söndag 30 december 2012

Kpop: Juniel (주니엘)



Choi Jun-hee is a singer/songwriter, known under the name Juniel, who studied in Japan and started her musical career there, and then debuted in Korea this year. Needs understanding of the lyrics, but even without that, the single Bad Man is a nice piece.
  • Juniel - Bad man (나쁜 사람)
  • Juniel - Fool (바보)
  • Juniel - Illa illa (일라 일라)
  • Juniel - Forever
  • Juniel - Sakura... (さくら~とどかぬ想い~)


fredag 28 december 2012

Kpop: G.Na (지나)



Korean Canadian singer G.Na (Gina Jane Choi) is a solo singer and has what I would call a more western pop diva style to her expression than say BoA. Its music with more flesh and blood in it, and somehow less focus on dance and even more on the star (and her character and personality). Depending on why you listen to kpop, she will attract or deter. And just to be fair, if you are new to kpop, look at the videos first and then read about this, which is what she is also known for. Sigh. Honestly, did you even notice it before you read about it?


torsdag 27 december 2012

Kpop: Best of 2012

I thought I would do my own personal list of kpop favorites from this year. Lets do it countdown stylee, but first we have to remove one contestant, namely....

PSYGangnam Style
By now, with more than one billion (1 000 000 000+!!) plays on youtube, it is impossible to evaluate it fairly and without weighing in all the surrounding historical implications and media coverage and pop culture relevance, so I will just say that PSY is like a giganormous milestone for kpop with his Gangnam style, and move on to my personal subjective best-of list (where PSY ofc belongs too):
[note: click on the artist name to read more, and the song to see the video]

The List

Place 10: BoaThe Shadow
The number one female star of all time of kpop is of course BoA, and her hit song is just another proof of that. The singing, the composition and video is all top quality.

Place 9: Dal Shabet - Have Dont Have
These five girls have been preparing for a breakthrough, and for me this song really moved them in my mind from potential to definite star material. A disco inspired sound combined with a well told mv-story and extremely cutesy looks gives them a place in my top list.

Place 8: Secret - Talk That
A very sensual group with a distinct sexuality in their videos. I thought the super hit Poison was a bit over the top in that department, while the single Talk That is much more held back and almost bittersweet and still retaining the defining character of Secret.

Place 7: Gain - Bloom
When talking about women's sexuality, one cannot miss out on Gain and her Bloom, which was much talked about for its focus on a female perspective on sex, and the discussion surrounding why it got its rating of 19+ when explicit (bordering on vulgar) songs like Hyuena's Icecream passed the cencorship. The conclusion in general was that when a video conforms to the "male view" on sex, it isn't observed as much as when it expresses a female persepctive. Not surprising, really, but more the the reason for supporting this song and video.

Place 6: Yoseob Yang - Caffeine
The lead vocalist from Beast in a male counterpart to BoA's The Shadow, and with a voice, acting and performance that feels even more touching.

Place 5: EXID - Every night
The story of the video (with its quirky and refreshing surprise) goes well with the oh so slick R&B track which really isn't what usually makes me tick in kpop, but these lingering tones and rap just works in EXID's best song up to date.

Place 4: 4minute - Volume up
Having played this song hundreds of times I have to admit it isn't as fresh as it used to, but it is still such a fantastic song to get a kick out out of, from the 80s saxophone to the oh-oh-oh-refrain.

Place 3: T-ara - Sexy love
I know the general critique of this song was bland, but I just love it. Its funny, catchy and, yes, sexy ^_^ in a carefree and uppity way. I always begin to wiggle my fingers or almost begin to move my body when I here it, and if I ever was to learn the dance moves of a video it would be the robot dance of Sexy Love.

Place 2: TVXQ - Catch me
From a purely dramatic point of view this song is my favorite of the year (and they did so well with Humanoids too), but its nature loses slightly in translation to mp3 only. Still, its like watching a great action movie in just under five minutes and the two (remaining) members has found a great concept together with their dancers. TVXQ continues to deliver great, slick songs, and this video is a real must see.

Place 1: Big Bang - Fantastic Baby
The men (well by now thay are all 22 at least...) of Big Bang did a great come back this year, and the crowning achievement (56+ million hits on YouTube) must be their Fantastic Baby. All is great and its such a great ironic hit. Just look at the refrains like "boom-chack-a-lack-a" and "fantastic baby" which would sound so silly here just fits in and sticks in your head, and the character play and choreography and looks of the music video is so well defined you have to come back to it again and again to "what was he doing there" or "oh, that I want to see again".


Honorable mention also goes to...

A) Crayon Pop - Rookie group of the year 2012 for me.
B) Neon Bunny - Indie pop from korea not to miss.


Kpop: Crayon pop (크레용팝)

Saturday night

Bing Bing

Bing Bing

When I think of Crayon Pop, even in a kpop context, they make me think of happiness and quirky acting. They are my choice for 2012 rookie group, and I really hope they get (even) more appreciation in the future, and that their weaker backing from smaller Chrome Entertainment doesn't stop them from getting the appreciation they deserve next year.
Dancing Queen

tisdag 25 december 2012

Kpop: Lunafly (루나플라이)

A so called rookie (ie new) group of this autumn, Lunafly got such good response from my three kids I felt I had to write about them even though its not quite my cup of tea. They have done something quite nice in releasing both english and korean versions of their singles, which on the other hands seem to suit their style quite well.

Kpop: Kara(카라)


Kara - Pandora
One of kpops most famous stars is Kara, who have quite a nice track record of catchy and uptempo hits, and have changed their image several times during their career, which is quite normal for kpop groups where its natural tthat group members and albums come with their distinct looks and sounds, just like the current fashion. Nothing bad about it really, kpop has ever been mostly about surface and fun. Being a relatively "old" group (5 years is old here), the members have also had time to have solo careers too.

Update: Latest video "Damaged Lady" is a classic Kara hit.
Update: Mamma Mia definitely shows that Kara has handled the transition from Nicole to Youngji well.
Park Gyuri

Park Gyuri

måndag 24 december 2012

Kpop: Yang Yoseob (양요섭)

The single Caffeine from Beast main vocalist Yang Yoseob is a real gem, both in its sound and melody, but also the delivery, which is quite well tailored to the mood of the song. He has done a number of duets and solo songs for dramas and such also, here I link one done with A Pink's Eunji (which I just love in her role in Answer Me 1997).

  • Yang Yoseob - Caffeine (카페인)
  • Yang Yoseob and Jung Eun-ji - Love Day (러브 데이)

Kpop: TVXQ (동방신기)

För some strange reason I a long time forgot to write about TVXQ, or DBSK as they are known in South Korea. In both cases its a acronym for "The Rising Gods of the East" ^_^
Anyways, they have hade quite a few nice hits, and some of them quite explicity "sexy" in looks or texts. The song Mirotic also got restricted for a while because of this. Read about it at the end of the wiki article, its quite fun from a more liberated swedish experience about how authorities meddles in peoples sexuality and private life (even though we are absolutely not free from such propaganda in general here either). The group reformed in 2011 as only a duo, and have instead rather creatively been using backup dancers in their excellent and dramatic music videos of Catch me and Humanoids. They are kpop drama at its best. Don't miss them!

lördag 22 december 2012

Kpop: Orange Caramel (오렌지캬라멜)

It was the three women of After School Sub-group Orange Caramel that got me started on kpop and korean culture in general when I by chance clicked on their song in the YouTube side-bar. Their theme is a very cutesy look and the music videos are very stylized even for kpop videos, Aing being an good example of it, it all adds to a guilty pleasure watching them ^_^. At the same time their tracks are such that the refrains sticks in your head even though (I at least) don't understand any of it. Its a case of letting go of the gray daily life and escaping to a happy world of egyo kpop.
Update: two new releases: they have two new tracks the latest month. It's the second single from their japanese Lipstick album, a cover named Lamu No Lovesong, and a must see Christmas track featureing the boys from No'est as a bonus with the nifty title of "Dashing through the snow in high heels".
  1. Orange Caramel - Catallena(까탈레나)
  2. Orange Caramel ft Nu'est - Dashing through the snow in high heels (흰눈 사이로 하이힐 타고)
  3. Orange Caramel - Lamu No Lovesong (ラムのラブソング, a cover)
  4. Orange Caramel - Magic Girl (마법소녀, my first kpop song...)
  5. Orange Caramel - Aing (아잉♡, story theme goes over the top, aygoo!)
  6. Orange Caramel - Bangkok City (방콕시티the headwear!!)
  7. Orange Caramel - Shanghai Romance (샹하이 로맨스, Baby, sha-sha-sha-...)
  8. After School - Bang (The global unit that these girls are a part of)

torsdag 20 december 2012

Trip to Seoul: Day 7 - My personal favorites and tips

The owner of the Ttrek of Bloo Kpop store

[If you want to read my travelogue from the start, it is here.]
The thursday all goes to travelling home via Helsinki to Arlanda, Stockholm (and then train to Sala). This time the time difference means that the 10 hour flight home is reduced to seemingly only 3, and the shorter one takes no time at all (1 hour flight - 1 hour time difference = 0), making it possible to leave Seoul just before lunch and arrive on Arlanda just at dinner-time. Jetlag is something else, but to be honest I didn't adjust so well during the six nights, not being able to go to sleep until after 01.00 in the evenings (and therefore being quite tired on and off since my schedule meant I had to get up at 7.30 in the morning). Nuff said about that.

What was the best then? Well, lets divide it into places and stuff, and remenber this is a personal list, and one made for winter conditions. A summer list would have been different on some accounts.

A) Places
  • Dongdaemun and specifically the Doota store. It was just right for me personally in feeling, taste and price level. Probably the most expensive for this area, so there are other price levels too. Doota give you lots of nice Korean fashion to prices still lower than in Sweden. (If you want more expensive, go to Shinsaegae between Myengdong and Namdaemun markets)
  • Insadong-gil. This street in the area with the same name is a nice place to go for buying souvenirs, in a good way, its somewhat cosy and relaxed, and it beats the cheap feeling of other tourist traps I have seen in many other places.
  • Myengdong market. A relatively international and fresh place where you can shop or just stroll and take a coffeebreak. Here you find my favorite kpop-music-store, Ttrak of Bloo, which is a dearly recommended visit. 
  • Coex underground mall. Don't go to the nearby Gangnam just because you heard of it, go here instead. This superlarge undergound mall is still quite a quality place, and has its own movie theatre even.

B) Things
  • Clothes in general - take the chance to buy clothes with styles, patterns and looks that are a little different than at home, or same-looking but cheaper. Remember one thing: sizes! Asians usually don't have the same stature as us, and this means that the bigger ones of us have to think of that.  If you are a very long, muscular or curvy person, be prepared to try some stuff on.
  • Head-, hand- and footwear. They really have quite a different range of cool and funny headwear, nice gloves and mittens, and funny socks. Agreed, it helps if you like things that are a little more funny or colorful, but thats whats makes it different too. And that is mainly a problem for some men, I'd say. I quite envy the other sex here, "it's a womans world".
  • Phone covers. They have a lot of them, you find stores or stalls in every other street corner.
  • Kpop collectibles and CD's. I mean, I'm not even sure I can place the CD's I've bought, but the albums and photbooks that go with some of them makes it worth it, at least for when you don't have some already. And then comes posters, calendars, postcards,keyholders, etc
There are of course lots more that are worth visiting or buying when in Seoul on a one week visit, but this was the things that stuck with me this time.
Thanks everyone who have been reading these small accounts from Seoul. Hopefully I will be back with other travel tales next year. Visiting San Diego, South Africa/Namibia and Seoul have been a cool experience, but each time what is the nicest (truly) is hugging ones family back at home and sleeping in my own bed. Yawn.

Then after a while, the will to travel comes back...

onsdag 19 december 2012

Trip to Seoul: Day 6 - Presidential election, vintage and ugly fashion

[If you want to read my travelogue from the start, it begins here]

My final whole day in Seoul I hade 3 hours before the evening to do some last minute shopping. Having some more work to do this evening, I will go directly for the pictures, which I know you like the most.

Korean men are no strangers for taking care of their skin or other parts, and why should they? I'm not there yet, but its probably just a question of time before (even) more men in the west goes beyond aftershave and deo in their morning duties). BB Cream above, but what is the other thing? Snail Cream! I will probably pass on that in the future too. ;-)

And again, some scandinavian culture makes it mark, at the COEX underground mall

Where I today found a record shop with lots of kpop. Orange Caramel was sold out but they had a lot of signed stuff for reasonable prices I think (like 48000 Won (320 SEK/48$) for a signed Girls Generation picture).

Yes, the election. Here we have thos student activists again with their peace-symbol looking rallying ... symbol.


So, yes, even though there is almost no snow, there is more than cold enough, -10 degrees Celcius, windy and sooo cold (I guess its the moisture).

Low fashion?

So, I may have implied, especially at home, that asian and korean fashion is just soo fine all the time, but actually thats ofc not true. There seems to be a rather thin line between high and low fashion. Rather scary things that looks like something your grandmother would have worn in the 60s 70s(?) isnät unusuall at all at street markets och the lower price range. In Sweden we have this cult of youth resulting (which is often nice but can be narrowminded) in people not stopping to trying to dress youthful after they get family or pass their 30s/40s. My imression is that in asia (yes very simplified and probably wrong) there is still a more general generational divide in styling. For a comparison sideways - the most usual election analysis have read before election day is that the 20- and 30-year-olds will wote for leftwing Moon, the 50+ for Park, and the 40-year-olds will decide. That kind of reasoning wouldn't happen in Sweden, at least not in such broad terms. Thoguh media often groups 65+ but that is more connected to their common interest as retiree's.

At Insadong, Ssamziegil, they have workshops you can participate in for a fee, one stair down.

Prices

View of Ssamziegil from second floor

Koreans love their head-,hand- and footwear. Especially in winter I am guessing.

And backbacks, god I saw a lot of nice ones. Lycky for me that I already ordered one from Yesstyle.com before I left for Seoul

Actually I did visit two new city districts, Itaewon and Hongdae. The first one is the (in)famous forigner living spot of choice, which ofc makes it both alluring and disliked by natives. You get all the kinds of stuff you get at such places all over the world. One the one hand, prostitution and such, on the other hand a thriving cultural life with many restaurants and shops you don't see in other places. JY Park sjöng om detta i sin retrostylade låt förra året. The thing is, I came there during daytime, I really couldnät have told it was a specially un-korean neighborhood beyond maybe a few more bars with european names. But it was 98% korean(looking) people on the streets, so Itaewon have nothing on some swedish suburbs I know of, that I promise you. Good or bad, I don't know, but I think this again reminds us how important cultural and national identity are for the Koreans, which somewhat reminds me of our sister country Norway. They also have a rather recent independence from day and are surrounded but bigger nations.

So, anyway. I went on to the city area I live next to, Hongdae, which is an area with lot of students from Hondik University, and naturally then has a lot of nightlife, shopping and not so pricey stuff but preferably a little different then your usual "Mart stuff". I found it to be a very nice area for small shopping, and found lots of fun stuff for very affordable prices.

Design galleria with very nice and different presents. Sadly I couldn't decide on what to buy, finding this place at the end of my walk, already having ticked of all on my list.

So, sorry sister, but these bees on a iron hexagon grille (for notes) didnt make it past the cut

Just out of coincidence I found this store in a besement which sold vintage clothes

and heres the logo, Divineshop

There I found a really nice leather jacket, which read "McGregor" and made in korea, but the shop owner said Japan, and when I googled it seems to be a replica of WWII A-2 flying jacket, a real find for the same price you buy a sweater at home. It really completed a kind of biker-yakuza look I had been imagining, haha. It looked somewhat like this but not as original, instead more lika a fantasy of world war two, with some stickers on it (flyer related but clearly of a more "war romantic" and recent origin). I'd guess my one is from 70s-80s.


It also finallly forced me to realize I have to give up my idea of only having hand luggage on the flight back to sweden, so now I will have to let the slightly broken one serve as bearer of extra clothes and such, and I will fill my new one (another very nice find) with the more precious stuff. I will look like a Himalyan Sherpa. ;-)

tisdag 18 december 2012

Kpop: Hello Venus (헬로비너스)

Hello Venus is a rookie group which now has released their second video, What are you doing today, following up the video Venus from earlier this year. They maybe doesn't measure up to their sister group After School, but these two singles are quite OK and somewhat cheeky and uptempo, I'd say.
  1. Hellovenus - What are you doing today (오늘 뭐해) 
  2. Hellovenus - Venus
  3. Hellovenus - Mysterious
  4. Hellovenus - Do you want some tea?
  5. Hellovenus - Sticky Sticky