The only goal of Korean pop music producers (Banana Girl)

is to create something that will stick in your head like a ballbuster,

and dress it up in as much cute/sexy line-straddling hijinks as they can.

**OK. I should qualify this with saying "often" "sometimes" and "many" instead of "always" "never" and "all". . . but sometimes it seems this way, OK?**

to me, the experience of diving into modern Korean dance/pop music is about tantamount to skipping lunch and eating cotton candy until I'm full instead.

And I swear, there's a musically gifted, sugar-hyper six-year old singing to herself, confined in a music studio basement somewhere who is the inspiration, maybe even the composer, for all these songs.

For your consideration:

Crazy Crazy Crazy, by Banana Girl (note the cute faces, the attempt to start a line-dance craze, and fingers pointing in the air with baby-pink cute smiles)

Here is my running "this is what's going through my head as I watch this video" diary for chocolate, also by Banana Girl. (maybe it's just Banana Girl...)



candy. too cute.
the v sign -- two fingers in the air. getting the cheese on early.

seriously, is this band's target audience four-year olds?

lollipop flowers. . . and then a wiggle dance in a bare-shoulder dress.

ooh. slipped on a bananaa peel. didn't see that coming.

ooh. it can't be a korean mousic video without an attempt to start a dance craze. . . it's like a Freddie Prinze Jr. Movie.

Cartoon mascots. and cotton candy. I swear this video had a six-year-old executive procucer.

the platinum blode wigs are. . . uh...

I wonder how many of these dance crazes people attempt to start, but never catch on. The people at the dance club probably didn't take this one on because they couldn't find enough cartoonishly large lollipops.

holy crap a rodeo machine! only for two seconds.

a candy-cane pole dance and that rodeo machine again. . . so their target audience is four-year old girls and thirty-one year-old men, then. hmmm.

So did hershey sponsor the making of this video?

Wow. There are genres of Korean music I like but dear friends, this ain't it.
I think my hands are shaking.


That was kind of fun.

So, is K-pop getting too sexified? Here's "Kiss Kiss" also by Banana Girls

Again, James Turnbull would be better at discussing the cutsified, lolita-sex appeal of the baby talk, whiny singing, eyelash-batting bicycle-riding kid stuff, balanced against the intensive oral fixation (lollipops, fingers by mouth, a FREAKING CHERRY!), the stick-in-your-head-with-crazy-glue catchiness with those whiny syllables at the end of every line (not just in this song, either)


This sounds very similar to the band/artist I mentioned before explaining why K-pop is sometimes like wading through a swamp of cute, (Lee Hyun Ji) -- any connection between these bands, other than the fact they're like corkscrews in my brain?  It's difficult to explain this kind of pop culture without seeing it, but this is a common form of femininity here, as far as I can tell, and I know some people (not many, but a few) who do (or try to (from time to time at least)) act like these starlets (with varying degrees of success); at the same time, I'm not so much an expert, but I have a feeling a band like this wouldn't have a snowball's chance in hell of making it in North America, unless they played up the cutesy cheesiness to the level of hardcore fetish, and ended up in some kind of creepy raincoat-flasher target-market niche/asiophile who would have found out about them anyway demographic, kind of like that old Russian teen-lesbian-pop-duo import from 2003, TATU.

All this stuff is way sexier than what one could get away with pulling three years ago, say -- even superduperstar Rain had his song banned for singing about his magic stick!

And this is where I live, dear readers.

So what do you think, readers?  What's the North American culture equivalent to Banana Girl?   And what would happen if Banana Girl decided to tour the states?  The cultural differences that manifest in pop culture fascinate me to no end.

Until I can get more pics up. . .

I went to Seoul Forest with Girlfriendoseyo on Sunday, after a great Saturday meeting a few friends, who took some pictures of me which I want. With a capital W. Beautiful in Seoul Forest though. Just beautiful.

But until I can get the slideshow up and running, and choose the perfect song, here are two pictures for the lot of you, to tide you over until the full write-up comes online,





and here's one just for you, Gomushin Girl.




(ever wanted to hear a real, juicy evil laugh, by the way? I present to you, my nemeis: daunting indeed, she is!)


(HT to Foreigner Joy...anybody got a spare window she can use?)

Trip to Damyang with Girlfriendoseyo

Well, I was going to exercise the full extent of my researching and sleuthing skills (step aside, Popular Gusts: there's a new kid in town), and google "Korean Ghost Stories" and then post the first four hits for a spine-tingling halloween post. . . but Brian and FatmanSeoul beat me to the punch. (I'll link to the first stages of my research, though, so you can get a feeling for the kind of terror I would have laid at your shivering feet. . . were I so inclined.)

So instead, here's a slide show and some great pictures of the gorgeous little town of Damyang in Jeolla Province, where I travelled last weekend with Girlfriendoseyo.

It's a pretty town, with a gorgeous (but crowded on Saturdays in Autumn) Bamboo Forest, and a riverside park right next to the forest. Perfect place to rent a bike. The food was fantastic (it being Jeollado) and as Brian mentioned in a facebook message: it's kind of a travesty that there isn't a Korea food blogger living in Jeolla-do and exploring the local specialties down there. (However, whenever Tourism Jeolla offers me a six figure salary (in Euros, thanks), I'm their man!)

At night, we walked back into the forest, now empty, with green lights planted all along the paths, creating ghostly, lovely shadows between the bamboo stalks. And it was silent. Almost dead silent. I haven't heard true silence (other than "I've stuffed my head under five pillows" silence) in Seoul just about. . . ever . . . so being able to actually not hear anything was a bit shocking, and glorious.

Great place. Wonderful. Can't wait to go back.

That slide show, then. The song is "The Naming of Things" by Andrew Bird, a favorite artist of mine.

rented bikes and hit a biking trail

in the forest proper: it's a popular movie filming location, too.  can't imagine why.

this street was just MADE for couples.

the photo doesn't do a single iota of justice to the scene in the forest after dark.  

I'll be back there again.  Oh yeah.

The Birds and the Bees and The Rocks and the Bee Man

Life cycle of an inflatable advertising sign:

Flaccid.

Expanding

Fully extended. (source)

Add dancing girls.  Pretty ones if possible.

Then suddenly, you have baby inflatable signs.  It's all very mysterious, little grasshopper.

In other news. . .  spotted this "Travel Korea" ad next to the CNN Election news.

A little closer up:Now sure, they could have said, "How about your vacation" which would have even MORE awkwardly told us, "This ad was conceived and written in Korean, and a native English speaker may never have been consulted during any step in the process of creating it, except as a token whose advice we don't follow" but the fact is, native English speakers pretty much never use the question, "What about your..." to introduce new conversation topics.  "What about" is used to explore a different aspect of a topic already under discussion.  On the other hand, my Korean students love to start sentences with "What about" or "How about," whether it's appropriate English usage or not.  Then again, given that the ad was up on CN-freaking-N Online, I don't think they're trying to convince Korean esl students to travel to Seoul. . . in which case. . . 

Keep working on it, guys.  Go find the music-choosey people who put "I like big butts" on the soju ad.

In other Korean ad news: spotted on the wall of a restaurant in Damyang: (warning: adult content)  turns out Michaelangelo's David was a playa!

Also from the Damyang bus terminal: "Hey Minji!  Do you mind if I set up my prune operation in this corner of your shop?"

"Well, Mom, I WAS going to put up a shelf of munchies and other kinds of snacks to SELL there."

"But my house is too small, and these plums smell really strongly when they start fermenting.  Please?"

"Uhh... OK whatever, Mom."

And finally, the payoff you've been waiting for...

When you want to say "I'd DIE for this cause!" (and there are people who probably would here in Korea) there's a new way to express yourself:

Un-subtle (warning: gross)

(HT Japan Probe)

More subtle:
Ladies and Gentlemen, Dokdo Cigarettes!

(this last one courtesy of Joe)

These are Amazing. Especially Borat.

So, uh, now that the world has been flooded with US Election coverage, is the rest of the world allowed to vote, too?

Makes me wish I could.

The original is here.

Reason Number 1 that Korean Highway Rest Stops ROCK!

First Thing:

Korean highway rest stops are THE GREATEST PLACE to buy Trot, 트로트 music, in the world. There was a song I heard in a taxi and found catchy enough to sing, and get it stuck in my friend Amy's head. . . I went down to the Trot Music Stand which EVERY Korean rest stop has, and sang a bit of the song, and the lady pulled out just the CD. Cheap, too -- a double-CD - two full hours of cheesy musical goodness -- for only ten thousand won (and the way the won's going, may as well spend it these days).

This is the song: a goofy, great, silly, catchy as hell song to accompany your drive.

I don't know why they ONLY have Trot at the rest stops -- you'd think dropping in a few other genres would make sense . . .but I'm not gonna go looking a blessing from heaven in the mouth, now, am I?

장윤정 - 이따이따요 Chang Yoon Jung - Later,Later


You know you wanna dance.

The other great thing about trot music is this: it is absolutely the best noraebang (karaoke) music in the world. It's simple, not hard to sing, and instantly familiar for everyone around. I swear these songs are written to head straight for the Karaoke room, but buddy, it works.

and now you're gonna have that song in your head all day.

Teeheehee.

Nirvana in Korea: Lithium, or Roboseyo's chuckle for the day

The Original Song, by Nirvana

Nirvana - Lithium
by Nirvana

Now, the SECOND goofiest version of the song.
(by the bliss-out band, polyphonic spree, with sock puppets)


Thanks to No-Brain, the Korean punk band, (makers of this song, which I like) and the album of Nirvana covers by Korean punk bands slipped to me by Gomushin Girl. (thanks, eh?), we have a new champion for goofiest version of an awesome song (Lithium is one of the greatest Noraebang songs EVER too, just so's you know.)  This is pure beauty: wait for the chorus, and listen to the dude's pronounciation.

Epically Bad Wedding

Even worse than this:

Geek in Korea experienced the entire grab-bag of Korean traits that annoy foreigners (short of a discussion about The Islands Which Shall Not Be Named) in a single wedding. Go read about it.

P.S. Trot music (the stuff he was forced to listen to for two hours on the bus) sounds like this: (music from a CD I got at a rest stop on the way down to Damyang).

Turn your computer volume up to maximum, and then imagine being trapped on a bus with this for two hours, to drum up some sympathy for Geek In Korea, and maybe leave a kind comment on his blog.



Here's the video Geek In Korea himself uploaded. Pretty awful. It's like the worst elements of disco, the worst elements of polka, and the worst elements of Indian pop music, all rolled into one.


And..two pictures from Damyang, to tide you over until I can write it up properly.

Back from Damyang

It was beautiful there.

If the complaining expats thing is still interesting to you, go check out the conversation-starter/comment pertaining to that topic, which I posted at the Hub Of Sparkle. It takes a stance different than most of the others I've read, and might be worth discussion.

I'll put up more about Damyang once I get the pictures sorted, adjusted, and slideshowdafied. Until then, I want to tell you about David Smeaton, an amazing photographer I discovered through The Grand Narrative's James linking him. Scroll through his photos: they're amazing, and here's a picture he posted from another photographer that stopped me in my tracks.


More Tony Frissell pictures here.

David himself is the taker of possibly my favourite photo of Seoul: this one.
From here.

Go check him out!

Off for the weekend

I'm going to travel down to Jeollado this weekend, to see the Bamboo Forests. That will be good.

In the meantime, I really liked this photo essay over on Galbijim about Chilseong Market in Daegu: an amazing looking market of a type that's slowly vanishing from the cities, and also the kind which, if you don't know how to find it, you probably never will.

Go take a look!