It's interesting to see a group made up of both boys and girls, and I don't mind the music video, but the song is generic. I'm so tired of Autotune. When did it become acceptable to only use one vocal effect or else none at all? I love vocoders, talk boxes and the like - what happened to those? I'd ...

Honestly, perceived "talent" or longer training periods doesn't make that much difference to me because I don't have much interest in dance routines, and like many H!P fans, singing ability isn't the biggest priority to me. As long as I like the music being produced, I'm happy. I also agre...

So there are 3 points I want to finally make. First, there are deep historical and factual reasons why Korean nationalism is so strong. None of these things seem to enter into people's minds when they see something stupid like an SNDS/S/mileage comparison. I really like that our board members are g...

Well, I'm sorry if my comments offended you. It was largely speculative. I'll refrain from commenting on Korean nationalism again in such a context. I don't have any problems with Korean people, and I don't mean to imply to that there aren't racist morons in the West as well, simply that some Korean...

I've been retreating into my den of '80s pop music over the last couple of weeks. Stuff I seem to keep coming back to: Shaking the Tree (1990 remix) - Peter Gabriel and Youssou N'Dour Having trouble locating the version I'm listening too, but that's a truncated LQ version that cuts off before it can...

Disappointing video. It was like every other H!P vid coming out these days, except with Tsuji appearing every so often to make odd alien faces, flaunt her enormous hair-beast and...doing whatever the hell she was doing to that window. Kanon and Yuuka looked cute. Kanon and Yuuka always look cute. Di...

That was actually one of the bits I had a lot of trouble with, if not the most trouble. The discussion started to go seriously downhill when they start talking about Watanabe's sex with Naoko. Is this guy really such an unbelievably good shag? To the point where Naoko didn't ever want to have sex ag...

The screaming is Acchan being stabbed in the hand by Yuko.

Ah, thanks for saying what I would have said if I could be arsed to take a look at the book again, if perhaps saying it a little bit more harshly. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/whistling.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':hahaha:' /> I might have liked it enough to read...

Ooo, I was considering writing up a thread on these girls but couldn't be bothered. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/hahaha.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':hahaha:' /> I heard I Want You Back a while ago and thought it was generic, boring and not worth my time. Then the...

Ach, now I regret using the word "misogyny". It's probably not terribly appropriate. I don't think Murakami himself is a misogynist at all. I'm finding it very difficult to find professional articles that offer a proper feminist critique of NW (although you can find some blog comments, for...

Yes, misogyny is too harsh, but "trigger word" is right. I unintentionally got someone who until that point I considered a "fellow" Murakami fan very nearly shaking with anger when I brought this subject up, which is partly why I don't like talking about it much. Interestingly, t...

Hah, this is why I tend to avoid the subject. It seems to be a real point of contention for most people. Anyway, I can understand your perspective, but I think his portrayal of men is quite different to that of his women and them being anti-social or alcoholics isn't really equivalent. It's not the ...

I haven't read any William Gibson. I know I should, but I just haven't. Seeing as it's his most famous book, is Neuromancer the best place to start? I reckoned that there is a misogynistic aspect to Murakami, but I generally manage to overlook it. I was initially inclined to call sexism when I first...

We can both be losers then, because I found Catcher In the Rye to be just...iffy, despite everyone around me heaping praise upon it. I can also see its influence, but I didn't enjoy the book at all. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cryalot.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=...

[fanboy] YOU LIKE MURAKAMI? <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/w00t.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':thumbsup:' /> My god, Haruki Murakami is one of my absolute favourite authors. Have you read Sputnik Sweetheart? I personally thought it was his best book. Also, despite th...

Yeah, I always thought of C-ute as the H!P "dance" group. You just need to watch a couple of lives to see it. Maimi is slightly awkward sometimes, especially in earlier dances, but aside from that, they're generally awesome on the performance front.

[quote name='Cyrene' post='85583' date='Sep 22 2010, 05:09 AM']Who is in MINT? I notice Atsuko, but who are the others?[/quote] The members are Atsuko Maeda, Haruka Katayama, Tomomi Kasai, Moeno Nito, and Sakiko Matsui. I'm afraid I don't know much about the members other than Acchan. Moeno is obvio...

Yes, despite the enormous contradiction inherent in listening to more than one idol group, I do like and follow AKB, although not as closely as MM. I should try to, because despite having listened to them for almost as long as MM, I still don't know as much about them as I should. <img src='http://m...

Bumping with news! AKB48's 18th single, Beginner, has emerged. It's Dark!AKB and sounds totally badass. And the screaming...my god, the screaming. Thread on H!O: http://www.hello-online.org/index.php?/top...20#entry1132190 Thread on S48: http://stage48.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2582 Pre-orde...

I'm trying hard to find something interesting or funny about this, but I've got nothing. Even after watching Shinkokyuu again and again, I can't conjure up a clever witticism or even a simple opinion. It's just so bland. Seriously, what is the target audience of a video that contains little more tha...

The B-side to Appare is Kura Sushi Bikkurapon, so it can't be that. EDIT: Beaten. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/dammit.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':puppyeyes:' /> [quote name='Al Kusanagi' post='85398' date='Sep 19 2010, 07:12 PM']Wow. Hottest MM costumes EVAR!!! ...

Queen reference? <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':puppyeyes:' /> There's no news of it being a single yet, but I do hope it will be based on the available material. It's grown a lot on me already. It reminds me of the danceable, qua...

Apparently, this is the new Aisaresugiru Koto wa nai no yo song. Doesn't sound bad. Not really that different from a lot of the stuff they've been doing recently. Probably would benefit significantly from better quality.

I would agree that Korean nationalism plays a big role in their antipathy to Japanese groups. Even compared to Japan, they've a lot of catching up to do on that front. I think it's partly to do with the country's relative youth. They only ascended to first world status in the late twentieth century ...

Hmm, it's quite a nice cover. Chokotto Love isn't one of my favourite H!P songs, but I like that they've put their own spin on it. It irks me when people cover songs and don't do anything to them to make the song their own. I like the A-side a lot too. I used to be incredibly skeptical of S/mileage,...

Well netizen is purely a South Korean word, so that explains why you haven't seen it elsewhere <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':blink:' /> (unless I'm mistaken, but I'm pretty sure I'm not) It's not a Korean term. To my knowledge,...

I can't stand K-pop fans and antis. They're honestly some of the most angry, irrational people I've seen on the internet and I have no idea why. What I especially don't understand is why English fans behave like such arseholes online. You'd think that they'd see the absurd lengths that the Korean fa...

I think I might nab those songs, too. I like the way the first one is structured, and Myut Hae Ji Na is just plain pwetty. Thanks for the download links and for bringing more K-rock to my attention. It seems this genre suffers from serious underexposure.

As I've said, I always personally thought that their songs (and videos, too) were quite novel and tongue-in-cheek, almost to the point of self-parody at times. Total earworms, too. It's odd that I shouldn't like T-ara, because I do usually like electropop. The album's on my iPod, and I do enjoy it t...