Ticking Her Tush Like A Clock (Top Singles Through The Third Quarter Of 2011)

[koganbot]

Fat Cat and CL wiggle their way into the Top 10, producers/writers SweeTune give us Nine Muses' "Figaro" and Infinite's "Be Mine," and somewhere on here there's something new I added that isn't Korean, maybe down around 60:

Singles through September 30:

1. Britney Spears "Hold It Against Me"
2. Jeremih ft. 40 Cent "Down On Me"
3. GD&TOP "High High"
4. 2NE1 "I Am The Best"

Watch on YouTube

5. Galaxy Dream ft. Turbotronic "Ready 4or Romance"
6. IU "The Story Only I Didn't Know"
7. Bobby Brackins ft. Dev "A1"
8. Big Bang "Tonight"
9. SNSD "Bad Girl"
10. Fat Cat "My Love Bitch" [EDIT: the most common translation of "내사랑 싸가지" turns out to be "My Love Bad Boy," so that's what I'm now reluctantly going with]

Watch on YouTube

(But the camera person was too reticent, so you'll need to go here [EDIT: where it's called "Indifferent Love]," for a better view of Fat Cat ticking her tush like a clock.)

11. Dia Frampton "Heartless" (live)
12. 4minute "Mirror Mirror"
13. Britney Spears "Criminal"
14. Far East Movement ft. Lil Jon & Colette Carr "Go Ape"
15. Rihanna "S&M"
16. Nine Muses "Figaro"
17. GD&TOP "Knock Out"
18. Rihanna "Man Down"
19. Nicola Roberts "Beat Of My Drum (Loverushuk Radio Remix)"
20. MBLAQ "I Don't Know"
21. Girl2School "Let's Play Dance"
22. Reba McEntire "If I Were A Boy"
23. Rainbow "To Me"
24. Lemonade Mouth Cast "Determinate"
25. T-ara "Roly-Poly"
26. Xoxo "Mocha Java"
27. Big Freedia "Almost Famous"
28. Florence + The Machine "What The Water Gave Me"
29. Secret "No. 1 (Inst.)"
30. Infinite "Be Mine"

Watch on YouTube

31. Kelly Rowland ft. Lil Wayne "Motivation"
32. Metronomy "The Look"
33. Dev "In The Dark (Proper Villains Remix)"
34. Miss A "Love Alone"
35. Celia "D-D-Down"
36. HyunA "Bubble Pop"
37. 2NE1 "Hate You"
38. Roach Gigz ft. Lil 4Tay "Wild Child"
39. Leader'S "Hope"

Watch on YouTube

(Vocals from the bleeding-mascara subset of freestyle.)

40. Dev ft. the Cataracs "Bass Down Low"
41. The-Dream "Fuck My Brains Out"
42. Alexandra Stan "Mr. Saxobeat"
43. Leader'S "Please"
44. Avril Lavigne "What The Hell"
45. Jamey Johnson "Heartache"
46. Dionne Bromfield ft. Diggy Sim "Yeah Right"
47. The Decemberists "Down By The Water"
48. X-Cross "Crazy"
49. Kim Kardashian "Jam (Turn It Up)"
50. T-ara "Ya Ya Ya"
51. Blady "Spark Spark"
52. Selena Gomez & The Scene "Love You Like A Love Song"
53. Crookers ft. Róisín Murphy "Royal T."
54. AB ft. Jacob Eye "Slip"
55. CREEP ft. Nina Sky "You"
56. Robyn "Call Your Girlfriend"
57. Nicholas Jaar "Keep Me There"
58. Cee-Lo Green ft. Wiz Khalifa "Bright Lights Bigger City"
59. Orange Caramel "Bangkok City"
60. Fixers "Swimmhaus Johannesburg"

https://fixers.bandcamp.com/track/swimmhaus-johannesburg
(OK, the video [EDIT: which I can no longer find] is as boring as you'd expect from a clumsy indie band, and the lead singer's got a compacted nasal whine that most of the Jukebox considered the worst thing ever but that I now find unexpectedly astonishing, somehow being both shimmery and piercingly emotional in the manner of the Dells and the Four Seasons. The other song I heard by Fixers was terrible, and I've been afraid to check further.)

61. Phaeleh ft. Soundmouse "Afterglow"
62. Blady "Crazy Day"
63. Chi Chi "Longer"
64. Nero ft. Alano "Guilt"
65. Yasmin "Finish Line"
66. Rittz "High Five"
67. DJ Koo & Postino "Come Back"
68. Jang Geun Suk "Gotta Getcha"
69. Rania "Masquerade"
70. Norazo "포장마차"
71. GG ft. Park Bom "Having An Affair"
72. Seo In Guk "Shake It Up"
73. YJB & Girl2school "Poison"

Technical note: I knocked Kara's "Jumping" (another SweeTune track) and T-ara's "Why Are You Being Like This?" off my list for coming out prior to December 1, 2010; it's not as if we're facing a dearth of good songs without them. The only prior track that's still remaining is Jeremih's "Down On Me," out way back in September '10 but not peaking until this year.

Am still uncertain as to how high "I Am The Best" will end up on my list. For the way it plays in my head and in the zeitgeist it's easily my song of the year: the emotional reverberations, events, videos, costumes, Dara's hair, the amazingly incandescent CL-ness of CL. Yet when I feed the actual studio track into my player, it sounds a bit meager in comparison: plenty powerful, shoulder gripping and all, but missing an aura, without the fans screaming "Naega Jeil Jal Naga" in response and CL looking blissful.

So, sticking it at number four is a compromise. We'll see what happens, as the reverberations pile on and continue to infiltrate the track's sonics. Song could fall a little, or take its rightful place at number one.

Comments

[askbask.livejournal.com]

I was about to mention Chi Chi's "Longer" creeping upwards on my list but then I see it's on yours as well. A bit higher on mine, though.

Fat Cat is growing on me a lot! The tik tok thing is absolute bliss and further helped by her funny emoting on stage. Wish she could just keep ticking on for minutes. Appearance-wise she reminds me a bit of the woman behind one of my current SOTY candidates. If she found something more interesting to replace the "superstar" bit with it'd be perfect.

[arbitrary-greay.livejournal.com]

I have the bad habit of listening to remixes of some Kpop before I listen to the originals for groups I don't particularly follow, so that when I do listen to the original often it comes off underwhelming.
Case in point being Areia's remix of "I Am The Best."



Where my other favorite remixers' take on "I Am The Best" put a twist on the song, usually to suit the remixer's style, I find that Areia's remix distilled the essence of what makes "I Am The Best" so epic and amplified it. At any rate, now whenever I hear "Naega Jeil Jal Naga" it sounds wrong to me if I don't hear a whole ton of reverb with it. Although, it's not quite as much sassy fun as the original, with the relentless tribal beats lending an almost menacing tinge to 2NE1's aggressiveness.

In "My Love Bitch", do you know the name of the synth opposing the vocoded bits? All I know is that it's also the synth that takes "lead" at 0:45 here.

Heh, I see askbask's already linked Pon Pon Pon there. Nakata can do no wrong.

[arbitrary-greay.livejournal.com]

Some Jpop suggestions, although my experience for songs from this year is sorely limited as I've been more discovering old stuff than listening to new songs:
"Kodou no Himitsu" by Tokyo Girls Style
"Limited Addiction" by Tokyo Girls Style
"Dear J" by Itano Tomomi
"Natsu Dakara!" by Buono!
The 50s/60s influence on Jpop was previously discussed here already, but in addition to lifting from the boybands and girlgroups of that era, the music of the conglomerate Buono! hails from, Hello!Project, has a history of loving The Beatles, as well as at least one song showing a good deal of Queen influence. This might stem from the fact that H!P's main songwriter(who was not involved with Natsu Dakara!, to my surprise) was first in and writing for a popular rock band before he decided to turn the auditions for a new lead singer of said band into his chance to play Svengali with girlgroups.

"Bad Girl" by SNSD technically isn't a single, but if this is just a general "released with a MV" list, then I definitely would have these on my personal list:
"Dareka no Sei ni Shinai" by SKE48 (in the vein of "Seifuku ga Jama wo Suru", conceptually)
"Ice no Kuchizuke" by AKB48 (Retro bubblegum warning again. I'm weak to bubblegum that knows how to use timpani.)

[arbitrary-greay.livejournal.com]

One last non-idol addendum, but I have so little rock experience that for all I know this could be completely generic: "Beep!!" by Superfly

[arbitrary-greay.livejournal.com]

Lol, currently every time I get to the chorus of "My Love Bitch" I keep expecting "I'm a super star get the super star akkaunsigan nalli A, A, A, A"

[koganbot]

Well, Areia's definitely later in the night than Teddy is. Teddy's girls are in the moment of anticipation, ready to storm the evening, overwhelm the battlements, and conquer the rest of time; while Areia's taking us into the tunnel of the night, half-exhausted but still relentless.

Regarding the synth opposing the vocodor bits in "My Love Bitch," I don't know the names of any synths. The last keyboards I knew by name were Farfisa and Vox.

[koganbot]

Fat Cat's got that expressively deadpan look of a child's doll caught in a windstorm. Her costume made me think of Gaga and Ke$ha, though since Korean idols already dress so extreme, Fat Cat won't stand out. I like the patchiness of her clothing, as if her shirt and jacket welcome add-ons.

[koganbot]

She also reminds me of Betty Boop. And the melody reminds me of "Gangsta's Paradise," incongruously.

[askbask.livejournal.com]

Infinite - a feel-good story. A lot of "us", meaning people who talk about k-pop on the sideline, immediately took to them from the first singles. I didn't know the name of SweeTune back then, but the songs were so much fun, and _they_ seemed to have a lot of fun, which has been a pretty uncommon look for k-pop boy bands (outside of YG). The sales weren't there at all, and the label isn't one of the big ones, but they just kept on releasing good singles, great routines.

Paid off in the end, and now they're getting those #1s. A bit worried about their recent style, though - all black - hope they add some color again. (Album's no good, by the way)

[askbask.livejournal.com]

Orange Caramel - Shanghai Love - I remember the discussion about this unit being interesting, though I'm not sure we came to any conclusions or left it any wiser. They keep playing around, anyway, playing with jokes, playing with the joke as a concept, acting as comedians in the video, apparently serious about representing a new Asian city for each new single. Their first two singles just left me baffled, now I think they group is interesting because I can't predict what comes next, or what they're really trying to do (with the music, with the outfits, with their "Asia Project" (the Shanghai they portray here is something less than a stereotype, just signifiers thrown about. In a live performance they showed up in Bruce Lee outfits)), even if the songs themselves are kind of similar and clearly made by the same people .

[askbask.livejournal.com]

Interesting, but without a killer tune yet. This one's perfectly listenable, funny itself at times, but a bit tame.

[koganbot]

The single* includes their Chinese-language cover of "The Day You Went Away" as its number three track.

Are there any Chinese words in "Shanghai Love"? Embarrassingly, I don't always know whether I'm hearing Korean, Japanese, or Chinese. (The only language I've ever mastered is English, but I can usually tell when I'm hearing, say, Italian or French or German or Spanish. Of course sometimes I'll confuse Spanish and Portuguese. But not being able to tell Korean from Japanese or Chinese isn't like not being able to tell Spanish apart from Portuguese. It's like not being able to tell Spanish apart from Arabic or Swahili.)

The music has Chinese-seeming touches (I assume it's something about the intervals in the chords), but like the successful "Bangkok City," the basic approach sounds Italodisco (though maybe there's some trot influence in there too — I'm hardly the one to know anything about trot). The singing has more character than the group's had previously — presumably there is some faux Chinese enunciation in there, a way of attacking syllables or something — but the tune and riffs don't grab me as much as the ones in "Bangkok City." Are still pretty good, and the track could be a grower.

Glad the kiddie-lit meme has dropped from the videos.

*Or whatever it is; the criteria get over more indefinable.

[koganbot]

The most common translation of "내사랑 싸가지" turns out to be "My Love Bad Boy," so that's what I'm now reluctantly going with.

[koganbot]

Most sites are calling this track "Shanghai Romance." Google Translate usefully gives us "Shanghai Business." [Btw, Google Translate has now shifted from "My Love Bitch" to "My Love A Bad Boy" for the Fat Cat track, so I'm reluctantly going with "My Love Bad Boy" as the title.]

[askbask.livejournal.com]

"Love" was a type-o from me. The title is straightforward enough, "romance" being the english word spelled out in hangul, so I'm not sure what google are getting at. Unfortunately it seems "bad boy" is the standard, yes.. I searched up the word and also found it used for someone who is rude and a "bastard".

[koganbot]

Presumably Fat Cat is using "bad boy" in more or less the way Larry Williams used it (not to mention G-Dragon, who says in "Tonight" that he's a bad boy but he's nice).

Do you know anything about Fat Cat and "My Love Bad Boy": whom she records for and is signed with, who wrote and produced the song, etc.? I haven't searched strenuously, but as of a couple of weeks ago the only background I came up with was the claim at allkpop.com that the choreographer was the person who'd choreographed Lee Hyori's "U-Go-Girl."

Seems strange that a new act would be launched without an MV.

[askbask.livejournal.com]

The TV performances say: Lyrics: PJ, RP-T Track: PJ ---- Not very helpful when googling. The copyright association adds another name: Y-DUCK.

I try searching PJ further on the copyright site (he's got the same ID number as well, so I assume it's the same person), and find him/her credited on various tracks - among them an early IU track - Feel So Good, which sounds nothing like Fat Cat's.

There are pages and pages of songs credited to this PJ, which makes me wonder if it really is one person, but if I read the site correctly it is.

[koganbot]

Thanks.

[koganbot]

Areia's remix of 2NE1's "I Am The Best":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gprI1Hr-hyU