Problematic Korean Video Friday over at Poptimists: Piggy Dolls TREND

[koganbot]

As usual, I'm double posting this video here and at poptimists, on the off-chance that someone there will have something to say. The track is stomping r&b that's intensified rather than compromised by the four-four and the Autotune, and has strong singing. Main issue I raised at poptimists is that, if the point is that fat can be sexy, then the singers should be allowed to really shake their stuff and show some skin.

Watch on YouTube

At the pizza chompin' start, the vid's trying to have its cake etc. and eat it too, uplift the Dolls and make fun of them at the same time. That's what I feel about the name "Piggy Dolls" as well. Maybe it's an attempt to turn the word "piggy" around, seize it and transform it into pride. But I think it's (also) going for snickers. Not that I want to prejudge how audiences will take this. I think it's good these women are out there. The YouTube commenters are trying to position the Piggies as "real" in comparison to other idols, which is problematic in its own way. I guess I think this is too much on the defensive, but we'll see.

Also, though the beat's powerful and the singing's solid, the song itself needs something extra, something to hook us or grab us or mesmerize us. As it is, it's too anonymous.

EDIT: Here's the video with English subtitles (click "CC" for the subtitles):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brbTFVaWxUU (new link 2015, translated differently from below)

Excerpt (assuming these are accurate):

Ain't nobody, follow (do it)
One more
Ain't nobody, crazy now
Be crazy with us
My body? So what?
My face is unique
Check it out onstage
Look at me, we are trend
I'm sexy
Lookin' good
Check it out on stage
Look at me, we are trend
You follow me when I move
Now you (look at me), this is trend

Comments

[koganbot]

Searched to see if Two Tons O' Fun ever had any videos prior to abandoning that moniker, and they don't seem to have. Their big hit came after the name change:

[koganbot]

Link to the artists formerly known as Two Tons Of Fun:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5aZJBLAu1E

[askbask.livejournal.com]

The Korean media is so obsessed with conceptualizing outwards appearance, what with the honey thighs, chocolate abs, bagel girls, flower boys, s line, v line, x line, EGG-LINE ideals etc that I'm not surprised a 'chubby group' pops up. They probably didn't mean for the group name to sound so insulting, though. The Korean comments I've read have been along the same line as those youtube ones, "these girls are all about their talents" and so on, although whether the positive response will fade away when the 'novelty' (of the framing) wears off I don't know.

Right now was the first time I actually listened to the song. It's OK, I guess.

[koganbot]

But one thing that disturbs me about the "they're all about the talents" line - which reminds me of how Adele was sold in Britain, too, and I can understand why people would fall into it - is that it actually ducks the issue that the band concept is trying to raise: that these can be sexy/sexual young women. And sexiness needs to be understood as part of "talent" too, and I don't just mean the talent of make-up artists and plastic surgeons and calisthenics coaches etc., and natural-born appeal, but something you can learn to project or suppress, that you can build on or let go, and that can be formed into different styles.

[koganbot]

Glad there was some dance interaction and touching with the boys in the vid, though I wish there'd been more (e.g., like the Weather Girls lounging on their bed in their night clothes as the men move in on them, though I don't know if something like that might be pushing the boundaries of what's allowable on Korean TV).

[askbask.livejournal.com]

Well we could've hoped for something like the scene at 1:50 here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofwFr8o8p0Y

Subbed Piggy video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGbeYJpvcrg

[koganbot]

Rihanna, call your agent!

(Did the "Abracadabra" video get on TV uncensored? Did it get on TV at all?)

[askbask.livejournal.com]

I can't find any stories on it being banned, but I don't know.

And cable TV would show it, of course, the biggest channel being Mnet. When videos or songs are banned it's always KBS, SBS and MBC.

[koganbot]

Interview with Hwang Su-a, the director of the "Abracadabra" video. It's in Korean and Google Translate isn't being very helpful, except I gather that we're not supposed to take the bomb literally. The interview contains the words "Martin" and "Scorsese."

http://www.tvian.com/Popup/tviews_print.aspx?newsidx=2607

Wikip says that there was a later "stage version" of the video that "focuses only on the choreography."

[askbask.livejournal.com]

I've been very impressed with Google's translations of Norwegian texts, but it's pretty useless with even simple Korean sentences. She says she was inspired by Scorcese to start making movies, and later went to the USA to learn.

[descriptivist.livejournal.com]

This often happens with Korean music videos: a "full" version integrating narrative/non-dance shots, and a "dance only" version that is exactly what it sounds like and varies from a single take to using multiple camera angles. A BEG-related example is Ga-in's 10:53 narrative "Irreversible" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z83Nu5wKVZA), and its 3:48 dance-only version (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UJ2coDE_Es).

Since it was pointed out so directly, though, I am curious as to whether or not, in the case of "Abracadabra", the dance MV was shown in lieu of the full. I had thought dance-only versions were done strictly for internet fans.

[koganbot]

I have no idea if the dance MV was shown in lieu of the full, since I'm so new to this I had no idea "Abracadabra" even existed until Mat linked it. I was hoping you guys would be able to tell me.

the other thing is:

[(Anonymous)]

only one of these people* is discernibly overweight! Like, go to 1:53 or so.

Half of this seems to be the costuming; if you're wearing big ol' hoodies and boxy overcoats and sweatpants and animal-print shirts that flare out at the waist, of course you're going to look bulkier.

[descriptivist.livejournal.com]

Re: the "real", I see the Piggy Dolls and their fandom as part of a general, uh, trend toward emphasizing raw vocal talent in K-pop, on the same wavelength as 2NE1's R&B ballad single (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0BBuR7S4lw), the way IU has been promoted of late, and particularly the "MR removed" video.

MR removed videos are live performances with the backing track, which usually includes prerecorded vocals, filtered out. (The person behind this Tumblr (http://yellow-cheese.tumblr.com/) does the most accurate ones.) I'm guessing they began as a way to hear your favourite idols singing without the distraction of prerecorded vocals, but they are now frequently used to see who is lip-syncing and who is "really singing". It's surprising to see who does and who doesn't - for instance, Miss A doesn't always (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCzQe-6j9zA) (albeit while executing some punishing choreography), but Nine Muses does (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKlDYx4DJGk). And everyone wants to hear Piggy Dolls with the MR removed.

The "only thing you have is being pretty"-type idol (i.e. no singing or dancing, but lots of close-ups) (http://www.allkpop.com/2010/11/co-ed-hyewons-audition-video-attracts-a-cold-response) is hardly unique to Korea, but I feel like this deliberate backlash against that is new for K-pop, while it periodically comes and goes in the North American and British pop markets.

(I'm still working on a post about this idea of the "real" and K-pop idols, so sorry that this is kind of messy.)

[descriptivist.livejournal.com]

And while I've got that link to Co-ed, I think this might be a candidate for Problematic Korean Video Friday, and not just because it sounds like "Telephone":

Yes, their concept is "mental illness". And, to tie it all together, the MR removed video for this song is baaaaaaad. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5U3Vs4VQfc)

[askbask.livejournal.com]

Looking forward to that post. I have issues with the recent focus on those MR videos, because people use them as some sort of 'final judgement' on the vocal talents of the idols... and of course how good the MR sounds depends greatly on a whole lot of other things, like the intensity of dancing and the type of song and even the sound system. Take Taeyang's Where U At - I've seen performances where he hardly sang at all because the dance moves are so crazy. And his voice is great.

I like those radio live videos where someone in studio films them and we only hear their voices, though.