First up is the Wonder Girls song "Nobody." I didn't realize it until after I got home, but there is both a Korean and English version of this song, and the Korean one is INFINITELY better. I don't know if this is really possibly, but I feel like the girls' singing ability is far better in Korean, plus is just flows better and doesn't seem so "dubbed." On my Facebook profile I accidentally posted the English version, but I will attempt to post the Korean one here, because a) it's better, and b) it's the one my room and I danced to for the talent show that was a part of my study abroad program, so it has more memories for me (even if those memories involve a possible act of sacrilege, of trying to practice a goofy choreographed dance in a meditation room with a giant cross).
After this we have the song "Marshmallow" by IU. I don't actually know anything about this song, but we saw the music video for it in one of the breaks between lectures (in between each half of the lectures, a different artist would be featured and we would watch two of their music videos, it got to the point where you had to make a conscious decision between going to the bathroom and staying to watch the videos because they were so interesting), and it intrigued me with its weirdness. I don't know what's going on or what she's singing about, the best I can make out is that her live-in boyfriend is actually a marshmallow, or she wishes he was a marshmallow, and she enjoys knitting. Or something like that. I suppose I could look up the lyrics for the song or the Wikipedia explanation for the video, but that would take all the fun out of it, as I think it's more exciting when it makes no sense.
Getting into the more clubby side of things, there's the song "Hands Up" by 2PM. I can't remember where I heard this first, but it definitely sounds like it could be a hit on the USA Top-40 Charts. It actually took a few listenings before I could easily differentiate between this song and . . . another which at the moment I can't remember. Perhaps this means that I can't actually differentiate between them like I thought I could. I guess I'll have to get back to you on that one.
Next up is the song "Mirotic" by TVXQ, a band with a name that is an acronym for something, but I don't know what the full term is. These guys are apparently the "gods" of K-Pop, and this song got them into a lawsuit with the Korean government (TVXQ won), for featuring the line "under my skin" which was deemed to be a bit too risqué. Frankly, this confuses me, because I'm pretty sure I've heard other K-Pop songs with lines that were racier than that, so it's not like the whole Korean music market is prudish, unless "under my skin" is slang for something far worse that what I can imagine.
While we're going with the boybands, let's see something from Super Junior. I kept hearing this song "Sorry Sorry" while I was in Korea, so it must be pretty popular, and the video isn't bad, if you're into black and white filming with funky lighting effects.
While I and some of the other girls from Cedar Crest were out for a walk around Olympic Park, we heard a terrific amount of noise coming from one of the old Olympic buildings, and it turns out that the band Girls' Generation was playing there that day as part of their tour, and, in addition to having enough members to supply about 2.5 American girl bands, Girls' Generation is crazy popular in Korea. Their song "Gee Gee" apparently broke a ton of radio records, like being number 1 for the longest amount of time ever. The first time you hear the song, you're like "What on earth is this?" but then you'll find that the chorus is stuck in your head and keeps going on repeat, which may explain why it was so popular, people kept trying to listen to it all the way through in order to get it out of their heads.
Finally, I must mention 2NE1, the band with the super-confusing name! You can pronounce it "To Anyone" or "Twenty One," though those pronunciations have nothing to do with what the letters and numbers actually stand for, which is "New Evolution of the 21st Century." Oh, and if you're a fan of the group, you're called a "Blackjack" because of the reference to the number 21. Got that? I'm not a huge fan of the music put out by this group, though I do think that parts of this song "Fire" sound kind of like the Black Eyed Peas' "Boom Boom Pow." But maybe that's just me.
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