know is that "Gangnam Style" is the single from PSY's sixth studio album. He isn't new to the business and has been around since 1999. It is just now though that the spread of K-Pop has given him this big hit.
And this is when we look at the fact that Tablo, one of the most popular artists in K-Pop, was interviewed by a widely watched news station. It's amazing to me to see stuff like this happen. I think we will continue to see the rise of K-Pop and how it might affect the world. What do you think will be next?
So, here is my first vlog and I decided to show you guys examples of how K-Pop albums are being packaged and what all you might find inside!
Looking at the four albums in the video, you can see that they aren't your average, everyday album. The quality of the packaging isn't a cheap material and is actually pretty heavy-duty. As you can see, these albums come with a bunch of extra material such as postcards, membership cards for fanclubs, photo books, lyric booklets, etc. I love this idea of adding extra materials to help sell the album. As a consumer, I feel like I am getting more for the price I pay, which is never too expensive. I'd have the say the most I've spent on an album was around $25-$30 and part of that price has the included import fee. Some may think that price is too expensive, but once you see the packaging and what you get inside, I'm sure you would be sold. I've also noticed the trend of albums trying to outdo other albums. The content just keeps getting better and better. I have an album that came with buttons! Buttons. You just never know what they will come up with next.
Now, I have to ask myself the question, "What is actually selling the albums?" I still think that the music is what is selling these albums and that the extra material comes second. K-Pop fans are very passionate about supporting the artists and I have known some fans to buy multiple copies of an album just to support the artist. They also want that music and would rather buy the album instead of downloading because they get a high quality recording and they support the artist at the same time. But on the other hand, I've seen fans buy multiples of the same album just to collect those member cards I showed in the video. They want to get one of each member and will do so by buying more of the album. So, I guess the answer to that question can easily go both ways. But at least we know it's grabbing the attention of fans and albums continue to sell.
Twenty hours ago, popular American DJ and producer Diplo tweeted that he is working with G-Dragon (Tweet ID: IBGDRGN) again on a new track. Diplo previously produced GD & TOP's track "Knockout" that was released in 2010. Once I hear more information, I will update you guys!
Here is the track "Knockout" for those interested. Catch the samples from Cajmere's "It's Time For the Percolator"?
Time for a music review! I'll try to keep the review short and sweet. This is GD's "Crayon". I wanted to include the music video for this one, but I won't be going in depth with the video.
This song is for those that like electronic music and hip-hop. GD aka G-Dragon is a very well known rapper from one of the biggest groups in K-Pop right now called Big Bang. "Crayon" is from his second solo album called One of a Kind that was released on September 12, 2012.
To start with, let's look at the title of the song. "Crayon" has nothing to do with colored wax. The title "Crayon" is suppose to look like the phrase "cray-on". The term "cray" has taken on many definitions (originated by Jay-Z and Kanye), but for this song it is meant to refer to "crazy". The song is about letting go and just acting crazy without worrying about what others might say. In other words, just say "F*** them." and let loose. Just do you.
This catchy and upbeat song will have you dancing in your seat while singing along to the addictive hooks "Get your crayon" and "Why so serious?". I really liked the Batman/Joker reference too with "Why so serious?". It gives an American vibe to the song which could help it into the American market because it's familiar. The synthesized sounds work well together and get your attention. I also liked how the chorus builds up and really makes you want to dance. I am just not fully sold on how repetitive the chorus is. The chanting-like outro will make you want to sing along as well. It reminds me of being at a sporting event and singing along to a fight song.
The music video is colorful and out there, but that is something I am used to with this genre. Most of the time, K-Pop videos tend to be very strange, out there, and make you feel like saying "WTF?!". I'd like to simply call that a characteristic of K-Pop music videos. It's almost a competition of who can make their video the most insane as possible. But other than that, at least the craziness of this video makes sense with the crazy song.
Out of five stars possible, I'd give it a 4/5 overall based on my thoughts.
Hi there!
For my first post, I'd like to start with a quick K-Pop 101.
K-Pop isn't just pop music and artists dancing around in circles like *NSYNC in the late 90's, which is what people first think of. It takes genre fusion to a new level while combining elements of rock, pop, electronic music, hip-hop, and R&B. There is literally something for everyone to enjoy. With the recent success of PSY's "Gangnam Style" in the U.S., we can see that the Korean Wave is crashing down all over the world and not just Asia. It's recent record-breaking views on YouTube has opened doors for other K-Pop artists. And there are many artists waiting to run through that door.
But, K-Pop is also a subculture and brings the concept of Hallyu a.k.a. the
Korean Wave. The Korean Wave started in the 90's and is basically the
growing popularity of Korean entertainment and culture. The "culture" of K-Pop brings fans together and gives K-Pop more value than looking at it as just another music genre. All tied up into K-Pop are different dramas, television shows, and movies. There are terms that a new listener of K-Pop might not understand at first and I can explain those in another post. The interaction between fans, especially international fans, has helped bring K-Pop outside of Korea. All of this helps make up this subculture.
As K-Pop continues to grow, I will be following along and informing everyone of what's happening right here on this blog! So hold onto your seat, the ride is just beginning!
