Soren's Song

Jonathan Mann over at rockcookiebottom.com just wrote this song for Soren. It's wonderful.

He even took the time to explain about Soren and made it very personal for him. Many of the lines for the song are taken from Soren's website, curioussoren.blogspot.com, which he also linked to on his homepage.... and he included the lyrics, too. All too cool, really.



Last week Soren and I began a little email conversation with Jonathan after I wrote this post about his "Hey Paul Krugman" song. He said he'd write a song for Soren, and the first thing Soren has done every morning since is to check rockcookiebottom to look for his song.

The thing is, Jonathan made it kinda big this past week with the success of "Hey, Paul Krugman". It led to him being interviewed by MSNBC's "1600 Pennsylvania Ave." and writing their theme song (it's great, see below). He received a lot of exposure, a lot more traffic, and all sorts of requests. He wrote a general post asking for people to be very patient about their song requests. Secretly, I was expecting Soren's song to be put off for some time and was hoping Soren wouldn't be too disappointed.

Not so. Not only did he do the song, but he made it completely personal for Soren as well. We're so grateful. Soren's thrilled. After watching the video, Soren quickly wrote about it on his website and then asked if he could skip art class so he could stay home to write another song. Of course I said yes....

G'Dragon vs. Donnie Wahlberg

Soren came home the other day and told me he looked like G'Dragon (Gangsta Dragon?), the "bad boy" sort-of rapper from the massively popular Korean pop/hip-hop band, 빅방 (Big Bang).

To put this into perspective for an American in his 30's, this would be akin to my son saying he looks like Donnie Wahlberg from the New Kids on the Block.... and don't pretend like you don't know who Donnie is.

Donnie is the NKOTB (yeah, I'm confident enough in my person that I can both write about Donnie and use the abbreviation for the band). Donnie was the one member that made you think twice about the group. He was the tough guy. The really, really cool, really tough guy that would beat you up. Or at least dress that way and have a scowl on his face that said "I'll fuck you up if you say I'm in a gay boy band."

[side note: I have a pop culture fascination about the NKOTB phenomenon. It was triggered by trying to understand the motivations of my friend's younger sister - she covered every inch of her bedroom walls with NKOTB posters and photos. She travelled to Boston to see the first concert of several NKOTB tours. She told me a cryptic story about being in Donnie's hotel room.... I'm not sure if she was crazy or just a slut. And to be clear, I never liked them - I was just interested in the NKOTB phenomenon. No. Really.]



This is 빅방, and G'Dragon is the guy in the middle with the faux mohawk - or as they say in Asia, the "beckham sytle". In case you can't tell, he's a bad-motha-fucka with gangsta street-cred (and an elite private school upbringing). If you check out Soren's website, you'll see his profile pic is somewhat similar. So maybe his friends are right in that he looks like G Dragon. Maybe he should be happy b/c his friends sure think G Dragon is cool, so that can't be a bad thing.... but two things keep coming to my mind:

One, Donnie Wahlberg.

Two, Korean pop music really, really sucks.

I'm highly biased against pop music in general, but Korean pop music makes me hurl. When I came to Korea 15 years ago, Korea still had terrible boy bands (yeah, and NKOTB was huge), but there were also music stores on every corner hinting that musical diversity still existed. And then around 2000 the Korean music industry semi-collapsed after everyone stopped buying music and turned to illegal downloads instead (Korea has the world's highest percentage of internet users).

With no one buying CD's, the music industry changed it's business structure. Instead of making and marketing music, they began to make and market pop culture. Not completley unlike pop music in the states, but here it's in overdrive. The music industry makes most of its money by having bands do commercials (everyone here is a sellout - that is the entire point), be regulars on TV talk/reality shows, perform weekly TV concerts, etc. Basically they make money by being famous.

While typing this post, I glanced over at the TV show my wife was watching - "Imagination Plus" - a standard-fare Korean talk show. It summarizes my entire post. 소녀시대 (Girls' Generation) is the guest, and the whole point of the show is to talk about how awesome they are - especially their awesomely awesome dance moves (starting after 1:00 cuts to the chase).



This kind of music, dancing, and TV broadcasting is everywhere. I'm constantly dumbfounded. Every new song has a new dance. And most of my students know every move.

I'm torn between telling them that their music sucks or just shooting myself in the head.

I know I'm being condescending of the Korean culture, which I suppose is my intent. It helps me stay sane. I love living in a culture that makes me feel dizzy at times - it keeps life interesting... and really, who am I to judge?

What is happening to the Korean music industry is also happening in many other Asian countries. I wonder what will happen in the states when almost everyone stops buying music. America has a strong tradition of counter-culture music so musical diversity will always flourish... but where will the profits come from?

Last thought: I wonder what would happen if Rage Against the Machine and Ani DiFranco had a concert in Korea. Most Koreans, after running away in fear, would likely have the same reaction that I have when I hear Big Bang: What the hell was that shit?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is a mix of many famous Asian pop/hip-hop bands. Oh Lord, the apocalypse is upon us.



This is Soren's favorite Big Bang song. He saw me looking for videos for this post and asked me to find this video. He begged me to add it to his iPod. I will, but it'll hurt.



For those who just can't get enough (that'd be you, halloweenjack), you can search YouTube for K-pop.

Lastly, to show that I'm either a hypocrite or not quite so negative about my adopted homeland (answer: both), here is a song by MC몽 (MC Monkey - Koreans think he looks like a monkey). I actually kind of like this song's unique, humorous gusto.

A bombshell is about to explode

Step one: play video



Step two: look at tim.











Welcome to tiny's, Tim.

Deserted Island Dozen

Because it's never too early to plan for a disaster, I'm preparing my "deserted island dozen" -- 12 CD's I would most want on a deserted island. Yes, my deserted island has an endless power supply and a surprisingly high quality CD player. Unfortunately it doesn't have a USB port to plug in my iPod.

1) Modest Mouse - Good News for People Who Like Bad News
2) Bob Dylan - Blonde on Blonde (hard to pass on Blood on the Tracks, but since Blonde is a double album, it makes more sense)
3) Ben Harper - Live from Mars (yes, double album)
4) Ani DiFranco - Revelling, Reckoning (yes, double again)
5) Led Zeppelin - I
6) Digable Planets - Reachin' (A Refutation of Time and Space)
7) Bob Marley - Legend (more diverse than my favorite, "Live!")
8) Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans
9) Jeff Buckley - Grace
10) Lenny Kravitz - Acoustic Live
11) Radiohead - The Bends
12) U2 - The Joshua Tree

(My honorable mention albums that I tossed out at the last minute b/c I didn't have room in my backpack were: Damien Rice - 0, David Bowie - Honky Dorey, John Coltrane - My Favorite Things, Rage Against the Machine - S/T, Tori Amos - Under the Pink, Cure - Mixed Up, White Stripes - White Blood Cells, Yusef Lateef - Eastern Sounds, Beatles - White Album, Tom Waits - Closing Time, Nick Drake - Pink Moon, Bjork - Post)

If I don't starve to death or get eaten by wild boars on my deserted island, I'll probably kill myself for not adding any jazz or enough musical diversity.

By the way, this is my deserted island, and it looks like I'm not completely alone after all. Good furtune.