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Korean Job Discussion Forums
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benji1422
Joined: 02 Jun 2009
Location: Los Angeles & Seoul
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 Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2010 3:12 pm Post subject: |
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Musical tastes sort of mirror our beliefs about ourselves and the world.
Unlike our societies back home, Korean teenagers don't:
drink alcohol and pass out in junior high
have sex (or feel pressure to have sex) from age 12 on
smoke marijuana
have parents divorced or who are absent (tho this is changing)
live unsupervised in small towns or suburbs where they have nothing to do except get into to trouble
know people or family members who deal drugs, were shot at, or live in areas where there are drug deals
have pregnancies out of wedlock,
get sent (via draft or lack of opportunity) to foreign countries to die
etc...
Counter-culture? WHAT DO YOU EXPECT. This is a hilarious thread of fogie-dom and 80's nostalgia. K-pop perfectly mirrors the Korean teenage mind which is more sheltered and strangely idealistic about love than jaded Westerners. |
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TheMarsTravolta
Joined: 20 Feb 2007
Location: Bundang
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| Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2010 6:19 pm Post subject: |
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| LosSeoul wrote: |
| Cerberus wrote: |
| LosSeoul wrote: |
| Cerberus wrote: |
I've tried to open up some young Korean minds to other music, ranging from Godsmack to Alice in Chains to showing them mixes of styles like rock and rap, but it's really a waste of my time so I've given up.
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Godsmack? Alice in Chains? really? thank god you gave up. |
that's your opinion 
actually there was a method to my madness so to speak. They asked me for my fave stuff.
in those 2 instances , I wanted to introduce them to some hard edged rock, which to my knowledge doesn't exist anymore. Green Day's fine, but it's really quite vanilla.
I get a rush of adrenaline each and every time I hear Godsmack's Straight Out of Line cranked up.
in the case of AIC, it was actually the unplugged version of my fave song.. Would. They wanted to know my favorite song to sing in a norebang. Several of them were music students and I wanted to show them how cool minor chords can be in rock, as demonstrated by AIC.
but they want to listen to Westlife 
so they listen to theirs and I listen to mine.
I did show them some Taylor Swift stuff to show "country music" even though it's more pop than country (but that's how things are trending now)
That got their attention, but I think it was lithe blonde Taylor rather than her music.
I showed them a great JayZ-Linkin park live clip and that didn't particularly excite them either.
They're just not into hard edged stuff. They like ballads, and Westlife
and they wear clothing that little kids stateside stop wearing when entering puberty, pajamas with teddy bears on it, actually I think teddy bears are out around 9 for boys stateside. You can wear superheroes till puberty.
despite it all, I still quite like my students.  |
Sorry i didnt mean to come off as a dick, i was joking...that didnt come off very well i guess haha
Thats cool that your trying to swap music tastes...but I'm interested in finding a trend/scene/whatever that is both counter to both western and korean cultures... godsmack/alice in chains/taylor swift/greenday is all pretty main stream (not that its not fine music if thats what floats your boat)
hah this thread has gone of the deep end, but thanks to all the great info I go hopefully I can translate it into some worthwhile research and what not |
I don't think scenester/hipster partying is really so counterculture, like a lot of people here- I think it's so scripted and safe, and marketed to with full awareness of keeping the mystique intact. It's a cultural minority, and I think the content is better, more creative/strange music and art, but the fangs are gone quite a bit, as adbusters wrote in "hipster: decline of western civilization". It could only me a momentary lull, but it's definitely not flipping over buses. 4chan seems more counter-culture really.
that said, there are foreign fashionista/hipster events you can find here:
thexoxokids.com
and korean fashionista/hipsters through "your boy hood" (street fashion) or youweresleeping.com
both of them really line up to the fashion side- steve aoki listed near gucci/runway events etc
my company supercolorsuper.com serves live music that is hip/happening now, not parties and fashion, directly. if i had lived during jimi hendrix's heydey i would have loved hendrix and hated hippies (as a forceful identity, not as individuals or violently), and just scored weed off of them and i guess played pong, since xbox wasn't around. |
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mr.whiskers
Joined: 09 Dec 2009
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| Posted: Thu Jan 28, 2010 5:37 pm Post subject: |
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| If you want counter-culture, hang out with Korean dummers, shamanists, mask dancers and the like. You will meet your share of anarchists, communists, pot smokers, and others who actively reject mainstream Korean culture. |
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pkang0202
Joined: 09 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Thu Jan 28, 2010 5:41 pm Post subject: |
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| Maybe you should check out Hyehwa/Daehongno area. Very heavy in the arts over there. I'm sure you can find what you are looking for there too. |
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Cerberus
Joined: 29 Oct 2009
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| Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2010 7:32 am Post subject: |
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| Steelrails wrote: |
Cerberus, Perhaps the reason they don't respect your music is that you don't seem to respect theirs. Your posts ooze disrespect towards their music, their culture, and them. If you can't appreciate some (not all) of K-Pop (especially the ballads), well then that's a failure of ear and understanding.
Also, your music seems one-dimensional, overwhelmingly male, angry, and "loud".
The on artist you did introduce that wasn't male, angry, and loud, got the most interest. Perhaps a correlation?
The Ks I know enjoy oldies and standards, classical, gospel, light jazz, very soft rock, hip-hop, techno, and pop. Try a range from- Old Beatles and Monkees tunes or some Sinatra for the older crowd, throw on a generic mix of classical, or try out some Glenn Miller or Louis Armstrong, maybe Fleetwood Mac? Then for the young kids- Kanye, Britney, and the like. Koreans like to know that the music is popular (with foreigners and Koreans alike), this way when they go out to sing it with their friends, they can sign together.
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| They're just not into hard edged stuff. They like ballads, and Westlife |
I think your students feel the exact same way about you as them, only in reverse- why is his music so angry? where are the pleasing vocals? how can you dance to this music? Why doesn't he give your music a try? How come we don't sing songs we can sing together? How come his music is about separating people and not bringing them together?
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| and they wear clothing that little kids stateside stop wearing when entering puberty, pajamas with teddy bears on it, actually I think teddy bears are out around 9 for boys stateside. You can wear superheroes till puberty. |
Being 16 and angry at daddy and the world and breaking all the rules is not a sign of maturity either. Moderation in all things.
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| Godsmack to Alice in Chains, JayZ-Linkin Park, |
It doesn't help that 2 of the 4 artists sound like garbage and btw all are super-mainstream. No one is a rebel for listening to Godsmack or Linkin Park.
That being said, keep on trucking and opening their ears, the more exposure the better. Who knows, you'll probably reach that one kid who will be that guy 30 years from now singing the Godsmack song and stunning the NET. Life goes on.
My biggest stunning moment was back stateside me and some friends were out washing our cars and I was playing some Hank Williams, Sr. Korean girl who is total pop-rap top 40, asked me who it was and said she really liked the music and moved her car next to mine to listen to it.
Other great one was first time at the Noraebang in the states this one K-kid who was a total starcraft geek and church boy gets on and belts out Steelheart's "She's Gone" note for note.
The cause is not lost! |
male angry and loud?
singing together and bringing people together??
you can NOT be serious.
I mean I loved the idea behind 'We are the World', but the song itself made me hurl chunks, it was that bad. To me, it's all about the song.
and I happen to like ALL kinds of music and even manage to find songs I like in genres I generally do not (e.g. country)
I like ballads when in mood, granted generally of the female variety. I particularly like Madonna's. Male crooning I happen to dislike, though love it in Spanish, and salsa male crooners are the bomb, Super cool.
I even happen to like a boyband song, a ballad.. famous N Sync one (but in Spanish)
My general point is in my LIMITED exposure to "Korean music", I see a constant trend toward for lack of a better word - infantilism.
the overly cutesy BS of girlie bands...the quasi gay, uber feminine qualities of every boy band.
this is "music" that in the US would be geared toward what we call the "pre-teen" market, people that haven't reached puberty.
I've reached puberty and then some, several times over.
there have been some Korean songs I've run across that hold at least limited appeal for me, but alas... too few. too few.
I guess it's asking too much to consider my 116, 17 and 18 year old highschoolers to have moved beyond "pre-teen", but somehow I suspect it's pretty much the same at the Korean university levels.
let's face it. Pop music is almost by definition pure crap. If it weren't for Ne-yo it'd still be crap stateside (that man is amazing as a songwriter). Remember Michael Jackson - the "king of pop". I HATED Michael Jackson's music, save for Billie Jean which had that killer beat/bass line and strongly influenced the nascent electronic/synth./house styles that were being created at that very time.
a good example of pop 'crap' is Britney Spears, except in Korea you simply get 10 britneys, get them to do stupid overly cutesy moves in a vid, sing a couple of lines in English and voila!
if you want to introduce me to Korean music you think I may find interesting, I'm all ears. |
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Steelrails
Joined: 12 Mar 2009
Location: Earth, Solar System
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| Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2010 2:21 pm Post subject: |
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Trying to think of K-Poop you might like that's real music....FAIL. In the end it's true, there is not much musical diversity here. 
If you like Acid Jazz/Funky stuff I can suggest Clazziquai and Rollercoaster, both are real bands, both sound really good.
Other than that just a few of the old ballads and trot songs- they aren't great music, but they aren't poppy either. The ballad singers- Lena Park's first couple of albums were pretty good. J's first album was good. Kim Jo Han for a male ballad singer.
Even amongst us NETs when we go out to the Noraebang the songs that everyone sings together are oldies and pop songs. Metal and rap are just to straining for some people and lack the broad appeal. It's not surprising considering both have an "anti-society" vibe.
Other than that- Jill Scott Jill Scott Jill Scott. Bluegrass. Out. |
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what the thunder said
Joined: 23 Nov 2009
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| Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 3:50 pm Post subject: |
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| benji1422 wrote: |
Musical tastes sort of mirror our beliefs about ourselves and the world.
Unlike our societies back home, Korean teenagers don't:
drink alcohol and pass out in junior high
have sex (or feel pressure to have sex) from age 12 on |
Ok, I agreed with some things on that list, but these 2? No way. I've seen my middle school students out drinking before and I've heard plenty of stories about the "bad" girls in class having sex.
The counter-culture exists around Hongdae, and people who say there isn't anything other than Kpop aren't looking hard enough. I've heard some great bands here but you'll never hear them on the radio or see them on tv unless it's a special on indie music in Seoul (mnet sometimes runs these types of programs). |
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Ukon
Joined: 29 Jan 2008
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| Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 5:40 pm Post subject: |
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| I'm going to guess much of the counter culture revovles around the film scene which is hardly a defender of korean society...damn near every korean film I've seen is outright critism of at least one aspect. |
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Bloopity Bloop
Joined: 26 Apr 2009
Location: Seoul yo
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| Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 11:23 pm Post subject: |
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This wanting to be part of a counter-culture stuff is soooooo stupid. I went to school in SoCal and hated all that hipster/scene bulls**t. Glad to be finally away from it. They just tried so hard to be different, exclusive, and not-mainstream. It always seemed like they'd love a band no one has ever heard about but as soon as they became even slightly popular, they'd kick 'em to the curb.
It just seems so limiting to be a part of these scenes. You hang out with the same people all the time--everyone in these scenes eventually become the exact same. I guess if that's what you're comfortable with, then whatever.
I'm open to meeting all kinds of people and have varied interests. |
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TheMarsTravolta
Joined: 20 Feb 2007
Location: Bundang
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| Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2012 11:12 am Post subject: |
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For Good Korean, check some classics out:
http://www.goldkoreavinyl.com/
Korean vinyl rips from 50s-90s |
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detonate
Joined: 16 Dec 2011
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| Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2012 11:49 am Post subject: |
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| what the thunder said wrote: |
| benji1422 wrote: |
Musical tastes sort of mirror our beliefs about ourselves and the world.
Unlike our societies back home, Korean teenagers don't:
drink alcohol and pass out in junior high
have sex (or feel pressure to have sex) from age 12 on |
Ok, I agreed with some things on that list, but these 2? No way. I've seen my middle school students out drinking before and I've heard plenty of stories about the "bad" girls in class having sex.
The counter-culture exists around Hongdae, and people who say there isn't anything other than Kpop aren't looking hard enough. I've heard some great bands here but you'll never hear them on the radio or see them on tv unless it's a special on indie music in Seoul (mnet sometimes runs these types of programs). |
Yea I read that post and roffled. These high school girls I see late night stumbling around with older guys are definitely not drunk and have plans to keep their knickers up all evening.
Anyways, Hongdae. |
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Skipperoo
Joined: 05 Jul 2010
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| Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2012 3:49 pm Post subject: |
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Cool site, thanks. |
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