#labelled ‘missing sungjong time’ | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

placegrenette · 7 years ago

Text

On Donnie Kwak’s dismissing BTS and frustrating comparisons.

Here’s the Kwak article I’m talking about:

To that end, BTS — from the relatively tiny label Big Hit Entertainment — leans hard into K-pop conventions. Keeping it real in K-pop, ironically, means keeping it somewhat fake. They dress similarly; they dye their hair; they smile for pictures and make cute finger hearts; they are “super excited to be here”; they sing and rap adequately; they lip-sync and dance impeccably. They are incredibly polished performers, seasoned over years of K-pop factory training, who choreograph their offstage decorum as carefully as their onstage theatrics. Their personas are anodyne to the point of artifice, more cringey than cool. This is K-pop.

Other people have picked this apart already with regards to BTS, so I won’t pile on; I will point out that Kwak wrote a much more nuanced article about CL last year, so I suspect his dismissive take on BTS is not rooted in wholesale K-pop dislike or some sort of Asian-American less-off-the-boat-than-thou stance, but rather greater familiarity with and respect for YG acts.

But his description stung in another way, for me. It doesn’t fit BTS very well; BTS’s charm has been only partly how much they’re willing to conform to Korean idol pop standards but also how much they’re willing to reveal of themselves within those standards (see this example and this one from the seminal BTS Week by @maddieloveskpop, and that’s 2 1/2 years old now). But Kwak’s dismissive summary actually works quite well if you apply it to Infinite.

I watched the American Music Awards last night, and the Twitter livestream of the red carpet, and various other bits and pieces of interviews this past week; much as I’d like to be all, “Oh, no, I’m not an ARMY, I just check in on BTS once in a while,” that would be a barefaced lie. (Once you’ve used the dance-practice videos for “War of Hormone” or “Baepsae” or “21st Century Girl” or “Go Go” for temporary emotional ballast, the jig is up.) You know what I haven’t watched? Any Infinite VLive made since Hoya left. Actually, no, wait. I think I did watch one solo VLive Sungjong made, and after the fifteenth or sixteenth time he said, “Inspirits, I miss you, please wait for us,” in a five-minute span, I turned it off.

When @knight-of-clubs visited me over the summer we watched a VLive together, of Dongwoo and Sungyeol in traditional costumes, joking around. It was a half hour long, and afterwards she said, “Wow, I can’t believe they managed to keep it up that long without actually saying anything,” and I agreed. It was polished and practiced; silly and completely insubstantial; boring.

One of the frustrating things about watching BTS, as much as I enjoy it and as glad as I am for their success, is wondering how much they’ve been able to accomplish because they were allowed to. This is not to take away credit from BTS for creating their own destiny: my understanding is that RM and Suga, as underground rappers, wouldn’t have plumped for an idol group that wouldn’t have let them write their own beats and lyrics, and Jungkook chose BigHit over other companies in part due to RM’s presence. But how many artists would talk about mental health and societal pressure, if they felt (or if their bosses felt) comfortable enough to take the risk?

(As I’m typing I can hear @anonciate going “BUT TWICE THOUGH,” and we definitely need to have a conversation about the Grand Unified Theory of Twice’s Emotional Constipation as related to lyric composition and JYP’s approach to management.)

And the thing is, there was a time when Infinite was able to act more open and less bland, and I distinctly remember it: the spring of 2013, just after I had begun following them, when they were promoting “Man in Love”: interviews where they were drinking and interviews where they vented about not being able to take bathroom breaks as trainees, and one memorable Twitter exchange where Hoya and Sungyeol were comparing Dragonball Z drawings and Myungsoo was like, oh by the way here is my published book of photography thanks guys. And then they got hit by several scandals: Sunggyu calling a woman a yomeul, but much bigger than that was Myungsoo’s dating scandal, the one that left him crying during the One Great Step tour. My theory is that the members grew much more conservative in their communications after that. (The rocky launch of Lovelyz probably didn’t help either.) Only gradually, here and there, did they start to open up again (the VLive sessions to promote Infinite Only—Sungyeol's casual, impatient, fifteen-minute session was a hoot—and then Woohyun’s rambling VLives at the begining of the summer, before Hoya left); and now, having to prove themselves as six, they’re going to be extra careful this promotional period.

Previously I never quite understood the (reported) Korean idol fan ideal of staying true to one group and one group identity; feeling like, well I like Infinite first and foremost but I also like SHINee and 4Minute and Ladies’ Code and EXID and so on and so forth. Now I actually feel like I’m cheating on Infinite, as irrational (and egotistical) as that is. And for something that isn’t within their control! Infinite’s style of music and presentation was always going to play better in the East Asian and Southeast Asian markets than in Western ones; it was to their advantage to concentrate on learning Japanese instead of English; they’ve always been in a market that doesn’t allow for slipups, under a company seemingly more afraid of risking market share than BigHit has been. I can’t argue for years that Infinite is more than their onscreen personae and then turn around and wander off because their onscreen personae have become less interesting than someone else’s.

I hope this comeback, whenever it happens, goes well: well enough to reassure the guys that even though Hoya’s employed elsewhere and Sunggyu has to enlist soon and they’re now no longer the hot new thing, they still have a loyal audience, they don’t have to be flawless to the point of boring, they can let themselves relax a bit. I’m rooting for them, still; them and BTS, no matter how impressive the latter gets.

#those guys and their dreams #endlessly talking about infinite #open access to my ramblings

1 note · View note

infirit · 8 years ago

Text

HOYA IS LEAVING INFINITE?! IS INFINITE DISBANDING?

Let’s make things clear about INFINITE’s disbandment and rumors that Hoya’s leaving INFINITE. Those rumors are ridiculous for many reasons: 1. They are having a comeback soon, both Japanese and Korean and they probably recorded new songs, because only like 2 weeks left, well more than 2 week, but it’s still soon. So wtf? They will cut out Hoya or something? That doesn’t make any sense. 2. We know how lazyass members are, they are so lazy that update sns once or twice in a month (Well except Sungjong and Namu) but those past weeks they’ve been VERY active on Vlive and sns, so what the hell again, they suddenly will disband or something? And Hoya is the most active tbh. 3. They’re planing an fanmeeting as I heard, they still have many shedules planned so it doesn’t make a sense that they will disband. 4. Maybe they won’t renew their contracts and make their own label, how most of old K-POP groups do. But I still think that Sunggyu will be next Woollim CEO. Idk. 5. How many times do boys need to show you, that they still want to be singers, Namu is injured and probably in pain everyday, but even this isn’t stopping him. Don’t you think that you’re hurting their prides with those stupid rumors? Don’t you remember how angry Woohyun was when fans started to believe in his dating rumors, he literally said “I said it’s not true, so stop it already.” He was angry, because with that you saying that they’re liars and every sweet word they said, was just scripped or something. 6. INFINITE is one big family, more than just idols, they are brothers. Remember when Woohyun jokingly said that he would leave INFINITE for footbal and Sunggyu was like NO you won’t. Sunggyu is an amazing leader who put his soul and heart in this band, he won’t let any of members leave so easily. It’s just a big NO. If 1 member will go, others will go too, because they said MILLIONS of times that INFINITE ISN’T INFINITE EVEN IF 1 MEMBER IS MISSING. During That Summer Concert, when Dongwoo wasn’t there, they were holding his photos and leaving space where he would stand, with it they were showing that there is no way that INFINITE will ever stop being OT7. INFINITE is OT7. INFINITE is a family. If they weren’t really that close, they wouldn’t stand on the stage for 7 years and would disband during BTD era or something. So stop with this rumors. They don’t make any sense. And they are stupid. Bye.

124 notes · View notes