DO YOU LIKE MY SOPHISTICATED SIDEWAYS PONYTAIL?
TEEN TOP: This is quickly becoming one of my top listens by dint of it being so catchy but inexplicably, completely lacking that moral compass. Sometime ago I shared a live version of this video on this tumblrlog because the sound of screaming teenage fans was overwhelming and terrifying, but at that point I hadn’t googled the English translation yet. Who’d have known the song’s message was something even more preposterous? - These young, easy-smiling teen idol boys are actually singing a song about cheating on their young girlfriend with another older girl. “No more perfume on you, because my girlfriend will find out”. Now their cute winks and constant grinning is something else. They aren’t all simple and cute anymore. In the video, his solution is to buy both girls the same perfume. Aren’t they a bit young to be glorifying two-timing behaviour? I don’t get this. With a band name like “Teen Top” and their main target demographic are young girls. I’m surprised that their management made them produce their debut song about cheating on a younger girlfriend with an older girl and how they manage to cover it up smoothly. Truly preposterous.
PORK SOUP OF CRIME: Long ago, I once bought a Dir en grey album, because I thought it was funny that a japanese band would pick a name that was a random jumble of words from different languages (german, french and english). (I also thought they were an all girl group from looking at the cover, but it turned out they were all boys). In a similar vein, this song by another Visual Kei band also seems to go all out to bust your expectations. It tries to mix in different languages to a very interesting effect. This song from The GazettE has a very interesting english opening line: “Pig, is that soaked in soup of crime.” Yes. He is actually singing English in the whole opening stanza, although you may not believe it either. Please observe and compare to the lyrics:
“Pig, is that soaked in a soup of crime
Is it a pain of the children whom you murdered?
Murderer hate yourself
In the maze without an end
Why do you still breathe?”
This song gets full marks for unintelligible use of english. Do they even speak english? Probably not. Oh well.
The first half a minute consists of a neon yellow haired youth barking like a dog while the camera pans crazily around. This cannot be explained.
NYANPIRE = Asou Natsuko (who somehow resembles Rebecca Black) + Vampires + Nyan Cat + French Maid + Delicious Cake. An unholy abomination of the internet.
In the midst of all this, I forgot that Visual Kei has been around longer than most of these whippersnappers… Of course, the Visual Kei style is the very definition of preposterous.
HYPER THAN HYPE! When you sing the lyrics from a song too loudly so other people can’t hear the original singer, Tempa T will come and beat you up. He’s also going to smash all your plates, your kids toys, and clear out your cds. Mindless violence you can dance to! Fastforward to 1:49 to get straight to the song. Comedic gold…
Sea☆A is a j-pop unit produced by Lantis, which consists of 3 Singaporeans and 1 Malaysian who were part of the Moe Moe Kyun Maid Cafe at last year’s Anime Festival Asia. This year they debuted in Japan with two singles entirely in Japanese. Their first single involves some english dialogue in our Singlish accent, which makes me feel very strange. If they had put on a japanese accent, they would probably put people off by being Japanese wannabes. But in keeping their Singlish accents, it was even stranger because their Japanese is otherwise pretty convincing… yet of course no one here understands Japanese. So what is going on? Singaporean/Southeast-Asian J-pop? It still remains to be seen how people will respond to it or whether it will be commercially successful. The Singaporean crowd at this year’s AFA2011 also seemed puzzled on how to react to their performance at the anisong stage this year…
I have no idea what is going on. Is this about weightloss? Or is this about exercising? Or decorating? Who cares! It has an exciting BPM and a shiny video! Oh, and its the closing credit song for an anime about a schoolboy who has a problem with sadomasochism! YAY?
“I WANNA DO THIS IS THE REALEST WAY I KNOW… LET’S MAKE IT FACEBOOK OFFICIAL?” - its a bunch of americans trying to get in on the kpop dancing bizness.
After posting the previous video i found that there was a far superior version involving all the things that are adored in pop culture right now: SCHOOLGIRLS + DISCO + RETRO
The origins of Mambo night? LOLLY POLLY! This catchy track from T-ARA recreates the feeling of Saturday Night Fever despite it having little to no relevance in Korea. Boy they do love their cultural misreferences, don’t thye? This is also another song in which the koreans fail to pronounce the alphabet R accurately. Or should i say, acculately.
Various members from some of the most popular korean boybands doing a spot-on cover of Girls Generation’s Genie. What fascinates me is how being cute or posing effeminately does not seem to decrease their appeal to female fans.
Unabashedly glorifying thrashy teenage girl outfits, f(x)’s nu abo is like having a field day at far east square… throw in a token tomboy, dance moves that include “powdering your face”, a permanent pre-recorded cheering track in the background and you’ve got manufactured kpop at its finest. Practically a work of art.
You need to watch this just to hear the hordes of squealing and screaming school girls in the background.
