EDIT: The girls’ are now scheduled to perform at the Awards ceremony!
Shoujo Jidai’s Japanese debut single “Genie” has been nominated for three awards at this years MTV Video Music Aid Japan (formerly the MTV Video Music Awards Japan):
Best Group Video, Best Video of The Year and Best Karaoke! Song
The VMAJ will be held at Makuhari Messe convention center on the 25th of June, but sadly, it does not look like the girls will be making an appearance, which is kind of a downer, because AKB48 is hosting the event this year and I want to see something like this again:
Lady Gaga will be performing at the event and it also would’ve been nice to see some SoshiGaga (is that even a legitimate pairing?) interaction considering:
And because Fany is a Lady Gaga fan:
Anyhow, good luck to the girls and let’s hope that they can bring home the awards!
Credit: fanwonder.com, warmboy1994@youtube, Risseee99@youtube; pictures as tagged.
Tidbit: Tune in to MTV Japan, MTV Korea, MTV China or MTV Southeast Asia at 6pm Japan Standard Time on Saturday, the 25th of June to watch the MTV Video Music Aid Japan live.
The event was renamed to the MTV Video Music Aid Japan, in support of the Japanese Red Cross and their efforts towards the rebuilding of areas devastated by the March 11th earthquake/tsunami.
SNSD Korean 
2 words: OH LAWD!
wow. Soshi vs Utada for MTV Japan Video of the Year. I love both of them. Why is life so cruel??!!! LOL
Well given E-tribe made allegations about Gaga’s potential plagiarisation with Born this Way, I’m not exactly looking foward to the girls meeting Gaga. Hopefully Gaga was not aware of it or holds no grudges.
Gaga and the girls are both professionals, so I’m sure they know how to forgive and forget. In either case, the allegations were in the past and E-Tribe themselves have chosen not to pursue the matter any further.
I’m still keen for SoshiGaga interaction!
Why arent they attending ? Anyone knows ?
where is mushroom
^ http://tinyurl.com/yoqboh
wow they’ve been nominated for 3 awards, awsome! i wish they will all 3 hehe! 😀
GOOD LUCK, ladies 😉 !!! I’m pretty sure you 9 “angels” will do well in the competition 😀 😀 😀 !!! SNSD HWAITING !!!
I want SoshiGaga. 😀
http://www.tuvotacion.com/k-pop
SONES Please, vote for SNSD on this link, the k-pop fans in Mexico, have called the attention of a popular channel, on May 14 will spend five k-pop groups, to help is to vote for this fact they know who we want to happen, please vote for SNSD is one of the groups to spend on television here in Mexico
감사합니다 ~ Gamsahamnida! ~ Arigato ~ Thanks ~ Gracias
Sorry for my English XD
Congraulation Girls 🙂
We are proud of you girls 😀
i hope that they win cause “Genie’s” mv/pv really is beautiful…and that’s probably the reason why it won the space shower awards for best mv. anyways, all pv makings should be handled by SM from now onwards…and they should continue w/ teasers instead of revealing bits and pieces of the actual cause it leaves nothing to the fans’ imagination.
what?! why wont they go?? i want soshigaga!! (but i dont think there even could be be any after those longshot alligations)
the award show coincides with their japanese tour…i think?
Tbh I kind of hope JGenie PV doesn’t win because imo it’s the weakest version out of the videos made for TMYW, and one of the least creative out of the nominees. Same with that Best Pop Video award, except the discrepancy in creativity there was even larger. Here at least I know it’s about on par with the Ikimono Gakari and Namie videos, but Dirty Bit is definitely a better video if a terrible song and the Goodbye Happiness PV is brilliant.
It’s a catch-22, though. Fans have to support SNSD no matter how deserving they are because if they don’t the push into Japan might be seen as a failure. On the other hand, by voting up videos like JGenie we tell SM that it’s okay to make formulaic productions because we’ll lap it up and vote it up anyways! So we get videos like Mr. Taxi’s, whose only redeeming factor is in whatever fetish outfit they can think of cramming the girls in next. How are they different from AKB48 again? Oh wait, that’s right, AKB48 PVs actually have thought put in them to match that budget.
Don’t get me wrong, I can enjoy the Mr. Taxi and JGenie videos, it’s just disappointing to me that as a fan of both SNSD and other Jpop girlgroups like H!P, SNSD is being trumpetted as superior to these other girlgroups but aren’t really showing it. Hardest choreography they’ve ever done? Maybe in that they’d never done formation work like this, which can require a sacrifice versus the difficulty of the individual moves, but these other girlgroups have been doing formation work like that for years and have been seen as weaker dancers for it because the individual dances don’t look as impressive. Outfits? Staple Jpop idol outfit that sets them for that otaku-bait image. Vocals? Autotuned. Visuals? If the H!P PVs are turds,(and I can name more than a few recent ones that are more creative than JGenie) then Mr. Taxi’s just a polished one.
Now watch Mr. Taxi rake in the awards.
with that said, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkHlnWFnA0c
I wonder what “Heavy Rotation” means o_o
This particular JPN MV from AKB48 reminds of this one article that explains about how “crazy” Japan is and how its culture has deteriorated from honour and respect to the epitome of insanity.
http://www.cracked.com/article_18567_6-japanese-subcultures-that-are-insane-even-japan.html
Click if you’re interested in reading, but be warned: Viewer discretion is advised since the material and content is rather offensive and distasteful. It’s a humour website, BTW. (Mind-boggling stuff.)
What relation does this link and ruraldaze’s one have? I don’t wanna disclose that for obvious reasons.
Sorry AKB48 fans.
And to that I answer:
http://forum.nihongogo.com/topic/12133-the-truth-behind-heavy-rotation/page__p__176397#entry176397
That’s right, a WOMAN directed Heavy Rotation, and any perverted interpretations are yours.
And yeah, I’d say Heavy Rotation still had more thought put into it than JGenie, which besides a couple of closeup shots(Sunny <3) was downright boring. Call me a troll, but I only expressed dissatisfaction with how SNSD's MVs were being made. There was no need for you to make an attack on AKB48.
To put it another way, instead of attacking AKB48 or Japanese pop culture why not defend SNSD?
Just a small response, ignore this if your comment was not directed towards me.
Not hating or making an attack on AKB48, SNSD or Japanese pop culture. Just making an unrelated reference for arbitrary reasons. I can see why it would be viewed as such, but it’s not all that. As for everything else regarding music… well, whatever floats a person’s boat I guess.
Stalemate detected. Argument must not continue unless a stalemate associate is present to press the stalemate resolution button.
In which case, PART FIVE! Booby-trap the stalemate button!
Honestly, something like “Heavy Rotation” will not fly under Korea’s HEAVY censorship…and I mean HEAVY. it still is a taboo thing in korea, and i doubt they’re allowed to make music videos as ‘open’ was “Heavy Rotation.” haters are always saying that the girls are wearing navel bearing clothes showing their legs, and how the hell can they actually make a pv taking their clothes off? even Rania was heavily criticized because of their provocative dance moves and not only that they have underage members too. SNSD’s image limits their ability to openly do fanservice to attract more views because idols in korea are seen as role models and have fans as young as 3 to be able to view them in 100% free censorship ways. there’s a reason why “Genie” won the best mv in the space shower awards over akb, and that’s cause the mv was visuallly pleasing in all its HD glory. despite the cheaply cost of the stage set, the mv focused more on the visualization of the members, the dance, and their charms (with a bit of a storyline in the background) without having to reveal TOO much of themselves. i’m not criticizing akb, but i always wonder what goes on their heads when they are actually given tasks to pose in provocative fashion? “Genie” heavily played the emerging HQ industry and utilized it to their advantage which definitely enhances their physical features. if i remember an article a few weeks back…a japanese professor said that watching “Genie” mv stimulates the brain and gives of pulses that makes a person feel happy. supposedly, he thinks there’s a science to the dance moves because of the length of their arms and legs.
Terrez: I was mostly directing my response to ruraldaze, but I didn’t quite see the point of your link either. And a lot of people might find your statement about Japan’s culture having deteriorated offensive.(which was also discussed in the thread linked)
LadyIgraine:
1. Whether Heavy Rotation would or wouldn’t fly in Korea doesn’t matter. These awards are in Japan, so it’s about what is acceptable in Japan.
2. I never said I wanted SNSD to make videos like Heavy Rotation. I said I was disappointed that SNSD MVs are so uncreative, with an allusion to the fact that AKB48 PVs do more. Heavy Rotation is just one video out of their entire discography, and I KNOW that SNSD will never make a video as beautiful as this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9hNT5ezcnc
The original version is actually 12 minutes long, and AKB48 makes those long mini-drama MVs a la DBSK’s Before U Go quite often. But I digress.(My original comment wasn’t even about AKB48, how did this happen?)
3. Heavy Rotation wasn’t the video nominated for the award. It was Ponytail to Shushu, which isn’t any worse than the Cabi MV(which was a better video than JGenie) and very much falls under your “focused more on the visualization of the members, the dance, and their charms (with a bit of a storyline in the background)” description.
4. Even if JGenie’s video was better than Ponytail’s, did it deserve to win over the other nominees? Lonely and Sakura had some very thoughtful and creative PVs, and Voice’s was downright amazing.
“i always wonder what goes on their heads when they are actually given tasks to pose in provocative fashion?”
I wonder how SNSD felt when they had to act as hostesses*cougheuphemism* leading the cameraman into their love motel in the original Korean TMYW video. And since according the director the scenario for Heavy Rotation is the girls having fun on their own, the implications of TMYW’s scenario are actually worse.
Yes, pointing out TMYW’s love motel scenes (There are no non-sexual connotations with jumping out of a cake. Except when jumping out of said cake to kill people instead, using said sexual connotations to be smuggled in undercover) is cheap. So is doing nothing but bringing up Heavy Rotation in response to a complaint about SNSD MVs being formulaic. That’s not a proper answer.
I don’t see what this argument’s point is about.
I wasn’t inspired by the controversial depiction in Heavy Rotation, but it was still amusing to watch nonetheless. I don’t believe anything is genuinely creative if it does nothing to inspire a generation. Heavy Rotation just wasn’t that. It may have been better that Genie, but I wouldn’t call it good.
To be honest, I’m not sure what the argument is about either. I said that I don’t think JGenie deserves the award, and that I though -in general- AKB48 MVs were made better. The others honed in on Heavy Rotation unfairly imo which is why I responded.
“[Heavy Rotation] may have been better that Genie, but I wouldn’t call it good.”
I agree, but that still isn’t a good endorsement for Genie to be winning any awards, especially since Heavy Rotation isn’t even nominated.
My support goes to Utada’s video.
Hey everyone! Check out this backstage footage of some of the girls (Taengoo, Fany, my future wife Sunny, Sica, Hyoyeon and Yoona) from their concert in Jeju a week or two ago…. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_8wBoPuAVk&feature=player_embedded#at=85 In case the video doesn’t go right there, the girls show up at the 1:25 mark….
i know the result already…they’re no.1!!!!! XD
SNSD, fighting! ^^
Arbitrary Greay,
I’ll address some of your statements and claims from above right here instead of replying to each individual one.
Some of the things you said about SNSD were rather uninformed. SNSD has long done intricate dancing formations in the past, and their strength is not only shown in individual dancing but their ability to combine the difficulty of the individual dance moves with the total group formations and transitions, they can probably move into a V or inverted-V formation with their eyes closed, and you rarely see anyone just walk to the front, sing her line, and then walk to the back, they almost always dance into their proper positions (see this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbUDMLM3w1I). The reason why people seem to think that Mr.Taxi is their most difficult choreography is because the MV really emphasized the unique formations and transitions that fans aren’t use to seeing, combine that with some really creative and intricate individual dance moves, you get the perception that it’s the hardest. I’m not getting into the outfits because I think it’s standard SNSD style, sexy but classy, a little revealing but not provocative, nothing special. In terms of vocals, Mr.Taxi is one of their finest vocal performances, there was exaclty one line that was autotuned: Taeyeon’s “Dont wanna say goodbye” at the end of the Middle 8, and it was more of a creative decision rather than trying to mask bad singing, so I disagree if you’re suggesting that Mr.Taxi is weak vocally (read this review: http://popreviewsnow.blogspot.com/2011/04/snsdgirls-generation-mr-taxi.html).
Overall I agree that the Japanese Genie MV was the weakest version of all the Genie MVs out there, so I can see your reason behind not wanting it to win. But SNSD won’t be raking in awards with “mediocre” work, whether it be Genie or Mr. Taxi. As far as I’m concerned SNSD is still struggling in Japan, they’re firmly 2nd behind KARA in Japan among Korean girl groups. In regards to these “subpar” MVs, one thing you have to understand is SNSD’s MVs are all made for dance songs, and the most important thing is to show off the dance. In my opinion it’s kind of pointless for a dance song MV to be totally dramatic with high budget scriptwriting, directing and acting to distract you from the dance. The creative freedom is restricted when you’re dealing with a dance song, and also because dancing is a bigger component to SNSD’s repertoire than any of the other nominated artists (maybe barring Namie Amuro). One thing about shooting provocative and revealing MVs, just because it’s in Japan doesn’t mean SNSD will get a free pass to do something like Heavy Rotation, they’re still Korean and will be judged by Korean standards wherever they go, so in reality they *can’t* strip down to lingeries even if they wanted to, whether that’s a disadvantage or not depends on your personal opinion.
When you look at all these other “superior” MVs compare to SNSD’s, you quickly realize that most of them aren’t dance songs, but rather ballads or pop songs with no dancing component. AKB48 桜の木になろう is a ballad, Utada’s Goodbye Happiness a ballad, TVXQ Before U Go is a slow R&B (and all of Tohoshinki’s best Japanese MVs are ballads). It’s SO much easier to do a high quality story-based MV for a ballad when you don’t have to worry about a dance. In fact, it’s almost unfair to judge SNSD’s MVs outside the realms of dance music, AKB48 River doesn’t have much of a storyline either for being a dance song. The Korean market dictates that you promote dance music, and none of SNSD’s ballads ever got an MV, but if they got to shoot MVs for, say, Dear.Mom, Star Star Star or Mistake, they will no doubt be able to create something very interesting an engaging (example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iwk3t5I8lXg). It’s a matter of time before they realize ballads do really well in the Jpop market, they need to make one for SNSD and promote it properly like they never did in Korea, the fact is Korean producers can be great storytellers when they want to. Rather than saying SNSD’s MVs are uncreative and SM is getting away with doing it, it’s more fair to say that they never really had the platform (ballads, R&B, slow pop songs) to be more creative with their music videos, and that’s not an excuse, it’s just the root cause, and it’s something they need to fix nevertheless.
@ RagingXL
Great argument points, my friend 😉 😀 !!! Yes, let’s just hope SME takes note of the Japanese pop market’s love for ballads and do some balladic SNSD MVs 😀 ! One of the reasons I LOVE the 9 ladies is because of their AWESOME (in my opinion) musical ballad repertoire 🙂 😉 (The other reason has to do with the fact that ALL 9 are EXTREMELY BEAUTIFUL / ANGELIC in my eyes 😀 <33333333 !!!)
Mr. Taxi does contain formation work we haven’t seen from SNSD before. Lots of shifts, levels from crouching, and formations that aren’t V or ww or variations of. The problem? As a Jpop fan, it’s nothing I haven’t seen before on a regular basis. I can provide links if you’d like.
There’s nothing wrong with SNSD being a little Jpop-ish, since they are trying to cater to the people in Japan, but as I said in my original comment, “SNSD is being trumpetted as superior to these other girlgroups but aren’t really showing it.” Mr. Taxi isn’t bad, it’s just disappointing to me personally for various reasons. I have been harping on the dance difficulty elsewhere because I have found harder dances from the supposedly talentless other groups. I’m aware that only a few lines are autotuned(more than one, btw, Yoona and Hyoyeon got autotuned), but they didn’t need to be, especially if they want to establish greater vocal talent than their peers. The autotuning is a quibble, though, and I don’t really mind it that much. My biggest beef with Mr. Taxi is that the PV composition is nothing but two dance shots and a closeup shot. Lots of people were similarly disappointed with the Visual Dreams video since they were expecting more from Intel, and the Mr. Taxi video is even less than that. Maybe UMJ had to split the budget between Mr. Taxi and RDR? I don’t know, but I’ve seen very cheap idol PVs that have more composition than both put together.
“SNSD is still struggling in Japan”
This is not the case. Even artists who manage 20-30K first week sales per single are considered successful and can break the top 10. 70K is already a rare feat, and 100K is solely for the top tier of popularity.
“SNSD’s MVs are all made for dance songs, and the most important thing is to show off the dance.”
This is negated when you can release a dance shot version on the DVD. Sign’s fan-hit-neck dance was a big point in its appeal(as well as the fact that it was choreographed by Narsha), and yet the MV barely even had BEG in it. When SNSD is going to be performing the dance all over the place it isn’t as necessary to have the dance in the PV, especially when the only difference between the dance version and the main version for Mr. Taxi was the insertion of a closeup shot. That’s even more of a gyp between the two korean RDR versions.
Consider Perfume’s Voice, the video I thought should have won the Best Pop Video award: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18grnTXq7mc
Perfume’s precision dancing is also a huge part of their appeal, with SNSD’s sync dancing initially being compared to theirs. Yet Voice isn’t nothing but a dance shot and closeups, and even the dance shots are given playful twists that come into play in the story.
Again about the Heavy Rotation! Why do people keep bringing that video up? AKB48 has released 21 singles, only one of which is Heavy Rotation and only two others that contain bikinis. The are all in very respectable clothing, some of which whose videos have unprecedented levels of story and creativity for idol videos period, and yet all people see is Heavy Rotation, which was basically AKB48 playing a joke on the public by seeing how far they could push the envelope. AKB48 did not get popular because of their bikini MVs. Their popularity grew over the course of 6 singles, several of which their own fanbase complained were watered down safe for the mainstream and not as “edgy” as videos before. (Sorry if I sound a little snippy here. But seriously, there was no reason for Heavy Rotation to be brought up in this discussion at all based on my original comment)
As for your point about the ballads, Sign, Abracadabra, every Perfume PV besides Dream Fighter, and most AKB48 PVs such as Oogoe Diamond, Bingo!, Beginner(the original story version was censored for violence) all have great stories for dance-driven songs.
But thank you for your response and actually defending SNSD. Sometimes I want to be proven wrong, and unless people actually address the issue like you did that won’t happen.
I think everyone kind of gave up arguing with you because you seem pretty darn determined to prove that SNSD’s MVs are inferior. And you know what? You win, SNSD’s MVs aren’t creative enough when it comes to storytelling or clever composition. I’m giving up my defense on MVs because I think it’s a lost cause, they are inferior if story and creativity are the most important to you. I can only express my opinion, to us SONEs, dancing is far and away the #1 aspect of any dance song MV, I still believe that is more important to SNSD than any groups you mentioned. Showing the bulk of the choreography in the “main” version of the MV is key to the song’s success, having a dance version on a DVD does nothing to attract non-fans or casual fans who don’t own the DVD, and the main version of the MV gets millions more views than all of their live performances combined, so it is essential for the dance to dominate their MVs. It is the reason behind all the UCCs and viral videos of people copying the dance moves and Japanese girls cosplaying SNSD and dancing to their song because the MV serves as the main vehicle to spread the popularity. You will meet non-fans that know SNSD’s song and dance, but you won’t see any non-fans of ABK48 that know any of their signature dance moves. Mr.Taxi may have been low budget and uncreative, but it achieved the purpose it was created for, visual eye candy that pounds the dance into your brain without bullshit. I’d take the pure dancing MV over any half-assed story-based MV. Award winning? Nope. Replay worthy? Yep.
You said you’re not easily impressed, and I respect that, I’m not easily impressed either, by the same token that you’re not impressed by SNSD’s dances and formations, I’m not impressed by JPop groups’ dance routines, just because they have an army of people moving on stage on a semi-organized manner does not constitute sharp, sychronized and creative formations to me, just my opinion and that’s why I like Kpop and you like Jpop. You were also mistaken about autotuning, Yoona and Hyoyeon’s lines were not autotuned, I admit they were slightly processed, but all recorded vocals are processed in some way, but they were not autotuned (please refer to Kanye West or Black Eyed Peas for a 101 on that). And again the decision to autotune was not to hide bad singing, there is no “bad” singing to be hidden in my opinion, it’s just an intent to make it sound cool. Mr.Taxi is a very beautifully produced song from a technical standpoint, it marks SNSD’s first effort of an original Japanese song and it is a darn good one, nothing should be taken away from the song because of the relative “subpar” MV. I say SNSD is struggling not because they’re not selling enough albums, it’s because they’re not in a leading position that we expect them to be in, outselling AKB48 may be a dream but they’re stitll struggling to get that coveted Oricon Weekly #1 and losing momentum to KARA and rookies like Jang Geun Suk.
Just one more word about Heaven Rotation, I didn’t bring it up unless you brought it up, and you wouldn’t have brought it up unless somebody else brought it up. We all know it’s controversial, and it has earned AKB48 zero respect but a ton of flak, for that very reason alone we would never want to see SNSD do anything like that. I only wanted to respond to your point about how Heavy Rotation is acceptable in Japan and we’re not talking about the Korean market, and my response to that was SNSD won’t be able to do anything like that anywhere because they’re judged by Korean standards no matter where they are. So there really was no point in bringing up Heavy Rotation because it’s not on a spectrum that SNSD can even operate on. Finally, I don’t even want to open the can of warms that is “SNSD is being trumpetted as superior to these other girlgroups but aren’t really showing it” because we won’t ever get to the bottom of this. You seem like a hardcore JPop fan that happens to like SNSD based on my inference from your writing, and you insist on proving to us true blue SNSD fans that somehow, someway they’re inferior to the JPop groups. Well, aside from that being a very bad way to make friends here, it ultimately boils down to a difference of opinion, which means there’s no point in arguing. What entertains you is not what entertains me, and vise versa, so you will never convince us that SNSD is inferior in any possible way and I will not attempt to convince you otherwise.
“you insist on proving to us true blue SNSD fans that somehow, someway they’re inferior to the JPop groups”
I did look over my last comment and wonder if I went a little too heavy on the Jpop stuff. No, I don’t believe SNSD is inferior. I do believe they’re being marketted as superior talent as a part of the Hallyu Wave so I do tend to go overboard defending Jpop from the implications of that marketting. (as in the last post I commented on)
My bringing up Mr. Taxi’s lack of composition was because I feel that fans voting up JGenie for awards like this send SM the message that it’s okay to do nothing but dance shots, when imo before they had found a good balance between story and dance in videos like GG, Gee, Oh! and the 3D TMYW video. The original Gee MV could give that Perfume video a run for its money for the award and I wouldn’t complain.
And I know it sounds petty, but yes I do have to point out your admission about the dance-focussed videos not being award-worthy, because as I said to Mikechi I don’t think JGenie is bad, but not deserving to win over the other nominees. But I can respect that the main part of the fandom is more focused on the girls.
“you won’t see any non-fans of ABK48 that know any of their signature dance moves”
Besides those soldiers dancing to Aitakatta that people mistook for Hoot, but I digress.
Autotuning: I still feel that Yoonhyo’s voices were processed more than the others’ voices then, but as I said before it doesn’t bother me.
Believe me, I do like Mr. Taxi as a song. The composition uses the same tricks that made TMYW so amazing and then add that gnarly bass synth during the chorus? I can jam to this song.
Struggling:
Ah, I see. Personally I think it could make for good discussion as to why Jang Geun Seuk was able to beat their sales at first, or if SNSD will have more sales in the long run, and how that reflects on their respective fandoms.
It’ll be equally interesting to see if they’ll be able to overtake Kara with or without as much Japan activities as Kara’s done.
Just out of curiosity, what JPop groups’ dance routines have you seen? (Like with Mongrolian, if you’d like this can continue elsewhere)
@SoshiFood you’ve been playing a bit of Portal 2 eh?
The MV must be doing something right to even be nominated. I guess there’s at least a portion of people in Japan that fancies it.
@Arbitary Greay
Hey there, let’s not go off on the wrong foot. I was merely joking and I was well aware that the link I provided was deemed as offensive. Even though the site claimed to be a humour website, it did contain a lot of insensitive information but I put a disclaimer there for anybody who dared to click the link.
Not to mention, I have a history of writing several joke comments on the blog, so whatever I post onto here can easily be dismissed by anyone since it bears no relation to the topic/discussion at hand. Most of the time, whenever I hear a rather bizarre aspect of pop culture from any country, I tend to write a comment saying what I thought of it, and provide a link to back up my reasoning.
Where I’m from, we have a morbid sense of humour that isn’t really taken seriously and people often ignore us and what we say (which I also put along with the disclaimer in my previous comment.) I knew that the subject discussed right now was about something else important, and my comment was a feeble attempt to inject humour into the discussion.
By the way, since you knew that the link I provided was offensive and all, you had the option of dismissing the comment altogether (I even stated so, ignore the comment if not directed towards me.) By the way, the statement about Japanese pop culture was made by the writers at their respective website, so don’t shoot the messenger.
*back up my reasoning regardless of the content.
It was very distasteful, to say the least.
Saying that Japanese culture is weird is one thing, saying that it’s deteriorated from honor and respect is another and and not the sort of the thing that can be taken humorously. I didn’t mind the link. It stated that it admired the culture’s craziness. The word “deteriorate”, on the other hand, has only negative connotations.
Not this again.
First off, I was joking. Even though I didn’t explicitly state it from the start, you could identify/infer the true intent of a commenter just by reading the way they express themselves and I clearly wasn’t all that serious. I’m bound to assume you’ll say “Do a better job with your comments and say it next time.” Okay, I will, but is it really so much of a challenge to do so? Oh wait, you’re not viewing this from a gamer’s experienced perspective, so I don’t blame ya. Moving on.
Second, this is an excerpt from the article itself, assuming you didn’t read the entire article.
“Less a style of dress than a social phenomenon, the yankii have long been the boogeyman of contemporary Japanese culture and are *regarded as a symbol of how far the country has fallen from its glory years.* When the yankii started to appear in the late 80s and early 90s, Japanese media quickly whipped up a frenzy, predicting an Akira-like lawless Tokyo full of bad mannered punks with bad haircuts terrorizing little old ladies and not doing their homework.”
Then there’s this:
“Instead, yankiis turned out to be nothing worse than young people with bad taste in hair and sloppy manners. The yankii girls wore too much makeup, got married too young and ended up as really old looking 35-year-olds. The guys all end up as construction workers for some reason.”
You can obviously tell that from both excerpts, one was meant to hype up how bad the situation is, the other assures us it’s nothing more than a public nuisance that really doesn’t bring us that much harm. And the last line was meant as a joke to poke at the culture itself, as expected from a humour website. As such, I don’t take what they mean word for word even though there was some sort of credibility to their claims. But that got me thinking…
The link admired the culture’s craziness, yes, I’ll give it that. But they also meant another point which was how far the country has single handedly made the transition from ancient cultural traditions of the Samurai, the Geisha and everything related to ancient Japanese history to… well.. the madness that some of the writers over at the link and me have come to recognize as ‘unadulterated madness’, earning their admiration for the transition, but more on that some other time.
Thirdly, I wasn’t referring to the overall Japanese culture as weird, because the word culture is equivocal and thus refers to many aspects that comprises the word. I’m well aware that ancient Japanese culture should elicit a ton of respect but I’m not referring to that at all in my previous comment. I was referring to the more, insane aspects of Japanese pop culture as weird and realized how I overlooked the parts where I’m supposed to pay extra attention to ensure people don’t get confused when reading my comment, so apologies there.
I know that there are some older Japanese citizens who grief over how the culture has ‘deteriorated’ into a shadow of its former glory and the insanity that have become incorporated into it, which is why I use the term ‘deteriorate’ loosely since the oldies’ are using that term in colloquial conversations. It’s sad that contemporary Japanese culture has come to this and it’s definitely a serious matter because I revered a few aspects of their honour, respect and glory. Too bad it’s gone and is supplanted by something else.
So some people over at the comments section have who originally viewed the JPN culture as awesome have decided “Screw it” when you’ve come to realize that some aspects of madness have become associated with and come to define contemporary JPN culture. We know it’s all that bad, but still. It’s FUBAR in some respects either way.
Sorry if I came off abrasive. I know you didn’t mean to insult/condemn Japanese culture in any way, but I do kind of obsess over word choice too much sometimes. I can see what you meant now, thanks for elaborating!
*not all that bad.
@Arbitrary Greay
No problem amigo.
=D
Yep. Lovin’ Portal 2 to its wheat cereal bits. Why do you ask?
Soshifood, you’re a gamer as well?
You could say that. I don’t own a lot of games though.
Same here.
The stalemate resolution button quote was from the final encounter with Wheatley in Portal 2 by adding defective personality core modules onto Wheatley’s giant robotic form dangling from the ceiling, am I right?
Just found your Wheatley-esque quote funny.
I finished Portal 2 a week ago, great game 🙂
The JGenie PV’s not bad. I just don’t think it deserves to win over the other nominees.
The above is my reply to Mikechi.
I don’t care what anyone says. This is one if my favourite videos. A few good dance formations with Soo Young out front. I love her with the short her. It brings out the sexy strong lady in her.
^
^
TOTALLY AGREE :)…the japanese pv of “Genie” is what made me became of a fan of the song (whether it be in korean or japanese) cause it was A LOT better than the original mv. and i love that SM makes great teasers, which is why a lot of SONES in particular are mad pissed @ UMJ for cheaping out on our girls :(. our girls deserve better than just close up shots (though they were beautiful), but other random editing like the sunglasses was just lame.
Oh, to be young again, and to have expectations that I take seriously…
I’ve heard in America, when music video directors started making normal movies, there was a rash of movies with excellent composition but with minimal direction for the actors (in a nutshell). Must be something like this, these two Japanese videos with apparent technical expertise but little creativity. But then, the issue goes further back, with pretty much every SNSD video after the first – I guess whoever makes the final decision on these things understands how to market things and move (or manipulate, if you prefer) the audience, how to choose good people to write the right songs and to choreograph the dance routines, good fashion folk and stylists (…poor Hyoyeon…), and what kinds of endorsements and tv shows will mesh well with the overall image, but just has a limited vision when it comes to music videos. Just won’t pick the director with interesting ideas, won’t give the green light to things like what people above have been talking about. Like Arbitrary Greay suggested above, so far, the fans have mostly accepted the music videos for reasons other than their composition. In fact, (off the top of my head) most of the (English) discussions about the videos don’t stay long on the topic either – mostly the talk has been about screen time, routines and the costumes. And guest stars. Like the Hoot video, the decision-makers went so far as to let that guy run around a cool-looking building with a gun… at once confusing the audience as to the point, and, maybe also embarrassing the company suits by demonstrating their people’s weakness in conceiving and executing a music video with a “story” in addition to the dancy stuff. I don’t know, maybe someone in the company’s trying to change that part of the company’s culture.
Again, my sampling is limited, but I remember that SES video where Eugene set a dog on a guy in a cage, and then there was this other one where she was crying and cutting out lots of paper dolls or something, and the fans were worried that it was too “dark.” I’ve always figured SM to be pretty concerned with the bottom line and the broadest possible appeal and all that, and it’d be consistent with that image to, perhaps, come away from that with the idea that they should avoid or ignore the potential of a music video to be other than a fancily shot dance routine.
But I wanna talk about “fetish outfits” and “love motels” because those sound like fun things to talk about too. But later.
“Oh, to be young again, and to have expectations that I take seriously…”
You know, you’re absolutely right there. In some ways I think this is because I entered SNSD fandom in mid-2009 when TMYW came out, so I was spoiled rotten by the things they had put out up to then, as well as by the amazing string of performances they gave up through the 2009 Gayo Daejuns, including the concert. Especially the dancing. I do love the girls’ personalities and all, but one of SNSD’s unique appeals to me was their dancing in their showcase pieces. And then 2010 rolls around with no new routines besides “What It Is” at the very beginning of the year and a couple of one-time RDR intros. Then it’s announced Jaewon is helping Rino with the choreo for Mr. Taxi so I thought it might be the second coming of ITNW. Ah well.
“it’d be consistent with that image to, perhaps, come away from that with the idea that they should avoid or ignore the potential of a music video to be other than a fancily shot dance routine.”
This is true. I wonder if it’s DBSK’s image or their fandom then that led to the Before U Go MV.
As for “fetish outfits” and “love motels”, the folks here might not appreciate that discussion so much, so feel free to email me!
Huh, email-as-website not such a good idea.
I guess LJ PM is a better option for privacy anyways. Do you have an LJ, or do I need to post my email address anyways? Otherwise, I’m arbitrary_greay at LJ, and feel free to shoot me a PM over there. Or we could just comment-spam in one of my posts, I wouldn’t mind.
haha. Well, I meant to talk about it in relation to the music videos inside Korean culture, how they can sample things like that with a little bit more leeway because the culture and assumptions of the people making it are, perhaps, less mercenary than what an American, at least, might expect – and then whether or not that’s valid or just exploiting the Korean moral sensibility, maybe a few other points. Like Seohyun being the cake girl, maybe that’s comparable to a man straight-facedly asking someone if he or she wants some wieners. Anyway, on my first viewings of the KGenie video, the worst thing, I thought, was the voyeuristic stuff what with the viewer associating with the camera. I did smirk at the antics, but I didn’t think “love motel,” and hearing it described that way made me want to ask a few questions.
But yeah, that was funny enough to break my train of thought.
WOW
So proud of our girls!!!
i really hope they could take home ALL three awards!!! you know they deserve it!!!!!
Soshi always making an impact in music! breaking records, making history
their music is just TOO PERFECT
SOSHI FIGHTING!!!
In addition to amazing choreography parodied by fans which spreads the popularity of a group, I’d have to say that the addicting melody, beats and lyrics of a song are also contributing factors in spreading the popularity of a group along with the previous variable.
I mean, just play any fan-favourite K-Pop song in a place or situation where there’s bound to have K-Pop fans, and in no time flat, you’ll have someone singing and dishing out the respective beats and moves to whatever K-Pop song you play. Then you can count in the spectators too who’ll definitely be somewhat inquisitive about what’s happening. They’ll ask around and find out what the K-Pop fans actually doing before discovering Korean Pop itself.
Blah Blah Blah, true story.
The end.
People sure take their POP music seriously. I don’t know diddly about the merits of the music videos but I manage to enjoy them all the same. Same goes for the music. If I want deeper music I switch to classical or jazz but I want fun music to get me jazzed for the day when I am exhausted I binge on SNSD vids and that lightens my mood considerably. Take what you want from it. For me its the bouncy beats and Soo Young’s ever persistent smile.
Awh, why won’t SNSD be there?! D:
I just hope they beat out that annoying Justin B. guy.
LOL, totally agree.
did the win?
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either youve removed my earlier comment or its got lost?? to the publisher… you’ve missed a few typos near the ending