Technical difficulties

So I was planning on having a new post up this week, but since I finally got the parts to get my desktop back up and running I have been spending all my time working on that instead. If all goes well I should have it all configured the way I want by Friday and perhaps I'll get a post out on Saturday. Planning on doing a little post on one of the lesser known Fluxus artists, cause Fluxus is awesome.

A Korean's view on the difference between K-fans and I-fans.

(Preface: So this is from my friend oniontaker's Formspring  He's a Korean expat and awesome subber, and genuinely cool dude. Obviously the first part is the question asked of him.)

 

You know how there are fanwars all over international kpop fandoms, right? I've always wondered if the same issues are experienced among kfans as well. For instance, the fanwar that happened between some international ELFs and Sones over the GDA Daesang.

It used to be that only K-fans used to call each other out and 'fight' in an explicit sense, but with the sudden surge in the number of i-fans enjoying K-pop it seems like dividing lines are already appearing and that fanwars are becoming more frequent.

Clearly, having the same interests, iELF and K-ELF are likely to get angry over the same thing, as are iSONE and K-SONE, iHottest and K-Hottest etc. So if there is a serious issue, both the international wing and Korean wings of any fandom are likely to be involved.

But it would seem that in Korea, people of all ages take sides of allegiance, whereas internationally the demographic of passionate fans seems to be concentrated in teenagers.

Teenagers probably won't take very kindly to this but it's teens tend to be more self-centred, insecure and emotional idiots due to the transitional effects of puberty and the peer pressures in school life. So they tend to be more over-dramatic about everything, whereas the older fans are more chilled and couldn't give a fuck about what other fandoms think.

This makes international fans a potentially more volatile group.

Some of the exceptions would be DC08 and the frenzy over Jay Park in 2009. But boygroups tend to have very young fans who are passionately for (and in this case for antis, passionately against) certain figures.

K-fandoms have a long history. Perhaps this is why they have mellowed or matured. There are still people who leave hate messages on public message boards but big fan communities frown on trolling and fanwar behaviour. They make it a point to discourage members from engaging in conflict.

Take the Korean site bestiz for example: it is prolific and every idol group shares the same forum, with a Big Bang thread on top of a TVXQ thread on top of a SuJu thread on top of a Big Bang thread on top of a SNSD thread etc. Yet nobody trolls fans of another group and if anything, posts anything they are curious about. This kind of behaviour is unthinkable in say, on the 6theory forums.

A sad day for an old troll...

I just read that it's been confirmed that Eugene is getting married to Ki Tae-Yeong. It has been confirmed by their respective entertainment companies and the celebrity wedding planner Yuna Kim, who will be directing the wedding. While many fans of today's Kpop probably know her best as an actress, Eugene was my bias out of S.E.S. back in the day. The more depressing part is that this is probably foretelling of many more marriages to come for many of my favorite Kpop artists from that time. I'm gonna go drink a couple bottles of soju to drown out my sorrow.

Gonna start this off with a YGE artist. Yes, I said artist...

...so stop thinking it has anything to do with 2ne1 or Big Bang. While I think the YG Family has gone down hill since Big Mama left, since Wheesung left, since Brave Brothers left (though they've gone down hill since too), there are still some good artists at YGE. 1TYM and Jinusean can pretty much be credited with bringing hip hop to the mainstream in Korea and are still technically with YGE. Se7en proved last year that he still has the moves, though I can't say his hiatus from the Kpop scene improved his music any. It wouldn't say it was worse than his older stuff, or that it was bad compared to much of what was on the music shows around the same time, but I would have liked to see him grow more musically during his time of getting to work with other producers and such. While Ku Hye Sun is better known for her acting, she is also a wonderful singer and pianist. Which brings me to my favorite artist under YG's label, Gummy.

Gummy singing Around The Alley on A-Live

I have a lot of respect for Gummy's ability to sing with so much emotion, something that seems to be lacking in most Korean singers both past and present. Gummy can internalize a song and feel the pain, joy, love, whatever, even in songs she didn't write. To compare, listen to some of the OST's sung by Taeyeon or Soyeon. They are both really great singers, but I feel no emotion, no attachment to the feelings portrayed in the songs.

 Poor quality sound since it's a fancam, but especially @2:50 ish you can feel the emotion

Gummy also has an interesting way of dragging the lyrics. It's kinda hard to explain, but it's similar to older Shania Twain songs, how she'd just let the notes linger a bit past the beat. It gives her singing a much more personable and relaxed feel, like she's singing to a room of friends, rather than to a critical audience. I also love that Gummy is well respected amongst other great singers, having sang with Wheesung (yeah they were on the same label, but still), Bobby Kim, Hwayobi, and Lyn. Anyways, for people who've never given her much of a chance, go and give her music a listen. I hope you find her as pleasing as I.

Gummy and Lyn singing Call Me