Latest news with #WhipIt
![[Grace Kao] Kitsch from DEVO to K-pop](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwimg.heraldcorp.com%2Fnews%2Fcms%2F2025%2F05%2F19%2Fnews-p.v1.20250519.a018749c7e384720b8999ec9f3c35a02_T1.jpg&w=3840&q=100)
![[Grace Kao] Kitsch from DEVO to K-pop](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fall-logos-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fkoreaherald.com.png&w=48&q=75){kind=small}
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.
Boston Globe
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Devo didn't expect to be quite so prescient
Advertisement 'We thought it was maybe a plausible pose and a warning, but that it wouldn't really go this far,' added Gerald Casale, the band's bassist and principal lyricist. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up On the Kent State campus, which had been convulsed by A few years later, with the emergence of punk rock and the 'malaise' of the late 1970s, the cultural climate was ripe for Devo's purposeful absurdity. Their debut album, 'Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!,' produced by Brian Eno, came out in 1978. By the early 1980s, Devo's mechanical showmanship and outlandish matching costumes were an ideal fit for MTV, the new music video channel that was quickly overhauling the pop world. Advertisement Casual fans know them as the weird band with the big new wave hit from 1980, 'Whip It,' which was vaguely about 'whipping' your problems. The band wrote songs called 'Space Junk' and 'Wiggly World,' recorded bizarro covers of 'Secret Agent Man' and '(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction,' and wore flowerpot-shaped 'energy domes' on their heads. If the band's entire existence is a form of protest, Casale explained, the target is obvious. 'We're protesting stupidity,' he said. 'That often takes a political dimension, because everything ultimately is political, so you see stupidity and fear and superstition manifest itself in the political realm first.' Despite their relentless criticisms, they did not consider themselves above the fray. 'We were putting ourselves in the quotient,' Casale said. 'We weren't exempting ourselves. We said, 'We're all Devo,' meaning there's a fatal flaw in human nature. 'Far greater minds and creative forces than Devo throughout history have made that point in novels, plays, even operas,' he added. 'We were just continuing their fine work.' Early versions of Devo included various contributors on guitar and keyboards, including Mothersbaugh's brother Bob, Casale's brother Bob ('Bob 2'), and their friend Bob Lewis. Another Mothersbaugh brother, Jim, played drums until he opted out and was replaced by longtime member Alan Myers. Advertisement Bob Mothersbaugh still performs alongside his brother Mark and Gerald Casale. A new documentary on the band directed by Chris Smith (1999's 'American Movie'), called simply ' Younger generations of adventurous music fans have been discovering the band through the magic of the Internet, he said. 'Kids that weren't alive [when the band was a household name] have discovered us online and flipped out, maybe the way I flipped out when I saw an old black and white film of John Lee Hooker in 1956,' he said. 'It was scary and great and foreign and powerful.' To underscore the band's alarmism, Mothersbaugh said, he created synthesizer parts that mirrored the screeching headache sounds of vintage TV commercials for pain relievers: 'Eeeh! Eeeh!' Besides the Dadaists, the group looked to other avant-garde art movements, such as the Futurists. 'We didn't agree with their politics,' said Mothersbaugh, who has created soundtracks for TV ('Pee-Wee's Playhouse,' 'Rugrats') and movies (' 'We felt the same way. We were looking to other places to find sounds and inspiration.' Advertisement Devo's rocky relationship with the music industry, which never knew quite what to make of the band, is detailed in the documentary. The band's most recent release, 'Art Devo,' is a two-disc set that plumbs the depths of their early recorded material, before the debut album came out. It's raw, occasionally raunchy, and often deliberately abrasive. Asked whether he wishes the band had done anything differently to maintain the commercial momentum of the early 1980s, Casale demurred. 'Hindsight is really worthless here,' he said. 'For every band, every artist, there's this dichotomy between art and commerce, and there's always gonna be problems with the label if they don't understand you, or they fail to deliver, or they fight your creative urges. It's a struggle, right?' Last summer the band was 'I don't know what's going on in the world these days,' Mothersbaugh says in the spoken interlude that the band wrote more than 40 years ago. 'People just don't seem to care about anyone in America or anywhere else in the world. They're all just going for that big ice cream cone in the sky.' 'It's tongue-in-cheek,' Casale said, yet it's a tribute to the singers who meant the song's lyrics sincerely: 'Because it really does take a worried man, right?' DEVO: 50 YEARS OF DE-EVOLUTION... CONTINUED! Advertisement 8 p.m. Friday at MGM Music Hall at Fenway, 2 Lansdowne St., Boston. Tickets $55 and up. James Sullivan can be reached at .
Daily Mail
26-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Drew Barrymore reveals what work she has done to her face after admitting to plastic surgery at age 17
Drew Barrymore shared her secret for aging gracefully in a question and answer session with members of The Drew Barrymore Show audience on Friday. The actress, 50, who revealed she had a breast reduction at age 17, spoke about coming to grips the the little lines on her face. 'Can you let us know your secret to aging gracefully and being so comfortable in your own skin?' a woman asked. 'I haven't done anything and I want to try and stay that way,' she told the crowd. 'But I also am like, do whatever works for you. The only thing I do know is don't judge other people because they do things differently,' she explained. 'We're all on our own path and we have to support each other,' the Whip It director said, admitting she has her own struggles. 'I see a lot of turkey neck or I have a lot of other time where I'm like "Oh Wow, we're there now."' As for being self-confident, Barrymore said 'I want to tell myself not to be so mean to myself.' 'How many beautiful moments do we even get the privilege of seeing our reflection and that person looking back at us is us?' she asked. 'So the kinder, more patient, more resilient, more loving, embracing, less dismissive that we can be, the better it is for our mental game and spiritual game, which affects the face.' Explaining some of her own philosophy the mom of daughters Olive,12, and Frankie, 10, said, 'A smile is better than any lipstick you'll buy.' She also spoke about self-talk and having an 'internal dialog that isn't so eviscerating of ourselves and so quick to catch a flaw.' The Never Been Kissed star then asked rhetorically, 'who says that's the flaw, by the way? That might be someone else's favorite thing about ironic,' adding, 'It isn't how you look, it's how you feel.' Fans who saw the clip online loved her admonitions. 'Can you let us know your secret to aging gracefully and being so comfortable in your own skin?' a woman asked during a Q&A session after a taping of The Drew Barrymore Show. 'I haven't done anything and I want to try and stay that way,' she told the crowd Barrymore, who admitted having a breast reduction at 17, said she was working on being kinder to herself and having an 'internal dialog that isn't so eviscerating of ourselves and so quick to catch a flaw'; Pictured in Los Angeles in May 1988 'Agreed. I say do you! Love yourself and do whatever it takes to do that. No judgement ❤️,' wrote a viewer. 'You are such an inspiration! I am so nonjudgmental, except when it comes to myself. I have been for my whole 61 years of life,' wrote a follower, adding, 'I've never been pretty enough, skinny enough, smart enough, good enough etc…. I wish I had heard your words so many years ago. ❤️' 'This kind of beauty is the one that deserves global recognition, not the aesthetic one. More minds like this one!,' advised a fan.
Yahoo
09-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'There's a lot of rough and tumble' - York roller derby club nominated for award
An inclusive roller derby club in York has been nominated for a sports award. As announced by The Press, the YO1 Radio Sports Awards is set to come to York Barbican on June 19. Ahead of the night, nominations across a wide-range of categories have been pouring in before nominations close on March 28. One such nominee is Haunted City Roller Derby, an inclusive and competitive roller derby team. Before seeing if the team leaves York Barbican as victors, team member Remy Kent-Payne spoke to The Press. They said: "It [roller derby] is a full contact team sport played on quad roller-skates, there's an oval shape track and each team will field five skaters at a time. One of them will be the 'jammer', they're the points scorer, and the other four will be blockers. To score points, the jammer has to overtake the opposing team's jammer." Remy added that there's a lot of "rough and tumble", but said the sport comes with plenty of rules. Scan this QR code to nominate yourself or someone else for the YO1 Radio Sports Awards (Image: Newsquest) Around a decade ago, Remy watched the film Whip It, starring Elliot Page. They said this was the catalyst for them trying out roller derby. "I'd never roller skated in my life, so there was a lot of falling over," they said. After moving to York, Remy found the Haunted City Roller Derby club - formerly known as York Minxters. Haunted City fields a "men's" and "women's" team. However, in the inclusive sport of roller derby, "men's" refers to people of all genders, and "women's" refers to everyone but cisgender men. Remy said both the sport and club's inclusive nature is key to their love of the sport. Follow the link here to nominate yourself, a club, or someone else for the YO1 Radio Sports Awards "It's personally something I'm very passionate about, trans and non-binary people having a safe space for sport," said Remy. "We're very proud of that." They added: "It's not just the culture of the sport here in York, it's always been a sport where people from the queer community feel safe and included. "We always have a stall at York Pride, and we always get a lot of interest from that stall." Remy said, in today's world, Haunted City's culture of inclusion is more important than ever. "I came into my own identity when I came to a team and had that unconditional support," they added. "The same people we knock over on track are people that we're lifting up. We don't hold back on track, we're here to play competitively, but we can still engage as a family. "For a lot of us, this is the first sport that we've properly enjoyed."
CBS News
26-02-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Rapper BigXthaPlug arrested for possession after traffic stop in Arlington
Dallas rapper BigXthaPlug — born Xavier Landum — was one of two people arrested following an early morning traffic stop in Arlington. At around 12:05 a.m. Wednesday, an Arlington police officer pulled over a vehicle with expired registration on North Collins Street, according to a news release. When he approached the vehicle, the officer smelled marijuana and asked the driver — identified as BigXthaPlug — and a passenger to exit, which they did. Officers saw cigarettes and a green leafy substance in the vehicle's console, the news release states. They also found a handgun in the car. BigXthaPlug, 26, was arrested and booked into the Arlington City Jail on one count of possession of marijuana less than 2 ounces. The passenger, 22-year-old Cleodist Landum, had an active felony warrant from Bexar County, Texas. Police found marijuana on him, leading to his booking into the Arlington City Jail for the warrant, possession of marijuana and unlawful carrying of a weapon. It is illegal to carry a firearm while in possession of illegal substances in Texas, the news release states. BigXthaPlug is known for songs including "Whip It," "Levels," "Mmhmm" and "Texas," which is RIAA-certified gold.
