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Live version of "Just Follow," with Zico in place of DOK2; HyunA's relative stillness makes her as steamy as ever, and Zico just kills. His rap in the middle is entirely new, and he improves on the original.

Rapping, and this slow tempo, suit HyunA well. She's digging in, sounding hard and wounded; meanwhile, her sensuousness operates on its own accord, drifts along with the music, a force field that saturates the room.



Don't know if the ban on the "Bubble Pop!" video and on its live dance routine influenced this performance. She's in pants this time, not panties or minis, and she doesn't thrust her pelvis a lot. And this works fine.

Since K-pop is so new to me, I don't understand how the censorship functions, assuming that it does function. Seems laughably ineffective to "ban" a video a month after it's out, and to order changes in a dance routine that's been performed for just as long, the song having already peaked in the top 5. My understanding is that the "ban" means the video can't be shown before 10 PM. But that hardly affects the Internet, right? I'm assuming - though I don't know - that in South Korea, a place with more thorough broadband than anywhere else in the world, kids can go online and watch pretty much whatever they want, though maybe there's some sort of childproofing.

I wonder if there's tension and excitement in Korean pop precisely because of the country's various cultural disjunctions. Of course all countries have cultural disjunctions, but maybe HyunA's style of sensuous sexiness couldn't show up in the pop of 2011 America since America has gotten all blatant and jab-you-in-the-ribs tedious with its sexiness. Honestly, I find it hard to give a shit about Beyoncé's or Katy Perry's body. And Lindsay's and Britney's are focuses for (or sites of) insanity more than lust, it seems. That's the discourse, anyway.

Any thoughts you guys have would be welcome, especially since some of you, unlike me, actually know something about Korea. From what I've read, broadcast TV is still the main medium for music videos in Korea, and live performances on TV are still the main promotional tool for pop idol groups. So the stations can refuse to air a song, or, after a certain performance, can say, "Oh noes! your dance was dirty and children watch us, so don't do that again," and the performers will go "What? you found that offensive? we were merely expressing ourselves artistically; [pause] OK [reluctantly] we won't do it again." According to Wikip, KBS TV wouldn't play 4minute's "Anjullae" because of the line: "Starting from today, I won't give myself to you. Now, I will never give you my entire heart. Now, I won't ever give myself to you." And the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family has banned videos for reasons as trivial (to me) as the video showing people in a club that has a bar! But what that "banning" means is that the song or video can't be broadcast before 9 PM on weekdays and 10 PM on weekends and can't be sold to anyone under 19 - and the banning comes weeks or sometimes months after the song or video has been released, making the banning laughable, I'd think. So on the one hand you've got "standards" which are officially strict, and often petty, but on the other hand they seem easy to flout or to get around or even to play with and play off of, letters of laws being followed while spirits are getting massively mocked.

Or am I misreading this, and is a crackdown underway? Is HyunA being singled out for past transgressions?

Although titles such as Ministry of Gender Equality and Family seem comical, they probably reflect genuine contrary tensions and motives and confusions regarding clamping down on versus liberating female desire, and wanting to protect women and girls from exploitation.

Zico's group, the rookie boyband Block B, has an EP with one excellent song, "Halo," the other tracks falling into various degrees of blandness and blah. Could use more rapping, definitely, and better tunes and better singing. Zico's also got one or more mixtapes, a few tracks of which I've heard on YouTube; dexterity and force, need better overall sound. Nothing with the fierceness and pizzazz of "Just Follow," the molasses of which seems to have unleashed the opposite in Zico.

Date: 2011-08-15 04:06 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] askbask.livejournal.com
"So on the one hand you've got "standards" which are officially strict, and often petty, but on the other hand they seem easy to flout or to get around or even to play with and play off of, letters of laws being followed while spirits are getting massively mocked."

Seems to me the labels and the stations play this game for what it's worth. My impression is that the current censorship board is a relic from a time when these things were relevant - until sometime in the late 90s they had the opportunity to check and censor material before it was released. They lost this right, but stubbornly decide to belatedly plaster parental advisory stickers on records, to everyone's mild annoyance, long after they've had their run on the airwaves and sold their copies.

Sistar was asked by KBS to remove the equivalent of "who the f.. do you think you are?" from a song, so they did, but performed the original lyrics on the other public stations (SBS, MBC). Rania performed their original choreography on MTV, but not on the public station -- at least not after a week or two, when suddenly KBS & co realized that "oh, you can't do this". That's playing the game: Get the publicity and performance on air, then act concerned for the children to clear things up. Plus, the changes in Rania's routine didn't remove the in-your-face crotch-thrusting, so it was hard to see the point.

Labels do their dance: dal Shabet said they changed parts of their outfit in the wake of Hyuna-gate - but then they added an intro (acts are often allowed an extra mini-slot before the lead single performance in their first week of promotion) which was every bit as saucy because it wouldn't be performed past the first week of promotions anyway! No fear of the banhammer.

"Is HyunA being singled out for past transgressions?"

Everything goes in a circle. In a month or so someone will push the limits again, and slip past unnoticed until enough acts keep doing it and someone says stop. Then we start all over again.

It's a mockery of the system, and understandably so, but I'd rather see the system removed. It's so clearly pointless, whatever your agenda is. Note that the Hyuna restrictions lead to a debate with articles in Korean media about the double standards and ludicrousness of this, with promises of public debates from the ministry.

Here's one way to get around the system: Reveal an MV teaser that promises sauciness aplenty, making headlines and cries of "this will be banned!" and then reveal an actual MV without any of those scenes.

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Date: 2011-08-21 09:50 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] askbask.livejournal.com
For their final weekly performance they end with a handshake - jobb well done http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIPEJvm9FKk

Re: TV live performance

Date: 2011-08-21 04:10 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] askbask.livejournal.com
Yes, this was Inkigayo. Winners on all of those but Music Core. MTV have had shows under various names. MTV The M, MTV The Show.. not sure when it airs. Then there are the less pop idol-focused ones.

Re: TV live performance

Date: 2011-08-21 06:15 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] askbask.livejournal.com
She seems to go between those two shown there - from still and steamy to silly, bratty. Only thing I've seen outside music shows is "Invincible Youth", where the latter dominates

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Re: TV live performance

Date: 2011-08-21 07:11 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] askbask.livejournal.com
It's the other way around, I don't know how to get a bigger video embedded anymore! I use this code

</ lj-template>

Re: TV live performance

Date: 2011-08-21 07:12 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] askbask.livejournal.com
Wow, that messed things up didn't it? I was just trying to show
the youtube code from here http://lj-userdoc.livejournal.com/605165.html

the rest of my post:

I used to love this show called "Chocolate", but the woman hosting it called it quits this year. Yoo Hee Yeol's "Sketchbook" is similar and that's where most of the clips of IU with a band come from. It's simple enough, some pop stars, some songwriter types and bands, chit chat and music. I just look for the clips when I hear an artist I like has visited. But "Chocolate" seemed to get more special performances out of the guests.

Re: TV live performance

Date: 2011-08-23 01:42 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] askbask.livejournal.com
Yeah, I'm not sure. I think some of those four shows pre-record all the performance. Pretty sure Music Core does, they have no awards ceremony and performances are sometimes outside or in alternate locations. The full Korean title for Music Bank is actually 생방송 뮤직뱅크 - "Live Music Bank". I remember an article this year about a show with technical issues that lead to some artists who were penned in for a pre-recording having to perform live. Sometimes you see artists rush off and on the stage in the background while presenters talk, but that could just be to keep the pace of recording up.

That Hyori trick does look like cheating. The official MV upload on Youtube credits him - it's 낯선 / Nassun. He's recognized enough for his efforts for these pop stars to acknowledge him



Date: 2011-08-25 02:42 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] askbask.livejournal.com
Interesting development http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2011/08/117_93491.html

SM Ent use their bullying power for good

Date: 2011-08-25 03:38 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] askbask.livejournal.com
I don't know what their reasoning for 'Banana' was - the only article I read said the reason hadn't been revealed yet. I've seen mis-translated reports before.

Yeah, it's more serious, but rarely do the networks stand united - so even though it underlines the absurd unpredictability of it at least it usually doesn't affect all performances.

Date: 2011-08-29 01:26 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] askbask.livejournal.com
After SM Ent won their case, today CUBE and a collective of indie artists also sued. Following that the ministry announced changes to the system today:

The nine-member music rating committee will have more members, mainly industry figures such as music program directors and producers.

In a long-term plan, the ministry will have a separate organization take charge of song monitoring, comprising only non-governmental members.

While maintaining the current ban for those under 19, the government plans to adopt “a ban for those under 12,” following criticism that the prohibition was equally slapped on all people under 19 even though the mentality of elementary schoolchildren is much different from that of high school students.

“In this way, songs with lyrics harmful to younger children, like elementary schoolchildren, will be subjected to the ban, and those aged between 12 and 18 will be allowed to listen to them. As a result, the rating criteria for those between 12 and 18 will be eased,” Kim said.

In response to the criticism that the committee bans all songs that contain references to alcohol or cigarettes, the ministry will prepare more detailed guidelines on censoring.

“On expressions involving alcohol and cigarettes, we’ll limit the ban only to songs directly encouraging listeners to drink or smoke,” the vice minister said.

Date: 2011-08-29 02:49 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] askbask.livejournal.com
Well they just can't filter youtube videos so the new regulations will still be pointless in most ways. When it comes to downloading songs legally I think you have to register your ID number for an account, so they know how old your are. But do 12 year olds shop online anyway?

The airplay thing... maybe watershed will be for 19+ only. They slap on "15" ratings as a warning before some shows on TV, like in other countries. Don't know how that works on radio, though. "Please turn the volume down for the next three minutes".

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