I read news that a Korean rapper who goes by the name 60row wrote a song (rap) against some famous Korean pop groups: SG Wannabe, DBSK, and Big Bang. It’s called “Stop Ya Music”. Actually the first two were simply mentioned, it was Big Bang who was really on the hot seat in the song. He was ranting about how the Korean music industry is going on looks and popularity instead of talent. While I do believe he has a point regarding the music industry in general, I don’t believe he’s right. There’s a difference.

I don’t listen to SG Wannabe and DBSK stuff (just never got to, not that I’m against them), but I do listen to Big Bang. In fact I like their music, but not because of who they are. If they were all ugly 50-year-olds singing those songs, I’d still listen to their stuff. 60row was going on about how their music is bad, how they have “nonstop popularity” and that they should stop singing those songs that are no good anyways. Sounds like your typical stuff, and it is, but in a different sense.

Typical, because this type of thing has been going on for such a long time. There’s always hostility, especially concerning “boy bands” or one genre to another. In this case it was probably because Big Bang raps as well, and he probably felt it was his responsibility to protect rap music from “wannabes”.

Sounds pretty noble, but my take on it is different. He’s probably one of those purist people—those who think that to be hiphop you cannot listen to rock music, and vice versa. I’m not saying he’s a faker, all I’m saying is that his claims are baseless. He’s talking about talent, when the boys clearly have that. He’s talking about bad songs, when there is nothing wrong with those songs except that maybe he personally isn’t into them. A rocker could say the same of his music, just because they don’t take the time to consider what makes the song good. Basically he probably feels that if it doesn’t fit in his playlist, it isn’t good at all.

In my opinion, that’s as narrow as the mind gets, and rather disappointing coming from anyone who claims to love music. He claims that these groups only go for popularity and good looks, but honestly, anyone who’s followed Big Bang knows that they’ve worked hard, they write their own music, and even pros will say that they really have talent. Should they be hated by the purists because they have good voices and want to sing R&B? Btw, you don’t see anyone talking against Usher and the likes. Should they he hated because they happen to have good looks? Say their companies DID get them for their looks, should their talents be ignored already? So what if they’re popular? To repeat, I’d listen to their songs even if they were ugly 50-year-olds. If 60row can give an argument beyond personally disliking their music, I might listen to what he has to say. But until then, it just sounds like whining to me.

Technorati tags: music, big bang, sg wannabe, kpop, rap, dbsk, tvxq, 60row

This entry was posted on Monday, June 4th, 2007 at 6:55 am and is filed under Features, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.