Brief 2
#Post 1: Topic Proposal
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For Brief 2, I decided to write a listicle about ‘10 brilliant various genres of K-pop music to listen while alive’. The reason why I have chosen this topic is I want to introduce sophisticated Korean music videos and musician together with fascinating, dynamic and sometimes with sentimental images by attaching YouTube clips for my classmates. To tell the truth, I don’t solely listen to the particular genre of song but since I enjoy, precisely ‘love’ listening to all kinds of music (from classic music to heavy metal which are obviously conflicted), the listicle will not be limited to introducing the Korean Idols’ MV such as EXO, Big Bang and BTS (Many of my foreign friends obsessed with them). Also, I decide not to introduce PHY’’s Gangnam Style because it will be kind of fed up for everyone as well as me. In other words, I will look at the music videos which are not that popular but hidden gems, means awesome. Moreover, each ten genres (items) will differ although they are all K-pops; Ballad, Indie music, Idol group music, Rock, Hip-Hop, New-Age music, Jazz, EDM, Trot music (It is quite oriental genre but similar to Blues) and finally A Capella. I know people have different taste with regard to music except some people like me and that is why I try to introduce K-pop in different genres. In addition, various genres of music videos’ visual arts and atmospheres also distinguished from each other. If you said, you are so curious about what I’m going to introduce, here are the teasers: Noel, Standing Egg, Momoland, Park Wan Kyu, Beenzino, Yiruma, CHEEZE, DJ Koo, Jang Yun-jeong and Sweet Sorrow. Do you know any of them? It would be hard for you to say yes because if you are not into Korean culture very deeply, they will definitely unfamiliar to you as foreigners and I understand. I will explain them more at the Post 2 in regards to K-pop culture and music video’s impact on them (the items).
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#Post 2: My Collection
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Now I'm going to introduce 10 genres of K-pop music by You Tube clips. Hope you guys could catch opportunities to explore various genres of Korean Music and could find your favorite singers or songs, not just limited to famous ones. Plus, you know what? The music is the legal drug that permitted by every nations. Enjoy then!
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1. K-POP Ballad: Noel- Will you marry me
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgcBfR7Wjzw&list=PL74CcepBfRCf8Xw30zKi8FmamWEehM5XE
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Noel, is one of the famous K-POP male ballad groups. This song, as you can see the title, is about marriage proposal. When I first listened to this song, I cried although I was only 14 years old, quite young to know how romantic marriage proposal from lover is. In other words, this romantic lyrics from those four men is delivered so well. To translate some of the lyrics, 'I know how much you pouring tears, waiting for these words from me/ And now I'm gonna give it back to you, your heaps of love'. How romantic it is! This is my dream song want to hear from my boyfriend in the future, to be honest. If you love listening to romantic ballad, click the link and enjoy the romantic mood from the song.
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2. K-POP Indie Band Music: Standing egg- You broke up, Me yet
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlEdKi8MYBs
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I first knew there is 'Indie' genre through listened to this song by chance. This band, Standing egg have created many relaxing songs and this song is one of them. Basically, their main singers are from other band groups' member but three members of the band also sing themselves (The members doesn't have name, instead, they are called 'egg number 1,2,3'). In regards to this song more, of course title represents whole atmosphere of the song which is quite sad. This song's broken heart still love her ex-boyfriend. The vocalist, 'So-hyeon', sang this song with her beautiful voice which is balanced between the sensitive background instruments (Piano and acoustic guitar melodies). I would like to recommend you to listen to this song especially when it rains.
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3. K-POP Idol Group Music: Momoland- BBoom BBoom
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQGRg8XBnB4
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These vivacious and young girls' group is currently hot issue in Korea. The reason why they are getting more popular is the one of the group member 'JooE', even though she is in girl's group which requires to show people only the good appearance, she always tries her best only to give the biggest fun to her fans even make her face uglier than her real face. Please follow this link → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1YP6AbiU1Q . This clip is the foreigner's reaction to JooE's comic dance (This preposterous but addictive one happens when JooE took a video of advertisement). She is definitely not like other girl group members but that turns into the reason why she and her fellows got popularity in Korea. I hope her positive power could delight you guys as well. Also for this song, it is very energetic and 'BBoom BBoom' this mimetic Korean word itself means 'attract people by over-flowing charm'. Can you strongly feel these girls' energy? Then there is no exit to escape from their charm.
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4. K-POP Rock Music: Park Wan Kyu- Lonely Night
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmtvkUQpIjg
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When I want to refresh my mood, I often listen to rock music and this is the one of my favorite of them. The singer, Park Wan Kyu is the one who called 'legend' in Korean Rock lovers' society. The link's video was recorded when he was rookie and as you can hear, his high tone voice gives us a feeling of refreshment. He is quite old now (almost 50 years old) and he cannot sing with his high and cool tone voice anymore because he had vocal nodules. However, his voice is still good in different way. He has now more husky and imposing voice, reminds me of Louis Armstrong. He also had covered Led Zeppelin's Black Dog which has made me admire him. If you want to enter Korean Rock world, click the link and feel free to enjoy. By the way, Lonely Night's lyrics is about the man regretting that he missed his ex-girlfriend but he thought it was beautiful memory. Therefore, the overall atmosphere in this song is bright.
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5. K-POP Hip Hop Music: Beenzino- Nike Shoes
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6Rd13kZgik
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Sometimes, Hip Hop genre could amuse your ears and Beenzino is one of the representative Korean Hip Hop musicians. Interestingly, he is going out with Dutch woman for pretty long time who is fashion model (she is looking so gorgeous and hot). Thus, many of people envy him, having perfect girlfriend. If you notice his witty lyrics writing skills that make us able to imagine the whole situation like watching movies and gentle but more addictive than other aggressive rapping, you would understand why that blonde beauty chose him as her boyfriend. This song is about a man who falls in love with a girl who wears Nike Shoes. To translate some lyrics, 'It's Sunday morning and you whispering like sunlight/when you running at the riverside which one will suits you/your eye brows' curve flattened when breezing/and your distinctive lips' colour/is like I've seen somewhere in advert,/your Nike Shoes'. His sense of writing the lyrics and sophisticated flows will attract you. Although lyrics are mostly written in Korean, the melody and the way he raps may be delivered to you, hopefully.
6. Korean New Age Music: Yiruma- Kiss the rain
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imGaOIm5HOk
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If you want to have break from everything that bothering you and want to relax, listen to New Age genre will help you relieve your stresses. Yiruma is the most famous Korean New Age pianist and he even performed in Auckland (Aotea Centre) last year. His music doesn't contain any Korean lyrics so that you do not need an attempt to understand Korean words and their own cultural background. In that case, you could be deeply moved by the song more than which contains languages which are not your mother tongue. Most of Korean TV shows or radio shows usually set this song as the back ground music when they talk about touching story. This song, like the title, remind us of sprinkling rain (It does not sound like heavy rain). If you like to play the piano, practice this piece of melodious music is also the good way to start learning Korean New Age music.
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7. K-POP Jazz Music: CHEEZE- Mood Indigo
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsLUz7ArmGI&list=PLxLO1El3RWA8LyqS811GhuD59HR6WVahg
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As you can see, yeah. This band, CHEEZE, got inspired by Michel Gondry's Mood Indigo(2013) and write this romantic jazz music. Their music video also display some of the beautiful scenes in Mood Indigo. Its lyrics also make us recall about Chloe and Colin's ardent love story. The rhythmical jazz sound will paradoxically comfort us. I do not know why but jazz, this genre always possesses both jaunty and relaxed tune. I would like to recommend you when you have a tea time, play this song and other CHEEZE's songs, then enjoy your short break from work or study or whatever you want to escape from. After that, your efficiency would skyrocketed. CHEEZE actually has so many hidden songs which are like jewel (They are one of my favorite musician these days). Thus, if you liked this song, click the other links and have fun listen to Korean jazz style musics.
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8. K-POP EDM Music: DJ Koo- Let Me
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1QscZfXABo&index=19&list=LL7iRRnJ6uCdXi5MnORJYobA
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DJ Koo, whose real name is Koo Jun-yup is the first generation of Korean DJ. At first, he was singer who danced with another man but after his fellow had an accident which was so terrible (paraplegia), he had period of inactivity. However, his fellow wanted him to continue his music, so he studied EDM in his late 30's and became famous DJ in Korea. Currently, he produced very addictive and catchy song 'Pick Me'(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3rg-rh6MPo) which is popular among most of the Korean People and some foreigners, and also for this song, 'Let Me', although it has passed almost 10 years since it first had released, its rhythm and sound still amuse our ears. He is the most respectable DJ because he endeavored a lot to be succeed. Also, he's now wanting to raise Korean EDM genre's popularity among foreigners. I hope this little piece of posting also could help him achieves his ambition.
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9. K-POP Trot Music: Jang Yun Jeong- Promise
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XF2mF91DUl4
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Here goes oriental genre, the Trot. The reason why this genre called 'trot' is because these songs rhythm basically are 4/4 time which is similar to fox-trot music(1910's American dance music). Jang Yun Jeong is not an original trot singer but she sings semi trot which contains elements of popularity than originality, targeting more younger generations and that works. Thanks to her most popular song, 'Oh my' (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmS726ziV8M) the younger generation could exposed to the 'trot'(I was only 6 years old when it was released but when I went to the karaoke with my family, I always sang this song). Moreover, this genre of the singers are mostly in their 50's or more, but she was in her 20's when she successfully finished her first debut. Her impact has increased the popularity of trot, and for this song, 'promise' was one of the elements. It was background music of one Korean historical drama called 'Lee San'. The music video was made with several scenes from that drama so that will make you feel like you are experiencing the Korean tradition. Also this video contains English subtitles so enjoy the sad love story with beautiful melody of the song and singer's mellow voice.
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10. K-POP A Capella: Sweet Sorrow- Uptown Funk and 3 other songs
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQtBa2Sa-zE
A Capella is not the common genre of the song in Korea. However, Sweet Sorrow wanted to attempt another genre, escape from common genres like Ballad, they started to cover a lot of pop songs and Korean songs in A Capella. The link I have put is just the tip of an iceberg, means, they did countless of A Capella version of cover songs so if you keen, click other Sweet Sorrow's videos and hope you get into their attractions as well. Unfortunately, one member in this group got sick so he left the group last year. However, he said he still hopes everything goes well for team. I cross my finger for them as well. Return to the subject, you guys could wonder if they have their own songs. Of course, they have their own songs but since their original versions are not in A Capella, click this link→ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxRRi36q0vw and enjoy their sweet melodies. The later link is Sweet Sorrow's hit songs which are composed by themselves. I'm sure their perfect harmony will definitely please your ears.
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#Post 3: My Reflection
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Firstly, I am very pleased to share my favorite songs to my dear classmates. I also could realized many things about how my favorite singers are doing recently while I was searching for their information more. However, there were difficulties for me to decide whom and which song should I recommend for you because apparently tons of great songs and singers are being here together with us now. Moreover, unlike I thought before, my focus was not on the songs but the singers. The reason why my focus has changed is each genres of the singers were representative enough and they got some interesting points but I could not pick up the particular song of their productions due to there were so many awesome songs I wanted to introduce and for Sweet Sorrow, they became popular because they were the first ones trying A Capella at the Korean TV show but they actually have not produced their own A Capella (They sang Ballad songs and then arrange them into A Capella). Those are also the reason why I have put the additional link. In addition, for another reason, I put the additional link because that will help you to accept why JooE got popular while I was explaining about Korean Idol group music. I was trying to attach the links which have English subtitle but was unexpectedly hard to find. However, I believe the pieces of good songs have power that break down the language barrier (like I love the songs written in English, Japanese, Chinese or whatever written in foreign languages) and hope these songs were moved your minds. Another thing I felt was I wanted to enhance my lack of expressiveness so that I could have raised my postings' interests more. For example, when I explained about the songs, I just could not say more than it is good and brilliant (I have to use more abundant vocabularies). Nevertheless, I am happy with I could successfully finish recommended you about the various genres of Korean songs as a Korean. I really hope that not only Korean Idol dance groups but also the different genres of other singers(or composers) in Korea could globally achieve their fame.
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#Post 4: Peer Group Reflection
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The first work I have looked was Victoria Ng's collection about dragons. It was interesting that her imagination has grown up while she played video games (especially the game with dragon characters) and for me, I personally like one of her collections, 'Dragonite'. Since I was the biggest fan of Pokemon when I was young, I could enjoy her postings more interestingly. I also could learn from her that dragon’s symbol in China is fortune, wealth and dragons are treated as holy animal (although the dragon is imaginary animal). In addition, ‘Wyvern’ which she explained as a typical Asian style dragon (well-defined soft curves), seemed graceful to me. I also acknowledged she wants to be fantasy novelist after finish her study, so I really hope her abundant imagination created by her pleasure in dragons could help her achieves her final dream.
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The second one was Ella-Maree Fearweather's collection about K-dramas. To be honest, her great interest on K-dramas surprised me at first because Ella is the girl who spends her whole life in non-Asian country. However, I also have adversely enjoyed the western dramas and the movies so soon I understood the different types of foreign cultures have an undefinable power to amuse each others (Thanks to the captions, we could know what they say and could learn their cultures so that's the another good thing). Back to her collections, there are also many Korean dramas that I haven't seen yet so I could get some information of them and also could get a recommendation. Her explanations were good enough to convince us to watch K-dramas as a position of foreigner. Through the whole time seeing Ella's collections, I learnt that K-dramas which weren't succeed at all in Korea could impress foreigners due to their visual beauties and some elements that only Korean culture have (By the way, the most of them contains the story of romance in every genres so I personally think K-drama industries have to attempt creating the interesting story without romance). Moreover, I also could learn the greatest actresses and actors deliver the same impression to foreigners as they give it to local people.
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Last one I've looked at was Ana Angell's collection about the stories in music videos. Each of the artists' music videos were very interesting. I enjoyed her postings a lot not only because she introduced Korean singers'(GD&Top's) music videos but also I am fond of Melanie Martinez's unique melodies and music videos' stories which describe and criticize lots of social and family problems as well as feelings between lovers and other themes as a cry baby's sight. Moreover, because I love all kind of musics, I could grab an opportunity to know the rock band, 'Panic! At the Disco' as well as an interesting stories about an afterlife. To explain more as a Korean myself, not just the music videos of GD&Top's but most of the typical Korean Idol groups' music videos are always have a complicated but attractive story behind that matches with the lyrics. Ana's collections were easy to access close to the stories and also very well explained in interesting way. I loved her collections.
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References
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1. Ng, V. (n.d.) My Collection. Retrieved May 8, 2018,
from https://victoriang1992.wixsite.com/mysite/my-collection
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2. Fairweather, E.M. (2018, April 29). A Collection of 10 Kdramas. Retrieved May 8, 2018.
from https://ellamaree8.wixsite.com/serendipity/blog/a-collection-of-10-kdramas
3. Angell, A. (2018, April 8). Brief 2. Retrieved May 8, 2018.
from https://vmz8027.wixsite.com/fantastic/blog/categories/brief-2
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