Category: Music (Page 2 of 7)

Brubeck, Gould, and Me

December 6, 2012 / Mark / 0 Comments

Like many, I was saddened to read about the passing of jazz great Dave Brubeck a few days ago. Although, to be honest, I was not an expert in the man’s works — I owned Take Five, of course, but not a lot more.

But for me, when I think I Brubeck, one of my thoughts is of Glenn Gould. It’s from the liner notes of the 1992 remaster of Gould’s Goldberg Variations, where Michael Stegemann talked about how huge the album’s sales were when it first appeared in 1955 — quoting Norman Snider:

Indeed, if a college girl had one record of serious music among the Dave Brubecks and Kingston Trios, it was likely to be the Goldberg Variations.

Wonderfully sexist and condescending stuff, isn’t it? But, aside from that, I love the layers of meaning in that quote:

Glenn Gould’s classical record was a No. 1 hit.
The epitome of shallow, empty pop was Dave Brubeck.

It is almost trippy to me to think of Brubeck being so dismissed, thought of the way people today think of Lady Gaga or Sarah Brightman — or maybe Snider was just a huge snob.

Anyhow, sad to lose Brubeck. Maybe I’ll download a couple of his albums and listen to him before going to bed …

Grid and Bear It

November 15, 2012 / Mark / 0 Comments

Korean indie-pop group Love X Stereo is back with a new EP, Off the Grid. And, much like their first EP Buzzin’, this one features three hook-laden and very danceable tunes.

The songs on this EP are a bit longer than before, with two topping 6 minutes and the other nearly 5 minutes. I guess that moves the bad a bit away from pure pop to something grander, more involved and layered. Or maybe they just wanted to have the space to have fun and rock out. Anyhow, I like it.

Here’s the first track, “Soul City (Seoul City)” (which happens to be the song I like the most):

But feel free to buy either album over at iTunes’ Love X Stereo link — they’re cheap and good fun.

The Physics of History

November 3, 2012 / Mark / 0 Comments

I just chanced across the website of Kim Young Suh, a physicist who has been teaching at the University of Maryland for some time. Kim was born in Korea in the 1930s, under the Japanese colonial government. As part of his website, he was quite a long and fascinating section on the music of Korea and Asia when he was growing up. It’s really fascinating, with hundreds of links to singers and music from Shanghai, Korea, and around the region, from the pop standards of the day to his classical favorites. It also talks a lot about Japanese propaganda songs and life in that period before independence. Just great stuff. You could spend hours listening to all his links.

Asian Indie – It’s a Big Place

November 3, 2012 / Mark / 0 Comments

As much as I love Korea’s indie music scene, it is always good to be reminded just how much other great music is being made all over Asia. And I don’t just mean Japan and China. Southeast Asia seems to be flourishing culturally these days, thanks in part to its continued economic growth.

If you are interested in Southeast Asia’s rock music, there is a great blog called Sea Indie (SEA Indie?), which features music from Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, etc. Along with news and reviews, Sea Indie puts out Soundcloud compilations, year-end best-ofs and other good packages for finding the best music of the region. For example, here is their article about the best songs of 2011. Did you know Indonesia had a great folk-rock band called Bangkutaman? Well they do, and the band is quite good.

Here is Sea Indie’s first compilation, featuring rock from Indonesia:

You can download their Filipino collection here and their Malaysian compilation here. But I quite like this regional collection.

The website kind of gets at one of my points in POP GOES KOREA — that Korea’s great musical accomplishments aren’t just because Korea is so special, but they are in part a sign of how the world is changing thanks to the continued effects of globalization. Korea did it first in Asia, but young people around the region are traveling more and growing more wealthy, and as they do, they want to participate in modern pop culture. Sometimes that will be very mainstream culture, but other times it will be more indie and ground-up. And that is a very good thing.

Oh, it is worth noting that this is not just a new thing either. Here is a fun blog post at Tofu Magazine with plenty of music links featuring some great Hong Kong and Singapore rock-pop from the 1960s. I quite liked this album by Teddy Robin & the Playboys:

Here is their version of “A Little Bit of Me, A Little Bit of You“.

From Ikea to Korea: Writing for K-pop

October 9, 2012 / Mark / 0 Comments

My new article about K-pop songwriting is up not at the Wall Street Journal (or, if you prefer, in Korean at the Korean Wall Street Journal).

With all this talk about K-pop recently, I tried asking about what musically makes K-pop. It’s a pretty ephemeral subject, very hard to nail down. Plenty of people say there is nothing unique about it. Others say it is just a rip-off of J-pop. One former Korean music exec had a theory that it was a technical issue, regarding the equipment that Korean studios use. So I thought talking to someone who actually finds songwriters and sells songs around the world — Pelle Lidell — could provide some good insights into the question.

Sadly, some of my favorite subjects did not make the final cut. He talked a fair bit about how you have to write always keeping in mind the accompanying dance performances. And we discussed what kind of feedback Korean labels provide as a song is developed. I was expecting a lot of technical detail, but instead instructions tend to be quite cinematic and abstract. “Sassy cheery attitude + fire explosive beat,” for example. Or “deliverance of deep emotions and force.”

But the best quote to get axed was his answer to whether K-pop was just a copy of J-pop: “Bullshit,” he said.

Anyhow, thanks much to everyone who let me pick their brains for this story. It is definitely a subject I plan on coming back to in the future.

From Psy to Sigh

October 6, 2012 / Mark / 0 Comments

A few random notes for this Saturday…

Of course, now that a spate of K-pop stories in the Western press has my tiny blog getting an uptick in visitors, my website goes down. It seems to be up and running again. Sadly, I cannot blame my ISP or anyone else for being incompetent, as the incompetence seems to be all mine. That’s what I get for trying to make changes a few hours before getting on an airplane.

There is yet another story out there with my gabbing, Don Kirk’s latest in the Christian Science Monitor. It’s about Psy, of course, but focuses on his free concert to 80,000 people from City Hall. I wonder if Don’s reportage came from the Seoul Foreign Correspondence Club last Friday — it’s in the 18th floor of the Press Building, which is right behind City Hall … great views there for downtown street protests.

Just a reminder that, if you are in Washington DC on Oct. 16, you can catch me, along with Marja Vongerichten (Host of PBS’s “Kimchi Chronicles”) and Grady Hendrix, talking about Korean culture. Grady, of course, will be talking movies. And I am told there might be one more “special” guest, but I’ll let you wonder who that might be. I will be talking K-pop and the Korean Wave. RIDING THE KOREAN WAVE takes place at 6:30 pm at George Washington University.

300 Million?

September 27, 2012 / Mark / 0 Comments

UPDATE: My article about Kpop and Korean exports to emerging markets is up on Foreign Policy now. Please check it out.

ORIGINAL: Hard to believe that it was just three weeks ago I was amazed by Psy’s “Gangnam Style” hitting 100 million Youtube views. Because checking out Youtube today, it has now topped 290 million, and I guess will be hitting 300 million soon.

Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” (which most of us assumed would be the big summer hit) is at 270 million.

But more important than just Youtube views (after all, “Charlie Bit My Finger” has 483 million views) is that Psy is now getting sales and radio airplay. The song is now at ~~No. 11~~ No. 2 on Billboard’s Hot 100 and No. 1 on Apple’s iTunes singles chart — well, it is down to No. 2 in the US after spending a few days at No. 1, but it is still No. 1 in Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, and Portugal.

Thanks to that surprise success, there is going to be a host of articles on Psy and K-pop coming out very soon, including a couple by myself. I’ll link to them as they appear. As someone who has been writing professionally about Korean pop music since around 2000, it’s all a bit overwhelming. But it is also fascinating to see who much our world is changing, and how Korea is changing with it.

More to come soon…

Btw, if you are looking for a great new Korean tune to dance to, I highly recommend the retro-disco of Glen Check’s “84”:

Earth to Apollo: Canada, We Have a Party

September 6, 2012 / Mark / 0 Comments

Apollo 18, one of Korea’s top indie rock acts, has just announced a mini-tour in Canada later this month:

Sept. 19 – Hamilton – This Ain’t Hollywood
Sept. 20 – Ottawa – Zaphod Beeblebrox
Sept. 21 – Montreal – Quai des Brumes (part of Pop Montreal)
Sept. 22 – Toronto – Bovine Sex Club

And here is the rather cool poster the band has whipped up for the tour:

Pretty sweet poster, imho.

Just in case you are not convinced, you can listen to the wonderfully noisy postrock band here:

This article on the band is also very good. And you can also check out Apollo 18 on Facebook.

Changing of the Guard

September 3, 2012 / Mark / 1 Comment

Kind of exciting to see that there are now new top dogs in town, for both Korean movies and music.

In movies, Thieves has shot past The Host to become the top-grossing movie Korean of all time. According to KOBIS, Thieves now has made 90.9 billion won ($80.4 million) from 12.6 million admissions. That puts Thieves well ahead of The Host‘s 79.3 billion won ($70.1 million), although still behind its 13 million admissions.

In music, Psy’s “Gangnam Style” is now the biggest Youtube success for any Korean song, topping 94 million views. As it had just 73 million a few days ago, I guess it will probably keep rising for a while. (UPDATE: I woke up this morning to see it at 99 million views. Most likely will top 100 million before the end of the day. Kind of amazing how, once something goes viral, it just keeps going).

The previous leader was Girls Generation’s “Gee,” which has about 84 million views.

Of course, what does 94 million Youtube views really mean? It’s impressive, but the significance is not so clear-cut (nothing really is these days, I guess). Psy has been No. 1 on Apple’s music video chart for quite a few days, as well as Billboard’s Social Media chart. But the song is just No. 31 on Apple’s iTunes singles chart, No. 72 on Billboard’s digital singles chart and it isn’t on Billboard’s Hot 100 at all.

(Although his album is No. 2 on Billboard’s World album chart and No. 24 on the Heatseekers album chart).

But, even if Psy isn’t the second-coming of Michael Jackson (or even LMFAO), the “Gangnam Style” phenomenon is still a pretty spiffy achievement. Good for him. Between this song, Girls Generation on Letterman, Wondergirls on Nickelodeon, etc., K-pop has gotten the West’s attention. And, more importantly, K-pop artists have mostly done so on their own terms, not following the advice of Western A&R guys or other consultants.

Anyhow, regardless of what happens next with Psy and Kpop, I vow never to let this happen to me:

Neon Bunny’s Great New EP

August 27, 2012 / Mark / 0 Comments

UPDATE: Oops, looks like I was wrong; Neon Bunny is on iTunes. Or back on iTunes? I don’t know what happened, but I am pretty sure her music was not there for at least a couple of weeks.

ORIGINAL POST: Neon Bunny (aka Lim Yoo-jin, aka “one of my favorite groups these days”) has just come out with a fun, four-song EP called Happy Ending. If you are a fan of catchy electro-pop (like Phoenix or Royksopp), you really should be listening.

Just four songs long, the EP is all upbeat and dancy (unlike Seoulight, which, while excellent at its best, did drag at times). There are elements of Roller Coaster and that Korean tradition of mellow funk-pop in Happy Ending, as well as a bit of ’80s New Wave (particularly in “Plastic Heart”). But mostly it is just first-rate, adult pop.

“Soap Bubbles”:

“Plastic Heart”:

“Prince”:

“First Love”:

Sadly, Happy Ending does not seem to be available at iTunes or any other online sites. Nor is her last album Seoulight, even thought I bought my copy at iTunes a few months ago. Maybe the original online distributor was one of those jerks who were selling albums online without a proper license (there were a bunch who got shut down). Anyhow, for now you will have to make do with Youtube and other streaming sites.
(NOTE: As I said up top, both Neon Bunny albums are now on iTunes).

Oh, and I just found this cool subtitled version of Neon Bunny’s “Come a Little Closer” — great for practicing your Korean:

Neon Bunny – Come A Little Closer MV [English… por LoveKpopSubs