Online, many have found a safer, more substantive way to show their defiance against February's military takeover — virtual rummage sales whose proceeds go to the protest movement's shadow government and other related political causes.
Facebook users have taken to the social network to sell off their possessions, advertising that all the money raised will go to fund the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, formed by elected members of Parliament who were blocked from taking their seats by the coup.
The committee styles itself as the sole legitimate government of the country, rejecting the ruling junta as without legal standing. In turn, the junta has outlawed the committee and declared it treasonous, threatening to jail not just its members but anyone supporting it.
Formed from scratch shortly after the Feb. 1 coup, the CRPH needs money to carry on its organizing activities inside the country and diplomatic efforts abroad.
Even as the authorities keep narrowing access to the internet, lately limited to a relatively small number of households with fiber broadband connections, deals are still available.
Last week, one young woman was offering her collection of K-Pop music and memorabilia, especially of the band Exo. Anyone interested had to show her a receipt for a donation to CRPH, and the item would go to whoever gave the most.
"It is not very pricey but difficult to collect. If you show me your CRPH donation slip, choose anything and I will give it to you," his message read.
One group of friends advertised their collection of novels, poems and motivational books, with proceeds again going to the democracy fight and delivery "when everything becomes stable."
And it isn't just goods that are being hawked. Services are also on offer to help bankroll the struggle.
Here's what's been happening:
Body Meat: Year of the Orc EP Album Review | Pitchfork
Channeling sugar-rush synths and bracing noise, the Philadelphia producer continues his quest to make pop music stranger and more head-spinning—and to test listeners' ability to follow the twists and turns.
Christopher Taylor's vision of pop music embraces extremes. The Philadelphia producer and songwriter has made room in his albums as Body Meat for sugar-rush synth programming and bracing noise; kaleidoscopic vocal melodies and teeth-chattering percussive contortions; ecstatic dancefloor revelations and existential despair. It's chaotic, overwhelming stuff, which is part of the point. Taylor has said his music is deliberately meant to test the limits of pop, along with his audience's ability to keep up with all the twists and turns. "How loose can I go with this idea?" He wondered in an interview . "And how far can I push it until people start jumping off?"
There's a lot of pain in these songs, but part of what makes Body Meat's music so compelling is that he makes a lot of room for tranquility, too. Amid the turbulent production there's also "Stand By," a digital funk love song as tender and romantic as any of Brent Faiyaz 's sleepy ballads. On "Ghost," the distorted chorale that ends the EP, Taylor sings of finding renewal in loss. "I see a new self but I breathe just the same," he sighs.
That track features the ambient composer Laraaji , who has often preached that peace is always around us, even in the midst of turmoil. "Right where we are is a whole ocean of peace, perfection, oneness, eternity," he said in an interview last year. That philosophy sounds paradoxically in tune with Body Meat's music. On Year of the Orc, Taylor trudges through the chaos, echoing the absurdity of a troubled world, yet somehow he finds stillness. It's a bold aim for a musician who purports to make pop music. He dreams big and invites you to join him in his reveries.
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Playlist of the week: K-pop – The Appalachian
A global phenomenon offering fans seamless choreography, addictive beats, and extremely talented performers, K-pop has taken pop culture by storm. Coined "Hallyu," or the Korean culture wave, K-pop rose to popularity after the expansion of South Korea's radio broadcasting and the country's exposure to American pop music.
Acts like Seo Taiji and Boys and their hit 1992 track "I Know" helped fuse South Korean culture and American-style pop music, innovating musically and exposing listeners to tracks covering topics outside of the norms at the time. Now, K-pop has gained extreme popularity outside of South Korea, and groups like BTS have become household names. Bringing $3.6 billion to the South Korean economy and dominating award shows, BTS and K-pop have become a fan powerhouse unlike any other.
Covering a wide range of genres, including rap, bubblegum pop, rock and more, K-pop has something for everyone. With groups like BLACKPINK, EXO and SEVENTEEN, it’s easy to find a K-pop group to love. So, here's this week's playlist honoring K-pop and its continuously changing and unforgettable music.
Camryn is a junior communication, public relations major with an art history minor from Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
(She/Her)
Twitter: camrynecollier
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Mariah Carey's 'Rarities' Illuminate Pop Music's Evolution : NPR
Mariah Carey performs during the 2019 Billboard Music Awards. In 2020, she celebrated 30 years of releasing music, dubbed "MC30." Kevin Winter/Getty Images for dcp hide caption
The pace of her output was set in the 1990s, during which she recorded eight albums and maintained a degree of dominance that has since yielded her 19 No. 1 hits, more than any other solo artist in history. It's easy to imagine such a track record becoming an albatross, reducing a musician's accomplishments to stats and trophies. But Carey has never really lost her desire to create, and her revelry in the craft of song-making was evident in her most recent album, 2018's Caution, which paved the way for the good vibes surrounding MC30.
Maybe she understands the inner workings of fandom so intuitively because she grew up nurturing those very same obsessions. As she explains in the memoir, her almost scholastic interest in the radio was her salvation (she was "constantly analyzing what was in heavy rotation"), a mental escape from family dysfunction, economic instability and racism. Though she was pigeonholed as an adult-contemporary singer during much of the '90s — a persona that was hard to shake and carries with it an obvious racial coding — her fluency in a wide array of genres is the mark of someone who studied the airwaves intently. Not only has MC30 underscored her effortless command of pop, R&B, hip-hop and dance music, it's also given her a platform to open up about her love of jazz, which she credits with training her ear, and rock, which she recently confessed to dabbling in when she secretly recorded a grunge album in 1995.
Some of that eclecticism is on display in the string of EPs that launched MC30 a few months ago. Throughout the '90s, Carey was in the habit of loading her singles with remixes and alternate versions that nod to particular demographics, including her Black, Hispanic and queer audiences. This was not an uncommon practice for a pop superstar of the period; what's remarkable is how Carey elevated what was essentially a crude marketing strategy to new heights, flaunting her ability to dismantle her own compositions and rebuild them with new vocals, arrangements and melodic elements. Perhaps the most extravagant showcase for this approach is the Anytime You Need a Friend EP, on which she takes a passionate gospel tune from her 1993 blockbuster, Music Box, and converts it into a silky quiet-storm number and a sweaty club anthem. The latter, one of the most delirious creations of dance-music luminaries Clivillés and Cole, finds Carey belting at the top of her lungs atop a swirling house beat for nearly ten minutes, then scatting fast and furious at the climax. Listening closely to her vocal variations, we gain a deeper understanding of her singing as an extension of how she thinks musically, and of how she shape-shifted to meet the needs of different genres.
The dense layering found on "Everything Fades Away" had always excited Carey; in the memoir, she talks about using her voice the way an artist applies paint to a canvas, and about the lasting influence of what she learned from seasoned background singers like Cindy Mizelle. But it wasn't until the mid-90s that Carey tapped into all of the textural possibilities this technique could offer, a move that in hindsight seems to anticipate the increasingly atmospheric, studio-driven direction of modern R&B.
If "Everything Fades Away" illustrates the ingenuity she could bring to a middle-of-the-road format, this song shows her heading down the path that would establish her as a R&B artist of transformational power. It's a glimpse at the "urban" aesthetic that Carey's domineering first husband, Sony Music CEO Tommy Mottola, had warned her to steer clear of but that would end up being one of her preferred modes in the years ahead, as songs like 1997's "Breakdown" and 2005's "Shake It Off" deepened her connection to the cadences and swagger of hip-hop and soul.
Such genre-straddling fits into the overall maximalism of Carey's career, but it doesn't adequately explain what keeps her fans faithful. At the core of her appeal is a deeper, spiritual conflict, a tension between the levity she projects in so many of her hits (the ones most fondly remembered by the general public) and the pain and loneliness that fun-loving spirit conceals (exposed in deep cuts only the lambs know — like 1997's "Close My Eyes," re-recorded for this album). The fundamental division this has created within her audience inspires fiercer loyalty among the fully converted, who cherish the feeling of being confided in.
Not to change the topic exactly:
BLACKPINK's Rosé Maintains Lead With "On The Floor"; Soompi's K-Pop Music Chart 2021, April Week
Rosé's "On The Floor" repeats as our No. 1 tune for the second consecutive week! This tune has maintained a sturdy lead over its competitors. Congratulations once more to Rosé!
No. 2 and three exchanges spots this week. Up one spot to No. 2 is BTS's "Dynamite," and down one spot to No. 3 is Courageous Ladies' "Rollin.’"
One tune has newly entered the highest 10 this week. Transferring up 15 spots to No. 8 is Jessi's "What Sort of X." With intense synth and lure beats plus a novel guitar riff and catchy refrain, the tune is an trustworthy expression of Jessi's self-confidence and vanity.
Soompi Music Chart takes into consideration rankings by varied main music charts in Korea in addition to the most popular trending artists on Soompi, making it a novel chart that displays what's occurring in Okay-pop not solely in Korea however all over the world. Our chart consists of the next sources:
Gaon Singles + Albums – 30%
Hanteo Singles + Albums – 20%
Billboard Korea – 20%
Soompi Airplay – 15%
YouTube Okay-pop Songs + Music Movies – 15%
K-Pop Is Only Half the Story of Korean Pop Music - Rolling Stone
Photo illustration by Rolling Stone. Photographs used in illustration by Getty Images; Koury Angelo
Back in 2009, eager to share my love of K-pop with pretty much anyone who would listen, I showed a grad school classmate the music video for “Lollipop” by BIGBANG and 2NE1. He laughed and told me the video looked as if it was made on another planet, with its bubblegum colors and over-the-top costumes . In 2013, I showed friends the music videos for TaeTiSeo’s “Twinkle” and Teen Top’s “Miss Right” — and they quirked their eyebrows and smirked in mild amusement. By then, K-pop was dominating the music scene across Asia and had significant followings in Latin America, Europe and the Middle East, but Americans seemed largely indifferent.
Fast forward to 2020, and K-pop is finally a singular force in mainstream American media, with groups like BTS and Blackpink winning US music awards and appearing on major talk shows all in the span of a few months.
But what many American fans may not realize is that they are hearing a specific and ultra-new generation of K-pop. Many of the K-pop artists who saw their heyday in the 2000’s and early 2010’s have long since moved on to different genres entirely — and so have many Korean fans, who’ve grown tired of the countless K-pop idol groups that have formed in the past two decades.
Millions are also tuning into Korean indie music (here’s a playlist I made , if you’re unfamiliar). The term originally referred to the alternative, folk and punk-rock sounds that grew popular in South Korea in the 1990’s, but “Korean indie” has recently become a catch-all term for almost any modern Korean song that can’t be classified as K-pop, trot, or rap. It’s an eclectic genre whose influences span from Western-style rock to lounge to electronica. Like trot, K-indie has also been eclipsed in the global music scene by K-pop, but it has nevertheless maintained a strong following in South Korea, especially among college students and young professionals.
But as K-pop continues to worm into the world’s ears, it is also ricocheting back to influence the culture inside South Korea — and Koreans, whether fans of the genre or not, have to reckon with its impact.
An interesting pattern I’ve observed with Korean pop culture is that what’s popular in South Korea is often not popular abroad, and vice versa. (This was generally true for Korean films too until Parasite .) When PSY’s “Gangnam Style” blew up globally in 2012, Koreans were shocked and puzzled . While PSY was well-known in South Korea, he was nowhere near the most popular artist, much less someone likely to break into the American market. But when “Gangnam Style” became the most viewed video on YouTube, the Korean media and even the Korean government suddenly couldn’t get enough of him, hailing him as a national hero for catapulting his country to global stardom. His face was plastered everywhere, from Korean cosmetics to instant noodle ads to postage stamps . A statue commemorating his viral hit was erected in Seoul.
A similar story has occurred with BTS, who became popular abroad before they became popular in South Korea. Once overlooked as a boy band in their home country, BTS is now topping the charts in South Korea due to their international fame, with hit “Dynamite” holding the top spot on the Gaon and Melon music charts from September through most of November. Their newly released album BE, currently ranked Number Two on the Gaon Album Chart, has sparked a steady stream of positive press in the Korean media, albeit much of the coverage focuses on the album’s success overseas in places like the US, the UK and other countries.
And to my surprise, I saw more tourists than locals, which I found out the hard way when no passerby I approached on the street spoke Korean. In one jarring episode, I walked into a cosmetics store in Myeong-dong and a store associate immediately spoke to me in Thai. When I stared at her blankly, she switched to Chinese. After overcoming my initial shock, I responded to her in Korean — and she apologized and told me, smiling, how relieved she was to finally be able to speak again in Korean.
Hopelands Gardens in Aiken resumes annual concert series April 5
After a one-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Hopelands Gardens annual concert series in Aiken returns April 5 with weekly performances through June.
April 5 at 6:30 p.m.: Josh Martin and Friends, a funky blues group who, in 2018, performed in the renowned Ground Zero Blues Group owned by Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman.
April 12 at 6:30 p.m.: The Experiment and the I20 Horns, an area music group that plays an eclectic mix of old-school and modern dance music.
April 26 at 6:30 p.m.: Southern Elite Cloggers and Dance. Comprised of two multi-national award-winning teams, their performances put a modern twist on the traditional clogging folk dance.
May 3 at 7 p.m.: Aiken Youth Orchestra. Under the direction of Adam DePriest and Angela Shaw, the orchestra provides more than 50 area students the opportunity to participate in a strings and orchestra program.
May 10 at 7 p.m.: Preston and Weston, a duo offering spirited renditions of R&B classics, shag, beach and pop music as well as jazz standards, reggae, blues and country.
May 17 at 7 p.m.: Chris Ndeti & Mama Says Band. Ndeti, also known as Acoustic Chocolate, is a female acoustic rock/soul performer and songwriter. She can be found performing in the area almost every weekend showcasing her vocals and soulful tunes.
May 24 at 7 p.m.: Swingsation of Aiken, a 15-piece big band with vocals performing music from the ′30s and ′40s up to today.
May 31 at 7 p.m.: Aiken Civic Ballet Company produces original ballets and contemporary dance works under the direction of artistic director Diane Toole Miller.
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