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By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
After a tough day’s evening of studying the information, I often require a palate cleanser, which tends to be not maybe binge- however actually multi-course-watching video clips on single matters: Now snooker, beforehand cricket, browsing in Bali, Mike Ehrmantraut, Clarke and Dawe, British steam locomotives — I’m supplying you with all these hyperlinks in case you might have the identical necessities — and earlier than that Ok-Pop, for which I might mount a vigorous protection if I’d had time to do a correct workup.
However I felt that some readers would possibly recognize one thing gentle, so right here we’re. I’ll begin with the economics, after which current a variety of wonderful pop confections in context. (A caveat: I take heed to a gaggle known as Twice, a musical juggernaut that’s been rolling since 2015, so to a teenage fan “Your Dad listens to Twice.” Oh nicely. In any case, my data is fairly restricted! In reality, by the requirements of real stans, who know each, nicely, manufactured element about their favourite performers, I hardly qualify as a mere fan.)
Let’s start with the economics (Stoller has Ok-Pop filed underneath “bizarre monopolies” on his substack). From the Worldwide Socioeconomics Laboratory:
“Trendy Ok-pop” can hint again to 1989 when Lee Soo Man based SM Leisure, which later turned one of many largest leisure firms in South Korea. In 1997, Park Jin Younger based JYP Leisure and in 1998, Yang Hyun-suk based YG Leisure. These three leisure firms are referred to as the “Large 3” in South Korea due to their large reputation and financial success; in 2018, SM Leisure generated $532 million in income, YG Leisure generated $248 million, and JYP Leisure generated $109 million.
The Ok-Pop trade has been excellent for Korea as some time. From Asia Fund Managers:
The Ok-Pop trade generates about $10 bn for the nation every year, in keeping with estimates.
The Ok-pop phenomenom is worldwide, with a number of the main markets being the USA, India, Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Germany, UK, Philippines, Japan, and France. In 2021, Spotify unveiled its world Ok-Pop hub and the month-to-month common Ok-Pop streams worldwide reached over 7.97 billion monthly. The identical yr, #KpopTwitter broke its personal document with 7.8 bn world Tweets, the earlier document being 6.7 bn Tweets in 2020.
In reality, BTS — a boy band juggernaut — can have a measurable affect on GDP:
For instance, a report estimates that the three live shows held by the boy group BTS in Seoul in 2019 have a complete direct and oblique affect of round 923 billion South Korean gained.
South Korea’s GDP in 2020 was about $1.64 trillion. Which means one boy band helped produce some 0.30% p.c of the nation’s financial output.
BTS’s affect is world. From The Diplomat:
Amongst all South Korean idol teams which have debuted in the USA, BTS has undoubtedly had the best success in breaking into mainstream America. The Hyundai Analysis Institute estimated that BTS alone has raised greater than $3.6 billion yearly for the South Korean economic system – equal to the contribution of 26 mid-sized firms. In 2017, practically 7 p.c of all recorded guests to South Korea expressed that BTS was a major motivation to go to the nation. In line with the Billboard Sizzling 100, BTS is the primary group to have six No. 1 songs on the Sizzling 100 in simply over one yr since The Beatles. Previous to their momentary pause from group tasks, BTS has accounted for practically one-third of all Ok-Pop-related gross sales and streaming in the USA, leading to 3.6 million album equal models, 2.56 billion audio streams, 1.3 million album gross sales, and three.1 million digital observe gross sales.
Twice, the group I observe, is a world act as nicely. From Time:
With greater than ten albums and EPs dropped since their 2015 debut, the group has persistently launched new music, in Korean and Japanese, at the very least thrice a yr. That’s an formidable schedule even for Ok-pop, the place the norm is to advertise one or two comebacks yearly.
The frequent releases have propelled Twice’s rise to the higher echelon of Korean acts. On YouTube, BTS, Blackpink and soloist Psy are the one Ok-pop acts who’ve music movies with extra views than these of Twice. Moreover usually topping charts and profitable music awards in South Korea, the nine-member ensemble has seen nearly unparalleled success in Japan. Earlier this yr, Twice turned the primary Ok-pop woman group to carry a dome tour in Japan, attracting an estimated 210,000 attendees throughout 5 live shows. Given that every one efficiency stops in this sort of tour are held at large dome venues—those in Japan have capacities of round 50,000 every—they provide unassailable proof of a gaggle’s skill to drive ticket gross sales.
(9 members! That’s lots!) Hopefully, all of the globalization gained’t denature the music, and switch it into mere pop from Ok-Pop.
With that, let me flip to one in every of Twice’s wonderful pop confections, “What Is Love?”, dwell in Seoul:
(Observe the size of the auditorium, and the manufacturing values. This isn’t a gaggle with out ambition.) New Musical Categorical feedback:
If there’s anybody on the market claiming they don’t instantly rise up and dance to the refrain on this one, they’re mendacity. ‘What Is Love?’ is usually thought of one of many pillars of TWICE’s illustrious discography, and for good motive. From the popular culture references peppered all through the music video to the heart-thumping, alluring lyrics diving into the curiosity of the world’s most complicated emotion, ‘What Is Love?’ stays one in every of TWICE’s most triumphant tracks.
Right here is that music video:
Western popular culture references, I’d add; proper right down to the cuckoo clock, together with The Princess Diaries, Ghost, La Boum, Pulp Fiction, Romeo + Juliet, Love Letter, La La Land, and Léon: The Skilled. So many Easter eggs![1]
None of this artistry — sure, artistry — comes simply. Right here, for instance, is a rehearsal video for an additional Twice tune, “Scientist”:
I do know little or no about choreography; I might are likely to file this underneath athletics, as a type of gymnastics carried out at a excessive degree. (I did in some unspecified time in the future watch a video by a New York hip hop choreographer, who added commentary to a different Twice rehearsal video, and who began out in impartial mode and progressively shifted to jaw-dropping admiration; I recall he commented on the choreography’s “intentional hand actions” (very balletic), and the way the dancers’ muscle tissue should burn.
In reality, Ok-Pop is a really laborious college, the place “trainees” signal contracts to one of many monopolies as younger youngsters[1], prepare for years earlier than launch, and most don’t make it. Right here, for instance, is Blackpink’s Lalisa Manobal (identified mononymously as “Lisa”), one other globally profitable artist, coaching some traineees:
One is reminded of a Zen grasp beating novices with a stick, although for a Westerner, it’s laborious to not suppose that the abused has was an abuser.
I like, I need to say, moreover the artistry, the self-discipline and psychological toughness of the performers. I additionally discover the sheer scale and complexity of the enterprise that brings the music to us intriguing. Right here, for instance, are the musical and technical personnel for “Method of Love,” “What Is Love?”‘s LP:
Fairly a bit extra difficult than the credit on the liner notes of the “data” (vinyl analog recording medium) I used to take heed to. And listed below are the help personnel for the “What Is Love?” EP; I’ve ordered them by position (“hair and make-up director”), from best quantity to smallest:
hair and make-up director (8)fashion director (7)choreographer (6)recording and mixing engineer (6)all devices, laptop programming, and digital editor (5)background vocals (5)design (A&R) and album artwork course and design (4)manufacturing (A&R) (4)vocal director (3)music (A&R) (2)guitar (2)bass (1)
photographer (1)printing (1)
video government producer (2)video co-producer (1)video director (1)
video government producer (1)net design (1)
mastering engineer (1)administration and advertising and marketing director (1)course and coordination (A&R) (1)producer (1) (J. Y. Park)
I like there are extra hair and make-up administrators (8) than choreographers (6). However these manufacturing values don’t come from nowhere. (And naturally there may be however one producer, “J. Y. Park,” he of JYP Leisure.)
Returning as soon as extra to the music, the huge wave of Twice followers produces lyrics movies color-coded by performer (as a result of with 9 group members, every one will solely sing just a few phrases at a time):
(This isn’t a intelligent plot to make you take heed to the tune once more; the music video additionally has lyric subtitles). Pop Issues feedback:
TWICE’s music has at all times been closely performance-oriented. They had been queens of mimicable choreographies that might go viral (like 2016’s “T.T.”) in a time when TikTok dances weren’t even a factor but. One phrase to explain their music was “cute”. Ok-pop “cute ideas” (aegyo) had been on the peak of their reputation when TWICE debuted. However ever since they put out their first single, “Like OOH-AHH(OOH-AHH하게)”, in 2015, no different Ok-pop group owned the lovable idea like them.
Music-wise, TWICE have persistently launched songs with attention-grabbing instrumentals, generally even fairly experimental and unconventional. These preparations would generally get overshadowed by the group’s charms which might be extra in-your-face: the simple melodies interpolated with chanting, and their candy vocals, and repetitive lyrics stuffed with alliteration. You’ll discover these identical instruments in songs by many different Ok-pop teams however TWICE mixed them in a approach that sounds distinctive to them. These are the charms that laid the bottom for TWICE to create a particular musical id. That id nonetheless interprets to their present music, even when, genre-wise, it sounds fairly totally different than it was once.
However to me, “What Is Love?” is approach past “cute.” I imply, it’s an excellent query, proper? Wikipedia (the followers have naturally made a web page) additionally feedback on the music:
[I]t has a shiny melody and uptempo dance beat incorporating entice. Tamar Herman of Billboard described the tune as having “retro electro-pop styling” and an “addictive choral hook”, with “digital quirks, glowing chimes, and staccato’d percussion over the bubblegum melody”.
“Entice” will not be, I feel, ironic; it’s a hip-hop style. Nonetheless, the theme of “What Is Love?” is, I urge, deeply ironic:
“[T]he love ladies would dream about or think about after studying about it by books, motion pictures or dramas”
Fascinating, the refrains (“I wanna know,” “What’s love?” are in English; the verses are in Korean). A translation:
Daily, in a movieIn a guide or in a drama, I really feel loveUm- I find out about loveMy coronary heart retains beating as if it’s my very own storyMakes my coronary heart pound and swell with hopeUm- I wish to know so unhealthy
After all, the humanities are certainly meant to convey “my very own story” earlier than one experiences it, however I don’t suppose we’re speaking Jane Austen right here:
The way it might be as candy as sweet?The way it’s like flying within the sky?I wanna know know know knowWhat is love?What love appears like?The way it retains you smiling all day?How the entire world turns lovely?I wanna know know know knowWhat is love?Will love come to me sometime?
For me, as an previous codger listening to the tune, I see performers — completed athletes, artists, performers, businesswomen — who at the moment are sufficiently old to know that the reply to the query “what’s love” is totally different from what they imagined it to be. But nonetheless they sing the tune. That might be tragic, had been it not so wonderful. There may be the irony.
NOTES
[1] Right here is an acoustic model of “What Is Love?”, simply to point out that Twice doesn’t lip-synch all the pieces, not that I care:
[2] For instance, from The Diplomat:
Recruited and educated by SM Leisure, one of many largest and most profitable South Korean leisure firms, [Korean singer and entertainer BoA] was assigned the unprecedented job of breaking into overseas music charts in 2001 at age 14. Following a joint funding of roughly $3.6 billion between SM Leisure and its Japanese enterprise associate AVEX Leisure, BoA debuted in Japan after receiving Japanese language coaching to make sure her profitable transition into the Japanese music and leisure trade. Because of this, BoA turned the primary Korean singer to high Japan’s Oricon Charts and the Billboard 200 charts, promoting 1 million copies of her Japanese single, “Take heed to My Coronary heart.”
Age 14!
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