Athletic R&B: Miss A BREATHE
Jun. 25th, 2011 01:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
koganbotInspired to post this not just because I adore it, but also 'cause 67seven52 called "athletic R&B" his new favorite phrase. On this track, Miss A obviously put a lot of work into something that you'd think would feel light as a feather. Maybe if they'd put even more work into it, it would have actually seemed as light as that, and the effort would have been invisible. The sweat and strenuousness make it charming anyway, or make it especially charming, the performers give so much. Also love the way the song's love object, some guy over whom the girls are supposedly left breathless, is just a pretext for a bunch of clowning and panting, more a group bonding thing than an infatuation.
I want to know where the style of that intro to the chorus comes from, the one that starts the song and that recurs in front of the second verse and whenever the chorus reappears. Sounds like Verdi, or operetta, or Gilbert & Sullivan. Should ask Jonathan Bogart. Excellent for the way it throws gossamer and confetti over the basic squealing-brake techno 'n' r&b that follows. And then the live routine pulls a hilarious variation on the James Brown collapse-and-revival routine (starts at 3:27). (Song's producer, Park Jin-young, is obviously a big James Brown fan.)
As for the athleticism, it's not just the look and the sound, that the performers are well-rehearsed, fit, and put on highly physical show. The whole idol system in Korea, at least from my meager understanding of it, makes me think of how athletes are developed in the U.S. Young performers hire out to the record companies as trainees, sometimes waiting for several years before they get to be members of groups. I talked a little about this online with Tari, anhh, and Mat last November. I get the sense that performers are treated like potential tennis or gymnastics stars, which can be good if they make it but I also think of all those college athletes in the U.S. who bring attention and money to their schools while getting little recompense or actual education. Mat reports that the Korean government is starting to put labor laws into effect "to protect young entertainers against ruthless hours under unfair contracts, ensuring the right to school time etc."
In the meantime, as Min's shoe goes flying, she gamely carries on:
Here's the studio version.
[EDIT April 2024: The comment thread for this post became one of the most important ever for me, owing to
askbask using it to create a kind of primer of the best dancers and choreography in K-pop at that time. Unfortunately, the thread is almost unreadable now for a whole bunch of reasons: Some of the embeds were uploads that got deleted from YouTube, and even where they weren't deleted, the old standard LiveJournal embed code used shockwave flash, and LJ will no longer show embeds with shockwave flash. Etc. – And if you're reading this on Dreamwidth, the Dreamwidth platform doesn't have the capability of showing embeds in comments anyway. Normally I'd try to fix the thread by adding new embeds and comments, but this thread is now too much of a mess. So instead I've created a whole new post (April 28, 2024) devoted to recreating as much of the comment thread as possible. Here's the link for it, "Hoisted from the archives: Athletic R&B comments reconstituted." (I'm linking you the Dreamwidth version because Dreamwidth gives us better-looking blockquotes, but I've posted it on LJ as well.)]
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Date: 2011-06-26 10:26 am (UTC)[Error: unknown template video]
Might've been mentioned before, but Min spent some years in the US, preparing for a launch and recording un-released single 'Boyfriend', before the debut was cancelled and she joined Miss A. Sounds like something Cassie also could've recorded, never released and then had leaked.
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Miss A released their (quite listenable) 'Love Again' single and video as a three member group.
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Date: 2011-06-28 06:08 pm (UTC)Who are considered the really good dancers in K-pop? I'd think Min'd be near the top. There are some names mentioned in this YouTube thread.
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Date: 2011-06-28 06:39 pm (UTC)BoA is #1.
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She just finished shooting a US dance flick (Cobu 3D) in the Step Up tradition, lead role vs Derek Hough.
Former BoA back-up dancer Kahi
As mentioned in those comments, Hyoyeon, Minzy
Unfortunately Sori's own underperforming singles haven't given her opportunities for Ciara-like moves.
Guys: Jay Park, Taeyang, Rain, TVXQ
no subject
Date: 2011-06-29 06:03 am (UTC)Fei is effective in a different way: she's tall and this gives a false sense of gawkiness, with an almost comic faux frightenedness in her eyes; it's very funny and hard to keep one's own eyes off of.
Watching that BoA rehearsal increased my respect for BoA 100%. I've never gotten her as a singer, though haven't heard much of her voluminous repertoire. I borrowed her American album from the Denver Public Library last month. A lot of the material is excellent, especially the stuff from Jonback/Bloodshy & Avant, a track called "Touched" in particular. There was this dance gorgeousness, a desire ready to saturate the atmosphere. But I got the feeling I sometimes get from Keri Hilson of an absence in the middle. The tracks seemed to be waiting for their Cassie, or Britney, or someone, a missing ache or neediness that needed to seep into the music. She was singing well, but not injecting enough character.
But looking at the rehearsal for "Look Who's Talking," I see immediately that BoA's got something: her whole demeanor, a completely flexible confidence, a casual command of space and an elastic joy that's capable of owning every cubic centimeter in the room, should she find her way to it. Maybe the trouble with the album is that the music doesn't reflect this ease, this motion. Maybe she needed more hip-hop, more disco, I'm not sure.
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Date: 2011-06-29 06:29 am (UTC)[Error: unknown template video]
Although as you know I'm quite fond of her in ballad mode as well, and her latest Korean album. Her own compositions aren't really hip-hop-y but they're enjoyable, I like the casual lightweight sound of 'Ordinary Day' in contrast to its sinister lyrics.
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Date: 2011-06-29 06:34 am (UTC)[Error: unknown template video]
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Date: 2011-06-29 08:08 am (UTC)Exactly! Will be quoting this when talking about her strengths to others. I haven't always been happy with her singles, but am still mostly transfixed by her live performances because of this.
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Date: 2011-07-21 07:21 pm (UTC)[Error: unknown template video]
Helps that it's all lipsynced - it's noticably less sharp on regular performances - and that the camera is fixed so we get the amazing sync work and units moving around the stage. I don't expect them to ever match this level again because it was their debut track and they exclusively practiced this choreography for such a long time.
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Date: 2011-07-21 09:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-22 06:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-02-19 04:57 am (UTC)[Error: unknown template video]
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Date: 2011-07-24 08:46 pm (UTC)[Error: unknown template video]
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Date: 2011-07-09 06:27 am (UTC)Only checked a few so far, but they tend to be quite good.
Miss A Breathe Dance Tutorial
Date: 2011-07-09 06:59 am (UTC)Re: Miss A Breathe Dance Tutorial
Date: 2011-07-09 03:59 pm (UTC)Re: Miss A Breathe Dance Tutorial
Date: 2014-08-24 05:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-01 07:16 pm (UTC)http://youtu.be/lx2cUEl2ivg?t=6m59s
Needs more SweetS
Date: 2011-12-11 08:04 pm (UTC)Thinking in webs and not chains
Date: 2012-01-15 03:36 am (UTC)