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Korea Herald
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Korea Herald
[Grace Kao] Kitsch from DEVO to K-pop
I have one big regret from my college days at the University of California, Berkeley. I chose to attend my Japanese class rather than watch a free concert by the 1980s New Wave Group Devo. There are costs to being a serious student. Earlier this month, I remedied my mistake. I attended their concert, part of their 50th Anniversary tour. Devo is an abbreviation of the term de-evolution, and refers to the decline of humanity. The members hail from Ohio and they were art students at Kent State University when they formed the group. Devo had one Top 40 single on the Billboard Hot 100 chart with 'Whip It' in 1980. In the music video, they wore red hats that looked like inverted plastic flower pots, called energy domes. Devo is probably best known for these hats. Lead singer Mark Mothersbaugh cracked a whip in a low-budget 80s cowboy set. The cast included a cross-eyed East Asian woman, an older woman whipping cream, young white men and women in cowboy hats, and another woman with a long cigarette. During the music video, various articles of clothing are whipped off the woman who is smoking. The video looked cheaply made, even for the 1980s. Back then, people thought the song referred to S&M (sadomasochism), so it was quite a risque song to watch on MTV or hear on Top 40 radio. Only as an adult did I realize that they purposely used their songs and costumes as a commentary on consumerism and modern US life. Their songs were simple and synth-driven, and their singing generally relied on short staccato notes. Unlike punk groups from the UK, their shows were heavily planned with video installations. They always wore identical outfits on stage. In fact, along with the B-52s, they exemplify Kitsch in American pop music. What is kitsch and what does this have to do with K-pop? Kitsch originally referred to art that is seen as low-brow, cheap, trashy and ugly. In terms of American art, these can be objects that are poorly made and in bad taste — think of garish mass-produced imitations of art, velvet paintings of dogs playing poker, Queen Elizabeth salt and pepper shakers, Thomas Kincade paintings or the reproductions of famous structures in Las Vegas. These are items that are 'so bad' they can, sometimes ironically, be enjoyed by the masses. Devo's identical outfits range from the flower pot hats, yellow jumpsuits (as worn by nuclear plant workers), full latex bodysuits to pantyhose over their heads. These objects are all associated with modern life, and Devo is purposely critiquing but also participating in the commodification of art. K-pop groups also make very effective use of kitsch in their music videos and outfits. In fact, they regularly rely on it. Crayon Pop wore helmets for the song 'Bar Bar Bar' and donned them for many of their promotional interviews. Perhaps the kitschiest K-pop video I can think of is 'Catalina' by Orange Caramel. Here the group members are offered as platters of sushi and sashimi as they rotate around a sushi bar. In Astro's 'Breathless,' bottles of orange sodas personify the members as they are carried in a cooler by the lead character. K-pop idols are literally commodified for the pleasure of the consumer. GOT7's 'Just Right' where the members appear as miniature men in a young girl's bedroom, is also kitschy. SHINee's 'Married to the Music' shows the members at a Halloween party losing various body parts. That motif appears a year earlier in EXID's 'Up & Down,' where members have lost different body parts, or are stuck inside a wall or inside boxes. In fact, the most viewed K-pop video of all time is Psy's 'Gangnam Style,' which celebrates kitsch. The song itself is about bad taste, and Psy's character shows off all of the worst stereotypes of a man from Gangnam, Seoul. In fact, Psy's songs 'Gentlemen,' 'Daddy' or 'New Face' are all kitschy. It is Psy's calling card. While not as well-known and certainly not an idol K-pop group, Norazo fully celebrates kitsch. Recent songs use everyday objects as song titles — including 'Bread,' 'Curry,' 'Mackerel' and 'Vegetables.' It also relies on exaggerated versions of these objects in the music videos. My sense is that trot songs performed by K-pop idols are more likely to rely on kitsch. Young idols using kitsch may be the most effective method of converting old-fashioned tunes to contemporary pop songs. In fact, Ive has a recent song named 'Kitsch.' This song is about a 19-year-old girl's sense of taste. I discovered that the Korean use of kitsch refers to something that is cheap and plastic, but childlike. When I looked for objects that Koreans define as 'kitsch,' they do seem to match my sense of cute, kitschy objects for girls. Still, it doesn't seem to carry the same pejorative or ironic connotation, at least not in the song. While I don't know if K-pop professionals are familiar with Devo or The B-52s, they are using kitsch similarly. Compared to classical music or jazz, K-pop and pop music in general is often considered by the public as low-brow. So, what better way to respond than by being kitschy? Grace Kao is an IBM professor of sociology and professor of ethnicity, race and migration at Yale University. The views expressed here are the writer's own. — Ed.
USA Today
29-01-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Devo founding member makes $1M from this '73 single each year. Here's how
Even those who are not familiar with the energy-dome-wearing, synchronized dancing and anti-capitalizing New Wave band Devo, have likely heard the catchy lyrics of the band's most popular single, "Whip It." The song, which encourages listeners to "whip it good," hung on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for 25 consecutive weeks in 1980. Despite the single's widespread success, it's another song from the band that rakes in high-dollar figures. Released on Devo's first album in 1973, "Uncontrollable Urge," known for its energic opening refrain, "yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah" makes founding Devo member Mark Mothersbaugh around $1 million in royalties each year, Anita Greenspan, Motherbaugh's wife and manager told Rolling Stone. "Uncontrollable Urge" boasts 30 million streams on Spotify − compared to the 175 million streams of "Whip It." Artists make anywhere between $0.003-$0.005 per stream on Spotify, according to multiple media reports, so looking at the high end of this spectrum, "Uncontrollable Urge" has likely made around $154,000 from the streaming platform. But that's only a fraction of $1 million. "Uncontrollable Urge" became a moneymaker after it was selected as the theme song for MTV's television series "Ridiculousness," hosted by Rob Dyrdek. The comedy series, which debuted in 2011, features more than 1,500 episodes over 40-plus seasons, and new episodes continue to be released each Wednesday night, according to IMDb. Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle. The episode count alone is a feat, but it's the reruns that have resulted in such large paychecks. Rolling Stone reported that the show may be aired on MTV as much as 14 hours a day and amid the pandemic, Variety reported that during its peak, the show was aired 113 hours of MTV's 168-hour lineup. Greenspan Kohan, the company that manages Mothersbaugh, did not immediately respond when contacted by USA TODAY, and MTV was unable to confirm why "Uncontrollable Urge" was chosen as the theme song for "Ridiculousness." An unexpected feat In addition to his role as a founding member of Devo, Mothersbaugh is an accomplished, award-winning composer. He composed the theme songs for "Pee-Wee's Playhouse" and "Rugrats," in addition to the scores for countless television shows, movies and video games, from Wes Anderson's "The Royal Tenenbaums" and Netflix's pandemic hit "Tiger King" to animated series like Cartoon Network's "Regular Show." 'I've written so many other songs for films and television shows. I would've been shocked (years ago) if you told me this is the one that would become this prime source of income," Mothersbaugh told Rolling Stone of "Uncontrollable Urge." The MTV irony When MTV launched in 1981, not many artists were producing music videos to accompany their hit singles. Devo was one of the few thinking ahead, releasing several videos in the late 1970s. For this reason, Devo's music videos were played regularly on MTV for the television channel's first few years. But as time went on, Devo continued to push what was socially acceptable in their music and videos and MTV wasn't a fan. Evie Nagy, author of the "Devo's Freedom of Choice," said when she interviewed Gerald Casales, own of the band's founding members, he said one of the turning points was the music video for "That's Good," released in 1982. In several instances throughout a video, an animation of a French fry goes inside the hole of a doughnut. "MTV stopped playing their stuff. They thought it was too suggestive, too controversial, and that, at the time, was very frustrating for Devo because MTV had relied on them so much for material, and then as soon as more people started making videos, they suddenly got all puritanical about it and decided to not play their stuff anymore," Nagy told USA TODAY. "It's a very fraught relationship, so the fact that this song ('Uncontrollable Urge') earns Mark Mothersbaugh more than even 'Whip It,' or any other single that they ever put out, is kind of hysterical." MTV did not comment on the channel's relationship with Devo when contacted by USA TODAY. Who is Devo? Founded in 1973, Devo hails from the midsize town of Akron, Ohio. The band's original lineup featured Motherbaugh, his brother Bob, Casales and his brother Bob, and Alan Myers. Today, the band is made up of the Motherbaughs brothers, Gerald, John Freese and Josh Hager. Greta Cross is a national trending reporter at USA TODAY. Follow her on X and Instagram @gretalcross. Story idea? Email her at gcross@
