My Ultimate Guilty Pleasure: Korean Pop Music PART 1

The title tells it all. For the next week, I'm going to write about my ULTIMATE guilty pleasure in not just my music tastes, but heck, life! The undeniably catchy and highly addictive Korean pop culture...particularly music. Although I will mostly concentrate on music, unlike America, most Korean artists are bind to acting, emceeing/hosting variety shows, CF (commercial film), modeling, and endorsements arranged by their label. This is a trend that is vastly growing among Asian countries.

I'll start off with the boy-band craze. Ahh yes, remember the good ole' days of Backstreet boys, LFO, and N'sync? Well Korea is yet to get past the stage of boy bands.

1. SUPER JUNIOR- A 13, YES, 13 member boy band!One is missing in the following video, because one of the members were busy with a role in a movie. This is their smash hit "Sorry Sorry", choreographed by Nick Bass who has worked with Justin Timberlake and Usher.



2. 2PM- Every 13 year old girl in Korea dreams about these boys. 2PM is different from Super Junior because they are a bit more "westernized". 3 out of the 7 members grew up from the United States and are actually MUCH more comfortable in speaking English.



Here is a clip of 2 members, Jaebeom and Nick Khun, singing a cover of Usher's Confessions...


Members of both Super Junior and 2pm have been trained since their pre-teen years. Basically, they leave their parents and family (their home) and live in a dorm with other trainees. Training, which typically lasts 2 years minimum, consists of dance, singing, acting, and a whole lot of plastic surgery <----that's one topic that I can write a Ph.D thesis paper on!

Ok that's all for today. I don't know how those pro bloggers do this everyday. There is SO MUCH MORE I can talk about. But I really gotta hit the books. Next blog post will be about the Girl groups that make every girl in Korea running to plastic surgeons and go on the "corn diet". It's a love and hate relationship.

HASOM Students with something else in mind...

Since I was a kid, I knew that music was going to be a part of my life forever. In high school and even until last year, I had my eyes set on a career in music--whether it be a music teacher, free lance performer or composer. But after some "soul-searching", I recently made a big decision to pursue nursing as a career. This decision sparked an interest and curiosity as to why other students in the Herb Alpert School of Music at UCLA, who are studying music, ethnomusicology, music history, are pursuing a profession outside of music. Therefore, I went on a search for such students to ask a few questions about their selection of undergraduate studies and prospective careers.

SONALI SHETH
1) What is your major and primary instrument/concentration?
Ethnomusicology, Sitar
2) What year are you in your undergraduate studies?
4th year
3) What profession outside of music are you pursing?
Medicine/Public health
4) When did you decide to become an ethnomusicology/music/musicology/music history major?
I entered as an ethnomusicology major with the plan to pursue medicine, hoping to do both but always making medicine a priority
5)Why did you decide to pursue an undergraduate degree in ethno/music/musicology instead of an area that is “common” or “more practical” for your future profession?
Because I thought it would be a good way for me to maintain my passion in music, stay balanced and become well rounded as a person
6) What are the “pros” and “cons” of studying at HASOM instead of the college of letters of science, as to someone who is
I have less access to premed counseling. Less opportunities in academics like being an honors student, etc.
7) Do you plan to incorporate music into your future career? If yes, how so? If no, why not?
I think I will maintain music as my side hobby. If I do incorporate it, it will be used for fundraising, publicity, etc.

JI-WON KIM (myself)
1) What is your major and primary instrument/concentration?
Ethnomusicology, composition
2) What year are you in your undergraduate studies?
3rd year
3) What profession outside of music are you pursing?
Nursing (Registered Nurse and eventually Nurse Practitioner)
4) When did you decide to become an ethnomusicology/music/musicology/music history major?
I auditioned for the ethnomusicology department during my senior year of high school. So I started at UCLA as an ethnomusicology major.
5)Why did you decide to pursue an undergraduate degree in ethno/music/musicology instead of an area that is “common” or “more practical” for your future profession?
Well, I had originally wanted to pursue a career in music. However, after some serious thinking and consulting with mentors, I came to a conclusion that I can finish my undergraduate studies in music (which I very much enjoy by the way) and afterward go into nursing school. Nursing is a very practical career yet effective with a lot of flexibility. I plan to serve in my church's music ministry and compose, song write, and arrange on my days off.
6) What are the “pros” and “cons” of studying at HASOM instead of the college of letters of science, as to someone who is
Trying to take pre-requisites for nursing school, which are mostly science classes in the college of letters of science, on top of my music classes is tough. It's definitely a give and take. I have to sacrifice some music classes that interest me, in order to take let's say an anatomy class because of schedule conflicts and heavy workload.
7) Do you plan to incorporate music into your future career? If yes, how so? If no, why not?
Definitely! I am actually going to start volunteering at UCLA Hospital's Music Therapy Program, which is relatively new. I serve in my church's praise team as pianist and arranger. Music will definitely be a big part of my life forever.

I'm still in search for more students in the school who are in the same boat as Sonali and me to answer these questions!

Podcast!

Podcast will be great for any musician because they can upload their music for the rest of the world to download with just one click. I have composed and in the process of composing pieces for class and just for my own enjoyment. I would like to upload files of these pieces and share with my family and friends. And who knows? People that I do not know may also take a listen!

Creating audio files to upload as podcasts is super easy for me. As a Mac user (I also use PC... I don't hate on PCs!), I create audio files all the time through Garageband. This program has an option to send the file in AIFF format to itunes. Then on itunes, I can convert the AIFF file to an MP3 file! It doesn't get any easier than that.

The only downside to creating my own podcasts is the lack of equipment. I don't have a mic or a high-end program like Protools. I have a digital keyboard that will enable me to connect as a midi track unto garageband and finale, which I can "record" my music into. However, the sound isn't authentic since I'm a broke college student who cannot afford instrumental tracks for garageband. -_- I hope all this music talk isn't confusing the heck out of people.

Well, I look forward to posting up some podcasts of ramblings of my life and/or more interestingly, my music.

By the way, has anyone gotten a root canal done before? I know this is TOTALLY random, but I'm getting one for my excruciatingly painful tooth on March 2nd. Please, someone assure me that it does not hurt. :(

Flickr Slideshow

I have my Flickr slideshow up! Let me explain some of the pictures.

I visited my cousins in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada back in September. The pictures of the buildings were taken there. Saint John is a small city and is not very developed like Los Angeles at all. However, they had two or three beautiful churches that I captured on my phone camera.

By the way, these pictures are all taken form my phone camera. I don't have a digital camera :( I wish I did.

The other pictures are of the Holiday Bake-a-thon that took place in my kitchen at home! Let's just say that...baking hundreds of cookies took long but delicious hours. I pretty much baked for an entire day. These were packaged, wrapped nicely and handed out as gifts to my friends and family. Oh here's a picture that's not in the slide show. The final product! Ta-da! Whew, after a long day of class...I am wiped out. I'm going to take a nap now.