I’ve been watching a lot of Kpop videos on YouTube the past several months and, as with the time when I was a huge fan of Jpop, I only searched for live performances of the groups because I don’t enjoy watching music videos.
Music videos, like movies, are perfectly crafted stories with shots from different scenes and settings, and has no room for errors. Any imperfection is edited out and retaken again and again until the desired image is achieved. That gives it a lack of authenticity and makes it feel more like I’m watching photos rather than videos.
Even for live performances, I prefer those with live singing over lip-syncing. I’d rather catch videos of live singers perpetually going slightly off pitch than those that put up a perfect lip-sync. The stirring pleasure of watching a real performance is indescribable.
Recently, I’ve been very hooked to GFriend’s Rough. I’ve got no idea why the English title is Rough when the original Korean means “running through time.” Regardless, I’ve never felt goosebumps watching people dance and this was the first time ever I thought a dance routine was perfectly choreographed to fit the song. I’ve re-watched their performance of the same song at different live events countless times and still feel awestruck by the ingenuity of the choreographer. For this song, there can perhaps be no better choreography.
If, like me, you appreciate live singing even if they are slightly out of tune, enjoy the video below. Otherwise, focus on the dance. My only disappointment with the video is if only the camera had remained still, it would’ve better given the impeccable dance routine a much deserved attention.
Gfriend is a bit like the early days of Girls Generation (SNSD) . U can check out “into the new world”, which is unofficial protest theme song during the period of impeachment of Park Geun-hye.
Kpop groups place a lot of value on live singing, and those who excelled would do very well. A girl group that I really like atm is called “Mamamoo” (besides Sistar- who has disbanded)
U would notice I’m a fan of power vocals. 🙂
Protest against her impeachment or against her corruption?
There was this band called Spica that I was introduced to, whose songs I haven’t heard. But across the web, their strong vocals are receiving rave reviews and many have voiced the pity that the band has disbanded due to lack of recognition in the Kpop community in spite of their talent. I guess it’s not just vocals but also group dynamics.
Protest that led to her impeachment.
I luv spica. They have really good songs, never knew why they weren’t popular enough to stay on.
Any particular ones you’d recommend?
Spica’ Ghost was a personal fav, “you don’t love me” is great too.:)
Will give them a listen
One fine day, I was bored and went on a youtube binge and one of the videos that I watched was a live performance of GFriend’s Love Whisper. I instantly fell in love with them and started looking them up. Now, I am already 23 years old and liked Girls Generation when I was a teenager. I feel that I am too old to be fanboying cutesy girl groups at this age. Do you have any dilemmas like this? Lol. At least they give me another reason to start learning Korean all over again.
Haha, that’s a very interesting thought! Frankly, I have no issues with that because I don’t particularly like any group; I like individual songs regardless of the singers. I usually discover these songs by randomly selecting one Korean song that I don’t know as BGM while I work (because if I play a song I know, I won’t be able to focus) and let YouTube do the rest. If a song catches my ears, I will find out what song that is, and whose song it is.
I’m already 34 but I don’t think it’s a problem for an elder guy to like girl groups. I know elderly men who love idol groups and I do not judge them because it’s entertainment. Everyone has the right to enjoy entertainment. It happens a lot in Japan where men past their 30s or even 60s like idols. And no matter how cutesy a Korean girl group is, it cannot be worse than a Japanese idol group.
Even though there’s no particular group I like, I do think I like certain members of the groups I see, either for their looks or talent. It’s the same with an actress, an athlete, or anyone on the TV or on the streets for that matter. The disdain placed on a love of idol groups is just irrational.
I understand there is a stigma with men enjoying watching and listening to girl groups. People find that creepy, which I think is just hypocritical because women in their 50s or 60s also go crazy over young little Korean boy bands. I’ve even heard an elderly woman say her menstrual cycle started again when she saw Bae Yong Joon in person. Tell me that’s not creepy.
The world is as biased against men as it is against women. There is no one-way sexism. Sexism exists both ways but men don’t care enough to do anything about it. If you enjoy it, why let someone’s opinion take away your entertainment?