weekly pop music profile #1? (@bird_esque)

Maybe this will become a thing, we'll see.

This past week I did a "describing celebrities" lesson with a lot of my classes. I taught them how to describe appearance & repertoire (he/she sings ______, etc.) and then we played guessing games with Korean and American celebrities for the majority of the class.

The result of this is that I know way more about current Korean idols than I did before, a) because of the internet researching I did while lesson planning, and b) because of all the other celebrities that my students described to me.

All of this, to tell you that I've found a new boy band to be obsessed with: DBSK, or Dong Bang Shin Gi, which apparently translates to "The Rising Gods of the East."

Listen to my favorite song (so far) here.

Reasons why I think I like this song/video more than I like the other songs/videos I've watched (and let's be honest here, I watched DBSK videos for about 3 consecutive hours today):

1. BONDAGE IMAGERY. And it's the MEN who are being bound, at various points in the video, but notably at 1:00-1:02 and starting at 1:12.

2. Weird power dynamics. I'm creeped out by the ethereal woman-figure with gauze over her face, but she seems to be dominating all the men in the video. I think I'm interested in seeing (for once) men being made physically vulnerable by a female force (mysterious and face-less though she may be), instead of always the other way around. (See this video that Nora recently posted on the fb for why I've been thinking about women being threatened by a mysterious male force lately.)

But then, she's faceless! And towards the end of video, she's running away from them but then disappears! "My infinite crystals flow through your veins"/"I've got you under my skin." Both the "you" and the "I" in the song hold power over the other? The lyrics say "You can't escape me"/"You're my slave." Who is the "you," and who is the "I"? I can't tell. So, weird power dynamics.

3. Crucifixion imagery, wtf?

4. I don't know, maybe I like all the splashing of water that's going on?

Korea thinks the phrase "I got you under my skin" is inappropriate for minors, here for more.

The more I learn about Korean pop music, the more I discover that SM Entertainment is the immovable force behind the vast majority of top Korean hits. Super Junior, Girls' Generation, DBSK, BoA... most of the super powers of current Korean pop, all produced by SM Entertainment. The band members don't even come together on their own; they are recruited from mass auditions that SM holds and then built into a massively advertised performing machine. It creeps me out a little. (But I'm still obsessed with them.)

In other news, I saw snow in Seoul for the first time ever today! It didn't stick or anything, but the windy gusts were super fun to watch from the open window of my cozy 4th floor room.