K-Pop Fridays! (vol.1)

Tonight/this morning I'd like to introduce a brand new segment to my blog: K-Pop Fridays!

Over the past month I've developed a certain fascination with Korean pop culture. From the clothing to commercials - I can't get enough. But the part I love most? The music.

Lovingly referred to as 'K-pop', Korean popular music differs from North American in that it maintains a certain level of innocence that went out of style back in Canada and the States about a decade ago...around the same time that my generation entered high school and it was no longer incredibly entertaining to obssess over the Backstreet Boys and N' Sync. Hey, I was like 14 & defenseless against the manipulative marketing powers of those big-name record labels! It is NOT my fault that I used to have a crush on Nick Carter.

But I digress...

According to my powers of observation, their are 3 main elements required for a Korean radio song to qualify as K-Pop:

1) Gotta be catchy
One must be able to sing along, after hearing the song no more than 3 times prior.
2) Gotta be cute
The group members have to be well-dressed, and CUTE - Campbell's Soup kid styles.
3) Gotta be choreographed
In K-pop music videos, the name of the game is dancing baby! These kids have some of the most intricate dance sequences I've witnessed since the days of NKOTB.

So that's just a bit of K-pop background for you. And to start off our new weekly segment, without further ado, I'd like to introduce my current favourite (and likely the reason I lost my voice at kareoke the other night) K-pop song:

Madonna, by Secret...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_gyI9ryOQA