pop music profile #12

Super Junior is back,



but they've done something terrible to Heechul's


HAIR.

OMG, I'M SUCH A LONELY DRIFTER. DON'T LOVE ME. (@warmandbarky)

alternately, "weekly" pop music profile #6: C.N. Blue.

C.N. Blue (Code Name Blue) just debuted in mid-January, and high school girls everywhere have already decided to be in love with them. Here is their only music video so far: "I'm a Loner." (@bird_esque MinHyuk [Lovely] and YongHwa [Emotional] have dyke/SuperJunior hair.)

These guys are one of a few Korean boy bands that don't dance (FT Island is another). I DO NOT APPROVE. What kind of a boy band are you if you don't have precisely choreographed mediocre dance moves (that are mesmerizing despite their mediocrity)?

I'LL TELL YOU WHAT KIND OF A BOY BAND YOU ARE: A FAKE ONE.

IT'S A PRETENSE. A MOCKERY.

(what I mean to say is, dear Super Junior: I love you and am lost without you. Plz make more music videos.)

weekly pop music profile #2

or: reasons why language education in the U.S. needs to get a goddamn grip on itself.

Here's another Super Junior song ("Supergirl") sung in Korean. Here's the same song, in Mandarin. I think the Mandarin version is the original. (Because the Korean version sounds a little awkward, doesn't it? Like the lyrics weren't originally meant to go with the music?) But maybe that's just because I found the Mandarin video first.

You see, one day SM Entertainment discovered that a number of Super Junior members were fluent in Mandarin. And so they decided to create a subgroup, called "Super Junior M" (the 'M' stands for Mandarin) that sings and performs in both Korean and Mandarin, for both Korean and Chinese audiences.

Imagine we're back in the golden era of American boy bands (and let's be real, American boy bands never had anything on Korean boy bands). Then imagine that one day the Backstreet Boys discover that 3 of them just happen to be fluent in Spanish. And so those 3 members start performing in both Spanish and English.

And it's not even that the other members don't know Spanish -- they know some, and probably a little French, too -- they're just not fluent.

Seriously, guys, wtf.

I can't stop listening to Super Junior.

Please, no one ever tell South Korea how homoerotic it is, because then it will stop and then I will be sad.

For example, this video. Please note the pumping/thrusting gymnasium action that starts at about 0:35.

For example, this video, too. Obligatory sad heterosexual breakup story & brief appearance of the heartbreaker-woman at beginning, followed by 4 minutes of men giving each other longing looks while singing "it's you" (nuh-rah-ko).

For example, women holding hands with women walking down the street.

For example, my students putting their hands on their friends' shoulders and giving each other massages and running their fingers through their friends' hair. Casually fondling each other in ways that would immediately scream "we're a couple!" in the U.S. They do it most frequently when one of their friends is sick/has a headache. I generally allow the sick students to rest/sleep during class, and their friends will usually sit next to them and casually rub their backs or massage their necks/scalps while participating in class and/or diligently doing the activities I assign.

It's so cute. I love it. I hope no one ever makes these kids feel ashamed for the physical way they express affection for each other.

super junior, rly?

First, listen to this. My kids love this song, and sometimes break out into it during class.

Next, watch this. And for fuck's sake, tell me what you think of it.