Sacred Musings: July 2024
Baiting the Gods, K-pop I actually listen to, and The Rolling Stones
Bonjour à tous et à toutes,
I hope you are staying cool and sane as we enter the most sweltering days of summer. To my friends and readers in Paris, I am wishing you as easy a JO as possible…
I recently had the pleasure of participating in the fourteenth iteration of Baiting the Gods, a monthly variety show curated and hosted by the self-described ‘temporal refugee’ poet Alaska Lynch. I met Alaska many years ago, and he is a true eccentric. The performers he chooses are interesting in equal measure to the crowd that is drawn to him. I performed a translated excerpt of Jean Cocteau’s 1962 “Address to the Year 2000”, which was a deviation from my usual academic speaking, and it was a thrill to see the response his words got from the audience. If you are in Los Angeles and have the chance to attend a future Baiting the Gods night, don’t miss it.
I had a blast writing my most recent piece, “Soft Power in Your Area”, so much so that there was quite a lot I left out — otherwise, it would have been interminably long!
One of the points scrapped had to do with the rules of songwriting that K-pop leans on most.
Pop music is notoriously, deceptively simple to write successfully, due to the fact that it often must follow certain formulas while also appealing to the most broad of audiences (it’s not called “popular” music for no reason!)
Many years ago, the frontman of one of the most successful rock bands in history, which is named after himself (I’ll leave it at that) — told a relation of mine that he approached songwriting with international audiences in mind. Could they understand the gist of the song with a language barrier in place? Were the words simple and easy to sing along to, even if a fan didn’t speak any English?
Think about it — what are the common denominators of the world’s most popular karaoke songs, and why?
I think about this often when pondering the intersection of art and commerce, especially in a space, like rock music, which sees broad appeal as being adjacent to some sort of moral failure (aka, becoming a “sellout”). Of course, there are the very few who achieve transcendence and hit marks on all fronts, but they’re rare for a reason.
K-pop songs, more often than not, have a set of parameters by which they abide. A chorus or title which features a syllable or nothing word, easy for audiences across the globe to sing (again, I point you in the direction of Blackpink’s biggest hit, “Ddu-du Ddu-du”); a shouted catchphrase associated with each group (“Blackpink in your area!”); songs heavy on vibes and attitude, but light on lyrical complexity. If you do not speak a word of Korean, you can sing along to most K-pop with ease and mostly understand what you’re conveying. And, of course, in today’s day and age, the 3-minute 30-second, one chorus, two bridge, three verse formula for pop songs has long been a thing of the past, replaced by a need for short, TikTok-friendly, to the point songs.
Where I geek out is on the production itself, which always seems reverse engineered to stick in your brain; I would not be surprised if a neuroscientist is on retainer as a consultant at the major K-pop labels. A Grammy-winning friend of mine often sends me the latest and greatest in K-pop with the simple message: “I don’t know what they’ve laced this with.”
I also had the pleasure of going to see The Rolling Stones on their recent (and perhaps, dare I say, last?) tour this month. What makes a musical act timeless was on my mind. Of course, the Stones are maybe the most iconic rock band of all time, and while I wouldn’t say that they abandoned all of their artistic integrity, their songs definitely follow many of the parameters I outlined here. I was thrilled that they chose to put one of my favorite songs, 1973’s “Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)”, on their set list — and as I sang along my doo doo doo’s in a stadium of roughly 100,000 other souls, was amused to think, plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.
On a final note, I thought I’d make a confession. While they were the subject of the essay, I must confess that Blackpink are not, by and large, musically to my taste (although, as I said — their music seems reverse engineered to stick in my brain, anyway.)
However, there is a K-group whose music I enjoy greatly: NewJeans. They are only two years into their career, and have endured an unfortunate music business scandal which has exposed many of the suspected machinations behind the K-pop industrial complex. They are disconcertingly young (one member debuted at just fourteen years old), but their music is undeniably fantastic, taking inspiration from hip-hop, R&B and club music of the 1990s and early 2000s. They have extraordinary potential, and I hope that the conflict between their label heads doesn’t squander it.
“Ditto” and “Cool With You” have found their way onto several of my playlists, and will probably stay in rotation. “Cool With You”, in particular, was my #1 most played song of 2023, according to Spotify Wrapped. The more I listen to them, the more transcendent they are.
Don’t knock it ‘til you try it.
À la prochaine,
Chloë Helen America Cassens
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