If Gummi Bar Bar Bars, does she also Boom Bing Bing?

[koganbot]

Given that Crayon Pop recently recorded "Bar Bar Bar," and last year gave us "Bing Bing," it is pertinent to ask whether Crayon Pop member Gummi, therefore, Boom Bing Bings:

[First video no longer available]

Gummy Bear "Boom Bing Bing"

Watch on YouTube

[EDIT: This was the 130215 Crayon Pop "Bing Bing" at Music Bank. but the vid was scotched for copyright violations and I can't find the performance anywhere else on the Web; I particularly wanted this one because Crayon Pop are slinking around the stage in sweats with hands in their pockets and sucking on a lollipop, like juvenile delinquents. The closest I can find is this one, twelve days later on Show Champion, sweats and hands in pockets but the camera maybe not as focused on the lollipop so not as much deadly lollipop menace.

Watch on YouTube

END EDIT]

Also, as we reported earlier, a woman who writes the blog D4ZZLING ME ("I'm just a mother of 2 kids who are obsessed with nail polishes and nail arts ^.^ ") was inspired by the Crayon Pop MV to do each nail in one of the five Crayon Pop training-suit colors:

http://d4zzlingme.blogspot.com/2013/07/crayon-pop-bar-bar-bar-inspired-nails.html



Keep your dial tuned to koganbot for further exciting news updates.

Comments

And does Shinyoo tick tock trot?

[davidfrazer.livejournal.com]

Seoulbeats have posted an article about the phenomenon that is Hands of the Clock:

This marks the record’s 100th week on Billboard’s K-pop Hot 100 chart, logged at a respectable #26. Peaking previously at #23 and almost never falling out of the top 50, “Hands Of The Clock” is by far the longest-running song on the chart, making Shinyoo into some kind of unstoppable, mysterious musical force.

Re: And does Shinyoo tick tock trot?

[koganbot]

the scant English-language references to Shinyoo consist primarily of humorous shout-outs to his enduring presence

. Good to know that people like you and me are categorized as "humorous."

(Don't know if I have time to read their linked "trot" piece: may contain interesting info even if Seoulbeats has always struck me as rather naive and clumsy in its analyses. E.g., the quoted sentence, "Trot music lyrically and musically has expressed and continues to express the heart of the Korean people throughout history, and it is perhaps for this reason above all others that Koreans have chosen trot music time and time again." I wonder with what description they identify that heart.)

Re: And does Shinyoo tick tock trot?

[davidfrazer.livejournal.com]

Dana's article is worth reading because she at least begins to explain what makes trot distinctive:

Surprisingly (or maybe unsurprisingly), the genre didn’t exactly originate in Korea; rather, it was born in Japan from late 19th century protest songs and imported to Korea through a variety of channels. Japanese trot music, called enka, evolved largely in response to Meiji Japan’s call to modernize in the image of the era’s (supposedly more civilized) Euro-American powers; as such, it sought to incorporate more “modern” Western elements into traditional Japanese music in order to create modern pop music that was still palatable to a people unaccustomed to new sounds. Born from these efforts were the yonanuki major and minor scales ( Japanized adaptations of the pentatonic major and minor scales commonly employed in Western music — they are characterized by their lack of fourth and seventh degrees) as well as duple (1,2) rhythm borrowed from American foxtrot. As these musical elements made their way into Japanese music, so were they transmitted to the colonized people of Korea.

Re: And does Shinyoo tick tock trot?

[koganbot]

they are characterized by their lack of fourth and seventh degrees

A ha! That's what I was saying on the What's Wrong With My Age thread: "The fa and the ti of the western scale seem to be getting short shrift."

By the way, I see — by hovering the cursor over the author's (generic) icon — that it's our very own azacab who wrote the Seoulbeats piece! So indeed he was referring to us (and himself) regarding the humorous shoutouts.

This is cool, that we know someone who's written for an actual K-pop site.

[azacab.livejournal.com]

Haha, thanks. It's hard to do Shinyoo justice since there's practically nothing known about him. I actually just joined SB, kind of - I'm still in a "trial" period so we'll see. Hopefully I can just sort of write about random K-pop stuff that interests me. It's hard to write about the genre while divorcing yourself from the idol drama craziness, something I will never really be into. And while I agree that K-pop goes woefully underanalyzed/undercovered (those aren't real words...) I will say that you, Frank, as well as a few others and the people at SB seem to the only ones putting brains into analyzing the music, of course at different levels of expertise and insight.

Just to clarify though, I don't think the shoutouts are all humor, but the befuddlement embedded in them kind of is. I mean, "Hands Of The Clock" is something really, really far away from anything I've ever known and I'd reckon that goes for all of us here. That's how I approached the song - with a knowledge that I can't hear what these old Koreans hear - and to be honest I ended up liking it quite a bit, because it's a solid record regardless. Mostly I wanted to make sense of how this song became so endlessly popular, and also kind of blast the quick cash-grab nature of K-pop singles. Shinyoo has a kind of loving craftsmanship, and I would hardly say the same for 99% of K-pop singles, even though I hold them in higher regard, albeit for much different reasons.

I will say though that Dana is the best writer SB has. Her pieces are always a good read, and they never feel like rudimentary rundowns of filler-packed albums or idol hair colors and whatnot. Her trot article is actually quite good, in my opinion. It's well-researched and helps illuminate a lot of trot's history and the totally different nature of the genre from today's K-pop.

Also, thanks for alerting me to change my Wordpress display name. You have some pretty sick detective skills.

[koganbot]

Well, you yourself had alerted me that you were writing a piece. And while I didn't think it impossible that someone else might also write such a piece, I thought I should check.

I've really only read Seoulbeats when hopping by on Google searches, so have not looked at it enough to justify my general impression; but I do remember that the two or three things I saw about T-ara, for instance, were terribly naive — a basic, "do I have good justification for believing this idea/assertion/judgment?" seeming to be missing. And one of the most recent pieces I read there was this really childish and poorly argued piece that arbitrary_greay inexplicably loved about the fact that a white, French woman had been signed to join a K-pop group.*

I'll definitely read Dana, not just because you recommend her/him but because of that bit that David quoted that talked about 4th and 7th degrees and duple meter. Seemed very smart. "The heart of the Korean people throughout history" still seems ridiculous, though.

There's a site called "Beyond Hallyu" that I've only recently looked at, but it has promise. Although the quality varies considerably, the writers are trying to analyze from liberal/left perspectives and feminist perspectives. I guess "has promise" is me being condescending again (see footnote below); once again I've really only read a little; some of it was primitive and naive, some of it was genuinely thoughtful, some was all three. I like their writer Sophie, not least of all because she said something very nice about me on her blog, but also because she's interestingly uneasy with the way the music she loves can be at odds with her social ideals.

*I suppose that a childish piece is better than no piece at all, and the writer Patricia's perspective isn't totally at odds with mine; but that's no excuse for her to indulge in rampant resentment and illogic. The followup discussion by arbitrary_greay and greywing was much better [though now I'll never be able to compliment either of those two without being worried that greywing'll think I'm being condescending, which is the way she took a compliment I'd tossed at arbitrary_greay].

[koganbot]

I forget if I've mentioned it here, but Kim Yong Im's "Life As A Floating Weed" is still afloat on the charts, as it's been since three-quarters of forever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjFUMP2g7E4

What I embedded seems to be a version from back in the days of the good old times (at least, it seems to have old pics of her,* as opposed to now), though I'd guess that it's a remake that's charting — but obviously I don't know. I like the song quite well** but I don't like her singing nearly as much as Shinyoo's. I like his easiness, while I don't take to her soggy warble.

*I assume they're of a younger her (rather than of some actress on a TV show to which this could've been the soundtrack).

**Has a lot of late '50s/early '60s r&b/rock 'n' roll in it; could imagine Gene Pitney or one of the girl groups letting loose on it, or the Everly Brothers doing it with tactful restraint.

[azacab.livejournal.com]

Awesome, I can tell I'll be reading Beyond Hallyu for sure. I do agree though, there are a lot of fluff or just wrongheaded pieces. I'd love for SB to take a broader, more holistic look at their journalism. I think that endless pieces without a grand narrative means their analysis and insight is a little more disposable than it should be. K-pop has amassed enough critical and commercial appeal that some site can easily position themselves as a more thoughtful, editorial and review-based source for the music, not just a blog. We'll see though.

[arbitrary-greay.livejournal.com]

Based on my own experiences with SB, the trouble is that obligatory nature of the writing. I got an invite to trial-write for them, before, and I believe the requirement was once or twice a week? Sure, many authors have said that the harsh incessant deadline nature of professional journalism has taught them to churn out writing regularly, instead of the commonly abandoned writing projects of amateurs who lack the self-discipline to stick at it. But then again, do those said churning authors produce a truly well thought out piece every time, as opposed to the labor of love pieces of literature?

There's also the matter of tone that SB has adopted. Idolminded's creator, Ray Mescellado, was one of those journalists who learned to write regularly, and he has a very large body of excellent works. But the difference is that Ray never quite adopted an aggressive tone in his writing. On Idolminded, he was doing "Idol Thought of the Day," short articles musing over various issues in the industry, but always in an exploratory, questioning manner, looking for alternative interpretations that could challenge his own view.

Seoulbeats editorials, in contrast, tend to take on an "offense is the best defense" strategy, a "here's my opinion, deal with it, I can already tell you you're wrong" approach. There's hardly ever an indication that they might change their opinion later, because of the implication that their admitting that they're wrong would be terrible. The Angry Review/Rant is somewhat of a popular format now, especially when paired with comedy, but the site that has best put it to use only works because the reviewers have made sure that the "angry review" part strictly belongs to exaggerated personas that are not necessarily reflections of their actual opinions, but just calculated for maximum entertainment value.

Seoulbeats editorials have taken on that same kind of brash self-confident identity, but then don't leave wiggle room for themselves or their audience. They can't backtrack. They can't apologize. They always leave that obligatory last paragraph of supposed comment thread hooks to invite reader participation, but they're usually tacked on, without an actual connection to the content.

In other words, Seoulbeats doesn't write to discuss, they write to win. It's an invitation, but not of a "talk to me" sort, but a "come at me" one.

[arbitrary-greay.livejournal.com]

The writing requirement doesn't help things, as any of the more introspective posts that need that extra time to hammer out nuances and check details and double check arguments are either pushed back for more froo-froo easy to write pieces, or the research and self-reflection is dropped for time and the original strong opinion is slammed down in rant form and no thought for the potential aftermath of publication. Yet it is that steady stream of release that makes them such a popular site in the first place.

For a long time I used to think that the snsd_ffa community (and before that, greywing's journal) was the only place that examined Kpop critically from a fan's perspective. (The Grand Narrative is all good and well, but trying to speak for a fan's motivations never quite captures the truth in its entirety, and to a certain point, the greatest expert on a subject is/was a very devoted fan of it) And a lot of the things that Seoulbeats covers concerning idol culture are things that veteran Jpop fans have worked through in much greater depth, but have done so so long ago that there isn't a need to put it out there. So you get new fans looking for that critical discussion, and SB seems to be doing so, but they're only scratching the surface of things, and the conversations that went through to the heart of issues happened piecemeal buried in forum and comment threads on long defunct sites or private email/PM chains, chatroom sessions not archived, etc. Places that a new fan could not ever know where to look, and some that will never be accessed again, as they've been deleted as some said veteran fans, having explored all idol issues to their conclusion, move on from fandom entirely and delete their online history.

And what's left are the shallow musings of new fans still full of the fires of first love, continually reinventing the wheel.

[koganbot]

Um, speaking of Crayon Pop — remember them? an idol girlband of the early '10s with very small production and promotion budgets who developed intriguing strategies for standing out — I posted this a couple of hours ago on ilX's K-pop 2013:

Until Apink's "NoNoNo" went to #3 last week, no idol group that had debuted in the last two-and-a-half years, since the beginning of 2011, had put a song in the Top 5. Not B1A4, not EXO (who apparently have in China, but haven't come close in Korea), not Block B, not B.A.P. And I don't mean that no idol groups have gone top 5 with their debuts, but that none of those 2011-and-on idol groups have gone top 5 at all. (With singles, that is. Albums and EPs are a different market.) Some "indie" groups from talent-show hell have hit, some successful ballad singers may be new (I haven't been tracking them), and solo acts Ailee and Lee Hi have gone #1 (though whether they're "idol" is somewhat iffy); but fame only has a limited number of slots, and among the K-pop idol groups, the relative veterans (Classes Of 2007-2010, more or less) have been filling them all.

But if early-in-the-week numbers on the daily and real-time charts hold up over the next six days — we probably won't know for sure until the Thursday after next — there'll soon be another idol group to join Apink in breaking this barrier:

CRAYON POP!

Astonishing. Right now "Bar Bar Bar" is top 5 on all the real-time charts except Monkey3. Is number 2 on mnet.

My predictions had been too pessimistic before; maybe they're too optimistic now. But every time the song seems to have stalled — e.g., it appeared stuck in the low teens three days ago — it's moved forward. Fwiw, it does seem to be slipping from where it was a few hours ago when I wrote that post, but such things are hard to tell. Is #1 on Daum and #2 on Bugs but down to #29 on Naver and #38 on Monkey3 (where it had been #1 this morning).

Crayon Pop played three of the four big K-pop performance TV shows over the weekend (weren't on Music Core), got to do the song full-length on M! Countdown and Music Bank (where it wasn't all lip sync either), were shorter length on Inkigayo but added a second line of dancers, male, though also reverted to sideways hops instead of the double-time piston (maybe the latter is too complicated with two lines, maybe one of Crayon Pop keeps injuring her foot, I don't know).

If you're looking for daily and real-time numbers yourself, go to Instiz and then hover your cursor over the number total to the right of the band name; e.g., 빠빠빠 is number 5 right now (that's its weekly rank, though since we're at the start of the week there's little difference from its weekly and real-time rank), then move right, where the text says "크레용팝," which is "Crayon Pop" in Hangul lettering. Then go right further to the number in the final column (624 right now, but it'll go higher as the week progresses), and that's where you should hover you cursor. The daily (일간) and real-time (실시간) rankings on all the charts that Instiz tracks will appear on a pop up.

[davidfrazer.livejournal.com]

Bar Bar Bar has reached one million views on YouTube.

[koganbot]

Which aren't that many, all things considered. My guess is that viewers are wanting the full dance, so going for the rehearsal video (almost up to 1,000,000 itself) or for various live clips rather than repeats of this one.

It looks like my prediction — top five — will pan out, Crayon Pop continuing to rise while Apink and Beast slide a little. It'll be close, though. We won't find out till Thursday.

[koganbot]

Let's dance with Crayon Pop:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-ZGjWGE4Fw

[koganbot]

#3 on this week's Gaon chart, albeit with only half the score of number 1 f(x). It has no chance of reaching 1 itself, as there's no way it'll ever outsell or outstream each new week's Blockbuster Of The Week. But I expect it to hold on in the top ten for longer than most songs, as other songs rise and fall around it.

[(Anonymous)]

It's number one on Daum again as of this writing, ahead of f(x) and the new BEG single.

"Bad" from Queen B'Z just came out. I was rather looking forward to it because of the teaser, an amazing mess promising what seemed like vampires, extreme violence and some very sassy vocals. The full video:



Don't know what to make of it but I do respect the Cranberries growl that tops off the chorus, as well as the fact that they snuck both "bammrappapapa" and "boom-shaka-laka" in there.