i dremt i dremt (T-ara compared to cats)
Sep. 5th, 2012 10:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)

I dremt there are Websites devoted to pictures of cats who look like members of T-ara.* Maybe even an animated TV show where T-ara (and all other people) are cats. I'm donating items to Goodwill, and I see, in a bag next to mine, decorative eggs that are painted as T-ara cats. As my friend Mary is driving me back, I proudly tell her, "This is where I got the idea." I'm chosen to direct the movie. It is originally to be lighthearted, but I say to myself, "I'm gonna do this right." In the movie, things are going well in Catworld, T-ara performing, sometimes as a band, playing all the instruments themselves. Then an evil sorceress transforms them into new creatures: human beings. There are worries that I'm going overbudget. We run a saturation ad campaign, in the U.S. as well as Korea, playing one clip over and over:
Jiyeon: When I move my arms, they seem as if they're not my arms but someone else's. When I move my legs, they seem as if they're not my legs but someone else's.
Psychiatrist: How long have you felt this way?
Jiyeon: Always.
Strangely, this dream makes almost no reference to the recent controversy, though there is the flicker of a thought that we have to mention it in the movie: I make the quick decision to write it briefly into an early cat scene, but not as a major event.
*This idea is not far-fetched, though when I do a Google image search for "cats that look like T-ara," I only get T-ara looking like cats. Now that I think of it, the mv for the Japanese version of "Bo Peep Bo Peep" has them as cats and (briefly) cats as them:
And T-ara have endorsed the Tony Moly Cats Wink Crazy Tint Stick (cat-shaped lip balm sticks, "hybrid lip product that's lip balm and tint that changes to a color that best suits your skin tone").
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Date: 2012-09-06 07:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-06 08:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-06 09:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-06 11:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-06 03:42 pm (UTC)A touch of hesitance on my part, but I feel justified in thinking that CCM's understanding of the world it's living in is even worse than my understanding of the world CCM is living in.
Do T-ara perform live tomorrow on Music Bank? Am I right in thinking that they have no choice but to perform live?
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Date: 2012-09-07 05:40 pm (UTC)During the live broadcast, I think the MC parts in between performers are live. Then for the performances, the pre-recorded performance is broadcast, but the artists also reappear on the stage and casually lipsync-perform over the pre-recorded audio. Then the sound guys mix in the audience screams during the broadcast live with the pre-recorded video/audio. This also allows for the performers to do stage shenanigans for the benefit of the studio audience.
Then, if there's an award at the end of the show, (I think only Music Bank still does) that's done live, as is the encore performance by the winner. (which is usually cut off for time)
An example of Music Core's pre-recording process can be found here, from 2:48 on the first video to 2:17 on the second.
And here's footage broadcasted vs. performance during broadcast.
There was once a "scandal" over a singer being denied a second take, but as you can see, the scandal wasn't over the fact that they do pre-recordings and second takes, but just that she aired complaints during the broadcast.
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Date: 2012-09-09 06:52 am (UTC)It seems likely, from what I've seen and surmised, that different shows do it differently, and might well also vary it from act to act and circumstance to circumstance. As far as singing goes, I assume that for ballad singers and duets, the singing isn't lipsynched (but that doesn't mean the clip isn't sometimes recorded in advance, perhaps with multiple takes and with parts of different takes strung together). Whereas for idol groups, esp. when there's lots of dancing, the standard is that all of the backup vocals are prerecorded, but some or most of the lead parts are sung onstage (whether the "stage" is at the same time of the broadcast or not), though I'd guess (emphasize guess) that for at least some of these the sound mixer is mixing in prerecorded leads with the sung leads. And I guess you're suggesting a third possibility: that the performance is done as before (some sung leads but prerecorded background) but then the whole thing is taped and then performed again, entirely lipsynched, but including the rawness and wavers and breathlessness, if any, of the previously sung version.
(On comeback stages there are intro parts that are entirely prerecorded.)
As for the presence of an audience at the performance, I can imagine a bunch more possibilities: performance done entirely without an audience (possibly w/ multiple takes and costume changes and intersplicing), then the clip is broadcast live, but you don't even hear anything of the live audience during the clip, only at the beginning and the end; prerecorded as before, except when the clip is played back you do hear fan chants, screams, applause during the track; prerecorded in front of an audience (maybe carefully preselected or maybe not) with multiple takes and costume changes if necessary, and it's that prerecorded audience you hear live; prerecorded as before but with original audience sounds left out and replaced by the audience sounds during broadcast; prerecorded in front of an audience but in a single take; performed live in front of the broadcast audience.
When you combine all these you get a potentially large number of permutations. I gather that Music Core and Music Bank do things differently, though obviously I haven't researched this. Wikip is little help: says that all four of the main performance shows are "broadcast live," whatever that means. For M! Countdown it says, "The show features some of the latest and most popular artists who perform live on stage." Whatever that means.
But to reiterate: what I think is crucial here is that T-ara perform before a potentially unpredictable audience, which they certainly can do (and have done) in the past. Certainly some of the shows allow this.
Why do I think this is crucial?
That might be part of another post. But someone's got to take some risk sometime. They can't continue on with a whole bunch of industries running scared. Or they can continue on like this, but why would they want to?
UPDATE: T-ara faced a live audience yesterday (says Naver as translated by allkpop), at the 2012 World Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources concert in Jejudo Islands, along with BoA, SHINee, 2AM, Wooyoung, ZE:A, EXO-K, Nine Muses, and A Pink. So I needn't be so pessimistic. Don't know what the reaction was overall (story was typically sparse); there was this:
"However, during T-ara's performance some fans retaliated by turning their glow-stick off which was followed by a silent protest."
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Date: 2012-09-09 08:11 am (UTC)Performed in front of an audience but the whole performance is pre-taped. Presumably this is one take and the audience you're hearing is the one that you're seeing, at the time of recording. I know this was pre-taped because by the time of broadcast — July 28, 2012, on Music Core — the rapper who's dancing and rapping onstage here had injured her leg and wouldn't have been dancing.
Performed in front of an audience, all in one take, with cue cards and glitches, and the group either couldn't (because the performance was at the time of broadcast), or didn't ask to, or weren't allowed to, re-do. This was broadcast on July 27, 2012, and obviously was performed later than the previous clip, though that one was broadcast later. Two of the regular performers are missing, the decision regarding one of them having reportedly been made at the last minute. It has been conjectured that this performance and the circumstances surrounding it had repercussions.
Pre-recorded, seemingly without an audience (but I don't know), with several takes and costume changes; but we're definitely hearing an audience, doing fan chants, cheers, and screams, I'm guessing from the time of the broadcast (Thursday on M! Countdown). And some or all of the leads are sung rather than lipsynched.
Entirely prerecorded, multiple takes and costume changes, seemingly all lipsynched, no audience; and at broadcast (yesterday on Music Core) you only hear audience before and after clip.
Music entirely prerecorded, performance lipsynched, but two of the performers decide to wear the other's clothes and hold the other's instrument, to see if anyone will notice.
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Performance supposed to be prerecorded and lipsynched but performers deliberately go off script, especially on second song (starting 5:33), especially w/ percussion.
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Anyway, we've had Hyomin's falling down and Hwayoung's wardrobe malfunction without second takes, so obviously this is not settled, and second takes may not always be possible.
T-ara wasn't on Music Bank on Friday, owing to the show and the agency (or whoever) being unable to agree on something or other (says Daum, translated by allkpop). I can speculate all sorts of potential reasons, but I don't know what they actually are.
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Date: 2012-09-17 06:15 pm (UTC)And here again is the September Music Core clip. "Entirely prerecorded, multiple takes and costume changes, seemingly all lipsynched, no audience; and at broadcast (yesterday on Music Core) you only hear audience before and after clip."
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Date: 2013-02-05 12:22 pm (UTC)http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xsgtg2_120727-t-ara-day-by-day_music#.URD46qVEHU8
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Date: 2012-09-09 08:45 am (UTC)Hard to tell, given the robot concept, but in this performance more than the other two they seem confident, glad to be onstage. Hyomin gives a smile near the end, as if to say, "So there!"
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Date: 2012-09-10 08:29 pm (UTC)"facing an audience where there's the possibility of an adverse reaction,"
Reminds me of the "CL has a parrot on her shoulder" instance. I don't think YG announced beforehand about the parrot's presence, though, like CCM did with Little T-ara.
What struck me about the parrot thing, though, is that initial (probably pre-written) articles didn't note any outrage, and were the usual run-of-the-mill hype and praise for everything during the stage, maybe dropping a "shocking" and "awkward" here and there to reflect the novelty of the stage, but overall not a negative reaction.
The criticism that would later cause YG to apologize seemed to solely derive from people who watched the performance from a screen, and not audience who had watched in studio, live.
So any fear of an adverse reaction is not fear of one from the audience they're facing, but the one that they can't face, the ones who watch and criticize them through an indirect medium and in a delayed timeline.
But companies have never really been sincere in their apologies before, especially in those MV-bans or lyric/outfit/choreo alterations for "decency," exactly because any adverse reaction is delayed, and they can get their publicity in that time period and even because of the backlash. Little kids dancing sexy to Kpop is nothing new either, from the girls in AS's "Bang!" MV, to, um, this, which did not receive any backlash. Why is CCM backing down now?
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Date: 2012-09-10 09:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-06 01:43 pm (UTC)I get knocked down, but I get up again
Date: 2012-09-06 05:03 pm (UTC)The Hwayoung rap sounds good. I like her choice of a level-Z electro accompaniment (by someone named Lishbeats). Seems playful, even while the rap is serious. Also like her overdubbing rap overlaps.
(To demonstrate the way this whole affair has led me to a blossoming distrust of anything I see published, I actually went and compared this to her rap in "We Were In Love" just to make sure this was her voice — despite allkpop having linked her twitter, where Hwayoung herself provides the link! Anyway, it's her.)
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Date: 2012-09-06 05:31 pm (UTC)Google translate gives:
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Date: 2012-09-07 07:44 am (UTC)Translation: http://popgasa.com/2012/09/06/e-via-feat-lee-soo-jung-i-know-how-to-party-%EB%82%9C-%EC%A2%80-%EB%86%80%EC%A4%84-%EC%95%84%EB%8A%94%EA%B1%B8/
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Date: 2012-09-07 11:07 pm (UTC)Title seems to translate more literally as "I Know How To Play A Little." Google translate gives us: "What I know how to play a little."
Seems like an attempt to return to an earlier (and more lucrative?) persona, as well as to do her own take on "Gangnam Style."
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Date: 2012-09-08 08:41 am (UTC)Adventures in Google Translate
Date: 2012-09-08 02:01 pm (UTC)These are what I get as results of my experimentation:
난 좀 놀줄 아는걸 = What I know some noljul
난 좀 놀 줄 아는걸 = What I know how to play a little
난 좀 놀 줄 아는 걸 = What I know how to play a little
e.via (이비아) 난 좀 놀 줄 아는 걸 = e.via (Via) I know how to play a little something
난 좀 놀 줄 아는 걸 UCC 동영상 = What I know how to play some UCC Video
e.via (이비아) 난 좀 놀 줄 아는 걸 UCC 동영상 = e.via (vias) that I know how to get to play UCC Video
e.via (이비아) - 난 좀 놀 줄 아는걸 (feat. 이수정 (Lee Su Jung)) = (Via) e.via - something I know how to play a little (feat. Lee, Soo Lee, Su Jung ())
난 좀 놀 줄 아는걸 (feat. 이수정 (Lee Su Jung)) = I know I'd get to play (feat. Lee, Soo Lee, Su Jung ())
For "걸" Google Translate simply gives "I" (but when I go the other way, English to Korean, I get "나는" for "I"). "아는 걸" alone gives us "What he knows," with a comma inserted after "knows."
I'd say Google Translate has a long way to go with Korean. I realize that Norwegian, which you say Google Translate does well, is a lot closer to English than Korean is. Still, I suspect that the Germanic languages (which include English and Norwegian) have gotten more attention from Google Translate than Korean has.
Re: Adventures in Google Translate
Date: 2012-09-09 09:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-09 05:07 pm (UTC)Black Ocean
Date: 2012-09-09 09:42 am (UTC)But I'll admit that one of the first things that got me interested in K-pop was this very thing: my third paragraph on the first thread I ever posted about K-pop was about a black ocean, though the term used was "silent protest" (withholding applause; but this was accompanied by the turning off of glowsticks, SNSD being the victims).
And
*Most likely was reprehensible in the other instances too, though of course that would depend on the instance, and I don't even know if it's happened to anyone but SNSD.
Re: Black Ocean
Date: 2012-09-09 05:17 pm (UTC)Emphasis added!