Kpop: Gain - Carnival (The Last Day)

Not many kpop artists project that kind of darker passion that Gain can, whether it is about violence, lust or love, and the new "Carnival" (from upcoming album End Again) is no exception. The song and video is what I would call artistic (meaning the music isn't in focus ie not so good...) but it is still interesting to watch, a passionate story about memory and set in what must be southern Italy.

• Gain - Carnival (The Last Day)

Kpop: Gain - Paradise Lost

Gain from Brown Eyed Girls has long been the one female in kpop who has been threading the border of what's accepted in regards to female sexuality in a commercialized korean pop industry controlled by men. A few examples are "Bloom" that was celebrated as the first main-stream kpop video about the female orgasm, and Fxxk U a really dark video about violent relationships.

• Gain - Paradise Lost

Mandopop: Show Luo (羅志祥)

Show Luo has been in the music industry since the debut in 1996, and has been signed under almost all major labels in Taiwan (Avex, Pony Canyon, Gold Typhoon and Sony), most with connections to Japan. I have been contemplating when to write about "Fantasy" from earlier this year, which is indeed sung in Japanese. (One of) The interesting things about it, is the featuring of korean Gain in the video, as Luo himself was a guest in her video "Truth or Dare" released just weeks later. This kind of interaction can be both fun and unproductive but here it works as a kind of aha-moment.

• Show Luo - Fantasy(羅志祥, Mandarin version here)
• Show Luo - Count On Me (有我在)
• Show Luo and Rainie Yang - When the King meets the Queen (王見王)
• Show Luo - Dance Soul Returns (舞魂再現)
• Show Luo - Only You (獨一無二)
• Show Luo (and several other stars) in a Pepsi Commercial for World Cup 2014
• Show Luo - Dance Without Limits (舞極限)
• Show Luo - See the same sky (鬧翻天)

Kpop: Gain - Truth or Dare (진실 혹은 대담)

After Gain's comeback song "Fxxk U" which was obviously meant to provoke and create some stir, comes the follow-up "Truth or Dare" which as much about image-building as music as lots of its 7+ minutes is  spent on people commenting on her. Beyond label people, we find IU and Show Luo (from Taiwan, more about him later) commenting on Gain's personality. Most of it is kind of bad critique, but of course it just builds up her public persona as pop's own Madonna even further.

• Gain - Truth or Dare (진실 혹은 대담, mv starts for real at 2:38)
• Gain - Truth or Dare (regular version, with subtitles)
• Gain - Truth or Dare (audio version)