Countdown of the 10 most important things to know about K-pop

What is K-Pop and why is it all over the place all of the sudden? What's the fuzz all about? Well, K-pop (Korean Pop) is a musical genre that is taking the world and the internet by storm. And here's why: Countdown of the 10 most important things to know about K-pop plus 10 awesome samples of K-pop music videos in ascending order of greatness.

10.- K-Pop is big! The success of K-pop largely relies on the element of suprise. It's meant to be oversized, exaggerated, something able to catch your eye in today's world of information overload. Because of this need to be overly theatrical, K-pop can often be a source of hilarity, particularly in the eyes of western viewers. Ironic appreciation derived from huge bursts of eccentric K-pop energy is the main reason Psy' "Gangnam Style" was able to break international barriers in the first place

Gangnam Style - Psy

                                             

9.- K-pop is English-heavy. Most K-pop songs have English words incorporated or even an entire chorus in English. This tells us two things 1) Korean culture is heavily Americanized  2) K-pop was always meant to have international appeal. Many may believe that K-pop's entrance into western culture is a sort of funny pop culture accident, but the truth is that the South Korean entertainment industry had already been trying to break into the North American market for years. Now watch this power pop ballad, the korean response to Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful".

Ugly - 2NE1 

       

8.- K-pop and fashion. K-pop is a major source of youthful urban fashion in Korea. K-pop and the Korean fashion industry have a close "I scratch your back, you scratch mine" relation going on in a country where fashion is of unsually high importance for teenagers and young adults. Watch this urban partying music video by "Beast" and maybe you'll see what I mean.

   Beautiful Night - Beast 

    

7.- K-pop is very, very emotional. Needless to say, it predominantely caters to women and youth. In many ways, K-pop has come to fill the void left by emotional Amercian pop music from the 1990s. Just listen to Ailee's "Heaven" and try to tell me that you don't feel the nostalgia. 

                                                                         Heaven - Ailee

                                           

6.- K-pop is dance-heavy. Just another thing K-pop has going for it in terms of universal appeal. Watch this bizarre, dance-driven video by K-pop superstars "Super Junior" 

                                                              I wanna dance - Super Junior

                                         

5.- K-pop is an outlandish collage of American and South Korean culture. Part of K-pop's charm is its unhibited devotion to mix American cultural elements from an array of decades and styles. The final effect is a peculiar, luring mixture of culturally boundless joy. Watch this video by "The Wonder Gils", an all girls band known for their highly American brand of K-pop often incorporating pop music and visual styles from 1950s and early 1960s, R & B and even Hip Hop.

                                                             Be My Baby - Wonder Girls

                                         

4.- K-pop is perhaps the first major comercial music genre that owes its success almost entirely to Youtube. Agressive Youtube and social network marketing has been a cornerstone of K-pop since at least 5 years ago. Because of this, producing K-pop videos is an expensive, ambitious and stylish endeavor. Enjoy this video by K-pop favorites "Big Bang". Guess where I first heard/saw it? 

                                                               Love Song - Big Bang

                                          

3.- K-pop creates superstars, idols, stories. K-pop often relies on large boy bands or large girl bands so young teenagers can identify, stalk, admire or fall in love with a variety of industry-designed identities. K-pop is a world of celebrity scandals, public relations and cult of personality. The success of "Girls Generation", one of the biggest K-pop acts out there, is highly dependent on this. 

                                                         Twinkle - Girls Generation 

                                      

2.- By now you can probably tell that K-pop is not about the music. Well, not only about the music. K-pop is about the high-energy bursts of creativity and big budget, flashy music videos with elaborate choreography. K-pop is a product that consists of audiovisual thrills, idolatry, narratives and, above all, performance. This next video is only further proof: 

                                                             Sherlock - SHINee

                                      

1.- K-pop is growing worldwide. South America has been host to some of the biggest K-pop tours in history and thousands of K-Pop clubs are surfacing in high schools and universities worldwide. Record stores have started to import K-pop albums and although all fads come to an end, it doesn't look like we'll witness the end of K-pop until at least two or three years from now. K-pop has a lot going for it in terms of universal appeal, it oozes youth, energy, eagerness, it's ridiculous, hilarious, catchy. But don't take my word for it and see for yourself, here's Hyuna's "Bubble Pop"  

                                                            Bubble Pop - Hyuna

                                       

  

The Gist: Micro Movie Reviews by Citizen Tex

Grading Scale: Highly Recommended Viewing, Recommended Viewing , Optional Viewing, Unadvised Viewing, Highly Unadvised Viewing


"Trance" by Danny Boyle: For the most part, Danny Boyle's latest effort is about style and ingenuity. It's an art theft thriller that revolves around the concept of hypnosis. The cast is terrific and Boyle has definitely refined his filmmaking. That being said, the effects of hypnosis seem blatantly exaggerated and the ending is kind of a tough sell; by the time the plot really starts unfolding you'll begin to realize that underneath all the elaborate plot devices there's not much to look at except a jumbled pile of neo noir fun. But if you're not expecting the next "Slumdog Millionaire", "127 Hours" or "Trainspotting" you're in for an enjoyable couple of hours. Optional Viewing.


"Spring Breakers" by Harmony Korine: It's literally the story of a bunch of teenage girls who rob a restaurant so they can have enough money to go on spring break vacation. "Spring Breakers" is probably Harmony Korine's most accessible film. Which is not saying much. I do believe, however, that in addition to being accessible it is his best, most coherent work since "Gummo". I wouldn't advise watching this film if you are unfamiliar with Korine's work, but if you are, you will be pleasantly surprised by harsh social commentary, dark ironic tone and postmodern reinvention of the idea of youthful spring break partying. Optional Viewing


"Star Trek: After Darkness" by JJ Abrams: Much like its predecessor, "After Darkness" is a major balancing act. It manages to simultaneously be a (resonably) action-packed Star Wars-ish sci fi flick and a geeky, faithful adaptation of the show that managed to capture the hearts of dozens (dozens I tell you!) of nerdy losers since the 1960s. So whether you're a clueless moviegoer or a hardcore trekkie, or anything in between, expect to be pleased and in some cases even enthused. That's the magic of JJ Abrams. Recommended Viewing


"Tabu" by Miguel Gomes: Set in colonial Africa, what a gorgeous, narratively rich film "Tabu" ended up being! Its well-crafted story is not inmediately appreciable for all its greatness, but in time you will start seeing Miguel Gomes' masterpiece for what it is: an aesthetic, cinematographic jewel of romance and storytelling. Even the prologue (it has a prologue!) is a sight for sore eyes and a story worth sharing. Highly Recommended Viewing


"The Great Gatsby" by Baz Lurhnman: Kids will love it. It's got a bitchin' soundtrack and the cinematography is so glossy it's like "Instagram: The Movie". Baz Lurhman has definitely got talents of some sorts and for the first half of the film it really shows. It may not be a great adaptation, but for the first half it starts out as an exciting, dazzling story in its own right. It's such a shame that by the end of the film, such careless, blasé take on what is often considered one of the greatest american novels ever has rendered the source material's core themes inert. By the time Tobey Maguire utters the words "tomorrow we'll run faster, stretch out our arms further" you can hardly tell why such a line would be there in the first place. Unadvised Viewing.


"Weekend" by Andrew Haigh: LGBT cinema has a pretty diverse, heterogeneous canon. It's hard to pick exactly which films would be considered "quintessential" for the gay community. I'd like to make the argument for Haigh's "Weekend", a humane, suprisingly authentic story about two men who make a genuine, raw connection over the course of a weekend. At times it may just seem like a gay chick flick, but other than that it's got a lotta soul and that alone is worth seeing, believe me. Highly Recommended Viewing.


"The Place Beyond The Pines" by Derek Cianfrance: After "Blue Valentine" Derek Cianfrance definitely has some indie cred, and "The Place Beyond the Pines" is just further proof of his very quaint American indie style of filmmaking. His latest film, a cops-and-robbers epic of sorts, is much more ambitious, insightful and self-important than his last but at the same time it feels less cohesive, more bloated, more of a disaster. Don't get me wrong, there are good scenes there, tons of stuff worth watching. It's only as a whole that the film seems lacking, longing for a clearer message. Optional Viewing

Little Heroes

His real name is Tom Mayflower, but he is better known as "The Escapist". He is a superhero extraordinaire with an enhanced ability for escapology. His main nemesis is a mysterious criminal network known as "The Iron Chain". All in all, "The Escapist" is a great read. But an even better read is "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay", the story about the creators of "The Escapist". Too often are the heroic efforts of writers and illustrators overshadowed by the fictional heavyweights they create, which is why today I want to write about them: the heroes behind our heroes, the Kavaliers and Clays of the world. And what better place to start than with Kavalier and Clay themselves?   

Josef Kavalier is a hungarian jew who just barely escaped the iron clutches of the holocaust and Sam Clay is a closeted homosexual, soul-searching in the middle of the twentieth century. Together, this odd duo of heroes fight the genocidal Nazi threat through the only way they know how: through fiction. During the Second World War, the storyline for "The Escapist" takes a turn and joins the Allied struggle against the Axis Powers, beating Nazis on a weekly basis for the kids to read. In their own humble way, Kavalier and Clay fight for liberal democracy, for justice. They send a message, make a statement. It might seem odd to think that one can fight the Nazi regime by publishing comic books, cute even. But I, for one, believe that fiction has a stronger, more subtle impact than people give it credit for. Didn't Pablo Picasso once say that art is a weapon? Why then wouldn't popular art be more so?  

In any case, we all know what happened in the end with regards to the Nazi threat. Western democracy's triumphant victory over totalitarianism and eugenics. The plight of the individual is heard, somewhat. Hooray for us. But the fight is far from over, heroes are still needed. Heroes that can stand up not just for democratic nations but for those who even within these nations are often in need of being saved.  In the 1960s we witness the civil rights movement, the breaking point that would give birth to the binary cultural war that is America today. Since then, and despite the heavy-handed censorship of the cold war era with its hollywood blacklists and whatnot, geek culture has chipped in forming part of a broad, exciting media revolution that seeks greater notoriety for the little guys: the jews, the gays, african americans, women, citizens of the developing world and so on. 

Don't take for granted that Star Trek broadcasted American television's first scripted interracial kiss. The creators of Star Trek started with a civil rights agenda, refusing to produce the show if not with a racially diverse cast. Don't take for granted that classic, mind-shattering moment in the history of gaming when intergalactic bounty hunter Samus Aran removes her helmet and reveals her gender. Or X-Men's "Northstar" marrying another man, giving us the first gay marriage in American comic book history. And now even Spider-man is of african and hispanic heritage ("blacktino" for the politically incorrect). These fictional milestones mean something, I think. The United States had black superheroes long before it had a black president. Maybe there's something there, maybe not. But at least we can say that pop culture is more inclusive than ever, and it may not seem like much today but at the time it was a tough jump to make. And all so we could be superheroes too. People like me. I thank these awesome, progressive geeks of yesteryear. These little heroes of ours. 

There But Not Back Again: An Unexpected Journey to Mars

And there I was, in limbo. It was god awful, I tell you. Suffice it to say, it was a teacher's meeting like any other (indeed, your hero Citizen Tex is a high school professor at the moment). There I was, looking at the blank ceiling in teacher's limbo, pondering escape a million different ways over. Boy, that would be nice. And to never have to sit through another meeting again. My, oh my. "I could go to Mars", I thought. I didn't really mean it though, it was one of those empty promises you make to yourself when confronted with levels of boredom that no honest man should ever have to face. To go to Mars and not come back, the one-way ticket to outer space, that one adventure not even Bilbo Baggins has taken.

I will elaborate further in case you're wondering why this peculiar thought happened to cross my mind. Indeed, the future is among us, the colonization of Mars to be precise. It's the latest craze. A number of initiatives to begin settlement on Mars have emerged in Western Europe and North America . What's more is that these proposed settlements are coming from big spenders who are already looking to complete the necessary investment from a wide array of sources, from engineering companies to software producers to reality TV. The catch, of course, is that there's no turning back. You join the settlement for good.This is why the recent wave of mars settlement proposals have been collectively labeled "Mars to Stay" missions.

More recently, a Dutch entrepreneur of the name Bas Lansdorp has started "Mars One", a private spaceflight mission to Mars that calls for volunteers from around the world to apply online and hopefully join the ranks of 24-40 lucky global citizens to land on the red planet by 2023. If you don't believe me take a look yourself:   http://applicants.mars-one.com/. Up to now there have been around 80,000 applicants and initial screenings will take place in late 2013. This very year! I could be one of them! You could be one of them. But would you?

Who are these people, these brave, peculiar souls who have decided to leave their lives behind and fly away to the big empty? Forever is a long time. Forever without ever touching grass again, or gazing upon a bright blue, cloudless Sunday sky, or dipping your feet into the Pacific Ocean at the coast of Puerto Escondido. I don't know, maybe I tend to romanticize Earth, it is my hometown after all. Maybe I wouldn't leave all that much behind after all: my modest-paying job as a high school professor, my urban hipster/geek thrills, my casual LGBT dating, my pet goldfish. Maybe it wouldn't be such a big deal to give it all up for something beautiful, something important.

Ten years from now I'll be 34, Jesus was 33 when he was hung on a cross. Okay, maybe it's not the best example, but what if ten years from now I haven't really accomplished anything? I don't know, maybe these 80,000 applicants aren't so crazy after all. Maybe leaving the Earth forever is the only sane thing a person could do. To escape the monthly, rabid North Korean threats and the one-hour traffic on the way to work and the incompetent service by your cell phone provider and the grim newspapers detailing the mass beheadings in the less-traveled corners of northern Mexico, the list goes on. I don't know.

All I know is that I want this teachers meeting to end so I can get back to work and go back home to watch Stanely Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" on blu-ray. Maybe for the sake of blu-ray I should stay. I definitely shouldn't leave without watching the entire extended version of Lord of the Rings on Blu-Ray. Or without seeing the Great Wall of China or The Pyramids of Giza. Maybe I should stick around for a while. You know, give Earth a chance. Fall in love, travel Asia, work in New York City for a couple of years. Yeah, that sounds all right. I guess Mars will have to wait.

The Underdog

Welcome to "The Amazing Adventures of Citizen Tex: Free-spirited Underdog Vs Everyday Life"! What will you be able to read here, you ask? Well let me tell you that the enjoyment of this blog is twofold. For one I will be writing of the happenings in my life (the ones worth writing about, of course), the urban adventures of my mid-twenties in the big city in the sky, the twists and turns regarding work, education, dating, family, friends, finding meaning in life, you know, getting by in general. And on the other side I'd also like to write, as much as my overpriced liberal arts degree and upper middle class upbringing will allow, about 21st century affairs in general, culture, politics, cinema, social change, the Internet and so forth. I'd like to promise upfront that I will do my best to keep you entertained, hopefully I will be able to provide the witty writing, refreshing insight and agreeable tone I have in mind at the time of this writing. Of course I'm perfectly aware I'm just your average Joe, but then again who isn't? So give this underdog and his blog a chance and come back for new and exciting posts, you'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll wonder how we ever lived without "The Amazing Adventures of Citizen Tex". Cheers, citizens of cyberspace. I'll see you around.