Day 3! K-Pop

Musically 2010 has had two main trends for me. On one side, noisy/sweet indiepop harkening back to 60s girlbands, New Order and distortion. I call it Mishindie for reasons to be explained later. The other trend has been k-pop. Korean Pop. K-pop is commercial pop music as viewed through a Korean lens, sung by boys and girls who've trained under talent agencies for many years in hope to one day become a part of a group. They usually get scouted during their early teens, the agency pays for their education while giving them singing lessons, dance lessons, acting lessons, language lessons and look for other girls/boys to build a group where each member can stand out and attract a certain segment of the population. The members must be as believable selling stuff in commercials as they are acting in the TV-dramas and appearing on reality shows with other idols, making sure the fans always can get a good dose of "their" favourite star. That is, of course, outside of the singing, recording and when promoting appearing weekly on the 3 competing chart programs as well as other shows. If possible with different outfits and looks for each appearance to ensure variation and added value for the fans.

The world of k-pop is a weird world. And I haven't even gotten into their very ambivalent views on sexuality, the way the agencies control the lives of the stars, censorship and exploitation of young boys and girls, the homogenised Korean culture and its strict traditions or the scandals that always simmer beneath the surface. It's the kind of place where a group has to live together to make sure the members bond, and that the agencies have full control of their lives.

Why do I like this? Simple. There is no other pop-scene in the world that is as exciting as the Korean. UK is wandering in the dark, Sweden is stuck up on Idol and Melodifestivalen, while US is drinking the David Guetta kool-aid. Korea is bursting with songs, groups, agencies and top-notch producers. It's a boiling pot of talent, with the potential to go either global or implode upon itself. Considering that the latest 2NE1 video got over a million youtube hits in just one day, and that Billboard recently covered Girls' Generation, I might be leaning towards the former. Korean as a language is much more rhythmic than Japanese, way more harmonic than Mandarin and Cantonese. It lends itself well to upbeat electronic pop/r'n'b. With each producer wanting to stand out in a crowded market there are some insane productions released. Some crash and burn, whereas others soar high (Lucifer, while being a bit of a hot mess, might have my favourite production of the year).

This frequently leads to superb pop singles followed by uneven albums. Just like groups are handpicked to suit as many demographics as possible, few albums presents a cohesive theme but instead puts down some r'n'b, some electropop, some ballads, some soul, some lite-rock. Something for everyone. Exceptions to this rule exists, but k-pop is mainly a singles game. The only artist who truly broke the mould and made a musical statement 2010 was Ga-In who delivered a great tango-pop mini album.

What got me started on this, then? Back in spring I was reading a music forum and a thread named "Perfect pop songs" caught my eye. There were the usual suspects, Girls Aloud, early Sugababes, Max Martin productions, Annie, Robyn. Then there was the indiepop segment with New Order, The Smiths and all the other songs I've heard a million times. But there was also a song called "Gee" by a group named "Girls' Generation". So I gave it a listen.  Then another one. Then once more. It is now the, by far, most played song in my iTunes library at 164 plays (64 more plays than #2 on that list). Add in youtube hits and it would be like I've listened to this song once a day since April. And I'm not the only one. When I found it, the video had 18 millions views. Now it's over 30.



What is it with Gee that makes it so irresistible?
At first it was how the drums falls away for a few beats just as the chorus starts. That was my initial hook.
Then it was their "leg-scissor dance", brilliant in its simplicity.
After that I got stuck on the rhythmicness of Korean, the sung language occasionally becomes its own percussion track. At one point I realized how much Taeyeon adlibs near the end added to the song.
And then I found that each time I listened to Gee I couldn't help myself smiling, it was such a joyful cheery song. No matter how down I am, Gee cheers me up. Yes, it's sweet, sugary and very far from some western idea of authenticity. And there is absolutely no musical reason for them to have nine members! But I don't care. It's simply put one of the most perfect pop songs I've heard and I keep finding new things that draw me back in to it. Currently my obsession is the way they sing "geol/gul/girl" at the end of some verses.

This was meant to be a short post about Korean album design and artwork, and how much more time and effort they put into those things. How varied it is. But instead it turned into some sort of introduction to k-pop. I'll get back to the design later though, it's too good not to be shown.