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: Trouble Maker - There Is No Tomorrow

The duo Trouble Maker consisting of Hyuna and Hyunseung is back with a new video and it is as sexy and steamy hot as their first. I wonder if this isnt a new step in open sexuality for a mainstream kpop act? A natural evolvement, of course, and I am not surprised Hyuna is the woman who is taking that step. Still I wonder if not Ga-In can counter that with something more powerful? Only the future knows.

• Trouble Maker - There Is No Tomorrow (Now) (내일은 없어 Now)

Kpop: Brown Eyed Girls - Kill Bill

Brown Eyed Girls, where each girl on their own has had their more or less successful solo careers (Ga-In, Narsha, Miryo and JeA), is back with a music vido with a Kill Bill theme were they fight it out among themselves. Quite enjoyable, and it is great that they is back.

• Brown Eyed Girls - Kill Bill