The following interesting read is recommended for mature web-users +15 years old.

If you cannot handle the following .gif, I suggest you do not click the “Continue reading >>” link.

You’ve been warned. Enter at your own discretion.

Disagreeing comments are (more than) welcome, however bashing will not be allowed. Final warning.

Enjoy. :]

Recently, SNSDKorean.com has had the pleasure of being interviewed by fellow J-pop site selective-hearing.com. Like the staffers here at SK, the site is compromised of staffers who listen to music ranging from alternative rock, house and hip-hop to their favorite genre: Japanese Pop (J-Pop).

Check out their site that covers news and music from AKB48, Morning Musume, Berryz, C-ute, SoundWitch, Buono! and more to even local anime conventions.

Here’s the first raw interview with Selective-Hearing’s Thatonezombie and stay-tuned for the next part including more of our staff:

MAEniac: I’m a former college radio DJ, non-Korean Cali girl livin in Korea and teaching Engrish for the last year and a half. I only know enough survival Korean to get me around and order food.. (haven’t had a problem yet, but yesterday for some reason the food delivery service asked me if I had a bf —it was a woman asking o_O?) SNSD inspired me to come to Korea and become my own person one fateful day when I walked into a noraebang in my hometown and saw Gee playing on the flatscreen…I’ve dabbled in Starcraft on and off since I was in junior high and the other day my students challenged me to a 2vs2. …..I’m afraid to lose to them. (Laughs)

TOZ: How’s life?

MAEniac: In the here and now? Umm…… if you asked me a year ago I would have said great. But as of right now… I feel like I’m getting complacent.

TOZ: Complacent you say?

MAEniac: Yezzir.

TOZ: That’s weird to hear, to be honest; it feels like SM & SNSD has gotten complacent even during probably their most popular with their music. Personally, where is SNSD for you, musically?

MAEniac: IMHO, SNSD is not the first group I’d listen to for the K-pop genre.

TOZ: Who would you say? Fin.K.L? S.E.S?

MAEniac: (Laughs) That’s hella old school!

TOZ: You know how I do.

MAEniac: I ain’t madatchu. I’m more of a mellow kinda chick.. so when I just want tunes to bop my head to.. I’ll turn on some MC Sniper. No idea what he’s sayin, but the beats remind me of Nujabes (RIP) and boy do I love me some Nujabes.

TOZ: RIP to nujabes for sure. I always thought Nujabes and J. Dilla were cut from the same cloth.

MAEniac: Word?

TOZ: Their beats hit like some old-school shit, but it was progressive as well.

MAEniac: Fasho fasho. I like classy.

TOZ: Their stuff was like Mad Men the show. Their style is obviously based in the 60s but the classiness is sort of updated for 2012’s aesthetic.

MAEniac: Who doesn’t like classy? (Snooki)

TOZ: Shots fired.

MAEniac: (Laughs)

TOZ: So if someone fairly new to Asian pop in general wanted to try out K-pop? You would hold back on telling them SNSD?

MAEniac: I’d ask ‘em a series of questions … cause you know K-pop is some serious bidness. I’d ask if they prefer boys/girls .. solo artists/groups…how much time you really wanna invest in K-pop. Cause once you jump on the wagon..

TOZ: You can’t jump off.

MAEniac: That’s pretty much your social life from here till you die. (Laughs)

TOZ: Let’s talk SNSDKorean then. I’ve been a regular reader for years now.

MAEniac: Much obliged.

TOZ: I remember when ya’ll had the chatroll and when you rolled out the first podcast.

MAEniac: OH GAW— yo man the chatroll … it almost broke me the first time around. I almost got banned. It was madness. Straight up.

TOZ: If you want madness, jump into the JPH!P IRC chatroom one day. (shameless plug)

MAEniac: Shoot me the link son, how you gon’ play a homegirl?

TOZ: I gotchu.

MAEniac: Yo, “chatroll” might be back.

TOZ: Exclusive!

MAEniac: The funny thing though is, I was on vacation for the last 5-6 weeks… I come back and the staffers, espcially my co-betch in charge DT (Dreadtech) was like,

“Hey bitch. Guess what you missed?” (1st convo back mind you)
“..What’d I miss sukka?”
“Our first live podcast.”
“….OH FUCK OFF.”

I think the live recording’s running time was 5 hours?

TOZ: Actually, I was there for it. (Laughs)

MAEniac: Oh shit! Well then, the nitty gritty, if you would please, kind sir.

TOZ: There were problems with the video portion, but that’s how it is.

MAEniac: (Laughs) Damn, well 1st ones aren’t always gonna be smooth. Shout out to my dude Nukem for always being good with the edits. Looking forward to hearing it.

TOZ: They touched on a few subjects that interested me. The big one for me at least was the whole drama acting.

MAEniac: (Laughs) You know.. I really can’t wait till our next recording… I always end up saying some dumb controversial shit (for the sake of playing devil’s advocate.. or because I’m just being a dumb betch for not reading up on stuff) .. But I’m curious, what’d they say? Cause I had a whole lot… to say when I saw Jessica’s acting while I was away.

TOZ: There was a good lengthy talk about the kissing scene. Let’s be honest here, it’s her job. Actors kiss other actors all the time.

MAEniac: You know.. I think… not so much as when Yoona had her first on-screen kiss a while back but….. I would have liked to think that after Tiffany had her official kiss on Fame (which I saw and have a whole secret post to still put up on my opinions n play-by-plays of it) .. I would have liked to think the fans got a little more mature about it. And Fany’s kiss was like the first of a segue for the rest of SNSD to start kissing boys live on screen, i.e. Jessica.. then probably Yoona or Yuri, whoever kisses first.

TOZ: It’s one thing to be jealous of not being the person on the other end.

MAEniac: Were the fans bitching?

TOZ: Honestly, I don’t know.

MAEniac: Or at least during the podcast I mean?

TOZ: Typical response, some of them didn’t like it.

MAEniac: (Laughs) Grow the fuck up.

TOZ: Would I like to kiss Taeyeon? Hell yeah I would. But if she kisses another dude? What am I gonna do? Stop listening to the music?

MAEniac: Seriously. Oh is that what’s hot in streets of Seoul right now? Fans becoming anti-fans cause the girls are grown ass women kissing guys? I wasn’t aware.

TOZ: That brings me to another thing on my mind. Where the fandom comes from?

MAEniac: (Laughs) Should I plug in a corny comment?

TOZ: Go ahead.

MAEniac: Well I can’t speak for other fandoms, but s<3ne (sometimes spelled as Sones, the fangroup of SNSD) fandom comes from the heart; love in its purest form. Sike. Half of us are perverts.

TOZ: The only reason I began following SNSD in the first place was the music.

MAEniac: Oh that’s honorable. I follow them because their personalities make my day.

TOZ: Their personalities are great, seriously. But if I didn’t like the music, why would I stick around? But even if their personalities weren’t, Genie is still on point. I’ll bump Genie anyday of the week.

MAEniac: Like I said earlier, SNSD isn’t my first choice for K-pop music maybe… I’d start with Wonder Girls or 2ne1.. But in K-pop, I’ve never seen such a diverse group of individuals who were no doubt forced to be together. And are just collectively sane. But I do enjoy that SNSD always changes their music up.

I’m still waiting for them to finally just find their niche and stick with it. But at least I can pick and choose. “Yep, this worked well for you guys…. nope, y’all need a hire a diff producer.” E-tribe has still yet to prove me wrong. I don’t see why they just don’t go with them. I mean when I heard Teddy Riley (was involved) I was like oh shit! BLACKSTREET! That means SEX BALLADS ALL DAY ERYDAY! But then it ended up being like dance.. and I was like wtf?

TOZ: I totally thought Blackstreet too when I first heard he was on. But me and Greg on Selective Hearing think, he was long past his prime. And I don’t like The Boys, which makes it worse since they hit American TV with that song.

MAEniac: I’ve said it before in the podcasts… The Boys was their “safe” track. I would have been happier if it was Trick or something else.. but from a marketing perspective, I guess. The choreography was dope though, but Hyoyeon, I’m getting disappointed in your dance breaks. I’m not a pro dancer or anything but I’m just thinking if that was Jaebeom (random I know) he would kill a dance solo in those short 5 seconds.

TOZ: Well, even Jay-Z has wack tracks.

MAEniac: True true.

TOZ: I decided I won’t buy The Boys because although I would like them to maintain some sort of success in the west, for me to buy The Boys means it’s a vote of confidence saying “I want more of this!” while in reality I don’t. I’m not asking to go back to Gee or anything, I just want some evolution in the music. And I’m not sure The Boys was evolving in the right direction.

MAEniac: Look here’s my thing. I’m waiting for 2, maybe 3 things to happen:

1. I get my acapella track –there’s 9 fucking girls! That’s an entire choir right there. You’ve got your sopranos, mezzo’s to your altos (and everyone knows I love me the husky sounding girls: tiff, yul, hyo), and sunny/sica on that descant.
2. A sort of hip hop-ish track without it sounding too corny or whack.
3. Just a ballad I can straight up cry to. That’s all I want for Christmas/pre-disbandment.

TOZ: You brought up disbandment. IIRC, S.E.S had a rather odd disbandment. If and when that day drops, It’s not guaranteed, but do you think SNSD might have a similar thing with that?

MAEniac: We can only expect the worst but hope for the best… I think the best ending for me would be to see them fade out like Fin.K.L, i.e. never officially retire the name but everyone fade out in their own glory.

TOZ: For my J-pop heads out there, when Speed disbanded, that shit fucked me up back in the day.

MAEniac: (Laughs)

TOZ: Although they have come back and put out new music, I still think about it. Call me crazy, but if we talk about a list of all-time greatest Asian pop groups, for me, Speed has to be up there, across all countries and eras. And the way SNSD is going, they have a good shot to be there. Maybe not in terms of quality of music, but in sheer numbers and movement. It’s the whole Kobe Bryant vs. MJ (Michael Jordan) thing. When Kobe finishes his career, there will be some that will say he was better because of the sheer numbers he will have. Minutes played, points scored, etc. But to compare Speed and SNSD is not even fair.

MAEniac: Different times, different situations.

TOZ: That plus language. At least Kobe and Jordan played the same game.

MAEniac: True, and the way Japan’s pop culture works. Side note: You know who’s still going strong? Boyz 2 Men. Now I can APPRECIATE that shit. I wish SNSD would do that.

TOZ: But we have the different cultures again.

MAEniac: Yeah I know. Just a point of reference.

TOZ: But, I’m still an SNSD fan. Even if I think the music hasn’t been there since Genie. Like Oh was okay, Hoot was alright, Run Devil Run is okay. Echo is straight up baller, but other than that, I can’t name a post-Genie song I really dug.

MAEniac: I’ve told myself that the day SNSD disbands is the day I stop following any group so actively. Well, I mean I’m done fangirling. When SNSD disbands, I’ll officially tell myself to grow the fuck up and act my age.

TOZ: Does your age change everyday?

MAEniac: HEY! A LADY NEVER TELLS HER AGE MISTER!!

TOZ: Not her true age maybe. You can be all, “I feel like 17 today.”

MAEniac: Like I said, the day they disband I’ll act my age, until then I’m gonna act like the 18 year old everybody thinks I am.

TOZ: Back to SNSDKorean. Again, I’ve been a reader for awhile now but for the past year or so, I’ve just been skimming the headlines. Only clicking on the articles I really want to see. which honestly isn’t much. I’ve hit a saturation point with the day to day stuff. But why keep going to the site? You never know, there might be something really cool that piques my interest. SNSDKorean is for people who do want the day to day operations. So your fanbase and most Sones really, knows really obscure shit about them. Like, me knowing that Tiffany likes to keep movie stubs and writes down the names of the people she saw the movie with on them freaks me out. Is there a fact you know about SNSD that makes you go, “Why do I know that?”

MAEniac: Does it have to be specifically about SNSD? (Laughs) How about 85% of the Korean language I know. “Why do I know that (word)? OH because of SNSD. Actually 85% of language AND culture was because of them. It still shocks my co-teachers when I say random words like choding or jashik.

TOZ: Inside joke.

MAEniac: Shoot, just because of Seohyun’s affiliation with sweet potatoes, I know it anywhere. I always think of her when I hear sweet potatoes. Seriously, sweet potatoes was never on my radar prior to coming to Korea.

*end of part 1*

original link:
http://selective-hearing.com/interview-with-snsdkorean-part-1/