What's going on with Rainbow's "concept"?
Feb. 23rd, 2013 08:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
koganbotWhat's going on with Rainbow's "concept"? And how do "concepts" work in general in K-pop? Even though performers do sometimes change 'em like costumes, that doesn't necessarily mean those very performers aren't committed in some deeper way to what the concepts mean. Or at least it doesn't mean that they're not committed in the audience's eyes, or that we don't hold them accountable on the basis of our (or someone's) sense of what they're doing with the concepts and who they appear to be behind the concepts.
I find Rainbow's switch from "the sexy dominatrix image"* of "A," "Mach," and "To Me" to the new one on "Tell Me Tell Me," whatever it is (cheery and serene and bright but at a half-knowing half distance?), jarring:
"A":
"Mach":
"Tell Me Tell Me":
Music seems to be included in the concept of "concept." As it should be. Except the music on "Tell Me Tell Me" is meh compared to what Rainbow were doing a couple of years ago in "A" etc.
For what it's worth, I don't believe that in Korea — or in America, for that matter — there's a split between "authenticity" and "artifice." The two concepts aren't opposites. You're still committed to what your artifice says about you, even if what it says is convoluted, multiple, and indirect. Or if you're a phony, that doesn't have to do one way or another with how much art or artifice you employ. E.g., if I as a writer use irony and scare quotes all over the place, which I do, that doesn't mean I'm not held accountable for what I communicate via the irony and scare quotes. If it's strong, it's strong. If it's bogus, it's bogus.
Relevant here: HyunA's switching up onstage between being engaging and being tough, which mixes with and plays off of her lovably passionate neediness and dorkiness on reality TV. Being the provocateur onstage and the lovable dork on reality TV (which is hardly offstage) is a canny strategy, even if it's all quite genuine. Makes her simultaneously special but still apparently in the range of her audience. (AG talks more knowledgeably about this than I do. Have to go now, but later I'll add links to the HyunA discussion, and also to the discussion during our problematic-video series of Raina, Nana, and Lizzy shifting back and forth between their After School role as p-dolls-like sexpots and their role, in the first several Orange Caramel offerings, as leggy model types jammed into costumes from kiddie picture books.)
[Insert 10,000-word essay on Dylan's ongoing image and musical changes in the Sixties and early Seventies as a continual — and self-conscious — dance of engagement with and repudiation of his audience(s), and of Bowie and Madonna doing interesting things with the lie that you can be in control of style. Also, about the Stones losing some of their force when they went from the multiple viewpoints and scary personas of "Heart Of Stone" and "Under My Thumb" etc. to the outright fiction of "Midnight Rambler."]
*In the words of their agency DSP Media. Actually, the full sentence is worth perusing, since the description is for "Mach" alone, the claim being that "Mach" itself constituted a concept switch from "A": "They've only shown innocent and sexy sides. They will show an image that will be upgraded. They will transform into the sexy dominatrix image." Perhaps "A" was merely "sexy." So, is the current concept in "Tell Me Tell Me" a downgrade? (Hmmm. I notice that in the "Mach" writeup DSP was using the word "image," not "concept," the latter being more common, and what Soompi used. Of course, "image" might be the work of a translater.) Do the concepts accumulate (that is, you add a new concept without necessarily losing your commitment to the old, even if the concepts seem very different)?
Can't say I'm seeing "Mach" as having much of a dominatrix look. Maybe "dominatrix" was some publicist's pipe dream. The sound maybe has a tiny bit; it's fundamentally a SweeTune dance rouser, but with a dark background tone — though that's hardly any more prominent than its spirited James Brown shout-out.
I find Rainbow's switch from "the sexy dominatrix image"* of "A," "Mach," and "To Me" to the new one on "Tell Me Tell Me," whatever it is (cheery and serene and bright but at a half-knowing half distance?), jarring:
"A":
"Mach":
"Tell Me Tell Me":
Music seems to be included in the concept of "concept." As it should be. Except the music on "Tell Me Tell Me" is meh compared to what Rainbow were doing a couple of years ago in "A" etc.
For what it's worth, I don't believe that in Korea — or in America, for that matter — there's a split between "authenticity" and "artifice." The two concepts aren't opposites. You're still committed to what your artifice says about you, even if what it says is convoluted, multiple, and indirect. Or if you're a phony, that doesn't have to do one way or another with how much art or artifice you employ. E.g., if I as a writer use irony and scare quotes all over the place, which I do, that doesn't mean I'm not held accountable for what I communicate via the irony and scare quotes. If it's strong, it's strong. If it's bogus, it's bogus.
Relevant here: HyunA's switching up onstage between being engaging and being tough, which mixes with and plays off of her lovably passionate neediness and dorkiness on reality TV. Being the provocateur onstage and the lovable dork on reality TV (which is hardly offstage) is a canny strategy, even if it's all quite genuine. Makes her simultaneously special but still apparently in the range of her audience. (AG talks more knowledgeably about this than I do. Have to go now, but later I'll add links to the HyunA discussion, and also to the discussion during our problematic-video series of Raina, Nana, and Lizzy shifting back and forth between their After School role as p-dolls-like sexpots and their role, in the first several Orange Caramel offerings, as leggy model types jammed into costumes from kiddie picture books.)
[Insert 10,000-word essay on Dylan's ongoing image and musical changes in the Sixties and early Seventies as a continual — and self-conscious — dance of engagement with and repudiation of his audience(s), and of Bowie and Madonna doing interesting things with the lie that you can be in control of style. Also, about the Stones losing some of their force when they went from the multiple viewpoints and scary personas of "Heart Of Stone" and "Under My Thumb" etc. to the outright fiction of "Midnight Rambler."]
*In the words of their agency DSP Media. Actually, the full sentence is worth perusing, since the description is for "Mach" alone, the claim being that "Mach" itself constituted a concept switch from "A": "They've only shown innocent and sexy sides. They will show an image that will be upgraded. They will transform into the sexy dominatrix image." Perhaps "A" was merely "sexy." So, is the current concept in "Tell Me Tell Me" a downgrade? (Hmmm. I notice that in the "Mach" writeup DSP was using the word "image," not "concept," the latter being more common, and what Soompi used. Of course, "image" might be the work of a translater.) Do the concepts accumulate (that is, you add a new concept without necessarily losing your commitment to the old, even if the concepts seem very different)?
Can't say I'm seeing "Mach" as having much of a dominatrix look. Maybe "dominatrix" was some publicist's pipe dream. The sound maybe has a tiny bit; it's fundamentally a SweeTune dance rouser, but with a dark background tone — though that's hardly any more prominent than its spirited James Brown shout-out.
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Does DSP hate rainbow?
Date: 2013-02-23 03:59 pm (UTC)Does DSP Hate Rainbow?
no subject
Date: 2013-02-23 04:52 pm (UTC)Here's his live remix of "To Me," in Tokyo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sB-By6AoUb0
no subject
Date: 2013-02-23 05:32 pm (UTC)I gotta go, but maybe I'll come back later. I think Concepts are important because idols-have-to-be-uncontroversial means they can't have really interesting images (as people). That would make the stage performances and music really boring, though, so "performance concepts" play a big role in livening things up.
There's also the fact that idols tend to try out lots of concepts and stick with the ones that work best. So as a fan, you kind of have ownership of the concept, since you're who determines what it is.
EDIT: Which isn't to say that they're totally fictional, either. Stage performances are like acting, obviously the effect is better is the performer can relate to what's going on onstage. And the variety-show image is like acting in a long-running television show, if the role is too far from your real personality it'll start to show eventually.
no subject
Date: 2013-02-24 04:53 am (UTC)When I say they're not as prominent now I mean that newer groups seem to settle on a group concept more than new roles they take on every new promotion. You have the tough hip hop groups, the flirting with rock groups, the elegant groups, etc.
Although you will still see the hype machinery say stuff like "you'll see a totally new side of __ with the release of __" even if you don't.
Where this leaves Rainbow I don't know but the song sucks and they're performing considerably worse on the charts than the last time they were around.
no subject
Date: 2013-02-24 07:46 am (UTC)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MI54eWRzsVw
Though I hate what's been done to Block B, both in the trumped-up Thailand "scandal" and the nonpayment by the record company (I should say "alleged nonpayment," since I don't know the record company's side of the story), Block B's own musical mixture (boyband with virtuoso rap) sounded good only sporadically, though in theory it should have been great. I wonder if Zico might be better off just being Zico, sans band. But I have yet to relisten to his solo alb from a couple of years ago. I remember its devotion to hip-hop making it sound too dry. So I seem to be damning the guy when he does and damning him when he doesn't. But he does have great talent.
Back to Rainbow. "Tell Me Tell Me" isn't necessarily a bad song, but the arrangement brings it to nowhere land. The beats are trying to be strong but aren't, the lightness doesn't fly, the fizziness fizzles. So the track clonks around without figuring out whether to kick or to float, and does neither. Sounds like a Girl's Day song without Girl's Day. It's not really my style anyway, but it's also a botch of what might have been a good example of the style.
You were the one who originally alerted me in 2011 when four members of Kara requested that their contract with DSP be terminated, before they all ended up settling. I gather that part of the complaint was that the label was requiring promotional work without adequately informing Kara of what was going on. So the issue wasn't just who gets what money or who gets exploited, but also alleged confusion and mismanagement.
The writer at Soompi, The Real Cz, thinks that DSP is neglecting Rainbow, though I doubt that an agency would release a song that it didn't expect to do well. I wonder why SweeTune weren't involved. Do you know what SweeTune are up to this year, other than Nine Muses?
no subject
Date: 2013-02-24 08:12 am (UTC)And
Sounds like a formula for jerking the members around. I suppose sports teams do this as a matter of course, as do most businesses, so why shouldn't musical groups? But music isn't basketball.
A not-completely-informative article at Allkpop quotes the agency ("D-Unit to come back with the addition of a very pretty 4th member"):
But she doesn't, apparently, possess a name. Maybe D-Business has noticed more than one woman in the world with great beauty and hasn't yet settled on which one belongs in the group — though I'd hope she's actually in on the recording. The article says that Zico had a say regarding who got chosen.
Actually, this seems like a publicity gimmick on the company's part. In the photo, her face is deliberately hidden:
no subject
Date: 2013-02-27 08:03 am (UTC)Not sure what Sweetune are doing right now but they were very profilic last year, as main providers of music for Nine Muses, Infinite, Spica and even other groups like Boyfriend (november single 'Janus' a ST joint).
no subject
Date: 2013-03-07 10:03 pm (UTC)D-Unit's "Face To Face" is another good Zico production, though the vid steers them in a direction that's too sweet 'n' Disney for their sound.
[Error: unknown template video]
no subject
Date: 2013-03-08 05:32 am (UTC)1 살아남아 (Stay Alive) (ft. Vasco) (Lyrics: VASCO | Composer: VASCO
2 얼굴보고얘기해 (Talk to My Face) (ft. Zico of Block B) (Lyrics: Zico | Composer: Zico, Yoo Sunkyun)
3 Lock Down (Lyrics: DM, Nodo | Composer: Park Jiho, Noday)
4 Alone (Lyrics: C-Luv, RAM | Composer: Stay Tuned, C-Luv, RAM)
5 늦잠 (Sleeping In) Pt2 (ft. C-Luv) (Lyrics: DM, Nodo, RAM | Composer: Stay Tuned, C-Luv, DM, RAM | Arranger: Stay Tuned)
6 허수아비 (Scarecrow) (Lyrics: DM | Composer: DM)
7 Luv Me (Lyrics: C-Luv, DM | Composer: C-Luv, DM | Arranger: Yoo Sunkyun)
(RAM being one of the members, T-ara Wooram's sister)
no subject
Date: 2013-03-08 04:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-03-09 06:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-03-13 08:37 am (UTC)A pic and a link to one of the many missing embeds above
Date: 2019-07-04 01:45 am (UTC)D-Unit "Face To Face"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzEEwAeNr0Y
no subject
Date: 2013-02-24 07:10 pm (UTC)I don't follow Batoost, so I don't know what that joke is.