moimoi
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Posts: 5,006
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Post by moimoi on Oct 15, 2020 14:28:23 GMT -5
I don't know why, but today I have decided to indulge my legit fascination with the world of IHeartRadio and the manufacture (accurate term, if you ask me) of contemporary pop music. Full disclosure: I think most but-not-all of it is shitcrap. I don't think it has to be this way, though, just as mass-produced food doesn't have to be bad. So once a...month?...or so, I'm going to give my hot takes on Kiss FM's rotation playlist. No idea how this is ranked, so I will not comment on popularity or longevity - merely whether or not it irritates me in the car. Feel free to share your takes as well.
Before You Go [Orchestral] - Lewis Capaldi - Not sure if I've heard this, but Lewis Capaldi is a bad singer, so it's probably bad. Watermelon Sugar - Harry Styles - I'm really not mad at Harry Styles. His shit is perfectly listenable. Adore You - Harry Styles - I'm still convinced he got Cut Copy or Miami Horror to write this for him. Good stuff. Blinding Lights - The Weeknd - How many watered-down takes on "Take On Me" do we need? Break My Heart - Dua Lipa - I think this track was made specifically for Zumba classes, since I can picture the up-down-side-to-side choreography that would go with chorus. Mood - 24k Goldn feat. [who cares] - I was digging the chillwave vibes until the children started yelling over it. Pass. Come & Go - Juice WRLD & Marshmello - I feel bad that the kid died, so if this is popular, cool, whatever. I'm personally not a fan of his monotone. I'm not sure he'd like the insipid EDM beat provided by Marshmello either. Breaking Me - Topic - More UK progressive house circa '97 with BASIC lyrics. It's fine I guess. I Hope - Gabby Barrett feat. Charlie Puth - Psh...now this is some algorithm-aided trashola. Generic white girl with generic white girl name who sings like her name is Miley Trainor-Lovato. Of course this features Charlie Puth - what else is Charlie Puth doing these days? Just pathetic. If the World Was Ending - JP Saxe feat. Lewis Capaldi, Saint JHN, Sam Smith et al - Holy crap, is this the UK's answer to Macklemore & Ryan Lewis? Pee-yew this stinks! Bang - AJR - I think the era of EDM anthems is kind of over. I mean, you can't really dance to this alone in your house. This just seems dated. Ride It - Regard - So. Mindless. And repetitive! This one is also out of a late 90s gay club. It's fine. Circles - Post Malone - Fuck you, Post Malone, for being a solid pop songwriter. Hot Girl Bummer - Blackbear - I confess, this entire thread might be inspired by my unashamed appreciation for this insouciant little track. Apparently this guy has worked with Ne-Yo and Mike Posner, who are also solid songwriters, as well as Machine Gun Kelly, which is...suspect. Perhaps another Post Malone in the making? Dancing with a Stranger - Sam Smith & Normani - I hate this song because every time the intro starts, I think it's "Hold On, We're Going Home" by Drake. Such lazy beat-jacking shouldn't be allowed on commercial radio - especially not for Sam "Won't Back Down" Smith. Wow - Post Malone - Oh yeah, this is PM going hard. It's not very hard; it's like, Drake hard. Moral of the Story - Ashe - The intro was not promising, but ultimately, this opens out into a big piano ballad like Kate Nash or Regina Spektor. OK I guess...it kind of grew on me...although I don't know how Blackbear and all those others feature on this. Ily (I Love You Baby) - Surf Mesa feat. Emilee - I guess this is an attempt to get vaporwave on the charts? It's fine, if a little lazy and obvious in its source material. Dynamite - BTS - This is K-pop alright - hits every sweet spot and uses every trick in the book (bubbly bass, horns, etc.) to sound great as a background to good times. If you don't hear this while doing your holiday shopping, you must not be leaving the house (good for you!). Over Now - Calvin Harris feat. the Weeknd - The Weeknd's best stuff is his collabs with European DJs like Calvin Harris and Daft Punk. This is Sade smooth.
There are 10 more tracks on their current playlist (for a total of 30!) but they all look like no-name garbage. What happened to Benee "Supalonely" or Doja Cat? I wasn't sick of them yet. Ah well, that was fun. We'll see about next month.
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Post by Roy Batty's Pet Dove on Oct 15, 2020 18:29:07 GMT -5
I don't know why, but today I have decided to indulge my legit fascination with the world of IHeartRadio and the manufacture (accurate term, if you ask me) of contemporary pop music. Full disclosure: I think most but-not-all of it is shitcrap. I don't think it has to be this way, though, just as mass-produced food doesn't have to be bad. So once a...month?...or so, I'm going to give my hot takes on Kiss FM's rotation playlist. No idea how this is ranked, so I will not comment on popularity or longevity - merely whether or not it irritates me in the car. Feel free to share your takes as well. Before You Go [Orchestral] - Lewis Capaldi - Not sure if I've heard this, but Lewis Capaldi is a bad singer, so it's probably bad. Watermelon Sugar - Harry Styles - I'm really not mad at Harry Styles. His shit is perfectly listenable. Adore You - Harry Styles - I'm still convinced he got Cut Copy or Miami Horror to write this for him. Good stuff. Blinding Lights - The Weeknd - How many watered-down takes on "Take On Me" do we need? Break My Heart - Dua Lipa - I think this track was made specifically for Zumba classes, since I can picture the up-down-side-to-side choreography that would go with chorus. Mood - 24k Goldn feat. [who cares] - I was digging the chillwave vibes until the children started yelling over it. Pass. Come & Go - Juice WRLD & Marshmello - I feel bad that the kid died, so if this is popular, cool, whatever. I'm personally not a fan of his monotone. I'm not sure he'd like the insipid EDM beat provided by Marshmello either. Breaking Me - Topic - More UK progressive house circa '97 with BASIC lyrics. It's fine I guess. I Hope - Gabby Barrett feat. Charlie Puth - Psh...now this is some algorithm-aided trashola. Generic white girl with generic white girl name who sings like her name is Miley Trainor-Lovato. Of course this features Charlie Puth - what else is Charlie Puth doing these days? Just pathetic. If the World Was Ending - JP Saxe feat. Lewis Capaldi, Saint JHN, Sam Smith et al - Holy crap, is this the UK's answer to Macklemore & Ryan Lewis. Pee-yew this stinks! Bang - AJR - I think the era of EDM anthems is kind of over. I mean, you can't really dance to this alone in your house. This just seems dated. Ride It - Regard - So. Mindless. And repetitive! This one is also out of a late 90s gay club. It's fine. Circles - Post Malone - Fuck you, Post Malone, for being a solid pop songwriter. Hot Girl Bummer - Blackbear - I confess, this entire thread might be inspired by my unashamed appreciation for this insouciant little track. Apparently this guy has worked with Ne-Yo and Mike Posner, who are also solid songwriters, as well as Machine Gun Kelly, which is...suspect. Perhaps another Post Malone in the making? Dancing with a Stranger - Sam Smith & Normani - I hate this song because every time the intro starts, I think it's "Hold On, We're Going Home" by Drake. Such lazy beat-jacking shouldn't be allowed on commercial radio - especially not for Sam "Won't Back Down" Smith. Wow - Post Malone - Oh yeah, this is PM going hard. It's not very hard; it's like, Drake hard. Moral of the Story - Ashe - The intro was not promising, but ultimately, this opens out into a big piano ballad like Kate Nash or Regina Spektor. OK I guess...it kind of grew on me...although I don't know how Blackbear and all those others feature on this. Ily (I Love You Baby) - Surf Mesa feat. Emilee - I guess this is an attempt to get vaporwave on the charts? It's fine, if a little lazy and obvious in its source material. Dynamite - BTS - This is K-pop alright - hits every sweet spot and uses every trick in the book (bubbly bass, horns, etc.) to sound great as a background to good times. If you don't hear this while doing your holiday shopping, you must not be leaving the house (good for you!). Over Now - Calvin Harris feat. the Weeknd - The Weeknd's best stuff is his collabs with European DJs like Calvin Harris and Daft Punk. This is Sade smooth. There are 10 more tracks on their current playlist (for a total of 30!) but they all look like no-name garbage. What happened to Benee "Supalonely" or Doja Cat? I wasn't sick of them yet. Ah well, that was fun. We'll see about next month. I haven't listened to all of these, but I'm agreed on Styles being fine. I don't mind most of his solo work, and I think "Two Ghosts" (which I know is an older song) is pretty decent. "Kiwi" is absolutely insufferable, misogynistic nonsense, though. I think "Blinding Lights" is good, so that's probably the place where I'd most strongly disagree with your takes (although "Heartless" is by far the better single from that album, imo). Agreed that "Dancing with a Stranger" is awful. Not a huge fan of Sam Smith; their voice is incredibly bland, and every one of their songs is equally dull. I think BTS is fine, but their songs all tend to bombard you with the same exact gimmicks like you said. "Dynamite" is perfectly listenable imo, though. Also, do you know why there are so many of them? They're not writing these songs, are they? Why do they need so many band members? I fucking despise Lewis Capaldi; that one #1 single he had is absolutely horrid. Not sure whether to listen to the song you listed out of morbid curiosity or not. Yeah, Juice Wrld was not a good musical artist, and Marshmello is awful. I guess I appreciate that his production on this has a guitar on it, because it distinguishes it from his usual lazy bullshit (not that it's less lazy, just that it's a different instrument from his usual bullshit). This is better than the usual song from either artist though, I guess? I actually know what Charlie Puth is doing these days! He's sacrificing whatever artistic integrity he had to appear in an ad where he does a new jingle for the Five Dollar Footlong. It's so bad. Fuck. Wow, that "I Hope" song is fucking godawful. It is very Meghan Trainor-esque both in its mediocrity as a song and in its incredibly cynical faux-feminism that I think it's going for. The AJR song is extremely bad. Fuck this. The sample of a guy saying "Here we go" is so fucking obnoxious. What is the worst AJR song? It's still probably the "100 Bad Days" one, right? Anyway, looking forward to future entries in this thread; I share your assessment of Top 40 pop in general, so this should be an interesting exploration of some mostly awful songs.
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Rainbow Rosa
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not gay, just colorful
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Post by Rainbow Rosa on Oct 16, 2020 14:31:44 GMT -5
The AJR song is extremely bad. Fuck this. The sample of a guy saying "Here we go" is so fucking obnoxious. What is the worst AJR song? It's still probably the "100 Bad Days" one, right? ...ok, but wouldn't it be cool if there was a song built around voice clips of Mario?
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Post by Roy Batty's Pet Dove on Oct 16, 2020 15:19:04 GMT -5
The AJR song is extremely bad. Fuck this. The sample of a guy saying "Here we go" is so fucking obnoxious. What is the worst AJR song? It's still probably the "100 Bad Days" one, right? ...ok, but wouldn't it be cool if there was a song built around voice clips of Mario? Yes, of course. That would be extremely good.
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moimoi
AV Clubber
Posts: 5,006
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Post by moimoi on Oct 16, 2020 16:46:59 GMT -5
I haven't listened to all of these, but I'm agreed on Styles being fine. I don't mind most of his solo work, and I think "Two Ghosts" (which I know is an older song) is pretty decent. "Kiwi" is absolutely insufferable, misogynistic nonsense, though. Agreed that "Dancing with a Stranger" is awful. Not a huge fan of Sam Smith; their voice is incredibly bland, and every one of their songs is equally dull. I think BTS is fine, but their songs all tend to bombard you with the same exact gimmicks like you said. "Dynamite" is perfectly listenable imo, though. Also, do you know why there are so many of them? They're not writing these songs, are they? Why do they need so many band members? I actually know what Charlie Puth is doing these days! He's sacrificing whatever artistic integrity he had to appear in an ad where he does a new jingle for the Five Dollar Footlong. It's so bad. Fuck. Wow, that "I Hope" song is fucking godawful. It is very Meghan Trainor-esque both in its mediocrity as a song and in its incredibly cynical faux-feminism that I think it's going for. The AJR song is extremely bad. Fuck this. The sample of a guy saying "Here we go" is so fucking obnoxious. What is the worst AJR song? It's still probably the "100 Bad Days" one, right? I think "Kiwi" is HS playing at being Alex Turner - which if you're going to pick 'serious' musicians to imitate, he's not a bad choice. The only redeeming thing Sam Smith has ever done is collaborate with Disclosure on the monster jam that is "Latch". I actually give them a lot of credit for that one. Their work on Calvin Harris's "Promises" is fine too, if not particularly distinguished. If the K-pop machine is anything like the J-pop machine (which it is, only better) the idea is that vocal groups are "teams" where everyone plays a distinct role, has their own set of fans, and work together in different configurations on different songs. Western pop vocal groups evolved out of do-wop, where you usually had only one member cover each vocal range (soprano/countertenor, alto, tenor, baritone, bass). J/K pop-style vocal groups don't usually have a lot of variation in their vocal range - only in their aesthetic. Having a lot of members allows their marketing team to cater to different audience segments. It also ensures that any one member is entirely replaceable and will be replaced at any time. Charlie Puth is a fuckin' lamewad and deserves his slide into irrelevance. "100 Bad Days" is indeed godawful. It reminds me of Fallout Boy and Panic at the Disco's increasingly desperate pop entries. BTW, this snarkin' is so fun I think I'm going alternate reviewing Kiss FM's playlist with the Billboard top 20 singles, just so I don't miss anything. I'll post that next week :-)
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Post by Nudeviking on Oct 18, 2020 19:21:31 GMT -5
I haven't listened to all of these, but I'm agreed on Styles being fine. I don't mind most of his solo work, and I think "Two Ghosts" (which I know is an older song) is pretty decent. "Kiwi" is absolutely insufferable, misogynistic nonsense, though. Agreed that "Dancing with a Stranger" is awful. Not a huge fan of Sam Smith; their voice is incredibly bland, and every one of their songs is equally dull. I think BTS is fine, but their songs all tend to bombard you with the same exact gimmicks like you said. "Dynamite" is perfectly listenable imo, though. Also, do you know why there are so many of them? They're not writing these songs, are they? Why do they need so many band members? I actually know what Charlie Puth is doing these days! He's sacrificing whatever artistic integrity he had to appear in an ad where he does a new jingle for the Five Dollar Footlong. It's so bad. Fuck. Wow, that "I Hope" song is fucking godawful. It is very Meghan Trainor-esque both in its mediocrity as a song and in its incredibly cynical faux-feminism that I think it's going for. The AJR song is extremely bad. Fuck this. The sample of a guy saying "Here we go" is so fucking obnoxious. What is the worst AJR song? It's still probably the "100 Bad Days" one, right? I think "Kiwi" is HS playing at being Alex Turner - which if you're going to pick 'serious' musicians to imitate, he's not a bad choice. The only redeeming thing Sam Smith has ever done is collaborate with Disclosure on the monster jam that is "Latch". I actually give them a lot of credit for that one. Their work on Calvin Harris's "Promises" is fine too, if not particularly distinguished. If the K-pop machine is anything like the J-pop machine (which it is, only better) the idea is that vocal groups are "teams" where everyone plays a distinct role, has their own set of fans, and work together in different configurations on different songs. Western pop vocal groups evolved out of do-wop, where you usually had only one member cover each vocal range (soprano/countertenor, alto, tenor, baritone, bass). J/K pop-style vocal groups don't usually have a lot of variation in their vocal range - only in their aesthetic. Having a lot of members allows their marketing team to cater to different audience segments. It also ensures that any one member is entirely replaceable and will be replaced at any time. Charlie Puth is a fuckin' lamewad and deserves his slide into irrelevance. "100 Bad Days" is indeed godawful. It reminds me of Fallout Boy and Panic at the Disco's increasingly desperate pop entries. BTW, this snarkin' is so fun I think I'm going alternate reviewing Kiss FM's playlist with the Billboard top 20 singles, just so I don't miss anything. I'll post that next week :-) There's an additional pragmatic reason that K-Pop boy bands have a lot of members and that is unlike in Japan or the US, all* men here are required to serve in the military for a period of about 2 years (the period of time a guy has to serve has continually gone down since I got here but I don't know off the top of my head how long it is at present). If a band has 8 or 12 dudes then instead of having to cease activity when one or two guys disappear for a 18 months or whatever to do army shit they can more or less continue to release music and make their company money. This military service thing is also one of the reason there's a far higher percentage of girl groups than boy groups even though domestically K-Pop is entirely a thing for middle school girls. * Some people will serve as civil servants instead of doing military service if they object to fighting for religious reasons or things of that ilk. There are also exemptions for medical conditions or for certain accomplishments (ie winning a medal at the Olympics). Some musicians have also gotten these exemptions but they're only like conductors and opera singers and things like that. The way the law is written pop singers are not eligible for these exemptions but there's recently been a lot of talk about allowing some K-Pop artists to get exempt because of their outstanding service to the nation (they always frame it as spreading a "positive image of Korea globally" but there's also a sizable economic component).
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moimoi
AV Clubber
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Post by moimoi on Oct 28, 2020 19:55:48 GMT -5
OK, let's look at some more crap from the Billboard Hot 100 - skipping tracks we've already covered: - (Chart position: 2) WAP - Cardi B feat. Megan Thee Stallion - As I've said before, the lyrics include some real howlers. As for the song as a whole: unimpressive. It has the same spoken hook as "Bodak Yellow" and "Cash Shit" - just with 50% more p*ssy.
- (3) Laugh Now Cry Later - Drake feat. Lil Durk - Half-assed. Nondescript. Even lazier than Toosie Slide.
- (5) Savage Love - Jawsh 685 x Jason Derulo - Ugh, if I had to pinpoint why I hate this so much, I think it's the watered-down reggaeton, combined with an absolutely insipid melody that sounds like a novelty car horn.
- (8) Rockstar - DaBaby feat. Roddy Ricch - What the hell is this? Just cliche on top of cliche.
- (9) Holy - Justin Beiber feat. Chance the Rapper - So...did Chance give this song to Beebs just to get on the charts? Because that's what it sounds like. It's a "Sunday Candy" rehash with no Jamila Woods, Donnie Trumpet, or footwork beats.
- (10) Lemonade - Internet Money et al - Why does everything sound like this now? Just whiny trap music with no hooks to speak of.
- (13) For the Night - Pop Smoke feat. Lil Baby & DaBaby - See above.
- (14) Lonely - Justin Bieber feat. Benny Blanco - A short, acoustic, confessional ballad? Nice move, Bieber. This isn't terrible. At least it reminds people that Bieber can kind of sing.
- (15) Go Crazy - Chris Brown & Young Thug - I would like this if it wasn't Chris Brown & Young Thug, who are both terrible in their own ways (as a person and as a "rapper" respectively).
- (16) Got What I Got - Jason Aldean - Crossover country with programmed beats The only part of this song I like is the reverb.
- (17) One of Them Girls - Lee Brice - At least this has a propulsive beat, even if it's mega-condescending.
- (18) What's Poppin - Jack Harlow feat. DaBaby, Tory Lanez, Lil Wayne - AH HA HA HAA, this guy thinks he's Post Malone. Completely outclassed by DaBaby and Lil Wayne on autopilot.
- (20) Be Like That - Kane Brown feat. Swae Lee & Khalid - More insipid island rhythms and lazy, lazy songwriting.
- (21) Dreams - Fleetwood Mac - Hands down the best song on this list, but that probably goes without saying. Even though I know it well, I listened to it again just as a palate cleanser.
- (23) Said Summ - Moneybagg Yo - This sounds just like WAP and all the songs WAP sounds like, including the original WAP from 20+ years ago.
- (24) Kings & Queens - Ava Max - Oy, is this another Albanian? A Junior Gaga? Both, it turns out. This is completely by-the-numbers.
- (25) What You Know About Love - Pop Smoke - Oooh, I like the dubby sample of "My Whole Life Has Changed" by Ginuwine. He may sound like 50 Cent circa '03 (FUCK that hack), but at least Pop Smoke has some taste?
- (28) More Than My Hometown - Morgan Wallen - This is tolerable in the sense that it sounds like early Taylor Swift sung by a mulleted dude. I actually like the guy's voice, but I think it would be better suited to something harder and more rocking.
- (29) Some Girls - Jameson Rodgers - It's interesting how many of these crossover country songs start out like M83 before gettin' all grunty and terrible.
- (30) Wonder - Shawn Mendes - What is Shawn Mendes doing? He's straining so hard on the chorus it ruins the grandiose, uplifting effect he's going for. THIS should have been acoustic. And probably in a different key.
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Post by Roy Batty's Pet Dove on Oct 28, 2020 22:59:39 GMT -5
OK, let's look at some more crap from the Billboard Hot 100 - skipping tracks we've already covered: - (Chart position: 2) WAP - Cardi B feat. Megan Thee Stallion - As I've said before, the lyrics include some real howlers. As for the song as a whole: unimpressive. It has the same spoken hook as "Bodak Yellow" and "Cash Shit" - just with 50% more p*ssy.
- (3) Laugh Now Cry Later - Drake feat. Lil Durk - Half-assed. Nondescript. Even lazier than Toosie Slide.
- (5) Savage Love - Jawsh 685 x Jason Derulo - Ugh, if I had to pinpoint why I hate this so much, I think it's the watered-down reggaeton, combined with an absolutely insipid melody that sounds like a novelty car horn.
- (8) Rockstar - DaBaby feat. Roddy Ricch - What the hell is this? Just cliche on top of cliche.
- (9) Holy - Justin Beiber feat. Chance the Rapper - So...did Chance give this song to Beebs just to get on the charts? Because that's what it sounds like. It's a "Sunday Candy" rehash with no Jamila Woods, Donnie Trumpet, or footwork beats.
- (10) Lemonade - Internet Money et al - Why does everything sound like this now? Just whiny trap music with no hooks to speak of.
- (13) For the Night - Pop Smoke feat. Lil Baby & DaBaby - See above.
- (14) Lonely - Justin Bieber feat. Benny Blanco - A short, acoustic, confessional ballad? Nice move, Bieber. This isn't terrible. At least it reminds people that Bieber can kind of sing.
- (15) Go Crazy - Chris Brown & Young Thug - I would like this if it wasn't Chris Brown & Young Thug, who are both terrible in their own ways (as a person and as a "rapper" respectively).
- (16) Got What I Got - Jason Aldean - Crossover country with programmed beats The only part of this song I like is the reverb.
- (17) One of Them Girls - Lee Brice - At least this has a propulsive beat, even if it's mega-condescending.
- (18) What's Poppin - Jack Harlow feat. DaBaby, Tory Lanez, Lil Wayne - AH HA HA HAA, this guy thinks he's Post Malone. Completely outclassed by DaBaby and Lil Wayne on autopilot.
- (20) Be Like That - Kane Brown feat. Swae Lee & Khalid - More insipid island rhythms and lazy, lazy songwriting.
- (21) Dreams - Fleetwood Mac - Hands down the best song on this list, but that probably goes without saying. Even though I know it well, I listened to it again just as a palate cleanser.
- (23) Said Summ - Moneybagg Yo - This sounds just like WAP and all the songs WAP sounds like, including the original WAP from 20+ years ago.
- (24) Kings & Queens - Ava Max - Oy, is this another Albanian? A Junior Gaga? Both, it turns out. This is completely by-the-numbers.
- (25) What You Know About Love - Pop Smoke - Oooh, I like the dubby sample of "My Whole Life Has Changed" by Ginuwine. He may sound like 50 Cent circa '03 (FUCK that hack), but at least Pop Smoke has some taste?
- (28) More Than My Hometown - Morgan Wallen - This is tolerable in the sense that it sounds like early Taylor Swift sung by a mulleted dude. I actually like the guy's voice, but I think it would be better suited to something harder and more rocking.
- (29) Some Girls - Jameson Rodgers - It's interesting how many of these crossover country songs start out like M83 before gettin' all grunty and terrible.
- (30) Wonder - Shawn Mendes - What is Shawn Mendes doing? He's straining so hard on the chorus it ruins the grandiose, uplifting effect he's going for. THIS should have been acoustic. And probably in a different key.
moimoi, what is your opinion of this good version of "WAP"?
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moimoi
AV Clubber
Posts: 5,006
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Post by moimoi on Oct 29, 2020 14:54:55 GMT -5
OK, let's look at some more crap from the Billboard Hot 100 - skipping tracks we've already covered: - (Chart position: 2) WAP - Cardi B feat. Megan Thee Stallion - As I've said before, the lyrics include some real howlers. As for the song as a whole: unimpressive. It has the same spoken hook as "Bodak Yellow" and "Cash Shit" - just with 50% more p*ssy.
- (3) Laugh Now Cry Later - Drake feat. Lil Durk - Half-assed. Nondescript. Even lazier than Toosie Slide.
- (5) Savage Love - Jawsh 685 x Jason Derulo - Ugh, if I had to pinpoint why I hate this so much, I think it's the watered-down reggaeton, combined with an absolutely insipid melody that sounds like a novelty car horn.
- (8) Rockstar - DaBaby feat. Roddy Ricch - What the hell is this? Just cliche on top of cliche.
- (9) Holy - Justin Beiber feat. Chance the Rapper - So...did Chance give this song to Beebs just to get on the charts? Because that's what it sounds like. It's a "Sunday Candy" rehash with no Jamila Woods, Donnie Trumpet, or footwork beats.
- (10) Lemonade - Internet Money et al - Why does everything sound like this now? Just whiny trap music with no hooks to speak of.
- (13) For the Night - Pop Smoke feat. Lil Baby & DaBaby - See above.
- (14) Lonely - Justin Bieber feat. Benny Blanco - A short, acoustic, confessional ballad? Nice move, Bieber. This isn't terrible. At least it reminds people that Bieber can kind of sing.
- (15) Go Crazy - Chris Brown & Young Thug - I would like this if it wasn't Chris Brown & Young Thug, who are both terrible in their own ways (as a person and as a "rapper" respectively).
- (16) Got What I Got - Jason Aldean - Crossover country with programmed beats The only part of this song I like is the reverb.
- (17) One of Them Girls - Lee Brice - At least this has a propulsive beat, even if it's mega-condescending.
- (18) What's Poppin - Jack Harlow feat. DaBaby, Tory Lanez, Lil Wayne - AH HA HA HAA, this guy thinks he's Post Malone. Completely outclassed by DaBaby and Lil Wayne on autopilot.
- (20) Be Like That - Kane Brown feat. Swae Lee & Khalid - More insipid island rhythms and lazy, lazy songwriting.
- (21) Dreams - Fleetwood Mac - Hands down the best song on this list, but that probably goes without saying. Even though I know it well, I listened to it again just as a palate cleanser.
- (23) Said Summ - Moneybagg Yo - This sounds just like WAP and all the songs WAP sounds like, including the original WAP from 20+ years ago.
- (24) Kings & Queens - Ava Max - Oy, is this another Albanian? A Junior Gaga? Both, it turns out. This is completely by-the-numbers.
- (25) What You Know About Love - Pop Smoke - Oooh, I like the dubby sample of "My Whole Life Has Changed" by Ginuwine. He may sound like 50 Cent circa '03 (FUCK that hack), but at least Pop Smoke has some taste?
- (28) More Than My Hometown - Morgan Wallen - This is tolerable in the sense that it sounds like early Taylor Swift sung by a mulleted dude. I actually like the guy's voice, but I think it would be better suited to something harder and more rocking.
- (29) Some Girls - Jameson Rodgers - It's interesting how many of these crossover country songs start out like M83 before gettin' all grunty and terrible.
- (30) Wonder - Shawn Mendes - What is Shawn Mendes doing? He's straining so hard on the chorus it ruins the grandiose, uplifting effect he's going for. THIS should have been acoustic. And probably in a different key.
moimoi, what is your opinion of this good version of "WAP"? Much improved. Really, all it takes is some sort of interesting riff or melody or sample. Shit, they should have sampled Trina! That would have been inspired.
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moimoi
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Posts: 5,006
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Post by moimoi on Nov 15, 2020 0:48:45 GMT -5
Time to snark again! Here are the new additions to Kiss FM's Chicago playlist (somewhat curious if the list varies by region) Everything I Wanted - Billie Eilish - I actually like this one better than "Bad Guy" or her other single that sounds like "Bad Guy". With her chibiwave/harleycore (still haven't decided which term to push) aesthetic, I am wary, but the song is genuinely introspective and it's a nice, understated ballad. Fallin' (Adrenaline) - Why Don't We - Oh, this is that song. From the bucket-drum intro I thought it was Imagine Dragons. In fact, the song threatened to break into Imagine Dragons at any moment, but instead it was just staggeringly whiny and lame. I'm not sure which I prefer. Diamonds - Sam Smith - Man, nobody knows how to treat Sam Smith. I guess this is okay for a non-Dua-Lipa Dua Lipa song. The bouncy bass and punchy horns compliment their voice in the chorus, which furthers my opinion that Sam Smith should just be a house diva and stop making ballads. Control - Zoe Wees - Ugh, this opening piano line + smoky voice is NOT promising. Oh yeah, once it hits the chorus it's terrible. Fucking terrible. But apparently it's inspired by her struggles with epilepsy. Aw damn. Now I feel bad. I hope somebody gives her a better song because at least she's not a cookie cutter Albanian bimbo. Say So - Doja Cat feat. Nicki Minaj - Sigh. When I first heard this, I thought it was absolutely infectious. Then I found out Dr. Luke was behind it and I was like, "of course". I guess I don't fault Doja Cat for taking the best production she could get to launch herself into stardom, but situations like this make me hate the entire pop music industry (don't even get me started on Nicki). Positions - Ariana Grande - Here's Ari singing through her nostrils again. I like the plucked strings, but this song is missing something. Plus why does she unnecessarily curse all the time? It's like she curses just to show how 'real' she is, despite everything about her being as stylized and art directed as Beyonce (talented singer; in every other respect the fakest fake that ever faked). Most people grow out of that by 15 or so. Head & Heart - Joel Corry feat. MNEK - I learned about MNEK researching for my queer POC radio shows for Pride month. I would not mind hearing this on the radio at all. It reminds me of 90s House a la Robin S. Heather - Conan Gray - This is fine? I just don't know how this got picked up by commercial radio...Oh wait, it's about unrequited gay love and it's by a Youtube personality. This can stay I guess. WOW - Zara Larsson - Tove Lo's even skankier pole-dancing cousin? If that seems dismissive, let this serve as exhibit z that all you need to get on the pop charts is to be thin, blonde, and white. Sunflower - Post Malone & Swae Lee - This song. THIS SONG. This fuckin' song samples/apes Godley & Creme! [chef's kiss] Genius! Best song of 2018. AN ADDENDUM TO LAST MONTH'S LIST: Over the past few weeks, it has come to my attention that Ava Max's first single was the thoroughly offensive (not just in the condescending subject matter but also in sheer pop laziness) "Sweet But Psycho". So: FUUUUUCK Ava Max and her handlers and anybody who bought that shit. She's on the Chris Brown "Please disappear forever" list.
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Post by Roy Batty's Pet Dove on Nov 15, 2020 11:05:20 GMT -5
Time to snark again! Here are the new additions to Kiss FM's Chicago playlist (somewhat curious if the list varies by region) Everything I Wanted - Billie Eilish - I actually like this one better than "Bad Guy" or her other single that sounds like "Bad Guy". With her chibiwave/harleycore (still haven't decided which term to push) aesthetic, I am wary, but the song is genuinely introspective and it's a nice, understated ballad. Fallin' (Adrenaline) - Why Don't We - Oh, this is that song. From the bucket-drum intro I thought it was Imagine Dragons. In fact, the song threatened to break into Imagine Dragons at any moment, but instead it was just staggeringly whiny and lame. I'm not sure which I prefer. Diamonds - Sam Smith - Man, nobody knows how to treat Sam Smith. I guess this is okay for a non-Dua-Lipa Dua Lipa song. The bouncy bass and punchy horns compliment their voice in the chorus, which furthers my opinion that Sam Smith should just be a house diva and stop making ballads. Control - Zoe Wees - Ugh, this opening piano line + smoky voice is NOT promising. Oh yeah, once it hits the chorus it's terrible. Fucking terrible. But apparently it's inspired by her struggles with epilepsy. Aw damn. Now I feel bad. I hope somebody gives her a better song because at least she's not a cookie cutter Albanian bimbo. Say So - Doja Cat feat. Nicki Minaj - Sigh. When I first heard this, I thought it was absolutely infectious. Then I found out Dr. Luke was behind it and I was like, "of course". I guess I don't fault Doja Cat for taking the best production she could get to launch herself into stardom, but situations like this make me hate the entire pop music industry (don't even get me started on Nicki). Positions - Ariana Grande - Here's Ari singing through her nostrils again. I like the plucked strings, but this song is missing something. Plus why does she unnecessarily curse all the time? It's like she curses just to show how 'real' she is, despite everything about her being as stylized and art directed as Beyonce (talented singer; in every other respect the fakest fake that ever faked). Most people grow out of that by 15 or so. Head & Heart - Joel Corry feat. MNEK - I learned about MNEK researching for my queer POC radio shows for Pride month. I would not mind hearing this on the radio at all. It reminds me of 90s House a la Robin S. Heather - Conan Gray - This is fine? I just don't know how this got picked up by commercial radio...Oh wait, it's about unrequited gay love and it's by a Youtube personality. This can stay I guess. WOW - Zara Larsson - Tove Lo's even skankier pole-dancing cousin? If that seems dismissive, let this serve as exhibit z that all you need to get on the pop charts is to be thin, blonde, and white. Sunflower - Post Malone & Swae Lee - This song. THIS SONG. This fuckin' song samples/apes Godley & Creme! [chef's kiss] Genius! Best song of 2018. AN ADDENDUM TO LAST MONTH'S LIST: Over the past few weeks, it has come to my attention that Ava Max's first single was the thoroughly offensive (not just in the condescending subject matter but also in sheer pop laziness) "Sweet But Psycho". So...FUUUUUCK Ava Max and her handlers and anybody who bought that shit. She's on the Chris Brown "Please disappear forever" list. Wow, it really says something about how fucked up the pop industry (and yeah, obviously that can be extrapolated to most of the music industry at large is), that it barely even registered with me how offensive "Sweet But Psycho" is. Probably because it would be incredibly obnoxious even if I didn't understand a word Ava Max was singing. What an awful, awful song. Also, have you heard of last year's even worse hit (well, apparently it peaked at #40 on US charts, so I guess technically it qualifies as such) song " Crazy AF" by a band called In Real Life and if so what is your opinion of this extremely bad song?
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Post by Nudeviking on Nov 16, 2020 21:10:49 GMT -5
There's a part of me that wants to do this with K-Pop using one of the local charts to expose everyone to the garbage that doesn't actually make it off the Korean Peninsula but I won't steal your gimmick if you don't want me to moimoi.
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moimoi
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Post by moimoi on Nov 16, 2020 21:34:30 GMT -5
There's a part of me that wants to do this with K-Pop using one of the local charts to expose everyone to the garbage that doesn't actually make it off the Korean Peninsula but I won't steal your gimmick if you don't want me to moimoi . I'd love to read some commentary on the Korean charts - and the UK charts, Canadian, French, Australian, etc.! The thread is "snarkin on pop" so any pop will do. My only caveat is that the more threads there are, the harder it is to stay on top of posts, so it would be great if we could just expand this thread.
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Post by Nudeviking on Nov 16, 2020 21:36:27 GMT -5
There's a part of me that wants to do this with K-Pop using one of the local charts to expose everyone to the garbage that doesn't actually make it off the Korean Peninsula but I won't steal your gimmick if you don't want me to moimoi . I'd love to read some commentary on the Korean charts - and the UK charts, Canadian, French, Australian, etc.! The thread is "snarkin on pop" so any pop will do. My only caveat is that the more threads there are, the harder it is to stay on top of posts, so it would be great if we could just expand this thread. Cool. I'll snark away in here then.
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moimoi
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Post by moimoi on Nov 16, 2020 21:54:09 GMT -5
Also, have you heard of last year's even worse hit (well, apparently it peaked at #40 on US charts, so I guess technically it qualifies as such) song " Crazy AF" by a band called In Real Life and if so what is your opinion of this extremely bad song? Ugh, I had not heard it so THANKS FOR NOTHING. What a shit, shit, shit song: the lazy skanking guitar, the whiny singing, extraneous cursing, AND offensive lyrics. I am somewhat relieved that this went nowhere, despite having a TV show behind it, and the "band" broke up shortly afterward.
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Rainbow Rosa
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Post by Rainbow Rosa on Nov 16, 2020 21:58:42 GMT -5
*sheepishly puts "Sweet But Psycho" in the "songs I'm deeply deeply embarrassed to like" pile*
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moimoi
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Post by moimoi on Nov 16, 2020 22:10:01 GMT -5
*sheepishly puts "Sweet But Psycho" in the "songs I'm deeply deeply embarrassed to like" pile* I'm not saying it's not super catchy, but it's also unnecessarily hurtful, condescending, and lacking in subtlety. I don't disapprove of all 'crazy' metaphors in song. For example, Gnarls Barkley asks "does that make me crazy", Beyonce is (herself) "crazy in love", and so was Patsy Cline. There's a big difference between expressing an insecurity about yourself vs. reducing another person to a cliché or stereotype without giving any insight about them. Per Wikipedia, Ava Max has defended the song by saying it was about being gaslit, but that is NOT what you get from the lyrics or from the video. The fact that five songwriters couldn't come up with anything better for such a catchy melody is disappointing, and I don't see any reason to let a Gaga wannabe off the hook for that.
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Post by Nudeviking on Nov 17, 2020 0:20:56 GMT -5
It's time to snark on Korean Pop charts. I'm using the Melon.com weekly chart deal since that's the music chart people here actually look at. I think there's a Billboard K-Pop thing but I think that might be based solely on K-Pop shit that crosses over to Western audiences which is not what I want to talk about really (though there is some overlap). This week I'm looking at the Top 10 songs for the week November 9th to November 15th. I'm not entirely sure but I think for subsequent weeks I'll do the Top 10 songs I've not written about because I don't want to write about BTS' "Dynamite" for 80 weeks as it makes its way down the chart from the #1 song. So let's start snarkin'!
#1 - "Dynamite" by BTS: I've written at length about BTS elsewhere on these boards and how I don't really understand why they're as popular globally as they are. In the world of Korean boy bands I don't think they're really anything special. They're not more beautiful than Golden Child or Monsta X or any of the myriad of other groups of beautiful singing and dancing Korean boys and their songs aren't any better either. The label they're signed to wasn't a powerhouse label like SMTown or YG or JYP was though they kind of are now because of BTS so their popularity wasn't a thing that they could have obtained just on the strength of their label's reputation or anything of the sort. They're just super popular for some reason and I don't know why.
This song doesn't really do anything to help me answer the question of their popularity though since it's another pretty generic song by a K-Pop boy band. It's got a disco vibe to it and the lyrics are entirely in English which I guess helps make it more accessible to a broader global audience than a song that's mostly in Korean would be but otherwise this is nothing special.
#2 - "힘든 건 사랑이 아니다" by Im Chang-Jung (임창정): First up before I talk about this actual song when I pulled this one up on YouTube to give it a listen I learned that the English title is apparently, "Love Should Not Be Harsh On You," which is a pretty shit translation but that's neither here nor there.
This song is the main reason I wanted to started snarking on K-Pop. I've never heard this song before but I've heard this song 90,000,000 times before. Whenever the west talks about K-Pop it's cool girls doing pop rap and beautiful boys dancing like maniacs but over here a full 90% of pop music is boring shit where a guy in a suit or a girl in a cocktail dress just sing boring-ass ballads about love and heartbreak with string sections and pianos and a vocalist who does "WOAH OH OOOOOOOOOOOH!" bellow singing at the climax of the song because that's the only way to express emotion via song.
#3 - "Lovesick Girls" by BLACKPINK: If you've heard one K-Pop song it was probably "Dynamite" by BTS but if you've heard two it probably wasn't this one but it probably was by this group. My daughter is obsessed with BLACKPINK so I've heard this song (and the bulk of their discography for that matter) more than maybe any other song this year but haven't tired of it the way I have bullshit like "Dynamite."
#4 "취기를 빌려 (취향저격 그녀 X 산들)" by Sandeul (산들): Webcomics are a big deal here in Korea but I don't fuck with them on account of having an irrational hatred of the medium. Such a big deal are self-published drawings by lonely perverts in South Korea that some of them merit getting official soundtracks. This song is a song hailing from one such soundtrack.
This song is the other sort of song that makes up the bulk of Korean pop music in Korea. Like the Im Chang-Jung song earlier it's another boring-ass song about love but where that song was all string sections and bombastic "WOAH OH OHHHHHH!" this one is boring-ass coffee shop acoustic guitar strumfuckery and absolutely zero bombast. If you see a Korean girl in her mid-20s listening to something on headphones there's a 900% chance that it's this song or something that sounds exactly like this.
#5 - "DON'T TOUCH ME" by Refund Sisters (환불원정대): Like the #4 song this week, this is another song that is probably conceptually more interesting than the actual song itself is. The song came about as part of a random TV show in which singers adopt alternate personas to create songs in a certain style. I don't watch the show in question because most Korea TV shows are trash but previous songs that originated from this show were things done in a mid-90s K-Pop style. I think this is supposed to be an early 00s girl group thing but I'm not entirely sure.
The group consists of Uhm Jung-hwa and Lee Hyori who are respectively the biggest female singers of the 90s and 00s as well as Jessi and Hwasa who aren't the biggest anything but are singers my daughter likes a lot so this is another jam I've heard a bunch. I kind of dig the fact that a woman in her 50s and a woman in her 40s are featured so prominently in this when the Korean Pop Machine is way shittier than even Western pop music with regards to a female artist's shelf life ("You're 26 and have a boyfriend? Game over mang!"). Also apparently all the money that they made off this single is getting donated to charities so if that's legit that's pretty admirable. The song itself is fine dance pop if that's what you're into.
#6 - "잠이 오질 않네요" by Beom June Jang (장범준): I didn't know anything about this song before giving it a spin here. The dude singing this used to be in a light rock band called Busker Busker that if not victorious was featured enough on some reality show singing contest show that they got to release music after the show ended. The song here is more generic ballad shit. It kind of splits the difference between "취기를 빌려 (취향저격 그녀 X 산들)" and "힘든 건 사랑이 아니다" in that it's got some string section bullshit but is mostly acoustic guitar strumfuckery. I have a very low tolerance for this sort of shit and this one's not particularly well done.
#7 - "오래된 노래" by Standing Egg: More boring-ass acoustic guitar strumfuckery. This is hands down the worst sort of music since there's absolutely nothing you can do to it. It's too dull to drive, exercise, or fist fight to. It's not sexy enough to fuck to. It's just background noise.
#8 - "딩가딩가 (Dingga)" by Mamamoo: Hwasa from the Return Sisters' second appearance in this week's top ten. This is the group she's usually in when she's not pretending to be someone else in a girl group created for a television show. I think this song is great even though I'm probably a bad parent for allowing my child to bop along to a pop song about getting drunk at the club with your girls.
#9 - "Savage Love (Laxed Siren Beat) [BTS Remix]" by Jawsh 685, Jason Derulo & BTS: This is the sole foreign song to appear on the charts and is clearly only here because of BTS. It's kind of wild to hear beloved good boys, BTS sing about not giving "two fucks," but otherwise this song kind of sucks. The instrumental shit blows ass since it's all synthesizer saxophones and none of the lyrics are any good and none of the parties involved are singing like they're into what they're singing. The very definition of going through the motions.
#10 - "내 마음이 움찔했던 순간 (취향저격 그녀 X 규현)" by KYUHYUN (규현): Another boring-ass piano and acoustic guitar ballad thing about love from the soundtrack to a webcomic. Here comes the string section. This shit sucks so bad.
So one week in and 50% of the songs I've listened to have been bland interchangeable ballads with acoustic guitars and boring dudes singing about love and there my friends is the terrible secret of K-Pop. More than half of it is this sort of shit. Sure, in the west all you get are the funny "WTF is this?" shit like Psy and the exciting neon colored dance pop of BLACKPINK and other groups of their ilk but if you were to turn on a radio in Busan or Seoul you'd be far more likely to hear some dweeb singing about his broken heart over swelling orchestral shit and wind chimes.
I'll be back in a week's time with another look at the Korean Pop charts and maybe I'll get to talk about Twice because they released a new song this past weekend which will probably end up on the charts if the charts are based at all upon radio play and number of times a music video airs on MTV. Until then!
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moimoi
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Post by moimoi on Nov 17, 2020 11:54:59 GMT -5
#2 - "힘든 건 사랑이 아니다" by Im Chang-Jung (임창정): First up before I talk about this actual song when I pulled this one up on YouTube to give it a listen I learned that the English title is apparently, "Love Should Not Be Harsh On You," which is a pretty shit translation but that's neither here nor there. This song is the main reason I wanted to started snarking on K-Pop. I've never heard this song before but I've heard this song 90,000,000 times before. Whenever the west talks about K-Pop it's cool girls doing pop rap and beautiful boys dancing like maniacs but over here a full 90% of pop music is boring shit where a guy in a suit or a girl in a cocktail dress just sing boring-ass ballads about love and heartbreak with string sections and pianos and a vocalist who does "WOAH OH OOOOOOOOOOOH!" bellow singing at the climax of the song because that's the only way to express emotion via song. #4 "취기를 빌려 (취향저격 그녀 X 산들)" by Sandeul (산들): Webcomics are a big deal here in Korea but I don't fuck with them on account of having an irrational hatred of the medium. Such a big deal are self-published drawings by lonely perverts in South Korea that some of them merit getting official soundtracks. This song is a song hailing from one such soundtrack. This song is the other sort of song that makes up the bulk of Korean pop music in Korea. Like the Im Chang-Jung song earlier it's another boring-ass song about love but where that song was all string sections and bombastic "WOAH OH OHHHHHH!" this one is boring-ass coffee shop acoustic guitar strumfuckery and absolutely zero bombast. If you see a Korean girl in her mid-20s listening to something on headphones there's a 900% chance that it's this song or something that sounds exactly like this. So one week in and 50% of the songs I've listened to have been bland interchangeable ballads with acoustic guitars and boring dudes singing about love and there my friends is the terrible secret of K-Pop. More than half of it is this sort of shit. Sure, in the west all you get are the funny "WTF is this?" shit like Psy and the exciting neon colored dance pop of BLACKPINK and other groups of their ilk but if you were to turn on a radio in Busan or Seoul you'd be far more likely to hear some dweeb singing about his broken heart over swelling orchestral shit and wind chimes. Awesome writeup, Nudie! Lots to discuss here. First, the saccharine nature of Asian (East and South, from my observation) pop sensibilities: I think this is rooted in the tradition of popular poetic balladry, such as Enka and Ghazal and especially Cantopop - which has probably had the biggest influence across Asia as a cultural import. Having been raised with that sensibility, it doesn't bother me that much, though I very much enjoy the epithet "boring-ass coffee shop acoustic guitar strumfuckery" and hope to steal it for some of my album reviews :-) #5 - "DON'T TOUCH ME" by Refund Sisters (환불원정대) - INTERESTING. If their prompt was to reproduce the sound of the early 00s, this is a resounding success, as it basically crosses " How Many Licks?" with " Buttons". 딩가딩가 (Dingga) is a bop. If I ever get a request for K-pop (or just feel inclined) I might play this on my show. Now for your consideration: I have always theorized that circa the turn of the millennium, perhaps due to some sort of corporate conglomeration, Korean producers made a breakthrough in producing Western-style-but-better pop music. My initial clues were BoA's first hits (in Japan at least) " Valenti" and " Listen to My Heart" which are shockingly good facsimiles of Shakira's "Wherever, Whenever" and Christina Aguilera's "Genie in a Bottle" respectively. Around the same time, Shakira also came out with a randomly Korean video for "Did It Again" (my absolute favorite of hers - watch if you haven't seen it, it's delightful): Can you confirm this, or would you point to other factors/different points in the evolution of K-pop?
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Post by Nudeviking on Nov 17, 2020 19:58:20 GMT -5
#2 - "힘든 건 사랑이 아니다" by Im Chang-Jung (임창정): First up before I talk about this actual song when I pulled this one up on YouTube to give it a listen I learned that the English title is apparently, "Love Should Not Be Harsh On You," which is a pretty shit translation but that's neither here nor there. This song is the main reason I wanted to started snarking on K-Pop. I've never heard this song before but I've heard this song 90,000,000 times before. Whenever the west talks about K-Pop it's cool girls doing pop rap and beautiful boys dancing like maniacs but over here a full 90% of pop music is boring shit where a guy in a suit or a girl in a cocktail dress just sing boring-ass ballads about love and heartbreak with string sections and pianos and a vocalist who does "WOAH OH OOOOOOOOOOOH!" bellow singing at the climax of the song because that's the only way to express emotion via song. #4 "취기를 빌려 (취향저격 그녀 X 산들)" by Sandeul (산들): Webcomics are a big deal here in Korea but I don't fuck with them on account of having an irrational hatred of the medium. Such a big deal are self-published drawings by lonely perverts in South Korea that some of them merit getting official soundtracks. This song is a song hailing from one such soundtrack. This song is the other sort of song that makes up the bulk of Korean pop music in Korea. Like the Im Chang-Jung song earlier it's another boring-ass song about love but where that song was all string sections and bombastic "WOAH OH OHHHHHH!" this one is boring-ass coffee shop acoustic guitar strumfuckery and absolutely zero bombast. If you see a Korean girl in her mid-20s listening to something on headphones there's a 900% chance that it's this song or something that sounds exactly like this. So one week in and 50% of the songs I've listened to have been bland interchangeable ballads with acoustic guitars and boring dudes singing about love and there my friends is the terrible secret of K-Pop. More than half of it is this sort of shit. Sure, in the west all you get are the funny "WTF is this?" shit like Psy and the exciting neon colored dance pop of BLACKPINK and other groups of their ilk but if you were to turn on a radio in Busan or Seoul you'd be far more likely to hear some dweeb singing about his broken heart over swelling orchestral shit and wind chimes. Awesome writeup, Nudie! Lots to discuss here. First, the saccharine nature of Asian (East and South, from my observation) pop sensibilities: I think this is rooted in the tradition of popular poetic balladry, such as Enka and Ghazal and especially Cantopop - which has probably had the biggest influence across Asia as a cultural import. Having been raised with that sensibility, it doesn't bother me that much, though I very much enjoy the epithet "boring-ass coffee shop acoustic guitar strumfuckery" and hope to steal it for some of my album reviews :-) #5 - "DON'T TOUCH ME" by Refund Sisters (환불원정대) - INTERESTING. If their prompt was to reproduce the sound of the early 00s, this is a resounding success, as it basically crosses " How Many Licks?" with " Buttons". 딩가딩가 (Dingga) is a bop. If I ever get a request for K-pop (or just feel inclined) I might play this on my show. Now for your consideration: I have always theorized that circa the turn of the millennium, perhaps due to some sort of corporate conglomeration, Korean producers made a breakthrough in producing Western-style-but-better pop music. My initial clues were BoA's first hits (in Japan at least) " Valenti" and " Listen to My Heart" which are shockingly good facsimiles of Shakira's "Wherever, Whenever" and Christina Aguilera's "Genie in a Bottle" respectively. Around the same time, Shakira also came out with a randomly Korean video for "Did It Again" (my absolute favorite of hers - watch if you haven't seen it, it's delightful): Can you confirm this, or would you point to other factors/different points in the evolution of K-pop? With regards to shitty ballads in Korea, I think a lot of it probably is also tied to the concept of Han, which is one of those words that you can't really translate well into English but those who try usually end up settling somewhere between "sorrow" and "resentment." "Han" is something of a defining national characteristic for the Korean people what with their history of being subjugated by their larger, stronger neighbors since forever and later having to fight their actual brothers and sisters in a civil war in the modern era. Han ends up defining a lot of art, music, and film. It's why the hero of a Korean movie dies 9 times out of 10 in the end and also probably why there are so many pop songs where a guy sings about getting drunk and how much he loved someone who will never love him back. A lot of academic writings on Han talk about its influence on pansori, a traditional form or music that I doubt I'll ever have reason to review in this snarkin' on pop thread since it's not particularly popular in the modern day, but I'm making the argument that it's influence continues to the modern era in the saccharine orchestral mopefests that dominate the airwaves (there's one such song playing in my office right now). As for Korean pop producers getting better at producing Western style pop music I can't say with any sort of certainty what caused it to happen but it is definitely a thing that they've gotten better with in the 17 years I've been here. I have some knowledge of the pop music stuff that happened prior to the early 2000s on account of having lived in this country as long as I have and there's always been some desire to appeal to a wider audience on non-Koreans as far back as the 1950s. The presence of the United States Military on the Korean peninsula meant that in a pre-Internet era Koreans who had radios had access to contemporary America pop music and because the Americans stationed there had money a lot of bars and nightclubs would feature local Korean singers performing American pop songs of the 50s and early 60s for audiences of G.I.s. This actually resulted in at least one Korean Pop group, The Kim Sisters, having some success in the United States around this time with appearances on Dean Martin's show and a stint of concerts in Vegas believe. The Kim Sisters playing "La Bamba" on American television because why not?Into the 80s and early 90s this sort of influence continued with popular musicians either borrowing from musical styles that they'd heard on the Armed Forces Network radio station or in clubs near US Military bases and making them into their own like Seo Taiji did throughout the bulk of his career. In the early 90s when stuff like Bell Biv DeVoe and Bobby Brown was popular he was putting out albums of Korean New Jack Swing but by the mid-90s when gangsta rap was picking up steam he'd put out a song that if not for the fact that 96% of the lyrics were in Korean one wouldn't have a hard time believe was a Cypress Hill outtake and when the late 90s rolled around and nu metal was the flavor of the week Seo Taiji picked up a 7 string guitar and started playing chugga chugga guitar riffs. Now while he was doing all this he was also tweaking things to make it more Korean. There were elements of pansori in some song and he was using traditional Korean instrumentation in some of his rap songs and stuff so it wasn't entirely a blatant rip-off of western music. Seo Taiji & Boys changing Korean Pop forever by adding traditional Korean instruments to 90s hip-hop.Unfortunately Seo Taiji was the exception rather than the norm. Far more common than someone hearing "Insane in the Brain" and thinking "You know what would make this even better? Someone playing a taepyeongso during it!" were artists who would straight up lift instrumental tracks whole cloth from popular Western songs and then sing new Korean lyrics that had absolutely nothing to do with the original song over those tracks. Wax's "오빠" or Cyndi Lauper's "She Bop?" You decide!Were the original artists ever credited? I'm not sure but I know of at least one instance where the songwriters of a Western pop song heard a Korean song and were like, "Hey that sounds exactly like our song," and caused the song in question to get taken off later pressings of the album. The song in question was "Get Ya!" by Lee Hyori (mentioned yesterday in my brief write-up on the Refund Sisters) which apparently borrowed blatantly from Brittney Spears' "Do Somethin'" that "Get Ya!" got pulled from the album and was banned from being played on the radio or television. This song's gonna "Get Ya" sued by American songwriters.In these our modern times I think a lot of the popular Korean pop songs that make it big in the West actually are written, at least in part, by Western producers and songwriters. Every weekend the networks here will air a show not unlike Top of the Pops or American Bandstand where popular singers will lip sync and dance about. Before said singers perform their dance routine an onscreen graphic will appear letting viewers know the song's title, the artist or group's name, and also the name or names of parties involved in writing the music and lyrics to the song. Over the past few years I've noticed a trend towards songwriters with decidedly Western looking names (lots of Scandinavian looking name). It's entirely possible that these Bjorn Erikssons could just be the nom de plume of various Korean producers but I think it's highly unlike. Korean pop music has become a big business so why wouldn't American or European songwriters try to get in on it and make some big bucks? As for Shakira I'd not known that she'd done a Korea specific single and now kind of wonder if at some point in the early 00s she made a concerted effort to break into the Korean market. Every single woman I ever dated here was obsessed with her (not that I blame them) while oblivious to the vast majority of Shakira's contemporaries. It was always sort of inexplicable to me in the same way Air Supply's massive popularity with Koreans a decade older than me does but if she was routinely promoting herself here I guess it makes sense.
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Post by Roy Batty's Pet Dove on Nov 18, 2020 10:50:35 GMT -5
#4 "취기를 빌려 (취향저격 그녀 X 산들)" by Sandeul (산들): Webcomics are a big deal here in Korea but I don't fuck with them on account of having an irrational hatred of the medium. Such a big deal are self-published drawings by lonely perverts in South Korea that some of them merit getting official soundtracks. This song is a song hailing from one such soundtrack. Wow, Viking, I never realized that your life is basically a very middling 21st Century version of a Twilight Zone episode. Man who despises webcomics moves to another country, but in an ironic twist, it turns out they're even more obsessed with webcomics there than they are in the country he left.
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Post by Nudeviking on Nov 18, 2020 10:56:19 GMT -5
#4 "취기를 빌려 (취향저격 그녀 X 산들)" by Sandeul (산들): Webcomics are a big deal here in Korea but I don't fuck with them on account of having an irrational hatred of the medium. Such a big deal are self-published drawings by lonely perverts in South Korea that some of them merit getting official soundtracks. This song is a song hailing from one such soundtrack. Wow, Viking, I never realized that your life is basically a very middling 21st Century version of a Twilight Zone episode. Man who despises webcomics moves to another country, but in an ironic twist, it turns out they're even more obsessed with webcomics there than they are in the country he left. Man ends up reviewing a webcomic theme song...
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moimoi
AV Clubber
Posts: 5,006
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Post by moimoi on Nov 18, 2020 12:00:40 GMT -5
Unfortunately Seo Taiji was the exception rather than the norm. Far more common than someone hearing "Insane in the Brain" and thinking "You know what would make this even better? Someone playing a taepyeongso during it!" were artists who would straight up lift instrumental tracks whole cloth from popular Western songs and then sing new Korean lyrics that had absolutely nothing to do with the original song over those tracks. Were the original artists ever credited? I'm not sure but I know of at least one instance where the songwriters of a Western pop song heard a Korean song and were like, "Hey that sounds exactly like our song," and caused the song in question to get taken off later pressings of the album. The song in question was "Get Ya!" by Lee Hyori (mentioned yesterday in my brief write-up on the Refund Sisters) which apparently borrowed blatantly from Brittney Spears' "Do Somethin'" that "Get Ya!" got pulled from the album and was banned from being played on the radio or television. In these our modern times I think a lot of the popular Korean pop songs that make it big in the West actually are written, at least in part, by Western producers and songwriters. Every weekend the networks here will air a show not unlike Top of the Pops or American Bandstand where popular singers will lip sync and dance about. Before said singers perform their dance routine an onscreen graphic will appear letting viewers know the song's title, the artist or group's name, and also the name or names of parties involved in writing the music and lyrics to the song. Over the past few years I've noticed a trend towards songwriters with decidedly Western looking names (lots of Scandinavian looking name). It's entirely possible that these Bjorn Erikssons could just be the nom de plume of various Korean producers but I think it's highly unlike. Korean pop music has become a big business so why wouldn't American or European songwriters try to get in on it and make some big bucks?As for Shakira I'd not known that she'd done a Korea specific single and now kind of wonder if at some point in the early 00s she made a concerted effort to break into the Korean market. Every single woman I ever dated here was obsessed with her (not that I blame them) while oblivious to the vast majority of Shakira's contemporaries. It was always sort of inexplicable to me in the same way Air Supply's massive popularity with Koreans a decade older than me does but if she was routinely promoting herself here I guess it makes sense. Whole-cloth pop thievery is another long standing pan-Asian tradition, you know. Here's an egregious example from 1972 I can only assume Brian Wilson didn't stop because he was in no condition to look after his interests at the time. In the case of Bollywood, it's a particular shame because the rest of the songs for this Amitabh Bachchan vehicle are really good and exemplify the creative power and originality of composers who were updating and adapting Western music, rather than just ripping it off. In India, pop music as a whole suffered as it became increasingly imitative and brainless - basically in line with the West. What fascinates me is that at some point, K-pop ceased to just be derivative and started producing stuff that was better than what was coming out in the West at the same time. I think you may have resolved my question of whether it was Korean/Korean-American producers dabbling in international work or international producers working in South Korea (the latter, it appears). And it would also make sense that a major label 'international' artist like Shakira would have an international marketing strategy that included East Asia. Rosalia seems to have taken her playbook to increasing success. Now I'm REALLY curious about what the Swedish pop charts look like. I may have to start up my Scandinavian music survey, even though I'm only halfway through Australia & Oceania...
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Post by Nudeviking on Nov 18, 2020 19:46:38 GMT -5
Unfortunately Seo Taiji was the exception rather than the norm. Far more common than someone hearing "Insane in the Brain" and thinking "You know what would make this even better? Someone playing a taepyeongso during it!" were artists who would straight up lift instrumental tracks whole cloth from popular Western songs and then sing new Korean lyrics that had absolutely nothing to do with the original song over those tracks. Were the original artists ever credited? I'm not sure but I know of at least one instance where the songwriters of a Western pop song heard a Korean song and were like, "Hey that sounds exactly like our song," and caused the song in question to get taken off later pressings of the album. The song in question was "Get Ya!" by Lee Hyori (mentioned yesterday in my brief write-up on the Refund Sisters) which apparently borrowed blatantly from Brittney Spears' "Do Somethin'" that "Get Ya!" got pulled from the album and was banned from being played on the radio or television. In these our modern times I think a lot of the popular Korean pop songs that make it big in the West actually are written, at least in part, by Western producers and songwriters. Every weekend the networks here will air a show not unlike Top of the Pops or American Bandstand where popular singers will lip sync and dance about. Before said singers perform their dance routine an onscreen graphic will appear letting viewers know the song's title, the artist or group's name, and also the name or names of parties involved in writing the music and lyrics to the song. Over the past few years I've noticed a trend towards songwriters with decidedly Western looking names (lots of Scandinavian looking name). It's entirely possible that these Bjorn Erikssons could just be the nom de plume of various Korean producers but I think it's highly unlike. Korean pop music has become a big business so why wouldn't American or European songwriters try to get in on it and make some big bucks?As for Shakira I'd not known that she'd done a Korea specific single and now kind of wonder if at some point in the early 00s she made a concerted effort to break into the Korean market. Every single woman I ever dated here was obsessed with her (not that I blame them) while oblivious to the vast majority of Shakira's contemporaries. It was always sort of inexplicable to me in the same way Air Supply's massive popularity with Koreans a decade older than me does but if she was routinely promoting herself here I guess it makes sense. Whole-cloth pop thievery is another long standing pan-Asian tradition, you know. Here's an egregious example from 1972 I can only assume Brian Wilson didn't stop because he was in no condition to look after his interests at the time. In the case of Bollywood, it's a particular shame because the rest of the songs for this Amitabh Bachchan vehicle are really good and exemplify the creative power and originality of composers who were updating and adapting Western music, rather than just ripping it off. In India, pop music as a whole suffered as it became increasingly imitative and brainless - basically in line with the West. What fascinates me is that at some point, K-pop ceased to just be derivative and started producing stuff that was better than what was coming out in the West at the same time. I think you may have resolved my question of whether it was Korean/Korean-American producers dabbling in international work or international producers working in South Korea (the latter, it appears). And it would also make sense that a major label 'international' artist like Shakira would have an international marketing strategy that included East Asia. Rosalia seems to have taken her playbook to increasing success. Now I'm REALLY curious about what the Swedish pop charts look like. I may have to start up my Scandinavian music survey, even though I'm only halfway through Australia & Oceania... Someone who's a lot smarter than me could probably write a pretty decent article or academic paper paralleling the use of sampling in hip-hop in the United States with Asian musicians' making up entirely new songs over Western pop songs that are fairly unknown to local listeners. As for the shift from "an okay copy" to "better than the 'genuine' article" I think a lot of it was definitely a conscientious effort by record labels in order to increase the marketability of their artists globally by working more with global songwriters. Even back in the early part of the 21st century as Korean artists were starting to gain some popularity regionally you'd have people like BoA working with Japanese producers and songwriters because for some reason she caught on in Japan and Jang Nara doing the same thing with Chinese songwriters because she somehow got popular in Mainland China. It makes sense that as Korean pop became a bigger thing globally that they'd start working with producers and hitmakers from other parts of the global as well. Overall I think the shift was gradual but probably sped up with the advent of YouTube and social media sites like Tumblr and Twitter since stuff that was once difficult to discover unless you were actually in the country was now just a couple of mouse clicks away. I think this is also why there's less whole cloth theft since it's just as easy for BMG or Island Records' legal departments to check out what a Korean pop singer is doing as it is for a BTS superfan in Bogota to do the same thing. As for Shakira doing anything beyond just having her album get released in South Korea I am kind of surprised. For whatever reason South Korea generally gets overlooked by bigger international artists when going on Asian tours and there's not really the "I can't believe Madonna did TV commercials in Japan!" thing going on here either. Looking at that music chart that I used to find songs to snark on I don't think even 10 out of the top 100 songs are by non-Korean artists (and I'm being generous and saying that the Jawsh Random Numbers and Jason Derulo song that featured BTS counts as a non-Korean song) though I'm not sure if this lack of popularity is why international artists kind of ignore Korea or the lack of popularity stems from international artists not paying South Korea any attention. Also just because you brought up pop thievery on the Indian subcontinent, here's a Korean pop group "borrowing" from a Punjabi folk song for no discernible reason.
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Post by Nudeviking on Nov 23, 2020 22:38:30 GMT -5
It's time to once again snark on Korean pop music (specifically the Melon weekly chart for the week of 11/16~11/22) so get ready for swelling string sections, acoustic guitar strumfuckery, and cool girls and boys singing expertly crafted pop melodies. Before we get to any of that there's some admin to take care of up top. First off I'm going to go ahead and skip any song I've previously covered for the reasons I speculated upon in my inaugural deep dive into the Korean pop charts. Week to week there wasn't a lot of fresh blood coming into the top ten so I'm going to go a bit further down the charts this week. The second thing is the chart I went with last week was the overall chart and included both domestic and imported songs. There's a way to filter out the foreign stuff so going forward I'm going to go ahead and do that since I don't really have any strong desire to write about Dua Lipa or others of her ilk. As mentioned in one of my posts last week there's not a ton of western stuff in the charts here anyway so it's not like I'm going to end up reviewing a completely different group of songs than I would have if I left the western pop stuff in. The only change to the stuff I reviewed last week is that BTS Remix of a Jawsh 685 song would have been replaced by a song I'm going to review this week. Before we begin here are the songs that I'm skipping this week: #1 - "Dynamite" by BTS (Last week #1) #2 - "힘든 건 사랑이 아니다" by 임창정 (Last week #2) #3 - "잠이 오질 않네요" by 장범준 (Last week #6) #4 - "Lovesick Girls" by BLACKPINK (Last week #3) #5 - "취기를 빌려 (취향저격 그녀 X 산들)" by 산들 (Last week #4) #6 - "DON'T TOUCH ME" by 환불원정대 (Last week #5) #7 - "오래된 노래" by Standing Egg (Last week #7) #8 - "딩가딩가 (Dingga)" by 마마무 (Last week #8) #9 - "내 마음이 움찔했던 순간 (취향저격 그녀 X 규현)" by 규현 (KYUHYUN) (Last week #10) On to the new shit! #10 - "뻔한남자" by 이승기 (Lee Seung-Gi) - Lee Seung-Gi is an actor who also sometimes releases music. I haven't deep dived into his discography or anything but all his hits sound exactly like this: boring piano shit, swelling strings, whiny lyrics about love, usually end with wind chimes. Boring and lifeless. #11 - "When We Disco (Duet with 선미)" by 박진영 (JYP) - The music video for this song ends with on screen text declaring it to be a tribute to JYP's two favorite movies of all time: Saturday Night Fever and Pulp Fiction. That's all anyone needs to know about this song. That and the fact that my daughter refers to this dude as "Joker Man" for some reason. #12 - "I CAN’T STOP ME" by TWICE (트와이스) - When he's not doing middling disco songs in 2020, JYP is running a pretty successful music company. He's the dude responsible for the Wonder Girls, a group I think had some success globally a decade or so ago. TWICE is one of his follow up attempts at repeating that successful formula. There was at least one other girl group he produced that had some success domestically but didn't really break out globally the way Wonder Girls did in between Wonder Girls and TWICE and possibly more that didn't even have that level of moderate domestic success that I'm forgetting about but that's neither here nor there. While last week I talked a lot about how swelling string sections and acoustic guitar strumfuckery dominate a lot of the airwaves. This is the other sort of thing that's on the radio all the time here: cute, anonymous girls singing innocent, light pop. The girl groups who I covered last week were all outliers in terms of how they're presented. BLACKPINK are cool edgy globetrotters. They wear leather jackets with spikes on them and probably smoked cigarettes in middle school. Mamamoo's entire shtick was they didn't look like models but were actually good at singing. None of their songs are about chaste innocent puppy love but rather about how horny and/or drunk they are. TWICE on the other hand is the norm when it comes to Korean girl groups. They're all cute and have an innocence to them. Their songs are inoffensive. None of them seem to have any defining personality traits beyond a specific hair cut or "the Japanese one." There are so many groups exactly like this on the radio here and most of them have incredibly short shelf lives. TWICE has a bit better production and better songwriting than a lot of them (JYP is pretty good at crafting pop hooks and has a long history of working with other very talented songwriters) but ultimately they're not any different of the dozens of other gangs of 16-23 year old young women dressed in matching clothes dancing around for teenage girls and middle aged men. Like I implied this is a well done version of this sort of thing but really not that different from the shit a half dozen other groups I can think of off the top of my head are also doing this very instant. #13 - "어떻게 이별까지 사랑하겠어, 널 사랑하는 거지" by AKMU (악동뮤지션) - AKMU are a brother and sister duo that I think were on one of the myriad of singing contest shows that exist here some years back. Like that other famed brother and sister singing duo, The Carpenters, I think that the sister is the more interesting performer of the two (she recently put out a solo synth pop song about being an alien that doesn't seem like it's a metaphor for anything just a song about literally being a being from another planet that's actually really good and I'm bummed that I don't have an opportunity to talk about here) but when she's with her brother their stuff is wildly inconsistent. Sometimes they do synth pop songs about dinosaurs but a lot of the time it's boring balladry where a brother and sister sing about love to each other which kind of icks me out. This one is unfortunately is less synth pop about aliens or dinosaurs and more boring ass piano balladry where a brother and sister sing about how they long to be with some unknown "you" in a way that only reads as incestuous. #14 - "가을밤에 든 생각" by 잔나비 (Jannabi) - More coffee shop open mic acoustic guitar strumfuckery up in this mug. About halfway in there's some weird theremin shit, organs and wah guitar that this cat should have leaned into harder than the random orchestral maneuvers and gospel choir that also show up. As a rule of thumb if there's a Korean song with "Autumn (가을)" or "Winter (겨울)" or "Spring (봄)" in the title it's going to be a boring ballad. If the song has "Summer (여름)" in the title it's going to be an upbeat Eurodisco thing. #15 - "흔들리는 꽃들 속에서 네 샴푸향이 느껴진거야" by 장범준 - Mid-tempo folk rock. This is marginally better than the listless ballad from this dude I reviewed last week. There are actual drums here and a bass doing rock bass licks. Of course all of it is buried beneath swelling synth orchestras. The production of this song makes it feel like a CCM song but none of the lyrics lead me to believe it actually is. #16 - "Eight (Prod.&Feat. SUGA of BTS)" by 아이유 (IU) - The chart I looked at had this written as "에잇" which is just the English word "Eight" written in Hangul. The official YouTube channel for IU's record label lists it as "Eight" in English so I guess that's the real title. As for the song it's one of my favorite things in pop music: a song that sounds super upbeat and happy but is actually about miserable shit if you listen to the lyrics. Korean pop singers, if you want to sing about heartbreak do it with upbeat Kelly Clarkson style pop rock and leave the string sections at home. #17 - "How You Like That" by BLACKPINK - This feels like 4 different songs that have somehow been woven together into a single thing. It's not entirely cohesive but somehow works and starts to make sense if you listen to it more than once. As BLACKPINK is my daughter's favorite singing group this is a song that I have heard via osmosis hundreds of times by this point. My personal favorite part of the song is towards the end when someone bellows something that sounds like, "Bring in the boss shit!" and then they all start bellowing "Doon doon doon dudu doon," which is apparently what "boss shit" is. #18 - "눈누난나 (NUNU NANA)" by 제시 (Jessi) - Jessi showed up in the songs I covered last week as part of the Refund Sisters. She's the one who did rapping on that track. I'm pretty sure she's a Korean-American (rather than a Korean who just spent time in the US) and as such her music feels more like something you could hypothetically hear on a radio station in America (though in 2020 you actually can hear BTS on US radio stations so that's not saying all that much). She does rap of the sort Lil' Kim (not a Korean) would have done whenever it was that Lil' Kim was doing things of note. You can fill in the blank with the contemporary American hip-hop artist that you think this most sounds like but based on Jessi's age it's clearly Lil' Kim and Foxy Brown that she's taking her vocal cues from. It's fine I guess. This is another song my daughter is obsessed with for some reason so I've heard it a lot. #19 - "어떻게 지내 (Prod. By VAN.C)" by 오반 (OVAN) - The English title for this is apparently "I Need You," which makes sense due to the vocal hook in the chorus. I give this dude(?) group(?) credit for at least sounding different from pretty much everything else on the radio here. BONUS!I ended up listening to one more song this week. It's not anywhere on the chart but I had to listen to it because when listening to OVAN's offering this week on YouTube I learned that there's an answer song to it titled, "I Don't Need You" by some lady named LUNCH. That's right folks we've got ourselves a rap battle with answer records over here! "I Don't Need You" by LUNCH - I was only half paying attention to the lyrics in OVAN's version so I'm not sure if this is a point by point rebuttal to stuff he sang about during the verses but they seem to be. Overall it's a song about how shitty some dude is and how annoying all the dumb shit he does is. The "I Need You" bit of the chorus is now "I Don't Need You." I honestly like this version better. LUNCH has a better voice and seems more into what she's singing than OVAN who just seemed bored. I don't think this is going to kick off a Korean version of the Roxanne Wars or anything but I'll keep you all abreast of future developments.
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moimoi
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Post by moimoi on Nov 25, 2020 19:05:09 GMT -5
This just in: Todd concurs
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moimoi
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Post by moimoi on Nov 30, 2020 13:36:31 GMT -5
The second thing is the chart I went with last week was the overall chart and included both domestic and imported songs. There's a way to filter out the foreign stuff so going forward I'm going to go ahead and do that since I don't really have any strong desire to write about Dua Lipa or others of her ilk. As mentioned in one of my posts last week there's not a ton of western stuff in the charts here anyway so it's not like I'm going to end up reviewing a completely different group of songs than I would have if I left the western pop stuff in. The only change to the stuff I reviewed last week is that BTS Remix of a Jawsh 685 song would have been replaced by a song I'm going to review this week. #13 - "어떻게 이별까지 사랑하겠어, 널 사랑하는 거지" by AKMU (악동뮤지션) - AKMU are a brother and sister duo that I think were on one of the myriad of singing contest shows that exist here some years back. Like that other famed brother and sister singing duo, The Carpenters, I think that the sister is the more interesting performer of the two (she recently put out a solo synth pop song about being an alien that doesn't seem like it's a metaphor for anything just a song about literally being a being from another planet that's actually really good and I'm bummed that I don't have an opportunity to talk about here) but when she's with her brother their stuff is wildly inconsistent. Sometimes they do synth pop songs about dinosaurs but a lot of the time it's boring balladry where a brother and sister sing about love to each other which kind of icks me out. This one is unfortunately is less synth pop about aliens or dinosaurs and more boring ass piano balladry where a brother and sister sing about how they long to be with some unknown "you" in a way that only reads as incestuous. #15 - "흔들리는 꽃들 속에서 네 샴푸향이 느껴진거야" by 장범준 - Mid-tempo folk rock. This is marginally better than the listless ballad from this dude I reviewed last week. There are actual drums here and a bass doing rock bass licks. Of course all of it is buried beneath swelling synth orchestras. The production of this song makes it feel like a CCM song but none of the lyrics lead me to believe it actually is. #16 - "Eight (Prod.&Feat. SUGA of BTS)" by 아이유 (IU) - The chart I looked at had this written as "에잇" which is just the English word "Eight" written in Hangul. The official YouTube channel for IU's record label lists it as "Eight" in English so I guess that's the real title. As for the song it's one of my favorite things in pop music: a song that sounds super upbeat and happy but is actually about miserable shit if you listen to the lyrics. Korean pop singers, if you want to sing about heartbreak do it with upbeat Kelly Clarkson style pop rock and leave the string sections at home. Cool we won't overlap too much on the songs charting in both South Korea and the U.S - but it would still be interesting to know which Western songs are actually making an impact internationally (assuming they suck anyway). I would also be interested in the AKMU sister's solo career. Are industry-produced artists permitted to have 'indie' side projects or is her solo stuff just not as popular? Re: #15, has CCM made any inroads in South Korea or vice versa (have South Koreans dabbled in CCM to any success)? Given how Christian a lot of Koreans are, it sounds like there would be market potential to produce some truly terrible popular music. I think I would like "Eight" more if it more thoroughly ripped off/riffed off "I Feel Better" (peep the video for your alien popstars) instead of going the Coldplay/Katie Perry ultra-cliche route: "Forever young! woo-ooh-ooh..."
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moimoi
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Post by moimoi on Nov 30, 2020 14:34:37 GMT -5
'Tis the season to SNARK SNARK SNARK!
New entries to the Billboard Hot 100 include:
(2) Therefore I Am - Billy Eilish - Watered-down Gorillaz circa "Clint Eastwood"? Really watered-down Eminem circa "Real Slim Shady"? I know the Eilish kids don't remember the year 2000, but I do, so this is pretty fucking WEAK for #2 on the charts. (9) Dákiti - Bad Bunny & Jay Cortez - NGL, I've enjoyed pretty much all the Bad Bunny I've heard. I wish him nothing but success on the U.S. pop charts, if for no other reason than he shoves Spanish down the throats of middle America. This is intimate and sexy, with more melody than practically anything else in the top 10 (even if it's clearly built on the skeleton of "Mi Gente") (20) Levitating - Dua Lipa feat. DaBaby - Ah, Dua Lipa, most talented of the Albanians. Here she's bringing that bouncy bass that sounds great in the fitting room at Express. Her rap verse is unfortunate, though, they need to edit that shit out. (22) Hawai - Maluma & The Weeknd - Ugh, did we this need a super basic trop house/reggaeton beat? If I want to listen to insipid pandering to the Latin market around Christmas I'll put on Jose Feliciano. (25) Starting Over - Chris Stapleton - This is...not bad at all? It's got a nice War on Drugs/Iron & Wine sort of vibe. The spare acoustic strumming and subtle organ compliment the two voices in harmony. [genuine applause] (27) 34+35 - Ariana Grande - Ari is horny little minx, don't you know? She says "f*ck" when she could just as easily say "love" and she says "f*ck" ALOT. Like, 90% of her songs are about how much she enjoys getting f*cked in her tight little hole because her team are marketing geniuses who spend a lot of time on Pornhub. The song's not bad, just annoying in that respect. She's a much better rapper than Dua Lipa. (29) All I Want for Christmas Is You - Mariah Carey - I don't like this song, but I don't particularly hate it either. Surprisingly, I don't have any take on it whatsoever. It just is. (31) Drankin N Smokin - Future & Lil Uzi Vert - [Chuckle] It's this song again. This same meandering trap garbage we've heard a thousand times. Moving on... (34) One Beer - HARDY feat. Lauren Alaina & Devin Dawson - Oh boy, it's a message song about TEENAGE PREGNANCY (gasp!). I mean, I guess we still need these songs, but it's not, like, good or anything. Sadly, the higher charting country songs from previous weeks are much worse than this. (35) Love You Like I Used To - Russell Dickerson - Today's boring country. Just a bland mash of overused chords and middling vocals. (36) Pretty Heart - Parker McCollum - See above. (37) Holiday - Lil Nas X - Yass, Lil Nas bring it to 'em! "Hey can I pop shit / I might bottom on the low but I top shit" "Hee hee I'm bad as Michael Jackson" This has old-school Run DMC charm. DUN DUN DUN
Stopping there because the next song is Blake Shelton & Gwen Stefani, followed by two Luke Combs songs. Also because it's ridiculous that 2/3rds of the Hot 100 is songs that have been at the top of the charts for a month or more. I can tell you in indie radio nothing stays in rotation for a month; we deliberately take stuff out of rotation when they've been played enough to make room for new music.
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Rainbow Rosa
TI Forumite
not gay, just colorful
Posts: 3,604
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Post by Rainbow Rosa on Nov 30, 2020 14:58:20 GMT -5
moimoi, w/r/t "All I Want for Christmas is You," is it just me, or is there an entire subgenre of music which is dedicated to sounding exactly like "All I Want for Christmas is You" but cheaper so that you don't have to pay Mariah Carey royalties to use "All I Want for Christmas is You?"
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Post by Nudeviking on Nov 30, 2020 20:24:01 GMT -5
The second thing is the chart I went with last week was the overall chart and included both domestic and imported songs. There's a way to filter out the foreign stuff so going forward I'm going to go ahead and do that since I don't really have any strong desire to write about Dua Lipa or others of her ilk. As mentioned in one of my posts last week there's not a ton of western stuff in the charts here anyway so it's not like I'm going to end up reviewing a completely different group of songs than I would have if I left the western pop stuff in. The only change to the stuff I reviewed last week is that BTS Remix of a Jawsh 685 song would have been replaced by a song I'm going to review this week. #13 - "어떻게 이별까지 사랑하겠어, 널 사랑하는 거지" by AKMU (악동뮤지션) - AKMU are a brother and sister duo that I think were on one of the myriad of singing contest shows that exist here some years back. Like that other famed brother and sister singing duo, The Carpenters, I think that the sister is the more interesting performer of the two (she recently put out a solo synth pop song about being an alien that doesn't seem like it's a metaphor for anything just a song about literally being a being from another planet that's actually really good and I'm bummed that I don't have an opportunity to talk about here) but when she's with her brother their stuff is wildly inconsistent. Sometimes they do synth pop songs about dinosaurs but a lot of the time it's boring balladry where a brother and sister sing about love to each other which kind of icks me out. This one is unfortunately is less synth pop about aliens or dinosaurs and more boring ass piano balladry where a brother and sister sing about how they long to be with some unknown "you" in a way that only reads as incestuous. #15 - "흔들리는 꽃들 속에서 네 샴푸향이 느껴진거야" by 장범준 - Mid-tempo folk rock. This is marginally better than the listless ballad from this dude I reviewed last week. There are actual drums here and a bass doing rock bass licks. Of course all of it is buried beneath swelling synth orchestras. The production of this song makes it feel like a CCM song but none of the lyrics lead me to believe it actually is. #16 - "Eight (Prod.&Feat. SUGA of BTS)" by 아이유 (IU) - The chart I looked at had this written as "에잇" which is just the English word "Eight" written in Hangul. The official YouTube channel for IU's record label lists it as "Eight" in English so I guess that's the real title. As for the song it's one of my favorite things in pop music: a song that sounds super upbeat and happy but is actually about miserable shit if you listen to the lyrics. Korean pop singers, if you want to sing about heartbreak do it with upbeat Kelly Clarkson style pop rock and leave the string sections at home. Cool we won't overlap too much on the songs charting in both South Korea and the U.S - but it would still be interesting to know which Western songs are actually making an impact internationally (assuming they suck anyway). I would also be interested in the AKMU sister's solo career. Are industry-produced artists permitted to have 'indie' side projects or is her solo stuff just not as popular? Re: #15, has CCM made any inroads in South Korea or vice versa (have South Koreans dabbled in CCM to any success)? Given how Christian a lot of Koreans are, it sounds like there would be market potential to produce some truly terrible popular music. I think I would like "Eight" more if it more thoroughly ripped off/riffed off "I Feel Better" (peep the video for your alien popstars) instead of going the Coldplay/Katie Perry ultra-cliche route: "Forever young! woo-ooh-ooh..." Here are the foreign pop songs that appeared on last week's chart if I didn't separate them out: #8 - That "Savage Love" remix with BTS #35 - "Dance Monkey" by Tones and I #39 - "Memories" by Maroon 5 #46 - "2002" by Anne-Marie #56 - "Don't Start Now" by Dua Lipa #65 - "12:45" by Etham #72 - "Maniac" by Conan Gray #73 - "Paris in the Rain" by Lauv #89 - "Bad Guy" by Billie Eilish #90 - "Painkiller" by Ruel #92 - "Stuck With U" by Ariana Grande & Justin Bieber So 11 songs out of the top 100 and one of those features is a remix featuring local heroes BTS saying "fuck," so I personally wouldn't count it, but the charts I'm using as the basis of my lists does so it's here. I don't think I've ever heard any of these songs in the wild except for that "Savage Love" remix. As for the sister half of AKMU. Her name's Lee Suhyun (이수현) and I've included the video for her recent song "Alien" below. I'm not entirely sure how her solo stuff works if it's something the label AKMU's on also puts out or something she does on the side for someone else or what. I'm inclined to think it's probably the former rather than the latter since that's a thing most labels do here to maximize profits and visibility of, though usually they do it with the big multiple person boy and girl groups rather than weird brother-sister duos. The labels will have some group with like 9 members or whatever and then have like 4 or them do a song as some sub unit or have one of them do a boring swelling string section pop ballad or send 3 of them that can sing in Mandarin to ply their trade in mainland China and then all 9 members form back up like Voltron for their next proper song and the entire process repeats all over again so there's always new WJSN content but the various members aren't all working all the time. As for CCM, it is a thing here but I don't think there's been a Jars of Clay-esque crossover artist that ended up getting mainstream popularity during my time here and since I'm not religious at all and am married to someone who is nominally Buddhist it's not something I've ever been exposed to. The site I'm using to get the Hot 100 chart has a separate chart for domestic CCM songs so maybe as a bonus in my next batch of tunes I'll give the #1 CCM song of the week a listen and ruin my YouTube recommendation algorithm for eternity. They've also got domestic metal, hip-hop, folk, indie, dance, and "trot" charts so maybe I'll make it a regular thing and paint a broader picture of what music is here if you move beyond the shit that Korean Casey Kasem would play on his show.
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