My twin sister is crazy. (That's right, I have a twin. Fancy that, huh?) She always goes through phases in music, movies, and TV shows, where she'll become besotted with a particular band, genre, show.. whatever. And she usually ends up dragging me along with her, showing me all of the stuff she's dug up about this particular thing, and getting the song (be it a regular song or a TV show theme song, either or) stuck in my head.*

This time? She's landed on J-pop and K-pop. How she got here? I don't even know. (Also, the X-files, but don't even get me started on that) When I asked her why she liked some of their songs, she told me, "I like listening to pop in other languages, because I can't understand what they're saying, therefore I can tolerate it." You might be able to tell that she's not really big on the whole Ke$ha, Britney, Miley Cyrus idea. She's more of a classic rocker.

To be honest, though, when I look at some of the songs she's shown me, they seem pretty much the same as the pop we have in America. The only difference is the language. Let's look at some K-pop, shall we?



And J-pop?


Yep, that's the extent of what I've listened to from these two music cultures. I could very well be wrong in my classification of the three songs I've posted, so if anyone is into J-pop/K-pop or knows about it, feel free to correct me. After all, I'm just a stupid American!

Like I said before, to be honest, they remind me of American pop songs. Same kind of dancing, and I'm sure the lyrics are about the same kinds of things, too. Though, the dancing is kind of endearing to me, because (especially the J-pop song) it reminds of the Backstreet boys and *NSYNC, both of which I was into when I was little. Ah, boy bands. But that's a subject for an entirely different post.

Apparently Ke$ha agrees with me. She's done a cover of the song Run Devil Run, which, if you listened to the K-pop videos I posted, is the same song as the first one. And while it's done in an.. er.. shall we say, special Ke$ha way, if that doesn't prove my point, I don't know what does!

Although it's not really something I'm into, I find myself growing more fond of this genre the more I listen to it. It's not something I anticipate getting into, but it's nice to have been exposed to a taste of it. Besides, some of the music videos are really cute - I love the hats in the second K-pop song. I also have to admit that the Asian dialects really fit the pop genre. Just like the German language really fits hard rock.

Another song my sister was into at some point was Comme Des Enfants by Cœur de pirate. This was a while ago, but I still remember the song because I absolutely adore it. It's in French, and it's such a pretty, pretty song. I think I even have it on my ipod. I highly recommend you listen to it.

Are any of you into foreign music or K-pop/J-pop? Or just pop in general?

One last thing: I'm going to be away from this Sunday to next Sunday building houses in New Jersey, so if I get any emails or comments or anything, I won't be able to respond to them until next week! I'll make a post about it when I get back. Have a great week, guys!

*I feel like it should be noted that I mean this all in a teasing, non-spiteful way (; She doesn't really get obsessed with things quite that easily, even if she does get interested in things to the point of looking them up in depth before moving onto something else. Also, apparently my icon is of Daisuke Asakura, a famous J-pop singer. xD

listening to: Comme Des Enfants by Cœur de pirate
icon by Ritsuka

Labels: music, random