Korean Music

Just the thought of what is about to come makes me cringe. Someone asked me about Korean music though, so it's my duty to bring to you the wonderful world of K-Pop...opps, I just threw up a little in my mouth.

Our first group is a boy-band that goes by the name of Big Bang. In my class we're doing lessons on the history of Rock 'n' Roll. I asked my students what music they listen to and a 12 year old boy told me that his favorite band is Big Bang. I asked him why, to which he replied "Because they're handsome." Yes. In a nutshell, that is the Korean music scene. 12 year old boys and girls listening to the most horrible shit in the world because the singers are handsome.



Sigh...generic beats rule all here. And forget about any Rock 'n' Roll.

This next one is not so popular anymore. However, for about a six month period I had to endure every kid in my class singing this song 20 times a day. It got to the point where I had to tell them that singing the "Tell me" song would result in an automatic F for the day.



I can understand why the record labels put these groups together. It's simple marketing. But, back home we at least had other options. I have to hear this crap everywhere I go. There's zero indie rock in Busan save for a few groups that occasionally play something like Radiohead covers in the foreigner bars.

The next group no longer really exists, at least not as far as I know. As I mentioned in an earlier post, one of the singers was kicked out of the band, and pretty much exiled from Korea back to America, because he wrote that "Korea is gay" on his myspace page when he was 17. While Korea itself may not be gay, this band certainly is. I present 2pm:



This next one fucking drives me nuts. I have to hear this shit a thousand times a day on the television now. Bullshit song was basically created to market a shitty cellphone. Of course, the girls are pretty hot, but dammit if I hear this one more time I'm going to throw my cellphone at the fucking TV.



Yet, another shitty boy-band called "Super Junior".



And finally one more monstrosity from some of the finest pieces of ass on the peninsula. Hell, if I was 16 I might listen to Girl's Generation. That way if I was ever lucky enough to meet one of them, I'd have some material to work with.




If you turn the volume all the way down it's actually great.



Indeed...