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How to pick up girls (Eng Sub)
Hyori trades banter with Big Bang on her variety show:
Part 1: http://youtu.be/AyZhMV6nJsY
Part 2: http://youtu.be/FH2lz4MoAjQ
She, co-host Jung Jae-hyung, and the boys are all quite personable, though even with subtitles I'm not understanding whole gobs of the interchange, due some to my not knowing the history, some to my not knowing the culture. But I do get that a hunk of what they're doing at the end is How To Pick Up Girls. And yeah, they're doing it for fun, and it's funny; but still, it's reminding me that these people are fundamentally mainstream and I'm not. (Or if one or more isn't/aren't fundamentally mainstream he/they are going along with it.*) I'm not averse to getting to know attractive women who happen to be passing by, including attractive mainstream women, and letting them know I'm potentially interested; but still, even though I can't totally put my finger on why, the how-to-pick-up-girls mentality epitomizes exactly what's mainstream about this clip and what's not mainstream about me. Maybe it's the assumption that this is our common ground. Or the assumption that we assume a common ground rather than discovering and creating it.
Of course, when various counterculture groups fundamentally go dead for me, and they all pretty much do, sooner or later — freak, punk, postpunk, indie-alternative, "poptimists," [your group name here] — it's exactly because they've gotten into a rut of assuming assumptions, e.g., assuming I'm like them more than I'm like Hyori. (See "The Death Of The Cool.") I don't assume that Hyori and I, for instance, or G-Dragon and I, etc., don't know how to find common ground. One common ground would be if they like to think about such things, about assumptions and how to test them. In 2006 Samsung was willing to postulate that Hyori seeks to see through a multiplicity of eyes.
Not related to this: at one point, Hyori mentions, in regard to a track that she and Daesung recorded, a plagiarism issue that for a time was a barrier to the two of them performing the song, but that she'd now worked out the copyright and they'd be singing it again in the future. What had happened was that for Hyori's H-Logic album, songwriter Bahnus simply ripped off seven overseas songs to sell to the label, the only major difference between his songs and the originals being that he'd substituted new Korean lyrics. It turned out this wasn't the first time he'd done such a thing. Rather astonishing, that he believed he could get away with it. Or maybe he knew he'd get caught, and was simply out of control. Calculating, he might be willing to chance that, e.g., no fan of Georgia Murray was ever going to hear Lee Hyori's "Swing" and no fans of Lee Hyori were also fans of Georgia Murray (and that no one was going to pick up on the Theodorakis riff that Murray sampled and Bahnus copied); but it was simply insane to assume that she and Jason Derülo had no listeners in common, and further that he could use the basic same title of the Derülo song "How Did We" (named "How Did We Get" in the Lee Hyori version, it being the song on which she and Daesung sang their duet) and copy the exact same Annie Lennox sample, and that no one would notice any resemblance. But I only know what Wikipedia says. Hyori seems totally blameless. Bahnus was not only sued by the label, he was convicted of forgery and fraud and sentenced to over a year (at least according to Wikip, though there's a "citation needed" on this).
None of this is meant to imply that I won't someday visit a Derülo YouTube thread in order to say "Lee Hyori brought me."
*Get the sense that Taeyang may not be totally on-board, either.
**[UPDATE: According to Wikip, "Bahnus" refers to Lee Jae-young but he also led a songwriting group, "Bahnus Vacuum"; the text isn't clear but it seems to be saying that Lee alone is responsible for the plagiarism.]
h/t Mat
Part 1: http://youtu.be/AyZhMV6nJsY
Part 2: http://youtu.be/FH2lz4MoAjQ
She, co-host Jung Jae-hyung, and the boys are all quite personable, though even with subtitles I'm not understanding whole gobs of the interchange, due some to my not knowing the history, some to my not knowing the culture. But I do get that a hunk of what they're doing at the end is How To Pick Up Girls. And yeah, they're doing it for fun, and it's funny; but still, it's reminding me that these people are fundamentally mainstream and I'm not. (Or if one or more isn't/aren't fundamentally mainstream he/they are going along with it.*) I'm not averse to getting to know attractive women who happen to be passing by, including attractive mainstream women, and letting them know I'm potentially interested; but still, even though I can't totally put my finger on why, the how-to-pick-up-girls mentality epitomizes exactly what's mainstream about this clip and what's not mainstream about me. Maybe it's the assumption that this is our common ground. Or the assumption that we assume a common ground rather than discovering and creating it.
Of course, when various counterculture groups fundamentally go dead for me, and they all pretty much do, sooner or later — freak, punk, postpunk, indie-alternative, "poptimists," [your group name here] — it's exactly because they've gotten into a rut of assuming assumptions, e.g., assuming I'm like them more than I'm like Hyori. (See "The Death Of The Cool.") I don't assume that Hyori and I, for instance, or G-Dragon and I, etc., don't know how to find common ground. One common ground would be if they like to think about such things, about assumptions and how to test them. In 2006 Samsung was willing to postulate that Hyori seeks to see through a multiplicity of eyes.
Not related to this: at one point, Hyori mentions, in regard to a track that she and Daesung recorded, a plagiarism issue that for a time was a barrier to the two of them performing the song, but that she'd now worked out the copyright and they'd be singing it again in the future. What had happened was that for Hyori's H-Logic album, songwriter Bahnus simply ripped off seven overseas songs to sell to the label, the only major difference between his songs and the originals being that he'd substituted new Korean lyrics. It turned out this wasn't the first time he'd done such a thing. Rather astonishing, that he believed he could get away with it. Or maybe he knew he'd get caught, and was simply out of control. Calculating, he might be willing to chance that, e.g., no fan of Georgia Murray was ever going to hear Lee Hyori's "Swing" and no fans of Lee Hyori were also fans of Georgia Murray (and that no one was going to pick up on the Theodorakis riff that Murray sampled and Bahnus copied); but it was simply insane to assume that she and Jason Derülo had no listeners in common, and further that he could use the basic same title of the Derülo song "How Did We" (named "How Did We Get" in the Lee Hyori version, it being the song on which she and Daesung sang their duet) and copy the exact same Annie Lennox sample, and that no one would notice any resemblance. But I only know what Wikipedia says. Hyori seems totally blameless. Bahnus was not only sued by the label, he was convicted of forgery and fraud and sentenced to over a year (at least according to Wikip, though there's a "citation needed" on this).
None of this is meant to imply that I won't someday visit a Derülo YouTube thread in order to say "Lee Hyori brought me."
*Get the sense that Taeyang may not be totally on-board, either.
**[UPDATE: According to Wikip, "Bahnus" refers to Lee Jae-young but he also led a songwriting group, "Bahnus Vacuum"; the text isn't clear but it seems to be saying that Lee alone is responsible for the plagiarism.]
h/t Mat
no subject
I kinda of think that part of what GDragon is doing when he switches up his style is looking for a way to express his inner girl; but in a way that avoids him being actually mistaken for a girl, which would mean being taken less seriously. Of course, this is another reason girls like Big Bang: because of the sense of reversed gender roles, where the most "feminine" member is indisputably the group's dominant and dominating personality. (And meanwhile, (foreign?) guys don't even see the feminine, because "power" and "dominance" and "swagger" are so firmly masculine qualities in their minds.)
Or switching up could be a way to express a new "you" and make a new start; or it could just be what's expected of him at this point, lol. The clothes thing is a genuine obsession though: GDragon has to have something to spend all his songwriting $$$ on, and reportedly what he spends it on is high fashion, eg "walking into his room is like walking into a select shop" (says Seungri).
(TOP spends his $$$ on limited-edition toys and a swingin' bachelor pad.)
no subject
...and also with the Korean fanbase ("VIPs"), to the extent that it's possible to be in a codependent relationship with a diffuse mass of people. (But Kpop fans are very organized and militant, compared to other pop fans.)
Big Bang's style changes, in part, because the other members of Big Bang all have unique and distinct tastes in music; and also because GDragon is chasing trends in the US. (But has generally been a step or two behind: more on this later.)
"Alive" has a bunch of songs that try to address that "control" urge - Blue, Love Dust, and Ain't No Fun are all about letting go. GD&TOP don't have any of their signature joint rap bridges on this album, but TOP is gonna let you know what he thinks about the relationship anyway.
Trying to court an international audience, they've ended up maybe half a step behind in some cases (the triangles on the Alive album packaging; the Brooklyn-set MVs) but right in the middle of the zeitgeist in others (the GIF-able and fanbaiting video for the LMFAO-like Fantastic Baby). Ironically being a step behind the West puts you a step ahead, or just right, in Asia, and their perceived cache outside Korea gives them extra credibility *in* Korea.
How compelling you find all this is gonna depend on whether or not you are the target audience, which is and has always been: teen girls and slash-loving women.
no subject