Charts – 30 September 2012
Let’s stick with the countdown format, shall we? But before we start, a brief diversion.
You may have heard in the news that Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg’s apology for breaking an election pledge on tuition fees two years ago was “racing up the charts” in an autotuned remix. This was, of course, complete nonsense. The record exists – and it does indeed have 1.8m views on YouTube – but at no stage was it actually selling in any significant quantities. Naturally, this didn’t stop plenty of journalists from talking about it as if it somehow mattered. Its chart position is number 104. And to put that into perspective, there’s a knock-off cover version of Lucy Spraggan’s “Last Night” at number 74.
35. fun. (feat Janelle Monae) – “We Are Young”
A re-entry after two weeks spent at number 42. Nothing to see here, move along.
30. Taylor Swift – “Begin Again”
Interesting. There’s no official video for this track, and the main UK promotional effort is focussed squarely on her current single “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” (which climbs to 4 this week). But the strictly formatted nature of American radio results in artists releasing different singles to different stations, and this is the single being sent to country radio in America. It seems to have been released in the UK purely as a concession to the fact that it’s already in circulation, and it wasn’t on the midweek chart at all.
While they’re meant to appeal to different audiences, the fact that this is in the chart at all suggests that “We Are Never…” has done a good job of raising Swift’s profile. She doesn’t generally have hits in the UK at all, so the fact that she’s now making the top 30 with records she isn’t even promoting has to be a sign of success.
28. Muse – “Madness”
Another oddity. This is the second single from Muse’s upcoming album. It’s been out since August and it previously peaked at number 35 at the start of September when the video came out. I’m not honestly sure why it’s back now, but perhaps it’s just a grower. It’s certainly a change of direction for the group (Queen doing synthpop, essentially), which might make it the sort of record that does eventually find an audience outside the core fanbase.
27. The Fray – “How To Save A Life”
What, again?!? I can only assume somebody was doing it on X Factor last weekend. The single reached number 4 on its original release in 2007. This is the fourth time it’s been in the top 40.
23. Jason Mraz – “I Won’t Give Up”
This certainly was done by somebody on the X Factor, one Ella Henderson. The record peaked at 13 earlier in the year and has been drifting around the lower reaches ever since.
16. Paloma Faith – “Never Tear Us Apart”
There’s no video for this – it doesn’t need one, because it’s yet another cover version from a heartwarming John Lewis advert that has propelled it into the charts. As usual, John Lewis are very keen to remind you that they are ingrained into the culture of the UK in a manner unlikely to be altered by anything this side of nuclear war. (You can hear the full version here – it’s a bit less cutesy than the advert edit.)
The single also doubles as a bonus track for the reissue of Faith’s album “Fall To Grace”, currently sitting at 17.
The INXS original peaked at number 24 in 1988, though it made the top ten in the US. Remarkably, they only had one top ten hit in the UK, “Need You Tonight”, which reached number 2 the same year. They had rather better luck with their albums, four of which made the top ten.
13. DJ Fresh (feat RaVaughan) – “The Feeling”
Wikipedia helpfully explains that in this video, “Everyone is riding mopeds that are relatively futuristic.” Thanks, Wikipedia!
This is the fourth single from an album that still hasn’t come out, so DJ Fresh’s label are presumably planning the “greatest hits” marketing angle. It’s the first chart appearance for singer RaVaughn Brown, who turns up very little on Google, but is signed to Columbia and got a guest appearance by Ne-Yo on an earlier promotional single, so we can assume this is the first stage of the now-familiar strategy of breaking a new artist with guest appearances. It worked for DJ Fresh’s previous collaborator Rita Ora.
1. Psy – “Gangnam Style”
Now at roughly 338 million views on YouTube. I already did the “foreign language number ones” bit last week, so what else can we say about it?
Well, first of all, it’s going to have a tough time to manage two weeks at the top. It’s up against new singles from both Rihanna and One Direction. I wouldn’t worry too much about the boy band – their sales are always frontloaded – but the lead single from Rihanna’s new album is a major release. You never know, though. This is not a normal record.
Another question people are asking is, can anyone else from Korea actually follow up this unexpected breakout hit? The possibility of Korean or Japanese acts expanding to a wider audience has been mooted before, but “Gangnam Style” is not the sort of record that necessarily opens the door for anyone else.
Obviously you’d have to be very thick indeed not to pick up on the fact that the video for “Gangnam Style” is meant to be funny. Nonetheless, the entertainment value for English-speaking audiences does derive in part from its cultural impenetrability, and viral word-of-mouth appeal. It’s not something you can easily replicate and it wouldn’t be sustainable even if you could. So if you were trying to launch a Korean act in the west, who might you choose?
You might start by noting that the girl in the “Gangnam Style” video is Hyuna, who has a career of her own. There is in fact an alternate version of “Gangnam Style” where they share the vocals, but it… well, it’s kind of a rush-job cash-in from the record company and best forgotten about. Hyuna’s other work is very much the sort of bubblegum music that people associate with Korean and Japanese pop.
Now, this might work for a western audience. God knows nobody else is doing it in English. And even “Bubble Pop” has the sort of wildly incongruous dubstep breakdown (just after the two minute mark) that shows it’s not completely out of touch with western conventions. But I suspect that this sort of thing is just way too sugary for western tastes. I’m not sure the entire “idol” thing easily translates to a culture where they’d be instantly positioned as outsiders anyway.
The other option is to go for the sort of Korean group that sound a bit more like western acts. Which is essentially what we did with Psy, who is evidently up to speed on the work of LMFAO. The problem here is that it’s going to have to be a very good act to overcome the language barrier on anything more than a novelty basis – either that or they’re going to have to speak English.
In fact, that’s not quite as unlikely as it sounds. Take Girls Generation, for example. This veritable squadron of a girl band actually includes three ex-pat Californians, and they’ve been releasing English-language versions of their records for a while now.
Or there’s the outright westernised option – an act whose material doesn’t sound especially Korean at all but might be good enough to stand on its own two feet if the language barrier can be overcome. I’ve seen 2NE1 suggested as likely contenders here, and I can see the point.
2NE1 – the name is pronounced either “To Anyone” or “Twenty-one” according to taste – make music with rather more obvious western crossover appeal. More to the point, while they’re still firmly and indisputably a pop act, they’ve got a bit more attitude than your average K-pop girl group. In fact, by K-pop’s standards, they can be downright stroppy at times. I can see this sort of thing translating a lot better than the typical idol act; in fact, it plays against the stereotypes. Here’s a couple of their (rather great) videos – and no, I don’t know why there’s a WWE title belt at the start of “I Am The Best” either.
Okay, I recognize that everyone in the UK is probably going to know that John Lewis is a department store, but I had to look it up on Wikipedia. And something always rubs me the wrong way when businesses will buy a full 90 seconds of ad time without even telling you what industry they’re in.
In so far as K-pop acts who release English and Japanese versions of their songs, the Wonder Girls tend to be more popular among the foreigners I know than Girls Generation – maybe in part because their reasonable number of members suggests they’re a group instead of a floor show. Every video they do also seems aimed at starting a new dance craze. Their most recent does make me happy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EZTUYwjWBs
In so far as creative music videos go, Sunny Hill’s “Grasshopper Song” has gotten forwarded around a fair amount for its legitimately meaningful weirdness: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4h1SixKJSKs
Anyway, Paul, this blog’s brief focus on the K-Wave is probably the best time to let you know that this year, I finally experienced the movie I’M A CYBORG BUT THAT’S OK, due to a review you posted a half-lifetime ago. When you wrote about it I said to myself, “Well, that sounds interesting.” and made a mental note to check it out someday. Someday ended up being part of a Korean movie marathon this past summer. Thanks for pointing me to it.
Has Nick Clegg set out to break every single promise he’s ever made in his life? Good lord.
I’m a pretty big 2NE1 geek (well in so much as I’ve been aware they exist) but they also had a Madonna cover that appeared in at least the very early and possibly still unreleased trailers for that Sex and the City prequel featuring Freema Agyeman.
Their “Like a Virgin” isn’t the greatest or most novel demonstration of their sound, but their English isn’t too terribly accented. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfIEpQBC6yk
Well, the chorus of “Hate You” is basically in English, and they don’t seem to have any problems with it. There’s actually an English-language version of one of their singles on Spotify, but it’s not one of their better tracks in any language.
Isn’t Bom of 2NE1 American? I’m also pretty sure Will.i.am has signed up as some kind of mentor to them and they’re working on an English album. They should release an english version of “I Love You”. Girls Generation could easily get Oh!, Gee and Paparazzi over here too with a good english version, it’s a shame The Boys was their first english release as it’s one of their least catchy tunes (and I think Ke$ha covered Run Devil Run which rules that out). Wonder Girls are shockingly awful, I’d guess Girls Generation, 2NE1 and Big Bang probably have the biggest chance of success to a western audience.
I’m still sad that BoA’s big American debut was a bit of a damp squib, and that Se7en’s English-language record seems to have stalled. I also remember when Rain topped that Time magazine online poll (although, yes, I know, it wasn’t exactly an unquestionable victory), but then films and the army came along, so there wasn’t the international launch I hoped for (still, I’m with Heidi MacDonald on the joys of Speed Racer, so it’s not all bad).
What I guess I’m saying is that when my favourite K-Pop artists are of a different generation to those everyone’s talking about, I start to feel old.
I watched that bubble pop video. Against my better judgement, as I’m not a fan of pop music in the slightest.
I, uh, I won’t be watching it again.
To put it nicely.
“The entertainment value for English-speaking audiences does derive in part from its cultural impenetrability.”
But that’s the problem – there really is no cultural impenetrability here.
Psy is not doing anything representative of Korean entertainment or Korean sensibilities. The video is 100% his vision, his style of humor. Some in the Korean media are a bit stressed that there’s no likelihood of bleedover to other kpop acts because it’s so distant from anything else in the bubble of kpop, or even Korean entertainment.
Westerners PERCEIVE it as being culturally impenetrable, which may be one reason they like it, but it’s not really much more so than it is for Koreans.
Michael: that ignores the fact that the whole concept of Gangnam is meaningless to most western audiences. Yes, the video is patently absurd to Korean audiences as well, but it’s absurdity incorporating recognisable reference points. To American and European audiences, it really is pretty much a string of random stuff.
Rhuw: According to Wikipedia, Park Bom went to high school and college in the US, but she’s from Seoul.
“Expat” is just one word, short for “expatriate”.
I feel like the Korean boyband BIGBANG could potentially make an impact worldwide, they sort of have a One Direction meets Lady Gaga vibe and their videos are phenomenal.
I remember seeing one of their videos on Stereogum and couldn’t get it out of my head for days.
I’m hoping for G-Dragon to be big. I feel any groups that manage to gain success after Psy will get it just from the “weirdness” factor.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=t3ULhmadHkg#!
“Michael: that ignores the fact that the whole concept of Gangnam is meaningless to most western audiences. Yes, the video is patently absurd to Korean audiences as well, but it’s absurdity incorporating recognisable reference points. To American and European audiences, it really is pretty much a string of random stuff.”
I don’t see a substantial difference, really. Aside from recognizable locations and guest stars, it’s all random to Korean audiences too – the recognizability of each image doesn’t counteract the randomness of their composition.
Playground – street crossing – tennis court – parking garage – subway – carousel – ice rink – and so on.
Unless your name is Psy, there is no logic to the inclusion of these images.
And the more important point – horse racing doesn’t actually exist in Gangnam, but in the district located directly south, Gwacheon.
I mean, we’re talking about a dude who dresses up like Beyonce and Lady Gaga and goes flying through the air during his concerts – and that’s just for a Korean audience.
The guy is all about the WTF-factor, regardless of culture.
Recognisability of the images makes all the difference, though. It completely alters the connotations of the juxtaposition.
Adam, Paul, co-incidentally, I also saw I’m A Cyborg, But That’s OK because of this blog recently!
“Recognisability of the images makes all the difference, though. It completely alters the connotations of the juxtaposition.”
To the extent that one can recognize them and say, “This is a place in Gangnam, and this is a place in Gangnam, and I guess this is a place in Gangnam too,” then I suppose.
But as someone who recognized all the locations, I can safely assert it makes no difference in how they’re juxtaposed.
Also, the Cyborg movie is a lot of fun. The ending sucks, but it’s still worth watching.
Am I the only person who spent that John Lewis add worrying about the fact that the 2010s half of the film they’re watching is in 3D and the 1930s half isn’t? Which for some reason makes less sense to me that, oh, everything else about a split-screen relationship? Probably…
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