As we know, Koreans sure have a fierce sense of cultural pride (sometimes to uncomfortably myopic degrees). So it’s no big surprise that all are elated with Olympic gold medalist Park Tae-hwan’s win in the 400m freestyle on August 10. In about the half-day since he’s won the medal, his cyworld mini-homepage has amassed over 80,000 congratulatory messages.

Actually, currently there are 82,204 82,357 82,505 messages (that’s how fast the numbers climbed in the time it took me to write this post), although only the last 75,000 or so have come post-win. It’s kind of cute, actually, there are some messages reading, “I’m watching you on TV now,” and then, just a few messages later, “Just… a little… farther…” to be followed with, “Congrats on the gold medal!”

Of particular note are congratulatory messages left by members of girl groups Wonder Girls, Girls Generation (SoShi), and even figure skater Kim Yuna.

Kim Yuna’s message read:

“오빠 대박 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 추카해!!”
“Oppa, jackpot! Kekekeke Congratulations!!”

His site’s background music was the boy band 2AM song “아니라기에” (”To say it’s not”), to which 2AM’s Im Seul-woong wrote:

“(배경음악 선택에) 너무나 감사하고 올림픽 금메달을 석권한 박태환 선수처럼, 저희도 열심히 해서 가요계의 금메달을 따겠다”
“Thanks so much for choosing our song. Like you’ve won the gold medal at the Olympics, we’ll work hard and do our best to win the gold medal in the music industry.” (Whatever THAT means!)

Another 2AM-er, leader Jo Kwon-do, wrote:

“금메달 소식에 홈페이지에 와 봤는데 ‘아니라기에’가 흘러나와 깜짝 놀랐다. 금메달 따길 2AM모두 기도했는데 너무 축하 드린다”
“I came to the site after hearing the news that you’d won the gold medal, but I was startled to hear ‘To Say It’s Not’ playing. Everyone in 2AM had prayed you’d win the gold. Congratulations.”

Park Tae-hwan sure wasn’t shy about his gold-medal hopes; his cyworld address is http://www.cyworld.com/freestylewin.

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Tags: Girls Generation, Kim Yuna, Park Tae-hwan, Wonder Girls

Filed under: Pop Culture & Society by javabeans - 20 Comments →

Because it wasn’t enough to trot out fifteen-year-olds who can’t sing as sexually suggestive coquettes, now a nine-member “kiddie group” called Sweety is making its debut, with members ranging in age from 13 down to its 6-year-old “mascot.” (Btw, that’s eight girls, one boy. He be da pimp.)

They’re being touted as a group with singing skills “on par with adult groups.” If those adult groups mean the Wonder Girls, that’s not saying much. (Before you get offended: listen to this. Or this. Or this. Or this. My opinion is, if they put out such “professional” performances, they’re fair game to be called on it.)

I have nothing against the idea of a pop group aimed at a younger generation — heck, I grew up watching Kids Incorporated and Sesame Street, and my first music record (and nearly last, toy record players being pretty inferior products) was a Care Bears compilation. But it’s not the concept itself that has me feeling uneasy; it’s the tone and content of its marketing.

Singing aside, I’m disturbed at this trend for younger and younger teenage pre-teen poptarts, using the innocent “cute” defense to gloss over any suggestive implications that lie therein. Look, I’m not going call it pedophilic or accuse this group of being blatantly sexual, because I don’t think that’s true. But the point is that the slippery slope is getting slipperier with these mixed messages and crossed signals — tell me Sweety has nothing to do with the sex-peddling marketing strategies behind equally squicky Lolita-laden Wonder Girls or Girls Generation.

You can’t quite defend the choice of costuming as being innuendo-free when those short-short miniskirts are put on by adult stylists onto prepubescent girls — look at those two girls in the middle with their hands on their hips and their hips stuck out in their “Who, me?” faux-innocence poses. Is the coquetry a conscious gesture or has the image become so pervasive that these young girls have adopted it as the norm? Or are they being coached to act that way by their handlers? (ALL of those options seem creepy and unfortunate to me.) And do I see bare MIDRIFF with that cropped top? Even Wonder Girl Sohee admitted just this week that she used to shorten her skirts on her school uniforms. What, did she not have enough leg-baring and hip-swiveling in her day job?

Sweety’s first mini-album reportedly boasts “hip-hop rhythms” with “cute choreography,” and they’ve just filmed their first music video. That video had better be full of stuffed animals, dancing rabbits and animated birds, is all I’m sayin’. Leave the sexy stuff to the adults and let kids be kids, already.

Cable channel Mnet will start airing the group on July 22; a mini-album is set to go on sale soon.

Via No Cut News

SONG OF THE DAY

Lee Juck - “착시” (Optical illusion) ’cause I need some good ol’ “adult” music after this. [ Download ]

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Tags: Girls Generation, kpop, ranty/ravey, Sweety, teen sexualization, Wonder Girls

Filed under: Kpop News by javabeans - 63 Comments →

Go Ara

It’s graduation season in Korea, and as with everything else, stars always attract the most attention.

Fifteen-year-old So Hee of the teen pop group Wonder Girls has just graduated from middle school (ceremony was held on the 15th) — MIDDLE SCHOOL — which just tinges the group’s exaggerated flirtiness and coquetry with unsavory overtones, doesn’t it? I mean, it’s one thing for an adult to dress up as a schoolgirl and indulge one’s own adult fantasies, but when you put a middle schooler into that role and teach her how to dance and dress suggestively to cater to that same sexual fetishization, it kinda grosses me out. (And that doesn’t even have anything to do with the Wonder Girls’ tepid brand of weak-vocaled bubblegum pop. I will forever resent JYP for inflicting “Tell Me” upon the world.)

Graduating on the same day, but from high school, were So Hee’s fellow groupmate Ye Eun and actress Go Ara (Sharp 1 & 2, Snowflake). Ye Eun plans to enroll in Kyung Hee University’s art design school (postmodern music department) as a vocal major. Go Ara, who seems to be dropping her last name more and more to go by simply “Ara,” will move on to study theater and film at Joong Ang University’s performance and media school.

Other new high school graduates include Girls’ Generation’s (Sonyeo shidae) Tae Yeon on the 11th and Yuri on the 14th. Both SoShi girls have decided to forgo education in favor of their, um, artistic pursuits, and gave up any ideas of taking the national college entrance exam. (Wonder Girl Sun Ye, on the other hand, failed her attempt to pass the exam and plans to retake it.)

As for college grads, the 15th was ceremony day for actress Lee Yowon and comedian Choi Hyung Man, both theater and film majors at Dankook University. Lee Yowon, who starred in last year’s popular medical drama Surgeon Bong Dal Hee and the recent melodrama Bad Love, graduates late (after nine years), while Choi Hyung Man has accomplished the task in just six semesters, graduating early with honors.

Lee Yowon

Via Sports Seoul, Sports Khan

SONG OF THE DAY

Garina Project - “공부해” (Study) A little literal, perhaps. Oh well. [ zShare download ]

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Tags: Girls Generation, Go Ara, Lee Yo-won, Wonder Girls

Filed under: Celebrity News by javabeans - 16 Comments →

Wonder Girls: “Tell me!”

 
The following article brings up an interesting point but is ultimately pretty weak in its assessments. But it IS mainstream press, so I suppose that’s to be expected.

In any case, the topic is worth noting, even if the article makes the Lolita complex sound like a natural part of life or whatnot, rather than something that merits any sort of criticism. Being in touch with sexuality isn’t a bad thing, and I don’t think it’s productive to repress it either, but on the other hand, it’s an entirely different thing to praise a culture of nymphet-worship. Which I concede may be overstating the issue a bit. (Is it really?)

All I say is, the guy may have been charming and intelligent, but a society full of Humbert Humberts is not a place you want to raise your kids. Just sayin’.

Hung up on the Lolita complex: “I like teens!”

In a recently aired episode of MBC sitcom Kimchi Cheese Smile, there was a scene in which the thirtysomething single female character played by Lee Hye Young looked to a TV monitor playing MBC’s drama Legend, smiling as she observed the child actor Yoo Seung Ho, and said:

“Wow, we should protect kids like that on a national level.”

One after another, adults are uttering these kinds of candid admissions in their adoration of pre-teen and teenage stars. It’s nothing new that the debut ages of entertainers have been growing younger and younger, but the unrestrained admiration of these stars by those in their twenties, thirties, and forties is something that’s only arisen in the past few months.

 
SONG OF THE DAY

Sort - “잊었니” (Have you forgotten?) [ zShare download ]

Little Lolitas and their precocious sexualities >>

Tags: Girls Generation, teen sexualization, Wonder Girls, Yoo Seung-ho

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