Club Music Contorted Into Pretzels
Dec. 21st, 2010 10:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
koganbotNew GD&TOP single "High High," vocals and beats twisted as electronically tight as they can be, club music contorted into pretzels, and GD & TOP finally breaking into song* at 2:20. I think even the Brits in my readership - if any Brits are still reading - will be won over by this one.
*EDIT: When they do this they spell out G-H-E-T-T-O E-L-E-C-T-R-O, and googling the term I got a St. Louis Record Company (their Website streaming what I'd ignorantly or archaically call "industrial dance rock"); DJ Godfather, a ghettotech guy from Detroit; Egyptian Lover, an electro hop DJ from L.A.; and this very strange entry at Urban Dictionary: Generating money for your home via money saving methods. Origin: Originating for Korea, it was first heard in the mythological pairing of a dragon and a white haired extremely good looking man. "The hamster is not running fast enough to generate enough ghetto electro to heat my shower." That's tongue-in-cheek, presumably. Right?
*EDIT: When they do this they spell out G-H-E-T-T-O E-L-E-C-T-R-O, and googling the term I got a St. Louis Record Company (their Website streaming what I'd ignorantly or archaically call "industrial dance rock"); DJ Godfather, a ghettotech guy from Detroit; Egyptian Lover, an electro hop DJ from L.A.; and this very strange entry at Urban Dictionary: Generating money for your home via money saving methods. Origin: Originating for Korea, it was first heard in the mythological pairing of a dragon and a white haired extremely good looking man. "The hamster is not running fast enough to generate enough ghetto electro to heat my shower." That's tongue-in-cheek, presumably. Right?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
The hug of death?
Date: 2010-12-22 05:17 pm (UTC)In the meantime, and totally (or mostly) unrelated to this release - except that my Google search took me to this person's twitter, which linked the urbanlegends "ghetto electro" def'n ("I just lol-ed at this one"), and she also linked her Website OH! KPOP, which is where I ran across the item - I found a report that indicates to me that hugging and such is much more potent in Korea than in America:
On yesterday's episode of KBS's Music Bank, Seulong and IU performed their hit duet, "Nagging." Fans were excited to see the original two singers reunited to perform on Music Bank. However, Seulong hugged IU at the end of the performance, because they wished to parody the drama, "Secret Garden." It turned out that some of IU's fans were not happy with Seulong's hug. In response, Seulong reassured fans with, "It was only a performance, please don't be hurt. IU is a dear dongsaeng to me."
Re: The hug of death?
Date: 2010-12-22 10:49 pm (UTC)Of course the companies and tv stations tread a fine line between hiding idols' dating lives and teasing the fans with 'provocative' material which will be guaranteed to draw attention. Relevant here is T.O.P and Hyori becoming romantically entangled onstage.
That would be a bad idea for a rookie k-pop starlet, but because Hyori is above most such concerns she could do it.
no subject
Date: 2010-12-22 05:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-23 09:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-23 11:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-07 12:31 am (UTC)I've found something interesting... girls look at GD and TOP differently... they look at GD and goes "oh look that's GD he's super cool!" and they look at TOP and goes "I want to f*ck his brains out". Look at how the white girls surrounding TOP was looking at him. those are lustful stares. Good job TOP!
avplaya
no subject
Date: 2010-12-23 11:54 pm (UTC)This is some low-end major label–funded New York rapper shit. It even has cameos from other artists to show what a bangin' party this is! (It's taking some serious Where's Waldo-type investigation to find all the YGE faces, but they're there - I see Taeyang and Teddy Park at least.) Seriously though, at least they actually have the clout to have hosted a real party to film this. And uh, sorry for being rude, but where did all these white girls come from?
no subject
Date: 2010-12-25 11:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-25 02:36 pm (UTC)Haven't gotten 'hold of the album yet.
no subject
Date: 2010-12-25 08:27 pm (UTC)Song credit Q, which someone might be able to answer. These are the credits for "뻑이가요 (Ppeokkigayo)" ("Knock Out"):
Lyrics: G-Dragon, T.O.P Music: G-Dragon, Diplo. Is that well-known DJ producer Diplo?
no subject
Date: 2010-12-26 01:36 am (UTC)Would like to get the group's title right on gift CDs I make for people. Perhaps more importantly, when it comes to year-end polls, sometimes when things are spelled differently they don't get added together. In 2005 the Voice's software didn't figure out that "Be Mine" and "Be Mine!" were the same song, so the vote got split until people on ilX pointed out the mistake. Don't think the combined total was enough to get it into the top 40, so the print edition didn't carry forward a mistake. No harm done, but it was a close one.
(December releases are definitely eligible for next year's polls, in my mind. So if the album is top flight, or "High High" continues to amaze, I'll want to spell right.)
no subject
Date: 2011-01-08 09:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-08 02:49 pm (UTC)A couple of white women prominently in the vid, though a lot of Asians as well.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-14 12:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-14 04:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-14 10:30 am (UTC).. although that doesnt't mean he hasn't done other things. Not surprised the fans lap this stuff up, their gossiping is second to none.
http://thegrandnarrative.com/
Date: 2010-12-26 07:32 am (UTC)See the first link for a blog post by one of those White girls about the the making of the video, and the second for some context:
http://noonablog.com/?p=2463
http://mixtapesandlinernotes.blogspot.com/2010/12/who-are-all-these-white-chicks-gd-high.html
Cheers,
James
Re: http://thegrandnarrative.com/
Date: 2010-12-26 01:39 pm (UTC)Around three o'clock the Korean models that were supposed to be dressed in bunny suits, dancing with G-dragon, refused to put on the outfits because they were too sexy, so Mac asked me if I could do it instead.
Whereas Mixtapes and Liner Notes writes:
I found that the ratio of shots of Asian women compared to those of Caucasian women, either alone or with G-Dragon and TOP, is about 1:6.
...
Since this is a music video, people were cast/invited to be at this party and to participate in the shoot, meaning that a considerable number of Caucasian women were specifically cast for this video, as opposed to them showing up by chance. Even if the casting wasn't biased towards Caucasian women, the editing of the video favors them: Asian women appear far less often, and almost never in close up. If you still need to be convinced that this isn't normal, then check out this Big Bang music video from 2008, where they are also in a club, but surrounded by mostly Asian women...
As I speculate about the reasons behind this creative choice, I can’t help but remember some of the writings by James Turnbull over at the Grand Narrative, indicating the hyper-sexualization of Caucasians in South Korean advertising. Until recently, you were more likely to see a Caucasian woman in skimpy clothing or in a sexually suggestive pose (often with a Caucasian man) as opposed to a Korean woman, which I witnessed myself while looking for a photoshoot on the Cosmopolitan Korea website: it's all Asians until you get to the Love and Relationships section, then suddenly some white people pop up - half-naked, as that section of Cosmo usually goes.
I'm guessing then that "Caucasians Are Sexy" was the casting concept for this video: Caucasian women are sexy, therefore if you have a ton of white women in your video, you must be the shit, or you must be in America/Europe, which makes you even cooler (Is it a coincidence that the invites to the party / video shoot were passports and plane tickets?). Not only does this reduce the white woman to a prop or a trophy simply put there to elevate the Asian man's status (especially when they’re all dressed in identical outfits as in the screencap below) but it also pushes her towards the "bad girl" category, which few Korean women would willingly associate with, and few Korean men would look upon favorably, if this translation of the lyrics for Miss A’s "Good Girl, Bad Girl" is anything to go by.
And then, after having read Noona's account:
It turns out she got an invitation because she's friends with people from the Seoulcialite Agency, "a boutique marketing and event planning company which specializes in high profile and exclusive events within the music, fashion and entertainment industry". They planned the party and the shoot along with YG Ent. On their website, they have a bunch of photos from the shoot - still a ton of Caucasian women, but lots more Asian women. This indicates again, that the editing of the video was biased towards Caucasian women.
Re: http://thegrandnarrative.com/
Date: 2010-12-27 11:02 pm (UTC)Certainly you will notice it when non-Asians pop up in Korean popular culture, because it is still a homogeneous society, but some people might make more of their appearances just because they're easier to spot.
Claiming the statement "the "bad girl" category, which few Korean women would willingly associate with" has any relevance when talking about k-pop ignores the fact that so many of the year's biggest female pop hits have been about living out the bad girl role, plotting revenge on the men, being confident about ones sexuality. How this is presented, and the problems with objectification is another thing entirely. But the things said here are simply not true.
Re: http://thegrandnarrative.com/
Date: 2010-12-28 06:17 am (UTC)Re: http://thegrandnarrative.com/
Date: 2010-12-28 09:38 am (UTC)Re: http://thegrandnarrative.com/
Date: 2010-12-28 09:49 am (UTC)Re: http://thegrandnarrative.com/
Date: 2010-12-28 07:01 pm (UTC)Am suspicious of a categorization system that pits "established, traditional conservative values" versus "liberal young" and then tries to fit bunny suits into it. I'd think there are a whole bunch of competing tensions - that is, not that there's just a tension between competing ways of thinking, but that the tensions themselves may be in competition with other tensions; that is, there's a tension between bunny and housewife, but also maybe between bunny and business woman, and bunny and feminist, and between lipstick feminist and nonlipstick feminist, and bunny business woman and nonbunny business woman. So you've got tensions between tensions, and all these various tensions exist within individuals as well as between them (and between groups). And what is the liberal "nontraditional" position? Is it plumping for equal economic agents within a predatory capitalist system? Or is it committed to social safety nets? What is the principal agent of socialization and nurturing? Is it the family? The school? What? These questions beset the West, and in the U.S. we don't even have to deal with questions as to whether or not modernization is tainted by its association with Japanese occupiers and U.S. troops and dictatorial governments.
Me, I'm somewhat amused and bemused by the casual use of the word "chick" in Maddie's and Mixtapes/Liner Notes' posts.
Re: http://thegrandnarrative.com/
Date: 2010-12-28 09:02 pm (UTC)I wasn't really trying to fit the bunny suits into this, in fact that anecdote just confused me. What I referred to was youth who identify themselves as being at odds with some impression of their society's values. I'll quote a survey held by students, of students, at Yonsei University, which was translated by James:
Despite this [changing] atmosphere, students think Korean society is still conservative, and on the question of sex in particular, 67% of the total replies that is was conservative and not yet liberal. Of themselves in contrast, 41.1% considered themselves to have liberal attitudes towards sex, 26.8% were middle of the road, and 32.0% considered themselves conservative.
4Minute's Hyuna seems to be among those, judging from this quote re: skimpy clothing at a show.
“Singers should be able to choose the costumes they want to wear while performing. Fashion is popular all around the world, but in Korea, fashion is more strict due to the conservative culture. Many things I wear are somehow tied into a controversy, and that’s very disappointing. I just want to show my true self on stage, and tying in my costume with the performance.”
Re: http://thegrandnarrative.com/
Date: 2010-12-29 01:11 pm (UTC)Re: http://thegrandnarrative.com/
Date: 2010-12-28 07:09 pm (UTC)That is, lots of people in the U.S. choose to ignore such questions, though some Americans, of course, are quite interested in the relation between modernization and U.S. troops and dictatorial governments.
Re: http://thegrandnarrative.com/
Date: 2010-12-28 08:07 pm (UTC)Re: http://thegrandnarrative.com/
Date: 2010-12-26 01:47 pm (UTC)Yeah, I hedge what I just wrote with ifs and not necessarilies, because I don't know. But given the flux and the various contrary motions in regard to femininity/feminism over the last three hundred years in the West, I can't imagine that a rapidly "modernizing" Korea somehow escapes this motion, and the attendant vertigo.
(In my universe, the phrase "good girl" is often a pejorative, though not an unequivocal one. It has class as well as gender overtones, and implies conformity.)
Which isn't to say that we shouldn't notice and try to understand what Mixtapes and Liner Notes is pointing out to us, but that we shouldn't assume that we have the tools and categories at hand to understand at a glance. E.g., Noona's post suggests that who was edited in or out of the video was based on behavior, not only on skin color.
*TM Mark Sinker.
Re: http://thegrandnarrative.com/
Date: 2010-12-26 02:12 pm (UTC)Re: http://thegrandnarrative.com/
Date: 2010-12-26 11:45 pm (UTC)http://www.gaonchart.co.kr/main/section/total/list.gaon?mainGbn=CHART&mainCate=1&nationGbn=E&termGbn=week
Gaon is a new invention in Korea, an attempt to make an 'official' all-round chart like Billboard. From before we've had things like the Hanteo charts, which only counts physicals sold in-store, and various digital charts.
It's been at #1 since the 28th of October. What Wiki doesn't mention is the fact that this is the 'foreign artist' chart. On the main chart I find it as high as #53 some weeks earlier. Does this tell us that every English-speaking artist has no presence in the mainstream? No, they just don't sell. They're on the radio, they're referred to in pop culture, they go there to hold shows, play festivals. Illegal downloads must do more damage to foreign artists than to the extremely heavily marketed Korean stars (whose fanbase also buys physicals (and who still sell quite poorly)).
Here's Like a G6 at Korean Mnet's 'Mnet Asian Music Awards' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSw33M_oXCI The performers were mostly Korean, with a few token Japanese and Chinese guests, plus FEM.
Re: http://thegrandnarrative.com/
Date: 2010-12-27 05:46 pm (UTC)Re: http://thegrandnarrative.com/
Date: 2010-12-27 05:01 pm (UTC)Re: http://thegrandnarrative.com/
Date: 2010-12-27 06:22 pm (UTC)I'll write more once I emerge from the Mariana listmaking trench on January 3rd, but othering* need not necessarily always be derogatory, oppressive, or inaccurate, although often it's all three. In a positive use, it's part of anyone's growing process: what does this person have that I don't, and that I perhaps need?
There was a paragraph back in one of my LVW pieces ("The Death Of The Cool") in which I tried to describe what I thought was this sort of positive use, Clancy Sigal's admiration of black attitudes in the U.S., what he was attempting to adopt when he was attempting to adopt them.
In any event, it's not obvious to me simply by looking that GD&TOP are slotting Caucasian women into a predetermined "bad girl" role or that the women are being hypersexualized any more than GD&TOP themselves are being hypersexualized. Of course, I don't know.
*Can't say if "to other" is normally considered a verb form. It is one now.