The three top K-Pop bands, PSY, BIG BAND and 2NE1 are all signed to YG Entertainment, a sort of X Factor without the reality show, an incubator of talent which they nurture and care for and then when it breaks through, reap huge rewards. All three of these acts are big, and none BIG BANG who I underestimated in my live review earlier this year.
When BIGBANG are up for it, they play seriously breathtaking electronic dance music that is like a cluster bomb. It never stops exploding. It puts even our best producers, Rami Yacoub and Carl Falk , to shame. Our best don't seem to have the imagination of a G-Dragon. I have heard nothing but Western electro pop stars with the extreme insanity of "Crayon" or "Stupid Liar" or "I Am The Best". Our DJs don't see the mash up the same way.
In 2012, K-Pop is the most exciting new big thing and while PSY might cause it to be misunderstood, the moor I listen the more in awe I am of this hobbled together scraps and parts of Western pop culture put through the grinder and arriving somewhere else.
And no, I don't claim it is all, or even most, good. But what is good is simply great. BIGBANG's G-Dragon is gonna explode huge, he is so eccentric and pretty and bizarre. He is a Korean Michael Jackson! Get into it now. Start with his brilliant EP One Of A Kind.