The Truth Is... Goes K-Pop

[dharawal.livejournal.com]

One of our TV stations has a new tv show called The Truth Is... with Hamish McDonald, in it he does reasonably indepth reports (given the 25 minute time frame) on many and varied subjects, the episode just gone was about K-Pop, and the Asian Century and the Hallyu wave and a few other things, in it he follows EVOL as they film their MV, we see LUNAFLY doing some busking, he talks to the guys from EYK, visits a plastic surgeon, the obligatory Psy mention.

Hopefully the embedding works.

And if the embedding doesnt work http://ten.com.au/tvshows/thetruthis.htm

Sauce: http://ten.com.au/tvshows/thetruthis.htm

Comments

[in-noctem.livejournal.com]

I watched the Evol cuts last night and I can't believe they filmed the MV/shot the photos like what...5 months before their comeback? Sohee's English was really cute :3 and nooo it isn't okay that you have to squeeze in a cramped apartment ;~; it's not okay that you can't go out, how about Stardom fix themselves up first before restricting the girls. And I have the strongest urge to punch Cho PD in the face every time I see him now.

[dharawal.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm still not sure how I feel about how it was presented, the whole plastic surgery thing irks me a whole lot.

There was still an element of look at the funny Asians, see how cute and silly they are, look at their silly cute music, see their silly cute pop idols.

I dunno.

[pancakeonmyhead.livejournal.com]

SOBS I MISREAD THE NAME AND THOUGHT IT'D BE HAMISH BLAKE
But this is really interesting!

[achan123.livejournal.com]

cant see the vid

[velvetpocket.livejournal.com]

can't watch the video, the player disabled for me here and on the site itself, it won't even show me any other episodes, probably a region thing again. :(

[froggster.livejournal.com]

for peeps who can't see the vid, here's a youtube version

[carmine-pink.livejournal.com]

Can't see the video, but Lunafly has a tag, OP :)

[21banged.livejournal.com]

BAHAHAH WATCHED THIS WHEN IT WAS ON TV but tbh I really hated that he had such a condescending tone throughout like, "Who would ever like this shit?!" He made me a pressed stan >>

But EVOL moments were precious and lolzy

[sub-divided.livejournal.com]

Yeah, plus the subtext of "hide yo kids, hide yo wife - the Asians are coming!"

Like, yes the SKorean government does promote Kpop as a form of soft power and way to improve the Korean "brand" (which for most people in the US, at least, is currently linked with crazy dictators and/or consumer goods that are better-quality than China's but not as nice as Japan's) abroad.

But every country works to promote itself abroad. The UK promotes "cool Britania" and the monarchy and soccer. Greece promotes yogurt, feta, and nude beaches. Poland is trying to give itself a friendlier and more modern image through their "think Poland" campaign. The South Korean version of this has arguably been more successful - S Korea having started from less and come further - but it's not any different.

Plus the whole attitude toward manufactured pop stars and music, you know, as if "manufactured" means there can't be any artistry involved or everyone is just in it to be famous. SMH.

[21banged.livejournal.com]

All of this tbh, I completely forgot, but he wasn't even TRYING to hide the fact that they were going for the 'Asians are hurr!!11!' angle. Like, the presenter even blatantly said something along the lines of 'This is the Asian invasion people have been dreading'.

Like you said, all countries try and brand themselves, I don't get why South Korea is the only one under fire, especially because they are perceived in a negative light because some people can't differentiate between North/South Korea. In particular with Australia, I highly doubt people who have no incentive to know about the North/South see them as being the same thing, which is nagl for us and the supposed ~~multiculturalism~~ schtick we've got going rme

[dharawal.livejournal.com]

very very true, none of them take much effort to look beyond Psy, which is annoying in the extreme.

[af-fx-tion.livejournal.com]

Commentary from western countries on Asian music is condescending and judgmental, grass is green, the sky is blue. Seeing Evol feature in it was really cute, though.