Blog

Short blog posts, journal entries, and random thoughts. Topics include a mix of personal and the world at large.

Year of NewJeans

Is my 2023 top 10 list of songs going to be mostly NewJeans?

I absolutely cannot stop listening to NewJeans’ latest pre-release EP, featuring the songs Super Shy and New Jeans. Both are the typical NewJeans flavor: catchy, cute, innovative, and super fun. Best of all, there’s more music to come as the full mini album is coming out next week. Expectations are rightfully very high.

NewJeans’ release at the beginning of this year - the tracks Ditto and OMG - has already solidify their place in my 2023 top 10. Unless a new song blows me away during the second half of this year, Ditto is likely number one (I’ve play the song more than 800 times already). A melancholic, hauntingly beautiful track that talks about platonic longing for a special someone.

So that’s two slots taken, with Super Shy and New Jeans knocking dangerously on the doors, and more releases coming up. Can I really dedicate half the slots to one group? That last time this happened was back in 2015, when Red Velvet came out with Ice Cream Cake EP and The Red album. Coincidentally, the creative director at the time for Red Velvet was Min Hee-jin, who is now the executive producer of NewJeans. Talk about someone tremendously good at her craft…

The 2023 list is going to be tough. Which is a good thing because who’s complaining about lots good music? Contenders also are aespa's My World EP, and LE SSERAFIM’s Unforgiven album. Both features songs I’ve been really digging. Why does it look like all I listen to are Kpop female groups, you ask? That’s where the innovation is, my friends. Kpop male groups are all trying to do the tough guy BTS thing. That gets tiring after the fifth track that sounds exactly the same.

ITZY, MIDZY, Let's fly!

I don’t always go to Kpop concerts, but when I do, I travel to Dallas to do so. Why? Because it’s far easier to get tickets for cities that aren’t Los Angeles. Besides, we have a friend who lives in Dallas, so it made sense to kill the proverbial two birds with one stone. The increase in cost in terms of airfare and hotel is a worthy tradeoff to spend some time with a cherished friend. Money, we can always make back. Relationships, might not be here tomorrow.

The Kpop act we went to see at the Toyota Music Factory in Irving, Texas (close enough to Dallas) is ITZY. I’ve been a fan of this quintet since their debut back in 2019. One long pandemic later and they are finally having a world tour. Perfect time to go see them live. I’m glad ITZY is not so popular to perform in huge venues like arenas and stadiums. The Toyota Music Factory seats 4,000 indoors, and it’s just the right size that even in our “cheap” seats, it’s intimate enough to see the singers’ faces.

I never understood why people go to stadium shows. Unless you pay absolutely through the nose for seats up front, you really cannot see shit when you’re up in the bleachers. From that position you’re more watching the LCD screens instead of the acts themselves. At that point, why not simply watch the concert DVDs? Even though I enjoy Taylor Swift’s music, I cannot ever attend her stadium concerts. I’m not rich nor fanatical enough to pay for the expensive seats.

Anyways, back to ITZY. They are fantastic to see live. The five of them really showed off their vocal abilities. To be able to dance choreography and sing live at the same time, song after song, is really difficult and impressive. The allure Kpop for me is always the synergy of song and dance into one complete performance. Not all groups in Kpop achieve commercial success, but I can say all of them work their butts off.

I was only disappointed that ITZY did not perform my favorite song of theirs: Swipe.

Bang tan

One of the few regrets I have throughout this COVID-19 pandemic is missing the scheduled BTS concert at Levi’s Stadium back in April 2020. Not because of any fault on my part, obviously: the entire tour was rightfully cancelled. Live Nation held onto our money (interest free) for more than a year, hoping against hope that the tour would simply resume when circumstances allowed. Unfortunately, it was a not to be, and ultimately I got my money back.

There goes my opportunity of seeing the golden boys of South Korean music. With two additional years of popularity increase - assisted by a few English-language singles - the pent up demand for BTS is at a maximum. Which explains why getting tickets for their concert at SoFi Stadium down in Los Angeles, held earlier this month, was incredibly difficult. Wait many hours in the virtual queue only to not get a chance to purchase? That’s what happened to a friend.

I’ve heard similar experiences in getting tickets for TWICE’s upcoming North American tour. Lucky for me, I already saw them in concert back in 2019. I don’t have a great need to do it again.

Back to BTS: I have to say I really can’t get into their English-language songs. I don’t understand why they (and other Kpop groups) need to pander to our market and sing in English. The principle problem is that the rap line - J-Hope, Suga, and RM - can’t showcase their skills at all. The same trio that utterly electrified on a track like this is hopelessly wasted when BTS do songs in English. Difficult to rap in a language you only have elementary (at best) knowledge of, understandably.

BTS’s built their popularity singing and rapping in Korean. The rest of the world not able to understand the language was never a problem nor a barrier. Singing in English when only one member of the group can even speak it fluently just seems wrong to me. I feel the same way about Kpop artists releasing Japanese singles when no one (or very few) in the group can speak the language. Contrived. Forced. Money grab.

I’ll stick with BTS’ Korean discography, thank you.

BTS hunger games

Tickets for BTS’ latest world tour goes on presale later today, so may fortune be forever in your favor (or whatever that famous line is from the Hunger Games films). Like most functioning adults, I am not free at 3PM on a workday to get in the virtual line on Ticketmaster; luckily, my friend is (he’s a functioning adult, though; promise), so I’ve given him my login information and hoping for a good result.

That said, it’s not a huge deal if I don’t get tickets, because I’m not the most ardent of BTS fans. I have been a fan of Kpop since the late 2000s, so I feel it is important to go see an act such as BTS - the worldwide cultural phenomenon the group has become. Our group of friends simply wants to get in and listen to the songs, rather than paying out the nose for expensive seats, hoping to get a close glimpse of whoever is our “bias” (Suga, obviously). I’m glad that BTS is a big enough act to host concerts in football stadiums, because that means we can sit up high for relatively cheap.

The cynical might say I’m merely joining in on the hype and “doing it for the ‘gram”, and my reply to that is, “so?” Indeed it’s true that I would not be trying to get tickets if BTS wasn’t the biggest pop group on the planet, but who says you can’t follow the horde or what’s popular? It’s not like I don’t enjoy their music; and unlike some, I can actually understand the lyrics without consulting a dictionary or Youtube translation videos (hate to sound elitist). Like I said, the point is to have fun, hang out with friends, and listen live to our favorite “genre” of music: Kpop.

Fingers crossed we get the opportunity to do so at the BTS concert.

Rest in peace, Choi Jin Ri

Today is a very upsetting day.

I woke up to the immensely sad news that South Korean singer and actress Sulli has passed away in her apartment; an apparent suicide. She was only 25 years old.

Depression is a monster.

Sulli used to be a part of the Kpop group f(x), a group I hugely adore and whose musical influence can be seen and felt in contemporary Kpop. f(x)’s second studio album Pink Tape remains one of my favorites ever. Since Sulli’s departure from the group I haven’t followed up on her happenings that closely, though I know that she’s since become a full-time actress, and even had her own pop-up store.

A beautiful life, cut short by the demons of the world.

I hesitate to play the blame game, but Sulli’s suicide has got to be on the hands of Korean Netizens. These cowards have relentlessly attacked and criticized her since her debut in the entertainment business, and it’s so sad and frustrating it’s turned out like this. No person should have to live with such constant ridicule, and even the strongest can and will wilt under such pressure. These keyboard warriors get to live on; would they feel an ounce of remorse? I wonder.

So I’m quite upset because I feel this could’ve been prevented. Jonghyun’s suicide nearly two years ago was due to his inner turmoil, while Sulli’s death was caused by external forces, of people’s inability to be kind to another person, just because she’s a celebrity. It’s needlessly tragic, and I can only tear up at imagining the sort of pain Sulli was in that led her to such a decision.

진리씨~ 수고 많이 하셨습니다. 잘 가세요.

Parked on the street because it can’t make it up the driveway without scraping.

BTS on SNL!

I’ve been listening to Kpop for over a decade now, and have watched Saturday Night Live (SNL) continuously for equally as long. Never in all my imaginations would I think I’d ever see those two entities collide. A Kpop artist as a musical act on SNL? Unfathomable.

So it was somewhat surreal to see BTS perform on SNL this past Saturday. Hearing Korean language being sung on an American television program is something unthinkable only until recently, and I’m super prideful that BTS didn’t dilute their brand of music – namely attempt to do American pop – in their rise to worldwide fame.

Huge credit must go to PSY and ‘Gangnam Style’ for busting the door open.

I can’t help to think of the Kpop artists before BTS that have tried to enter the western markets and have largely failed. Artists who were mega popular in Asia, but died out to a whimper here in the States: Kwon Boa, Bi Rain, and Wonder Girls. Perhaps back then America wasn’t yet ready for an Asian act to enter their domain, and BTS is lucky to be birthed during a time when the smartphone and rampant Internet access have flattened and broaden our horizons.

10 years ago, access to Kpop in the States was decidedly underground, having to rely on the benefaction of kind Korean netizens uploading the MP3 files onto the Internet. Fast forward to today, new Kpop releases happen simultaneously on almost all the streaming platforms. It’s a massive change.

I think the failure of earlier Kpop artists was also in large part due to them Americanizing their sound – singing in English. In their attempt to pander to a different audience, they lost a core of their original fan-base who wished they’d kept doing Kpop, while simultaneously the unfamiliar American audience looked strangely at these singers from Asia is doing American pop. BTS achieve popularity in the West because they never strayed from Kpop and singing in Korean, and I think people are strongly drawn to that authenticity. Entering the American market was never a goal for those guys: it just sort of happened, very organically.

In truth I would say BTS isn’t even the most talented group currently in Kpop (I’d rank Block B above them; come at me), but to see a group of Asian males be so adored by an American demographic is something great to see from a representation standpoint. I have to get behind that, and also I do like BTS’ music.

Naturally then I tuned in live to SNL, and it was interesting to see on my twitter feed other people seeing BTS perform for the very first time. Some were amazed at their ability to coordinately dance and sing live at the same time, while others were (rightfully) confused about some of the English lyrics not making the best grammatical sense. Overall, people were impressed, and so was I. What a beautiful sight it was indeed.

Why don't Kpop albums come in vinyl?

Like a true millennial hipster, I quite fond of vinyl records of contemporary music, not because I like the sound - I don’t even own a record player, but rather I’ve always enjoy album art (a hearty rest-in-peace shoutout to iTunes cover-flow), and they don’t come any bigger than in LP vinyl form. Naturally, I prefer to display my records trophy-display style instead of purchasing an IKEA Kallax shelve like everyone else and inserting them in vertically.

On a similar vein, I’m an avid listening of Kpop, and the one thing I’ve come to lament about the “genre” is the absolute lack of vinyl print of Kpop albums - no, I refused to fork the over $250 price for G-Dragon’s limited vinyl release of his ‘Coup D'etat’ album. Kpop albums have some of the most creative and imaginative album-art designs, and it’s a shame I can’t procure them in the larger format for display. Of course, having a few albums with beautiful girls on the cover isn’t all that bad of a thing, either.

At least Kpop comes fully correct in how they package their music albums in what is now old-school CD format. American music CDs arrives in the same classic jewel-case with only a booklet in addition to the front and back cover to differentiate. Kpop CD albums are full-on visual art productions, with innovative packaging (check G-Dragon’s first album), substantial photo-books, and various collectible totems such as trading cards.

In lieu of not having vinyl prints to purchase, I do often buy physical Kpop albums just on sheer art value. And like the LPs of American music I own, I don’t play the CDs themselves at all (who owns a CD player these days anyways?); online and on iTunes is where I actually listen to music.