Kpop, Late Night and Morning Shows

Everyone right now knows that SNSD — okay, Girls’ Generation — performed on Letterman. To follow it up with an early showing of Live! with Kelly, I gotta admit, I was kinda curious about it. So I watched them both and realized something…

I haven’t watched, what Americans know as, Late Night Shows or Morning Shows in a long while. I used to do them a lot in Canada… maybe it’s a regional thing or something. But I don’t even bother to watch SNL when it’s on down here. I used to watch a LOT of trash then, like the random who-the-baby-daddy-gon-be they did on Maury, and I even caught an episode or two of Tyra.

ANYWAY — to cut a long story short, I used to LOVE the The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and her being goofy and all. I always thought she’d be perfect for some Asian music. There used to be a feature where you could send Ellen music, so I did — I sent her Crowd Lu’s Goodbye Hooks (再見勾勾) [MV], which has THE PERFECT silliest dance that she could do with her audience. But alas, that didn’t happen.

Returning to my topic at hand, watching SNSD perform on both occasions made me realize that Kpop is destined to morning television. I mean, I saw the Letterman performance [YouTube] and I could just picture older men liking it… having Letterman, Regis and Bill Murray there didn’t help the cause either. And some of the tweets of the night kinda confirmed that idea.

Julyssa knows that I know very little of the group… I don’t even know their names. Okay, maybe one, because that’s Julyssa’s favorite and she was on that episode of Family Outing. BUT THAT’S IT. So when I try to explain what exactly SNSD is I always try to say they’re a girl group of young women that are just really REALLY RIDICULOUSLY good-looking, kinda sexy but overall wholesome. I don’t know any of their scandals or secrets, but just based on what I see, these are girls you introduce to your family.

You don’t go home to your grandma and say, “Hey, Nana– this is Tila Tequila.” You go home to your Nana and say, “Nana, look who’s come to visit you again! It’s Yoona!” LOL

Because of this, you can’t introduce them to the acidic audience that watches Late Night Shows — me included. I just remembered, I do watch Late Night Shows, just not American ones. Any Graham Norton fans?

A Late Night Show audience is going to jump at you straight up with any wise-cracking joke they got — and they ALL use Twitter. The Morning Show audience is different… I don’t think any of them use Twitter, for instance, considering the amount of comments I found on Live! with Kelly, and I even think they might appreciate the kinda wholesome nature of SNSD in this over-sexualized market of pop music.

Plus, SNSD got to be a little bit funny.

So the girls would be perfect for a segment in The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and I don’t think Ellen would mind being taught how to dance by all of them. Okay, maybe Portia would be a little bit jealous xD

Also, I don’t want to talk (again) about what I think of Kpop that is not in Korean.

amy

YAM Magazine editor, photographer, blogger, translator and part-time web designer. Film junkie, music junkie… and lately series (a.k.a. TV) junkie.

13 Responses

  1. Camiele says:

    OKay, first of all, Graham Norton… ?

    THE GREATEST EFFING SHOW ON TELEVISION EVER!!!!

    Secondly, I never understood the idea that the only way to truly be considered successful is to “make it big” in America. The market here has little to nothing to be proud of, and the standards are WAY low. So, I just don’t get it. Maybe back in the 60s or 70s. Hell, even the 80s or 90s would’ve been the time to try and impress a wider audience; however, the music now doesn’t even count! The mainstream stuff, anyway, hss the standards of a five-year-old’s drawing compared to Rembrandt — it’s just bad.

    And it’s so funny that Americans are so snarky and so disrespectful, really, to foreign acts anyway when the music they’re used to consuming is a bunch of garbage bound to give anyone who’s actually used to listening to real music a headache. I don’t know. I believe all music is univeral and so should simply be accepted worldwide. However, the idea that the most important market is the American market is baffling and just sad.

    And in all fairness, “Kpop that’s not in Korean” is simply “pop”. The reason it’s called Kpop is because it’s in Korean, right? In terms of Korean artists singing in English or any other language, I’m all for it. I just think people should acclimate to different languages anyway. The world’s too big and yet too small to think that one’s language is the only one of real importance… HaHa.

    • amy says:

      @Camiele, love Graham Norton… and he usually gets great guests – when he’s not interviewing the likes of katy perry, gwyneth paltrow, madonna or kate hudson (fyi, these have just been some recent reruns down here). LOVED the episode where Toni Collette was a guest (plus Billie Piper and Shappi Khorsandi).

      ANYWAY. I think like you… and I used to think that not caring what language the song was, somehow, was the norm. It’s not like I was born speaking English, right? But then, I really don’t know when I realized this, but it made me really angry at the American market hahaha.

      but that’s a topic for a whole different feature hahahaha I’m just thankful that my parents don’t speak any English, so they didn’t have to understand a WORD when I sang along to Aguilera’s Genie in a Bottle being rubbed the right way, or Jordan Knight’s ability to keep women wet in Give it to You. I really don’t understand how American parents let their kids sing that back then.

      ANYWAY (again), in all fairness, SNSD did look a bit nervous, but I want to see ANY of us (or I guess any American singers) sing in a language that’s not our mother tongue. Justin Bieber doesn’t even know what the continents are… and people think that’s CUTE. O_O

      What really bothers me is when people equals name recognition worldwide to talent. “Such and such is known worldwide, therefore they’re better” it really gives me the creeps how much emphasis people put into ‘fame,’ Fame is everything nowadays…

      • Camiele says:

        @amy, You basically said it all, love. It does bother me that in America it’s acceptable to be completely oblivious to the rest of the world (stupid about it, blatantly retarded about it). However, let anyone try to come over to America — they better know damn near everything there is to know: the language, the history, the tax system… EVERYTHING.

        What’s more repulsive that the idea of being stupid if an attractive trait here. Especially when it comes to anyone considered a “celebrity”. People eat that shit up over here. Yet Americans are the very first to jump all over anyone who can’t speak “proper” English and who’s cultural ideas of cute and sexy are completely different.

        Fame is a scary thing. It shreds people up and can ruin their self-respect. Notoriety and fame are two completely different things. Getting noticed for your work is one thing. Getting mauled by paparazzi every step you take and having everything you say taken out of context has nothing to do with being an artist.

        Anyway… to tell you the truth I don’t know how we got away with ANY of the things we listened to/watched back in the 90s. It was all sex and perversion… HaHa! Yet, I think we managed much better than this new crop of kids growing up on the gooey cuteness and stupidity of today’s television and music.

        • amy says:

          @Camiele, I’ll tell you how. Parenting. Some of the things kids do today, I would’ve never gotten away with it without getting a good one. I don’t think kids know the meaning of “My parents will kill me if they find out” LOL Reminds me a little bit of Amy Chua’s Tiger Mother or something xD

          As parents become less experienced, as many of them become parents at a younger age, there’s also a toll on teachers. Teachers can’t do anything to their students because they can be accused of distressing the kid emotionally xD Believe me, this crap works. LOL I once suffered a really humiliating thing at school, and I became a grade A student after it. I hated the teacher then, but MY GOD. She probably saved me.

          But returning to the topic at hand… I’m not even a big SNSD fan, but I do respect the time and effort they put into all the practicing to get the performance to perfection. I respect the fact that when a Korean idol actually tells me they’re not going to perform due to exhaustion, I believe them. They work their ass off and don’t have lives to entertain us, they’re not using some “exhaustion” code when they’re checking themselves into rehab or are having a really REALLY bad hangover. Plus, is not like Rihanna can sing or dance any different… xD

        • amy says:

          @Camiele, also… about the sex. I think 90s songs were sexual in nature, but not visually. So you’d have Salt N’ Pepa all chilling in their clothing singing something like PUSH IT, PUSH IT REAL GOOD. But if you didn’t speak the language, you could just… not know.

          Now it’s just EVERYTHING. Skimpy outfits and sexual songs, so even if you don’t speak the language, little girls are imitating the gestures and the frolicking on the ground. Even Madonna’s Like a Virgin is considered virginal now. LOL That VMA performance has too much clothing for today’s standard. xD

  2. Camiele says:

    @amy, You said it all right there. It’s a wonder to me that as soon as one’s an adult he/she automatically forgets what he/she’s been taught. How can you honestly decide that you’d rather have the television babysit your child instead of interacting, showing your child that you’re interested in them? Something as small as reading to your child at night… really?

    And I am totally behind you regarding Korean acts. And, at times, British acts. You know that they’re working their asses of, some to the point that it’s dangerous. However, depending on the saturation of the market, those acts may never even get a chance to show what they’ve worked so hard for. And the idol lifestyle is so fickle it’s almost as if if it doesn’t happen quickly, it’s not worth it. One of my favourite artists had been making records since the 80s and only got recognized in the States in 2005. Then he just went away because by then he was almost 40 (in his early 40s now) and the market didn’t care. It was starting to morph into something completely unrecognizable.

    As far as sexuality goes, back in the 80s and 90s, it was about sexual freedom, expression, but the sexuality was intelligent, provacative, nuanced. Madonna’s Justify My Love, anything from Bedtime Stories. Janet, early Britney. Even acts like Marilyn Manson… it was all about making a statement. Granted, everything’s about getting attention and making money. But there was something behind it back when open sexuality was still taboo and still experimental. Nowadays, there’s no rhyme or reason to it. And, you’re right, it’s bleeding over into the way that children behave now. And how adults allow their children to do so.

    Back when I was a kid watching these videos, I knew I wasn’t allowed to. Hell, I wasn’t allowed to have a tv in my room until I was 13 and then there were channels I wasn’t allowed to watch. So, trying to emulate what I saw just didn’t make any sense if I was trying to hide the fact that I was watching it in the first place… HaHa.

    Wow… sorry for the long response. But, man, this conversation is so important. The idea that these Korean acts, good or bad, are working so hard to pander to an audience that’s so far gone as far as quality is concerned that it almost seems fruitless.

    • amy says:

      @Camiele, the other day I saw a report — actually, I think it was yesterday on the Chinese channel hahaha — they were saying the industry is so obsessed with being young that 25 is old now. I mean, I used to think 20s was old… but that was when I was 10 hahaha.

      I’m talking as a person that grew up in front of the television, and took the idiot tube as a learning tool. To me everything that kids are (and have been) watching is dumb crap LOL Of course, I grew up with Spanish dubs of a lot of shows, but that never made me think that EVERYONE spoke my language – but maybe it’s because I was used to having my family speaking Chinese (when they didn’t want others to understand what they were talking about), so I kinda grew thinking it’s okay to not know what other people are talking about xD

      Then again, radios… there’s a lot of English music on the airwaves, and you don’t care about the lyrics as long as it sounds good… then you learn English, and go WTF. I remember my first French song was Jordy’s Dur dur d’être bébé! LOL and I didn’t understand a freaking thing he was singing, but jumped around and had fun. LOL

      I also grew up watching so many things that I wasn’t allowed to, but having parents that worked all day and being taken care by others, it just gives you some extra freedom, I guess. Back then you didn’t know something, you picked up the dictionary to search for the word “sex” and then picked up a biology book. Now you goggle it, and you end up in porn sites…

      ANYWAY, back to kpop production and how people (a lot of Americans) look down on all these Korean idols for training under a company — there’s the Lana del Rey thing now. The industry is selling her as the greatest thing since slice bread (or as we say in Spanish… la ultima chupada del mango, or la ultima coca cola del desierto), but a lot of people are calling out on her dad paying a great producer to make her big… and people are falling.

      Man… this talk is making me bitter hahaha

      • Camiele says:

        @amy, I know right?! People eat that shit up. Let somebody actually work their asses off to get where they are… forget who put them together in the first place. They actually had to WORK to get where they are. No producers to hype them up… they had to go on tour, make appearances, train everyday for 14 hours, sing til their throats were sore…

        These kids had to work like you wouldn’t imagine. It’s too easy for people nowadays. I don’t know about anywhere else, but in America… all you gotta do is show up on television and you’re instantly famous. Doesn’t matter what your level of talent is. As lond as you’ve got some “thing” to sell, people will buy it like it’s the most important thing they’ll ever spend money on.

  3. ghost says:

    Morning shows have more of that energy that Korean varieties have, unlike Late Night which is essentially a white people’s format. There’s no other words to describe Late Night Show than with the expression in English. The closest translation would be a variation of ‘night show’ which isn’t the same meaning as a Late Night Show.

  4. Camiele says:

    @amy, That’s Amy for the win… HaHa. I could’ve done without the comments saying that anyone who doesn’t work a 9-5 job that they hate deserve this video. But, in essence… YES! That’s exactly what I’m talking about right there. YouTube and American Idol gave people the impression that actually WORKING at anything doesn’t exist. In a few years, no one will actually have to do anything but sit on their asses and guess what… they’re fucking stars overnight. It reminds of me of Wall-E: they’re all on this huge spaceship where robots take care of all their needs… THEY DON’T EVEN NEED TO WALK. And, guess what, they’re bones shrank and were wrapped around 450 pounds of wobbly flesh.

    Thus all the geniuses behind technology make everyone else a little stupider and lazier everyday.

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