Frank Kogan

Just in time for my first quarter wrap, Crayon Pop show up in shtetl garb traditionalist clothing, playing old people's music as the young-un's in back discreetly tap their toes. Above them in the ten, Wa$$up ring my bell, BiS prove that Anti-Idol is Idol, Tinashe brushes my Cassie spot, Future gets together with a bunch of other dopes to move some dope, Kate Nash punks better than she'd ever quirked, Orange Caramel assay a disco-Cuban b-side to which they barely even attempt to dance, Dal★shabet crochet in freestyle, Puer Kim does an elegant monster maash, and Nicki Minaj scores by any means necessary.

1. Wa$$up "Jingle Bell"
2. BiS "STUPiG"
3. Tinashe ft. Schoolboy Q "2 On"
4. Future ft. Pharrell, Pusha T & Casino "Move That Dope"
5. Kate Nash "Sister"



6. Orange Caramel "So Sorry"
7. Dal★shabet "B.B.B (Big Baby Baby)"
8. Puer Kim "Manyo Maash"
9. Nicki Minaj "Lookin' Ass Nigga"
10. Crayon Pop "Uh-ee"



( 11 through 20 )

Jingle the bell.

We've broken 500!

500 what?

Well, whenever someone posts a comment in koganbot, the comment is sent to my lj inbox. If I think the comment needs me to think about it further and/or a reply from me, I save it. Once I reply or think I'm more-or-less finished with it, I delete it. So, there are now 519 comments in my lj inbox that merit further consideration or a reply without having yet gotten the consideration or reply. (Actually, a few of the comments are in snsd_ffa, now that I've readjusted my settings to get those, too.)

So, for instance, I still would like to think further about what petronia and askbask and sub_divided and arbitrary_greay said regarding the Minami controversy, especially as to what is or isn't happening in Korea, whether and how much and why some K-pop idols might be under a no-dating or a don't ask/don't tell regime.

And if you listed a set of tracks and LPs in the comment thread to my mid-year list, 2011, I still hope to listen to what you listed.

And I want to respond to what AG has said about journalism regarding K-pop and what AG and greywing said during the discussion of white participation in K-pop.

And I've still got to go through that list of live Big Bang performances that sub_divided thoughtfully provided. (Also, though it's not on lj, askbask posted a very useful rundown of BoA's career over on ilX's K-pop 2013 thread that I hope will produce lots of future listening from me.)

Etc.

Z.Hera "Peacock": Dance-pop from a writer who seems to have studied études and preludes, featuring a rookie singer who puts strain in her upper register in a way that's heart-tuggingly passionate, like the best of the '80s. She's got something, as does whoever wrote and produced the song, even if it's getting nowhere on the charts.



It would help if the visual concept were more than just "I'm young, I'm fresh, and I dance pretty well." In the video she's a caged bird who escapes her garret into a land of balloons and Swiss roofs and soap bubbles. The lyrics (English version here) are about never giving up in the face of adversity or a love object's indifference ("Nobody close, I'm feeling lonely, bitter cold/Only thought it makes me stronger"). Then she steps through her wardrobe into a tinseltown freeze, but she's feeling fire, and her energy never flags.

( Live on Mcountdown )

Baek Ji Young "떠올라": Baek Ji Young has been doing well recently with ballads of dripping emotion, no droplet or gusher held back, one of the few ballad singers to reach me consistently. But she has an easy touch on dance tracks, into which she inserts pangs and power, also reaching me.



( Back catalog )

BoA: BoA is an astonishingly fluid dancer, my favorite in the world. In comparison, her voice often seems locked-in. But her nasal soundpack is just right for the OST ballad "Between Heaven And Hell": restraint, clear line on the melody, dignified little quavers.

Starting this second thread regarding the Minami incident to forestall Livejournal's terrifying collapsed-thread syndrome encroaching on the previous thread (here).



My guess is that it'd be hard for any fan to endorse Minami's self-abasement. Even those who support idol "purity" and manage to link it to being sex-free and boyfriend-free will have that overridden by the sense that Minami is a damsel in distress. In fact, those people might especially be the ones who will have their "damsel in distress" buttons bumped, and will be genuinely torn.

The rest of my thoughts are about K-pop, since I know next to nothing about J-pop:

( Is the no-dating rule all that pervasive? )

( What do you mean by this word SCANDAL? )

( Conspiracy theory )

Added this to my Oral Hygiene post after YouTube yanked the Japanese video I'd embedded for Hara's "Secret Love." (Goo Hara is one of the singers in K-pop band Kara, who are massively popular in Japan as well as Korea and gear some of their material especially for Japan.) Fortunately, I found another full version of the Japanese PV,* and that's up now, though I fear it'll get killed too. The only official Universal Records posting of the vid that I could find on YouTube is a 14-second teaser. And this isn't an isolated incident: the official posting of the video for 2NE1's Japanese single "Scream" only showed the first half.

Japanese music labels keep trying to prevent us from seeing full videos on YouTube. At least I've noticed that some do. DEAR JAPAN - THERE ARE REASONS WHY K-POP IS BREAKING BIG INTERNATIONALLY AND J-POP IS NOT. Well, the Korean market is smaller than the Japanese market, so Korea has to go international if it wants to score big. In any event, Korean labels give us full access to their videos, though some Korean TV networks will put the kibosh on TV performance clips (it being the labels and not the TV stations that benefit from international attention, I suppose). But in general, South Korea has opened itself up to the international eye and ear via YouTube.

*Music vids are called PVs in Japan and MVs in Korea.

With only a couple of furlongs left, DJ Bedbugs is a nose ahead in the quest for his second consecutive title.

TOP NONSINGLES Through Third Quarter 2012:
1. DJ Bedbugs "Hella Hollup"
2. E.via "Night Blooming Roses"
3. Neil Young & Crazy Horse "Oh Susannah"
4. After School "Eyeline"
5. T-ara "T-aratic Magic Music"
6. DJ Bedbugs "Aaron's Party Rocking"
7. Neil Young & Crazy Horse "Wayfarin' Stranger"
8. TaeTiSeo "Baby Steps"
9. DJ Bedbugs "Come Out And K"
10. DJ Bedbugs "Ready To Greenlight"
11. Neon Bunny "First Love"
12. DJ Bedbugs "Your Mann"
13. After School "Broken Heart"

Number 5 and number 13 are in Japanese.

What Is A "Single," And, By Negation, A "Nonsingle"?

Something's a single if it acts like a single or gets treated like a single, no matter what it is (even if it's a 50-minute webrip of a symphony). So "Gimme Shelter" is a single, "Stairway To Heaven" in its long version is a single, "Takeover" is a single, though none of those three was on an actual physical single. And certainly if it's promoted by the label as an album's or EP's "emphasis track" or "focus track" it's a single.

( If it doesn't act like a single, it nonetheless can be a single if... )


"T-aratic Magic Music"

Stupid thought of the day: the drums are the defensive linemen, the bass is the linebackers, the rest of the instruments are the cornerbacks, nickel backs, safeties, etc. The singer or rapper is the opposing quarterback.

Of course, a lot of modern "electronic" defenses like to disguise their coverages, as in the Japanese version of After School's "Bang!"

Super Junior's "Bijin" is reviewed today at the Singles Jukebox. I wouldn't say I get Super Junior; I was one of the low scorers. Here's the Korean-language original, which I'd have given an extra point, raising it to 7:

Mentioned in my last post that Korean freestyle rapper SOOLj has a leaning towards riffs out of the other freestyle as well, the great '80s postdisco dance music from Miami and NY and Jersey and Philly. Wouldn't be surprised if those riffs were all over Korea these days, though owing to the paucity of my knowledge, I've only found a few others, one of them being KARA's bright and lite "Jumping (점핑)":



("Freestyle lite" would seem to be a contradiction in terms, freestyle having been a music of passionate spirit and thick emotion, but there've actually been several excellent pop tracks in recent America that tone the freestyle down to a pang while still retaining the feeling: Vanessa Hudgens' "Don't Talk" and Brooke Hogan's "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdysSfFV2jo">About Us.")

Some excellent, excellent commentary on K-pop and J-pop (and a bit of Chinese pop) by Anonymous down in the comment thread to my mid-year lists, along with over a dozen video embeds.* Anyway, I'd like to stir up the local hivemind on what you think is going on in these three videos (and K-pop and J-pop in general, if you have any ideas; you're likely to know more than I, are extremely unlikely to know less, and shouldn't feel you have to know what you're talking about; I don't). First vid is Sandara's "Kiss" (Dara of 2NE1). Seems to be a standard, "I want your kiss, but your respect and commitment too, I'm not easy" story (while the lyrics are more "I want you to come through and kiss me," sorta like "Blah Blah Blah," though not really), so it's a flirtation, I'll-love-you-I'll-love-you-not, but there seems to be a cake-and-eat-it-too relationship to us, the viewers: is Sandara projecting strength or availability, is that a tension or can strength and availability go together? (Rapper, not in vid, is someone called CL, I think, and she's good.) Second vid is E.via's "Shake!" and from Anonymous's comments I gather she's really trying to have her cake and eat it too, pushing the envelope, critiquing and putting herself at a distance from the sex sell by throwing it in our faces, while at the same time, you know, still using the sex to sell. Of course, such strategies and such envelope-pushing occur in the U.S. too, and have the same tension and uneasiness, and get force from the tension and uneasiness, as does this. The Latin riffs help too.

Those two are K-pop, the third is from Japan, AKB48's "Keibetsu Shiteita Aijou," and when I was in my early teens I'd have lapped something like this up, 'cause it's about a suicide, and I lapped up songs about suicide: "Most Peculiar Man" and "Richard Cory" and "Save The Life Of My Child" by Simon & Garfunkel, Judy Collins' version of Leonard Cohen's "Dress Rehearsal Rag," which isn't a suicide per se but sure seems a suicide threat (Cohen hadn't recorded it yet; in a few years I made my way to his "Seems So Long Ago, Nancy"). "Keibetsu Shiteita Aijou" definitely plays the suicide as some form of rebuke, though it's complicatedly uncertain as to what the rebuke is rebuking: Our attempt to understand it? Adults with their know-it-all explanations? (Were the lyrics written by adults?) Is it a statement of a deeper wrong than just the dead girl's? As I said, as an early teen I lapped this stuff up — and by my mid teens I'd found Dylan and in my late teens I'd found the Velvet Underground and the Stooges, though this song doesn't romanticize self-destruction to the extent that those Americans did. But it does throw it at us as a brute fact.



( E.via Shake! )

( AKB48 Keibetsu Shiteita Aijou )

Click the k-pop tab for other good discussion we've had here on the subject, mostly not by me.

*Also, Chuck's lists and a link to Josh's are down there too.