LAS-T In reply to Penstray [2018-08-25 23:56:26 +0000 UTC]

I don't know much about kpop - never listened to it - but I do like BTS.

Lol I don't know the band you linked but it's cute - I think they got Arabia and India mixed up though.

And for the chorus, the sound production is quite different to BTS.
IDOL is a mixture of South African beats fused with Korean traditional instruments - this is also reflected in their dance moves as well. The producers studied the different cultural sounds extensively before producing the song - strikingly balanced for such an odd mixture. Not my favourite track but it's up there - the message is great though.

Thanks for checking it out. <3

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Penstray In reply to LAS-T [2018-08-26 05:42:43 +0000 UTC]

I tried, but still find the genre as a whole .... just not to my liking. Which is intriguing by itself since I do like lots of very different music styles, but it's true I'm more into melodic stuff than more "broken up" compositions, in terms of sound flow, like this one.

About the band it's a pretty well-known Dutch band in Europe, activating in the eurodance/europop in the 2000's. And well, they kinda mixed Arabia, India and Egypt together, but since the original book "Arabian Nights" itself contains stories set in these countries, among others, I think they wanted to express this whole idea of mythic, mysterious and/or exotic civilisations.

Oh, I see, so that's why the sound sounds more broken-up than what I'm used to, now I remember trying out African music once and it being based more on impact sound than melodic line. And indeed these guys' song is a balanced mixture of the 2 in this context, certainly new and interesting. It still seems funny as hell to me seeing such feminine guys acting all bad-ass and stuff, but that's just a form of discrimination, I realize that. Still can't really hrlp it though, it's like imagining these cute frogs, all feminine with sparkles and perfect make-up, jumping around me all angry and with "Yo, modafucka, what're you staring at?! Gonna beat the crap out of you" type of attitude

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LAS-T In reply to Penstray [2018-08-26 13:35:37 +0000 UTC]

I actually agree with you. KPOP as a genre is lacking in many regards, hence why I never got into it and still don’t. (Maybe the industry will change in the future, who knows?)

BTS has actually been centred around quite a few debates by both the Korean music industry and by outside critics – debates based around the belief that they aren’t even KPOP. BTS have done something rather anomalous by making an entirely new genre for themselves, one that’s unlike anything in both the Asian and the Western music landscape. This is a heated topic of debate even now.

Which is why I was glad you brought up your last point.

‘IDOL’ is actually the very last instalment of 4 part series called ‘Love Yourself’.

It’s a collection of albums that’s built like a narrative of a story – Introduction, Development, Turning Point and Conclusion. It’s based on the idea that you can’t fully love others until you learn to love yourself – to be kind to your mental and emotional well-being.

It was conceptualised 3 years ago and finally ended 2 days ago.

What you’ve watched is the end of their narrative, the conclusion which is the song ‘IDOL’: an anthem to the boys finding that they can love themselves. You mentioned ‘jumping around all angry’ – it’s not at all what they’re doing. It’s an invitation: “I love myself. And so should you. Won’t you come join me?”.

The CC button reveals the lyrics but I understand that a lot of the context is not easy to grasp unless you’ve been following them since the series began.

(Plus, the BTS boys are complete marshmallows and they don’t pretend to be anything else)

The ‘Love Yourself’ series is actually partnered with a UNICEF campaign called #EndViolence .
It’s about protecting children all around the world from harm.

At my age, I can barely get through most music since it’s nearly always centred around 3 things: sex, money, bragging. Particularly in American music. And since America is the biggest music industry, they rest of the planet is forced to hear it too. Which is a pity considering the human spectrum is much broader than those three things.

Which I guess is the reason why so may people have flocked towards these boys.
BTS is a social movement disguised as a boyband. One based on sincerity, integrity and protection of the youth. Music is simply the vessel in which they decided to do this.

When you take this into account: their stage make-up and feminine features is not particularly relevant.

If you’re interested, BTS has beautiful ballads and melodic songs like ‘Spring Day’, ‘Untold Truth’, ‘Butterfly’ and ‘Epiphany’. They jump genres so their discography appeals to a lot of different people.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMDgIB…

However don’t force it if you’re not interested.

NOTE: And thanks for showing me Chimpz, I admit I don’t listen to many European artist, however I do love AURORA, saw her performance at the Nobel Peace Prize and was gobsmacked by her voice. She’s one of those aliens that sound better live than digital. Tash Sultana is also like this. Chills bro.

(Golly I apologise, I haven’t realised how long this had gotten)

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Penstray In reply to LAS-T [2018-08-26 20:08:28 +0000 UTC]

No problem whatsoever, it was great reading your reply and finding out so much interesting info, as well as talking to someone who's not into most modern day music. I myself donno too much of modern music, not even more indie or underground projects which, supposedly, should be more meaningful than mainstream artists. Being born in the late '80's and growing with a more classic upbringing, let's say, informed not only my personality but my music tastes as well. Guess I was always what you'd call an old soul, and even though society and my own need to feel accepted made it so that I also manage to be socially functional when I need to be, quite successfully actually, I mostly prefer to just be by myself and enjoying my own tastes, even if I tend to repeat playlists over and over again. Therefore my tastes run towards the music of the '70's through the '90's, and the only modern stuff I listen to are some metal bands like Sonata Arctica and artists like Ed Sheeran, Enya, Blunt etc. Mostly though the common threads of what I listen to are either well-written, storytelling psychology-like lyrics, melodic lines that are fluid or savage enough to evoke a story, a feeling, or both of these combined. Of course my preference is still for themes that have a fantasy or story element to them, as opposed to slice of life types of music such as hip hop, though I do have some exceptions such as Linkin Park, Eminem etc. Generally though I listen to anything that touches my soul in some way or another, even just for fun sometimes, be it rock, New Age, disco, dance, Europop, various folk-like music etc.

 As for BTS indeed, now that I know the goal of their music it does change my opinion, at least I will for sure listen to some more of their songs. It'd be a pity to keep a closed mined attitude about them without hearing more from them first, especially not on the whole shallow basis of their looks. Though I do admit to being somewhat of a shallow person when it comes to my visual aesthetic preferences in men, so I'll try to not let my bias override their music and message, thanks a lot for pointing this out for me

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LAS-T In reply to DaJiF [2018-08-25 23:46:40 +0000 UTC]

I certainly try too.

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DaJiF In reply to LAS-T [2018-08-26 05:16:08 +0000 UTC]

I'm sure you will make it!!

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LAS-T In reply to luukassl [2018-08-25 23:46:28 +0000 UTC]

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LAS-T In reply to LayaAmaranthi [2018-08-26 00:03:54 +0000 UTC]

That's awesome!

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LAS-T In reply to gregor-kari [2018-08-25 00:38:29 +0000 UTC]

Too true my friend

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LAS-T In reply to Jigoku-Rui-chan [2018-08-24 12:00:54 +0000 UTC]

The dance break at the end gave me goosebumps man, it's night time here but I feel climbing on ma roof and go moon dancing screeching 'you can't stop me from loving myself!!!!'

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Jigoku-Rui-chan In reply to LAS-T [2018-08-24 12:03:23 +0000 UTC]

I know right!!! It gave me the chills, just like when they did it with Not today's break.
Here is day time and you can bet i gonna be screeching that to my friends all day long xDDDD
I think i'm gonna even tattoo that phrase somewhere. It is something i should say everyday
and practice everyday as well ^^

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LAS-T In reply to FantasiaInk [2018-08-24 11:35:30 +0000 UTC]

Lol same. Jamming so hard to this, can't wait for the dance video of this!!

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