nanoomi

In response to this question, Stephen Epstein’s RAS presentation last week about girl groups was well worth attending. There was a lot of textual analysis of lyrics and dissection of the narratives present in the videos. I liked his description of the dichotomy between girls presenting themselves as shy and inexperienced while at the same time ‘anticipating being deflowered,’ I think was how he put it.

The article which made him interested in the topic of Girl Groups can be found here (enter page 25 at the bottom). There’s lots to tear apart – you’ve got to love a self-described “middle aged man” asking, “Just what is it about them that drives us into such a frenzy?” and then match that with this: “Some are so surprised by the elder generation’s enthusiasm for girl groups that they cannot help but mention the Lolita complex. Nevertheless, that would be an example of an exaggerated principle that remains from the past authoritarian era.” (Nice try, but I don’t think wonjo gyoje began in the 1970s.)

“In the course of shifting from a masculine-dominated era to one of feminine equality, the imposing frames of age and gender are being slowly torn down. The time has come in pop culture where a man in his 40s can cheer for teenage girl groups without being looked at suspiciously.”

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The highlight (and it was a huge huge highlight), was when Lee Joon came out on stage, sang his solo, ripped off his shirt, and did a pole dance.

A+’s (MBLAQ fans), maybe you should stop reading there.

You may wonder why I’m saying that up front, right away. The simple reason is, due to various reasons, the Men in MBLAQ show is going to go down as one of the worst concerts I’ve been to in Korea. The depressing part is, the boys themselves had very little to do with why the show was bad.

First, I’ll be quite honest, and will personally take some of the blame. Since there are concerts coming up every single weekend for the next five weeks, I cannot possibly afford to get good tickets for every show I go to. I figured MBLAQ would be a show that it would be okay to see at the 300 level.

And while my view was fine, and the sound was great, I was surrounded by a bunch of high schoolers who probably saved their allowance for months to afford this one ticket, and sitting with them was hell. They screamed like banshees, but wouldn’t stand or do anything other than wave their little light sticks. I watched as the second floor and ground floor were able to dance along with songs, while I had to sit, miserable, being hit in the head by the zealous fan behind me who was waving her fan around to the music.

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Exactly a week from now, on March 29, neonbunny will release her first album, Seoulight. She’s been a session musician for The Black Skirts and the album will be released through The Black Skirts’ doggyrich label. You can hear some of her sweet electro sound in the samples for Long-D and main track 조금씩 다가와줘 on Hyang Music or check out the album release show trailer to hear neonbunny with more of an electro rock sound. Personally I’m extremely excited about this release and can’t wait to hear more.

Cellist and noise artist Okkyung Lee released an album called Noisy Love Songs on March 22. It was her second release under the prestigious avant-garde/experimental music label Tzadik Records where she put out her first full length album, Nihm, in 2005.

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I’ve meant to write about this for awhile but it’s slipped my mind. It was a month and a half ago that I was waiting for the subway and saw two pages of the Chosun Ilbo someone had left on the bench; upon flipping through them, I found one of the coolest articles I’d come across in awhile, titled “Do you know ‘A Tomorrow Without Tuberculosis’ and ‘Lee Soo-man and 365 Days’?” It’s about Japanese guitarist Yohei Hasegawa, who is currently the guitarist in the Kim Chang-wan Band, and who has been living in Korea since 1997. He previously played with Sato Yukie in the band Gopjang Jeonggol, which plays covers of classic Korean rock songs (I’ve seen Sato Yukie play solo twice, and he’s well worth seeing).

Source

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So “Superstar K” is the Korean counterpart to “American Idol”

Wifeoseyo has been totally enrapt in this show: she had her favorites, and rooted for them, and the final was this weekend.

There’s more on the finalists at ALLKPOP

The two finalists were John Park – known by some as the Korean-American American Idol contestant from a previous season, and Huh-Gak, a shorter, less handsome guy, but all-Korean.

Here’s Huh-Gak, in one of the performances that hasn’t been taken down from Youtube because of copyright violations.

Here’s John Park, singing “Man in the Mirror” from a previous episode: his English is stronger than his Korean, and Wifeoseyo says this was the best song of the “Michael Jackson Tribute” episode.

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Korean pop group 2NE1

Came across this image last week. Despite the ‘I couldn’t decide what to wear so I put on everything I own’ look, you do get a sort of punk-ish, ’80s vibe by the looks of them. If you were expecting some edgy electro-punk, however, you’d be disappointed:

At an event hosted by the Ministry of Justice on Tuesday to launch a volunteer group for the G20 Summit in November, the band announced a campaign song to encourage people to abide by the law.

“We’ll try to set examples by obeying rules, even minor ones, as citizens ourselves and work to raise awareness about problems with writing malicious comments on the Internet and illegal downloading,” 2NE1 said.

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Jazz songstress Youn Sun Nah released her seventh full-length album, Same Girl, on August 17. Today London Korean Links reports that a European release is on the way - according to her official MySpace it will reach more than 30 countries on September 24.

Same Girl holds a total of 11 original songs and covers, including what is surely interesting take on Metallica’s Enter Sandman. A digital single for main track, My Name is Carnival, a Jackson C. Frank cover, will be out on September 17.

Visit the official site for all upcoming Youn Sun Nah live dates in France, Germany, and Switzerland.

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Since a couple of weeks back I’ve been quite fond of Kinzli & the kiloWatts. I liked Kinzli’s music from the start, was happy to find Kim Doo Soo first in the list of her influences, and even happier to find that she likes scientific calculators with the fraction to decimal function. I’ve listened a lot to her sweet and lovely songs since then, and though the album info (see “about me” section at MySpace) offered a generous amount of information I still wanted to ask her a few questions.

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At long last BoA has returned to Korean music. She did so with the release of her sixth full-length album, Hurricane Venus, on August 6.

Thanks to Widhi I found out that one of her new songs, a beautiful ballad called 한별, features Kim Jong Wan of Nell.

You can read the original post at IndiefulROK.