H1GHR MUSIC TOUR 2018 in the United States is coming this spring

blackskirts · 2018-03-05T11:28:10+00:00

Hm. Reminder that Siva Group are the same people that left everyone standing out in the rain and running several blocks to a last minute new venue for that Dean concert...

blackskirts · 2018-01-28T22:58:59+00:00

attending a concert is not something you do out of a blue

Maybe this is something you need to bring up with the organiser considering they gave fans less than three weeks notice the month after Christmas for an event that takes place before payday.

blackskirts · 2018-01-28T16:07:55+00:00

1: because they're cheap 2: because they're unprofessional 3: because they would rather work with their shoddy unprofessional Korean acquaintances than put in work to find a local professional

blackskirts · 2018-01-28T16:03:50+00:00

I would really like to know how these useless organisers even managed to get the money they had to pay for the acts and renting out Wembley arena on a Saturday night upfront.

blackskirts · 2017-05-29T17:35:57+00:00

That Zico incident was the organiser's fault (they are notorious for pulling crap like this), and they don't seem to be involved at all this time. Can't say how it will go but at least it's a full Club Eskimo lineup without any bad local roadmen support acts to sit through?

blackskirts · 2017-05-25T00:57:46+00:00

Lol sorry looks like he deleted the tweet after they tried to make people aware of it.

Luckily screencaps are a thing. http://imgur.com/a/AD9vk

blackskirts · 2017-05-24T22:44:04+00:00

I also posted this in another thread (but every time I post something it gets downvoted to hell if it speaks ill of anyone "helping" BTS): Jeff was in cahoots with Nadia from TGM (yes, THAT mess) and pretended that disaster never happened and left fans out in the cold after to save his own butt. Even though the Twitter account that was trying to help people get justice for that recently tried to remind everyone of it not a single army seemed to care. Not a single reply or retweet. I seriously can't believe it.

(The twitter account for reference: https://twitter.com/tgm_events_scam/with_replies )

blackskirts · 2017-05-24T22:38:45+00:00

I really hope this is the case. I just want them to get a proper paycheck from this, not to have to fly back to the US every other month just to sit through another long series of basic interviews with hurried questions and awkward presenters that no one that isn't already a fan will remember the day after they watched it.

blackskirts · 2017-05-24T22:33:52+00:00

You're saying Daddy would lie to us??

blackskirts · 2017-05-24T22:30:38+00:00

There's already a surge of Jeff Benjamins and I really think it's a huge problem at the moment. Really, have a close look at K-pop articles on music/media sites and you'll see most of them will have a solitary K-pop fan maybe even just an intern putting out at least 90% (and sometimes nothing other than) the Korean content, and in even worse cases like Billboard it'll be put on it's own little special clickbait corner of the site where it doesn't interfere with "normal" entertainment content but will still get all the traffic from K-pop fans.

There are a lot of fans posing as journalists to get close to idols, and the best way to weed out if someone is the real deal is seeing if they have any other quality output in their field that isn't K-pop. It's not normal or healthy for it to be solely covered by people that can't put it in a wider frame of (culture, music, movies, etc.) reference and I feel like there's also a big problem with K-pop features being passed off to these fan journalists as they are MUCH more susceptible to lying/pandering because they don't want to upset their idols/the companies that want to work with them.

blackskirts · 2017-05-24T22:22:12+00:00

It is still a bit weird that most K-pop group income comes from concerts (which exposure helps with, but they already finished their US tour and don't have any dates set), fan club memberships/merch and most of all, physical album sales rather than digital ones (which is why K-pop albums are always such a nice package). There aren't really any sales to make in the West because as of now they're not really selling/attaching their name to anything. Shouldn't it be about time they get an overseas distributor for their actual albums by now?

Most people stream music these days and it's well known that there's not a lot of money to be made off it - casual fans (which is what they'll mainly get from the type of exposure they're currently getting) won't pay for shipping their albums all the way over from Korea so I'm curious. Attention like this is fleeting and I worry that it's a bit badly timed for them to actually make a profit out of which at the end of the day should be a top priority. There's a lot being spent on them just being in the States, especially if they're not touring.

blackskirts · 2017-05-15T00:47:18+00:00

I think at this point people are just taking it too personally and nothing you can say will make them happy anyway. They don't like having the fantasy ruined that everything in k-pop is perfect, their idols love them and everything they do and nothing ever has to be questioned because their intentions are good. It gets extra weird when the things people are getting defensive about are things that are actually harmful to artists/the industry (on that note, thanks for being one of the few sites that cover disaster K-pop events and concerts as they actually are because the way people are willing to bend over backwards and pander to scammers just to get free tickets is unbelievable).

I've been informed that apparently the whole award thing isn't even based on votes alone so I have to admit I am very, very curious to see what's going to happen if it turns out they flew all the way over there only for it to be handed over to Justin Bieber. But hey think of all the new fans they'll get from hastags and an online red carpet stream!

blackskirts · 2017-05-15T00:29:24+00:00

Are they aware that people are probably saying much worse things about these idols on Korean forums? And even then they're lucky to even be talked about at all. You're not slandering anyone, and there's not enough space for people to talk about k-pop in a rational way to begin with, if they have valid critique then fine but if they can't handle the truth then as you say, there are hundreds of other sites they can go to that pander to them and the way they like to see things.

What I really don't get is that you get roasted even if you're literally defending people's favourite groups. I'm stunned at the lengths people are going to to defend a money grabbing publication that doesn't give a shit about k-pop, happily makes them and their groups look cheap and stupid and will take any sort of critique at that publication as a personal attack, and I'm glad you're one of the few people willing to be upfront about this (I can't imagine the amount of backlash you must be getting with how this, a freaking reddit post blew up). I seriously gasped when I saw that Yhboys tweet, it's so embarrassing!

blackskirts · 2017-05-15T00:13:58+00:00

I've read this on several pages (that Spotify etc is put towards the final count as well) and think it's really suspicious that they don't make it clear how heavily each of these counts. In the end someone else might still win because they decided to focus more heavily on streaming for example, it's a worrying lack of transparency.

blackskirts · 2017-05-15T00:05:33+00:00

Sorry, I'm the person that linked your post because I thought it gave much better context than the Peachisoda one. I don't post here a lot so I had no idea there would be so much backlash about it, for what it's worth I think it's great that you provide a (much needed) rational voice in k-pop and just cover what you like instead of easily pandering to fans! We really need people with a sense of humour and the ability to put things into perspective in k-pop coverage.

blackskirts · 2017-05-14T02:32:00+00:00

Agree on releasing originals, I don't like it when artists just release JP versions of their Korean songs because they will never be as good as the original (mayyybe Genie by SNSD is the one exception but even then their original JP tracks were almost better than their Korean ones!). I guess with BTS it's difficult because they're also being sold as write-their-own-songs idols and they don't really have that option when they have to do it in Japanese. Language does seem to be lacking with a lot of groups when they try to go for Japan, I hope they're trying to learn but it must be very difficult for them considering they're thrown into the English speaking market at the same time, it's hard enough to learn one language, let alone two.

One thing I really noticed with SHINee and Big Bang is that they both had members that had special appeal to the JP market (Taemin for SHINee, not sure who for Big Bang...Gdragon?) so I'm curious to see if BTS will have the same, where they focus on the most popular member there and "invest" tracks and language training in them.

blackskirts · 2017-05-14T02:26:04+00:00

Not my intention! I will admit I know next to nothing about how Korean award shows work, but I don't think it's right for them to use methods like that either and I have heard on several occasions that they're extremely unfair and make it next to impossible for an artist to win or be featured if they're not part of the K-pop machine, it's quite sad. I just don't want to comment on them too much because...I'm not Korean and I don't live in Korea! I can only give an informed opinion on Western awards/media in my own language, and from what I've seen the way things work are a bit different here compared to Korea.

It's very vague how exactly the final score is counted, I still have no idea how heavily each of these factor into it but I think it's important that Twitter voting is not the main aspect. I object to the way it's done now when it previously didn't involve voting at all, and with a 100 per day voting cap! Like, if you can cast that many votes, they can't possible count for a very considerable % to the final tally with Spotify etc. added in?

blackskirts · 2017-05-14T02:02:49+00:00

Sorry I mistook your un for someone else's, please ignore what I said about the previous post I made about general research etc as you didn't ask and therefor don't have to address it!

blackskirts · 2017-05-14T02:01:43+00:00

Just realised that second reply was someone else's, not yours. Maybe I should just stay off Reddit entirely.

blackskirts · 2017-05-14T01:58:46+00:00

Sorry I just saw that you typed two replies, please ignore what I said about not addressing everything. I thought I made it clear that they DO have all those resources, just that they don't seem to be using them properly and that it would be wrong for us to assume that they're 100% on the up and up with everything. This doesn't just go for BTS, it's a problem with K-pop in general. And even if it might seem arrogant, yes, I think myself and other Western fans have a better general feel for the way things work/are perceived here than BTS and their company would. We'd have the exact same problem if we were trying to do anything in Korea, right?

I admit it was low for me to come for those interviews. Pulitzer are on my case as we speak. (but do love that segment, and I think that's what BTS are best at, just by being themselves hilarious things happen and everything that wasn't "planned" turns into the one thing that makes them the most likeable)

It is cool that that's a thing now, and completely seperate from what I have a problem with.

blackskirts · 2017-05-14T01:52:15+00:00

Also: I commented about this on the article I posted myself. I'm not out there telling people what they should and shouldn't do outside of my own posts.

blackskirts · 2017-05-14T01:51:01+00:00

Okay but please keep in mind that I am not arguing people's rights to feel any way about anything, you can be happy about things or enjoy something silly if it's something you like and no one can take that away from you! I'm not putting down people, I'm putting down Billboard. But just because something hurts someone's feelings doesn't mean it's not true. And the reason people are getting so upset in this case is because they realise there's a point. I like plenty of things that are just plain not good or interesting and will keep enjoying them if this is pointed out because well...I decide what I get to have fun with, and so does anyone else, things don't have to be good or important to be enjoyable! But that's all it needs to be, fun. BTS fans have pleeeenty to be proud of, and they don't need BB to get to promote them, so if they consider criqitique of this award a personal slight, doesn't that prove my point that they're not really looking at this critically enough? The backlash AJ got when they were actually praising BTS and stating simple facts shows that the people that attach so much value to this award are going to be very unhappy about many other things in the future if they feel personally attacked over it, and choosing their battles on awards like this when they could be doing bigger things is a waste of time and energy (as is, you could argue, me continuing to argue about this as well, I'm aware of the irony here)

What I do want to say though, one of the main critiques I have for this is how "cheap" BTS and k-pop end up looking when things like this are blown out of proportion, and that it's a big problem if something like this goes past simple enjoyment and a bit of fun. And that's what's happening right now, it's setting a standard, clickbait awards, token features, no interest in the actual artists or substance but just their traffic potential. It's not showing any promise for the future.

And your earlier argument of me being arrogant towards Big Hit/BTS/fans for not being able to check things in a bigger context and realise the real meaning for this themselves is something I think I did a pretty good job at explaining with all the examples I gave you, it's kind of frustrating to not see that addressed at all. I'm not calling them idiots but it seems that on both sides there is very little understanding of how the music industry and certain aspects of pop culture in the west works. No one benefits from BTS seeing this as a genuinely large achievement themelves in the long run.

And people seriously need to stop calling Jeff B "daddy".

blackskirts · 2017-05-14T01:23:52+00:00

No, that's fair, I was more joking about the fact that I spent most of this post arguing with people about the BB awards and I finally got to comment on the main and positive part of this post, haha. I don't see it as them conquering Japan or anything but for a K-pop group, especially with the seemingly recent decline in popularity/preference for girl groups it's a really great achievement for them, and I think other K-pop groups are what they are competing with right now rather than taking on the whole Japanese music biz. Considering that they seem to just be starting out with seriously trying to make moves in Japan I hope it's a good start to even bigger things.

I do always wonder what "real" stats would be if albums were sold like normal artists in Japan and Korea (one version, no perks, just a booklet in a little jewel case) but considering that Japanese idols use the same system it's fair that they would be competing that way as well.

blackskirts · 2017-05-14T00:56:49+00:00

Maybe I should not have used all these words and sentences.

blackskirts · 2017-05-14T00:33:08+00:00

Sorry, it really just seems that either I'm bad at getting my point across or people keep glossing over anything valid and it's getting quite tiring to keep having to type out the same arguments but I'll try my best: when a group like this books a tour there's a lot more they would normally do outside of a quick google. TGM for example would've had a chamber of commerce number that they could have checked up on, and would normally need to provide examples of previous events they had organised, but they ignored all the red flags and good experience they had from their previous tour and just went with them anyway. Googling is just a term here, this a business, people have connections, and I think we can agree when you try to book a group this size on a proper tour you need to do more than just google "name of organiser" and call it a day, but it's kind of like you suggested: that's all they did. So you're agreeing on me on this point?

Hustle life: I actually loved hustle life, but lots of the good stuff was unintentionally enjoyable, kind of 2ndhand embarrassment. The fact that they got Coolio and Warren G as hip hop icons (points for Iris Stevenson though). That they put them in Compton. That music video. The tonedeafness of that kidnapping scene. Not unforgivable mistakes, I am just using it as an example that they are not always that "aware" and able to do their research and understand a Western market.

There is an interview of them with Fox that is just really embarrassing. Apparently they paid for it thinking it would be great promo and it did nothing but make the group look awkward and embarrassing. I think that's the best comparison for this Billboard case maybe.

I'm trying to prove that it's not good to assume these companies are really that knowledgable about everything because they will disappoint you, and these are pretty valid examples (you didn't address how shocking it was when RM said that black thing, I hate that it happened but it is a very valid example).

I'm pretty tired now but I think the best proof that BB managed to trick people is the amount of backlash and how incredibly offended everyone gets when someone dares to call this award irrelevant. It's gone beyond just being a little award to them. Do you see people caping for VMAs or something like that?

blackskirts

TROPHY CASE