Girls’ Generation – Divine
No. No I do not…
[Video][Website]
[4.00]
Patrick St. Michel: What made the sudden Korean-pop boom in Japan back in 2010 so exciting wasn’t that it was a new development — plenty of Korean artists, from Tohoshinki to BoA, established themselves in the Japanese market long before KARA or Girls’ Generation appeared. But the latter did it their way. Dive into any J-pop-centric comments section from that summer (or, for your sanity, don’t) and you’ll find a lot of people complaining about how the latter two groups didn’t get popular in Japan “the right way” — they just brought over existing singles and translated them into Japanese. Sure, but when your catalog includes some of the best pop songs of the past decade, why not? Girls’ Generation eventually started making Japanese songs, but even those were miles above the J-pop they competed against for the top spot on music charts (something rivals KARA weren’t as consistent about). “Divine,” a ballad tacked onto a greatest hits collection, is the sound of settling for all the worst tendencies of Japanese pop music. It’d be a filler track on a Namie Amuro or Nishino Kana full-length, the sort of single that K-pop in 2010 absolutely leveled as it gained traction in Japan. Its only redeeming quality is that it’s clearly a throwaway addition to juice sales — the song itself is the worst of the Japanese market being embraced by an oftentimes daring group.
[1]
Iain Mew: We tend to focus on Girls’ Generation’s Korean career, but their Japanese one is pretty extensive, having taken in some great alternative approaches as it has diverged. This is not one of them. It’s a damp ballad performed ably enough, but it needs the additional context granted to “we are always one” to gain any spark at all.
[4]
Micha Cavaseno: This ballad-by-numbers is so rushed and slapdash they didn’t even bother to adjust the Auto-Tune on the vocals, which makes everything here sound like water sliding down a sink-drain. Can something be mediocre if you know nobody really gave a damn about it?
[2]
Alfred Soto: Without quantifying it note for note, the chorus evokes the slush of eighties Bacharach-Sager. I prefer the tougher verses, not to mention the pained “We are always one!” like a host in a Jean Renoir film switching from French to English.
[5]
Brad Shoup: Density without lushness, measured pace without stateliness: a ballad like this relies on nothing but will. This kind of soggy sorrow has a weird resonance with me; there are a thousand tunes like it in my optometrist’s office of the mind.
[6]
David Sheffieck: Thematically there’s nothing new here, but GG tap into just enough pathos to keep things from curdling; like the best mid-period Michael Jackson ballads, this walks a tightrope and keeps itself aloft by sheer technique.
[6]
I can’t believe I forgot to blurb this!
Anyway, the song is bad but Jessica Jung (the recently booted member) getting “We Are One” does remind the listener that she always tended to get the iconic English lines in Girls Generation songs… Gee’s “Listen, boy – my first love story”, Genie’s “I’m genie for you boy”, The Boys’ “Girls bring the boys out”, I Got a Boy’s “Don’t stop – let’s bring it back to 1:40″… at a certain point those parts tended to go to Tiffany instead but for a lot of people Jessica probably *IS* the voice that comes to mind when they think about Girls Generation.
So you do wonder what they’ll sound like without her…
Can anyone recommend an Apop ballad that isn’t by-the-numbers and would be filler for another artist?
My perception is that Apop ballads are all about individual isolation, that you like this particular Apop ballad because you like this artist, or it’s tied to a certain memory, not because the ballad itself does anything special. I suppose there’s some wiggle room for so-and-so with some unique vocal talent to bring something to the table, but otherwise, it’s just an exercise for songwriters to get their urge to do textbook soppy karaoke fodder out of the system, and for fans to say, “Look, my favorites can ballad, too! They totally have real talent it’s not just gimmicks!”
what is Apop
ARTPOP
DID I HEAR ARTPOP ARE WE BACK TO #POPEMERGENCY
someone find a pic of SNSD in front of a wall of wigs
AG, I think the problem is that ballad as practiced in K-pop (can’t speak for J-pop nor for Mando/Cantopop but I suspect it’s similar) is such a conservative format that even if it’s not being imposed on a group geared toward dance singles, it can sound rehashed, especially if you (like me) already dislike that format. For instance I think 2AM, a ballad-focused group, released pretty much the same single a few times in a row, but it was what was expected. I have yet to meet a fellow K-idol pop fan who likes ballad as a genre.
That said, I think Beast’s “On Rainy Days” holds up even without preexisting fan inclination (unless that’s my preexisting fan inclination talking), and someone more familiar with IU than me can probably make a good case for her ballads.
I’m not an expert but the purpose of ballads is to be on soundtracks, no?
Some OST ballads I like:
Kris – Time Boils the Rain – Tiny Times 3 OST
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zee2LNnzJwo
Chen – Best Luck – It’s Alright, It’s Love OST
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrUB_iA_gZs
Yoon Mi Rae – I Love You – It’s Alright, It’s Love OST
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOJei39-7aE
(This drama has a pretty decent soundtrack in general)
ZE:A – Beautiful Lady – The Romantic & Idol OST
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCEd1EiVnlw
Big Bang – Tell Me Goodbye – IRIS OST
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GE_4RtpVVaw
Big Bang – Koe Wa Kikasete – Ohitorisama OST
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQjcJBGIFsA
L & Kystal – I Want to Love You – My Lovely Girl OST
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tc_6CBjTr74
Plus you could call lots of songs ballads that aren’t totally limp (but do have melodramatic music videos), for instance:
g.o.d. – To My Mother
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P2tpZgndHU
K.will – Please don’t
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdUiCJnRptk
G.NA ft. Hyuna and Junhyung – A Bitter Day
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZmiLWiotig
^^Might be slow hip-hop rather than a ballad, but you get the idea.
I like listening to people who don’t have strong voices do ballads b/c it makes them sound vulnerable.
I bet the K-drama fans are the people who like ballads, more than the K-pop fans…. Though I do agree with Maddie that it’s partly a genre limitation (anything not poppy enough to be pop, not RnB enough to be RnB, not hip hop enough to be hip hop = ballad), and also that Junhyung (from BEAST) is good at writing them.
For me, Apop = Asian pop
It may also be a language (and other context) issue. Other than some of the nostalgic “my first idol ballad, my first Kpop ballad, my first Sinatra crooner, etc.” entries, the only ballads I can stand are from english-language musicals with rich lyrics and rich context. (Sondheiiiiiimmmm–just kidding Jerry Herman is king) Without lyrical meaning, the music alone really is just like all of the other ballads.
“Dear Mom” by SNSD brings tears to most fans’ eyes because of member-meta reasons, but even knowing what it’s conceptually about, the voices are just instruments to me, since I can’t understand Korean, and thus the music is lacking compared to other ballads in their discography, and I don’t care for the song.
K-drama fans also have a context and potential preexisting emotional investment to associate OST ballads with, like with musical ballads.
ugh that was obvious
sorry, AG