Review series | My selection - The powerful Korean female RnB vocalists

Part I-b) The powerful female vocalists: BONI | Ailee

I noticed that there are more Korean soul male singers than soul female singers. I wonder why. Or maybe I haven't searched enough. I have a theory: soul music requires sensuality, "exposure" (sort of) of your feelings, as well as mastering one's voice to be tough and powerful on demand. Young Korean women aren't supposed to do that according to society's expectations. The soft, cute, neutral, high pitch voice is what they tend to have massively. They do show sensuality with their bodies but not with their voices.

BONI 보니

Very clear voice, nice rythm and skilled. She's young and her music is old school RnB! I prefer her over Ailee because of her music.

BONI 보니

Korean RnB needs more women with powerful voices like her. Women can be strong in their vocals, but they can be sensual vocally and even sexual. Time will tell. BONI could work on her emotions when she sings, she has the potential for something more than strong vocals.
***

Ailee

Ailee 에일리

Her voice is very RnB, but can be pop as well, she is between somehow. her ease when she sings is remarkable, she's skilled. Like BONI, she needs tp work on using her emotions to move people when she sings.

Honestly, Ailee has a quasi "old-fashioned" Korean sound to me...like her voice is very modern and young, but her music is not fresh enough for my taste, aside from her songle "Heaven", the rest sounds non fresh. Besides, her songs just don't do it to me, unfortunately, it's too pop :(  Great vocalist though!!

***

Honorable mention:

Insooni 인순이

She has such a rich and deep voice. I love her low register. This woman is in her early 50s. Yes. She can SING, dance and captivate an audience. The way she sings is old school, of course, but she has this serene energy that makes her look cool even today. She's too pop sadly, her music is not really RnB.

***
BMK 비엠케이 (here's her wikipedia page)

Don't look at her weight, she's beautiful! Her voice is rich and deep like Insooni's but they sound different. BMK has her own touch and feeling in it. Like Insooni, her music is too pop balladish for my taste, and for this blog post as well. But I had no choice...I have to include them, no woman can outsing them with such power in Korea.

BMK 비엠케이

This is a track from her new mini album.

Kpop and the addition of Western elements

Hello, another article on kpop. It's a fascinating and addictive topic, right? lol

I'm not here to talk about cultural appropriation. I won't talk about race either.

My post is about incorporating Western elements that are not from pop music in kpop. The way they do it, how they benefit from it, and how they manage to have some credibility.

Let's start with the recent buzz with the brand new girlband WASSUP who was announced to "bring twerking to kpop".

Oh-kay...

So, twerking is clearly from hip hop, the Caribbean and Africa...which have nothing to do with massively mainstream pop music. Why not putting this girlgroup in the hip hop or dancehall category? Have you seen Katy Perry twerk? Even Beyoncé doesn't really twerk, she basically shakes her booty and hips but that's it. She's too classy for that ish.
So, this Korean music label is using these dance moves from non pop music to make a buzz in Korea and promote their new kpop girlband. Desperate strategy, that's low. Will Koreans really like it?? Doesn't seem like it. They don't seem to have a concept for this twerking thing, the teaser vids look ratchet or plain, low budget. It's just a copy/paste thing.
Are the girls good at it? One is decent, the others suck.
Why make a buzz about it if your girls can't do it right?? Because some white girl (Miley Cyrus) made it acceptable to twerk awkwardly so Koreans want to do it too (they actually showed her video in their first promotional "interview").

Same thing for hip hop clothes, swag and cliches. Why CL from 2NE1 had to do that, with gangsta-looking dudes in the background à la G-dragon (in One of A Kind)? CL is an idol rapper, which means POP rapper, which means she's from a pop girlband. Really she wants to claim her queen's crown as the baddest female? Isn't this pretentious hip hop-wannabe idol shit right here? Like, she ain't hip hop and she ain't that good but she claims she's the shit in that genre? IT WORKS. Hype is so manipulated. Do you see Yoon Mi Rae wearing these clothes and having an old school hip hop MV, acting all that and repeating how bad she is? Nope but she would have every right to do so. YMR did say a few times (in tracks she was featured) that she's the "illest in town" and that the crown is hers but she actually IS the shit and a hip hop rapper. She doesn't need all that bling bling, cliches and try-hard attitude to look credible.

Another example of pop with hint of hip hop is SNSD's "I Got A Boy". These girls represent kpop and cutesyness. Why oh why would they try (yes, "try") to shake their bottoms and wear hip hop clothes? For hype. Just like when Korean singers cast white models in their MVs, it's for edginess and hype. SNSD sucked at that hip hop thing. Why make a fool of yourself?? Because Korean fans wouldn't know that they suck anyway? They brought the standard lower so fans are not going to expect much.

Korean pop music sacrifices quality for hype, and it has been doing it a lot these days. I can't take kpop fans seriously when they say stuff like "American pop is crappy so now I listen to kpop". Really? Kpop is currently as crappy as American pop. But kpop will soon fully embarass kpop fans so much that they won't say shit like that anymore. Unless they're stans.

What bothers me is the fact that they're taking undeserved hype for something unrelated to them or they didn't work their asses for (because they suck). International kpop fans will love everything they do and say how kpop is the best when it actually keeps borrowing from everywhere. Instead of focusing on themselves, they prefer borrowing what's already successful in the West. What's next? Brazilian funk? Pop rock? Jazz?

Opinion | Hallyu...I'm talking to you

Kpop's influence is limited.

Reason #1
Most of this scene is idols, who were trained, manufactuted, mold into a specific image, and heavily controlled by their company, their fans and the MOGEF. This strips these idols of most of their freedom, individuality, creativity, and independence which are essential for a brand new global recognition. Remember the American artists until the early 00s? They were THE shit. They MADE the global standard.  American pop is manufactured too, yes, it has become a crappy mess these days, but in order to deviate the center of attention from America to Korea, kpop will need to level up and bring excellence and novelty back as the standard if they want recognition nowadays.

Now why the West would love seeing hundreds of identical Asian groups doing the same basic routine with boring personalities again and again? When they can see fierce, familiar-looking decent-to-good performers who are fluent in English on TV. How can Korea think that they can give the world the next Micheal or Madonna given what I've said? (Yes, one of their dramas said so) Our media already thinks they can only give us clones of what we already have with Asian faces.



Reason #2

The music is no different from what you can hear in the West. Actually kpop is heavily inspired by it and follow Western trends instead of being avant-garde or making their own distinctive genre or evolution. In general there's a lack of music experimenting, a lack of interesting or unusual collaborations. All I hear is recycling, recycling and mixing, sometimes at the cost of music quality. Kpop is no better than American pop. Instead of promoting "uniqueness" and substance, they  both want to promote their hype and formulaic glam. Well, the only one who will win this game is the international language one, Amurrrica. Duh.

Reason #3
The biggest music labels are not ready (except JYP but he failed) to invest money, time and energy in the unknown markets such as the US by making their big music icons live abroad and expand their network and knowledge of the business there, which means giving their idols more freedom. They want to do it "palli palli". I mean that they want to do it quickly, they want fame quickly, and if they don't have it instantly they want their biggest musicians back at home quickly so they won't lose too much money, they just don't take their time to expand and make the necessary efforts and steps (and sacrifices) for what they want. Paying Quincy to do a funding for them and promote them isn't what I'd call a risk and a real investment. It's like  "let's try with this guy, it might work out later somehow".

Reason #4
Hallyu pushes itself on us instead of making us want to like it and have it come to us (no I'm not talking about international kpop fans obviously). Why would we need something we have no interest in? Even those like me who are fed up with current mainstream American pop, why would we turn to the same music but in a language we don't understand and have no interest in? That's a fail especially considering all what I said above. The more popular kpop gets among their niche international fans, the more crappy and low quality their music gets. So why would Americans turn to kpop if they find the same thing? They also don't take racism against Asians AND against other ethnic groups abroad into consideration in their quest of fame. Focusing on the US where racism against Asians is blatant in Hollywood and music business. Korean media  holds ignorant or racist views against non Koreans as well. The latter can backfire their quest of fame, and the former will just block them from being successful there. Bad strategy for expansion.

In conclusion: Hallyu, just be yourself (focus on your own growth) and grow some balls if you're going to keep saying how global you are. You want the world's attention? Then, bring something "refreshing" by challenging things to gain respect. You either get attention by being respected first, mocked or hated first. Your choice.
However, I see that kpop is basically trying to buy American media's attention by paying some TV studios to host their acts, they even sollicited Quincy Jones to promote kpop globally. The Korean businessmen are handling Hallyu like a simple business thing but it's really more complicated than that...they'll soon find out.

Part II - Korean R&B male singers: the dancer kind

This is the 2nd part of my series "My selection of Korean RnB singers".

Part II - The dancer/singer kind: Bi Rain | Jay Park | Se7en

Bi Rain 비

This grown man is just...WOW. Let me explain, though I'm pretty sure that if you're reading this, you already know who he is. Rain is probably the first solo singer who danced that well with that swag. No, wait, JYP was, JYP trained him as well I think. Rain's vocals are not awesome and strong but he has a "suave"/sensual thing with his husky voice and sounds soulful.

Here's one of his first for you, that choreography made me go O_O back in 2006, when I found out about Korean music. Please watch it in HD.

Now he's not only a good singer and dancer, he's also an actor, he played in Korean dramas and in American movies. After going to the military for 2 years (Korean military service) he's now free and we're waiting for new material from him. Meanwhile, let's listen to his old stuff, the following video (a ballad song) shows his vocal skills.

Do you remember his feat with Omarion? Really good collaboration, Rain's vocals on the 2nd verse were refreshing and strong, and I like the beat of the song.

***

Jay Park, ex-member of idol group 2PM. After a scandal he had to leave the group, and decided to go back the US, his home, as he's Korean-American. 2 years after he goes back to Korea to pursue a successful solo career.

Jay Park (Park Jae-Beom 박재범)

He can sing, rap and dance really well..
His sound is popular, a mix of RnB, hip hop and pop. His English is perfect as it is his first language and his Korean sounds fluent to me, though I don't speak this language. He also has an acting career in Korea.
He's the youngest of the artists I'm introducing here, he's 23 or so.

Here's another MV "Joah", a nice pop track.
One more very good track, "Star" (RnB sound)

***

And...Se7en!!
I barely listened to his music I must say, but he is VERY famous in Korea, girls just love him. He's as popular as Rain and Jay Park.I like his voice, his voice is sweet and really good for pop and RnB. The more I dig into his music, the more I discover his voice. He uses his vocal range smartly. Don't be fooled by his looks, he's already 28 :)

Se7en 세븐

Here's al oldie song for you.

He also did a good RnB song with an American rapper, Lil' Kim, yup! Here's the MV:

His English is quite on point, really nice track.

I don't comment on his dancing skills because I haven't been following him but Rain is the best, Jay Park might be somewhere in the middle.

Se7en and Rain both have a Japanese career as well.

***

Honorable mention: Wheesung. I already mentionned him in my previous post but he's also a good dancer. He doesn't dance much though, it's a pity. He originally started as a dancer, but somehow (I forgot the story lol) he became a singer and songwriter.
Here's one of his popular songs "Insomnia", given by Craig David.

Review series | Korean R&B singers - My selection Part I

Let's talk about Korean RnB/soul now, I've been thinking of making a post about it, comparing the best vocalists and see what their assets and differences are, why I like some more than others.

Part I- The powerful male solo vocalists: Wheesung | Kim Bum Soo  

You know, I love RnB/soul, especially nu-soul. In Korea nu-soul isn't really a thing yet...maybe some rappers do some nu-soul music but as for singers doing this genre...nah. But I believe they'll eventually get there :)
Anyway, Korea has lots of talented Korean RnB singers, who often do pop ballads that don't often sound RnB to be more attractive on the mainstream market I guess. Still, you can find many good real RnB tracks from them, their vocals are true to the genre, on point and soulful.

Wheesung 휘성

Wheesung (pronounce Hwisung) and Kim Bum Soo are the best male solo artists in K-RnB in my opinion. Their voices are powerful, emotional and clear. They all can sing very well in falsetto, upper chest register, mid-chest register and low register. I'll try to analyze it all for you guys in this post.

They are grown men in their early 30's and have different personalities but they all are passionate people, and you can feel it in the way they sing.


Out of them my favourite is Wheesung because of his more emotional, versatile, sometimes unperfect and somewhat "weird" vocals at times. He's also the sexiest out of tthem, vocally speaking I mean. Some of his lyrics can be sensual or sexy. And he really does it right. Now enough blabla and here's 2 songs for you!

It gives you an idea of what he can do in his sexy mode ;) I also love the melody, so soul and classy. His high notes are smooth. 

Wheesung is really good with rythm too, I love how groovy he sounds in songs like "With Me" or how in control he sounds in "This Kind of Situation". Here's another song where I like his flow. Personality-wise, I kinda feel close to him as in I can relate to his sensitivity. His ballads are not boring, I feel them even if I can't speak Korean. And I'm not even a ballad person...I'm NOT but he made me love them.
On stage, he usually brings out those vocals and if you can't hear the guy then you're deaf. He sometimes goes too strongly with his voice so he doesn't sound perfect. I got used to it, he's sometimes "too much" but make no mistake, he knows how to really tone it down and gently tease our ears most of the time :p

***

Now Kim Bum Soo. Ah, Kim Bum Soo!

Kim Bum Soo 김범수

He debuted as a faceless singer, without performing his songs on stage, that's what I read on the net. I love how groomed he became and how handsome he is now. I loved his cheeky face and big glasses, I still love his not-so-kpop-ian face. OK, musically he could do (much) better, but vocally this guy is awesome!! He started singing in church, as he's a Christian, and he even recorded a few gospel-like songs with a choir and him as the lead singer..
He can hit notes with strenght and he uses melisma really well. Listen to the 2nd vid first ;)

I love the way he sings, surely, slowly building up his way to a stronger tone. Delivering it with such a smooth voice, in the studio and on stage, he's that flawless. Out of the 2 singers here, he's the best. He has worked very hard and it shows. I just wished he could ditch his freakin' current music composers and get BETTER ones for his next albums. Oh, did I forget to say that he did a gig in the US last year? :)

Here's a featuring he did with Dynamic Duo. Awesome and flawless.

***

Honorable mention: Yoo Young-Jin 유영진 , here's his wikipedia. I couldn't post this article without him...he's been in the industry for a long time and his voice is great! Too bad I didn't know him much.

I didn't include Park hyo Shin here because he's not an RnB singer as far as I know. Park Hyo Shin is probably the very best male vocalist in Korea, I know I know, but this post is about RnB and Hyo Shin usually stays in the pop ballad category. If you don't who he is, you'd better check him out!!
Don't be disappointed if I didn't mention Naul and Ha Dong Qn here because they will be in my 3rd post, in the group category.

Underappreciated women in J-Hip hop

Here are 2 videos about women doing their thing in Japanese hip hop.

Why do I care? Well, you have lots of youtube videos named "the best Korean female rappers" but none about the Japanese ones, except the 2 I posted here. Weird, right? Hm, not really. Korea's idol scene has made rapping mainstream (not hip hop, mind you). Rapping is something that Korean big labels believe give instant hype and coolness to an idol group.
Anyway, the idol scene in Japanese is different, Johnnys (all male groups) rap but rapping is not common and visible in that genre (idol j-pop) for girls. The AKB chicks don't rap... I think...LOL yes, you have some pop artists like Ya-Kyim or Bennie K who rap but there's no "I'm the baddest chick" thing associated with it. It's all light-hearted, and you can't name many groups like them in Japan.

It's a pity that as a female rapper, you only have 2 choices to survive in the long run: be a part of an idol group, which means being on the side, just there for a couple of cheesy lines that you didn't even write yourself and having your image/attitude toned down and controlled by your manager who manufactures the whole group. Or, you can be a solo act, debuting in the underground scene but after 3 albums your label want you to step up the sales games and bring in that money (and I'm not even mentioning the potential obstacles within the macho and male dominated hip hop scene) so you have 2 options: quit or give in to mainstream pop and tone down your flow. Become a people pleaser while recording a couple of decent hip hop tracks once in a while. Sad, yes, that's reality for ya.

I'm also all for diversity of the representation of Japanese female musicians. They're not all super pale, with big eyes, they're not all conventionally "cute" with high pitch voices and singing about romantic love. Nah, they are very diverse and able to surprise you in a good way whether they are rappers or rockers. I wish I were fluent in Japanese to understand the depth of hip hop lyrics from these women (in the videos here)...

I'm trying to understand why Yoon Mi Rae (the Queen of Korean hip hop) has been able to survive musically for so long.
Part of her long success is thanks to her singing skills and debut in a duo unit with a full Korean singer. YMR sings pop ballads and raps (and danced a bit too but no more now), so she gets more feats and options than others. Still, I wonder what she'll release soon...she's been releasing a single a year or so without backing them up with a proper album so yeah...probably a CD with lots of singing and a few rap songs in there, just like she did with her come back album Yoon Mi Rae in 2007 (or 2008?). While her male rapper peers all release full rap CDs, yeah with some mix of pop and electro in it I admit (so not fully hip hop). Still, they rap only, they don't really sing.
Having a kid does make you want to have some stability and good paychecks (and there's nothing wrong with that) so I understand the pop/electro sound of Yoon Mi Rae's latest songs (as well as her very slow activity to take care of her son), her flow still kicks ass and that's what matters. I understand that she might be at a turning point of her career and want to explore more as a singer or in certain genres different besides hip hop. It's legitimate and sometimes necessary to explore to go ahead and grow as an artist. Still, I think she should rap more for her next album and do featurings with singers. I'm sure she has plenty of things to rap about.

Photoshopping and male gaze

I was inspired to do this post after reading (mainly "seeing" as the male writer was speechless at the beauty of the female celebs he was praising. He praised them for having "good genes". Yes, you heard it right. Good genes. When he's talking about celebs (who often change something in their bodies) and showing us pics from fashion magazine Ceci (which are even more likely to be photoshopped for aesthetics). The said pics are below.

Edited: Beauty is not always artificial, sure, some people are more blessed than others. But I've become very skeptical about beauty in the media for the following reasons. I'm not fooled by the airbrushed creatures even if I know I don't give credit enough when it's due to the celebrity.

He was talking about Korean celebs, who are very well-known for having had plastic surgery, perhaps more than other nationalities (many Hollywood celebs are not really natural either).
So you're telling me that her face is really naturally beautiful besides having (lots of) make-up on? OK, I'll give him that I guess. He compared 2 celeb cousins who have both good genes. The thing is, they could have had the same facial surgery, like MJ's nose and her sister Janet. Let's say that they didn't.
But don't you know that every single photograph that is used on any media has been photoshopped?? Yes, every single one, even dogs are photoshopped. Let's take a look at the girl's picture: you can see a weird lower hole between her legs, probably an effort from the photoshop artist to make her look skinnier. That hole doesn't look real nor natural. How can her left leg be that straight and frontal (camera angle) when her right knee is also frontal but the leg looks reverted because of the hole...? See, her legs are even crossed so how can her legs have such a lower hole if she's not super skinny? I'm no expert, and bodies can be weird in certain positions sometimes, but I used to be very observant when I was into drawing for a decade. I drew a lot by reproducing pictures of models, celebs or members of family. I drew at home, at school.

You can also clearly see that the pic on the left where she shows off her booty has been photoshopped: her legs look pinkish and the lines are undefined because of a white brush for special effect. Why? To make her legs look longer and skinnier. Her skin doesn't look real at all. As for the booty, who knows if the photoshop artist added some plump under her booty to make it naturally big? Nobody will know. My point is to point out the fakeness and ridiculous perfection rubbed on us everyday. More on the booty below.

Now, let's talk about the huge effort in Korean stores to provide padded panties. Padded bras exist in the West and are very common here (I live in the West), but padded panties are not THAT numerous in underwear stores where I live.
Asians are not known for having big, round booties. Some do have them, there is some variety in every ethnicity, like big breasts and small breasts. But let's be real, what are the chances of Korean celebs of having such a booty and overall look "perfect" naturally? Asian or not, most celebs aren't naturally blessed with conventionally perfect looks from head to toe.
If you don't know what a padded panty looks like under clothes, here's a link for you:
http://netizenbuzz.blogspot.fr/2013/04/instiz-power-of-padding.html

To conclude, in order to look conventionally perfect on a picture you need 5 things:
1- Work out very regularly and/or be on a diet
2- A good photoshop artist
3- Plastic surgery
4- A good make-up artist (obvious...)
5- Know your best angles

Genes, good or not, have little to do with that. Period. Many people can look like a star if they have the money for it and take care of their body a lot.