Any Advice For People Who Want To Be K-Pop Fans?

So after months of hype, 20-something teasers and two intro songs, EXO has finally officially debuted:

(Warning: might not want to be eating or drinking anything while watching. I haven't seen anything this unintentionally hilarious from SM in ages.)

Korean ver.

Chinese ver.

Why does a boy band have a Creation Myth?

And isn't there a legal limit on how absolutely breathtaking boy bands can be?

It's one of those things where I'm not really sure which side of the "this is cool" and the "this is so tacky I can't even" it straddles.

I guess at the very least I like that it seems like they put a lot of effort into this?

It puzzles me though. They're willing to spend that much money on special effects (which were awesome) but they can't be bothered to get a fluent English speaker to voice over the opening narration and make sure there's no embarrassing Konglish?

Maybe they left the voiceover casting until the last minute and just couldn't get anyone decent without spending every last cent they had left?

Lol.. so right about the unintentionally funny :P They're still pretty awesome x)

The thing is, there are idols/trainees/staff at SM who are fluent in English (ex. Henry from Super Junior) who would be able to do the voiceover/Engrish editing for free. *shrugs* It's a mystery.

T-ARA try their hand at EXO's insane monologue.

edited 2nd Jul '12 10:33:03 PM by fourteenwings

@title: Don't.

...did we watch the same video? I'm pretty sure the narrator was British.

Huh. Now that I listen to it again, the intro is suddenly a lot less gibberish-sounding. I have no idea.

Some non-idol artists which have been around for awhile, but which I've only recently discovered:

• Ulala Session : Beautiful Night
• Lena Park : Feeling, Arrivee
• Younha : Run (Live), Viva La Vida (Live Cover)

... Lena Park is Korean?

Makes sense, I only found out that Younha was Korean a year ago despite listening to her stuff since around Houki Boshi.

Heh heh, Ulala Session...

So, does anyone have a comment on Gangnam Style?

For myself, it's one of those songs that makes me wonder how I had never heard of PSY before this point...

edited 7th Aug '12 10:44:05 PM by Swish

It's like all of K-pops vanities blended with somebody whose never been introduced to K-pop's perceptions about K-pop.

Is all that weird J-poppy stuff supposed to be in there?

Hey, hot girl, you know what I want to do right now?

DANCE LIKE A COWBOY!

Is it a parody right?

Great, a Korean Pitbull. As if I didn't hate his music enough in English (and Spanish).

From what I understand the video is a parody about trying to fit into the crowd of the people from the "richer" part of Seoul... And PSY is apparently known to not take himself too seriously with regards to K-pop, unlike the other artists...

Though, I'm not sure I know what you mean by the J-Pop elements... I don't listen to much, if any, J-pop...

I suppose... From what I've looked up over the past week, after first finding out about PSY from that video, he's a hip-hop/K-pop artist.

Although I would say PSY is leagues better than Pitbull...

Meh, I thought the song was rather good, and the video was fun... And since I had never heard of him at all prior this point, I brought it up... I do recommend that people check out some of his other songs, even if this one turns you off a bit... Especially some of the ones from his fourth or fifth album.

edited 10th Aug '12 11:59:17 PM by Swish

J-pop elements: There were some little weird "Kawaii" (basically cute weird) pieces in there that kind of reminded me of an IDOLING!!! or Nozinanga 46 video.

edited 11th Aug '12 12:05:21 AM by fourteenwings

The horse-trot dancing around town*

Again, I don't listen to all that much J-pop, but I see that being about PSY having fun with the video and not taking himself seriously like other K-pop artists and just having fun with the video, more than anything else...

edited 11th Aug '12 12:36:46 AM by Swish

As long as it's a parody it's all good.

To clarify: The video may be considered a parody, as it makes fun of various things... But the song, in itself, isn't a parody.

Meh. Again, PSY seems to not take his videos too seriously, unlike other KPOP artists... I mean, compare Gangnam Style or Right Now(below), or even some of his earlier ones(from 2002-2006), to videos from other artists. Although, this is probably because PSY has creative control over his videos, rather than the videos being studio-produced like most of the others over the last couple of years...

Either way, I don't think there's much denying that PSY gets by on talent more than dancing/looks...

PSY - Right Now Note

edited 11th Aug '12 1:26:14 AM by Swish

So he's like Younha but male and insane? I think I like this guy...

Much better than the 7000 new boy/girl bands that get introduced every week and then proceed to sing the same scientifically engineered club-pop song.

-Looks at Crayon Pop, A-JAX, T-ARA, KARA, AOA, TASTY, etc.-

Why are most of those in all caps?

Korean idol bands are obsessed with them. Maybe it's to catch attention?

They're acronyms.