Good taste in music...?

What defines good taste in music? Doesn't it ultimately come down to one's own subjective idea of what sounds good and what doesn't?

I've always had that annoying little problem of caring too much about what other people think of me. I love the music I listen to, regardless of the genre or the musical awesomeness (or lack thereof). And I'm willing to try almost any genre because I know that there will always be at least one or two songs that I'll like even if I don't lean towards that particular type of music. Yet I always find myself defending my "taste in music" as though what I listen to is something to be ashamed of.

As is evident by the majority of my posts on this blog, I've been heavily into Korean pop music for the last few months, and I like it. I like the catchiness of the songs, I like singing along to them, I like the melodies. Yet whenever someone puts down my choice to listen to K-pop I feel this inexplicable need to laugh and agree that my taste in music is questionable, or even go to such lengths as to say that once upon a time my taste in music was much better, like when I was more into J-rock.

But why do I consider J-rock as being better then K-pop? Okay, I do consider J-rock to be better than K-pop (for my personal tastes) because I can immerse myself in J-rock in a way that I can't (or don't) do with K-pop... even though I do really like K-pop and would be able to loop K-pop forever. I suppose the right question would be... why should K-pop be considered inferior to J-rock? The impression that I've gotten from other people who have called my taste in music "bad" simply because I listen to K-pop is that 1) it's pop, and 2) they don't play instruments. As if being an actual instrument-playing band makes someone's music better?

I'm not gonna lie though. I'm a hypocrite because I also look down on certain genres (and by association the taste of those who like them). American teenybopper pop, for example. Maybe I just have a god complex where I think my taste in music is absolute and infallible? Lol.

I know that this isn't something restricted to just J-rock and K-pop... it's applicable to any genres of music, and to anybody in the whole world. I guess in the end this is just a long-winded rant about people criticising my own taste in music, haha. And I suppose it doesn't help that I have the exact same stereotypes (otherwise why would I call my choice of K-pop a "questionable" taste in music?) as the people criticising me.

I love the music I listen to. And that's what makes my taste in music good.

Listening to right now: Dir en grey - Akuro no Oka

Bored at work...

So I decided to listen to Pandora while playing some Solitaire (which I keep losing for some reason, btw), only to realise that I had no idea what artist/song/composer I should create a station based on. I started off with Sara Bareilles first then tried Rain (I don't think it's the same Rain as Bi though because the station kinda sucked wasn't what I was expecting) and finally settled on L'Arc~en~Ciel. I didn't try them off the bat because a year ago it kept giving me crappy music but this time the first song turned out to be by Asian Kung-Fu Generation, and I thought hey, maybe it'll give me some good stuff for a change.

Anyway, long story short, I'm on the 4th song and so far the playlist is fairly good. And seeing as I'm still losing in Solitaire, I figured that a better more interesting use of my time would be to write a blog entry about the songs while I listen to my L'Arc~en~Ciel station and wait for my western transfer to finish.

Asian Kung-Fu Generation - N.G.S. [whoo haven't heard AKFG in so long!]
Gackt - Farewell [of course, must have Gackt in here somewhere -_-; not a fan of this particular song though]
MUCC - Saishuu Ressha [omg I freaked out when this song started playing... I love this song!]
Gain commercial [sigh]
Yoko Kanno - Inner Universe [I really like this song too; haven't heard it in a while]
Asian Kung-Fu Generation - My World [not sure I've ever heard this one before... but not bad]
Gackt - Noah [instrumental? kinda nice, actually]
the Pillows - The Sun That Will Not Rise [I think I've only heard like 2 songs from the Pillows before, and this wasn't one of them. Very mellow, I like]
High and Mighty Color - Over [I remember hearing this a while ago on Pandora... okay song, it has its moments but kinda boring]
Yoko Kanno - Stamina Rose [somewhat interesting... somewhat]
Venus Embrace commercial [siiiiigh]
Yoshida Brothers - Red Bird (Akai Tori) [ooooh, instrumental? First time I'm hearing about the Yoshida Brothers but wow I really like this song... especially whatever old-sounding instrument is being plucked throughout. Edit: It's the shamisen.]
the Pillows - March of God [catchy ^^]

Overall, I'm quite pleased with the selection of music. Good job, Pandora. Much better than last time when you didn't even play Japanese music on my L'Arc~en~Ciel station.

Listening to right now: the Pillows - March of God

I lack tolerance for stupidity

People's ignorance astounds me sometimes.

There was a forum topic recently about canker sores and one of the posters claimed that they were caused by not rinsing your mouth properly after brushing your teeth which he/she supposedly backed up by posting a link to a scientific paper. Except that the paper was published in 1994, involved only 10 volunteers, and never said that canker sores were caused by the sodium lauryl sulfate in toothpaste (they more or less inconclusively linked the two).

So I refuted the dude's (I assume it was a dude) choice of paper and what did I get for it? A "stfu, stop trying to discredit my statement, rofl". He also said that he was just giving the information since it worked for him and other people he knew.

Okay, first, he NEVER said all that in his first couple of posts with the link. It was just "it's caused by not rinsing your mouth properly" and link. No explanation of "hey, this made it worse" or "this also happened to some people I know".
Second, seriously, a 1994 study done on 10 people? Come on, at least use something more recent than 16 years ago. And anyone who's ever had to back their shit up with research will tell you that a study on 10 people is piss poor support for a claim.
Third, his choice of paper didn't even support his claim! All that paper did was show that MAYBE there was a link between SLS and canker sores, not that it caused them. Even all the anecdotal evidence from other posters didn't show that SLS causes canker sores, only that it definitely exacerbates them in some people.
Fourth, stfu? rofl? Wow, your argumentative skills blow me away.

And btw asshole, I didn't "try" to discredit your statement, I DID discredit it.
Granted that I could have been nicer when I did it but it still doesn't change the fact that I was right.

It's a little sad that I'm letting a stupid forum reply from an idiotic douchebag get to me this much but... I figure that what good is a blog if not as a place for me to vent? Lol.

Listening to right now: F.T Island - 첫눈에 알아

"Did I fall asleep?"

I finally caught up with the TV series Dollhouse this weekend and it was totally worth putting off the craploads of work I have to do. I'm disappointed that it got cancelled though... it's one of the few shows (the only show?) that I've followed since it first came out, even though I didn't watch Season 2 regularly. Season 1 was a little slow, not great, and didn't really keep my attention in that I rarely felt like I absolutely HAD to watch the next episode. Season 2 also started off a bit the same but it gained momentum from episode 4 onwards to the point where I watched the last 7 or 8 episodes in about 2 days.

NOTE: Potential spoilers ahead!

I think episode 4, "Belonging", is one of the best episodes, at least up to that point in the series. It primarily focuses on Sierra's past and it's nice to finally learn a little more about what a doll's prior life was like.
Season 2 picked up a lot of speed after that, blazing through the events that lead up to the future depicted in "Epitaph One". On the one hand, it makes the episodes highly addictive and a lot of times I found myself pausing and staring at the screen in total disbelief and shock at the unexpected revelations. On the other hand, it felt almost a little rushed, although I know that it was probably to catch the series up to "Epitaph One" since it was being cancelled... a sort of courtesy to the fans. Despite that, the episodes were incredibly well done and definitely surpass the previous ones, imo. Not to mention that Victor-as-Topher is just GOLD.
I'm also quite impressed by the acting overall (only one or two exceptions who don't need to be named), and the dialogue improved significantly in Season 2 compared to Season 1. I think Topher is my favourite Dollhouse character (at least in Season 2) and I also really like Alan Tudyk's portrayal of Alpha.

I was less impressed by the Epitaph episodes, perhaps because I didn't feel any kind of connection to the new characters. Which isn't a fault of the actors but rather just a consequence of not having them grow on me episode after episode like the main characters. "Epitaph Two" was somewhat heart-wrenching but at the same time almost seemed to conform to the norm of ending everything on a happy note (although "happy" is really quite relative here).

Overall, I think this series rocks and I wish that it hadn't been cancelled, though I think they tied everything up quite nicely (everything important at least... of course, there are still loads of unanswered questions but who knows, they might not have addressed those even if the series had been extended). Season 2 also may not have been as awesome had they not been pressed for time in catching everything up to "Epitaph One" (this is speculation on my part, though... I don't know at what point in the series they were when the show was cancelled).

It's too bad that the ratings weren't better... maybe then we could have seen a little more development of the other characters and perhaps more of what lead up to the future in the Epitaph episodes.

Listening to right now: F.T Island - 미우나 고우나

R.I.P., hide

I have been so ridiculously out of touch with J-rock for the last... five years. It's sad, I feel like I've missed out on so much awesomeness.

I was playing Rock Band 2 the other day and happened to see X Japan on the list of artists. I only remembered to Google it tonight while procrastinating from studying and lo and behold, it turns out that X Japan not only re-united in mid-2007 but also did the main theme song for the movie Saw IV. I suppose I may have known this earlier had I actually watched Saw IV but seeing as I have no backbone for horror movies... yeah.

Anyhoo, I watched the PV for their song, "I.V." and I was really touched to see how much they integrated hide's memory into it. They placed his guitar in front of a mic to symbolise where he would have been playing had he been there with them, and showed clips of his performances on the huge building-screen-monitor-thing. Also, I read on Wikipedia that his unreleased guitar tracks were used in this song.

R.I.P., hide.

I was surprised to read that SUGIZO (I assume it's stylised in all caps) joined X Japan, mainly because I didn't know that he had performed with them as a stand-in for hide. I recognise his name from LUNA SEA but to be honest, I never really had much of a thing for LUNA SEA so I have no idea how awesome he is aside from what Wikipedia and fansites tell me. According to Wikipedia though he said he joined as their sixth member, meaning that hide is most definitely still there in spirit (X Japan has 5 living members, including SUGIZO).

Btw, Yoshiki looks totally badass on his drums. I've gotten used to J-rockers looking like girls.

Listening to right now: X Japan - I.V.

What's the time, yo?

I've been listening to 2PM's album "The First Album 1:59PM" and although I wasn't that impressed by it initially, it's slowly grown on me. It just goes to show that sometimes stuff gets better the more you loop it incessantly. A couple of these songs are actually songs that I've listened to before, like Again and Again and 10점 만점에 10점, but didn't really like. Turns out that Again and Again is ridiculously catchy and for some reason I find the dance only version of the MV to be fascinating to watch. In fact, I haven't even seen the normal MV for it.

I've also watched a few random clips from different shows that they've appeared on or starred in and they're quite amusing. Park Jaebum was really fun to watch and now I understand a little better why he's so loved by his fans to the point of borderline insanity. And the boy has some mad dancing skills; I wish him the best with his dance group!

On a side note, it is craaaaazy how out of hand the whole 2PM controversy has gotten. It's one thing to be upset and to want to boycott or hate the other members but I think some of the things that these fans (ex-fans?) are resorting to are a little excessive. And the level of emotion that some people have invested in these idols (and this goes for idols in general, not just 2PM) is just... wow. Not that excessive fandom doesn't exist elsewhere in the world but I can't really speak about other countries since I'm not currently fangirling following their idols.
I think it's interesting that many of the fans who are now anti-2PM (as in the remaining 6 members being 2PM) claim that they are anti-2PM because they feel deceived by the members in terms of personalities and the image that they have portrayed through the media. It seems to me that fans look at these idols on TV, on variety shows and whatnot, and believe that the image that they project is the real them. And perhaps it is, to an extent. But I feel like they should take it with a grain of salt and realise that these idols are 1) not faultless and 2) obviously going to show a face that will garner more love from the public, real or not. Then again, maybe I'm just misunderstanding their idol culture.

But that's off topic.

I really like the remixes on the "1:59PM" album, especially the Lounge Mix of 니가 밉다. It's probably one of my favourite tracks off this album. The original version is also really good (it's not on this album though, boo), probably one of the only songs by 2PM that I liked the first time I heard it. The Red Light Mix of Heartbeat is also pretty good, and a nice change after looping the original so many times in the last week.

Overall, 2PM's music generally doesn't jump out at me the first few times I hear it but it gradually grows on me the more I listen to it. They're still relatively new (only been around since 2008, I think?) but their dancing is really good (what I've seen so far) with some acrobatics thrown in, and they're pretty good looking too. Although for some reason I laugh every time Taecyeon rips his shirt off on stage.

Listening to right now: 2PM - 니가 밉다 (Lounge Mix)

So tempting...

Would it be too fangirl-ish to make a Twitter account solely to follow Park Jung Min and Kim Hyung Jun's supposed accounts? I'm hoping it will bring me one step closer to meeting Kim Hyung Jun and jumping/marrying him.

Too bad my Korean isn't good enough to understand most of the tweets. I guess that's what Babel Fish is for.

Yay for SS501 finishing up their Asia Tour! Hope they release a full length album and not a mini-album in May! ^^

Listening to right now: Kara - Lupin