Category: Music Videos

  • When Kpop Went Beyond American Pop

    I love when I do long and weird titles. xD

    I don’t want to offend anyone — I know I’m doing my generalization, but let’s be honest~ I haven’t been into the American commercial pop scene since… I left Britney, and I left her circa her Toxic days too.

    Even though people say I’m a music snob (I don’t know why…), I really like my easy-to-digest commercial pop of pretty idols that I can worship,  catchy music, and dance routines. I was big on the dancing, and I’m not talking about jiggly butt dances or Waka Waka stuff — as you know, I prefer my Shakira in her Donde Estan los Ladrones days… — I’m talking about sync dancing that gets you pumped, all the UMPH from the Nsync and Britney days of late 90s and very early 2000s.

    I gave a try to the Katy Perrys, the Jonas Bros, the Justin Biebers (yes, yes I did.) — by the time Ke$ha was out, I had already given up. I didn’t even try Miley because her voice exasperates me, so I wouldn’t be able to stand her singing voice.

    And then Kpop happened.

    Maybe it was because I saw these Asian faces looking back at me — then again, maybe it isn’t — or maybe they put something in my kimchi (though I’m pretty sure I started eating kimchi after my Kpop thing), maybe it’s because they’re just better… who knows, but there’s something so VERY fascinating about the way Kpop is spreading.

    We’ve been looking how it’s grown over the past 2 or 3 years into a phenomenon. I wonder how big is going to get, I want to see it get big… but not only Kpop, of course — other types of Asian music. I want to see how Kpopers get famous, Cpopers, — okay, not Jpopers, but definitely Jrockers, and the Taiwan music scene, and the indie Japanese scene~

    So obviously, I made a playlist prompted from the Kahi post I did a day or two ago.

    These are songs from from the Kpop industry that just stuck out. It’s a bit thin on the earlier years [the playlist is ordered by year], but it begins getting pretty heavy in 2008. I tried picking just songs that are dance pop and not ballads just to keep the list in check — at the moment it has 30 tracks, that I hope will expand into more songs as the months and years go by~

    [iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/videoseries?list=PLDD96E58EC50B1F36&hl=en_US”]

    Here’s the YouTube link.

    If you have any suggestions as to what it’s missing, comment away.

    *EDIT*

    Must include MVs (so songs released as singles), not older than late 90s.
    Also… song must work as MV too. So no awesome songs but tacky videos. Sorry.

    Now tell me, how did you get into Kpop?

  • After School, Kahi and Dancing with Heels~

    Needle heels should be banned from choreographed music videos.
    on Meisa Kuroki dancing with heels.

    I’ll eat my words by the end of this post, don’t worry.

    As you all know, I’m a late K-pop bloomer. Since everyone around me seems to be into Kpop, I don’t keep an eye on it because I don’t feel like I need to… I just wait for my friends to tell me what to watch. LOL

    It is in my search for Glee + Kpop posts (because I want to see how much audience would be into it… not many), I ended up on the video posted on a celebrity gossip website, that shall remain nameless, of After School’s Let’s Step Up MV.

    They described it as Glee Korean style — which is not. As you know I love Celtic music, hence I also have a fascination with Riverdance, and tap dance. Let’s Step Up blew my mind. LOL Are you kidding me? Glossy pop music mixed with tap, mixed with Riverdance? I love it.

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  • YAM Magazine 2011 LGBT Blogathon – MISSTER: Girls who Look like Boys who Look like Girls for Girls

    Welcome to my personal contribution to YAM Magazine’s LGBT Blogathon.

    In this particular post we will be talking about Taiwanese boiband MISSTER, which I have already talked about on this MISSTER 101 post I did a while back.

    Unlike the rest of the world, who have shunned dancing boybands (and girl groups) for more “rocking” affairs or idols who can’t dance at all, Asia is still a place where such groups have flourished for the past decade. The pop music industry is alive and well there, over-saturating our ears with danceable sugary pop tunes sung by idols that look so polished that it hurts.

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  • Linda featuring Penny – LP

    I kinda like this music video xD and kinda like the song

    Stylish – and I thought it was totally kinda gay until there was a guy. They’re totally fighting then, right? By the end of the video? Because it starts out playing it like they’re both against the guy, almost torturing him — you don’t wanna mess with girls like these — but then by the end, they’re pulling the ropes to get to him?

    Also the beginning with the “Happy Birthday” message seemed totally threatening, in that ex-gf sending you hate mail with a message written on her hateful lipstick kind of way. You know? So… which one is it? ‘Coz then, they’re totally hugging. LOL

    *brain turns off*

  • Ryan Woodward – Thought of You

    I don’t know how I missed this back in December~

    oh well~

    This is pretty cool animation.

    You can also learn more about the process over at ConteAnimated.com

  • Meisa Kuroki – One More Drama

    Needle heels should be banned from choreographed music videos.

    Having said that, damn. You know, say what you say KKK-ers — but when races mix correctly, it turns out hot. Meisa Kuroki is one hot mixed-race lady… but she can’t dance to save her life. I’ve never seen Meisa with normal shoes dancing, so I can’t say how she dances normally… but I remember her stint with Flamenco, and she got no swing.

    But she’s got a good vibe…

    I want to root for her.

    But as with LOL, I keep bursting out laughing with this. Even though I kinda liked her Spanish-y guitar intro. I also liked how they did the one eye with different color thing.

    [iframe src=”https://www.yinyuetai.com/video/player/156558/v_5501040.swf” width=”480″ height=”334″]

    I still think she needs to get together with Hyori for a collab ;D

  • Worldwide Anthems~

    This post took a really long time… it’s been on my to-do post-it for a while~ I even have a post-it with the songs that I wanted to include, and the ones I could ask people about.

    So check out the list on YAM Magazine ;D

  • Yu Aoi x GOING UNDER GROUND – Heart Beat

    How did I not know about this MV until today? LOL It was released in 2003!

    I was going through some of the posts that had lost its YouTube video links, and one of them was this Yu Aoi and MVs posts, and I ended up seeing this video on Tudou, which took forever to load. I wasn’t sure it was a real MV, so I looked it up, and voila! Seems legit~

    Song is okay too! LOL

  • Music Video Director: Zhong Ping Huang

    I just finally burnt Zhong Ping Huang’s (黄­中平) name in my head.

    Because of A-Mei’s latest MV.

    Having realized that he’s made my favorite Faye Wong video, I just spent all night “curating” a list of 77 MVs of some of the music videos he’s directed since 1997… but only of the artists I follow… otherwise the list is just endless~

    Most of the time, his style is described as just about style, emotion and composition. Though, I have seen a few of those that have something resembling a plot.

    Faye Wong – Bu Liu/ Nothing Left

    I think that video captures what I essentially love about Faye Wong.

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  • 30th Hong Kong Film Awards: Best Song

    Let’s start off by saying that my Chinese/Hong Kong film viewing… isn’t, just isn’t. LOL Of all the nominees, I have only seen two. Hahaha, I’m a little ashamed of that considering I’ve seen over 120 movies last year. Though, there were 3 other films I wanted to watch before the nominations were announced: Love in a Puff, Gallants, Under The Hawthorn Tree, and Detective Dee ;D

    And I’ve decided I should watch Reign of Assassins with my dad, and Hot Summer Days with my mom. LOL

    Also, Tetsuya Nakashima’s Kokuhaku was crowned as Best Asian Film, beating the likes of Aftershocks and Monga.

    Anyway, we’re here because of the Best Song category, which had the most artists I was familiar with, and we’re going to be looking at each of them and their respective songs~ First, the winner:

    Jun Kung’s Here to Stay from Merry-Go Round

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