The immortal question passed down through all of the rages.
Download Episode 47 (right click and save as)
News
Kpop Power & Beauty concert featuring T-ARA, Davichi & Yangpa canceled.
Jay Park’s Choreography for no your name unfairly edited from this
to this
4Men to hold a “White Day After Party” concert. White day is the day where guys return the favors the girls extended to them on Valentine’s Day.
Debuts/Comebacks/New Releases
Korean American Rapper & frequent Epik High collaborator Dumbfounded released an EP for Valentine’s Day Love Everyday.
EXID (Shinsadong Tiger’s group) releases “Who’s That Girl?”
Miss A releases Touch
Big Bang to release new mini-album “Alive”
The Brave Girls will release a reissue of their previous album.
Dalmatian to have their comeback in March.
Other News:
JYJ’s documentary film “The Day” will be released through Lotte Cinemas.
Free Talk:
Originally we were going to dedicate all of this time to talk about Yoochun’s incident being caught on multiple cameras physically assaulting a fan. We don’t know who hit first, whether she provoked him or he acted unprovoked. We do know that he lashed out at her and pulled her hair. Regardless, his behavior was not okay or excusable, whether or not it took place 3 years ago. The fact that fans seem to excuse his behavior is disgusting. And we’ve had our share of people accusing us of buying in to the laughable conspiracy to destroy JYJ.
Sudden assault on all of our plans came when SNSD/Chocolat songwriter (how involved she is in the process is up for debate) and aspiring songstress, Korean American Jenny Hyun went on a vicious, racist assault on Boxer Floyd Mayweather after he made some ill-advised and presumably racism motivated comments directed at soon to be superstar Jeremy Lin. Her retorts started out directly aimed at Floyd Mayweather and soon hate-spiraled down into a vengeful, degrading tirade against all people of African descent. She ultimately ended with calling for the entire race to be exterminated. I wish I was kidding.
Read it here, and I’ll wait for you to finish.
Done?
Okay. These could be the mindless ramblings of a person clearly off her meds, or it could be an insight directly into one racist’s head. She apologized (one that didn’t even come close) and then later retracted it and was “admitted” into hospital for what we are to believe is a psychotic episode. However, that doesn’t change what she said. Even if she’s only tangentially related to Kpop, and as Tiger JK said, she’s not relevant in Korea & doesn’t speak for anyone.
That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be agitated about this and that it doesn’t deserve discussion. Had it taken place in a vacuum maybe it could be dismissed, but after the year we’ve had in Kpop? I don’t think so.
Opening Song: Block B – Nanlina
Closing song: Ailee – Heaven
You can email us at TheAlwaysRationalKpopPodcast@gmail.com pop us a line on Twitter @ARKpopPodcast and Like us on Facebook.
I never thought about C.N. Blue or FT Island being a good fit in trying to crossover in America if they were to attempt to it. If they were to try, I would agree with you guys about them having a good chance. America likes bands and it would be harder for people to question if they have talent from that instead of questioning singing/dancing abilities from a idol group when coming over. However, I do disagree the idea of a girl group has a better chance than a male. Usually male performers from foreign countries have a better here than a female. You can use the example of Jay Sean who debuted in the US 3 years ago, a British-Punjabi singer from the UK. I would say he is someone who has conquered a stereotype to show middle-easterns can have talent or look good. With this in mind, I believe the idea fans always state about only a female kpop group can only succeed in America is the best chance for kpop is false.
This past weekend has been terrible with all of these incidents. I have had one problem I have seen online about the Block B and Yoochun incident and its regard to the fans protecting them. It is just like the other week with the Teen Top that you guys discussed and how Angels were suggesting “Oppa didnt mean it”. That is a huge problem that you two touched on on this podcast and the Teen Top one where fans give them a pass or do not believe their idol can never do anything wrong. I was just having problems seeing comments on forums or on youtube videos this past weekend of about Yoochun or Block B where fans were defending them and basically trying to play it off where these things did not happen.
My last comment is that I noticed you guys did not mention K.Will and his mini album that just came out last week. I hope you mention him in the next podcast
I honestly overlooked K.Will’s release! Don’t worry, we’ll cover him in the next episode =) Thank you for listening!
Oh, and oppa didn’t mean it my bum. Of course oppa did something wrong. That is a huge problem with fandom, and we do what we can to make people see how huge of a problem it is. We hope you enjoyed this episode as much as we enjoyed creating it.
Noelle
Yeah I think I have been listening to you guys since about August or maybe even longer than that. I may just start posting more comments from now on so more people may decide to comment here on the website since this podcast is great.
I had one other problem with fans this weekend and its their backlash to the discussed topics. With this podcast, you 2 discuss in a orderly fashion (even though I can hear the rage in your voices) about things you disliked such as the Jenny Hyun situation. By calling her out on her BS in a productive manner like you guys are doing is great and I respect that a lot. However, I have problems with how a certain number of fans reacted to it. I seen many comments posted Jenny’s youtube videos of racist comments and a lot of hateful things which were probably as hurtful or more to what she said. I don’t mind Kpop fans being mad and calling her out which should happen but when they do it in a manner where it is not productive and outright wrong, it bothers me a lot and doesn’t fix the situation at all.
Hi there,
I’m curious to know what Kpop fans think of the movement of American producers like Teddy Riley, will.i.am and Swiss Beatz producing for Kpop artists.
Do you think it will benefit Kpop globally or be its downfall? As an American music producer, I like the wholesomeness, the work ethic and commitment these artists put into their craft.
I must have watched the Al Jazerra documentary several times and find that there’s a misunderstanding of Korean culture when it comes to contracts and how they work their artists.
My goal would be to keep the core of Kpop intact, but make the music that stays in that and still have global appeal.
What’s every ones thoughts?