The Real Perfect New Pop Song Is This K-Pop Hit, 'Bad Boy'
Some here at Gawker argue that Canadian Power Puff Girl Carly Rae Jepsen's 'Call Me Maybe' is the new perfect pop song. While I have listened to that song twelve times in a row today, I have to disagree: 'Bad Boy,' by K-pop boy group Big Bang, is even more perfect. It's so perfect it transcends language.
'Bad Boy,' the first music video from Big Bang's new album Alive has the group twirling around underneath the JMZ subway tracks in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, dressed in outfits that would draw stares even in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. (Why, for instance, does G-dragon, Big Bang's leader, have half a bath mat sewed on the back of his jacket?) But the weird outfits obscure a perfect pop R&B song, with delightfully tag-teamed verses that make you wonder why we haven't had a hit boy band in the states since the beginning of the Bush Administration.
South Korea has been churning out K-pop groups like Big Bang and Girls Generation with scary proficiency, gradually conquering most of Asia with a potent blend of R&B, European dance music and hairspray. K-Pop boy groups inspire a frenzy in their fans that puts most Beliebers to shame. One fan's exhaustive catalogue of more than two-dozen groups' average height took over the Korean web, and fans donated 12.7 tons of rice to charity to honor of the launch of Big Bang's 2012 world tour. Now that hip hop mogul Swizz Beatz has signed a collaboration deal with one of South Korea's biggest entertainment companies, K-pop might conquer America, too. I don't expect the giant crystal skull pendant thing from the video to catch on, though.