I am a one-time and now a once-again K-pop fan! In the late 90s and early 00s, Mrs. Face and I were real Koreaphiles. We rented Korean TV shows from a nearby-ish Korean video store every week. We taped Korean music videos off the International Channel. We had our faves and our crushes. I was penpals with Nani, the leader of Spooky Banana, a promising Korean rock band (I thought) who never went anywhere.
My favorite band (not a pop band—they were "independent"/punk) was Crying Nut. Here's me and the family meeting Han Kyung-rock, the bass player. (TRS was having fun, but not in this photo.) We were minor celebrities at their 2006 Federal Way show—we were the only white people there. Everyone kept asking what we were doing there, how we knew anything about it, etc. We met the band, their manager, and the Korean-American mayor of Federal Way, Wash. I was interviewed by a reporter for the local Korean newspaper.
A recent book proposal at my work inspired me to get into it again.
My current fave k-pop group has to be 2NE1. These videos are pretty great:
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Joined: Wed Oct 20, 2010 2:18 pm Posts: 3108 Location: It's hot. All the time.
My friend's 15-20 year old daughters are obsessed with K-Pop and 2NE1 in particular. They make their own videos to the songs and spend crazy amounts of cash on the stuff.
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I guess it's not K-POP, but it comes from the same place - When I was stationed in Korea I got to know the guitarist from a band called Schizo. Went to a few concerts, we became good enough friends that he ended up mentioning me in the thank you section of their premier album (dumbo shiitake). I haven't talked to him in years and based on their latest music video, it would appear that Myung Han, the guy that I knew, is no longer with them.
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Joined: Wed Oct 20, 2010 7:47 pm Posts: 1281 Location: vancouver island
Yay! I also love K-pop! Fallen out of the loop a little lately though. But I love it!
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Joined: Wed Oct 20, 2010 2:35 pm Posts: 5294 Location: Norristown, PA
I really thought this thread was going to be about k-pop loaf.
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Joined: Wed Oct 20, 2010 5:58 pm Posts: 3814 Location: Santa Cruz, CAAAAAAAAAAA
There was an article in a recent issue of the New Yorker about Kpop, its origins and the people who make it... The performers are basically groomed from a very young age.
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Joined: Tue Oct 19, 2010 6:46 pm Posts: 5653 Location: Brasil
i was just thinking about that article and the discussion on the NYer podcast about it. My daughter is obsessed with Kpop (not kapop, which was my second thought) and we listened to the thing together.
My daughter likes K-pop too, thanks for all the videos. I now have some girl bands to recommend (she really likes Shinee). I can see the appeal, it's got a good beat and you can dance to it. Plus the videos are pretty great.
Joined: Wed Oct 20, 2010 11:01 am Posts: 3371 Location: Chandler, AZ
Does Dance Dance Revolution count as kpop? I spent countless hours playing those games at the arcade during the late 90s - early 2000s. Countless! Don't judge, I got mad skills!
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Joined: Wed Oct 20, 2010 2:09 pm Posts: 390 Location: London, UK
Ah, I'm glad 2NE1 have been mentioned! They are just so much better than any other K-pop girl band, I mean, 'I am the best' is, well, the best. I've been mildly obsessed with them after reading that New Yorker article a few moths ago.
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