Welcome to Comments of the Week!
This week in idols and music, we covered FT Island‘s long-awaited “Pray” MV and I Will album, MFBTY‘s solid Wondaland, Ga-in‘s questioning Hawwah, K.Will‘s latest comeback in “Growing” and Taeil‘s solo debut. We also looked at some throwbacks with Kara‘s “Mister” and Shinhwa‘s “T.O.P,” forayed into the indie with Sugarbowl and looked at the K-pop visual. Our coverage of SXSW‘s Korean offerings continued with interviews with From the Airport, Victim Mentality (including a giveaway that ends April 16) and EE.
In fashion and TV topics, we discussed episodes 4-6 of Unpretty Rapstar, the best performances of last week’s music shows and photoshoots in warm locations and with spring fashion.
In socio-cultural areas, we explored religious references in music videos, skin color and beauty and had a bit of fun with ways to deal with bias dating news.
Our Sunday Social covered Zayn’s departure from One Direction and the member separation turmoil, and our Buzzbeats release talked real talk about pretty boys. Our writers pulled out their article recommendations from our own stock in our Roundtable. And lastly, we had a mini Jaejoong tournament because since Jaejoong seems to win all the polls, which Jaejoong would win a poll of Jaejoongs? (Hint: It’s not JaeCat Jae, unfortunately, but this post makes it worth it anyways.)
I’ve chosen some food for thought from the many you have contributed:
Courie on The Sunday Social, 3/29: Helping Directioners Find Their Zen
I read an article about Zayn explaining why he left One Direction and it was quite interesting because he said stuff like “But at the same time I’ve never felt more in control in my life.”/ “I did try to do something that I wasn’t happy doing for a while, for the sake of other people’s happiness.”
/ “… I just can’t do that anymore because it’s not the real me.”It really sounds like the Western boy groups are in a similar state to the Kpop boygroups, far more than I thought they were They are forced to project and keep up with a certain image that is not their real selves and they force themselves to keep up with the pretense and stay with the group so they don’t ‘betray’ their group and their fans.
They don’t really have much control in what they get to do which is really sad for those members that truly love music and want to grow but they are forever kept in that cage, also even though they are successful on a World-wide scale that does not make them immune to exploitation like we see in Kpop ( an example being N’Sync‘s lawsuit.)
Quite a scary industry if you really look into it
Justeen on Unpretty Rapstar Episodes 4-6: Snap for the Kids
Tymee was actually one of the strongest rappers on the show to me. Yeah she was definitely rough around the edges at the beginning, but I think she proved herself as the show went on. I personally thought her raps were better than Jimin‘s in episode 3, she killed it in episode 4 regardless of the fact that she happened to be up against a dud like Jace, and really showed off who talented she is in episode 6. Call me crazy, but I think she’s right behind Cheetah in terms of actual skill. I was disappointed when she was booted off.
Jessi has mad charisma and she always owns the stage, but I still think she’s all bark and no bite. I like how she always speaks her mind and isn’t afraid to call out all the bullshit when she sees it, but she was one of the weakest rappers on the show, if not weakest altogether. I get part of being a rapper is about having a strong, confident, and powerful presence, but Jessi was never able to back any of that up. Her lyricism is weak, her flow is inconsistent and just all over the place, and she has crappy diction. Even when she’s trying to spit in English it was bad, and only made worse by slurring the hell out of her words. She had a couple of somewhat decent moments but overall, rapping is just not her forte. However, I really did start to warm up to her despite the fact that some of her attitude was on some contrived, wannabe thug shit at times. But if you get past all of that, she seems like a pretty cool person. I don’t think the show would have been as entertaining if it wasn’t for her tbh.
Cheetah is ma QUEEN!!! I fell in love with her from the very beginning because she just naturally stuck out. She’s so cool, collected, and chill, but she’s a beast when it comes to rapping. She was the only consistently strong one on the show that was able to kill it every single time, and she seemed to have the best lyricism out of the entire cast. I also love how she has her own style and just dances to the beat of her own drum. I really hope this show does wonders for her career because she is way too talented to be overlooked.
grayeloloco on Ga-in Questions God In “Hawwah”
Personally, I agree with most everything said in the article; there’s only one little thing that’s irking me: ” don’t say no because God […] wants you to.” Why is it that God is so often and in my opinion wrongly equated with either church or Bible? God hasn’t come down from wherever he resides to tell anyone we’d call a sane and stable person not to have sex. And isn’t that one of the major problems we have with religion? We have no real idea who/what God is and what he/she/it wants us to do.
Many will now point to the Bible. And sure it’s a nice book, but it most be regarded as a historical document would. God didn’t sit down and write the Bible. Humans did that and most likely men (considering the historical context) as women in 99,9% of the time did not know how to write. We call the Middle Ages, the Romans, etc. and their literature Sexist but are understanding because emancipation just was not that developed yet back then. Then why can’t we do that with the Bible? Read the Bible but read it carefully. And don’t go claiming “God wants you to do this or that”. Or “God hates this or that”. Jesus said God loves all people so how can he/she/it hate someone for his/her/their sexual orientation? That’s ridiculous.
A big thank you to you, readers, for engaging with our site and participating in our discussions!
(Images via Grazia, Fabulous Magazine, Dline Art Media and Loen Entertainment)
