This is getting kind of ridiculous. Why is this continuing to be such a big deal, especially in emails to me?
I continue to say, in response to recent comments and emails, that the dissin' and dismissin' of PopSeoul is totally unfair, and I like their blog. Is it really so inexplicable that I do? Is their blog really so offensive and horrifying? Look at it. It's not any different in tone, content, or even feel than PopSugar (which gets 12 million hits a month and was venture capitalized for $10 million), A Socialite's Life (which was the yardstick against which PopSeoul was originally compared in the initial dis of the site, against which, although an unfair comparison, actually stands up pretty well.
Korea Pop Wars is interesting and necessary, and I'm glad to see the blog there, but the reason I don't find myself personally interested much (I'm not criticizing, but just saying that this doesn't fall into my personal set of interests, like a lot of good blogs, which I am saying it most definitely IS) in box office stats and more academic reads of the Korean wave. I pop in (pun intended) from time to time, but I don't check in daily. PopSeoul has been steady since they started, even when no one was looking, and since being given a little traffic as water and sunlight, they've just been increasing the posts, with them getting more and more interesting.
There's nothing to inspire true bloggers than people reading your posts. I know that when I first saw my traffic increasing, I simply got more inspired to blog. And more frequently.
And they put a lot of effort into their blog – more than most blogs that aren't the serious mainstays of the K-blogosphere – with exhaustive categories, going to the effort of defining terms for non-Korean speakers, and actually having an eye for graphic design.
They also find some really good pictures.
Yes, I want to know that Andre Kim still shops for dolls. Wait – no, I don't.
I also want to read about North Korean hotties. Oh, wait...again...hehe.
Or you could hear about the Wondergirls, which is a new group, I guess. I'm an old fogie, and don't keep up, but I'm glad to have some other passionate, armchair expert digging around the Korean internet for stuff that I otherwise wouldn't find myself. And that, ladies and gentlement, is what we call a "blogger."
I don't think they're half-bad, and if the K-bloggers on a mission to be dissin' would get over themselves, they too should be able to appreciate underage Korean chicks dancing around in schoolgirl outfits.
I, of course, am immune to such things.
Underage Asian chicks in schoolgirl outfits. Perish the thought. Pshaw. Hmph.
"What was that group's name again?" Hehe.
By the way, I am also impressed that they sang and danced live. True wonders, indeed.
I was one of the first to get all googly-eyed over The Yangpa, which had a good start and some great posts, but has of late been infrequently updated. So it goes.
I was one of the first to link up with my friend and much-better-than-me blogger Regina, over at Where the Hell Am I? and her blog ended up being another mainstay of the blogosphere, as well as a welcome fellow black voice, on top of being a female one. Ain't that many black people, and ain't that many women in the Korean blogosphere.
I link to these places because I actually like them, and I genuinely see potential in them. The Yangpa, for example, has kind of wilted as of late, but they were on a good run there for a while; but I recommended them on the basis of just a few posts, when they were in a much less developed state than PopSeoul.
Same is true for the Marmot's glowing recommendation of Korea Pop Wars as a "must read" and a blog "you need to be reading." I'm not saying it's not either one of those things, or that the Marmot's call was wrong – I'm simply pointing out that this call was made when THAT blog was not more than a month old, and had little more than stats (about half of its posts) and a few pics and tidbits about pop culture items that frankly, dig far less deeply into the nitty gritty of what's going on today and right now amongst pop stars, their gossip, etc.
But perhaps it's because he's a busy Western journalist, who doesn't spend time reading the Korean rag newspapers and combing bubble gum sites for juicy stuff. That's probably not what Russell sees himself doing. And in-depth analysis of larger trends in Korean pop culture or academic analysis of Korea with a anthropological/sociological/historical approach – which is what I and many other eggheady bloggers preen and profess we do – isn't what THEY'RE obviously doing.
So in terms of content and intent, we're comparing apples and oranges. But what is worth comparing is why people like the Marmot, who makes as early and as glowing a recommendation about that site (Korea Pop Wars) and other sites that are far drier, less freshly designed (yes, that's the third banner the site's used over the several days I was watching them, and I think it's one of the best I've seen on ANY site in the Korean blogosphere, awkward orange part in the lower right-hand corner be damned), and solidly set up with room to grow from the git-go (on Wordpress, with their own version of K2 they've been rooting around in the CSS for).
I'm just saying that if you want to get all nit-picky about it, their blog, as something a month out of the gate, is far, far better designed, heavily and interestingly posted, and set become something pretty professional than ANY of the sites I or any other K-blogger have recommended, which are often hosted on Blogger, have no banners, and don't have any real readers besides friends and family for months at a time.
So, in my estimation, was my obviously boosterish blurb premature? No, not any more than any of the other calls I've made from my gut, about sites that I think are hot and ones to watch.
Was it overblown? No, not any more than other blurbs I and many other K-bloggers have done for sites that are far less interesting or developed one month out of literal boot.
Is their site offensive to the delicate and refined sensibilities of K-bloggers' sense of social justice and commitment to the equality of women? Come on. Because their site got a little catty and has an opinion I don't have over Kim Hye-Soo? As "orenji boy" said, in his initial comment dissing them, you get "lip gloss, hand bags," along with some "ripping" (which I didn't even really see), "ogling" (as if NO MALE K-blogger does that, right, or any other gossip site), or "hating (which is also far less present than on most pop culture/gossip sites).
Girly stuff, gossip, and other bits of gab. About beauty, fashion, and glam sensibilities. No wonder they've gotten such a hostile reception. They're writing to a group of mostly Korean or white male, mostly news/politics/cultural critics and wannabe wonks (I'm one of them), who only define "good" blogging as geo-politically weighty, about acceptable aspects of Korean ("high") culture, or have to do with history, being a GI, or otherwise engage in sophomoric (but I'm not saying bad, with tip o' the hat going to Big Hominid and The Yangpa) humor – or that themselves engage in ogling of all types, whether it be "GIrl Wednesday" or incessant links to racing girls, porn layouts from sports newspapers with the all-enticing disclaimer "not work safe."
Basically, it's OK for K-bloggers to engage in far less sophisticated, often more puerile, overtly sexist, angry, opinionated ranting, ogling, or simply going ga-ga over girly stuff (the equivalent of male obsessing over gadgets and girls).
Now, let's review. What are the accusations against PopSeoul, again? They playa-hated on Kim Hye-Soo? They ogled Rain? They ripped on some Korean celebrities? They gushed about the best facial cleansers. Good! At least it's interesting. And brand new. Far more offensive things have been said and done by K-bloggers.
What else have they done? They've been pretty much the best and deepest source in English covering the death of Jung Da-bin (1st and 2nd and 3rd and 4th post on the subjects, when it was all breaking, and which got at most, relatively snide reactions from most K-bloggers, again, including myself), which our little section of the K-blogosphere hasn't had more in-depth dealing with other than "why are Korean stars offing themselves so much? Silly Korean society." I myself am guilty of that.
Frankly, if we're gonna compare pop culture sites, if I wanted to know what was going on in Korean pop culture on the ground, in the everyday, PopSeoul looks like a much better bet than Korea Pop Wars, which The Marmot pumped up as a site that "you should be reading," but which is seriously limited by what appears to be the freshest information about pop culture that the foreign press has to offer. Still, it's a welcome addition to the blogosphere, and his blog's potential and future is bright.
I'm just saying that PopSeoul's agenda, in looking at Korean coverage of Korean pop culture – are we actually so arrogant that we think that's a BAD thing? – and getting the stories to us while they still have juice...that's fresh, to me. As of this posting, one of Korea Pop Wars' most recent posts is still talking about Old Boy, Korean male directors, and film festivals. Nothing wrong with that. But when it comes to wife-beating actors, divorce-dealing dilettantes, or the latest on pretty much anything in Korean popular culture, can we honestly say that our Korean blogosphere has much of anything to say about it? And besides The Marmot, it only generally gets to us when it hits the English press, anyway.
The entire K-blogosphere that we foreigners tend to comprise sees pop culture as mere ammunition for academicky arguments or other "serious" agendas, as opposed to simply being interested in pop culture itself. for its own sake.
This is what some might call "superficial" or "bubble gum." Others might call it at most a "guilty pleasure." Some might even call it "fun."
So I said their site made me feel the fun in Korean pop culture again. Well, it did. Either I'm out of touch for thinking so, or the ones attacking me for having this sentiment are out of touch for not realizing just how much of a breath of fresh air this new voice is.
Perhaps both are true, as is true of many things in the world.
I welcome any blog that presents me with this:
You wanna know what that's about? Go read it. If you are so haughty and above-the-fray that even being presented with this picture deeply offends your highly developed intellectual and moral sensibilities, then go read Dostoevsky or something.
Girls just trying to have fun, man.
Instead of being the true "hata", maybe you should try to catch some of their vapors.
