Books, blog and other blather
So, Andrew Sullivan put a Seoul VFYW up on his blog a couple of hours ago — a very pretty view of the city streets covered in snow (although it appears not to be a view from a window, but a street view from a pedestrian bridge).
I feel like I should know that stretch of road, but for the life is me, I cannot figure out where it is. Does anyone out there in Internet-land have any idea where this pic was taken?
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.
It’s pretty cool to see Korea pledging $51 million to development in Africa, with a concentration on infrastructure, IT, and science. The announcement — $51 million in aid over the next two years — came just after the Korea-Africa Economic Cooperation Ministerial Conference in Seoul last month. While North Korea, cool cell phones and pop music make the bulk of Korea’s international headlines, it is great to see how science is making such strides.
Korea’s universities have been steadily moving up the world university rankings for some time now. And while they are not exactly vying with the Standford or MIT, they are definitely much better than they were a decade ago. It is also no coincidence that the top-ranking schools are overwhelmingly Korea’s science schools — POHANG at No. 50 and KAIST is No. 68 (Seoul National University was No. 59, but much of that score came from its science programs).
Korea has long put an emphasis on the importance of science. You can get a very good overview of its science policy from Park Chung Hee to the present in this Brookings paper. I quite liked this graph:
The Ministry of Knowledge Economy sketches an amazing high tech future for Korea. Based on a 2009 survey of 3,000 IT industry experts and researchers, they listed such futuristic technologies as home medical checks for common diseases, mobile phones that only need to be recharged once annually, home appliances that respond to brain waves, automatic temperature adjustments for in-door climate control, super high-definition televisions, universal language translators, and efficient solar cells providing most electrical energy. While all this may be remarkable, similarly astounding technologies were predicted in Korean government reports twenty years ago.
Back in 2004, I wrote about the push then-President Roh Moo-hyun was giving science for the AAAS’s Science magazine: “Suddenly, Science Moves to the Top of Government’s Agenda” (I wrote it out because Science has a really stiff paywall). And while there is definitely something of a hamster wheel about the constant re-invention of grandiose science dreams, there is also a driving ambition which is so important to moving forward. It is the sort of vision that I fear way too much of the West has forgotten.
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.
A few random notes for this Saturday…
It’s been a good couple of days for people who like to read my ramblings about Korea (admittedly a rather small sub-section of humanity). First, I was quoted a fair bit in an article in the Scotland Sunday Herald about K-pop. And now the latest New Yorker, as John Seabrook’s feature article about K-pop, “Factory Girls,” references Pop Goes Korea a whole bunch — sadly, though, Seabrook’s story is behind a pay wall. (UPDATE: I nearly forgot, I also was quoted in an Ad Age article about the marketability of Psy and “Gangnam Style”*).
“Factory Girls” was interesting, as I got to experience the famed New Yorker fact-checking regime. Plenty of calls and emails asking about all sorts of K-pop details, sometimes basic facts, but other times more interpretive. They were nice enough to have uncovered a couple of errors from my chapter on Lee Sooman … in part because there is so much more information from the 1980s and 1990s online now than when I wrote the book. Luckily, none of the errors were crucial to my book — mostly they were details (like the number of times one K-pop star was arrested for drug use), the kind of things I hope to clean up should the book ever get another edition.
Anyhow, if you are interested the New Yorker’s fact checking culture, John McPhee’s article “Checkpoints” is also paywalled, but you can read it for free here.
* (How scary is it that when Anita Chang Beattie filed her story late last week, “Gangnam Style” had 283 million Youtube hits, and already it is at 335 million?)
* * *
In other news, Park Jihyun and Gord Sellar’s short film, “The Music of Jo Hyeja,” just won the Audience Pick Award at the HP Lovecraft Film Festival in Los Angeles. “The Music of Jo Hyeja” is a spooky, atmospheric short film that re-tells Lovecraft’s story “The Music of Erich Zann.” It looks great and features music by Jambinai, so how can you go wrong? Hopefully it will come to a film festival near you before too long.
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”:
Apollo 18, one of Korea’s top indie rock acts, has just announced a mini-tour in Canada later this month:
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.
Psy’s “Gangnam Style” has now topped 100 million views (that’s il ok in Korean). Not only does the mind reel, but so does the spleen, liver, and several other major organs.
UPDATE: Just one day later, and the video is on the verge of 110 million views. Craziness.
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:
Pop Goes Korea: Behind the Revolution in Movies, Music and Internet Culture (2nd edition) is the only English-language book to examine the whole of Korea's entertainment industry and how it became such a powerhouse over the past 20 years. With profiles of many of Korea's top stars (including Lee Byung-hun and Rain), Pop Goes Korea features chapters on movies, music, television, comic books, the Internet, and more.
On sale now at:
Amazon.com
Kobo eBooks
And hopefully more ebooks stores very soon.
The original edition of Pop Goes Korea is now out of print.
K-Pop Now! takes a fun look at Korea’s high-energy pop music, and is written for its growing legions of fans. It features all the famous groups and singers, and takes an insider’s look at how they have made it to the top.
You can buy at:
Amazon.com
Chapters Indigo
Tuttle (my publisher)
Kyobo Books (in Korea)
Goodreads (not for buying, but still a good link)
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