If only they worked at MSG if you happened to have one.
A generic standard here would go a long way.
It’s entirely possible that all the different RF powered light sticks work on the same system. Of course, not every stick will have the same colors and patterns available. Those patterns and colors might not be keyed to the same RF signals. But there are probably only a few vendors all using the same system. I’ll put a new battery in a rangers wristband and bring it to the KPop concert to see if it does anything.
One thing I forgot to mention. The light stick vibrates when you turn it on and off. There doesn’t seem to be any other way to make it vibrate. I wonder if they will make it vibrate using the RF signals at the concert.
“Light stick”
I guess I’m not the only one who’s mind is in the gutter!
At the end of January I made a whole post about this new group FIFTY FIFTY.
TL;DR: They are an incredibly small group from one of the myriad of tiny KPop labels that wallows in obscurity, but I really like their sound. It’s refreshing to hear something I like when all the big companies are putting out stuff that isn’t my style these days.
Well, guess what.
This is the Billboard Hot 100
IN THE USA
apowijfpeioahvl;kanvayuiefpihe
A few smaller news items.
A smaller group named E’LAST attempted to have a North American tour. This can often go pretty well. It’s not uncommon for smaller unknown groups in Korea to have a lot of International fans that they can make money from if they can actually execute a tour.
The problem is that these small groups from small companies don’t have the resources to actually pull off a tour on their own, much less in foreign countries. They need help from some other promotion company that is local to the place they are touring.
It just so happens that that industry is full of ultra shady fail companies. Those companies basically make the same money no matter how well the events are actually executed. The less they do, the more profit they get due to reduced costs. Everything is prepaid. If people pay for some special VIP event, what does it matter to the tour promoter if that VIP event doesn’t happen, or doesn’t happen well? Do they even care if the concert itself doesn’t happen?
And that’s what happened to E’LAST.
I just feel bad for fans in these situations. The group you like from a foreign country is actually going to perform live where you live, likely once ever. Even if the promotion company is known to be shady, what can you do? If you don’t buy tickets you miss this once in a lifetime opportunity. If you do, you might just lose all your money and receive nothing.
Another news. Mystic Story once produced a short film anthology series called Persona. No relation to the video games. Four different directors each made a short film, all of them starring IU. They then started production of Persona 2. Another anthology film series, only the star of all the films was Sulli. Filming did not finish because Sulli committed suicide. RIP.
Somehow Persona: Sulli has been scheduled for release on Brazilian Netflix in June. They say they are discussing whether to release it elsewhere as well.
I, for one, hope they do. Sometimes it’s somewhat hard to watch art in which someone appears who passed away tragically. But if their art lives on, then in a way that person also lives on. Keeping their art from the world after their passing feels like killing them a second time.
This is really a new one as far as I’ve seen in KPop. I already talked about how FIFTYFIFTY was a nothing group from a nothing company that somehow became a global sensation due to good music. Well, it seems like since their company is so small, another mysterious company was able to come in and try to entice the members away.
If they can successfully get away, that could be good. Go from a small company to a presumably bigger one with more resources.
But getting away will prove legally difficult. They almost definitely have exclusive contracts, and they can’t leave until they are over. Also, isn’t their success largely due to the current tiny company’s good music producing? You have to be pretty confident that the new company will be able to deliver hit music like the previous one did, or at least poach your producers and songwriters as well.
Most one-hit-wonders fail because they can’t come back with another hit song. If this group fails to even come back due to this drama… This is going to be a very interesting story to watch.
This story is getting even more out of control.
Apparently the tiny company that FIFTY FIFTY is from, ATTRAKT, may not actually own the rights to their hit song? Like when they signed the deal for the rights, the paper just had all the rights go to someone else?
Someone tried to shut down the official fan cafe (what KPop people call forums, much like this one), and they had to fight to get it back up.
FIFTY FIFTY is apparently still on track to have a song on the Barbie movie OST.
And somehow there is also drama involving Warner music Korea and US.
It’s really hard to get a clear picture of this mess because lots of news articles are being mistranslated. And official statements made by the involved parties are ambiguously worded, even according to people who are fluent in the language.
We’ll know more when the dust settles, but it looks like only more keeps getting kicked up.
The Kpop scene sounds like the worst old days (still today?) of US record label shenanigans, but engineered to maximum. Like payola, but on a global, internet scale.
It’s actually better than it used to be. Since I’ve gotten into it the aptly nicknamed “slave” contracts have been curtailed and the control by literal organized crime has been greatly reduced.
The spice must flow!
He finally done and did it.
JYP loves to use reality competition shows to form new groups. It seems to be working well for him so why stop now? Awhile back he started doing them in other countries. They already did this in Japan to form the group NiziU, and another one Boy Story.
While there have been several KPop idols who were from US, Canada, Europe, I don’t know of any KPop group consisting entirely of members from the US only.
What’s scary is that it seems like the winners of this show are going to be taken to Korea to be a KPop group with training and promotion there, instead of being US first. Probably because child labor laws!
The drama continues with some crimes!
Forged signatures to steal copyrights of a world-shattering hit song. Scandalous!
In other news.
I talked already about the MAMAMOO concert “MyCon” that I attended at UBS arena. They have already completed a concert film. Looks like it’s going to be partially concert footage and partially behind the scenes. It’s showing in theaters worldwide on August 9th ans 12th. Wow!
Trailer here:
AKMU is back, and they have appeared on the Killing Voice. It’s basically the Tiny Desk of KPop, but only with singing. Press play if you need to rub honey on your ears for 20 minutes or so.
Earlier this summer, Hwasa from MAMAMOO signed a new contract with PNATION, which is PSY’s company.
So only two of the members of MAMAMOO are still with the original company, but the group has not disbanded. We still saw them perform and even tour together after Wheein left. That should still happen again at some point, though probably with reduced frequency.
Anyway, Hwasa has already had a solo debut, but just today she released her first solo track under PNATION.
At least based on the comments I am seeing in English, most of the fans do not like this song. I don’t hate it, but yeah, I don’t see myself going to listen to it on purpose. It’s also really short. I know short songs are the style of the time to make more money on the streaming platforms, but at some point are you making a song or a jingle?
So JYP had that America 2 Korea survival/reality show where he built a KPop group out of members entirely from North America. That show finished, they picked a very reasonable number of members, just six! And they already performed on Music Bank with a pre-debut track.
Positives
They are quite talented.
Because its all North Americans, they don’t look like other KPop groups. We have seen North American members in groups before, but never more than one or two. And even then, most of them have been Korean Americans. In this group only one person is Korean American.
They are clearly singing live, or at least more live than just about every other group.
Cons
Singing an entirely English song with correct English pronunciation ruins the whole thing. Pop music lyrics, in any language, are the strongest cringe. One of the main reasons I focus on pop music in languauges I don’t know is that the cringe is erased. This brings it back! Unlistenable! The only way to salvage this is to write quality lyrics, but I strongly doubt that can happen.
There is a Korean TV show known as Immortal Songs. This show isn’t really a competition or promotion so much like other music shows. Technically there’s a competition, but nobody cares. It’s mostly a way to celebrate legendary Korean music and performers while also showing the audience performances that can’t be seen anywhere else. Lots of contemporary artists performing old songs and vice versa.
To celebrate the 120th anniversary of Korean immigration to the US, they are recording an episode of the show live in the US at Giants’ (MetLife) stadium. Performing at this concert will be PSY, ATEEZ, NewJeans, Lena Park, Kim Tae Woo, YOUNGTAK, Jannabi and Patti Kim. That’s quite a lineup of top tier Korean music from the old to the new.
When I heard about this show I wanted to go to it. Then I saw the ticket prices. The cheapest tickets are $65, way up top. The lower bowl is over $150. Anywhere on the field is over $200. Big arenas are expensive. Production values at a big show are high. Flying in all those people is expensive. Those top tier artists don’t perform cheap. They probably have no choice but to charge that much.
But it’s not working. Ticket sales are unsurprisingly abysmal. The hotness of NewJeans can not be understated, and PSY is still PSY, so why can’t they draw an audience? Because fans have wised up. We know what this kind of show is. Each artist will perform like 2-3 songs each maximum. It’s filming a TV show. There will be lots of downtime in-between performances. It’s a truly terrible value.
Other KPop groups have sold out that stadium, or come close to it. But those were shows with just one group performing a shitton of songs for several hours non-stop for just one fanbase. If it was just NewJeans or just PSY for 3 hours the place would be sold out. But a NewJeans fan isn’t going to pay that price and go through that hassle to see them sing two songs. For this show to be worth it, someone has to truly be a fan of many of these artists, and few people are. Alternatively, the show could be a huge extravaganza like the end of year shows. It won’t be.
I just hope they learn the right lesson from this. If they learn the wrong lesson they will think KPop is losing popularity, and they’ll stop coming. That’s the wrong idea. The right lesson for them to learn is the truth. Fans have wised up. Even if their favs are there, they won’t go through that much cost and hassle to see them. It has to be good value.
Also, they made a huge mistake aiming for the big stadium. Should have chosen one of the indoor arenas like MSG/UBS/Prudential which are 1/4 the side of the outdoor stadium.
I have no idea who’s responsible for this, but UK Garage, a dead genre that hangs on by a thread thanks to it’s nostalgia inducing beats and lyrics has some how found it’s way into K-Pop.
And while it’s very welcomed, it seemingly has come out of nowhere and I have no idea where it’s going. Do people outside of the UK listen to Garage?
If you don’t know what I’m talking about here’s some examples, UK and Korean.
To me it feels like another case of MOBO (music of black origin) being appropriated to no ones credit.
To namedrop some prominent Garage groups/ artists:
Oxide & Neutrino
Craig David
Artful Dodger
Ms Dynamite
Sticky
Wookie
MJ Cole
DJ Luck & MC Neat
Sunship
Mis-Teeq
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