Joss Whedon and K-Pop

A couple of months ago I read an article about the global rise of Korean pop (or K-pop as it is known), with Facebook and Google+ creating special pages dedicated to the genre. So I decided to investigate. I was expecting some really bad Eurovision style pop, but instead I found something pretty good.

It’s not often that you find some good finally crafted pop music, with catchy choruses and music videos with very slick and precise dance moves. My best discovery was band called Girls Generation. A nine-person pop group from South Korea, who make Girls Aloud and The Saturdays look like those drunk girls you see stumbling down the streets of most towns on a Saturday night after too many Smirnoff Ices.

Here are a few of my favourite songs:




Each of their videos has seen millions of video views on YouTube and they have fans world wide! I enjoy them, even though they are are extremely manufactured. SM Entertianment who created the band make some of their artists train for 4 years before they can release a single, often learning new launguages. What I also find interesting is that their lyrics consist of both English and Korean lines. Making them easy for everyone around the globe to enjoy.

The cross pollination of music styles that have been around since the 30s and 40s. Pete was telling me about episodes of M*A*S*H, which was set in the Korean war of the 50s, where their tannoys would play Cole Porter songs in Korean, but the choruses would be in English.

Maybe Joss Whedon was right...

He is always right, well most of the time. He was with Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV Series) and The Avengers (Avengers Assemble). He did get a couple of things wrong...can I mention Alien 4 or even Dollhouse?

Anyway, he is good at predicting the future and showing the development of culture and language. I recently watched Firefly and Serenity with Pete. With the film and TV series set in the far future, in a universe of terraformed planets, Joss had a unique way of showcasing the development of language and culture.

In the series, he shows a multicultural universe where Occidental and Chinese culture has been meshed together. Language is made up of a mixture of of English and Chinese, with the characters swearing in Mandarin.

Did the creators of Girls Generation watch Firefly or are they taking influence from the past? Or was it their way of influencing the future. Who is to say...but you never thought I would get them both in a blog post right?

Any comments, thoughts or observations. Please leave a comment below!
Originalsteve

My week of ponders - W/C 14th May 2012

• I really want to find out more about the art of tea drinking. We now live in a coffee dominated culture and I am fascinated by this ancient past time…anyone got any ideas?
• My pet hate of the week is seeing people walking down the street, still wearing their headphones and trying to talk to their friends…no you can't multi task…it is just rude!
• This would be awesome if it was in London - http://tnw.co/M1bgnT
• Google search - just got a little bit better:  http://on.mash.to/KT1epS
• This is going to become very useful if it actually comes out - http://bit.ly/J79Rcu
• Congratulations to Mark Zuckerberg on becoming a billionaire and getting married! http://on.mash.to/KqkwhC 
• Thats The Hunger Games finished - what a great book! Right, time to download the next
• What a quiet months for good films…fingers crossed for Prometheus!
• Yay for a new drunk kitchen!

These are just a few thoughts that have crossed my mind this week and are no way meant to offend. If you want to discuss these further or want to make your opinion heard, please drop a comment below. 


Thanks! 
Originalsteve