A lot of my friends are Asian-American (because we shared the bond of being academically-oriented minorities at a mostly African-American high school), so I was exposed a bunch of times, but it didn't stick. I specifically remember a lot of former NSync fans being into Big Bang around 2008 (because subtext (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcTcQXxvb2o)), but I was never an NSync fan or a boyband fan, so I was never interested.
My girlfriend post-college, who is not a big Kpop fan herself but whose younger brother is a very intense Taeyang fan, once sat me down and showed me a bunch of Very Sad Kpop Ballads with Kdrama-like music videos - I remember JYJ In Heaven (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJM0uAAHt3A) was one of them - to see how I would react. And I remember thinking they were so transparently emotionally manipulative that they almost became parodies - and then turning to my GF who was silently crying over the tragic unfairness of Junsu's dead girlfriend. That left a deep impression.
And then, around November of last year, I took another look at 'I am the Best' and when CL showed up in the straitjacket, I got it. The emotions aren't exaggerated, Kpop is full of large personalities that run very hot and very cold. And like Sabina said in her review of that video way back when, Kpop and especially the girl groups is in its imperial phase right now.
"Why do you love it?"
I like the imperial phase of Kpop girl groups, mentioned above. I like that Kpop uses different metaphors and has different touchstones than US pop music, so even songs that might be very formulaic sound new and different to me. I like trot-inspired stuff because it reminds me of Yiddish folk songs, rap-inspired stuff because it reminds me of songs I heard on the bus on the way to school in the mid-ninties, Eurodance-inspired stuff (the Norwegian wave) because it sounds futuristic and experimental, and uptempo stuff because it reminds me of anime theme song music. (And like anime theme song music it sounds like it was made by people on speed...and sounds extra-good when you are on speed. "Ritalin" explains a lot about current teenybopper music tastes, I feel.) Finally, I like 2NE1 because it's has that happy-sadness (or sad-happiness) that is great for exercising. To Anyone is my exercise CD.
Additionally:
High production values: elaborate music videos, beats that don't sound like they came out of a box, the best vocal performances the singers are capable of captured on record. The vertical integration of artist, label and studio has advantages here.
Ease: there is good, high-production-value, experimental music being made in English too, but you have to dig for it. There is less Korean music overall, but many more great songs proportionally. Often the most popular songs (by Youtube hits) are the best or most interesting ones.
Finally, I like the way the entire Kpop industry sounds like it is driving over a cliff at 100 miles an hour. It's exuberant music, bubble music.
no subject
A lot of my friends are Asian-American (because we shared the bond of being academically-oriented minorities at a mostly African-American high school), so I was exposed a bunch of times, but it didn't stick. I specifically remember a lot of former NSync fans being into Big Bang around 2008 (because subtext (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcTcQXxvb2o)), but I was never an NSync fan or a boyband fan, so I was never interested.
My girlfriend post-college, who is not a big Kpop fan herself but whose younger brother is a very intense Taeyang fan, once sat me down and showed me a bunch of Very Sad Kpop Ballads with Kdrama-like music videos - I remember JYJ In Heaven (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJM0uAAHt3A) was one of them - to see how I would react. And I remember thinking they were so transparently emotionally manipulative that they almost became parodies - and then turning to my GF who was silently crying over the tragic unfairness of Junsu's dead girlfriend. That left a deep impression.
And then, around November of last year, I took another look at 'I am the Best' and when CL showed up in the straitjacket, I got it. The emotions aren't exaggerated, Kpop is full of large personalities that run very hot and very cold. And like Sabina said in her review of that video way back when, Kpop and especially the girl groups is in its imperial phase right now.
"Why do you love it?"
I like the imperial phase of Kpop girl groups, mentioned above. I like that Kpop uses different metaphors and has different touchstones than US pop music, so even songs that might be very formulaic sound new and different to me. I like trot-inspired stuff because it reminds me of Yiddish folk songs, rap-inspired stuff because it reminds me of songs I heard on the bus on the way to school in the mid-ninties, Eurodance-inspired stuff (the Norwegian wave) because it sounds futuristic and experimental, and uptempo stuff because it reminds me of anime theme song music. (And like anime theme song music it sounds like it was made by people on speed...and sounds extra-good when you are on speed. "Ritalin" explains a lot about current teenybopper music tastes, I feel.) Finally, I like 2NE1 because it's has that happy-sadness (or sad-happiness) that is great for exercising. To Anyone is my exercise CD.
Additionally:
High production values: elaborate music videos, beats that don't sound like they came out of a box, the best vocal performances the singers are capable of captured on record. The vertical integration of artist, label and studio has advantages here.
Ease: there is good, high-production-value, experimental music being made in English too, but you have to dig for it. There is less Korean music overall, but many more great songs proportionally. Often the most popular songs (by Youtube hits) are the best or most interesting ones.
Finally, I like the way the entire Kpop industry sounds like it is driving over a cliff at 100 miles an hour. It's exuberant music, bubble music.
"What is your ethnicity/nationality?
Jewish-American mom, Macedonian-American dad.
Continued in next comment!