Category Archives: Muse-Sick
SXSW Panel on K-Pop and the American Pop Music Market
Yesterday kicked off the music portion of SXSW 2012, Austin’s annual clusterfuck Interactive/Music/Film festival, and everyone in the heart of Texas is excited for all of the free-flowing booze, swag and celebrity encounters that are bound to happen. As the live music draws in the hipsters, the music industry panel discussions draw the movers ‘n shakers. One intriguing discussion that’s happening this Friday is on on K-pop (or Korean pop): Do Music Moguls Know a Secret About K-Pop? Here’s the description:
More and more, American artists are being drawn to the culture, fashion and music of Asia. Will.i.am is producing tracks on 2NE1‘s next album, Kanye West is working with JYJ, and Wonder Girls recently opened for the Jonas Brothers. It’s been said before, but this may be the year that K-pop breaks through into American pop culture. Can K-pop cross over or is it exclusive to an Asian population? Do K-pop artists need to have an English language single or can an in-language song make it in the U.S. market? What exactly is K-pop anyway?
Without having attended this panel, I can already provide some answers.
What exactly is K-pop anyway?
K-pop is Korean pop, and there’s nothing quite like it. It’s a plethora of beautiful, stylish, well-trained, well-groomed, heavily managed, hard-working, talented, likable boy bands, girl groups and solo acts. It’s a bubblegum fantasy land. It’s an ethnic-themed issue of Tiger Beat. It’s the hypothetical lovechild of Katy Perry and Forever 21 mogul Do Won Chang. It’s delightful.
Can K-pop cross over or is it exclusive to an Asian population?
Yes, it can. And, it has. Korean pop has crossed over to America–it’s just that nobody, nobody noticed. K-pop artists like Se7en and BoA came over here several years back and worked with people like Lil’ Kim, Flo Rida, Bloodshy & Avant and Sean Garrett. They sang in English, produced slick music videos and received absolutely no airplay. In 2007, Rain defeated Stephen Colbert in Time‘s online poll for most influential people, and he appeared on the Colbert Report in 2008.
Do K-pop artists need to have an English language single or can an in-language song make it in the U.S. market?
The former. Nobody speakin’ the ching chong ever gets on American radio! Maybe we should ask Seacrest.
Lest you think I’m overly pessimistic and dismissive of K-pop’s American success, I’ll go ahead and unabashedly and non-ironically admit that I’m K-pop’s biggest fan. Can you blame me? In the absence of groups like Spice Girls and Destiny’s Child, K-pop groups like Girls Generation (or SNSD), Wonder Girls, and 2NE1 fill a void that many of us who came of age in the 90′s have been looking to fill–the sight of women working not against each other but together–a flashy, superficial and highly debatable symbol of feminist youth. These young women are doing for the East what the Spice Girls once did for the West, spreading a message of empowerment–despite being managed by a patriarchal pop music industry and its expectations–and succeeding in their own right because of their talent. Get on board! If you’re new to K-pop, here are some videos to check out:
BoA — “Eat You Up”
BoA is the reigning pop princess of South Korea and all of Asia. “Eat You Up” was her American debut single.
Wonder Girls — “Nobody”
The Wonder Girls hit “Nobody” took over everyone’s iPods a couple of years back because of its infectious beat and retro feel. I’m not sure how their style fits exactly with the Joe Bros, but they totally deserve all the exposure they can get.
Girls’ Generation (SNSD) — “The Boys” on David Letterman
Girls’ Generation (a.k.a SNSD in Korea) is a nine-member girl group made up of American-born and Korean-born singers and dancers. This video is of their appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman in January 2012.
Contestants on TV competition show K-Pop Star cover “The Boys”
There’s a competition show on Korean TV right now that really showcases the talent of young Koreans and Americans, who’ve traveled all the way to Korea from places like L.A. and NYC in the hopes of becoming the next big K-Pop star. Check out SuPearls cover of Girls, Generation’s “The Boys”:
Popularity: 1% [?]
“We Are Young” by Fun. (Does “It” Mean Sex, Rape or None of the Above?)
The Glee cast covered Fun.'s "We Are Young,"but not in the episode this pic is taken from.
I am no poet. Nor do I claim to have any insight into the minds and hearts of artists and their intentions. I’m just a girl, listening to a song, feeling slightly creeped out, parsing some pronouns and vainly searching for an explanation.
The other day I heard “We Are Young” by Fun. (intentional period), featuring Janelle Monae, and had a few questions. I submit to you the first verse and chorus:
Girl give me a second I,
I need to get my story straight
My friends are in the bathroom getting higher than the Empire State
My lover she’s waiting for me just across the bar
My seat’s been taken by some sunglasses asking bout a scar, and
I know I gave it to you months ago
I know you’re trying to forget
But between the drinks and subtle things
The holes in my apologies, you know
I’m trying hard to take it back
So if by the time the bar closes
And you feel like falling down
I’ll carry you home
Tonight
We are young
So let’s set the world on fire
We can burn brighter than the sun(x2)
If you don’t have any questions after reading/hearing that, then either you’re goddamn omnipotent or the ambiguousness of the lyrics doesn’t niggle at your frontal lobe they way it does mine. Let’s take it line by line.
Girl give me a second I,
I need to get my story straight
Firstly, what story does he need to get straight? And to whom is he telling it? The next line tells me his friends are getting high in the bathroom. So, maybe he needs to get it straight for his parents, the cops, some other authority figure who’d punish him if they found out about any illegal substances? OK, I’m with you so far.
My lover she’s waiting for me just across the bar
My seat’s been taken by some sunglasses asking ’bout a scar
Sunglasses is probably symbolic of some high-as-a-kite dude, tryna get his mack on. The scar? I hope to hell it’s a symbolic scar and not an actual one. Otherwise, this is possibly alluding to domestic violence….? Symbolic! I’m going with symbolic.
I know I gave it to you months ago
I know you’re trying to forget
But between the drinks and subtle things
The holes in my apologies, you know
I’m trying hard to take it back
There they are–those pesky ambiguous objective pronouns. Two of them! What is “it”? Is it referring to the literal or symbolic scar? Is it referring to sex? A bad lay? Or is it something more nonconsensual?
Why does he have to apologize? Why holes? Why is she trying to forget? Does it take months to forget a bad lay? (It takes me approximately 30 seconds. Unless, y’know, I was really into him and expected a lot more….in which case, a full minute?) Why is this song allowing my mind to venture into brutal territory?
I’ve made up my mind. “It” is definitely a symbolic scar. He scarred her by taking on a crap date, during which they ate bad oysters that later made them sick for a full day–during finals week, no less!–and watched the movie Taken (or Hostel), completely ruining her summer plans to backpack across Europe for fear of being tortured, killed or sold into sex trafficking. Right??
Maybe I’m projecting. Maybe I’m just trying to explain some lyrics that don’t make complete sense to me in a way that doesn’t border on creepy.
Oh, yeah. There’s also the music video. Of a girl. Sitting in a bed. Cutting an apple. Enjoying it a bit too much? And shaking her head from side to side (symbolic “No”?) three times.
Make of it what you will. (The head shaking starts at 2:28.)
Many commenters of the video have posited that the video/song is about losing your innocence/virginity. That may be closer to the truth than anything I’ve said above.
I just want to know whether it was consensual or not. Then maybe I can start having Fun.
Popularity: 100% [?]
Asian References I Just Don’t Understand: Coldplay, Rihanna and Bourdain
Princess Taiping of the Tang Dynasty
Firstly, has anyone heard the latest Coldplay and Rihanna collab? It’s called “Princess of China”…and I have no clue why. Can someone (i.e. Chris Martin) explain? It seems like it’s got less to do with China, more to do with Chris Brown…
from MetroLyrics.com:
Once upon a time somebody ran
Somebody ran away saying fast as I can
I got to go, I got to gooo
Once upon a time we fell apart
You hold it in your hands
The two halves of my heartOhhhhh, ohhhhh!
Ohhhhhhhhhh…Once upon a time we’re burning bright
All we ever seem to do is fight
On and on…
And on and on and on…
Once upon a time on the same side
Once upon a time on the same side in the same game
And why’d you have to go
Have to go and throw it all to my faceI could’ve been a princess, you’d be a king
Could’ve had a castle and wore a ring
But nooooo, you let me gooooo
I could’ve been a princess, you’d be a king
Could’ve had a castle and wore a ring
But nooooo, you let me goooooYou stole my star
Lalalalalalaaaa…. [x2]
You stole my star
LalalalalalaaOhhhhhhhhhh…
Cause you really hurt me
No you really hurt me [x2]
Cause you really hurt me
Ooooooooh no you really hurt me[x2]
Secondly, has anyone seen the poster for Anthony Bourdain‘s new show, The Layover? Can someone explain why he’s holding empty chopsticks in the air with one hand and wet shoes with the other hand as a plane flies overhead? That does not look like a “killer time” to me.
Thirdly, has anyone seen the latest NYT Fasion & Style article about the new snaggletooth trend in Japan? OK, I’ll admit that I kind of understand this trend. But I don’t have to like it.
An excerpt from the article:
Dr. Emilie Zaslow, an assistant professor of communication studies at Pace University in Manhattan, who has studied gender identity and beauty in consumer culture, noted that such ever-shifting tastes often have one thing in common: a fixation with youth.
“The gapped tooth is sort of preorthodontic or early development, and the naturally occurring yaeba is because of delayed baby teeth, or a mouth that’s too small,” she said. “It’s this kind of emphasis on youth and the sexualization of young girls.”
I really hope the fang trend has nothing to do with Twilight.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Kanye West at ACL Fest: Should I ask him about the Chinky Eye rap? [Muse-Sick]
I live in Austin, Texas. One of our annual music festivals, Austin City Limits (ACL), is going on right now, and none other than the winner of the Rap Game of Thrones himself, Kanye West, is here tonight to woo the crowds of locals and out-of-towners. As is usually the case in Austin, the radio stations have been playing songs from the ACL performers all week. Coming back from lunch today, I heard the above song by Big Sean (featuring Kanye West) for the first time.
And I love how you look when you blazin’
And I swear you turn at least half Asian
Izzzz-urp! (record scratches in my mind)
Say again? O i c. You just made a chinky-eye joke!!!
Probably!
Maybe?
Let see if I got this: Blazin’ –> weed –> high –> squinty eyes –> half Asian.
Unless what you really mean is this: Blazin’ –> weed –> high –> sexy –> half Asian………which I could maybe convince myself is well-intentioned.
Kanye, what do you really mean? And do I dare stalk you tonight to find out the answer?
Or do I just get blazed enough so that I don’t care?
Hmm.
Popularity: 1% [?]
MTV VMAs 2011: Who Wore Asian Appropriation Best?
I didn’t watch the VMAs last night because I don’t have cable. (But if I did, I wouldn’t watch the channel that now exists only to make 16-year-old girls with tons of money to blow on a birthday party or with unplanned babies feel self-entitled). I do, however, have internet, which made it hard to avoid the fashion crimes perpetrated by Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj below.
So, who wore the better Asian appropriation outfit?
1. Katy Perry in a Day-Glo “Geisha outfit”:
"I ruv my My Ritto Geisha Pony outfit! Matching your parasol with your dress color: SO IN. Matching your roots with your cotton candy hair dye: SO OUT. "
2. Nicki Minaj in a self-described “Harajuku Barbie” outfit:
"Gwen Stefani had actual Japanese girls as accessories. But I can't afford to have any flown in from Harajuku, so I'll just drag this creepy-ass cat scratching post around with me."
I vote Nicki Minaj. I mean, wow, what an intriguing statement. Is that a ninja mask or a SARS mask or just your garden variety Japanese allergy face mask? Or all three…? She’s obviously taking a stand against the cat slave labor perpetrated by whoever makes the Maru videos, am I right? Cats are not a piece of meat! At least not in Japan. In China, well…that’s a different story…
But what’s with the resurgence of whore-rientalized outfits? I thought I had at least two more months before Halloween to purge my mind of last year’s fashion horrors. I blame it all on this:
Top 10 Girls Perform – Sonya Tayeh (Geisha Routine) – So You Think You Can Dance?
Well, at least all these ground-breaking, thought-provoking Asian fashion statements almost me made forget about this guy:
"I'm biting Ralph Macchio's style, but because I'm not doing Macchio-as-Daniel-san it's completely inoffensive and kind of really boring."
One day, I’ll be able to stop blogging about geishas. I keep telling myself that.
Popularity: 1% [?]
