Korean Job Discussion Forums

[cj1976]

[Steelrails]

[Seoulman69]

[lemak]

The 2010s Asian version of Mark "Jacko" Jackson.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3h6pyZi88w

One of those embarrassing songs no one will admit to ever liking or listening to 6 months earlier and k-pop will fade back into it's plastic obscurity of effeminate girlie boys and borderline suicidal praying mantis-esque chicks.

[Dave Chance]

[h20]

Pardon my unwillingness to read through ten pages of discussion, I may overlap with something already said.

Let's stop for a second here and note that this could actually be the most popular song in the past decades of pop music, if not human history. Correct me. Not saying the best song. Just the most popular. It came out two months ago. The YouTube video has 337 MILLION VIEWS as of October 2, 2012.

It's only possible because this is the 21st century with the ever-increasing globalization of the Internet. I think we should take a step back and notice how history's being made here, looking at the big picture.

[Moondoggy]

if you live in seoul or near seoul go down to City Hall plaza for the Psy concert on thursday. it;s free and starts at 9pm.

[12ax7]

[12ax7]

[figshdg]

[andrewchon]

[The Cosmic Hum]

[Dave Chance]

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/10/08/121008fa_fact_seabrook#ixzz28GQRKgjY

The Korean government has promoted hallyu, using it as a form of �soft power,� by making South Korea the Hollywood of Asia. Hallyu has erased South Korea�s regional reputation as a brutish emerging industrial nation where everything smelled of garlic and kimchee, and replaced it with images of prosperous, cosmopolitan life.

In addition to singing and dancing, the idols study acting and foreign languages�Japanese, Chinese, and English. They also receive media coaching and are readied for the intense scrutiny they will receive on the Internet from the �netizens� of Korea, the most wired country on earth. (�Netizens Love Seohyun�s Aegyo Mark� declared a recent headline from the K-pop Web site Soompi, regarding the small beauty dot to the left of the singer�s eye.) Unless you�re the Jonas Brothers or Taylor Swift, public drunkenness, brawling, and serial misbehavior can often enhance an artist�s reputation in the American pop scene; in Korea, a rumored sex tape or a positive test for marijuana can derail a career. On average, only one in ten trainees makes it all the way to a d�but.

The groups are put together by the heads of the agencies, according to an alchemy of individual and collective qualities. �The members of a group shouldn�t be completely alike and indistinguishable,� Melody Kim, a community manager at Soompi, told me, �but they should be complementary enough so that together they form a really great, cohesive whole.�

The charts change rapidly, and, because youth and novelty are at such a premium, established groups usually don�t last long: five years is the average shelf life of an idol. (Some idols extend their careers by acting in K-dramas.) New groups appear regularly; in 2011, about sixty groups made d�buts, an unprecedented number. Only a fraction are likely to last; most will fade away after a couple of songs.

Good looks are a K-pop artist�s stock-in-trade. Although some of the idols are musicians, K-pop artists rarely play instruments onstage. Where K-pop stars excel is in sheer physical beauty. Their faces, chiselled, sculpted, and tapering to a sharp point at the chin, Na�vi style, look strikingly different from the flat, round faces of most Koreans. Some were born with this bone structure, no doubt, but many can look this way only with the help of plastic surgery. Korea is by far the world leader in procedures per capita, according to The Economist. Double-fold-eyelid surgery, which makes eyes look more Western, is a popular reward for children who get good marks on school exams.

Lee Soo-man, S.M.�s founder�people in the company refer to him as Chairman Lee�is K-pop�s master architect.

In 1985, Lee received his degree, and, he told Russell, he returned home determined to �replicate U.S. entertainment in Korea.�

[teachergame]

[Swampfox10mm]