Tag: Korean music

Clueless Reviews, Complicit Academics, and Hallyu Nationalism

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Update (1 May 2015): My more formal review of The Korean Popular Culture Reader was published in Kyoto Journal 82, for those interested. Original Post: First, the clueless book reviewer: I’ve submitted my own review already–it’s apparently somewhere along the process toward becoming forthcoming, over at The Kyoto Journal–and I can say  found the book disappointing, but not for the same reasons as Bradley Winterton: I am sorry to have to say it, but The Korean Popular Culture Reader is close to the most disappointing book I have ever had to review. Not long ago I found myself engrossed in a Korean TV …

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Neo-80s Korean Music Videos (From 2008) and some Oldies

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I’m busy grading but I thought I’d share this crazy stuff. Despite what it looks like, it was made a couple of years ago. Looks like the 1980s are finally back. I am both horrified and amused: And some more videos for you, by the same weirdoes: Bizarrely, I find these videos way more “authentic” in some way than mainline K-pop. Maybe because the people in the video look like normal Koreans —  by which I mean, not plastic-surgeried beauty queens — just like in old K-pop? And because there’s an exuberant cheesiness in it. Now, some real old K-pop …

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A Random Linkdump and Concert Tonight…

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No time to post anything too significant today, or for the next couple of days. Oh yeah: this is late notice, y’all, but… Hwang Shin Hae Band is playing tonight. No idea if there are tickets available but I’ll be there a few hours early, trying to get one! Show’s at 8, and here’s a map to the venue — the Sang Sang Madang live hall… So anyway — my content free post of… Shiny Links! Some stories by people you should know about: Tina Connolly’s “Hard Choices” at Brain Harvest (or play the game, made by Kaolin Fire, here) …

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Korean Industrial & Japanese, Er, FolkyPop?

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More free stuff… Not sure about quality — which is my nice way of saying I’m not really convinced — but you may be amused by Che-Il Gwa, which is some kind of Korean industrial music. And to cleanse your palate, something a little more folkypop, from Nagoya: Secret Ocean’s album Kokoro No Furyoku. Okay, and for people like me: Intercontinental Music Lab. Geek out, ya geeks.

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