Korean Music
Anyone who’s known me any decent length of time has been exposed to more Japanese music than they probably cared for. For this, I make no apologies. I’ll admit that Japanese and Korean music is very similar. Massive groups, up to 15 singers (none of whom play any kind of instrument), catchy repetitive pop songs, singers who look better than they sing, not too different from American popular music when you really think about it.
In fact, for every major pop star/group in America, there is a Korean copy. That’s not just a cynical observation, it is intentional. For Britney Spears, there is BoA. Backstreet Boys are countered with Big Bang. It goes on, and is blasted in the streets at all hours. The only major difference is that in America, sluttiness is heavily emphasized, and tons of focus on sex. In Korea, cuteness is a lot more important than sexiness, so you end up with grown women (sometimes), dressing like a teenager. Or like a Final Fantasy character.
I’ll stop here to interject, I’m not complaining about this. At all.
A few examples:
Girls’ Generation
Pretty popular. A lot of my students don’t like them because most of the members (12 members) have had plastic surgery. I’m not sure why they love Wonder Girls so much if this is so distasteful, but no one ever said teenage girls were great thinkers.
Warning, though, the video is annoying, but catchy as all hell and the girls are really cute. This song is playing at all hours in korea, usually at high volume in the street, often two within earshot of eachother. I know every lyric thanks to students singing it ad nauseum, but have no clue what it means, beyond the subtitles.
The Wonder Girls
Probably the biggest group out right now. Groups of schoolgirls walking arm and arm singing whatever Wonder Girls song is in their heads is a pretty common sight in korea.
Every English teacher quickly learns from this video that we cannot use the word “Nobody” in any lesson, because it will prompt every single student, male or female, to sing this song.
Rain
Rain was the most popular entertainer in the world for awhile, even in the states, although I never heard of him. He even had a hilarious dance off against Steven Colbert on the Colbert Report when he beat Colbert in the Times top 100 most influential people list (thanks for the info, Tiffany). If you watch only one video, make it this one.
And yes, I do have a shirt and vest like the one Rain is wearing. And I rock it pretty well.
Next is Big Bang. Big Bang is huge. I really don’t know how they can ever leave their homes without being literally mobbed and kidnapped by crazed mobs of teenage girls. They have their own brands of clothes and shoes. They do commericals for every product imaginable. I used to try to use pictures of them and music to keep students’ attention, but I can’t anymore, because so much as showing a picture of them results in a literal riot as girls shriek, cry, and completely lose control of themselves. We usually simply cannot restore order. I really wish I was exaggerating.
I’m not a huge fan, which does not impress my students. According to them, I simply don’t have an ear for true musical talent. I asked them to choose between Big Bang and somewhat more influential artists such as Santana, Queen, or Clapton, and just got blank stares in return. So I tried Beethoven, and they chose Big Bang as the more important figures in music.
Drama
Koreans love drama. It pervades everything, even comedies are filled with drama. In drama, Korean drama, at least, everyone loses. They don’t just lose love or whatever their situation is, they typically lose at life in general. Korean movies, music videos, books, whatever, all ends in tragedy. At the gym, pretty much any woman on the treadmill is watching the same drama, I’m not sure of the name. Its basically a soup opera, down to the crappy camera quality, constant close-ups, and end scene zooms. It makes me wonder, although I can’t understand it, the characters are always around eachother, but from the looks on their faces, are always baiting, attacking, and otherwise emotionally abusing eachother. Why would you hang out with people like that? No one in this show ever smiles, unless its some kind of evil grin.
Of course, its exactly the same as an American soup opera. I recently saw a movie about a baseball player here. From what little I understood, he played since he was a kid, and his mother never attended his games, of course, leading to serious issues. In the movie, he’s at a big final game, and it’s all down to him. Make the hit and win, miss and lose the game. We’ve seen a million movies like it. Of course, after literally 20 minutes of dramatic build-up, slow motion, and over the top music in the rain, he misses. Still, nothing we haven’t seen in american sports films.
Turns out, his mother came to this game, and while that’s sort of a victory, the one game she attends, he fails. I think some more traumatic stuff happened too, but I still understand barely any Korean, and this movie was in a different dialect than the one I’m learning anyway, so I was doubly confused most of the time.
Here’s a video example, though:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koZPdoTut_w
This is pretty normal for Korean art, really.
