I express my confusion over at the Jukebox

[koganbot]

Not at all clear yet as to what I'm hearing when I listen to the new 2NE1 single. I express my confusion over at the Jukebox. Can't say I'm able to pick out the non-Western sounds the band are talking about in interviews* (trot, enka). Sounds like R&B-based dance-pop to me, but pushed into interestingly disparate melodic sections. But then, I'm not educated in Korean forms. Maybe you can help.

Watch on YouTube

*At allkpop and kpopstarz.

Comments

[sub-divided.livejournal.com]

I went looking for the interview(s) I remembered but all I can find are interviews where other people say it's new or unique, and 2NE1 say it's a hybrid of trot and electropop that should appeal to all ages in Korea and Japan and might sound "fresh" to their international fans. Whoops.

http://ygnxgeneration.wordpress.com/2012/07/08/article-we-will-quit-when-our-music-loses-its-freshness/

http://ygnxgeneration.wordpress.com/2012/07/07/article-we-will-never-stop-reinventing-ourselves/

http://ygnxgeneration.wordpress.com/2012/07/08/article-k-pop-queens-2ne1-return-with-glorious-new-anthem-i-love-you/

http://ygnxgeneration.wordpress.com/2012/07/09/2ne1-first-girlgroup-in-nation-to-go-on-world-tour/

http://ygnxgeneration.wordpress.com/2012/07/09/interview-2ne1-i-am-the-best-on-stage-part-1/

http://ygnxgeneration.wordpress.com/2012/07/09/interview-meaningless-to-do-music-when-we-cant-be-inspirational-to-people-part-2/

Sorry 2NE1! Looks like this is just lazy/sensationalistic music reporting.

[koganbot]

What strikes me most in those interviews is the — to me — strange use of the phrase "sexy concept," as if what 2NE1 were doing before wasn't already very sexy. I mean, just what is all the strutting supposed to be, not to mention Minzy rolling on the floor and twitching her cute butt? And I wouldn't call Bom's bare-legged look "frumpy." But then, "sexy concept" probably means something far more specific and focused in Korea. (I was going to say "specific and nonaggressive," except it would be hard to claim that HyunA's sexiness, for instance, is at all passive.) I suppose there's a difference between sexy concept and merely looking/dressing/being sexy.

As I said last April, my guess is that 2NE1's got a better shot than T-ara at getting a male audience in the U.S., even though in Korea it's 2NE1 who are having trouble crossing to males (supposedly; I wonder if anyone has published the numbers that would back up such observations).

[koganbot]

I gather from the interviews it's the melodies, more than the beat, that's supposed to be trot, and that Minzy in specific was singing the trot parts. So I'm watching/listening again, especially for Minzy's parts, and I'm still not distinguishing whatever it is that's trot, or even particularly Eastern. "I Am The Best" has a part that's more overtly Eastern, though not at all trot.

[sub-divided.livejournal.com]

Dunno, but Yang Hyun Suk is on record saying that 2NE1 are "cool" rather than "pretty":

http://ukygqueens.com/2012/05/22/news-2ne1-are-not-pretty-yang-hyun-suk-cool-is-better/

It could just be that the "cool" concept they are known for became a trend, so now they have to think of something else to stay new and relevant? They kept the conflicted lyrics and the shout-rap bit at the end so you know it's still a 2NE1 song.

I think 2NE1's "sexy" concept is more in line with what an international audience would consider sexy, but that being popular overseas can also be a strategy for being popular in Korea. Because if foreign people like it it must be good, right? But then you get into tricky questions of selling your identity out, or not being proud enough of where you came from, which are even trickier because Korea was a colonized country and 3/4 of 2NE1 have spent significant portions of their lives overseas. So maybe they are conflicted about that, too.

[koganbot]

Would I be right to say that T-ara's "TTL" has a melody that's more Asian-sounding (maybe even trot), more so than "I Love You"? Yet "TTL" is also saturated in rap.

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[sub-divided.livejournal.com]

Sounds right to me. I could see this playing on something like KEXP out of Seattle/New York, which plays old school hip hop and "world" music (though I can't remember any Apop on there, now that I think about it).

BTW here's the vocals for I Love You:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5vb2TVXPZg

Even though the melody doesn't sound "foreign" to me, it does sound weird somehow. Like the church harmonies on "I love you" are different from the harmonies on the rest of the song.