Why the Hate?

By SONG SOOK KIN 

The Hallyu Wave, or better known as the Korean Wave has hit the shores of Malaysia since the breakthrough of K-drama pioneers like Autumn in My Heart and Winter Sonata (Bae Yong Joon, anyone?). Suddenly, dying of cancer was the next big romantic thing. Afterwards comes the existence of KPop; made popular by the legendary Rain who came down "through the rooftop". This was followed by a string of other famous KPop artists like TVXQ, BoA and who can forget the infamous Super Junior.

For those who know me, it does not come as a surprise that I'm a HUGE KPop fan not because I'm willing to spend hours ogling at those handsomely carved face or flawless legs... okay, go ahead, slap your forehead in disbelief. I wouldn't say pretty faces do not play a part in drawing me into their music but it's just a tiny part of a BIGGER and BETTER picture. Is it so unbelievable that people might be INTO foreign music as well? Foreign in this case; "incomprehensible" in regards to our limited lingual intelligence.

Then comes the most annoying part. If you are ever an avid fan of JPop or KPop there would be one point in your life where you find sceptics asking, "KPop? You know Korean meh?" To answer your question, mister, no, I do not know how to speak or listen to Korean. How do I magically know Korean when I was born, taught and raised in a typical Malaysian environment where the only hype are sodomy and trees that produce air mujarab? So that was a stupid question, yes? Oh you mean you were trying to be sarcastic? Well, HILARIOUS. 

The debate here is whether or not we should listen to music in which the lyrics supposedly makes "no sense" because we do not have prior knowledge of the language. I would retort by saying, "Well, I don't know Chinese (Mandarin) but I do listen to Chinese songs. You don't see people stopping me." and people would inflate that big-ass ego of mine by stating, "But you're a Chinese, it's only right for you to listen to Chinese music." Aha, so that's the exception. It's almost like saying, "But you're a Malaysian. You're supposed to LOVE durians!".  Genius, indeed.

My best bet is that it might never occur to you sceptics that music does not only centre around the lyrics. People can still sing along without actually understanding what the hell the song is about. Ever head of a little something called "melody"? It's part of what defines the nature of the song; anger, joy, sadness etc. etc. I have friends who have the ability to tear up over a Korean song without even knowing the lyrics; which only goes to show how great KPop singers are. And then there's something else called translation. A little hassle, but why not for the love of the music?

As a fan of both English and Korean songs, personally I think the one thing that separates these two is the artist itself. While it's been fun fan-girling over Westlife and N'Sync, I think we all eventually got tired of the same old 90's hairstyle and lame dance moves. People needed something new to go insane about. I'm talking about groups here. The "core" of KPop. So don't come telling me about awesome artists like Rihanna, Eminem and Britney Spears. 

Bottom line is, music is universal. Haven't you wondered why when natural disasters strike, people start singing to raise money for charity?  Music is the invisible bond that links people from all over the world. Everybody knows "We Are the World", the brainchild of Michael Jackson and Lionel Ritchie. So if there's a Korean/Japanese/French/German version, it's less of a good song just because you don't understand? Stop stereotyping and START listening. Of course I wouldn't say every Korean song out there is good, likewise in America where they have Rebecca Black... But let's not start with that. 

All right, let's end this post the old-fashioned way. If you still can't embrace the Korean wave, please in all honesty, fuuuuuuuuuuu...... Take a hike. Blergh.