뉴욕타임스 팝캐스트 NYT Popcast: Can K-pop Conquer America?

지난번 케이콘 리뷰를 썼던 뉴욕타임스의 음악평론가 존 카라마니카씨와 퓨즈/빌보드의 제프 벤자민씨가 팟캐에서 씨엔블루를 언급했네요~  

The NYT music critic who wrote the KCON review, along with Fuse/Billboard's Jeff Benjamin, did a podcast and discussed CNBLUE. You can listen to it at the following link:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/30/arts/music/popcast-kpop-kcon.html

starts around 38:44~

Jon Caramanica: So at KCON, the headliner on Saturday, was CNBLUE. And CNBLUE was the most established of the groups. It was UP10TION, TWICE, NCT127, and CNBLUE were the headliners. CNBLUE was nothing like those other groups.

Jeff Benjami: No.

C: When you were originally saying, "K-pop is not a genre," I took CNBLUE's success as indicative of that. Because it's still somehow under the umbrella-

B: Right.

C: But it doesn't sound or behave anything like that. 

B: Exactly. Right. And those guys operate in that exact same world. It's not perfect, but they're kind of like Korea's Maroon5. 

C: That's good, yeah.

B: They play instruments, they write their own music, they're K-pop rock, 

C: Wear very beautiful shirts. Oh, my god.

B: Right, very beautiful shirts, you tweeted about that.

They also try a lot of different sounds. I really like CNBLUE for (that).

You heard it too, they have almost like, "Can't Stop" was almost like a Coldplay pop-rock jam, but their most recent single, "Between Us," is sorta electronic rock. They went through a lot of different styles, which I really like. And they still operate in the same world. They go on the radio shows, they go on the music programs, the members act, the members have solo songs, they all operate very much in that same world, even though this group's a little different in the sense that they write, they compose their own music, they play instruments, at the same time, they're still "K-pop." And they still go by the different tropes of being a K-pop star.

C: So let's listen to a CNBLUE song. Let's listen to "Can't Stop."

Jon Caramanica: KCON의 지난 토요일 헤드라이너는 씨엔블루였죠. 씨엔블루는 공연한 팀들 가운데 가장 자리잡은 그룹이었구요. 업텐션, 트와이스, NCT127에 이어 씨엔블루가 헤드라이너로 공연했는데, 씨엔블루는 다른 그룹들과 전혀 달랐어요.

Jeff Benjamin: 달랐죠.

C: 아까 "케이팝은 장르가 아니다"라고 말씀하셨는데, 전 씨엔블루의 성공이 바로 그걸 증명한다고 봤어요. 그 틀안에 여전히 속하면서도-

B: 맞아요.

C: 사운드나 공연방식에 있어 전혀 다르잖아요.

B: 바로 그거예요. 그들은 그럼에도 그 세계 안에서 활동하죠. 완벽한 비유는 아니지만 한국의 마룬5라고 할까요? 

C: 괜찮네요.

B: 직접 악기를 연주하고, 작곡을 하고, 케이팝 락을 하죠.

C: 그리고 아주 멋진 셔츠를 입죠. Oh my god.

B: 맞아요. 아주 멋진 셔츠... 그걸 트윗에도 쓰셨죠. 

씨엔블루는 정말로 다양한 음악에 도전해요. 그래서 제가 정말 좋아하죠.

들으셨겠지만 "Can't Stop"은 콜드플레이 느낌의 팝락 곡이지만, 가장 최근 싱글인 "헷갈리게"는 일종의 일렉트로닉 락이죠. 그들은 매우 다양한 스타일을 지나왔고 그래서 제가 정말 좋아해요. 그럼에도 여전히 같은 세계 안에서 활동하죠. 라디오에도 출연하고, 음악방송에도 나가고, 멤버들이 연기를 하기도 하고, 솔로곡을 내기도 하고, 여전히 그 (케이팝) 세계 내에서 활동해요. 직접 곡을 쓰고, 작곡하고, 악기를 연주하지만, 동시에 여전히 '케이팝'이죠. 약간은 다른 방식으로 케이팝 스타로 존재하지만 말이예요.

C: 그럼 씨엔블루의 노래를 들어볼까요? "Can't Stop"을 들어보죠.

*평론가님이 부러워하신 용화의 셔츠ㅋㅋ

The tweet/IG Jon mentions :) :

https://www.instagram.com/p/BVv1jlhhSRt/