METAL VOCALIST REACTS TO BOA NO 1! THE QUEENS COURT!

[@anoriori]

There's an argument to be made that BoA falls under Kpop but doesn't necessarily fall under idol pop. Korea tends to blur that line to the point of no distinction however so I wouldn't usually even bother trying to determine where the line is. This is not a value judgement btw I generally prefer idols.

[@anoriori]

@@aligensa I mean in the sense that you can be Kpop without being an idol. A group like Epik High for instance, aren't really idols, but they make Kpop. You could argue they are hiphop, but I still think they fit under Kpop too.

[@anoriori]

@@aligensa AKMU then, or OOHYO, or BIBI. Anyway I'm happy to agree to disagree.

[@Killdeer25]

It feels like it would be a little hard, I find it hard to categorize it

[@AnonymousAnon-s7q]

Interestingly, this version of No 1 is actually not the original version, though it has always been the version used on stage. On the first printing of the album, the instrumental was less intense and more dreamy: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pGGUomV9ps6UppY BoA's position in kpop has always been a bit complex because she debuted as a kpop idol in Korea, but in Japan, her image is not that of an imported kpop idol like kpop idols who release music in Japan nowadays, but rather a jpop singer in the lineage of solo female divas like Namie Amuro and Ayumi Hamasaki (and Utada Hikaru as perceived at that time, although ofc they are our enby queen!). In that sense, she's always blurred the line. Both her kpop and jpop songs were also released in both languages, often with different arrangements and feels to them, and her achievements in each country supplemented each other in a symbiotic way. No 1, for example, was her first hit in Korea, but the MV was shot in Japan and predicates itself on the national pride of BoA taking over Japan just a few months before No 1's release. Which is why you have all these shots of Tokyo Tower and BoA's face all over the screens in Shibuya in the MV. BoA's success in Japan is what led to her success in Korea, which is why imo diving into BoA as an artist really requires looking into the jpop side in addition to the kpop side!

[@Killdeer25]

ohh! I dont know which I like better, there are positives on both ends of each version of this song. I agree, I also think the deeper we get into her career is actually more kpop esque than her earlier stuff, eat you up I almost dare say is not a kpop song in the least, and there is obviously a ton of JPop feel to alot of her songs but I think at times there is very much as very western feel to, probably when they were trying to have her breakthrough here in the states, you could almost pinpoint where she is at in her career by sound alone how interesting, be more popular outside of your country first before anything else, but then you still make it back in your country, that might be a first!

[@kristenblack6026]

It's slightly strange to me as I go through this week that when I am listening to early BoA, vs the more recent stuff which is all I knew, I almost feel like I am watching two different people. I mean obviously with a 20 yr career, she wouldn't be the same but when we usually do OWC and jump around all the different eras of a group, I always feel a continuity, they just look younger or older. I don't know why this week is different. Maybe I need to see more of the middle years to see the evolution. But yeah, I feel like everything prior to Woman seems like a different person to the BoA I am familiar with despite that I have seen this before. I've liked it all so far though.

[@kl2894]

It's because she had so many irons in fire musically. She was making music for the Japanese market, for the Korean market and the US market and all three basically required different kinds of music. She had to be a chameleon. Also, if we're honest, BoA looks very different now to what she did when she was younger. Her whole style has changed. She used to be kind of tomboyish when she was younger, but these days she has much more of a strong, sexy woman image.

[@kristenblack6026]

@@kl2894 That makes sense with the different target audiences and yes none of us look or have the same style as we did 20 yrs ago. 😅

[@Killdeer25]

honestly, I think her journey is also just extremely interesting, I would like to have seen what would've happened if she would have had the break through in the states like she did in Japan, that would have been a very unique path on the eventual tree.