I’ve written a lot about Harry Styles since I discovered his talent on “Sunflower, Vol. 6” last August. Whereas Fine Linewas kind of a sleeper hit record for me I was expecting a lot from Harry’s House. In some ways, the record met my expectations, creating an old-time vibe that borrows from obscure Japanese jazz records and seventies singer-songwriters like Joni Mitchell who even wrote a song titled “Harry’s House / Centerpiece” on her 1975 record The Hissing of Summer Lawns. In other ways, the record feels a bit haphazard, blending the ’80s sound of “As It Was” with ’70s folk and disco. There’s certainly a mood of the record, but it’s not always the mood I’m in.
THERE’S A HAZE ON THE HORIZON, BABE.. Take for example the second track and second single “Late Night Talking.” On the album, “Music for a Sushi Restaurant” sets up a tangy, tasty concoction of sounds. Lyrically, it’s “Music for whatever you want” fitting as nicely into an Apple Commercial as music in the car, at a party, in the grocery story–because heck, the sexual innuendo is lost on the shoppers– or even at a sushi restaurant. “Late Night Talking” in ways builds on the musical energy of “Sushi,” but introduces an undertone of the melancholy that both plagues the record gives it its heart. The ambiverted sound of flamboyant horns and sad lyrics make the mood of Harry’s House difficult to place. “Late Night” is said to be written for Harry’s latest relationship with actress and filmmaker Olivia Wilde. The song is about stepping out of your comfort-zone to fall in love with someone, even moving across the world to be with that person. Sometimes the other person needs cheering up and naturally we long to be meet our own needs first. “Late Night” shows the speaker forgoing his needs in order to make his love “happier.”
YOU STUB YOUR TOE OR BREAK YOUR CAMERA. As a follow up to the monster hit “As It Was,” “Late Night Talking” feels a bit underwhelming, especially given the other punchy tracks the album has to offer, but that’s probably Styles’ strategy as “Watermelon Sugar” wasn’t his lead single on Fine Line. Even though “Late Night Talking” isn’t a folk ballad in the way that “Boyfriends,” “Matilda,” “Daylight” or even “Little Freak” is, “Late Night” feels like a slower, blander song on the record compared to the high energy tracks like “Cinema” and “Daydreaming.” Despite the lyrics of “Late Night,” I can’t help but feeling the song mimics catching the flu or a bad cold that keeps you in bed for a while. Like many songs on the record, I just feel my sense of taste dull, and the grays that Styles uses in his singles artwork reinforce the dulling of the senses, kind of many things don’t taste well when you’re congested because you are unable to smell it. To me, the music video also reinforces that congested feeling of being in bed for the weekend rather than going out. While the images of all the people in Harry’s bed caressing is supposed to give the viewer the idea that there will be something sexual happening, the scenes of the bed traveling to other locations remind me of a fever dream rather than something sexy. There’s a haze over this whole album like coming down with a cold just when something important is happening, and perhaps it’s all a metaphor for Styles’ mental health during the pandemic. Maybe it’s a collective feeling we have during a pandemic in which some of us get sick and others fear that we’re going to get sick. “Late Night Talking” is a reminder that love can still happen when we’re sick, and sometimes it’s the disease, and sometimes it’s the cure.
Dave Barnes is a Contemporary Christian singer-songwriter, but he isn’t completely bound by the genre. Barnes is a Nashville songwriter whose songs have been recorded by country, pop, and CCM singers. In fact, his 2010 hit, “God Gave Me You,” became a number-one hit for country singer and future The Voicejudge, Blake Shelton. Barnes’s version has a lot less twang but all the production quality of a pop-country hit. Barnes wrote the song for his wife who had been through the “ups and downs” of his musical career. Shelton heard the song on a CCM radio station and decided to propose to his then-girlfriend, fellow country star, Miranda Lambert.
WE ARE STITCHED TOGETHER. The strap-line of the song is told in the title: “God Gave Me You.” The speaker was broken until he met the right person. That person came from God, and together God and the man’s soulmate mend the speaker’s heart. Many of us listen to a song like this and think about our own relationships. We might think about the ways we’ve failed those we’ve loved in the past, or how they have failed us. Christians might look at songs like this as a formula: be the right person, God will send the right person; God will give you 50+ years of a satisfying marriage with 2.5 kids, satiating sex, and ultimate fulfillment that you’ve fruitfully multiplied. And sometimes that works out. To this day,Barnes remains happily married with three kids. Like Shelton, listeners can be enchanted by the handsome dirty blond Barnes holding his guitar, singing about “an angel lovely” being tricked into falling for someone who is out of his league. If only you let God work his matchmaking magic, this fairytale could happen to you. By contrast, Blake Shelton, who covered the song, dedicating it to his new bride, Miranda Lambert, is no longer married to Lambert. As Shelton’s video for “God Gave Me You” (see below) features Lambert, it is no longer played on Country Music Television (CMT). Sometimes love doesn’t work out, and we wonder what went wrong.
I’VE BEEN A WALKING HEARTACHE. I’VE MADE A MESS OF ME. In 2014 I used this song in my religion class for my adult ESL students. Somehow we were talking about love and relationships, a topic I really had no business talking about being single and slowly coming to terms with my sexuality. My students felt that “God Gave Me You” was a nice fairytale of a song. The supporting Bible verses, such as Genesis 2:23-24, which says: ‘The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man. That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh” (NIV) didn’t make the students buy into the “divine conspiracy.” And I was buying into less and less. The formula for a good marriage puts so much pressure on both parties and makes the relationship with God transactional. If I do x, God will bless me with y. If I am faithful until marriage, God will bless me with a “smokin’ hot wife.” And there’s tons of rhetoric regarding the opposite: If you do x, God will allow y to happen to you. If you look at porn, you’ll become a sex addict, a rapist, or maybe even gay. If you have sex before marriage, your marriage will likely end in divorce. The problem was, in 2014 when the divine conspiracy was thwarted, I started to hear stories about marriages breaking up when young adults married because their hormones told them to marry but in their 30s and 40s they realized they didn’t love their partners and they wanted more from their lives. And the biggest thing that shattered this myth for me, was realizing that no matter how I tried to deny my truth, I only saw a life of misery. So that led me to a bit of rebellion.
In high school, Kim Sung-kyu, the future leader of the boy band Infinite, had to hide his vocal practice from his parents. In high school he sang in a rock band with some of his friends. When he graduated he left his hometown of Jeonju in hopes of having a career in music in Seoul. After failing an audition for SM Entertainment, he tried out for label Woolim Entertainment. His hope was to be a rock singer like his future label mates, Nell. On the day of his audition, though, he was suffering from appendicitis. Determined to make it as a singer, he sang through the pain and went to the hospital after the audition finished. Rather than cultivating Kim’s rock talents, the record label decided to place him as the leader of the their first boy-band, Infinite. Throughout the group’s tenure, they would flirt with rock music; however, it wasn’t until Sung-Kyu’s debut EP, Another Me, that he would be able to make the kind of music he envisioned.
WHENEVER THIS TIME OF YEAR COMES, I ALWAYS THINK OF THE WORDS YOU USED TO SAY TO ME. Released at the end of 2012, Another Me is a K-pop album for listeners who don’t really care for the genre, and was an excellent introduction to Korean music. From the vocal intro/title track that is reminiscent of early ’90s harmonies to the near-epic closing track “41 Days,” which displays Sung-kyu’s passionate vocals, this short album is a refreshing look at a soft-rock album when most Koreans musicians, particularly ones with any association with K-pop, had long rejected the genre. Born in 1989, Sung-kyu’s prominence in the music scene corresponded with a rejection of guitars, bass and drums, in favor of synths and trap beats. And while the songs onAnother Meare much calmer than some of the rock bands who charted on the pop charts in the ‘90s and ‘00s, the EP has an authenticity that the “other” Sung-kyu can sing to the music he believes in. His confidence will make it popular, rather than chasing trends.Another Me was not a very popular release. Apple Music didn’t have it for a long time, and Sung-kyu’s later releases seem to have received more recognition. But fans of the album seem to really love it. The guitar-driven “Shine,” Like “Time Lapse,” was written by Nell’s vocalist Kim Jong-wan. Sung-kyu stated that he auditioned for Woolim Entertainment because of Nell, so the lead singer’s input on the album brings Sung-kyu’s career full circle. Speaking about the seasons of change, a break up, a longing for the past lover and a longing for the past makes this late ’90s-sounding guitar ballad feel relevant even ten years later.
YOUR VOICE, YOUR EYES, YOUR TOUCH THAT LINGERED ON ME. Fall seems to be the most nostalgic season. The life germinated in the spring and brought to fruition in the summer seems to have our minds focused on the new. From the first buds on the trees in late February, we focus on the possibilities that this new life will bring. But our minds start to change with the nearing of the harvest. When the children go back to school, adults realize that the possibilities we hoped for when we were children didn’t go exactly to plan. We stop looking ahead because, in the fall, we’re truly afraid of what bitter cold the winter years of our lives might bring. Hence we buy into the pumpkin spice, the apple picking, the cozy sweaters, a form of carpe diem when it comes to the midlife crisis. We remember “when I was a kid,” looking through old yearbooks, remembering past Halloweens, Thanksgivings, and Christmases. Parents propitiate these traditions or modify them, and thus we repeat the cycle of nostalgia year in and year out until the children leave the house. In the fall, we look back at the year, measuring how far from the target the darts fell. And we can’t just confine it to one year, we might overanalyze our patterns in the fall. We may drudge up old relationships, wondering how I failed her or why he’s no longer around. But before going to call up an ex, remember that the golden light cascading through the colored leaves encapsulates only the good of that other person. Remember that those cold nights when the bitter breeze carries the last of the leaves clinging to the top of the tree only frames your failures, not successes. And when the fall begins, the Korean harvest festival celebrating the first full moon of the fall, Chuseok, be thankful for what you’ve been given this year and in this life. The relationships may not have gone they way you expected, but who are you, God?
In 1995, the band Ednaswap, a female-fronted rock band from Los Angeles, almost released their song, “Torn,” as a single. However, nobody knows Ednaswap’s version. Singer Lis Sørensen recorded the song in Danish as “Brændt” before Ednaswap recorded it in English. Ednaswap’s version draws some comparisons to female-fronted rock bands of the time like Garbage or some songs by The Cranberries. In 1996 the song was covered by American-Norwegian singer Trine Rein, whose popularity declined with the release of her second album. None of the previous versions would be remembered by the English-speaking world. “Torn” is best known for its 1997 recording by Australian soap opera actress-turned singer Natalie Imbruglia, whose version topped the US Airplay charts for 11 weeks. In the UK, the song is the most played ’90s song, and in Australia, it is the most played song on the radio since its release in 1997.
THERE’S NOTHING WHERE HE USED TO LIE. Of all the versions of “Torn,” Natalie Imbruglia’s captures the “1997 sound” best with the acoustic guitar and tight pop production. On the heels of Alanis Morrisette and Meredith Brooks, the Imbruglia’s music video is also a relic from the past. The video shows Imbruglia singing the song and shooting a scene in which something clearly changed between the actors. They fake their affection when the camera roles, but they constantly have to reshoot because the non-verbal communication between the actors is off. Actor Jeremy Sheffield plays the boyfriend who is the “illusion” who “never changed into something real.” He can’t get into the romantic scene and looks to Imbruglia wanting feedback, but Imbruglia looks more and more dismayed and withdrawn as the video progresses. A song like “Torn” should have spun more singles for Imbruglia. Several songs charted in Australia and Europe; however, to Americans, she is known as a One Hit Wonder. I remember hearing “Torn” years later on Adult Alternative radio when I started listening to some non-Christian radio around 2002.
LYING NAKED ON THE FLOOR. Perhaps I came across the song scanning the radio for a Christian song, and the lyrics about the shame of misreading an adult relationship reminded me of Christian music’s use of shame for all things sex-outside of marriage, so I thought this song may have been a Christian song in disguise. After all, in 2000, ’90s Christian rocker, Australian-American singerRebecca St. Jameshad released the abstinence anthem “Wait for Me,” which was used at True Love Waits rallies. I’m probably not the only ’90s/2000s kid who has mistaken the message of these two songs as being the same: sex is bad. “Wait for Me” is the positive example of waiting until marriage, “Torn” is the what happens if you don’t: you feel dirty, used up, and torn. Rebecca St. James was 23 when she released “Wait for Me.” The singer wouldn’t marry until 2011 at the age of 34. She remains a proponent of sexual abstinence until marriage. But is sexuality a one-size-fits-all? I grew up believing it was to the point of wanting to commit the sin of tattooing 1 Corinthians 6:20 on my groin so that in the heat of the moment, should it ever arise, I’d have to explain that my body was not my own. I hoped this solution would keep me straight and until the waiting forced me into a heterosexual relationship.
“Cadence” was the third single from Anberlin. Vocalist Stephen Christian talks about the band overhearing him playing the song on an acoustic guitar one day. Thinking the song was too mellow for Anberlin, he thought the song would be better suited for his solo project, Anchor & Braille, but the band loved the song and placed it as the penultimate track on their debut record, Blueprints for the Black Market. The song is inspired by Christian’s time in college when he roomed with his brother, Paul. The brothers talked about life, philosophy, relationships, and God, and the song was a culmination of those late night conversations. The song features some of the best drumming on the record. Before the band’s livestream of the album Nathan Young, who was fifteen at the time of recording Blueprints, tells a story about how producer Aaron Sprinkle‘s brother Jesse, drummer of Poor Old Lu and later Demon Hunter, was brought in to record drums on the record because Aaron was skeptical of Young’s ability. However, Nathan Young proved himself competent, and his drumming can be heard throughout the entire album. The drums on “Cadence” showed the beginnings of a great drummer.
THE CLOSER I COME TO YOU, THE CLOSE I AM TO FINDING GOD. For me, Blueprints for the Blackmarket, and especially “Cadence” will forever remind me of the trip I took to Florida with my family on Labor Day weekend sophomore year of high school. I can still smell the cheap vanilla air freshener wafting to the back seat of the crammed 1996 beige Toyota Corolla, all three kids, including high school teens armed with elbows fighting to expand their borders. The reason for this trip was to celebrate my great-grandfather’s hundredth birthday. We had certainly taken the twelve-hour trip by car before and it was always unpleasant. Besides the fighting for space in the backseat, there was the downright vicious quarrellings between my parents. It usually started about speed, then an insult to the radio, then a self-righteous accusation followed by an insult of the other’s intelligence. All the while Hall & Oates, Elton John, Chicago, or some other dull soft rock was blaring so that my sisters and I had to turn up our Walkmans so loud to drown out the whatever my mom wanted to listen to. There were a few occasions I was able to sneak Blueprints into the tape-player (I had to record albums on tapes to listen to them on trips because we drove old cars), and I got away with it because Blueprints almost sound like classic rock. But the memories of this trip come from underneath Sony headphones.
IF THESE ARE MY PARTING WORDS. The weekend is a blur, and I’m left with faint impressions: sweating in a baggy long-sleeved dress shirt newly bought from JC Penny; listening to a string quartet for special music of my grandfather, great aunt, second cousin, and my mom–who had practiced only the night before for hours to make the piece of music work–as a kind of preview for the actual event on Sunday afternoon at the church reception hall; my great aunt MC-ing the event, telling the story of my great-grandfather’s life interspersed with videos tributes, special music –one hymn I played on the classical guitar–, and stories told by elder church members; and the pool party my cousin and my sister and I threw for just us. Then on Monday we drove back home because school started back on Tuesday. Reflecting back on that experience in the back seat of the car, I thought about all the stories about my great-grandfather I heard from my dad when he started dating my mom. My great-grandfather was my dad’s first encounter with a Seventh-day Adventist, and there were quite a few eccentric stories about how many strange things he ate and drank over the years. My thoughts from the back of the car was about how lonely it would be to live to be a hundred. My great-grandfather’s day revolved waking up early, drinking green slime, studying the Bible, and going to church, and going to bed early. Maybe years of the same rhythm made him content. I wonder, to this day, what of my great-grandfather’s story do I want for me; what should I jettison?
When Paper Route announced that they would be releasing their debut LP Absenceon Universal Motown, a now-defunct subsidiary of Universal Republic Records, I thought that it was an interesting, if not somewhat strange choice of a label. But Paper Route is a band that aimed to challenge the musical genre. Absence moves away from the band’s Americana roots and into an electronic sound. But it’s tracks in the center of the record like “Be Healed,” “Good Intentions” and even the New-Wave-inspired “Tiger Teeth” that contain the soul of the record. Perhaps the band isn’t Motown, but their sound certainly expanded on Absence.
I WANNA BE YOUR TV SET. The airy pop tune “Good Intentions” shifts the album from rock to pop, following “Wish” and “Carousel.” By the middle of the album, it seems clear that Paper Route is a better pop group than a rock band. Paper Route’s bassist and keyboardist Chad Howat talked about the band’s history on the Your Favorite Band Podcast. Howat explains that he began writing a lot of songs when he couldn’t sleep after his former band, For All the Drifters, dissolved. The sound of Paper Route was more ethereal than For All the Drifters, a straightforward rock band, and Howat’s experimentation with digital recording and electronic music was yet to be fully realized until the band’s EP Are We All Forgotten. He also talks about how Paper Route was signed to Universal Motown which allowed them to do virtually whatever they wanted, meaning that the band didn’t have to make Motown music. The sub-label folded after Absence was released, leaving the band without a label. Since then, Paper Route has wandered from indie label to indie label before going on a long hiatus in 2018.
MY DREAM IS FINALLY COMING TRUE. As time passes without the collaborative work of Howat and singer JT Daly, I’m reminded of Paper Route’s commitment to keeping the real in pop music rather than conforming to the fickle, plastic nature of pop trends. “Good Intentions” is a song about not passing the muster in a relationship. What the speaker thought of as well-crafted plans were actually just dreams. Unaware, when he thought he was doing his best, he had actually been fobbing off responsibility to satisfy the listener. Of course, the speaker in this song only admits “I’ve got no execution,” not admitting that he is probably at fault–it’s so much easier to play the victim in a relationship and blame it on the other person. Intentions won’t make it in the music business, nor any other field for that matter. A two-bit effort will pay off with two-bit dividends. But success isn’t just about hard work; if that were true Paper Route would have gotten huge. And certainly, it’s not the most talented that enjoy success; the creative team can cover up a lack of talent with catchiness. But combine intentions, work, talent, luck, and connections, you might get a hit; you might get the job; you’ll probably survive. Best of luck!
Tyson Motsenbocker released his second full-length record, Someday I’ll Make It All Up to You, on Valentine’s Day of 2020. Like with most early 2020 releases, the plan was to release the record and tour in the spring. That tour started but was quickly canceled due to the beginning of the pandemic. While the anxieties and existential questions raised by the pandemic are not intentional themes, Someday was definitely a record that could resonate with listeners who feel the world is slipping away from them.
A NEW DAY’S COMING. Working with producer Tyler Chester, Tyson Motsenbocker involves more production on his Someday I’ll Make It All Up to You than his previous efforts. Chester is a musician known for his production on Switchfoot‘s 2019 record Native Tongue. While Motsenbocker claims Switchfoot’s Jon Foreman as his mentor, and given that both Switchfoot’s hometown and Motsenbocker’s second home town is San Diego and their prior tours and collaborations, the singer-songwriter has a broader scope than a California sound. An eastern Washington native, Motsenbocker writes about the change of seasons and different cities throughout the record, making the album feel like every town in America is Motsenbocker’s hometown. The album feels equally west and east coast, with the album opening in New York City, which according to an interview with Long Distance ListeningPodcast, the singer-songwriter hadn’t been to New York until he was an established artist, only touring on the west coast at first.
The opening track to Tyson Motsenbocker’sSomeday I’ll Make It All Up to You, “High Line,” is the singer’s thoughts as he takes the subway from Brooklyn to Manhattan to walk on the High Line train overpass. As the singer is alone with his thoughts, he thinks about urban alienation, loss, the future, and realities he wants to deny, yet he can no longer deny. The calm acoustic guitar and warmth that the strings and piano bring the the melody as well as Zealyn, the female backing vocalist make this a track that works for every season, though admittedly, even in a somewhat cooler, northern city, like New York, nobody wants to be taking this kind of journey in the middle of the afternoon, despite the air conditioning on the subway. The High Line Park in Manhattan opened in 2009 after repurposing a closed rail line. Since then, the elevated walkway has become a landmark. It’s a place for tourists to see the city, for dates, for meeting up. The concept of an elevated park walkway has been copied in cities around the world, including Seoullo 7017 in Seoul, South Korea. While I don’t have any memories involving the High Line, I certainly have a few with Seoullo 7017. I don’t think it makes as quiet a catchy song, though.
Back in 2010 we learned that yes, a pickle can get more likes than Nickelback, a band that had become the most hated “butt rock” band in the mid-’00s. In fact, the conclusions of the social media study found that a pickle had more likes than Oprah Winfrey or other beloved figures. It turns out that internet users’ hate outweighs Internet love, or the terrible outweighs the good. In 2014, the most hated rock band would become U2 after their release of Songs of Innocencewas forced into every iTunes users’ library. People tried everything to scrub the songs from their shuffle. Today, people have mostly forgotten about Nickelback, and Apple Music no longer comes standard with that U2 album, so people have other musical axes to grind. Justin Bieber has grown up and is no longer blaring in our cultural continuousness. So who is the most hated band these days? After the 2019 Super Bowl it wasMaroon 5, for taking to the stage when the NFL was in the middle of racial controversy around Colin Kaepernick’s taking a knee during the National Anthem and many other musical acts refused to play that year. Or is it the “rock groups” who take the name of rock ‘n’ roll in vein?Imagine Dragons(we’ll talk about them later) orColdplay, who has garnered a lot of hate due to their pop sound and supposed generic sound?
THIS JOY IS ELECTRIC. “There’s not much to hate about Coldplay. But every time I hear one of their songs I kind of don’t realize I’m listening to anything,” my coworker once said. Many listeners have also come to this conclusion. In the video “Where Coldplay Went Wrong,”critic Frank Furtado, of the YouTube channel Middle 8, argues that Coldplay is the commercialized version of more talented, authentic bands more hidden in the scene. He also argues that lead vocalist’s Chris Martin’s avoidance of personal details in his lyrics make their songs mediocre at best. Finally, he argues that sing Viva La Vida, Or Death and All His Friends, the band has been virtually producing the same record over and over again, watering down their lyrical and musical depth in the process with the exception of 2019’s Everyday Life. One thing Furtado doesn’t talk about, though, is the danger of working with the same producers album after album. Perhaps Coldplay’s relationship with producers Brian Eno and Rik Simpson is to blame. Essentially, Coldplay is using the same ingredients and mixing them differently.
GOT ME SINGIN’ EVERY SECOND, DANCIN’ EVERY HOUR. Still, I admire Coldplay for their use of the recording studio as a musical instrument. Bigger than Coldplay is the production of Brian Eno, the producer that created three of U2’s most iconic albums The Joshua Tree,Achtung Baby, and All That You Can’t Leave Behind, worked with Genesis, Devo, Toto, and David Bowie, and scored The Lovely Bones—the soundtrack making the movie watchable. But for their latest single, Coldplay turns to a producer with a “Higher Power,” Max Martin, the producer with the second most Hot 100 number 1 hits under his belt, second to The Beatles’ producer George Martin. Starting with Ace of Base in the early ’90s and then writing and producing for the Backstreet Boys, Martin would score his first number one hit with Britney Spears in 1998 and then again with “It’s Gonna Be May,” I meant, “It’s Gonna Be Me” for *NSync He cultivated Katy Perry to become a hit producers, then took P!nk to the top of the charts. He replaced the banjos for EDM with Taylor Swift taking her from the top of the country charts to the top of the pop charts. He introduced the pop charts to dark R&B singer The Weeknd. However, Martin’s production doesn’t always mean success these days. Carly Rae Jepsen‘s Max Martin production on E-MO-TIONand Dedicated and J-Lo’s “First Love” were minor hits. “Higher Power” was a moderate comeback hit for Coldplay, but it was the other Max Martin track featuring BTS, “My Universe” that would take Coldplay to the top of the charts again.
Note: I’ve been in a pinch for quick reposts lately as I figure out how to balance the beginning of the semester with my blogging life. New content will be coming soon.
(황미영) debuted in 2007 with as a singer with one of Korea’s most successful girl groups of all time, Girls’ Generation. As a Korean American born and raised in California, Young spoke little Korean when she started her career as a K-pop singer. In interviews she has talked about relying on dictionaries before smartphone translators were invented and popularized. In 2016, Young released a solo EP, I Just Wanna Danceand a single “Heartbreak Hotel” featuring Korean rapper Simon Dominic. Young continued to be a part of Girls’ Generation until the group’s hiatus, starting in 2017, and has rejoined the group for their comeback this summer.
YOUR EYES THAT SEE THE END. “Heartbreak Hotel” touches a subject rarely tread upon in K-pop. Sharing the name from the Elvis Presley and Whitney Houston classics, Tiffany Young’s “Heartbreak Hotel” eludes to a break up after a sexual relationship. While the Elvis and Houston songs tackled the same topic using euphemism in the ’50s and the ’90s, respectively, a song like this is not common in K-pop, even in the 2010s. K-pop standards are that a song is sexy without being overly sexual, and complying with these murky standards could mean the highest level of fame. But Tiffany’s ballad differs with other K-pop songs, eluding to the seedy motels that line Korean cities, ever present but taboo to talk about. Korean media often appeals to a traditional ideal; however, standards are changing. A friend once told me in 2012, ten years ago when I first came to Korea, that Korean pop is sort of like ’90s music on the radio. Yes, there might be something shocking, but it’s only a little shocking. Of course, that was ten years ago, so maybe mid-’90s now?
TODAY I’M CHECKING OUT. Although “Heartbreak Hotel” doesn’t exactly conform to the standards of Korean pop music and it is not quite independent to the scrutiny of the bubblegum pop group Girls’ Generation, it opens up a discussion about sex in a culture that doesn’t like to talk about it much. While Korean media standard often promote abstinence, there is a contrast with the media consumed from the West. The Internet has connected the world, and in a world where everyone is talking, the standards imposed can be seen as unrealistic. There are many Korean YouTubers that talk frankly about sexual practices in Korea which would shock those who think that everything is like a K-Drama. Streaming services, such as Netflix, also produce original content that doesn’t have to comply with these standards. So a song that alludes to giving one’s heart away in a hotel is probably just what someone struggling with the balance between love and sex needs. “Heartbreak Hotel” is a song of empowerment. Tiffany says that she won’t be part a relationship that breaks her heart anymore, taking the power back, even though it hurts a bit.
Many credit the formation of Seo Taiji and the Boys in 1992 as the birth of K-pop. Singer Seo Taiji had been a member of the heavy metal group, Sinawe in ’80s but decided to experiment with electronic music and choreography. Seo, in essence, started the ripple, whereas, today’s boy band was part part of a forming Korean wave, or Hallyu (한류) that seems turning into more and more of a tsunami every year. The boy bands and girl groups of early ’00s were known by Korean enthusiasts. Korean cinema was known by film buffs. But in 2012 when Psy’s “Gangnam Style” hit the Internet, the wave officially hit everywhere. In the late ’10s, BTS and other K-pop groups started placing well on Billboard’s Hot 100, performing on American television shows, and featuring on American pop albums. Then in 2020, Korean director Bong Joon-ho cleaned up the Oscars with his film Parasite (기생충). Korean dramas, too, are part of the wave. While they haven’t broken through in their original language to the same extent that Parasite or BTS has, they are extremely popular in Asia and growing more popular in other places thanks to platforms such as Netflix.
EVERYONE CAN’T IGNORE IT NOW THAT THEY USED TO THEIR SPOILED GREED. Going back before the wave crested, the drama Reply 1997 (응답하라 1997) takes viewers to the late ’90s to the time of Japanese digital pets, Dance Dance Revolution, dial-up Internet, and a time when K-pop was ruled by two rival boy bands: H.O.T and S�ECHKIES. Besides being an excellent character-driven drama, Reply 1997 gives viewers a feel of what K-pop fandom was at its inception. We meet directionless Shi-won (played by Apink‘s Jeong Eun-ji), whose only teenage ambition is to become the wife of H.O.T member Tony Ahn (cameoed in the drama by the real Tony Ahn). As the drama goes on, she has a falling out with her friend Yoo-jung, when Shi-won realizes that Yoo-jung is actually a S�ECHKIES fan. There are so many nods to early K-pop, including Ji-won’s eventual boyfriend, played by none other than S�ECHKIES’s Eun Ji-won–the oldest member of the cast trying to pass as a teenager–Glee? Smallville? The drama follows the high school years of Shi-won and her friends. While the others are studying for the 수능 or CSAT, the college entrance exam that determines if or where you can attend university, Shi-won is sneaking off on a bus to Daegu for an H.O.T concert.
IN THAT INCURABLE SADNESS, THEY ARE ONCE AGAIN INSIDE US. Korean boy band music has been the soundtrack of teenagers since the ’90s, but Korean boy bands didn’t always sound like BTS, nor did they sound like the American/Swedish-produced equivalents. While some of the songs of High-Five of Teenagers (or H.O.T for short) are called bubblegum pop, the band was always more rap-heavy. Some complained that their lead single from 1998’s Resurrection“Line Up!” plagiarized Rage Against the Machine‘s “Killing in the Name Of.” Whether or not that was the case, H.O.T showed a much more aggressive sound than the Backstreet Boys or other ’90s American boy bands. In June of 1999, the band shared the stage with Michael Jackson, who was doing a benefit concert in Seoul. In September, they released their fourth album. The second single from 1999’s I Yah!“Git It Up!” sounds like hardcore rap and comes just short of screaming like the harder rock/hip-hop acts of the day. The boy band, too, took on a gothic aesthetic in their imagery and costumes. The lead single and title track of the album were a reference to a fire that killed elementary school students earlier that year. The music video for “Git It Up” includes scary imagery of a grim reaper standing over a baby in the nursery. It’s not quite Marylin Manson, but there is a sense of the ironic and grotesque the band is trying to convey with their message. The band broke up in 2001, when they couldn’t agree on a the terms of renewing their contract with SM Entertainment. While many say that ’90s pop or K-pop doesn’t hold up, Reply 1997 helped to give a resurgence to the old boy bands. And for non-Koreans, the drama introduced a world we never knew existed.
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