26 April 2021 - Rosé - On The Ground

Roseanne Park was born 11 February 1997.... in Auckland, New Zealand.

She lived in New Zealand, and then Australia, until she was 15, and she had an audition with YG Entertainment, the famed K-Pop label.  Two weeks later, she was in Seoul, and she hasn't really looked back.  

The way K-Pop works, when a label signs you, you usually train with them in singing and acting and dancing until you are ready to join a group.  With Rosé , that happened four years later, in 2016, when she was paired with Jennie, Jisoo and Lisa - which the world knows better as BLACKPINK, who are likely in your area.  

K-Pop groups often have a set beginning, middle, and end.  I don't think BLACKPINK is done, and since the debut of Rosé as a solo artist happened AT a BLACKPINK concert, I think the group has a future.  

That doesn't mean that Rosé isn't a great artist in her own right.  Internationally, this song, released on 12 March, 2021, has been huge.  Its debut on YouTube has been the largest ever by a South Korean solo artist - with nearly 42 million views in its first day.  This song has so far peaked at #70 on the Billboard Hot 100, far higher than any other Korean female solo artist.   Worldwide, it's done even better.  Universally, this song is loved and respected.

Two things of note with this song.

1) The song is 100% in English.  100%.  Since it's Rosé's first language, it makes sense that she would cross over and do that.

2) Her first single probably could have been light and fun pop music.  This isn't.... and in fact, Rosé is listed as a co-writer of this deep and meaningful song.

I add this "live" performance to illustrate a piece of the K-pop machine that I don't really enjoy.  There's several videos like this. Rosé CLEARLY wants to sing her song.  She's fully capable of singing her song.  The helper track is turned up so high she can't.  When she can break through that track, you can hear the absolute passion in her voice.  

Here she is on the Tonight Show.  Pretty much the same performance.  She doesn't break through as much.  

5 November 2012 - Hyun-A - Ice Cream & Bubble Pop

Those of you who follow K-Pop must have known this post was coming.

By now, you've all heard the last great Korean pop classic (and read my post about it), "Gangnam Style".   At this point, it's our second biggest post ever.  And it's the #2 pop song in the country as of this writing, even this long after its initial discovery here.

Look back at that video, and you'll see that PSY has a female protagonist in his video.  That female is Hyun-A.  She also did a version of "Gangnam Style", callled "Oppa Is Just My Style" - that was also featured on our previous post, by the way - that has also gotten a lot of attention.  So, PSY really owes a lot of his success to Hyun-A, one could say.

Which is why he makes a cameo appearance at the beginning of this video.

But don't let that cameo fool you.  This song is all Hyun-A.  It's the in-your-face power K-Pop that she is well-known for in her home country, complete with envelope-pushing themes and outfits.  Her cleavage in this video is something of a minor scandal in Korea. She also weaves a little bit of English into her song and her video - check out the signs that the crowd is holding in the video.  And try not to laugh - English isn't their first language here.

Plus she runs over a clown with her ice cream truck.



Now, here's a little trivia.  What's the most seen K-Pop video of all time?  Easy one, right? It's "Gangnam Style."

So, what's the video it dethroned?

It was another Hyun-A song!  Here, she exhibits the same power pop - a little more pop, and a little less power, but both are still there.  More importantly, she exhibits a skill not often seen in K-Pop - rump shaking.  Seriously, this song borrows heavily from American hip hop, in both style and music.  Check out the breakdown at 2:18.