I really think that K-pop artists sing, dance, perform better than J-pop and T-pop.. With no offense meant.. JMO.. Maybe it is because of the hard training they undergo..
Discard the awful ones (Wonder Girls (nuff said), Girl's Generation (2 out of 9 can really sing, 1 can really dance.. They're just pretty), Super Junior (4 or 5 of the 13 can really sing, 3 could dance but nothing spectacular) and I can defend my case..
You will find it hard to see really good J-pop singers.. Even Utada Hikaru isn't that good vocally.. Yuna Ito is good..
F4 of Taiwan good.. Jay Chou's voice isn't that polished.. Compare Farenheit to TVXQ in terms of talent..
Not really familliar with C-pop so I won't comment..
Guess you got Epik High and their song Fly mixed up.. HAHA K-pop is still good but these new ones keep coming out and they are starting to make K-pop look like crap.. Good thing a lot of the better ones are still there..
I guess some of the guys here find weird or.....whatever that I know much about this.. HAHA hey I like this stuff! I've been telling this to anyone who reacts: Convert these songs to proper English and they might be better that those Billboard-topping songs..
Even the so-called "Taiwanese" language is a Chinese dialect after all, Hokkien or Southern Min. Not to politicize the issue; but most of the Taiwanese pop artists sing in Mandarin and actually spend most of their time on the Mainland.
Tata Young is also the only Thai pop name I know. Actually I checked out more than 10 other Thai artists at one time but their names are too long for me to remember Oh come to think of it I also remember the name Anna Jamp, I had downloaded a specific video of hers once upon a time but never listened to her music....
As of your last sentence: I gotta say all the Filipino female singers I had listened to were quite impressive. The guys.... not so much.
Whether K-pop is better than XXX is one's opinion; but no pure Asian artist will ever top the Billboard Charts. To this date, the most famous Asian singer in the US is still William Hung. Enough said.
Even the so-called "Taiwanese" language is a Chinese dialect after all, Hokkien or Southern Min. Not to politicize the issue; but most of the Taiwanese pop artists sing in Mandarin and actually spend most of their time on the Mainland.
Tata Young is also the only Thai pop name I know. Actually I checked out more than 10 other Thai artists at one time but their names are too long for me to remember Oh come to think of it I also remember the name Anna Jamp, I had downloaded a specific video of hers once upon a time but never listened to her music....
As of your last sentence: I gotta say all the Filipino female singers I had listened to were quite impressive. The guys.... not so much.
Whether K-pop is better than XXX is one's opinion; but no pure Asian artist will ever top the Billboard Charts. To this date, the most famous Asian singer in the US is still William Hung. Enough said.
Towa Tei's Luv Connection, saw this one in MYX (filipino music channel) back in 2001 before they reformatted into a pop-centric channel.
while scouring the youtube, I have found one of my favorite jazz cover bands, [re:jazz] from Germany with their own rendition of the same song but in jazz.
However, if the Chinese translation of the lyrics on the video can be trusted, it's still a propaganda song ("Let's study, let's study, let's study for our motherland..."), though. China also has its good share of stuff like that but those songs quickly get forgotten. The music sounds familiar but can't remember from where.
Malay girl sang in 3 languages, won inaugural "Asian Wave" contest
The talk of the town now in Malaysia isn’t about the new iPhone 5 anymore. It’s about a nice-looking Malay girl who won an international singing competition in China that brought her to fame and made Malaysia proud. She is Shila Amzah, and the news of her winning and her splendid performance in the competition are widely circulated from Facebook to news and even radio stations in Malaysia. Now, she no doubt emerged as a new rising Malaysian icon.
I know pop music talent discovery is completely different from basketball scouting, because opportunities and luck are the biggest factors in pop music. But I think this girl definitely has what it takes to become the next Asian superstar, voice, looks and stage presence, all check marks. But I'm most impressed by her linguistic abilities. For someone who can't speak or understand Mandarin, her Mandarin pronunciation has to be the best I've heard, and trust me I've listened to a lot. (As comparison, Malaysian pop diva Siti Nurhaliza recorded some Mandarin songs but her pronunciation was unlistenable. Shila was singing live and sounded like a native speaker, completely commanding the songs after reportedly 1 month of practice. It's incredible.) We'll see how far this girl fares, I think far if she has good management. Malaysia has produced many singers popular in China, but all ethnic Chinese. This girl has a chance to become the first hijab-wearing one to break in the China market.
I know the global hype concerning PSY and his smash hit Gangnam style has been sensational but damn I think it's getting out of control if you guys have ever seen how many videos have been recreated from his clip...
Still though the crowds in South Korea are awesome especially in these recent concerts that took place at Korean universities!
Notes: Gangnam style became the most "liked" youtube clip with more than 3.2 million "likes" breaking the previous record that was held by LMFAO for their hit "Party Rock Anthem".
"Gangnam style" has also been viewed by almost 335 million viewers (as of today...1st October) but it still has a while to come close to the number 1 most viewed youtube video ever which belongs to Justin Bieber "Baby ft. Ludacris" and has almost 784 million views!!!
At the rate "Gangnam style" is being watched though I have no doubt that by the end of this year it should be able to overtake Bieber for the number 1 spot (if it remains to be viewed by at least 5 million viewers on a daily basis for the next 3 months).
Not even the most popular singing contest show in China during the same time, but I really enjoyed it. As 2/3 of the judges speak Chinese it certainly can't be convincing for non-Chinese singers, but I'm not aware of any better contest show. Very refreshing to listen to judges commenting on songs in a language they don't understand, especially from non-Chinese speaking judges since 1/4 of the songs are in Mandarin (1/2 in English). Although music is supposedly trans-cultural, the judges must have the hardest job in the world, I mean how do you choose between Bollywood dance and K-pop dance without bias?
Which makes Shila Amzah's win the more impressive. I wonder if all judges are changed to Indian-speakers would she have lost? The other 5 finalists are all-Chinese speaking despite while less than half of the contestants are Chinese-speaking. But it's hard to say whether the judges' were intentionally biased. Meanwhile Japan's soul singer Emi Tawata would probably have been there if not for the anti-Japan rioters scaring her home. While I wanted Indian singers to have more success, I also can't see how you can sing a traditional Bollywood song to win a singing competition, although I think that Bhavin Dhanak guy is pretty good.
The 2nd best placed female singer Lau WanYin is also Malaysian. She one notch lower than Shila but still good (and decent-looking) enough to become a major star. I don't know what's in Malaysia's water or weather but China with 1.3 billion seem to get completely outcompeted by them in this regard, as I think I mentioned this before, half of the most popular C-pop female singers seem to come from Malaysia/Singapore. Not to mention they are almost all multilingual, e.g. this girl WanYin spoke fluent English and Mandarin on the show, was a Taiwanese Hokkien competition winner, and now she's singing in Malay in this contest:
Brought the house down. I don't know whether Malaysia has a age-shaving problem but she was supposed to be born in 1996... As Korean judge Lee Min-woo said, if she were born in Korea, she'd be more popular than IU. No shit.
BTW despite a bunch of screaming K-pop groupies on the stands, all the manufactured K-pop artists (I mean boy groups) in this competition are all mediocre. (The solo singer Whee was good.) Yes you all can dance while rapping in American (some of them black?)-accented English just like the other 500 groups in your country but I'd prefer Shila's Manglish accent better, she sings it just like she speaks it. This is Asia after all. Gangnam Style's success is certainly impressive but can K-pop as a whole really invade America? I think not. Plus I don't think it's coincidence that a US-educated solo artist was the only one to break out in the U.S. while the highly promoted Wondergirls / Girls Generation etc. all failed. I'm so glad Malaysian judge Eric Moo called them out on the show. Now he's being crucified on youtube comments lol.
I know the global hype concerning PSY and his smash hit Gangnam style has been sensational but damn I think it's getting out of control if you guys have ever seen how many videos have been recreated from his clip...
Now with his ongoing concerts in South Korea PSY managed to have a concert in Seoul where more than 80,000 fans showed up! His youtube video also surpassed 410 million this morning (October 9)
^ While 80,000 fans is scary, you have to consider the fact that this concert was free, so from an East Asian standpoint it's just "OK". Just this year, Taiwanese band Mayday had like a 200,000-fan not-for-free concert in Beijing's Bird Nest (2008 Olympic's main stadium). Of course, unlike PSY, nobody would recognize them outside of the Chinese-speaking world. I think Japanese band GLAY had even bigger crowds. I do wonder, how many fans Indian or Bangladeshi bands/artists attract in concerts, considering their population.
while asian bands/artists were awesome gathering crowds in their home country, american band metallica gathered crowds numbering more than a million in one concert in russia right after/during the cold war. That is how the cold war was won. hehe
