Korean Job Discussion Forums

korian · Joined: 26 Feb 2004

i have to preface this by saying it's not just k-pop, but probably all pop in this manufactured bubble-gum music world. but k-pop is particularly grating to so many of us, especially with videos added.

there may be an explanation - that we can point to officially anyway...^^ - the DAG factor.

article here

http://www.smh.com.au/news/music/dagometer-proves-it-schmaltz-is-out/2007/07/10/1183833517568.html

while it may seem a little silly i think the point stands. music has meaning, and it means something to us if we can identify with it. i think it's identifying on different levels. for me it is anyway. if we can identify with the lyrics, if we can identify with the singer, if the singer has written the lyrics and feels the lyrics and we can appreciate some originality.

for me, that's why i can't stand k-pop and the boy/girl bands. they don't write their songs, they don't have any feelings in the songs, the lyrics have no depth, and what's worse, i have to listen to a 20 y.o kid who's life experience is pc bangs, starcraft and lotte world trying to make me believe in the pain of love and loss, all the while singing with make-up on and dancing a choregraphed routine with 6 others.

i'm sure we're not their target audience but i think that gap in identifying with k-pop or most pop is what affects us.

and just to prove i'm not just k-pop bashing, here is another great clip about the silliness of boy-band shmaltz

http://youtube.com/watch?v=1dmVU08zVpA

korian · Joined: 26 Feb 2004

i have to preface this by saying it's not just k-pop, but probably all pop in this manufactured bubble-gum music world. but k-pop is particularly grating to so many of us, especially with videos added.

there may be an explanation - that we can point to officially anyway...^^ - the DAG factor.

article here

http://www.smh.com.au/news/music/dagometer-proves-it-schmaltz-is-out/2007/07/10/1183833517568.html

while it may seem a little silly i think the point stands. music has meaning, and it means something to us if we can identify with it. i think it's identifying on different levels. for me it is anyway. if we can identify with the lyrics, if we can identify with the singer, if the singer has written the lyrics and feels the lyrics and we can appreciate some originality.

for me, that's why i can't stand k-pop and the boy/girl bands. they don't write their songs, they don't have any feelings in the songs, the lyrics have no depth, and what's worse, i have to listen to a 20 y.o kid whose life experience is pc bangs, starcraft and lotte world trying to make me believe in the pain of love and loss, all the while singing with make-up on and dancing a choregraphed routine with 6 others.

i'm sure we're not their target audience but i think that gap in identifying with k-pop or most pop is what affects us.

and just to prove i'm not just k-pop bashing, here is another great clip about the silliness of boy-band shmaltz

http://youtube.com/watch?v=1dmVU08zVpA

Dev · Joined: 18 Apr 2006

K pop doesn't bother me as much as Korean hip hop. They've taken a serious music genre and made it cutesy, cutesy.

On top of that, almost every K rapper sounds the same. But then again, maybe this is because I try to ignore it.

korian · Joined: 26 Feb 2004

but wouldn't you agree that k-hip-hop is the same as k-pop in that it just doesn't connect and isn't real.

hip-hop singers/bands are, for the most part, people who've lived in poorer areas, people who've experienced a lot of ups and downs, seen a lot more than most middle-class people, experienced death of friends, gangs etc etc. note i said for the most part.

hip-hop is a reflection of their lives.

then you get k-hip-hop or j-hip-hop etc with guys who've experienced life on the streets of apkujeong, seen death on the screens of starcraft games and held a gun at seoul land's shooting parlour to win their girlfriend a teddy bear, wearing gangbanger clothing, grabbing their crotches and wanting us to believe they're straight outta compton.

it's the massive disconnect and inability to identify with the person singing and what they're singing about.

that's why we throw things at the screen when we see k-pop or k-hip-hop etc......

Dev · Joined: 18 Apr 2006

PeterDragon · Joined: 15 Feb 2007

I kinda find K-Pop to be indistinguishable from American pop-diva/boy band stuff, and K/J-hip-hop to be indistinguishable from performers like Sno and Vanilla Ice back home (and a lot of the cherry picked radio-friendly songs of otherwise sincere hip-hop artists).

Havng said that, the funniest thing one will ever see in Korea is the affluent kids in the Hongdae clubs, with their baggy jeans, medallions, and sideways visors. It's actually even funnier than watching white kids in the Minneapolis suburbs pull the same act.

PeterDragon · Joined: 15 Feb 2007

twg · Joined: 02 Nov 2006 Location: Getting some fresh air...

I think it's more of a case of us not growing up with it and thus thinking it's the most brilliant music ever.

The stuff back home, even the artists who are "real", are manufactured image machines and nothing more. We just think it's brilliant because it has meaning to us. K-Pop doesn't.

pkang0202 · Joined: 09 Mar 2007

I like Eminem. He rapped what everyone thought. Korea would never allow a rapper/singer/artist like Eminem. The media would never air someone who speaks their mind so freely.

Needless to say, there IS real music here in Korea. You won't hear it on the radio or see it on TV. I guarantee you walk around some bars/clubs and you'll hear them playing.

jaganath69 · Joined: 17 Jul 2003

Problem is there is no grass-roots music scene here, at least not one that survives after the members get conscripted or get real jobs. All the music you see on TV here is top-down, some middle-aged A&R man's idea of what the main single-buying demographic (girls in their early to mid teens) want. Thus you get the endless procession of boy bands, wailing 'palladeu' and some camp hip-hop thrown in. My theory is that it will take some kind of event, like the economic crisis that Japan had, for kids here to have enough time on their hands to make an organic youth culture viable. Until then, enjoy DongBanShinGi.

NAVFC · Joined: 10 May 2006

Turtles Rule.

korian · Joined: 26 Feb 2004

Alyallen · Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2007 5:35 pm Post subject:

Korean hip hop and rap annoys me endlessly. Korean music influenced by reggae is also irritating. But to be fair, I don't know what the lyrics are exactly.

There is one rapper who talks about her life as abiracial child in Korea. That seems real but the rest of them I don't know and really don't care. Not really into rap anyway.

But if nothing else, it gives me something to laugh about...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zY2R-gr0opE
This song uses a Jamaican curse word about 60,000,000 times. Makes me laugh every time I hear it....

eamo · Joined: 08 Mar 2003 Location: Shepherd's Bush, 1964.

K-pop sounds just great to Korean teenagers. They love it.

RACETRAITOR · Joined: 24 Oct 2005 Location: Seoul, South Korea

I actually prefer most Korean pop to most American pop. Mostly because the lyrics can't invade me the way English lyrics can. Also, I've never seen a Korean popstar as skanky as Christina Aguilera or the virgin queen Britney.

The one hope of this country is that the majority of Koreans have nursed their musical talents far more than average westerners have, and it's not hard to find competent guitarists or pianists or singers here.