Frank Kogan

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.