Background becomes foreground

[koganbot]

Wonder Girls to tour U.S. with Jonas Brothers this summer (says UPI):

"[M/V] Wonder Girls - Nobody from [The Wonder Years - Trilogy]" (Watch on YouTube)

Seem like a variation on NY-Miami 1988, which I think is a good thing.

"Wonder Girls "Tell me" M/V" (Watch on YouTube)

Comments

Re: Gender wars?

[koganbot]

Confession: I had to look up "otaku" on Wiki. (I also have little knowledge of anime, though my local library has a surprisingly large collection. Was your "otaku" anime related? Music related?)(Of course, "fan" is derived from "fanatic.")

Do you know if there's a class component or an ethnic component to the Korean fanclubs? Would the Korean equivalent of a preppy girl join one (if the social map in Korea even contains equivalents to "preps" and "skaters" and the like)? (Actually, I don't even know the current high-school terminology in North America.)

Re: Gender wars?

[petronia.livejournal.com]

(wrote a response earlier but browser died)

Anime/manga fandom, which has a musical component Western counterparts (Marvel comics, Star Trek etc.) don't have - soundtracks, "in character" albums by voice actresses, J-pop/J-rock tie-ins. Fair amount of overlap with Asian pop fandom in general. IME kids heavily into the scene listen to little else.

Korea's pretty homogeneous ethnically. There's class consciousness but I don't know how it plays out w/r/t youth culture, other than the assumption that "good kids" ought to be studying or playing classical violin or whatever. It's also a highly wired society. A lot of K-popstars are diaspora, so Korean forays into hip-hop/R&B have been (from a North American taste perspective) more convincing for longer than similar efforts by Japan/Taiwan/China; there was a lag of maybe five years where Korean bboys could rap, Japanese couldn't, and it hadn't even occurred to Chinese to try.

I don't know much about NAmerican hip-hop culture either. XD; I think most K-pop feuds don't (intentionally, anyway) start at the artist level - they start at the fan level, or given the wacko incestuousness of the Asian music industry, at the label level.

Re: Gender wars?

[koganbot]

My Drunken Tiger review was an exercise in how to review Korean diaspora hip-hop when one doesn't know anything about Korean diaspora hip-hop.

Re: Gender wars?

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I have just learnt from Wiki that main dude from Drunken Tiger is married to T and writes songs for her! Feels like it should've been obvious. XD;



(Since I don't speak a word of Korean we're pretty much on the same footing methinks.)

Re: Gender wars?

[koganbot]

Re-linking my Drunken Tiger review (the Village Voice annoyingly changed their URLs at some point, destroying all my links to it).

Re: Gender wars?

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Caveat that I haven't followed K-pop for a while; my best period is circa Shinhwa, Baby V.O.X. (one of my favorite girlbands of all time despite them not being able to sing), Lee Jung Hyun, and of course BoA.

Re: Gender wars?

[koganbot]

Aw, I'm not going to be able to listen to these for a week. I have to get up at 4 AM and head for the airport. But many thanks for posting them.

Re: Gender wars?

[petronia.livejournal.com]

No prob - is "have fun where you're going" appropriate? XD

Re: Gender wars?

[koganbot]

Yes. Connecticut, my father's 90th birthday, will see my parents and my brother and sister-in-law and my two nephews and assorted friends and relations.

Re: Gender wars?

[koganbot]

Here are links for three of the four petronia embeds:

Shinhwa "Wild Eyes"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Sx05Lf1p9Y

Lee Jung Hyun "Michyeo"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHSdRbY9_mA

BoA "Amazing Kiss"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUDWn7HCMkQ