Saturday, June 25, 2011

Where is all the good music?

For my first article, I chose not to write about any specific "news" articles if that is alright. In fact, I would like to write about these articles actually:

Admittedly my resources for said news articles are limited (consisting only of reading AllKPop, HelloKPop, and maybe even TokyoHive), but I find a small similarity between my sample size that I find somewhat mind-numbing, useless, or even annoying.

Now, I understand that most of these writers' jobs consist of posting this sort of daily gossip, but it somewhat disappoints me that so many people out there surround their life eating up this sort of "news" (or how I see it, brain garbage).

Since when is it important to know what an idol has tweeted as their lunch? Since when did it matter to us what face an idol made during a picture? Do we really care if two members of a group ate lunch together? How does it "change our lives" knowing what colour an idol decided to paint her nails?

Maybe I seem too critical or even pessimistic, but I feel like many netizens out there have so much more to do with their lives than reading these mundane, lifeless articles about various idols' tweets and me2day blogs.

I read those sites to know what new songs are coming out and what groups are debuting. I read these sites in pursuit of finding good music. And maybe I am the only one, but I do not enjoy having to filter through the countless articles of pictures and two-liner posts talking about an out of context line an idol said on a variety show that attempts to exploit their embarrassing stories.

Koren music has such a fresh diversity. The various music styles are enjoyable with new beats and meaningful lyrics. And not every song is about love (finally)! Many of the best groups (such as Epik High) have sung about real issues such as consumerism, war, and political corruption. Issues that are worthy of the title "news". And it is because of groups like that which have pulled me into the gravitational pull known as the Hallyu Wave.

But maybe that's just me.

23 comments:

  1. 4men's new album just came out. good music.

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  2. lol @ best group being 'epik high'. there are a ton of better korean groups out there

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  3. i miss anti kpop fangirl's comments already =/

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  4. 4:38 - There aren't many rappers that can do what Tablo & Mithra did on Remapping the Human Soul. Ultra-conscious lyrics combined with vivid storytelling & 5-6 syllabic rhymes every fucking line, shit was insane. I can't say the same for the beats, but the provided sufficient musical backdrop. Combined with the consistency of their previous efforts (things went downhill from Lovescream sans Map the Soul), Epik High is up with the best of them. Not the best (which she never claimed: probably to fit the description that followed), mind you, but up there.

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  5. +9000 for mentioning Epik High , Shin-B. i fucking love you already (no homo). Fan has to be one of my favorite K-Raps lol. and i completely agree about the useless shit that k-pop sites put up nowadays. congrats on the successful first article.

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  6. selca articles are ridiculous. fangirls only bitch about them when it isn't their "bias" (this word needs to die)

    epik high are overrated but i think the author was just using an example. i like them anyway though

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  7. Do international fans give a fuck about the lyrics and meaning? I have friends who aren't Korean and listen to K-pop for the sake of listening to K-pop. They simply "like the tune". But I'm sure it's mostly because of the looks and other aspects instead of lyricism.

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  8. You're a good writer, but I hope you open your eyes a bit. It's a bit hypocritical of Tablo to write about poverty, war, corruption and consumerism when he's a man that has not experienced much of it. He went to Stanford, has an IQ of 180 and has parents that are well off. I dunno. He's just an observer and I find it hard to relate to his stuff because it's not legit enough.

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  9. The majority of people who take an interest in K-pop don't come in looking for authenticity, since the non-musical attributes of the mainstream idol groups is what fascinates them the most (the emphasis on aesthetics, variety shows, etc).

    If people cared for authentic music...soloists and indie groups would sell more than 100k+ instead of struggling to hit the 40k+ mark.

    Over-saturation of the idol market is rapidly approaching...if this keeps up the 'Hallyu Wave' would crash & burn in the future.

    Good article!

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  10. Tablo has an IQ of 180? That's impressive if it's true.

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  11. Such A Bland Article. Zzz. We All Know This Already And Nobody Cares. We All Know That Those Sites Are Overly Focused On Looks And So Does The Media. Wow This Blog Is Shit. Not Enough Sarcasm. Boring.

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  12. Man whatever we write people bitch. God damn.

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  13. you shoulda seen what some butthurt fan decided to write on my article. xP lolworthyy

    these fuckers don't know shit. Shin-B your article was fine >_>

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  14. about what lol. the comment ? hell naa. think i would have signed up to be an author if i couldn't handle the hate ? >_>

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  15. good music = not popular; hence, not produced much

    shit music/noona/pedo bait/pretty but useless ulzzangs = trend these days

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  16. SKE48, enough said. :)

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  17. BTW AKF I just started listening to 8eight yesterday and this is some GOOD SHIT. Can't fucking stop listening to this new song of theirs.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AF9hIuQeZdY&feature=related

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  18. ^ I'm glad I got at least one person to check them out lol.

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  19. 8eight kicks major ass. their pizza call was fuckin amazing LOL

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  20. @AKF better that some of my fangirl friends know them. And agree that they're good shit.

    LOL 그 입술을 막아본다 is like my, pickup song for everyday. And Dilemma. Lee Hyun's voice is just amazing dude.

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  21. I just wanted to say that there isn't really such thing as good music--anywhere. Everyone has a different view as to what "good music" is. So, really, good music is really opinionated and can't be generalized as one kind of music. Meaningful music; opinionated. Great music; opinionated. Bad music; opinionated. Useless music; opinionated. Good, Meaningful, Great, Bad, and Useless, as you can see are all adjectives--of which, is a word that describes a noun...if you didn't know. So,therefore, I think the entire post is opinionated and useless, but that's just my opinion.

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