YOU are the reason for their actions !!!

How is it fair that people are fine with American idols wearing artistic clothing and not K-pop idols ? DISCRIMINATION !!! People who judge them obviously know nothing ~ about Korean fashion. Ok I know you’re rolling your eyes at me after seeing those photos but don’t forget those people are idols and they don’t pick their own clothes they want to wear. How would you feel if someone told you that its time to dye your hair blue or wear hot pink see through net shirts ? The K-pop industry has been trying so hard to appeal to the western market. What you see them wearing is just what they think attracts your attention. To prove my point I am going to be using the same idols as examples and no I didn’t photoshop them onto someone else’s body.

Here we have Super Junior without their rainbow clothing which might I add the colours WAS a concept for their album and it was a very deep and meaningful one too. Wow right ? W.O.W. I know they don’t look particularly fashionable or anything, but that’s the message I am trying to get across. Idols prefer simple style and this is what they would wear to a fan meet or some other event where they get to pick their own clothes. Simple is the best and idol K-pop idols like the though that it’s the person that is bring out the beauty of the clothes, not the other way around. Of cause using this example I’m not trying to prove that K-pop idols are fashionistas, I’m just saying their style isn’t crazy and wild. Females tend to get away more with wearing bold clothing and we tell by 2NE1’s photo that its not really what you would call natural. I know, you guys are gonna say ‘but you just said K-pop fashion is natural. You’re contradicting yourself’. Hear me out first, this is actually a photo teaser for one of their albums and the reason why I picked this image was to also prove that not ALL bold fashion in their music promotions have to look mismatched and messed up. Yes this is bold but this is also another one of those times when they don’t get to dress themselves the way they want. I must say though, either their stylist changed or they got real ~ lucky.

Since I said album fashion was directed to overseas fans, I’m going to show you the fashion directed at their own Korean market. Here are the same two people which someone told you had been getting inspirations off Katy Perry. Without the blue hair and glasses he had to wear for their MV promotion, you gotta admit that’s a very attractive human over there *insert high pitch fangirl sqeals*. Normal hair colour, softly styled and a plain green trench coat. Yep, that’s what would be considered attractive over there. Again, without the need to appeal to overseas markets, women prefer a natural dolly look. You know, all that loose fitting white shirts and pale princess skin with flowers in her hair. Congratulations Seohyun, you’re finally back in your princess dolly style. As much as I personally would look horrible in it, it looks beautiful on you and please keep it that way.  

All images credited to their rightful owners ~

Even Lady GaGa will weep

Sometimes, enough is enough. Ever since Lady GaGa first showed off her fashion style, it seems that everyone is getting more and more tolerant to such extreme means of fashion. K-pop, might be really pushing it too far. Now I get that people sometimes have this artistic edge to fashion but while it may be acceptable to see it on a catwalk, sometimes layering 23 pieces of rainbow coloured clothing over yourself is not the most attractive thing to do.

‘Oops ~ looks like someone’s unicorn vomited over them’ That was the first thing that came to my mind when I saw Super Junior’s teaser photos for their new album. Oh who am I kidding, that’s still the sentence I think of NOW after years ! I don’t even know where to start analysing the ... ‘things’ they have on their bodies because everything is just so messed up. On a side note, abs are great and all but maybe flaunting them out like that is a little too ... well, you know. But to be fair I’m looking at that semi see through pink thing another member is wearing and ... not wearing a shirt is not such a bad thing after all. If you’re gonna flaunt it, flaunt what mother nature gave you and not what your stylist threw at your face. Now, I wonder since when do people make dresses out of giant rubber keyboards or stick unicorns on their dress. If we ask the girl band 2NE1 maybe they can give us some answers since they seem to know all about it. Yes, that unicorn is part of her dress. Maybe it’s the same unicorn who vomited on Super Junior ! Guys, time to change the stylists. Fire them and kick them out of Korea, who know, maybe they will meet Lady GaGa and they will end up as best buds.

Its hard being a celebrity and I get it. Maybe the concept of their new albums was ‘How to look like a fashion terrorist and scare people away from K-pop’; If that’s the case then I’ll give them a pat on the back cause they did a wonderful job. So if the album concept was decided then you gotta follow it, fair enough. Please tell me then why is it that even if the members are not doing group activities do they look like ... that !?! I mean really TOP, blue hair ? And oh wow a fuchsia pink jacket with errr bad ass patters and ... umm ... Ok fine, its not that bad since you look hot and you probably will pull it off. Plus I’m on your side here, you probably didn’t even know what you had on due to those ridiculous glasses. Seohyun, you are such a princess looking person but what happened ? So during the photoshoot did someone yell ‘She looks too normal. Lets super glue a doll on her shoulder and add on yellow eyeshadow. Which glove is better I wonder ... lets just make her wear both’ ? Now I think about it, blue and purple hair with dolls on your shoulders ... Ahh the mystery is solved; K-pop fashion isn’t based on GaGa its based on Katy Perry !

All images credited to their rightful owners ~

K-pop = Multilingual

Why do people tend to judge K-pop just from a few examples?!? Arghhh it makes me so mad *(>_<)* I understand that there are a few ... quite shocking examples of bad English in the K-pop industry, but what do you expect? It’s not their first language and they don’t use it, so give them some credit for at least trying. I would like to see some American idols try and sing in Korean, bet they won’t sound exactly sugar and spices either. Plus, some K-pop idols speak English perfectly~ well! There is this saying that in every K-pop band, there is always at least one member who can speak perfect English and the others all speak another language at an acceptable level. Oh you talented humans!!!

I’m a K-pop girl, so when the song ‘Call Me Maybe’ first came out, I did not nor had the urge, to listen to it. Of course I heard bits and pieces of it playing in random stores, but I never heard the full song until Tiffany—a member of the K-pop girl band ‘Girls Generation’ sang a cover of it. Hold your horses, I’m not trying to compare singing skills or anything, so don’t get defensive. Now, the original singer speaks English (duh) so no way am I going to go as far as saying Tiffany’s English was better. I just want you guys to give it the whole of K-pop a chance before judging the whole industry as ‘Messed up English users’. Can’t you see that they are trying to sing songs in English so that their international fans feel more of a connection to them? Why else would you think most idols spend their time trying to learn different languages? 

Click me to listen to the song Call Me Maybe !!!  

Ok, I know I’m getting off-track, lets stick to English. I know singers have a whole team of people to back them up and teach them how to sing and stuff so it may not be extremely impressive to hear Tiffany sing in PERFECT ENGLISH; K-pop idols speak English perfectly fine in interviews too. Just to prove they didn’t have the script beforehand and stuff I picked an interview that was done by a pretty famous Youtube channel. It doesn’t go on TV, so no backup helpers here. The K-pop boy band called U-Kiss showed off their, not one, but TWO English speaking members and revealed that they have already considering themselves ‘losing their English’. Those humble talented people!!! Not only that but you can see the others are trying very hard to improve their English ! As if they are already not busy enough, they are trying so hard to reach out to international fans and trust me, being one myself, it is one of the sweetest things ever to know that they are putting so much effort just so they can exchange a few words with you.

Click me to see the interview with U-Kiss !!!  

English ? More like 'Engrish' ...

Lets have a 1 minute silence for the English Language. Why ? Cause I just discovered that that the majority of K-pop singers suck at English ! So what if they sing in a language we all know, we still wont be able to understand a thing ! Those who like K-pop are gonna spend their time listening to incorrect English with horrible pronunciation. Not long until they are going to be saying ‘I lub you’ to their partner instead of ‘I love you’ and correct me if I am wrong but the last time I checked, that wouldn’t be considered romantic. Not at all.

I still remember that moment I first listened to ‘Uncommitted’ by Xia (Junsu). I thought it was pretty good and was happy with being able to just sing along to the very few lines of English just like other K-pop songs; until I discovered the whole song was actually in English. Now it wasn’t the most horrible thing I have ever heard in my life but even knowing it was English, I still had to go and Google the lyrics just so I could sing along. Ok. I got the lyrics, now what ? Do I follow his accent for the song or should I use my own Aussie accent which would then sound nothing like the song ?!? Look Xia, you had a whole team of people to help you with this and lets be honest, you cant possibly tell me you don’t make enough money to hire a English teacher. If this is what is released to the public as a studio song AFTER getting help, then ... I duno, I love you and all that but maybe you should just stick to singing Korean.

Click me to listen to the song Uncommitted !!!  

If you thought the English in K-pop music was bad, wait till you see them attempt to use it without a bunch of people teaching them beforehand. I know this was years ago but do you want to see the famous boy band Super Junior try and play an English game on a show ? The idea was that they change from English to Korean, trying to pass along a sentence. Now from 0:24 onwards, you can see they have already failed at this game; because from a Princess having a little snowball fight, they had somehow managed to make her fight a snowboard. Beautiful fairytale you guys got there ... But I don’t really blame you guys for stuffing up, the English from the beginning was already stuffed up ! At 2:30 the paper reads ‘Park pd has very good looking, nice manner and foot smell’ ... Someone remind me what language that is... Still I do wonder how they can make that (horrible and incorrect) sentence into ‘see good ... us’ and ‘his foot smell ... danger’. Again the point is; I’m cool with K-pop going international and all but even so, they should stick to their own language. Why not present to us a new language instead of try and act all English because trust me, the most that’s going to get you is an embarrassing name change like from ‘Yesung’ to ‘Yeh Sex’. Again, not romantic.

Click me to see the English game show with Super Junior !!!  

Songs Are Meaningless Without Words

Many would agree that music itself has its own value, but there are kpop songs out there that are really strange. Even if we don’t understand the lyrics, the song itself with/without the music video should be able to convey the meaning to us but that doesn’t seem to be quite happening in songs like Exo-K’s ‘Wolf’ and Big Bang’s ‘Love Song’.

Usually people would think wolves in relation to lonely howling, hunting, full moon, and snow. Or at least something along those lines, you get the picture. And even perhaps, due to Twilight, people may think of werewolves, which seriously this song wouldn’t make you think of that (dumping the lyrics aside). Even David Guetta’s ‘She Wolf’ would surely suit better in relation to wolves. Why? Well, already we are given the really weird imagery of a rainforest or savannah from the music. And honestly, their voices don’t sound so great. Howling like either some half-drunk guys, or off-key high pitched howling. >< Overall, this basically is no song that people would want to go listening to twice. I don’t think this song really would fully convey a message of something about a wolf, hence thus failing to express much meaning. You can be the judge. 

Click me to listen to the song Wolf !!! 
  

“I love you~ (,not)!” It’s alright that the song title may have a contradiction to the lyrics singing “I hate this love song” in Big Bang’s ‘Love Song’, since I guess that’s the irony of it all. But the music video for it is rather confusing. Their voice and the music have a sense of some sort of defeat but the pain or anger is missing. And there isn’t any love either. So unless the chaotic mess in the music video is meant to reflect their previously lashed out anger of love-hate, their voices and the music lack the connection, hence don’t quite convey the message of whatever it is they are trying to sing. 

Click me to see the MV Love Song !!! 

All images credited to the YouTube official MV ~

A Picture Says 1000 Words

Let me ask you all a question. Do you feel love, or do you hear love ? Sure people can hear love and everyone can open their mouth and tell you they love you, but does that really mean anything to you ? Would it make you breathe heavier and your heat beat faster from a mere three words, or would it be more important to feel the meaning of those words in your heart ? This time the topic that I will discuss is how K-pop touches your heart even without us understand the lyrics just by the raw emotions of seeing the MV and the emotions from the voice of the singer.

I cried. I know it may seem like I'm exaggerating but I'm not. I cried softly the first time I ever heard 'Don't Love' by FT Island, just soft little sniffs into a tissue but then, I bawled my eyes out later. Now I'm not trying to say that the lyrics of songs don't mean anything. That would be a lie because I admit, I cried harder than before when I saw the English translation of the lyrics. I just don't agree that music is meaningless as soon as the lyrics could not be understood. The lead singer Hongki has ... this voice that just taps on my heart panels and my brows automatically start to meet into a frown and ... I just start feeling like some kinda leading actress in some tragic drama. You know, one of those scenes where a couple stare at each other not moving a muscle and there's this background music that plays and distracts you from the fact that the two people haven't moved for like 5 mins now. My point is, music itself is already filled with emotions, and with the song being fortunate enough to be sang by an emotional singer, words may not be the most important aspect of the song anymore.

Click me to listen to the song Don't Love !!! 

It would be a rather good question to ask if ‘This is War’ by MBLAQ is an MV or a mini drama. A short 5:37 clip was enough to tell the story of how an assassin fell in love with his target and went against his organisation to protect her instead. Sadly while asking for help from a childhood friend, a love triangle was formed. A fight rose up and the assassin brought his gun into the story, aiming it at the two people he loved the most and firing the bullet. That’s probably enough of me retelling the story now. My point was that the MV itself had managed to create the mood and atmosphere and even if I didn’t know what the lyrics were saying, I bawled my eyes out when the assassin twisted the bullet to return to himself, killing himself instead of the two people whom he loved and felt betrayed from. The ending scene showed him taking out a cheque which was the reason why he was absent so much, because he was trying to earn money to support them. Just in a few minutes, I was drawn to tears from an MV and a song which I knew none of the words to. A picture really says a thousand words. 

Click me to see the MV This is War !!! 

All images credited to the YouTube official MV ~

My Eyes Are Burning With Passion !!!

So I heard someone tried to convince you guys that K-pop MVs were both visually unappealing and lacked content ? What. A. Joke. Don’t mind me, I’m just going to go and roll around in laugher in that little corner over there. Now, I don’t mean to sound rude but people these days should try and not be so spoon-fed by whatever the general media throws at you. The only thing people think of whenever anyone says ‘K-pop’, is the ever so famous ‘Gangnam Style’ but that would be the same as thinking the only American singer is Rebecca Black. Just because things go global, it doesn’t mean they are the best.

I’m sure most people would agree with me that ‘Gangnam Style’ pretty much ruined the expectations of ever seeing anything visually pleasing in a K-pop MV. Well you people really ~ need to check out the MV for ‘Trouble Maker’ sang by Hyuna and Hyunseung. Long-legged beautiful model ? Tick. Well-dressed dancer dude ? Tick. A touch of mysterious undercover spy theme ? Tick. Even if the pretty lady isn’t really your style, you gotta admire her for dancing in those heels and that extremely long singlet ... or it could be an extremely short dress. Either way, someone throw her over to model for Victoria’s Secret please ! The guy, oh my goodness ... how does he pull off all that guy-liner ? Ok, seriously now, his dance moves were both clean and crisp & lingering and sensual. Come on guys, you can’t see this kind of dance in every MV, savour the moment ! I believe just those two should be enough to convince anyone to give K-pop a try and throw all that ‘K-pop MVs are visually unappealing’ out the window, into a hole, and deep down to the core of the earth where it can burn ~

Click me to see the MV Trouble Maker !!! 

 

Oh yes, there was also this ‘K-pop MVs have no content’ issue floating around. Catch this statement in a net, seal it in a glass jar and throw it into a black hole up in space. Or, I could just drown that comment in my own personal sea of tears I produced when I saw the MV from ‘Brown Eyed Girls’ called ‘Cleansing Cream’. At first I thought the song was about something stupid like washing your face. I was never more wrong. The MV shows a sad 3:38 minute story of how a blind girl wanted to find comfort from her sister but was meet with jealousy and hatred because under all those layers of makeup, was a grown woman who lacked in self confidence and trust. No more words can be touching enough to explain this, just watch the MV and get your hands on the translations of the song and you will now that the MV wasn’t made just to have something to show on the screen while the artists sings. It really gets you thinking about yourself and the world. Just how much are you hiding underneath your mask, and what are you sacrificing ? In this case it was family, but what about you, will it be something more painful than family ?

Click me to see the MV Cleansing Cream !!!

All images credited to the YouTube official MV ~