Frank Kogan

If you were to ask me do I think T-ara are sexy or, instead, do I think they're cute, you've asked me an insane question, since their cuteness makes them sexy and their sexiness makes them cute. Not that there's a complete overlap: cuteness is only a part of their repertoire of sexiness and sexiness is only part of their repertoire of cuteness. And they generally avoid cutesiness, which is a turnoff. But what I'm noticing is that "cute vs. sexy" is something of a meme in K-pop, even though as an actual dichotomy it hardly seems usable. But there is even an officially designated "sexy version" and an officially designated "cute version" of T-ara's "Bo Peep Bo Peep" vid. Recognizing that "cute" and "sexy" are being used as generic, symbolic terms — so not encompassing something like "Minzy has a cute ass," where "cute" means "she's really hot"; but more like how a nightgown symbolizes sexiness while a business suit symbolizes seriousness even though someone can look really sexy in business clothes and look unsexy in a nightgown (not sure what a "cute" costume would be: a bunny suit comes to mind, but that's problematic) — there are nonetheless performers like Sunny (of SNSD) and HyunA who are also adept at interweaving the symbols of sexiness and cuteness (and the word "interweaving" is misleading in that it still implies too much of a difference), not to mention seriousness and the business suit when those performers are so inclined.

( That's how far I've gotten stating the issue )

( Sad but sexy )

One thing I noticed, looking at that and the other GLAM vids, is that view totals are edging up and there are all these recent comments to the effect that "Kim Nana brought me here." So who's Kim Nana? Turns out she's a character in the TV miniseries Monstar, the actress portraying her being GLAM's own Dahee. And talk about SAD AND SEXY! She's absolutely smoldering — despair, anger, and heat all at once. And in the TV show, straight, as far as I can tell. I'll confess I haven't had time to actually watch an episode, and it looks like I'm not going to; frankly, from the clips I've seen it doesn't seem very good ("Monstar depicts the lives of ordinary teens who are injured psychologically and heal themselves through the power of music"). And while the ballads are passable, the bravura pop-rock showpieces are utterly tedious: big blundering TV-contest ideas of what impressive, powerful song presentation is supposed to be. Yet there's Nana as a character, introduced to us first as the dangerous, dark brooding sexy girl from the wrong side of the tracks — don't mess with her — whose heart, we're to learn soon enough, is secretly breaking. That's pretty much all I've gotten from quick-skimming the clips; I can guess how everything plays out but I don't know, or what surprises I missed, or what I got wrong. Nonetheless, there's Kim Nana. I can't tell you, not having watched more than scattered scenes, how good Dahee is as an actress. It may not matter. All she has to do is to look out at us through her long hair and to never smile. If I'm fourteen years old I know who I'm in love with.


( Censors unrepresentative mindset )

Look, how am I going to find time to write anything if I'm spending all my time watching Korean TV?

Background: on the East L.A. thread, I said,"But since I've pegged [Sunny] as a future President of South Korea or Secretary-General of the UN, or at least as the next Oprah, she really does need a command of English to fulfill my plans for her. Not so sure how her current dazzling blonde party-girl look fits my forecast, either. Not that I dislike the style, or think that the presidency shouldn't be held by someone who appears capable of bringing out the spirits and dancing a little jig at a moment's notice, but I don't believe that the voters or the Very Serious People who anoint candidates are ready to allow the most capable person in the room to look like that. (Assuming Sunny is all that. My estimate of her is based almost entirely on her tractor etiquette and the ease with which she's learned to handle potentially obstreperous chickens.)"

In response, Mat directed me to "Sunny making moves towards the goalposts you've set (context: pretend court where a real quarrel between two slightly troublesome boys has its seriousness taken out of it)," and he then linked us the following (he specifically linked 1m27s, which is where Sunny starts making moves [UPDATE: this is now a different embed; not sure where he'd have linked it. The TV company seems intent on quashing unauthorized uploads of this show, and I've therefore had to re-embed numerous times. Should this one go dead too, search the video-upload sites for episode 8 of "SNSD and the Dangerous Boys" or "Girls Generation and the Dangerous Boys."]):



I gather — from Wikip — that SNSD are quite seriously assigned to mentor several teenage boys, but of course while doing so they're supposed to be witty and entertaining and to draw viewers.

[EDIT: If you don't have time for the whole video above, I strongly, emphatically urge you — beg you — to watch Sunny's examination of Yoona that begins at 7:40.]

And the girls toss a perfect "meh." (Jukebox link.)

I thought that listening to huge gobs of Korean music would help me finally come to terms with ballads, since about a third of the music out of South Korea is not just ballads but is specifically in the genre "ballad" (as opposed to e.g. someone in r&b who happens to be doing a ballad). But what happened is that I realized I couldn't listen to everything. And as songs labeled "Ballad" and "OST" (most of the latter being ballads) tended to go in on ear and out the other anyway, those were the ones that got set aside.

About one in twenty ballads I hear I really like, and I wouldn't say I dislike the rest so much as I don't react and I barely differentiate one from the other. I couldn't tell you what's specifically different about the 5 percent I do like. I just get hit by something all of a sudden. So here's one I listened to by mistake and I love it.



Barbara had a so-so album out earlier this year, Neo Beat Generation, which was breathy and stylized, as you'd expect from the title, the "Neo"–ness putting a screen between me and it. Whereas "꿈..그보다 아픈," while being just as musically audacious and self-conscious, rips through emotionally: held slow and impressively controlled but ready to let loose, which of course it does. Yet lots of songs do the same, so I don't know why this one succeeded in being special.

And here's Kim Bo Kyung's "아파," variously translated as "Sick" and "Hurt" and "It Hurts," and it's more familiar, a power ballad, rises and wails, full cataract, all engines running.



From what I can tell, she's a former talent-show contestant who flourished by singing "Because Of You" and "Hotel California," though there seem to be several different Kim Bo Kyungs in Korean entertainment, as well as a footballer.

The quality of her records is scattershot, but "Suddenly" from earlier this year is good, very much along the lines of "아파."