Objective Complete

Silly sammich. He's got the L and the T but no B.

When was the last time you felt satisfaction at having accomplished something? Something worthwhile. I highly recommend getting that feeling, man. This shit is thoroughly good. I'll tell ya what it was later, I promised someone else I'd tell 'er first second so you just sit tight and marinate yourself with curiosity.

Once Around the Solar System

I always take the car. That car has class.

So then. It's been exactly one year since I've started blogging. I haven't managed to post once everyday for the year, 'tis true. But I've made one post per day for a year. And that's good enough for me.
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NEW YEAR'S DAY!!

Fruits #4

Well That Was Anti-Climactic

I expected something to happen since all the /b/-tards were looking forward to November 5th so much, but, alas, the day passed without incident.

(- -____)

On the plus side, the mods created a wonderful thread on Friday for dance gifs.

A Fresh Hot-Off-the-Press Post

Guess what guys? This is the first post in a long time that I haven't had a draft of at some point. All posts marked Published, no Drafts, none Scheduled. This one's coming right off the top of my head.
(>ワ) HOO HOO HA HIII!!!~~

A laid-back Monday. (￣_____￣)

(´_`) (\`.) (|:) (/.') (.￣.) (`.\) (:|) (.´/) (・_・)

J-Pop #2: Shining Star

There's a hurricane a'stormin' outside so I wrote this post on Friday. Thanks to the miracles of Post Scheduling this should come out here on Sunday at 3:00pm.
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Ok, this one is pure J-Pop, I swears it. (^^___;;)7
From Nami Tamaki, one of the genre's greatest.



Before Hallyu hit me in college my anime love sailed me through a lot of J-Pop territory. On the other hand, I didn't listen to a lot of radio. As a result of this I grew up appreciating music without having to understand the lyrics.

K-Pop #6: Covers

Remember what I said about the dances being a big part of the 'songs' as a whole? It's pretty amazing how far and wide K-Pop has spread. People in countries way out, far from S. Korea show their love with dance covers like these:



Speaking of dance covers, check out some of this talent for Rainism.

It makes me smile to see the fun go beyond borders and even language barriers.
Case in point! => There was actually a dance cover contest for the 2NE1's single "I AM THE BEST" and the submissions came from all over the world. If you have some time to kill, take a look at these videos.

France. Vietnam (the contest winners). Singapore. USA. Thailand. Japan.

K-Pop #5: Legendary Dances

The videos wouldn't embed so I had to use all links instead. (T_T)

Speaking of K-Pop dances and popularity, here's a very nice video from one of the YouTube channels I'm subscribed to, Simon and Martina.

At the time of this post the most popular comment, with 317 (O_O)-b's:
"seriously 2008 was the best kpop year....all the legendary songs were out then".
Not wrong. That statement is not wrong.

For ease of access, here's the list of songs they reference:

Jewelry - One More Time

TVXQ - Mirotic (See last post for this vid (O_<))

Rain - Rainism This is one of the most famous K-Pop performances, even today.

Uhm Jung Hwa feat. T.O.P. - D.I.S.C.O

Big Bang - Lies (One of my personal favorites)

Wonder Girls - Nobody


Wonder Girls - So Hot

Lee Hyori - U-Go-Girl

And the song over the credits is Sunset Glow by the way. Just so you know.

Enjoy the musics.

K-Pop #4: Dance

Remember what I said about K-Pop being unabashedly commercial? The spirit of the genre is to entertain and this is something they do very well. One consequence of this is the prevalence of Singles over Albums. Every year dozens of new groups debut and/or disband, making so-called 'one-hit wonders' de rigueur. It is what it is though, I for one don't lament the realities of the industry as they are and I don't have a contemptuous attitude towards the different way they do things. The continuously changing field of artists makes it extremely interesting to watch and read about, something I used to do often.

You remember such classic hits as this and this? The catchy tunes in conjunction with the music video and dance routine doubtless helped to cement them as classics of the pop genre. I call them classics of pop because that is what they are, regardless of whether you actually like the songs or not. For K-Pop artists the dances and/or music videos of their singles are considered almost as important as the songs themselves. A lot of the staying power for these songs comes from the memorable dances and this isn't lost on the creative minds behind the music. That's one thing I miss about those pop days. You don't get a lot of those intricate dance numbers making the videos anymore. This is one reason I think Beyonce's Single Ladies got so much attention. Alongside "...Baby One More Time" I don't think it would have stuck out so much because it wouldn't have been the only video to be comprised of dance routine. To be sure there are still dance routines in MVs but they don't make the videos. For example, take Lady Gaga's Telephone. It has a dance routine, sure, but it didn't draw specific attention. No one talks about it, praises it, or associates the dance with the song. It's just...there.
Not so with many of the hit K-Pop songs. Years later, these movements still evoke the song they came out with. Not to mention the hordes of talented fans you'll find on YouTube who upload dance covers for them. It's really quite awe inspiring to see so much fun coming out of this. And if you have a problem with fun... well, I don't know that we can be friends any more.... ~~(/>▂<)/

Observe, for your viewing pleasure, one of the best to have graced the stage:

Of particular note is the sway @2:00.


That group right there is TVXQ, the very same group that sang "'O' Jung Ban Hap", my first touch with K-Pop. In retrospect it makes perfect sense that this be so; TVXQ's fanbase is massive. Fun fact: the group has made the Guinness Book of Records twice, first in 2008 for having the largest official fan club in the world and subsequently in 2009 for being the world's most photographed celebrity group.