Economist article about K-Pop

One of my favorite things about hosting the Language Of Music class is hearing music and about bands/performers that I would never have heard of otherwise.  Until I started this class I was blissfully unaware of K-Pop and now I realize what a big thing it is across Asia!  For example, my class played me "Gangnam Style" (video) before the Western press suddenly filled with articles about the song.

Even this week's Economist magazine refers to Psy ("Gangnam Style" performer) and then goes on to talk about the music industry in Korea (article).  Very interesting to learn how the music industry works in Korea, from how much consumers pay to how performers make money.

PS. Why has my class never shown me a Super Junior video? You guys are slacking off in keeping me current with the K-Pop trends!

15 August 2012 (Wednesday)

Today was the last class of the Summer Quarter -- the Language Of Music conversation group will take a break until Fall Quarter starts in early October.  Nine students came today, but of those nine, five will be leaving in the next weeks :-( .

Because it was the last class of the quarter the themes for songs were:

* Songs about home

* Songs about Seattle

* Goodbye songs

The first song chosen had *nothing* to do with any of those topics!  It was a parody of "Call Me Maybe (Chatroulette Version)" (video). I guess its choice was inspired by a little pre-class conversation we were having as I set up the equipment about which Olympic sports have the best looking athletes (I asked the question to both guys and girls in the class).

With the next song we started in on the themes: "Goodbye America" (video with lyrics in notes) by Nautilus Pompilius (info).

Next our Austrian student chose "Vienna Calling" (video, lyrics) by Falco (info). 

The next song was "Never Say Goodbye" (video, lyrics, song info) by Bon Jovi (info).  This is an old Bon Jovi song so I asked how the student knows it: he said that when he was young he liked hard rock and listened to Bon Jovi at that time. Now he doesn't like hard music as much, however.

The next song was "A Passionate Goodbye (뜨거운 안녕)" (video) by Toy (info).

Next we listened to a song in Chinese which wishes the listener to "have a nice trip", but I unfortunately can't find the video on YouTube anymore. Sorry!

The next song was "Hey Jude (at the London Olympics)" (video, lyrics, song info) performed by Paul McCartney (info).  The student chose this because of the line "take a sad song and make it better".

The next song was "Farewell" (video) by Apocalyptica (info).

Then we listened to "Dear My Friend" (video) by W&Whale (info in Korean).

 

One of the students who couldn't attend class in person today sent me a few songs which she would have chosen to play if she were with us.

I played the first song on her list: "台灣的心跳聲 Heart beat of Taiwan" (Song of Taiwan Pavilion at Expo 2010 Shanghai) (video).

Here were her other choices: 

* "Hello Seattle" (video, lyrics, song info) by Owl City (info)
* "Goodbye" (video, lyrics, song info) by Avril Lavigne (info)
* "International Love ft. Chris Brown" (video, lyrics, song info) by Pitbull (info)

The last song chosen was "The End" (video, lyrics, song info) by The Doors (info).  An appropriate title, but the lyrics of that song are pretty crazy!

As we gathered up the equipment I played a song which I thought is appropriate: "Wish You Were Here" (video, lyrics, song info) by Pink Floyd (info).

 

With that class was over for the day and for the quarter. I enjoyed sharing discussions with the students who came to the class this year. Those leaving I wish safe travels home. And for those staying in Seattle, I hope to see you around Seattle, at the latest for Language Of Music conversations group in October!

8 August 2012 (Wednesday)

9 students came today. 

I first started by telling the students that next Wednesday next week (15 August) there will be a free lunchtime concert downtown by a rising star from Seattle: Vicci Martinez (info), who was one of the finalists in the TV talent show "The Voice" (info). Here's an example of her singing on The Voice: her introduction to the judges: "Rolling In The Deep" (video) and "Come Along" (duet with CeeLo) (video). There was a bit of confusion in the class as I tried to find the information about where she is playing, but she is definitely playing (for free!) Wednesday, 15 August at Two Union Square Plaza (601 Union St [map]) from 12 - 1:30pm (info).  I highly recommend my students check her out, especially the students who attend classes downtown. I plan on going to the show, too.

I next asked the students if they had ever heard of a new movie from Taiwan called "Girlfriend Boyfriend" (movie trailer). Here's the description of the movie:

"GIRLFRIEND BOYFRIEND portrays the turbulent and rapid social change that has taken place during past 30 years in Taiwan through the perspectives of three intimate friends struggling with their own complex relationships." It was showing in Seattle and it would be very interesting to see this movie about society and relationships with some students from Taiwan so I can learn more about life there. I wanted to ask my students if anyone wanted to see the film with me, but now it looks like it isn't showing in Seattle anymore :-( .

Today Anthony, from Russia, brought his acoustic guitar to play some Russian songs for us! I don't have a recording of him playing + singing the songs, but here are links to the original versions of the songs he played:

The first song (ПИЛОТ - Шнурок):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5uMMjOCIHg

The second song (ДДТ-Дождь):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKTCfK5pPCI -- album version.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1NNhkPPNYA -- official video.

The third song (Аквариум - Северный цвет):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIp0a8bTEcg -- album version.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HW5PtnWDi0 -- concert version.

The next song chosen had some similar musical textures to it: "Zigeunerskat" (video, lyrics) by In Extremo (info).  The student who chose this song likes how the medieval sounds are incorporated into the song.  He likes both medieval and heavy metal music and In Extremo combine these two favorite styles of his.

The next song chosen was quite different: "Gangnam Style" (video, lyrics, song info) by PSY (info).  The student chose this song because it is humorous. In reading about it in the "song info" it is interesting for me to learn about why the different scenes are funny to Koreans. I forgot to ask the students if that "hopping around" style of dance became popular in Korea after this video came out.

Update: There was an article in the American news this week about this song! 

Update 2: Here's an article which explains the cultural background of why this video is so popular in Korea.

Speaking of funny songs, we next watched "Kabinenparty" (video, lyrics, song info in German) by Skero (info in German), which was a big hit in Austria last summer (it is sung in a strong accent local to the city of Linz).  

Now we were back on songs sung in German. We talked a little about whether German is a "melodic" language.  We listened to "Dalai Lama" (video with lyrics, song info) by German band Rammstein (info). After hearing this song I suggested the German language is more rhythmic than melodic.

The next song was "Fuck You" (video, lyrics, song info) by Lily Allen (info). The student said he likes the melody of the song.  Is that the only reason he suggested this song, I wonder?  Hahaha! :-)

At this point I asked the students to play me a song where the singer says "Fuck You" in their local language.  No one had a song like that to suggest, but they did suggest a song by the controversial rapper MC HotDog (info): "Wo Ai Tai Mei" (video, lyrics). 

The next song was "Stacy's Mom" (video, lyrics, song info) by Fountains Of Wayne (info).  The student who chose this song said he likes the pop melody. 

The theme of "Stacy's Mom" made me think of explaining an American term to the class.  I won't go into which term that was exactly in this blog, but it's used in this Tori Amos (info) song: "Big Wheel" (video, lyrics, song info).

On that note our meeting was over for the day. At the end of class today I realized we had only listened to three songs in English the whole day (two right at the end!) -- cool!

A note: the next class on 15 August will be the last one for Summer Quarter! The Language Of Music will resume for the Winter Quarter, starting again in October. Students are welcome to stay in touch with me during the break if they have any questions about music or cultural events in Seattle.  I will also keep students informed of my recommendations for musical/cultural things to do during the break -- I hope we will meet up!

Many of the students who have been attending class will go back home in the next weeks -- I will be sorry to not have you in my class in the Fall.  For this week, please think of songs about "going home", "goodbye" or any songs that you relate to your time in Seattle (ex. about Seattle, or you often listen(ed) here or that were popular in the past six months).

1 August 2012 (Wednesday)

Another nice, sunny day in Seattle!  The class during the summer quarter has been only lightly attended and today there were only 6 students -- 4 of whom were new.

I started by telling the students that if they heard loud noises and jet fighters in the air over Seattle this weekend not to be afraid: it's just the Blue Angels (info), highly specialized pilots from the US Navy in town to entertain for the annual Seafair Festival (info). In particular they do an amazing flying show over the hydroplane boat races (info) on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.  Here's some video someone shot of the Blue Angels this year. The video is pretty cool, but I can say from personal experience that seeing (and hearing!) them in person is much more impressive. 

About the hydroplane races: those boats go fast! As with the Blue Angels, it's more impressive to watch in person than on video.  Many people go to the races hoping to see a boat go too fast and flip (video).

As I told the new students about cultural things in Seattle, the subject of Bumbershoot (info) came up again. This year's Bumbershoot lineup looks really interesting to me, though it is a little bit lacking in world music compared to other years.  The students asked me which bands I am most interested in seeing at Bumbershoot.  Here's a quick list by day of the bands I want to see:

Saturday

The Spittin' Cobras

Skerik's Bandalabra

Gotye

The Soul Rebels

THEE Satisfaction

The Heavy

Jane's Addiction (one of my favorite bands in the 90's!)

Sunday

Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings

Eldridge Gravy & The Court Supreme

Barcelona (maybe)

The Dirtbombs

Mudhoney

* I might spend a good part of this day watching short films and looking at art.

Monday

Cascadia '10

Bombino (from Niger, West Africa; I've already seen him twice in the past 9 months!)

M83

Omar Souleyman

Fishbone

Low

Star Anna & The Laughing Dogs

Fujiya & Miyagi

Those are just the bands I know now that I am interested in seeing. I will inevitably come across something I had no idea about while I am there! Part of the fun of Bumbershoot is walking around and discovering new music! 

Now I wanted to find out what kind of music the new students like. One student said he likes Linkin Park (info).  His favorite song by them is "In The End" (video, lyrics, song info).

The next student chose "Payphone" (video, lyrics, song info) by Maroon 5 (info).  The student who chose it like that song because it's about long distance relationship and how romantic it can be when people keep a relationship going by their strong love despite the long distance.

The next student said he loves British Rock like The Beatles (info) and Oasis (info).  He even went on a musical pilgrimage to England to see the actual places where the Beatles were from. I asked him which Beatles song is his favorite -- a difficult question, I know!  After thinking about it a while he chose "Hey Jude" (video, lyrics, song info).

The next new student said he currently likes dubstep music (info), but he chose something completely different to show the class: "Signal To Noise" (video, lyrics, song info) by Peter Gabriel (info).

I am not really familiar with what dubstep music is so I asked him to chose a song as an example of dubstep. He chose "Playing The Villain" (video) by Son Of Kick. I mentioned that this sounds to me a lot like Skrillex (info), who is playing at Bumbershoot this year.

At this point the building facilities person came in to kick us out.  We had time for one more song.  Julius, from Vienna, is a fan of the Seattle band Abney Park (info) and the steampunk style (info).  I had never heard of Abney Park until Julius told me about them, yet they are apparently very known internationally!  Julius wrote a review of their new album for the University of Washington student newspaper. He suggested we listen to their song "Automaton", which is closer to dubstep than their usual steampunk. However, since it is one of the few songs in the world *not* on YouTube we listened to it through his iPod and I can't do a link to the song. Sorry!

With that we had to break for the day.

A note: The class on 15 August will be the last one for the Summer Quarter.  There will be a break until early October when Fall Quarter starts.  Nonetheless, during the break I will be in touch with students via email and I hope we can do some fun music/culture things together.