Yesterday as we were coming back from our outing, somehow K-pop got brought up. I was mentioning how tiring it is for me to scan through the songs to make sure they didn't have any swear words in them (exaggerating of course because that's what you do) and my dad just kinda "You know, you could just listen to straight English songs."
Yeah, I could. It certainly would be easier. I'd be able to understand all the lyrics and don't have to worry about a swear word hiding undetected in the Korean or Japanese portion of the lyrics. English is my first language, so it certainly feels more natural to listen to English songs. But why do we even listen to K-pop in the first place?
For me, a big thing is that it isn't all in English. I've always loved languages. Like, since I was six. I literally wanted to learn Chinese when I was six. That didn't happen because I got forced into Spanish class, which made me think I hated languages. Me and my siblings have always been rather rebellious, so being told we had to take Spanish made us determined to hate it. I gladly would've taken it if I'd had the choice, but I doubt I'd've done much better than I did. Spanish did not go well for me. I thought it was just because of how angry I was that I had no choice, but during high school/homeschool, I started learning German and that didn't go any better. Meanwhile, I was reading a Greek phrasebook just for fun and I was loving it and was getting pretty good at reading it and deciphering a few of the words. So I've determined that when I try to learn languages my way, it works for me but the school way just doesn't sit well with my brain. So listening to lyrics in another language and all might actually help me learn Korean and Japanese (both of which I've wanted and been trying to learn for quite a few years. Also, if I'm focusing on something, the fact that it isn't all in English can help me focus better. Especially the harder edge feel that most of the songs I've encountered have. (I don't know why, but rock and pop type music helps me focus a lot better than any other type of music.)
Second, the sound is different. Most of the more-modern English songs I've heard (fewer than I'd like) all have your general, basic instruments. K-pop music seems to play around with the background sounds a lot more and that keeps me intrigued on the song. Don't get me wrong, I don't only like K-pop. I do like most of the songs from Family Life Radio, and I've been looking into some of those artists' other songs, and I have an affinity for 80s music, Bon Jovi, Billy Joel, and some others. I even like some modern songs, but, being homeschooled, I haven't exactly heard much of them or current popular artists. But there's just that hint of something else in K-pop that makes it stand out against just about everything else.
Third, the colors I see listening to K-pop are unique. I don't know if it's the Korean, the unique sounds, or something else, but it speaks to me through the form of color. There are many songs that have colors I would normally hate together, but somehow it works. Like the misty green and purple in BTS's No More Dream and the vividly sharp neon pinks, yellows, and greens in BLACKPINK's Kill This Love. Both of these songs have black backgrounds, which makes the misty green and purple seem slightly mysterious (pun not intended) and the neon colors appear even more neon. And it somehow just works, even though I normally keep green and purple as far apart as possible and neon colors tend to give me headaches.
Fourth, what does it even matter, whether I listen to K-pop or not? I listen to it up in my room because that's where my laptop with Spotify is, and I keep the volume down rather low. And even if I could somehow work the magic to get Spotify on my phone, I'd probably only listen to it up in my room like I before. Or use headphones. I don't like listening to my music when others can hear it. I've gotten hassled by it way to many times. (Mostly noise complaints and my sister seems to, or at least did, have a grudge against the music on FLR. After some of that, I just decided to bypass the drama and listen to my music in my room, volume on low, and only crank it and carry it around the house when I know I'm alone.) I don't see how my listening to it like that and making sure I'm careful with it poses any problem. It's not like I'm duct taping my family to the couch and forcing them to listen to it while I gush about how awesome it is while I list every single factoid I've learned about it. So my sister and I listen to K-pop. So what?
So yeah. That's my K-pop rant turned "really?" rant. ;D
Sorry to anyone who's sick of hearing people talk about K-pop all the time; I try hard to hold back because I know there are people who just want a break from hearing about it.
Thanks for reading and if you have anything you'd like to add to this topic, I'd be happy to hear it. Have a good next twenty-four hours! :D
YOU ARE READING
Me, My Sensory, and My Synesthesia
Non-FictionUh, just consider this like a blog i guess?
