We (don't) need a (Euro) club banger

So often blinded as I am by my K-pop force field, I like to sweep many things under the carpet, the undesirable underbelly of many a k-popped faux pas. What I am to hence forth discuss is not quite something that needs to be kept so tightly under (daily consciousness) wraps, but it is something I'm not over keen on all the same. This is in the form of the K - Euro - pop overlap.

It is something that has been much discussed apparently, but is something I managed to barricade out of my mind for the first nine months of my K-pop adoration onslaught. However, coming though this initial all-encompassing loving blindness, I start to see more and more similarities. You may ask why I have such an aversion to 'Europop', or rather the concept of it. I believe it stems from my childhood, and my regular attendance to French discotheques from a young age. Having my mother living in France since I was nine, every summer was a mainland Euro summer. Europop may have improved somewhat now, Italo disco is certainly chic (though it's more the blast from the past hits - 80's - that are really worth noting), but I'm still not sure I'll own up to any contemporary associations with it yet.

If you want to understand my aversion, take a little look at this for starters; see for yourself how totally different the two can be (K-pop and Europop), though the example of the Serbian terror Milan Stankovic:

I was fair enough to even pick someone that has made K-pop related plagiarism claims for this - to none other than G Dragon! No joke, this is the boy who claims GD plagiarised his style. As if! You may have blond hair and the occasional penchant for silver lipstick. But THIS IS WHERE IT ENDS. Don't you dare taint GD with your cheap little brush! Honestly.

I admit the above was his Eurovision entry, so I will be a little less biased:


Een with this slightly more realistic image of Milan though, no. This is not GD, NO WAY!

Somehow, because of conceiving Europop to be mostly like this, I've just never, until now, really allowed much of a link with K and Eurobeats. But, to be honest with you, if I have to admit to it, once the point of comparison was brought to my attention, with bands like UKISS I did start to see how you could link a bit of K-pop with a bit of Euro from time to time. Their style, UKISS that is, is rarely or consistently up to that of Big Bang or 2PM, and their beats can certainly be a little, how can I say it, cheesy? (sorry Bunny)

But I still think K wins through with it's super cool fashion and hot to trot reality TV accompaniments. Even as I say this, and comfort myself with these confident words, there are more worries on my K-Euro horizon. I was becoming willing to give into the K-Euro pop link on some fronts even, but not that of BIG BANG!

With the season of high sport upon us, K-pop national sport campaign videos have been cropping up left, right and centre! And this is where my issues mainly lie:

Major yikes. This is not what Big Bang is about, is it? The start makes me think so much of '3 Lions' that I want to cry.

Oh Shouting Korea, why? I appreciate the mini-Big Bang drama it is facilitating, I do, but not this travesty of a song. I thought the days of Big Bang musical embarrassments was dead and buried. Apparently not quite yet.
And, in case you wanted to make it even more of a Eurobeat banger, here's a lovely dance tutorial to accompany:

Oh dear oh dear. This is no Gara Gara Go aftermath!

I'm not suprised too that SuJu have been hauled into the Shouting Korea vortex, but so far I think 2PM are safe. I hope this is true, and it remains this way. But sadly, I doubt it will, as 2AM have evidently given in too:

At least Jo Kwon is keeping up the K- style end of the bargain I guess.

But I read there is to be a whole 2010 FIFA World Cup album --- sad times.

I never really liked sports that much in the first place, as especailly not football. And now to know that this is what is dragging Big Bang down from their sky high pedestal... Really, I think k-pop should stick to having minimal links with sporting affairs. No more of this please.

That said, I do not include United MTV in this disavowal, obviously:

Dream team, in the most honest sense of the phrase!