Never Don't Mind About A Thing- The KPop Thread

[SweetOblivion]

KPop (Korean pop music, for those who don't know) has been making a lot of news here lately. One of my favorite groups, BTS (or Bangtan Boys) have been on a ton of talk shows over here, and they performed at the AMAs. The lead singer of my second favorite group, SHINee, took his life on Monday, and I never expected to see it show up on almost every news site in America.

Disclosure: I am much, much older than your average fan, as you can imagine. But, it's fun, it's quirky, and it makes me happy. My other favorite groups are EXO (I've gone every time they've come here), SHINee (have seen them every time they've been to TX), Monsta X (amazing live performers), TVXQ, Sistar, 2NE1, f(x), BlackPink, and many others.

Any other KPop fans here? Anyone wanna know more about it? The problem with being a more...mature...fan is that my emotions tend not to run as high as the young folks who live and breathe by their favorite KPop idols. It can make having conversations about it difficult sometimes.

[chonies]

I love KPop as a cultural artifact and discussion topic, from the music and business to the extremely intense fandom and related devotion (kind of especially in globalization and the non-Korean fanbases), but I'm not a major consumer by band, or at least not dramatically. I'd love to hear more gushing from someone more knowledgeable than me. A lot of what I know is patched together and sort of underscored by things like this episode of Radiolab.

Thanks for starting this thread, and I'm really sorry about Jonghyun.

[kateln]

We had a Kpop band play when I was at my organization, they were adorable, and super talented.

[SweetOblivion]

Dec 22, 2017 15:05:51 GMT -4 chonies said:

I love KPop as a cultural artifact and discussion topic, from the music and business to the extremely intense fandom and related devotion (kind of especially in globalization and the non-Korean fanbases), but I'm not a major consumer by band, or at least not dramatically. I'd love to hear more gushing from someone more knowledgeable than me.

Woooo, you're not kidding about the intense fandom. Those sasaengs (extreme fans) do not play around. There aren't really any anti-stalking laws in SK, so KPop idols have been stalked, harassed, photographed- sasaengs get jobs at phone/ utility companies to get idols' personal information. It's insane. Heechul from Super Junior told a story about changing his number due to harassing phone calls, and as he was walking out of the phone store he got a text that said, "No matter if you change your number, we will find you."

My friends got me into KPop. I wasn't interested in it at first, because I don't listen to pop music in general. Eventually it started to grow on me, and has now become a hobby of sorts. It's tons of fun going to concerts, I've even flown out to LA twice to see EXO with my best friend (the one who spread KPop to me like a zombie virus).

Here are some of my favorite videos so you can see for yourselves:

EXO- Dancing King

EXO CBX- Hey Mama (a sub-unit with EXO members Chen, Baekhyun and Xuimin)

SHINee- Married To The Music

SHINee- Ring Ding Dong

Monsta X- All In

2NE1- Fire

Orange Caramel- Catallena

Sistar- Touch My Body

2PM- Go Crazy

I may post more later.

[Deleted]

I'm over 40 and a fan of K-Pop. A bunch of my faves have disbanded, though. 2NE1, Coco Avenue, MBLAQ, TVXQ, and my absolute favorite of the bunch, Aziatix. I also watch Korean dramas, so that factored into my love of K-Pop.

It saddens me that the music industry in Korea is so demanding of their idols that they either quit or take their lives.

[SweetOblivion]

Dec 22, 2017 16:07:18 GMT -4 @stardancer2001 said:

It saddens me that the music industry in Korea is so demanding of their idols that they either quit or take their lives.

SM is the worst company of all, too. It's a real meat grinder. I've heard stories from their early days of them actually beating trainees who didn't perform well. Hell, EXO started hemorrhaging members as soon as they debuted because of their shitty treatment. A couple of months ago I saw a meme that said, "Every group has that one member who acts like idol life is never what they wanted. Like they walked into the wrong room one day and now they're trapped." I wonder if Jonghyun tried to leave and was denied.

One thing that keeps driving me away from KPop boards is people's inability to admit when their fav messed up. Colorism/ racism is a real problem in the industry, and a lot of them have think nothing of throwing the n-word around. And, there's a lot of appropriation of black culture. Idols have been charged with DUI/assault/rape, but it's never their fault. And God forbid you dislike their fav, it's just not allowed. I understand not wanting to get into flame wars, but even a simple "I disagree" is not allowed. Someone said a few days ago, "Maybe Jonghyun's death will make people realize that idols are human after all."

Anyway, here are some more of my favorite videos

Super Junior- Sorry Sorry (this is a frickin jam)

EXO- Call Me Baby (the inspiration for the title of this thread)

EXID- Ah Yeah (the ladies take on censorship)

Amber of f(x)- Shake That Brass (the most fun video you'll ever see)

SHINee- Colorful

TVXQ- Before You Go (long form, mini-movie music video like they used to make in the 80s and 90s)

[eclair]

Thanks for the links! I'm checking some of these out. Also, I wondered if Korean is a tonal language, so I looked it up and the answer is mostly no. It used to be, and is becoming so again, and is in some dialects, but for the moment, the answer is a confusing, general 'no'.

[SweetOblivion]

Monsta X have a new Christmas song

[save lilo!]

I am Korean-American, really used to like K-pop in junior HS (basically all the HOT active years), and I am still surprised at how many non-Asian people reacted to that death a few weeks ago. Seeing this also made me feel slightly uncomfortable because I am not 100% sure what is so appealing for people who did not grow up with the language or the culture / how much of it veers towards exoticizing the culture. I suspect it also has a little to do with the idealization and romanticizing the portrayal of Korean men in these dramas and movies. If we're having an open dialogue about it, does anyone care to share?

[petitesuite]

save lilo, I have wondered the same things. Sometimes I think that the stereotype of East Asian men as sort of asexual is part of the appeal to young Western girls—like it helps to make the k-pop stars extremely non threatening. Also, I suspect the limited Western media attention they receive makes it REALLY easy to project whatever you want to on them.

And combined with that, so many of the songs are catchy as hell. When I lived in Korea Growl (by...EXO? Or SHINee? Now I can’t remember) was a huge hit and it still gets stuck in my head sometimes, three years later!

Edit: SweetO, in case it wasn’t clear, I am talking only about younger fans—I have no doubt that you just know a cute guy and a catchy song when you see/hear one!