Confessions on MAMA Awards 2012

Admin K

All the fuss led up to this. Almost 7 hours (according to the live stream when I started watching) of flashing lights, cheers and disappointment. To be honest, I don't think it deserves as much as people make it to be. It definitely didn't leave me completely emotionally invested like some people. The most predominant controversy being the BAP vs EXO-K drama that spanned the last few weeks of voting. In the end, neither of them won that rookie award; leaving both arguing parties disappointed and the bystanders like me, shaking their heads in shame.

This is just one of the many things I plan to rip apart in my section of this article. Probably why this will start with me and end on a happy note.

Firstly the winners list.

Best New Female Artist Ailee	Best New Male Artist Busker Busker
Best Female Artist IU	Best Male Artist G-Dragon
Best Female Group SISTAR	Best Male Group Big Bang
Best Collaboration Performance  Hyuna and Hyunseung - Trouble Maker	Best OST Seo In Guk & Jung Eun Ji - All for You (Reply 1997)
Best Music Video PSY - Gangnam Style	Best Rap Performance Epik High - Up
Best Band Performance Busker Busker - Cherry Blossom Ending	Best Dance Performance – Solo PSY - Gangnam Style
Best Dance Performance – Male Group SHINee – Sherlock	Best Dance Performance  – Female Group f(x) - Electric Shock
Best Vocal Performance – Solo K.Will - I need you	Best Vocal Performance – Group Davichi - Will Think of You
Best Global Group – Female KARA	Best Global Group – Male Super Junior
SONG OF THE YEAR PSY - Gangnam Style	ARTIST OF THE YEAR Big Bang
BEST ASIAN ARTIST Wang Leehom Philippines: Sarah Geronimo Japan: AKB48 Vietnam: My Tam Indonesia: Agnes Monica Singapore: Taufik Batisah China: Li Yuchun	ALBUM OF THE YEAR Sexy Free & Single – SUPER JUNIOR
	best new asian artist New Asian Artist Group - EXO China: TimeZ Thailand: Natthew
Mnet PD’s Choice Award B.A.P.	BEST NEW ASIAN ARTIST EXO
International/Global Favorite Artist Psy	Style in Music Ga In of Brown Eyed Girls
Guardian Angel Worldwide Performer Award Big Bang	Best Line Award Super Junior

No surprise that PSY won so many of the awards. Gangnam Style rightly deserves Song of the Year for making such a big impact on the global music market. But as I was watching it, I couldn't help but guess the winners to practically all the prizes near the end of the ceremony. Why? Well this is just a theory I had formulated from ideas I read from other people as the ceremony was airing. It seems like MNET tried to make sure everyone who attended left with an award. That would account for some of the awards that I have never heard of before being awarded. It fits together quite nicely once you look at the nominations for the awards that were voted on by fans and then look at the awards that were given that didn't have a fan voting contribution. Just a theory. No bashing. I've just always believed these awards reflected the power of established fandoms and marketing (add in a little bias from the organisers?) rather than true quality of music. Of course, there were many on this extensive list that I think deserved their awards very much.

 

On to the performances. For making me sit down for so long, the performances had to be good. To be honest, I didn't watch all of them. As I said, seven hours is a long time. EXO and SHINee's performance did give me a slight heart attack from too many feels (maybe a little biased there) but looking at it objectively, the purpose was a "time skip". It looked pretty biased to me. H.O.T, TVXQ, SHINee? It's looking more like an SM promo than nostalgia (though I am not denying that SM has been very popular in the past). Other personal favorites were the obvious epic Epik High and the explosive Big Bang (puns fully intended :P). I also thoroughly enjoyed Roy Kim's performance. I've never heard of him prior to this, but I definitely liked his vocals. Though Seo In Young's English pronunciation didn't cut it for me, K.Will's did. OMG. Just a quick comment on the Troublemaker performance (second MAMA version). Was it just me or did it just get to a new level of sexual that I thought never existed?  Conservative me coming through

 

Being the stagecraft critic that I am, I have to say that the lighting and sound in this year's ceremony was pretty good. There were times where I picked up sound that was probably from the backstage crew's communication devices but I forgive them. Camera-work was good. Not too jumpy or lagged. Angles were ok. Being a live show though, sometimes the camera did miss some things that I wanted to see through panning to the idol pit (as I called it) or simply shooting from another angle.

Anyway, I think I've ranted enough. I'll leave some for the others. Overall, liked the ceremony but it was very long and sometimes grueling to get through. I won't even go into MNET Global's live Twitter commentary. EUGHHH.... Don't get me started.

Admin S

Ok hi. My turn~

First of all, I sat and watched the entire 7 hours of the stream (screaming at my family occasionally to stop talking to me because I was busy) but I have to admit, I was actually very disappointed in MAMA this year.

Can I just say how annoyingly unprofessional and obnoxious the English MC's were?

They basically didn't know anything or anyone and proceeded to diss the entire of Troublemaker's performance and Epik High's costume.

Then they said something along the lines of:

"Oh. I really liked that one dress that was short at the front and long at the back. I think that was very nice"

"Oh, did you mean Ga In?"

"Was that her? Yeah. I think so. Ga In."


 

o.m.g.

As MC's of a very important event, you would think to at least commit names to memory and avoid being sarcastic towards the idols.

Moving on from the pretty disappointing and somewhat offensive commentary,

I pretty much tuned in at the very start (although I skipped "The History of MAMA" because gawddddd. that was boring). 
The red carpet was quite interesting and I actually enjoyed looking at the fashion and was super delighted by the surprise performances of both B.A.P and Block B (OMG. BLOCKBAP. MY FEELS).

 

 

  

 

The standouts on the red carpet (for me) were:

B.A.P

Lee Hi

f(x) (omgggg. amber *blubbering mess of incoherent noises*)

Park Shin Hye

Song Joong Ki

Ga In

Block B (so much win omg)

Seo In Young

Wooyoung

Bai Bai He (my favourite of the night)



On to the actual ceremony...

Was anyone else confused about the second award?? (Presented by Simon and PSY's first award of the night)

There was no mention of what the award was or who the nominee's were.

Judging by the look on his face, PSY was pretty darned confused too.

I'm disappointed that MNET did not provide any explanation to this...

The night went on and to be honest, the winners of the awards were quite predictable.

Except Best Female Global Group.

Wtf. How did Kara win that?? They were the least likely of all the nominees (in my opinion).

I still wonder how 2NE1, f(x) and Sistar didn't cinch that one...

[ADMIN K: Evidence to my theory up top]

But the most shocking, disappointing, annoying, unhappy and angry feels I had to an award winner was Busker Busker (not that they're not good and I don't like them. No hate, ok?)

I know that only 20% of the results come from voting but the other 80% is made up of album sales and a judging panel.

Sorry, call me biased but I really, seriously don't think that Busker Busker could've surpassed Exo or B.A.P at album sales...

It seem like MNET just gave it to them to avoid a fanwar between Exotics and Babyz (fried tofuz). I think they just made it worse though? Because both sides came away angry and annoyed and disappointed.

What got me the most though, was that they didn't bother to announce the winner on the live stream but through their Twitter instead...

As for the actual performances,they were actually... quite disappointing and not as good as last year's (in my opinion).

G-Dragon's opening rap was fabulous and amazing and I died so hard because it was perfect.

But then Ailee, Bang Yong Guk and PIA took the stage and honestly... I hated it.

I really really loved Epik High's performance and of course Big Bang's because seriously GD, how did you do that to your hair in less than 2 hours??
And T.O.P, your eyes.  

Yeah how did this...

 

Become this in 2 hours ?

 

(On a side note, since GD was shirtless under that big, red coat, it's confirmed that his tummy tattoo from Crayon is real)

And then Troublemaker was just... yeah...I'm not even sure what was going on there.

I really didn't like B.O.B and Seo In Young's performance of Airplanes (you would've thought to get someone with a high enough vocal range and who was fluent in English?)

Like Admin K said, there were quite a few awards that didn't really make sense to me (what's a Line Award? and a Guardian Angel Worldwide Performer Award??) and there were a few winners I was quite unhappy with and thought they didn't deserve it and I was quite sad that many bands didn't make the nominations stage (Nu'Est, BtoB, C-Clown etc etc etc etc etc.) but I'd like to congratulate everyone, nonetheless.

Confessions on October - November K-Pop songs

I'M STILL ALIVE.

Just not as active..
mianhe mianhe mianhe mianhe TT.TT
so much good music, so little time.
SO I shall compress and express it all in this one uber massive post!

BEHOLD.

LUNAFLY: HOW NICE WOULD IT BE

 ok so pretty much every Lunafly song is fantastic baby~
like seriously, as a vocal group they make beautiful music.
REALLY similar to Phantom who made their debut a few months ago with Burning.
It's kind of refreshing to hear k-pop without the typical dancing and doof doof sounds but rather real and soulful notes that make good music and a song with meaning.

AKJFHAKJLHLDSA
AYO LUNA. OMG.

SO I MEMORISED THE ENGLISH VERSION (Superhero) OF THIS SONG AND LISTENED TO IT LIKE 10457920578203750982 ON REPEAT K.

OK SO (from left) YOU HAVE YUN, TEO AND SAM (who's half British)
Not gonna lie. The first time I watched this I was all like OHMYGOD.
REN (Nu'Est) IS THAT YOU??
but then I was like lol no. ur not ren. or hoon in stop gurl.
Teo pls.
That hairstyle already gives me nightmares.

Question though..
Why are these guys not being marketed? Why are they not on music shows? Why do no one know them? Like WHAT?

I'M ACTUALLY SO HAPPY THEY'RE COMING AROUND TO AUSTRALIA NEXT YEAR BUT JK IT'S IN SYDNEY (like always)
SO THE PROBABILITY OF ME GOING TO ANOTHER STATE AND PAYING $200+ TO SEE THEM ON STAGE FOR 3 MINUTES IS LIKE
0.01%

BIGSTAR: THINK

I only got into Bigstar after this mini album and it has been one of the best albums songwise this month. Everything is just composed wonderfully.

CHINCHA AWESOME.

I don't know much about their live performances, but I can always listen to song no matter what.

EXID: EVERY NIGHT

 

I don't understand this MV... at all.

I don't get the gas masks

or the spitting

or the pepper/chilli whatever

or the test tubes

 

but I love the song :D

Probably my favourite female rookies omg LE's rapping sooo so so good!

 





RANIA: STYLE

THEY'RE BACK.

ok ok ok Rania were awesome with such tracks as Dr Feel Good and Pop Pop Pop.

Now we've got STYLE.

Down to 5 members, they are still a pretty strong group.

The MV and production is all YG with seriously blunt lyrics courtesy of Mr Tablo.

I actually really liked this song, the 'Runway Runaway' part is sooooo damn catchy :)

 

AILEE: I'LL SHOW YOU

 Ailee won her first award  recently with her comeback song I'll Show You.

The MV features MBLAQ's G.O who plays her love interest and is sort of a retard for rejecting her and then wanting her back after she transforms into the sexy stylish diva Ailee...

the song is decent but it took a very long time to get used to the disco chorus bit... I think I'll stick to Heaven.

Also check out her new song Evening Sky which is currently promoting the movie 'Now is Good'!

MISS A: I DON'T NEED A MAN

 honestly... this song is annoying D:

It just wasn't as powerful in choreo or concept as Touch, nor was it strong vocally.

It had potential, but even the live performances didn't appeal to me very much..

idk I LIKE Miss A but this song felt inept and a little clumsy in composition.

Songs that I really love though in this 5th project album is Time's Up and If I Were a Boy.

TOXIC: LONELY

 I LIKE IT LIKE IT LIKE IT.

It's so nice having real bands in K-pop omg

ok this duo are HOT.

and TALENTED.

and SEXY.

THE WHOLE FIRST ALBUM IS JUST SO PERFECT. TAIWANMEI.

I just recommend everything, seriously. It's so so so good!!

 

B.A.P: STOP IT

TS. 

IS IT REALLY NECESSARY TO HAVE LIKE 1309472309582 COMEBACKS?

ok so

HAJIMA.... It's very similar to Crash (although I preferred Crash over this)

Like yeah I was genuinely surprised when Crash came out because I thought it was a one off thing for their repackaged and the closing to the end of the year but nooooo.

They come back with this.

And yes.

I mean, it's cute the first time.

But really, just go back to your DOKRATHI MAN VORRIOR ARGHHHHHHH days.

No more cutesy.

Jebal 

 

GIRL'S DAY: DON'T FORGET ME

I'm not big on Girl's Day but this song is actually quite nice.

Just anything but Twinkle Twinkle or Oh My God or the sickly sweet pinky fluffy cute cute aegyo-ridden girly concepts is fine with me.

I love the verses even though they are heavily autotuned but still :D

TAHITI - HASTA LUEGO

I didn't really get into their debut song but Hasta Luego is uber catchy :D

the MV is a tad... how do I say, low budget?

very very dark lighting..

about 90% autotune but hey, autotune can sound nice  i think

HYUNA: ICE CREAM

Need I explain?

Just something else to contribute to Hyuna's repertoire of sexy sexiness~

NS YOON-G: IF YOU LOVE ME ft JAY PARK

Ok I found the ending super creepy in a stalkerish way.
like, I mean the whole gallery of guys on her wall..

It's sorta like Jay Park and all his pics of girls in Girlfriend...

Besides that it's a great song, always love Yoon-G and her awesome vocals.

 

 

Listening to: C-Clown - Young Love

Confessions on HyunA's Ice Cream MV

[PLEASE NOTE THIS ONLY REFLECTS THE OPINION OF ADMIN K. I can be a bit over the top cynical when I have lots of feels.]

I thought I would start off this “little rant” with a transcript of briefly what was going through my mind when I was watching this video. Be free to watch the MV simultaneously while I go through this.

Promo from Psy? She was in his and now he is in hers? Marketing stunt?

Report to the dance floor?  Does this how all dance songs need to start? In that case, where is this dance floor?

This song makes me cringe… not in a good way.

1:16- “It’s too small for me.” What is too small?

1:18- “SALE: My little brother with big shout” Is this endorsing selling your siblings? “Tell me! Who am I” *facepalm*

 

1:23- “Shell we drive? On your UFO” Shell? No spell-check Cube?

“Santa please forget my crying”

“Do not hurry you have 4 minute” – PLURAL! I don’t care if it’s HyunA’s group name!

Why!? You make me want to cry.

1:30- You just potentially killed someone!? Call a freaking ambulance! 

1:34- Oh here we go, the real sexy is starting.

1:46- You can’t do that with real ice-cream…. It would fall right off the cone.

1:51- “Batman he is gone” How is this relevant?

Oh the chorus dance… HyunA getting her sexy on.

Oh God… HyunA with soap suds… Nice work Cube.

2:11- Was that a boob squeeze?

2:27- 2:33- I’m sorry. There is no other way to describe this. This is HyunA sitting on a guy and going up and down on him. NO!

 

3:08- NOOOO!! It just keeps getting worse! Now she’s molesting some guy with her name and ice-cream tattooed on his back. EUGHHHH!

3:21- Is this guy a statue? He’s not moving or reacting at all. Of course he was paid to stand still so HyunA can do her thing.

3:28- Obligatory “bite on something sexily” scene

3:44- She’s spraying water from a hose now!?

3:45- Oh wait it’s not water... It's white…  well that’s not much better… Yes I just went there. Don't deny it, you went there too.

Generally speaking, wrong season and wrong timing for this video. It’s Autumn in Korea at the moment and it’s getting cold. I think a song supposedly about ice-cream should be released in Summer? It seemed like the logical thought. After watching that video, I feel like I need to scratch my eyes out. To me, it looked like glorified stripping, without obviously the clothes removal. I’m not surprised especially after Change, Bubble Pop and Troublemaker. It’s HyunA I get it, it’s the way she’s marketed and promoted. I just didn’t expect it to get worse. I’m not hating on HyunA. It’s just that try-hard sexy is a big turn off in my books. It makes me feel like this video is directed at catching the attention of pubescent hormonal boys and perverted old men. That just takes away from the value of the song. 

Admittedly, I didn’t like the song all that much prior to the music video. That was purely because it didn’t fit my music tastes. I’m not particularly fond of sweet, high-pitched songs. I also found the idea of a song about ice-cream to be a little bit ridiculous. Despite knowing this, curiosity got the better of me. 

There are some redeeming qualities. It's a very colourful and bright MV. Also, even though Psy’s appearance may have been a marketing stunt, I still liked his addition. Psy brought some humour to the MV. It’s what Psy is good at and I think it adds a light air to start a (when you're ignoring the sexyness) fun MV. When HyunA isn’t trying to be sexy, she’s actually very pretty and kind of cute in my opinion. I have to admit that. She also doesn’t look bad in anything despite my complaints that are directed at how revealing most clothes are. 

The dance itself, quite suggestive but also I think she’s a good dancer. No doubt. The teaser was rated 15+ and Cube is predicting that the infamous MOGEF will slap a 19+ on the full MV. Not surprised really. At least they acknowledge it?

I won’t get too much into the song since there might be an album review on this. I don’t know.

Now I need to go cleanse my eyes. I feel violated.

Cr: Screenshots done by Admin K (excluding the GIF)

+Admin K

Listening to: Epik High- Kill This Love

Confessions on My K-Pop Life Episode 34

 

Admit it, you got a nose bleed when this happened right?

 

 

 

 

and this bit..

 

 

and for like the whole damn MV...

 

 

 

Listening to: Hyuna - Ice Cream