The New York Times on GD: K-Pop’s Antic Emissary Raids the Cupboard

[benihime99.livejournal.com]

In the video for “Crooked,” the K-pop star G-Dragon — effortlessly lissome, his hair Warhol-white — does a lot of running, some staggering, some mean-mugging, some dancing and a little aggressive flirting.

But mostly he changes clothes. He cycles through at least two-dozen outfits: a tight cotton-candy-blue double-breasted suit; a drapey leopard-print top; a distressed black motorcycle jacket; a huge black fur coat with a face dyed on the back; a tattered white punk T-shirt with tight chain-festooned jeans straight from Trash and Vaudeville.

The song? The song is fine.

These are the trade-offs sometimes required in K-pop, a genre that plays fast and loose with visual excess, a tendency that has only served G-Dragon, the most electric member of the long-running boy band BigBang, well.

“Crooked” appears on the recently released “Coup D’Etat” (YG), the second full G-Dragon album and the first since he emerged as the genre’s style vanguard. At its best, K-pop is gloriously synthetic, and G-Dragon is a miraculous canvas to work with. He morphs easily into almost any style, he moves with panache and confidence, and he has a perpetual sense of theater about him. His is a version of pop stardom all but abandoned in this country.

Peak G-Dragon came last year in the form of “Crayon,” a pneumatic-intensity thumper with a Southern rap backbone. The song was gleeful chaos, and the video was a cultural treasure — hilarious, dizzying, and full of retina-frying explosions of color.

“Crayon,” which appeared on the EP “One of a Kind,” set an almost impossibly high bar. Nothing on the sometimes ambitious, sometimes comfortable “Coup D’Etat” bests that, although the album does show G-Dragon trying a range of styles. “Black” is mellow early-1990s R&B, and convincing. “R.O.D.” opens with roots reggae and ends up with neutered dubstep, the sort of song the reconstituted No Doubt could be making. “Runaway” has some of the shriek of 1980s arena rock. And “Niliria” samples a Korean folk song before shifting gears into fire-alarm-urgent club music.

Throughout, G-Dragon is a slithery presence — he doesn’t leave as much of a mark on the ear as the eye. He’s got a reedy voice that is typically made even more needling with digital manipulation. His singing is thin, verging on cute. His rapping, though, as with “Black” and “Niliria,” is nimble and bouncy, and has a faint outline of tension — his emphases fall in all the right places.

Whether K-pop needs American saturation is open for debate. It’s done relatively well here without much effort — top acts have begun to play arena shows, thanks to fan bases cultivated largely online. But “Coup D’Etat,” though largely in Korean, is perhaps the K-pop album with America most heavily on its mind and in its credits, thanks to a clutch of collaborations with American stars. Diplo and Baauer produced the title track, which has a couple of echoes of Baauer’s “Harlem Shake,” this year’s unlikeliest pop hit. Sky Ferreira sings on “Black,” a little blankly, as is her wont. And Missy Elliott continues her quixotic comeback campaign with a jubilant, slightly lazy verse on “Niliria.”

G-Dragon has no American male pop-star equivalent; the closest in recent memory would be Justin Timberlake from peak-era ’N Sync. His malleability is more reminiscent of female stars like Lady Gaga, Kesha and Nicki Minaj, all of whom are as much about the packaging as what’s inside. Ms. Elliott may be the inadvertent blueprint for K-pop’s polyvalent aesthetic, futuristic and borrowing widely. (She and G-Dragon performed “Niliria” at a convention in Los Angeles last month.)

Much of the time K-pop is importing pop ideas from here, although its splicing of them into something different is unique. It’s a surprise that the recent song interpolating Rick Ross’s “Hustlin’ ” doesn’t come from G-Dragon but rather his far tamer BigBang band mate Seungri, on “Gotta Talk to U,” from his less imaginative EP, “Let’s Talk About Love.”

Occasionally all that borrowing can reveal a glaring lack of context. A couple of months ago G-Dragon posted a photo of himself in black face paint to Instagram, causing a small firestorm; later, a representative said it wasn’t meant to be blackface, but was part of a photo shoot in which he wore several colors of face paint.

It was a rare misstep in presentation for G-Dragon, who appears far more mindful of how he looks than how he sounds. But he’s capable of exciting musical synthesis, and the more he lets his appearance inform his music, the better off he’ll be. Before long, it’s likely the borrowing will be going in the other direction, with the world learning from him.


I don't really know what to think of this article tbh... a few sentences had me laugh or raise my eyebrow, but I guess overall it's good publicity for GD

The New York Times

Comments

[luvey.livejournal.com]

"Occasionally all that borrowing can reveal a glaring lack of context. A couple of months ago G-Dragon posted a photo of himself in black face paint to Instagram, causing a small firestorm; later, a representative said it wasn’t meant to be blackface, but was part of a photo shoot in which he wore several colors of face paint."

have those "supposed" photos ever surfaced?

[benihime99.livejournal.com]

It might be on the physical version of the album
He also had black paint all over his face for his Coup d'État video and black, red and white paint on the album teaser

[luvey.livejournal.com]

thanks. yeah i remember the black paint in the video and saw the context it was in. for some reason i remember the YG explanation was that they were for the album covers....and i just didn't remember seeing them yet. because i'm not a GD fan, i didn't see the teasers...so thanks for that info.

[miwa201.livejournal.com]

you can see a photo behind him here:

and yeah, it was also in the video

[luvey.livejournal.com]

thank you.

[mjspice.livejournal.com]

Yeah it was used in the video for Coup d'état which you can see at this point:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8T6771Sdj8&feature=player_detailpage#t=130

[iglossmyeyes.livejournal.com]

“Crayon,” which appeared on the EP “One of a Kind,” set an almost impossibly high bar.

i love gd but lol no.

[asnindie.livejournal.com]

Lol didn't they come up with the song in 5 minutes or something.

[unicornios.livejournal.com]

lol mte

[sub-divided.livejournal.com]

High in terms of the mood he was in when he promoted it, sure. That song and MichiGO are crazy.

[erbalurbal.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I can't tell if these K-pop articles are praising or shading.

[dapo322.livejournal.com]

It's probably both. Shade praise.

[mnemo-syne.livejournal.com]

Some good points. I like the correlation between him and certain female pop stars.

I can't exactly argue that GD isn't sometimes more style than substance -and there's nothing wrong with that. He's a freaking master at managing his style.

But I wouldn't dismiss his music that quickly either. I still regularly listen to Big Bang music from five years ago, and "Breathe", "A Boy" and "High High" are a staple in my workout music. There's longevity there.

I love Coup D'Etat. To me it feels like listening to a GD radio station - different styles and sounds but all with GD's fingerprint. And so many of the songs have hooks that stay in my head. The title song, Black, Crooked, MichiGo, Runaway, I Love It, You Do, Window...I can instantly recall them.

Anyway, love that he's getting so much attention. His MVs are incredibly awesome and they definitely provoke a reaction one way or another.

[the-erotomanic.livejournal.com]

The song? The song is fine.

yep.

[4minutesluts.livejournal.com]

“Crayon,” which appeared on the EP “One of a Kind,” set an almost impossibly high bar.

if i were still able to put any effort or amount of caring into anything related to gd these days, i would find the seinfeld 'im out' gif and embed it here but alas i am not

[xblackchristmas.livejournal.com]

I personally think he leaves a mark on the ear; I have thought countless times who would be able to rap with his smoothness and clarity but that's never going to be solved. He has his own eccentric voice that I'd be able to recognize in a second.

Glad GD is getting publicity because idk... I have all these genuine feelings for Big Bang because I feel like they're not getting as much love as they used to-- probably with tons more new groups coming out-- and they're falling down on the list.

[ah-mui.livejournal.com]

They may seem like they're not getting as much love as before, but I think that's just because they haven't made a comeback since Fantastic Baby. Unlike say TVXQ/ SuJu (the closest sunbaes) BigBang has more impact and/or influence to hoobae groups and the public. Like, TVXQ/SuJu may have respect, but they want to idolise/emulate BB. Yeah, it's natural that they'd maybe fall down the list a bit because let's face it, Kpop fans are getting younger (they want groups like B1A4!) but BB has much better recognition overall than any of these new groups.

[waves-of-light.livejournal.com]

"G-Dragon is a miraculous canvas to work with. He morphs easily into almost any style, he moves with panache and confidence, and he has a perpetual sense of theater about him."

this. and most of the time I roll my eyes at the brat

[waves-of-light.livejournal.com]

...but I somehow adore him.

[yolleh.livejournal.com]

Lol yup. I have such a love/hate relationship with that guy but more often than not its the former.

[unicornios.livejournal.com]

from his less imaginative EP, “Let’s Talk About Love.”

[sub-divided.livejournal.com]

Yeahhhhh, that was unnecessary. They already said he was "tamer" (which is true), Seungri's album could just as easily have been described as "less hodgepodge" or "more consistent" or even "more workmanlike" - which is a compliment in some cases.

[oppameansit.livejournal.com]

so what they're saying was that it was ok

[springsky.livejournal.com]

I love Crooked! That song brought back my GD feels in full force! And I love all
all of Seungri and GD's new tracks. Missy's feature really did nothing for me
so I guess we can agree on that NYT. Otherwise, LOL at this whole article.

[sub-divided.livejournal.com]

Most of this article is reaching for a way to praise GD without falling into the trap of overpraising GD. But that paragraph comparing him to Lady Gaga and Nicki Minaj is OTM. Both of those performers have fractured images/personalities and have played around with gender expression, too.

Instead of Ke$ha, I'd say Azalia Banks - that kind of provacatrix thing. Or why not a comparison with the gay/trans rappers GD likes on Instagram - le1f and Zebra Katz?

[mjspice.livejournal.com]

Huh.

[yolleh.livejournal.com]

It was a rare misstep in presentation for G-Dragon

I will stan for the guy to the very ends of the earth but, what?
Where have they been all these years? I'm guessing they've missed all his other controversies