The sonic identity of K-pop girl groups: the birth of a new generation

/in /by

sonic sound kpop k pop k-pop girl groups gfriend

This is the second part of a series in which we discuss the changes in the music of K-pop girl groups throughout the last decade and what these changes say about the environment within which they thrive.

In the last article, we talked about the things that define the K-pop sound and described some sonic features on K-pop songs of the previous generation girl groups, such as T-ara.

Nowadays, the songs that made T-ara so famous probably wouldn’t have the same impact – although that shouldn’t mean they have to disband! Anyway, songs that still carry some of their peculiar characteristics are barely released these days, and when they are, they don’t go too well on charts.

The distinctive traits of the catchy dance songs of the golden days of T-ara can be heard, for example, in “Doo Doom Chit” by Crayon Pop, the most recent single of the group. Its tempo, EDM production, and singing style makes it a typical song that could have been a hit in 2012 or 2013, but had a weak performance in the charts of the year 2016.

The dramatic trait, in its turn, hasn’t been forgotten. In OST ballads and songs released by groups like Gavy NJ and Davichi (both specialized in ballads), you’ll still hear lots of trot-influenced melodies. But in K-pop, it has gotten a new colour. Although the traces of “ppong” are rarely heard nowadays; the dramatic melody, the high note that makes you feel like the singer is crying or begging for something hasn’t died, but today, it has notably less melismas and variations than before. How many vibratos have you ever heard on a single released by Twice or WJSN? Not many.

Also on KultScene: 8 misheard K-pop lyrics pt. 7

How Do K-pop Girl Groups Sound Today?

twice kcon la 2016 16 usa los angeles

by Yasamine Entesari

It’s funny to think about how in 2014 people were buzzing about “the end of K-pop” due to the amount of scandals and weak music releases because from that point on, we can say that the shaping of girl groups began to change. In that year, we saw debuts of groups vocally distinctive such as Mamamoo, Kiss & Cry, Wings, Purfles, and Red Velvet. From these, only the first and last remain successful in their own concepts.

From 2015 on, all the new and successful girl groups are going the cute girl route. The only exception would be Blackpink (who fit a more conventionally feminine concept than we’d expect from a YG Entertainment girl group, but still maintain an edge to its contemporaries). Others had their moments, like IOI (“Whatta Man”) and CLC (“Hobgoblin”), but we can’t even take these into consideration since IOI’s music video strangely alternated scenes of the girls dancing in a sexy way while dressed in leather with scenes of them acting all aegyo (cute) and doing cute friendship stuff (plus disbanding). “Hobgoblin,” for its part, was… well… essentially a rejected 4Minute song.

In general, the new generation of K-pop girl groups gravitate around the same ideas. The sound of these groups consists in overloaded production, full of strong and fast beats balanced by synths and keyboards that bring the stereotyped dreamy girly vibe to their songs.

The most relevant girl groups that debuted in the last three years are:

2014 – Laboum, Berrygood, Lovelyz, Mamamoo, Red Velvet, and Sonamoo
2015 – Twice, CLC, GFRIEND, Oh My Girl, April, and DIA
2016 – Cosmic Girls (WJSN), IOI, Gugudan, and Blackpink
2017 – Pristin (so far)

It is interesting to observe that while Mamamoo, Red Velvet, and Blackpink have their own sound (as much as it is possible), most of the other groups listed make the same kind of music. When you listen to their songs or when you make comparisons like this, it might seem like an easy formula, but you’ll never really know how many ingredients a K-pop song has until you dissect one (or try to compose one).

Nowadays, K-pop girl group music is heavily influenced by synthpop and retro music, especially ‘80s new wave; examples: GFRIEND’s “Fingertip” and April’s “Muah.” However, these traits are combined with 808 beats, strong basses, and EDM or trap elements, as heard in Twice’s “Like Ooh Ahh” and IOI’s “Dream Girls.” Moreover, the music is very accelerated; very high-tempo (listen to Twice’s “Cheer Up,” IOI’s “Very Very Very”). The listener has no time to wait; they want the most amount of fun in the less amount of time.

Entertaining the listener the most in the less amount of time possible includes not making their ears get used to a single melody so easily. Just because it’s a 4-bar verse doesn’t mean all lines must have the same melody. A few examples are WJSN’s “Secret” and Twice’s “TT.” Both have pretty much one melodic pattern every two lines before the chorus, and sometimes even more. It’s okay if there are some pauses in the drumbeat to be funny or weird in a cute way. The members are fragile little princesses and they show it not only by singing, but also talking in a very aegyo way in the middle of the song, like we saw in Pristin’s “We Woo” (“You’re my superhero!”). The line between just talking and rapping is very thin and you can have as many raps as you want in a song and at any time, like in Berrygood’s “Love Letter,” where the rap works as the verse before the chorus, and there’s also another “rap” after the second chorus.

Also on KultScene: EXID’s ‘Eclipse’ album review

Another way of bringing the feminine cutesy to the song is by adding parts where the singers intone verses that make them sound like cheerleaders. Examples: Sonamoo’s “I Think I Love You” (“Love you!”) and Oh My Girl’s “Cupid” (“Hey, cupid has shot my heart”). This cheerful feeling is also transmitted by a harmony that is mostly formed by major chords, which also gives a pure and innocent vibe to the songs, as heard in GFRIEND’s “Me Gustas Tu” (chorus’ chord progression: G C D G Em C Am D G – post-chorus: C D B Em C D G) and Oh My Girl’s “Liar Liar” (chorus: Ab – C# – Ab – C#).

Interestingly, intros can’t be too long. Remember, you can’t keep your listener waiting for too long, they’re in a rush! Examples: Laboum’s “Shooting Love” and Gugudan’s “A Girl Like Me.” Pretty much five seconds into the song, you’re already in the first verse of the song. Also, the less distinctive the singer’s voice sounds amongst the voices of their group mates, the better. Singers must sound like an homogeneous entity, a choir that sings in really high tones like in Lovelyz’ “Wow” and April’s “Tinker Bell.”

To be fair, GFRIEND is a great exception to the homogenous entity fad. They’re one of the few groups we hear nowadays that explore more of their vocal potential through less linear singing, more vibratos, and more space for their tones to differ from each other. To be fair, Mamamoo and Sistar (mostly due to Hyoryn’s outstanding position) do it too, but they don’t fit the standard we’re analyzing now.

mamamoo wheein hwasa solar kcon ny 2016 new york

by Katrina Lobaton

Above, we purposely chose only songs with a music video in order to show that this is the standard that sells, since it’s chosen to promote an artist or album. Also, it is also important to keep in mind that we’re talking about the new generation of K-pop girl groups, with focus on those who debuted since 2014. The members of these groups are very young, just like their target. “Adult” girl groups are still around, though, and they still make music suited for their concept, like Girls Day and EXID recently showed. However, trends in culture are often mostly focused on youth. Therefore, with the generation shift, more established groups gradually began to shy away from the spotlight and younger groups who brought back the focus on the cute concept, as discussed above, took center stage. In the next article, we will discuss what those trends might tells us about culture today.

What’s your favorite K-pop girl group that debuted in the last couple of years? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below and be sure to subscribe to the site and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr to keep up with all of our posts.

The sonic identity of K-pop girl groups: intro

/in /by

twice knock knock sound kpop girl group

This is the first part of a series in which we’ll discuss the changes in the music of K-pop girl groups throughout the last decade and what these changes say about the environment within which they thrive.

A common notion about Seoul and South Korea is that everything changes very fast. That’s not surprising for a country that turned a weak economy in less than 30 years into a great one, producing high quality education, technology, and entertainment; K-pop unarguably is one of the country’s biggest exports today. However, global attention attention towards South Korea has increased over the past few months exponentially, both due to President Park Geun Hye’s impeachment and the risks of potential nuclear conflicts involving North Korea. But while Korea and most of the world keep an eye on the political turmoil, the promotion of K-pop abroad isn’t showing any sign of slowing down.

For a country that has always been relatively closed off to the rest of the world, Korea seems to be starting to take more seriously the idea of exploring other countries besides China and Japan to promote their cultural and entertainment exports. Female vocalists Hyuna, CL, and Hyolyn had American tours within the last year and a half; BTS’ Wings tour wasn’t only restricted to the US, but also had a Latin American leg; SHINee held their first solo concerts in Canada and the US; rookie group K.A.R.D. will tour in the US and Brazil in the upcoming months; Hyolyn just signed to Spinnin Records, and Rap Monster recently dropped a collaboration with American rapper Wale. K-pop is indeed going head-on.

With so many changes going on, it undoubtedly affects how K-pop sounds as of late. But firstly, a question that intrigues many researchers and music critics: What is K-pop even supposed to sound like?

The K-pop Sound

Even if we claim a certain song sounds or doesn’t sound like K-pop, when it comes to a specific sound, there really is no definite concept of what the K-pop style is. Other than the fact that is largely sung in Korean and the instrumentals are mostly electronic (and even this might have exceptions), there is not a specific sound that can be considered K-pop. It can be anything: electropop, reggae, hip-hop… As a matter of fact, even the fact that it mixes lots of styles has become a very singular thing about K-pop. For example, Twice’s “Cheer Up” mixes electropop and drum’n’bass with touches of dubstep, and even Brazilian tecnobrega.

From a song structure point of view, K-pop is described by songwriters and critics as a style that pretty much has no rules. If Girls Generation’s “I Got a Boy” (considered the Korean “Bohemian Rhapsody”) doesn’t crack your head hard enough, a few moments of active listening to some K-pop songs will have you finding the most diverse song structures. Raps can come in any part of the song. Verse and pre-chorus might have so many variations that you’ll only know what they are when you finally get to the chorus.

Also on KultScene: The K-Pop Phoenix: The New Generation of Girl Groups

As for the melodies and lyrics, the more “full” the lines seem, the better. The pause between lines are often really small; moments where you hear no one talking or singing are very rare in many songs. Harmonies are also something that differentiates K-pop, since there is no specific commitment to stick to a harmonic field during the entire song. As a matter of fact, having a major change in the pre-chorus or chorus might even be a winning thing.

As you might have noticed, listening to a K-pop song is pretty much like a rollercoaster experience: it’s intense, it’s loud, it has up and downs, and you’ll only know it’s over once you’re suddenly assaulted with silence. One expression to describe K-pop would be: too much information. That’s pretty obvious if you judge K-pop by watching the music videos (that’s how many K-pop fans got into this world), since they’re so full of visuals, colours, and energetic dancing. The instrumentals are earworms as well, but you’ll never really understand how obsessed with overage K-pop is until you fully analyze the way songs are made.

However, it hasn’t always been that way. Before the Hallyu fever, and even in its beginning, K-pop songs tended to be more easy listenable (compared to what they are today) while preserving very peculiar attributes, like melodies that resembled to Korean trot music, as we hear on the chorus of songs like Brown Eyed Girl’s “Love.” The structures and harmonies of the songs were simpler, rarely escaping from the verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus formula, and sticking to the same chord progression through the whole song, like we hear on Wonder Girls’ “Irony” or “Tell Me.” Put these against the amount of melodic and harmonic changes heard in a contemporary song like Oh My Girl’s “Coloring Book,” which also has more beats per minute and higher notes than the previous songs, and you’ll surely spot how K-pop has changed in the last decade or so.

Take, for example, the case of the iconic group T-ara. Taking a general listen at their discography, there is a sense of homogeneity and consistent audible identity in their work, especially their biggest hits, which combined American pop trends with other elements that resembled traditional Asian roots.

The unmistakable I–V–vi–IV chord progression and its variations appeared often, such as we hear, for example, in “Why Are You Being Like This” and “Roly Poly”, which chord progressions are the same you hear on Lady GaGa’s “Poker Face” and Jennifer Lopez’ “On The Floor,” two huge American pop hits contemporary of T-ara’s.

As for the singing, as the ladies blended their voices in a homogeneous and almost linear way, with little variations in the notes, it reinforced the feeling of unity and cohesion in the group. Homogeneity, harmony and unity are very strong values in Korea, and this is frequently observed in K-pop through lots of aspects, such as the strictly synchronized choreographies, and of course, the vocals.

On the other hand, for songs with a more melancholic mood, like “Time to Love” and “Day by Day,” the cultural roots appeared through melodies that had what researchers describe as “ppong.” This a peculiar melodic trait that recalls a bit of europop — like you hear in the choruses of songs like Modern Talking’s “You’re My Heart, You’re My Soul” or Alphaville’s “Sounds Like a Melody.” But also, it echoes the sadness found in Japanese school songs, which in its turn resembles the Japanese colonialism of Korea, according to Michael Fuhr in the book Globalization and Popular Music in South Korea: Sounding Out K-Pop.

Also on KultScene: T-ara & the China Influence

This Japanese sound also highly influenced trot music, Korea’s oldest popular music genre. Said trait can be also heard in T-ara’s “Number Nine,” which is the epitome of blending modernity and tradition, with the girls singing a dramatic melody over EDM beats and with a chord progression that smartly combines tension and relief in the pre-chorus and chorus but stays neutral at the raps and breaks.

The homogeneous mix of those catchy chord progressions with sonic touches that resemble traditional roots played over electronic dancing beats helped making the sound of Korean girl groups a great representation not only of K-pop, but of Asian pop as a whole. Songs like Kara’s “Step”, Girls Generation’s “Oh” and all the aforementioned T-ara songs, were a masterful synthesis of a continent that was rising to modernity while remaining proud of their traditions. It was perfect. No wonder they all achieved so much success in China and Japan, as well as in Korea.

Contemporary K-pop girl groups’ songs rarely follow the same patterns. However, at that time, it was more than enough to win the hearts of the listeners. As the formula got worn out, and K-pop simultaneously reached larger audiences to the point of having lots of new acts fighting for the attention of the public, there was the need to reinvent their sound.

K-pop girl group music has been through more substantial changes in the last years than the music of their male counterparts, and these changes offer interesting insights on the shifts happened in global culture and society as well. K-pop did not cease to be a creative combination of tradition and modernity; however, these two factors are currently arranged through different elements in a way that says a lot about what’s going on in the world. In the next article, we will discuss the song traits of the new generation of K-pop girl groups.

What’s your favorite K-pop girl group song of yesteryear? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below and be sure to subscribe to the site and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr to keep up with all of our posts.

Is K.A.R.D the future of K-pop?

/in /by

Two months after releasing their first single “Oh NaNa” and catching a lot of attention, K.A.R.D. made their first comeback on Feb. 15 with the intensely popular “Don’t Recall.” After its release, its music video racked up millions of views on YouTube with, at the time of publishing this article, over 6 million views.

DSP Media’s newest group was picked by us as one of the artists to watch in 2017, and even though they’re still rookies, it is already safe to say that they have what it takes to make it in K-pop.

Of course, it’s not the first time we see a co-ed group in the Korean scene, and the features of their sound aren’t new either. So what makes K.A.R.D. so different from the others?

Let’s analyze a few aspects.

So far, K.A.R.D.’s releases have followed a pattern: westernized pop with hip-hop and Caribbean influences, catchy synthesized hooks and vocals led by the female members. Moreover, the lyrics are about love and romance in which the women play the most active roles as the two men rap and complement the ladies’ narrative in a responsive dialogue. The lyrics are combined with well labored choreographies full of boy-girl interactions, body rolls, and hip shaking.

Also on KultScene: KultScene’s 2017 Artists to Watch

We’re not sure if this is going to be a standard for K.A.R.D. or if they’re just riding the tropical house music wave for now only to move onto another trend, but while we wait on that, let’s just enjoy this era and crown K.A.R.D. as the modern Korean version of Ace of Base already?

Although they’re doing an exceptional job with this music trend, it’s something we’ve heard a lot lately, like in BTS’s “Blood Sweat and Tears” and Blackpink’s “Playing with Fire,” after the fever of dancehall influenced songs in the U.S (Rihanna’s “Work;” Mike Posner’s remix of “I Took a Pill in Ibiza;” and Justin Bieber’s “Sorry,” etc.). However, with K.A.R.D., it does not seem to be just a random choice of style for a song, but rather the group’s concept. The sonic feature is a huge invitation to shake your body, and the group members actually do it! And they do it in a way that’s not so common in K-pop.

For this reason, K.A.R.D. has been very appealing to foreign fans. In fact, if it weren’t for the insertion of raps in sections that we usually don’t hear in western pop and the spoken line before the chorus, everything about “Don’t Recall” could easily pass as something recently released in the U.S. and play on the radio, alongside songs like Clean Bandit’s “Rockabye.”

The amount of references we make to western pop this article is not in vain: K.A.R.D. is probably one of the least generic K-pop groups we’ve seen in the past few years. No wonder they channel other foreign co-ed groups of the past like RBD, A*Teens, and Vengaboys (yes, you now have a clue about how old this writer is, although the very mention of Ace of Base might have given you a clue) more than Sunny Hill, the previous, most high-profile co-ed idol group in K-pop. Yet, there is still something else that makes K.A.R.D. stand out: that this is clearly a group of adults.

It is not a new thing to have a K-pop act that sounds or acts American, but K.A.R.D defies K-pop standards even more by presenting a cogent combination of a western sound and a more mature posture of the members, mostly with “Oh Na Na” and “Don’t Recall” being led by empowered women who show no traces of the cute, shy, and submissive behaviour often seen in Korean girl groups.

Their music videos have the choreography on the spotlight, with Jiwoo, B.M., Somin, and J.Seph delivering intense performances. For western fans more used to this type of music, it is more natural to see people loosely shaking their hips and shoulders while dancing to such a contagious rhythm than seeing a typical K-pop choreography. K.A.R.D.’s choreographies are more daring and their execution lets us know that they are grown adults aware of their bodies and sensuality to the point that it doesn’t even seem like they are forcing a sexy concept even when they twerk or grind close to each other; it just seems natural. But it’s not just their dancing; in the Youtube videos their agency constantly uploads with footage of the members having fun while practicing, it is noticeable how relaxed and “real” they are encouraged to come across as.

It is not to say that all groups should be like this; we love K-pop for a reason. Nevertheless, different concepts are always welcomed, especially when it can help portray idols in a more human way and nurturing a little bit of spontaneity and self-acceptance. Plus, it’s a realistic portrayal of how people of the opposite sex interact without the boundaries set by K-pop agencies in fear of fan reproach, which result in incredibly awkward exchanges in music shows or concerts. It’s weird to say, but K.A.R.D. may be the group to normalize it. If fans can accept BM uploading selfies with Somin, saying she slays, who’s to say other groups can’t in the future?

Also on KultScene: What to expect at KCON Mexico’s concerts

This group has something unique and special — and not just because it’s a co-ed group that dances sexily with each other– that has the potential to make a difference in K-pop if Koreans are open to accept this new approach. K.A.R.D.’s international fan base grows more every day and it is easy to understand how they connect with the members not only through music but through their personalities as well. However, we must not forget that they are a Korean group that makes music for Koreans first.

The recent disbandments of groups like 4Minute, 2NE1, and Wonder Girls are a sign that one era of K-pop is coming to an end. But on the other hand, the enormous success of newer groups like Twice, BTS, and GFriend denotes that some of the most distinctive marks of K-pop won’t die soon.

It is hard to imagine K-pop without robotically executed choreographies, aegyo, cute concepts, and music videos full of colors and aesthetics, even for the future. But right now, it is also hard to imagine K.A.R.D. succumbing to this. Sticking to what they’ve shown so far would not only help them continue to stand out, but could also inaugurate an era of K-pop in which different styles can coexist.

We have a lot more to anticipate from K.A.R.D.: more singles, official performances, and there are still hidden members to be revealed. Therefore, it is too early to know if they will succeed as much as they deserve to. But regardless of what happens in the future, until now, K.A.R.D. is already one of the most refreshing things we’ve seen in K-pop in a long time and there is a lot of room for growth if Korea embraces them as much as the rest of the world is doing.

What do you think of K.A.R.D.? Do you think they have potential to go far? Share your thoughts in the comment section below! Be sure to subscribe to the site and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr to keep up with all of our posts.

You too can be a k-pop producer thanks to Makestar [Interview]

/in , /by

makestar interviewEvery minute nowadays there’s a new service disrupting one industry or another. For the hospitality industry, it was Airbnb. For the taxi industry, it was apps like Uber and Gett. And for K-pop, it’s Makestar. The crowdfunding service is about a year old, but has already started to shake up the Korean entertainment industry.

Through a variety of fund-raising campaigns, running the gamut between things like photobooks for well-known acts to funding the debuts of rookie K-pop idol groups, Makestar has been giving the less-well-funded Korean acts a chance. K-pop acts like Crayon Pop, 24K, Nine Muses, Astro, and the recently-departed Rainbow have benefited from Makestar’s unique approach to connect, both financially and on a personal level, Korean stars with their fans. By having fans pledge funds ahead of production of an album or special project, Makestar is helping Korean entertainment companies ensure that there’s an audience for their production. And a profit.

According to Brian Kim, Makestar’s chief product officer, the company’s goal isn’t simply to fund K-pop projects, but actually better the K-pop industry. Makestar’s not just about K-pop, but it is the company’s main forum of business right now. They have also featured a handful fundraising campaigns on the site for films and musicals, but the majority of their current projects are geared towards music fans.

Also on KultScene: From ‘Genie’ to ‘Wolf’: Dsign Music believes the future of music begins with K-pop [INTERVIEW]

“We’re really focused on what the fans want,” Kim told KultScene over the phone, explaining that a lot of his job revolves around communicating with the pledgers. “We’re trying to make new opportunities for fans to have their voices heard a little bit more by the industry. I guess that’s the foundation where we started.”

Foundation or not, Makestar is definitely helping fans — particularly international K-pop fans — get their voices heard. Kim’s most notable example was a recent interview with Stellar that an Australian fan got to MC, which featured questions the fan had gathered from Stellar fans from around the globe. Practically unheard of in the K-pop world, the interview was part of a fundraising campaign for Stellar that featured fans spreading the word about both Stellar and the Makestar project. According to Kim, Stellar’s willingness to try new things with Makestar has helped the crowdfunding platform grow.

“Because of Stellar’s projects we’ve tried new things, like mashing up the fans dancing with Stellar’s music video and having it officially sanctioned and so on, to even basic things like Ask Me Anything kind of thing,” explained Kim. “We’ve tried new things where fans get to feel closer with them and [Stellar] have been very receptive.” Kim also added that the other Korean management companies have been more receptive of Makestar’s suggestions on whatever project they’re pursuing through the site as a result of Stellar’s example.

Even KultScene’s staff got on board: Joe showed off his production cred on Twitter earlier this year.

 

Convincing Korean entertainment agencies to try out Makestar wasn’t the easiest thing at the beginning, despite Makestar coming with powerful backing. The CEO, Kim Jae Myun, was a co-founder of FNC Entertainment. “He was the one who created CNBLUE and FTISLAND,” Kim interjected. Nearly a decade after FNC’s founding, Kim created Makestar to see if mass fundraising would work in Korea’s rigid entertainment environment. At first Makestar met with little success, but as the company started seeing success with their campaigns, entertainment companies started approaching the service about setting up their acts with a fundraising project.

Makestar’s success relies on the popularity of K-pop, and the relative small market that Korea’s estimated 300 entertainment agencies have to partake in. “Before Makestar, it was kind of understood, you know, ‘we just don’t have the funds, we don’t have the resources, that’s not the way it works.’” Single after single was the only way many small Korean agencies felt they could promote their act, hoping for a hit to compete with the bigger acts.

“A-listers will always be A-listers. They’ll always have concerts, big events, and their albums will do well. The name value itself will carry,” Kim explained, mentioning some of Korea’s largest entertainment companies like SM Entertainment, YG Entertainment, and JYP Entertainment. “One way we discovered [potential] disruption was [by asking], ‘Is this the only way?’ If funds are a problem, crowdfunding can kind of solve that. If getting word out is a problem, the project can help with the premarketing and marketing, and we’re getting into postmarketing.”

Also on KultScene: This is the hardest K-pop quiz ever

International fans are very different than Korean fans, which Kim and Makestar are very conscious of when creating their campaigns. Boy bands will typically garner pledges primarily from middle-aged Japanese women, but well-known acts internationally, like Crayon Pop, will see about a third of their funding coming from the US and other English-language markets. Makestar’s services are offered in English, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese, but they want to make it even more internationally focused. “American fans are very different from French fans because Americans and French people are very different,” said Kim. “What we’re trying to do now is involve fans in what we’re doing at Makestar, whether it be suggestions, whether it be engineering a project. So if you like BTS and you’d like BTS to run a project at Makestar, what would you think as a fan would be a really good project to run? We’d really like to start crowdsourcing those ideas as well because at the end of the day who knows better than the fans?”

Through a variety of campaigns and offering different rewards, ranging from production credit to meeting and spending a day with K-pop stars, Makestar guides the fundraising efforts of K-pop acts. Kim reassured KultScene that it was Makestar acting as a consulting service, not Makestar acting as a secondary managing company. “At the end of the day, the management companies have the final say as to how the project proceeds. Sometimes it comes out pretty much as we expected, but other times, because of some additions that the management company has made on a whim, basically, made based on nothing, we do tend to have burps here or there.”

While there may be slight issues Makestar seems to have figured out a way to ensure that campaigns succeed and they’ve had few failures recently, although a high profile campaign for Xia Junsu failed last December when it came about $300,00 short of its $838,000 goal. Garnering more than two times the goal isn’t uncommon: Stellar’s “Sting” album production project was funded more than 500 percent times the initial goal of $10,068.97, and brought in more than $53,000. The projects range varies, with smaller ones aiming for around $10,000 and larger ones by more popular acts, like Astro and Rainbow, angling closer to $30,000. Makestar recently saw its first crowdfunded debut from Momoland, who raised a little over $12,000.

What’s next for Makestar? Not concerts, said Kim. “We do have plans for concerts, but we do really want to make them special. We don’t want it to be just about money, money, money for [the stars] and the management company, because if that happens, we know that it’s not going to be a special occasion [for the fans], other than the concert. So we’ve been racking our brains about creating a project style where the stars can visit different corners of the world and have that special connection with the fans. We’re holding off on that.”

What do you think of Makestar and their campaigns? Reach out to them via email if you have any ideas about campaigns! And share your thoughts about this article, and K-pop fundraising, in the comment section below and be sure to subscribe to the site and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr to keep up with all of our posts.

Reviewing the Korean Film Archive: A Public Prosecutor & a Teacher

/in , /by

Public Prosecutor
Between the end of World War 2 in 1945 and the start of the Korean War in 1950, Korea had a short amount of time to start finding its independent identity. As we have seen sound was introduced to kickstart the modernising of cinema there. Yet like in the west it took time to completely drown out silent cinema. The technology was nowhere near perfected so there had to be room for both to keep viewers interested. In 1948, A Public Prosecutor and a Teacher the final great Korean film of the silent film era was released. As we know silent films don’t just die out once their golden era ends, filmmakers throughout the years revive the form in a number of ways (Kim Ki-Duk did it with Moebius in 2013). It did however, spell the end for a uniquely Eastern form of cinematic storytelling, the byeonsa.

A byeonsa was a narrator of foreign silent films in Korea. It is a direct translation of the Japanese word Benshi, which were similar narrators descended from Kabuki and Noh theatre. Byeonsa’s were originally used to translate the dialogue and intertitles from foreign films. They also helped spread cinema to all of society as they translated Korean intertitles from silent films so illiterate people could enjoy. Eventually the byeonsas themselves became the most attractive thing about going to the cinema. Instead of just translating, they began to start acting out their own interpretations of lines, adding a more theatrical element to the cinema. The public would go to specific films just because their favourite byeonsa was performing; the actual content of the film was irrelevant.

Also on KultScene: This is the hardest K-pop quiz ever

Even as the very last film to employ a byeonsa, A Public Prosecutor and a Teacher is the perfect example of why they were so popular. Directed by Yoon Dae-Ryong, it is about a poverty stricken young boy named Min Jang-Son (Lee Eob-Dong) and his generous teacher Choi Yang-Chun (Lee Young-Ae, not the one in Daejanggeum). Jang-Son is struggling to eke out a life as an orphan looking after his sick grandmother when Yang-Chun notices him and starts to help. The story flashes forward halfway through as Jang-Son has grown up to be a prosecutor and works on a murder case involving Yang-Chun and her husband.

This story is secondary to A Public Prosecutor and a Teacher’s historical and cultural significance however. It is full of coincidences and melodrama for the sake of melodrama. Even the filmmaking is as bland as can be. Director Yoon and director of photography Kim Young-Sun shot it in the plainest way possible, looking more like a filmed stage play than cinema. The acting as well is either overly dramatic or delivered as if they were reading the script for the first time.

The star of the show is Shin Chool, Korea’s last byeonsa. He has the job of not only describing all of the action taking place but also of acting out the voice of every character in the film. In this film Shin Chool sounds like an older man, possibly in his fifties or sixties. For a viewer unfamiliar with this type of film hearing him tell us everything is immediately odd but thanks to his unique delivery the viewer quickly becomes comfortable. He delivers every single line with a passion that does not echo from the screen. Even during the most mundane lines he emotes as if on the verge of tears. When the film is at its most emotional, Shin seems to be having a breakdown, his voice turning to a blubbering gurgle. He hocks and rasps as if he has a terrible cold, bringing character to a film so devoid of any personality. There are even moments in between his lines where you can hear him breathing, allowing us some glimpse into what it might have been like to see this great performer live.

Also on KultScene: Reviewing the Korean Film Archive: The Day a Pig Fell Into the Well

Some moments in particular he brings great life to. The transition between the opening and the fast forward is like a poetry break. Shin speaks of the changing seasons and “the green mountains (that) beautify summer.” Small lines stick out for being more than just expository, “Cigarette smoke is the only thing that can’t speak.” The film also has a few times when it makes use of what a camera can tell by itself. After Yang-Chun has been arrested there is a short silent moment where we see her empty house. No story is being told her but we are given a sense of how she feels inside.

Like Sweet Dream, A Public Prosecutor and a Teacher gives us insights into Korea at a historical time that it’s hard to fully understand the culture there. This film in particular shows us something unique to the east. Thematically it contains a great sympathy for those in poverty, yet again says that women’s place is at home by their husband. Yang-Chun after the death of her husband says there is no point in a woman living without their husband. It is worth a watch however, for the pure experience that few today have probably enjoyed.

Watch the film here.

What do you think of A Public Prosecutor and a Teacher? Share your thoughts in the comment section below and be sure to subscribe to the site and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr to keep up with all of our posts.

What do you find at the end of a Rainbow?

/in /by

Rainbow
The inevitability of my favourite K-pop groups coming to an end is something I’m used to now. The demise is nearly always slow with groups who were once household names dropping lower in the charts with every new release. So when DSP recently announced that Rainbow would be disbanding, I was not surprised nor was I heartbroken. Yet, when I thought about it, there was no group who deserved this less than Rainbow. Throughout their career, only one major single stands out as bad, their debut “Gossip Girl,” and their albums are littered with overlooked gems. They brought a spectrum of sounds and looks delivered with a consistent quality that few can match.

Rainbow debuted with a killer concept. Each member being one colour of the spectrum was so clever but simple to pull off. All of them would be easily identifiable by what they wore, a key point for a new group. The problem with it though is that DSP probably had the idea and tried to rush out the group to attach to it, meaning that some members may just be there because they needed seven girls. The lack of memorable characters in the group may be a big factor in their downfall. Today, more than ever groups need big characters, look at Twice and I.O.I for example. A terrible debut song doesn’t help either.

Also on KultScene: 8 K-pop girl power anthems pt. 7

Rainbow’s work with some K-pop’s best producers allowed them to recover from that dreadful critical and commercial debut. Following a similar formula two years in a row, Rainbow released two singles by the same producer in 2010 and 2011. Their first two were with Sweetune, staying loyal to DSP after making their name with KARA. Even though by today’s standards “A” and “Mach” could sound a little cheaper than we expect from Sweetune, they still remain some of their best work.

“A” is Rainbow’s most iconic track. K-pop was beginning to show signs of embracing sexiness at this time, but nobody confronted it quite like Rainbow and “A.” The shirt lifting choreography makes being sexy something more than just a concept or dance. The members are active in showing their bodies; it brings an agency that is so often absent. Making them complicit is a bold choice, but one that is pulled off thanks to the confidence of a young group. It actually threatened to overshadow the song as well, which would be the greatest shame of Rainbow’s career. Sweetune switch out their usual synths for horns and guitars, which drive the song with bombastic energy. It has a relentless, kinetic force that builds and peaks at the two minute mark with the second chorus (which is itself essentially two choruses).

If “A” didn’t overshadow itself, it probably did leave their second single with Sweetune, “Mach,” with little to show. Without the choreography gimmick, it could not take off, so it charted lower than “A” despite being just as good. Horns again take the front seat, but this time along with prominent synths made to sound like horns. It’s similar to “A,” but heavier and more dramatic. A cacophonous soundscape that grabs you by the throat.

In 2011, Rainbow moved onto a producer that K-pop sorely misses. Japanese DJ Daishi Dance specializes in mixing pianos and electronics, focusing on dance tracks in which you don’t know whether to shake your body or dry your eyes. He also produced After School’s gorgeous “Shampoo” in the same year. With “To Me” and “Sweet Dream,” he created Rainbow’s highest charting singles and their best era.

Like “A” and “Mach,” they are of a similar style and structure but with different tones. Both use crystal clear pianos set against a dance beat. “To Me” is the more upbeat of the two, with its addictive hook of “oh eh oh ehs,” contrasting well with leader Jaekyung’s (an idol of considerable talent and beauty that deserves a solo career after this) belts in the chorus. Daishi Dance’s distinct sound really helped Rainbow stand out, the mix of pianos and synths is evocative in strange ways we can relate with.

“Sweet Dream” is the culmination of these ideas. More subdued than “To Me,” it uses the sentimental sounds to the best of their expression. “Sweet Dream” is about a girl who knows she is about to be broken up with and does not want to believe it. “Don’t wake me up from this sweet dream,” they cry. The music video setting of a club brings it altogether. This is still a dance song, so of course they could perform it in a club. Yet it’s clearly a song of great pain too, brought to life best by the voice of maknae Hyunyoung. The girls walk around the club, their bodies splitting into many parts. Their minds reeling from the potential break up that they can’t think straight. They are highlighted by slow motion, even amongst such a setting they still can’t escape their emotions. The contradiction of the song is brought into great clarity by the video.

Also on KultScene: Op-ed: Trump, BTS, & the state of K-pop journalism

After these stellar two years, Rainbow’s success began to drop. Maybe it was the two years it took them to release something after “Sweet Dream,” but it’s hard to see why they really failed. There was certainly no drop in quality as all of their songs from “Tell Me Tell Me” up to their last single “Whoo” were either good or great. Even more impressive is that all of the rest of their albums were pretty much perfect start to finish. Again, their continued work with top producers keeps getting them great tracks.

On “Rainbow Syndrome Part 1,” producers Zig Zag Note gave them the brash “Cosmic Girl.” It pairs interstellar lyrics and synthesizers with old fashioned pop sounds. The string and horn sections are what make the song feel cosmic, the intro especially feels like the beginning of something huge.

Rainbow, however, are not always all about the big energy. Neither are Zig Zag Note, apparently, as they provided Rainbow with “EENIE MEENIE MINIE MOE,” a stripped back oddity on “Rainbow Syndrome Part 2.” It begins with just a piano, flat toms, and the vocals. It’s delivered with a cheeky confidence that is so infectious but never irritating. Singing the title towards the end like a nursery rhyme is particularly addictive.

Following “Rainbow Syndrome,” Rainbow moved on to the era where we could see their end in sight. First their sexy and subversive sub-unit Rainbow Blaxx, with heavyweights Digipedi behind the incisive video for “Cha Cha.” “Black Swan” and the “Innocent” album followed and were commercial disasters. It was a change in style too far for Korea. Which is a shame, since the album is so good that I can’t pick a favourite. “Pierrot” did dancehall better than any other Korean act and used No Eul well for the first time ever. “Bad Man Crying” is a perfectly balanced outpouring of emotion; Hyunyoung’s voice cuts through it beautifully. The soulful “Mr. Lee,” funky “Privacy,” and sombre “A Little More” round out what is one of the best K-pop mini albums of all time.

Their final album, “Prism,” while not as good as “Innocent” is still great by most K-pop mini-album standards. More great producers turn up as well. Sweetune returned to say goodbye to Rainbow with their spinoff team Monotree on sweet opener “Saying I Miss You”. e.one, meanwhile, produced stomper “Click!” By then, it was too late though; the public had moved on from Rainbow.

So what do we find at the end of the rainbow? Namely a sad end to a great underappreciated career. The future careers of the members are not easy either. Few of them made names for themselves outside of the group. Only Jisook and Jaekyung seem safe in the entertainment business anyway. Also, DSP are in a bad situation themselves. Their remaining groups are either flopping (April) or just not working (A-Jax). Without their original powerhouses, they need to act fast. There is no pot of gold here, unfortunately.

Now that we have reached the end though, we know for sure that the treasure is not gold but the rainbow itself. With hindsight, we can look back at Rainbow’s glistening beauty and talent and remember one of the great girl groups of our time. Take your time appreciating the entire spectrum of their career; there is much more than just colour to find.

What’s your favourite Rainbow song or performance? Share your picks and thoughts in the comment section below and be sure to subscribe to the site and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr to keep up with all of our posts.

Op-ed: Trump, BTS, & the state of K-pop journalism

/in , /by

Trump BTS

A few minutes before I planned to go to bed last night, I noticed something funny trending on my twitter feed: fans of the K-pop boy band BTS appeared to be getting riled up over a tweet the US presidential candidate Donald Trump allegedly shared in August, where he complimented the boy band and mistakenly called them Chinese.

But it wasn’t the Orientalist racism that sparked the outrage. It was the fact that this tweet had never been tweeted, and one of the most well-known K-pop news outlet wrote an article about it. I searched Twitter, spending a whole three minutes using the site’s Advanced Search function and couldn’t find anything except for a tweet that was clearly photoshopped. Trump, who is extremely outspoken on Twitter, hasn’t deleted any of his past faux pas, so it seems unlikely that he would have deleted (or ever tweeted in the first place, really) anything on his Twitter feed dealing with K-pop or BTS. But this website didn’t take those few moments to determine that and instead ran it as news, which many fans took as fact.

To reiterate the fact: Donald Trump has never, to my knowledge and the best of my research ability, ever tweeted about K-pop or BTS. 

After getting frustrated at the fact that a website that presents itself as a reliable news source didn’t even do the basic minimum fact-checking on what was clearly a click-bait timely news peg, I went to bed. While I slept, the article was later deleted from the site. A quick perusal of the news outlet’s social media revealed that no apology or clarification was issued regarding the original publication. Another website with a less-than-stellar track record at reporting K-pop-related stories also wrote about the tweet, but instead more fully expressed how the tweet was clearly inauthentic.

 

Also on KultScene: What’s Killing ‘Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo’?

As KultScene is not a news site and is based around the opinions of several writers who feel the urge to discuss their favorite topic, Hallyu, I typically wouldn’t address anything about the mistakes of other websites. But this morning, a reputable Korean newspaper picked up the article by the US-based K-pop “news” source and published a piece on their website about it. As a well-respected site with a credible reputation, this is extremely unfortunate. Despite fans tweeting to the outlet that the original source was faked, it has yet to be updated or corrected as of 10:00 p.m. EST on Oct. 27.

Clearly, the Korean outlet didn’t check facts itself, which is problematic for its own sake, but the article was written on the word of an allegedly reputable source. Since the modern state of journalism is an aggregate-heavy environment, it is probable that the Korean outlet expected that a reliable K-pop news outlet based in the US would do proper legwork to research claims that may possibly relate to the US election.

Journalism has always been about telling stories based on facts and research. The outlet that wrote the original piece about the alleged tweet has a track record of regurgitating information without doing research or — even worse — releasing information obtained off-the-record. I personally was unsurprised by the website’s article, since it’s clear they hire writers based on speediness and translating skills rather than any journalistic capabilities. When output and hitcount becomes King, basic steps of newsgathering, like fact-checking, will be disregarded.

The sad thing is that just about every US-based K-pop news source struggles from this. Aside from a handful of outlets, most of which have few reporters but rely on Korean news sources or international wires, none are truly able to be dedicated to Hallyu media and maintain a journalistic edge. Outside of Korea, newsgathering is nearly impossible and there just isn’t a large enough audience to support multiple news sites. Instead, websites depend on keeping their numbers up by spending the least amount of resources possible on the most amount of content.

Until K-pop journalism becomes a more viable, economical field, we’ll continue to see misreporting like this.

What do you think about the situation? Share your opinions in the comment section below. Be sure to subscribe to the site and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr to keep up with all of our posts.

Reviewing the Korean Film Archive: Sweet Dream

/in , /by

Sweet Dream
When Yang Ju Nam’s Sweet Dream was found in a Chinese cinema in 2006, it was thought to be the oldest surviving Korean film. This title was eventually taken by Cheongchun’s Sipjaro, a silent film released two years prior to 1936’s Sweet Dream. Sweet Dream does however, remain the oldest sound film in Korea that still exists in some format. It is special for this reason, as it represents a period of Korean cinema that is almost completely unknown to us today. The Korean Film Archive believes that between 1910 and 1940 approximately 140 films were produced, of which only five are available. Sweet Dream is then imperative for those of us who are trying to come to some understanding of Korean film history. It offers a snippet of what life might have been like under Japanese rule and technically shows us that film language still had a long way to come.

Director Yang Ju Nam worked for Kyeong Sung Studio, an apparently prolific studio of the time. He worked as an editor and assistant director before making his directorial debut with Sweet Dream. After his debut however, he would go straight back to editing and wouldn’t direct again for another twenty years when he made Exorcism of Bae Baeng Yi in 1957.

Also on KultScene: Reviewing the Korean Film Archive: The Day a Pig Fell Into the Well

Sweet Dream is about a woman called Ae Soon, a housewife who neglects her familial duties and is punished for it. It is a cautionary tale about the dangers of modernity and has a predictably regressive view of women. As soon as Ae Soon leaves her family nothing goes right for her, she embraces a bourgeois lifestyle of hotels and modern dance. Lessons are imparted onto her more like public service announcements than a traditional narrative film. It even goes as far as having a scene in a classroom where the lesson is about the importance of family and the dangers of the road. Views like this are to be expected from the 1930s but given Korea was under strict censorship from outside forces more hands are at play for a film like this to exist.

Korean culture under Japanese rule was heavily stunted. People were being forced to change their name to Japanese, modernity was being thrust upon them, and there were few ways to fight back. Cinema was not one of them, with most films being produced in Korea apparently being documentaries and adaptations of traditional stories. They, of course, would all have been subject to strict regulation which makes Sweet Dream an interesting case. It specifically warns of modernity while Japan wanted to push it on the Korean people. It’s view of women was one sided in the same year that Kenji Mizoguchi released Osaka Elegy, a biting critique of the oppression Japanese women face, to critical and commercial success in Japan.

In its traditional view on families then, Sweet Dream is somewhat of an affront to Japanese rule. The fear of modernity could be seen as Yang’s disapproval of his colonists. One step back to take two forward. Of course, Japanese traditional values wouldn’t have been too far from Korean ones at the time, making the strong familial themes at play would have seemed agreeable to Japanese censors. Or maybe the censors were too busy cutting out violence and whole unknown segments to notice.

Also on KultScene: 5 Sentimental K-Drama OSTs Which Give Us Autumn Feels

The film language, however, is mostly inspired by Japanese cinema. Koreans were seeing some western films like the work of D.W Griffith but the form of Sweet Dream shows traces of Japanese master Yasujiro Ozu. Very much traces though, as the film plays like a 50 minute condensed Ozu film, leaving no room for emotions to be slowly teased out. Here the melodrama is front and centre. In the very first scene, Ae Soon and her husband have a fight with anger seemingly coming from nowhere. It is shot with a plainness that recalls Ozu without the meticulous framing. Instead of being down on the ground with our characters the camera is positioned above looking down on them. Straight away we start judging them and their positions, something the film does with no mercy.

While mostly disappointing, the filmmaking is also where we find the brightest moments of this film. Yang particularly puts effort into his edits, no surprise given his background as an editor. In some scene transitions he uses match cuts to great effect. They transition with the laughter of a man or from two people drinking beer to another scene of a man drinking beer. It shows thought has gone into the form in some cases at least, as it’s absent almost everywhere else. Even the edits are weak in many cases with some shots going on too long or cutting to a scene that has no relevance to the story.

Sweet Dream is a confusing contradiction. Through incoherent character choices and messy filmmaking it puts forward regressive beliefs in the interest of possible subversity. Even if it can be seen as an attack on Japanese rule, the real losers here were Korean women. The importance stressed on family still hurts them to this day. As a piece of history it gives us glimpses into a growing Seoul yet portrays its people as one note. Culturally, it shows us how Korea would begin to love the melodrama. In the following years melodramas would be the most influential films, popular because they contained a multitude of emotions that were suppressed in Korean culture. The next time you watch one of your favourite dramas while emotions are flooding out of the screen, think of Sweet Dream and remember the role that history plays in everything.

Watch the full film here.

Have you seen Sweet Dream if so what do you think? Share your thoughts in the comment section below and be sure to subscribe to the site and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr to keep up with all of our posts.

Run River North Is Walking To The Beat of Their Own Drum, All the Way To The Top [Interview & Review]

/in , /by

run river north, monsters calling home

KultScene sat down with six member Korean-American indie folk-rock band, Run River North (previously known as Monsters Calling home), before their set at Brighton Music Hall, in Boston, last Wednesday. The group is no stranger to the city, having already been here several times and had actually performed at the very same venue earlier this year in April. We talked about the weather, to which they were totally digging, performing in Japan, touched base on being Asian-American, and some other insightful topics.

KultScene: Our audience might not know you, can you introduce yourselves?

RRN: This is Run River North, my is name John, I play drums.
I’m Daniel and I play guitar.
I’m Sally and I play keys.
I’m Alex and I sing and play guitar.
I’m Jennifer and I play the violin.
I’m Joe and I play bass.

KultScene: You’re about a fourth of a way into your tour with “Finish Ticket” and “IronTom.” What’s this tour been like? Are there any funny/weird habits your bandmates have that you never noticed before?

John: I think we know a lot about each other, it’s kind of hard to find new habits that you know people have picked up. Being in a band, with this band, for two or three years of touring, you kinda get each other pretty quick but yeah, I think by now we get most of it. The tour has been great so far. I think it’s like our first, kind of like full support run with a band that is great. I mean, we’ve toured with great bands before too but this is kinda something that we wanted for a while, to tour with some like minded friends.

KultScene: What’s your favorite song to perform live?

Alex: “Beetles” is always my favorite.
Sally: “29” is fun because we added this crowd participation part, so we all sing together. It’s unique so we try to involve [the audience] as much as possible.

KultScene: In a recent interview, you mentioned that your first album was about looking back at the immigrant story. And in your most recent album, you guys talk about looking forward and finding your identity. Are there any themes or concepts you wish to tackle next?

Alex: I haven’t really thought about that. I don’t think the concept came pre-planned, it just naturally happened. I mean, it could go back, if the songs are good. It could go back to immigrants, it could go back to ourselves.

Daniel: The common thread isn’t predetermined. It’s usually just consistent and it just shows up at the end of the songwriting process, you just kind of see “oh, there’s a general theme here” and I think that’s what it’s been for two albums.

John: That’s kind of the beauty of making albums; you see a snapshot of that period, that moment and that phase.

Also on KultScene: 5 Rising Female Acts At Zandari Festa ’16

KultScene: You recently performed at SXSW this past summer. How was that experience in comparison to when you performed on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”?

Alex: SXSW is an interesting set. There’s hundreds of shows going on at the same time so it’s not really like it’s your time to shine, it’s barely your time to shine and you just gotta play in front of whoevers in front of you and hope that someone’s there, but you can’t expect anything out of that. You just gotta go in there with low expectations and hopefully you’ll get a nice showcase and hopefully someone comes through. And for us, we were lucky this time around where one of our showcases, we got this promoter who does festivals in Japan, and because he was there, we were able to go to Japan. Those things are never guaranteed. And with Jimmy Kimmel or Seth Meyers that we did this year, there’s this focus of everyone watching you; there’s one mission and one opportunity, so it’s a little different I guess. SXSW just feels like doing a tour but a little more focused. You can’t really compare the two too much. Both are pleasant in different ways.

John: Our agent, our managers really set us up; there’s a path, a goal for each showcase. We wanted to bring different people to these showcases, so if you’re just an indie band with no fame, it’d be very difficult to stand out, but because we have such an amazing team behind us, they’re setting up all these paths and opportunities for other people to interact with us and I think that’s the key with SXSW. With Seth Meyers, Jimmy Kimmel and stuff like that, that’s more for exposure. All of this is going towards a plan, it’s progressing towards a plan to be more successful, to be more exposed to different types of people. So all of it is working for us.

Alex: There’s really no negative side to it.

KultScene: You auditioned for Kollaboration in 2011, I’m actually apart of Kollaboration Boston. How have you turned any initial failures ultimately into success?

Alex: That’s how we got started, actually. Kollaboration is a great way to play on stage, but it should only be a platform. And if you want to be an artist and want to perform, then you should keep singing. You should never let Kollaboration be your judge, unless you like being judged for your work like that in a competition sense, at least for our band, that’s not what we want to be doing. It was a great way to get started, it was a great push for us to say “okay, if we’re going to perform on a stage, what do we need to do so that..” you know, regardless if we get the money, it’s fine, but would people want more of us after that?

I think that if it’s your job and it’s your life career and to go around doing Kollaboration. That’s just not for us. I don’t really encourage that for people. If they want to better themselves in their art and use that then yeah; it’s another platform, and if it’s a cool stage, if it’s going to expose you to more people, especially in the Asian-American community where you can inspire people that way, then yeah, do what you can and be good at it. But I think the goal is to get the people that do the Kollaboration shows, to come out to actual venues, to actual shows that people do for a living and see what it’s like and that includes the audience as well, as the artist. Everybody, if we’re talking about empowering Asians, go to wherever everyone is doing shows, go to where there are galleries, where there are people who have been doing this forever I think that’s the main thing about Kollaboration, to be the gateway for those audiences or artists to go out there to support those who make music or make art.

Daniel: I think Kollaboration is a great service to the community; a great opportunity.

KultScene: What are you hoping your Boston audience will be like tonight? Is there a message(s) you want them to leave with tonight?

John: Personally for me, like any show, we want to create fans where people will see us 15 years later and say, “oh man, I remember seeing them in high school and I still love them” or the ones who will follow us no matter what, keep up with everything that we do, fans that will, you know, follow us on Instagram or Twitter, fans who just love everything about us. That’s our goal, to be loved; to be loved by hardcore fans who love our music, not just one song.

Daniel: I hope people leave the show inspired to pursue their craft, to just be good at what they do in life. Seeing six Koreans or Asians on a stage in a world that, you know — [some people think] it’s not our place to be here, I think, but I hope people feel encouraged to push through. For 45 minutes or whatever the show length is, they’ll get to enjoy our music for what it is.

*Interview was edited for clarity.

Also on KultScene: Rock Bottom On Top In London [Interview]

run river north, monsters calling home

And they did just that. Run River North gave an awe-inspiring show, performing what felt like a greatest hits/ repackaged masterlist set, with a total of eight songs. The sextet opened with bright lights and “Excuses,” (if this festive folky beat alone doesn’t get you hooked, then check out the music video, you won’t be disappointed). They hit the ground running! There was really no easing into it; RRN accelerated at high speed. This band meant business. RRN quickly shifted gears, transitioning from folk to rock and got the crowd bopping away with “Run or Hide,” which is off of their second album “Drinking From a Salt Pond” — definitely a crowd favorite.

Now, my personal favorite, “Monsters Calling Home.” Their debut/self titled debut album, “Run River North.” is about the “immigrant story.” Well, what does that actually mean, you ask? In case you read this far and still haven’t looked them up, the members of Run River North, Alex, Daniel, Jennifer, Joe, John and Sally, are all second generation Asian-American; it wasn’t planned, it kind of just happened that way. They drew inspiration for that album from their parents; parents who had to start over, “digging for worth, in land under a foreign sun” when they left their homeland. RRN has become a voice for a generation that’s kept quiet. They’ve become this light, for a community that thought certain instances were only happening to them and no one else. No one should ever feel like they’re the only ones experiencing some sort of turmoil, let “Monsters Calling Home” be your outlet.

One of my favorite things about live concerts is when the band performs not only their hits but also their b-sides. Sometimes, the b-sides are the best songs on an album, like “Superstition” and “Seven.” Run River North showcased such captivating harmonizations in “Seven” that it left the crowd breathless. Maybe it’s the countless years they’ve been together and all the shows they’ve performed, but the chemistry and dynamics between these six could make anyone envious!

Their last three songs, “Pretender,” “29” (as mentioned by Sally earlier) and “Anthony” were very interactive for the audience and for the band; RRN had the crowd singing and clapping along to the beat. Even had us with our hands up in the air at one point. There was a part towards the end of “29” where Alex and Joe were facing one another duking it out on their string instruments, then Alex leaned his forehead into Joe’s T-shirt and wiped all his face sweat on Joe. That’s how you know you’ve got a friend for life. They pulled out all the stops for their last song “Anthony.” Jennifer traded in her violin for guitar and, well, she absolutely slayed. I’ve seen a few photos floating around the internet of Alex’s hair, but since he had it tied up during our interview and throughout 90 percent of their set, when he finally released his luscious locks (I’m pretty sure this guy had better hair than most of the females in the audience), it was the final icing on the cake. Concerts can’t be entirely serious, right?

Even if you think folk, rock or that combination in general isn’t your thing, go and give Run River North a listen. Even if their style isn’t what you’re used to, their story telling through their lyrics should be more than enough to lure you in forever. And don’t forget to check out Run River North, as they tour a city near you!

For more photos:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.


Read more

Reviewing the Korean Film Archive: The Day a Pig Fell Into the Well

/in /by

the day a pig fell into the well
Hello readers and welcome to a new KultScene column dedicated to exposing the annals of Korean cinema. The Korean Film Archive is one of the great resources for Korean cinema fans on the web, and their Youtube channel is filled with touchstones, idiosyncrasies, and modern greats. Best of all, it’s free and subtitled. The quality of the films is not great but it’s hard to complain about that when everything else is so accessible. The aim of this column is to bring such an impressive asset to light while also learning about and critiquing Korean cinema history. Films to come include the oldest known Korean film still in print, work by kidnapped director Shin Sang Ok, and 80s erotica.

We’re starting with someone who is continuing the great trend of international acclaim for Korean cinema, Hong Sang Soo and his 1996 debut The Day a Pig Fell Into the Well. Hong is one of the many Korean filmmakers who went to study film in the US in the 1990s. It was there where the most recent wave of Korean films developed their styles, similar to K-pop in that they collide eastern and western sensibilities to make something uniquely Korean. Hong is known for his on the surface simple but deeply thoughtful films that tackle adult problems. You may also know him for his alleged affair with actress Kim Min Hee, whom he worked with on his most recent film Right Now, Wrong Then. Take note, as this piece of information is not as irrelevant as it may seem now.

Also on KultScene: K-Beauty review: Etude House Silk Scarf Damage Protein Ampoule Treatment

The Day a Pig Fell Into the Well is split into four different segments with characters overlapping in each. The first is about author Hyo Sup (Kim Eui Sung), a deeply pathetic man who is having two simultaneous affairs. The second is about Tong Yoo (Park Jin Sung), a businessman who struggles with his own desires to have an affair and the fear that his wife is seeing someone else. The third is about cinema ticket seller Min Jae (Jo Eun Sook) who is one of Hyo Sup’s girlfriends and how she finds out about his other affair. The last is about Bo Kyung (Lee Eung Kyung), wife of Tong Yoo and the other mistress to Hyo Sup. While not quite as complicated as it might sound, Hong does not stop to explain things in great detail.

Each character was developed by a different writer but when filming came Hong went with an improvisational style. The unique scripting hardly shows as each actor seems perfectly balanced within the film. Due to Hong’s style they have to use their bodies more than their faces as close ups are rare. Kim Eui Song gets the most to do but still excels in his quieter moments, displaying a pitiful man like no other. Lee Eung Kyung also stands out with her constant unaffected but painful performance. Her character, Bo Kyung, is the most tragic of the piece due to her inability to act. Her segment involves a lot of walking around doing nothing yet we can feel her disposition changing as the film crawls to an end.

This world where seemingly everyone is having an affair seems like a complex and unbelievable one (although reality may be just as strange given a report that says half of Korean men cheat). Hong however, fills it with tiny details and minor characters who breathe life into it at every opportunity. Shot with a masterful straightforward eye, there’s rarely more than three shots for each scene with most of the action taking place in wide shots This way the secretive characters can’t hide from the viewer. When Hong does cut within a scene it’s nearly always to go in close on small details like a hand picking up a cigarette or playing with a bug. Through these gestures we get insights into the characters that their words don’t tell us. Each one has other things on their mind than what’s happening in front of them.

Taking cues from Italian neorealism, Hong also likes to linger on shots even after the main character has left the frame. It positions us in a world that is alive. A delivery boy getting on his scooter, a couple arguing in a hotel corridor, life outside the main characters exists and maybe they should take note to realise their selfishness. Minor characters with lines are also given personalities that come across well, particularly a waitress who fights back without hesitation and a girl who coughs a lot in one scene simply because she happens to have a cough not as some warning of her impending doom.

Also on KultScene: Park Chan Wook: A Career in Revenge

Through this supremely crafted world our view of the characters can be laser focused. Hong’s opinion of these tangled people is obviously bleak. Each one possess a trait that prevents them from being honest with anyone around. Hyo Sup especially is seen as a destructive force to all. Despite his two girlfriends he seems a profoundly lonely man; he asks one publisher out for drinks but is rejected. He is offended when some of his friends didn’t invite him out but wriggles his way in anyway. This scene, where he goes out with some old college friends is one of the best. Hong makes great use of the Korean dinner table as they all sit around sizzling meat drinking soju. There’s a great tension to having the meat right in the centre of the frame, Hyo Sup’s own feelings bubble along with it. He is even framed to the right so we don’t have a full view of his face.It’s no surprise then that these feelings eventually pop dramatically.

Tong Yoo and Min Jae are the most ignorant of the lot. Tong Yoo’s segment shows him trying to make some sort of deal but continually being pushed back. His lack of reaction is telling in why Bo Kyung started having an affair. His part is the weakest as it slows things down too much after Hyo Sup’s dramatic start. There is one great moment where, as he is debating whether or not to have sex with a prostitute, he starts to fidget in bed. His body convulses wildly showing a man who is clearly troubled despite his seeming indifference. Min Jae’s naievty proves to be her downfall not with more than one toxic male.

As a whole it comes together devastatingly in the final segment. Despite being a bit too long and having some misplaced motivations for smaller characters, it’s a debut that sets out a great director’s career. It’s interesting that Hong’s affair scandal only came out recently as this film feels apologetic. Hyo Sup seems like a stand in for Hong, a portrayal of self-hatred that didn’t hold back. A man dealing with his flaws out in the open is immediately powerful but also a possible turn off. The way Hong does it however, is precise and powerful. His filmography is singular in this era of Korean cinema for being small in scale but deeper than any of his peers can attest to.

Full movie here.

What do you of think of The Day a Pig Fell Into the Well? Share your thoughts in the comment section below and be sure to subscribe to the site and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr to keep up with all of our posts.