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koganbotIn ChoColat's "I Like It," 14-year-old Melanie lets loose with a wail of "I want it all, all or nothing," that pierces steel, leaps rooftops, and calls across oceans. Back in their introduction vid last July she was at ease and charming in a normal-girl bubbly way. Seems like a winning combination: camera-ready everyday warmth and a voice that can launch rivers and wring us dry.
ChoColat aren't getting far commercially yet, unfortunately: "Same Thing To Her,"* entered the Gaon chart last week at 83 and immediately took a step back to 132; the previous two singles didn't do much better. Fingers crossed. Strong beats, passionate singing, hot melodies. Yet another set of songs that remind me of freestyle. I know I've been making that comparison so much recently that it's likely losing its impact and meaning. I'll need to give this a post of its own sometime soon, freestyle to K-pop, or at least provide links to try and demonstrate the connection. (For what it's worth, all but one of ChoColat's songs are composed by either Norwegians or Brits, though with some Korean and Korean American input but none from the American East Coast, which is where freestyle originated. By the way, there's a sad story about one of the Korean American songwriters which I'll mention in the comments.)
In the meantime, there's the issue of "race." I consider race a dubious concept; but obviously we can't ignore it, since people use it to make distinctions and decisions that have huge impacts on how people live and suffer. An unreferenced sentence in Wikipedia says ChoColat were "announced as the first mixed race girl group in South Korea," which of course depends on how you define "mixed race" and "girl group." Miss A have two Chinese and two Koreans; Amber of f(x) is of Chinese descent, Tasha Reid a.k.a. T a.k.a. Yoon Mi-rae, who's part African American, used to be in the hip-hop/r&b group Uptown, but her bandmates were male. Whereas (like Yoon Mi-rae, probably unlike any of the others) the three youngest members of ChoColat are "bi-racial" — in this instance, part Caucasion and part Korean, with Tia's dad being half Puerto Rican, which likely gives her some African heritage as well.
I couldn't tell you if the multi-racial thing has been a selling point or a barrier (likely both), though that word "announced" hints at the former. [UPDATE: Definitely used as part of their promotion. An early performance of "I Like It" was preceded by a brief clip that goes: "K-pop syndrome, biracial idol group Chocolat. The first mini-album I Like It! Cheerful! Fresh! The world. 2012, soon they will raise the second syndrome."] What grabs my attention in their introduction vid, though, is how American the speech patterns of the three part-Caucasion girls seem. Interestingly, from the none-too-clear bios provided by Wikip, it appears as if Juliane's the only one to have lived a significant time in the U.S. (five years, which, e.g., is less time than Park Bom of 2NE1 did), and "full-blooded" non-Anglo-sounding member Min Soa seems to have spent more time in Australia than Melanie or Tia spent in any English-speaking country. I'd guess that Tia and Melanie were acculturated in "international communities." Or maybe Wikip is simply wrong.
And that's all I have to say on the subject.
*Also called "One More Day."
ChoColat aren't getting far commercially yet, unfortunately: "Same Thing To Her,"* entered the Gaon chart last week at 83 and immediately took a step back to 132; the previous two singles didn't do much better. Fingers crossed. Strong beats, passionate singing, hot melodies. Yet another set of songs that remind me of freestyle. I know I've been making that comparison so much recently that it's likely losing its impact and meaning. I'll need to give this a post of its own sometime soon, freestyle to K-pop, or at least provide links to try and demonstrate the connection. (For what it's worth, all but one of ChoColat's songs are composed by either Norwegians or Brits, though with some Korean and Korean American input but none from the American East Coast, which is where freestyle originated. By the way, there's a sad story about one of the Korean American songwriters which I'll mention in the comments.)
In the meantime, there's the issue of "race." I consider race a dubious concept; but obviously we can't ignore it, since people use it to make distinctions and decisions that have huge impacts on how people live and suffer. An unreferenced sentence in Wikipedia says ChoColat were "announced as the first mixed race girl group in South Korea," which of course depends on how you define "mixed race" and "girl group." Miss A have two Chinese and two Koreans; Amber of f(x) is of Chinese descent, Tasha Reid a.k.a. T a.k.a. Yoon Mi-rae, who's part African American, used to be in the hip-hop/r&b group Uptown, but her bandmates were male. Whereas (like Yoon Mi-rae, probably unlike any of the others) the three youngest members of ChoColat are "bi-racial" — in this instance, part Caucasion and part Korean, with Tia's dad being half Puerto Rican, which likely gives her some African heritage as well.
I couldn't tell you if the multi-racial thing has been a selling point or a barrier (likely both), though that word "announced" hints at the former. [UPDATE: Definitely used as part of their promotion. An early performance of "I Like It" was preceded by a brief clip that goes: "K-pop syndrome, biracial idol group Chocolat. The first mini-album I Like It! Cheerful! Fresh! The world. 2012, soon they will raise the second syndrome."] What grabs my attention in their introduction vid, though, is how American the speech patterns of the three part-Caucasion girls seem. Interestingly, from the none-too-clear bios provided by Wikip, it appears as if Juliane's the only one to have lived a significant time in the U.S. (five years, which, e.g., is less time than Park Bom of 2NE1 did), and "full-blooded" non-Anglo-sounding member Min Soa seems to have spent more time in Australia than Melanie or Tia spent in any English-speaking country. I'd guess that Tia and Melanie were acculturated in "international communities." Or maybe Wikip is simply wrong.
And that's all I have to say on the subject.
*Also called "One More Day."
