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.
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!
