Kara, Brown Eyed Girls, and Jay Park reviewed on the Jukebox

[koganbot]

Watch on YouTube

Kara's "Step," Brown Eyed Girls' "Sixth Sense," and Jay Park's "Demon" were all reviewed recently on the Jukebox (here, here, and here). The big "Step" issue for Jukeboxers was how crowded the sound was, some liking it, some not. I'm definitely in the liking-it category, think producers SweeTune make it feel effortless, a full-throttle but easy flow. My only reservation is that the tune isn't up there with SweeTune's best. I don't have much to say about "Demon": a functional Teddy Riley track, an OK melody, needs a snap that it once could have gotten from a Bobby Brown or a Ralph Tresvant, not to mention a Michael Jackson, but isn't getting from Jay Park.

Got home too late to do a Jukebox writeup on "Sixth Sense," but the Jukebox crew did great without me. The song is ambitious and baffling and the reviewers didn't pretend that they had a bead on it. Still don't know what I think of the music. Jer's pan and Iain-Anthony-Doug's praise all make equally good sense. There are so many shifts that the groove doesn't take hold, and no melody soars. But I'm stirred by the massiveness and experimentation. If I give it a chance, maybe it will take hold.

Am just as ambivalent about the video: provocative images thrown in our face, an attempt to connect democracy and sexual liberation, seems facile but that doesn't make the images less arresting. The three oldest Brown Eyed Girls were already in elementary school before South Korea had its first genuinely free election. So riot shields and cults of personality and the state closing in wouldn't pertain only to some countries to the north and to the east.

The teaser single "Hot Shot" that came out a week before this is just as ambitious and swings better for me, big-band Latin ramping into soundtrack funk and the Brown Eyed Girls doing the girls-will-be-boys thing on TV.

Was disappointed that the "Sixth Sense" video contains no murders, suicides, or murder-suicides. Along those lines - along any lines - Brown Eyed Girls' "Abracadabra" and BEG Ga-In's "Irreversible" are two of the best music videos I've seen in the last several years. Mysterious but decipherable plots that netizens spend months on YouTube figuring out. [Click CC if you're not getting English subtitles for "Irreversible."] Also, great accordion. Last February I tried not very successfully to start a conversation about "Abracadabra." I'll make the effort for "Irreversible" sometime in the future (tried once on poptimists, but of course that failed too, an experiment the purpose of which was to confirm that Mat and I are alone in the world).

Comments

[koganbot]

The "meow" at 3:42 of the "Sixth Sense" video is hilarious.

The video contains a cat, for no more or less apparent reason than the video for "Abracadabra" contained a dog.

[askbask.livejournal.com]

"Sixth Sense" is written by Lee Min Soo (a man) and Kim Eana (a woman who apparently looks like TOP), the same duo that wrote most other tracks on the album (member Miryo is co-credited for lyrics on all the album tracks, presumably for her rap verses. Jea has a co-credit for composition and lyrics on 불편한 진실), Ga-In's "Irreversible" and "Good Day" for IU .

Anyway, she seems to have had a hand in the music video as well, as she goes to great lengths explaining all the symbolism. Apparently not one of those artists who demands her art speaks for itself. http://www.allkpop.com/2011/10/lyricist-kim-eana-explains-the-symbolism-behind-brown-eyed-girls-sixth-sense-mv

[arbitrary-greay.livejournal.com]

And on the other hand, the "Sign" MV was a little too straightforward? It definitely wouldn't take months to decipher, at any rate.

"Sixth Sense" doesn't really stand on its own. At first I much preferred "Hot Shot," as "Sixth Sense" did feel a little overreaching and silly with the harsh strings and vocals clashing with the connotations of carefree fun that disco brings, but once I saw their comeback performance everything changed. Part of it may be that their choreography is allowed to match the structure of the song, ramping up the tension all the way until those glorious long notes amidst the wild activity of the backdancers, but is followed up by their strongest rendition of the chorus with the dance less flag-waving than defiantly celebratory. The dance during the last chorus is also more memorable and fast-paced than the choreography used during the previous choruses, which helps lend strength to the last chorus to carry the song through a strong finish, avoiding letting the three-note climax render everything afterwards irrelevant.
The MV doesn't do a good job of conveying this structure. The MV images' climax in the middle of the last chorus, with everyone finally starting to rebel, but the timing is off, and I didn't feel the impact of the flurry of conflict in the last leg of images other than as another tick mark on the "dystopian future storylines" checklist. Plus, Miryo's rap has so much more fire when she's free to be as forceful and confident as she wants, rather than tied down as in the MV. Watching the performance, it's hard to imagine that these girls ever could have been constrained as shown in the MV, and their attitudes on stage put the emphasis on the vocals, sending the song flying when the initially harsh strings and beat seek to ground it.(And did, in the recorded version) And that so much better conveys the image of defiance that the MV tried for.

Broke the word limit

[arbitrary-greay.livejournal.com]

I never was much into MV image interpretation, but when I first watched the "Sixth Sense" MV, my impression was that each of the girl's captivity reflected the ways their images have been flanderized by the media after Abracadabra. Gain is the pretty girl who cries,(and is usually the damsel in distress) Narsha is the fierce and sexy one, Jea's the one working on the group's music behind the scenes, and Miryo's the rapper. The descriptions of "the ____ one" both define and constrain them, ignoring how Narsha takes care of her juniors on variety TV even as her image is forever "the 30+ old idol who is too adult," how Jea is like Dolly Levi whenever Gain and her fake-husband Jokwon are in the same room together, that Gain is far from passive and isn't bothered by haunted house shenanigans, and that Miryo does anything other than rap. But no, in the MV Gain looks pitiful, Narsha has to act sexy, Miryo has to do the talking, and Jea is bound in a garden representing the arts that doubtlessly has no public visitors, even if they can watch streaming footage of the garden online.
Abracadabra helped herald the rise of electronic dance songs in Kpop, away from the bubblegum and hip hop direction it had before, and in doing so both catapulted BEG into Big Group status and cemented them as "the girlgroup that is older than everyone else and thus can do more sexy things." "Sign" was clearly trying to replicate the "Abracadabra" formula, but not as dynamic, as unlike in "Abracadabra" the girls never successfully escape their captivity in the MV, and even their struggles are just token flailings, trying to survive long enough for the hero to arrive.(And the Japanese "Sign" PV was a lazy amalgation of multiple dance shots only) "Sixth Sense," however, not only breaks from Kpop music trends, but has yet even more open defiance than in "Abracadabra", in which Narsha had to sneakily plan and execute her revenge on the master. "Sixth Sense" is BEG declaring their independence from the shackles popularity placed on them, which was hinted at by how Gain's solo album had its own musical direction with the tango theme, and Narsha's solo work visually playing twisted versions of Kpop tropes.(It was telling that in one of the year-end festivals Narsha was part of a dolls-themed medley of idol performances, and where the other groups played it straight, other than perhaps f(x) being more Bratz than Barbies, Narsha was the doll you knew would murder you in your sleep.)

Re: Broke the word limit

[askbask.livejournal.com]

I think Ga-In's mostly know as "the woman who dominated JoKwon" to be honest. I don't think she looks pitiful in the video! She's growling and sneering, enjoying herself even.

I really like 'Sixth Sense' on its own. "No melody soars" may be true, but eventually it twists and turns into something that feels like a real climax.

Re: Broke the word limit

[koganbot]

You should take into account that I'm a relative newbie when it comes to K-pop; didn't notice until mid 2009 that it existed, didn't emphatically decide "I'm now going to get into this" until July 2010. This is the first time I've ever seen "Sign." So I love all the background you're giving me. Had no idea that Ga-in was typed as the one who cries (what I got from "Abracadabra" was Ga-in as the wanton seducer hedonist who at the end is about to get an unwished-for surprise; "Irreversible" was a totally different character, the desperate little girl who wanted to be rescued but then tried to refuse the freedom that her Prince Charming insisted on granting her; finally, at the end, she has no choice but to accept that she's her own master).

Re: Broke the word limit

[arbitrary-greay.livejournal.com]

Like askbask says, Gain may actually be known to the Korean public as the sassy oldest youngest girlgroup member, but even then she's the most "normal" and idol-ly (as in, appearance as a main appeal point) out of the members of BEG, to where she almost didn't make it into BEG because it wasn't supposed to be a traditional idol group. And in their MVs, if there's a storyline, you can bet Gain's character will be the one explicitly unlucky in love, as opposed to the other members who are apparently too magnificent to fall for man's tricks in the first place. (Even pre-Abracadabra) The only exception is Sign, but even there it felt more like "Gain is the hero's true love, so she survives a little bit longer, for extra irony!" than her having more fight than the other members.
I got from Abracadabra a Gain who learned to seduce and manipulate out of survival, in order to avoid the less sophisticated sector of the business. But she found herself in the business in the first place because of misplaced trust, and maybe some Stockholm Syndrome tendencies. At any rate, she came off as a passive player. But this is an interpretation not taking into account the attitudes on display in the dance shot, or the meaning of the lyrics.

Re: Broke the word limit

[arbitrary-greay.livejournal.com]

I just realized that a big part of my Sixth Sense interpretation stemmed from my assumption that the girls in captivity was after their failed rebellion at the wall, rather than their having broken free from their imprisonment and then recruited an army to protest at the wall, as Eana apparently envisioned it.

Re: Broke the word limit

[koganbot]

I like your idea of the respective Brown Eyed Girls needing to break free from their images — even if that's not what was scripted into the video. Those images/needs accompany the women into the video whatever the wishes of the videomakers. Anyhow, your understanding of all this is obviously way richer than mine.

[koganbot]

The military jacket that [Ga-In]'s seen wearing over her clothes belongs to her dead lover, a man who dreamed of a revolution. Ga-In wore that jacket around, mourning the death of her lover, but didn't know what the jacket stood for. Consequently, she becomes accused by ‘the Absolute’ of being a traitor, and gets locked up, humiliated, and abused. Although she looks scared at first, her spirit rises up at this challenge, and she begins to tease her attackers to do worse with sly glances and smirks.

Gee, why didn't I figure that out? —Honestly, the whole conception makes it seem like a student film, though of course with super-high "production values." "Irreversible," by contrast, is profound; not necessarily its "message," which can be reduced to a platitude ("Ga-In has to learn to be independent" or something], but the way that the message is genuinely embodied in an emotionally realized story.

The melody eventually starts to sound like "Lady Marmalade" — not like the "Voulez-vous coucher avec moi" part but like "Creole Lady Marmalade" — a song I've never warmed up to at all, in any of its versions.

[koganbot]

The video for "Sixth Sense" was directed by Hwang Su-a (황수아; which also gets transliterated Hwang Soo Ah).