Sing That Funky Pansori, White Girl

Okay…..
First, the whole argument about listen/watch music is pointless, but I’ll bite and give my 2 cents worth.

Perhaps, what was meant (in #1) by “it’s very American to ‘watch’ music.” was simply a dig at American use of that expression… even though that was the first comment and nobody even wrote that and I’ve never even heard of it. And, in that criticism, meant that music is something that one listens to, rather than watches.

Then, the counter-argument was made about an American inventing the phonograph (#14) and therefore it is American to listen to music, and that the visual aspect is very important in musical performances, and also the various contributions of Americans to the music of the world (#16).

To put it nicely, these are poorly thought-out arguments to an ill-conceived comment.

As for the first comment – it was a lame jab at American English.

Let me now address the counter-arguments.

It is no more an American thing to listen to music than it is Japanese. Think about it. Is it only American if you listen to music on an American phonograph but Japanese if you listen to a Japanese transistor radio?

Of course music is something you primarily listen to – especially in the modern world. Think about the proportion of music you just listen to compared to that which you watch as well.

And, of course a performance is something you watch AND listen to. To use a flimsy argument once more to highlight how flimsy it is: you only watch a performance (of almost any kind) if you are deaf… or unless it’s mime.

If you’re taking things literally, it’s impossible to watch music (unless you mean sheet-music, in which case it would be weird to watch it rather that read it) but it’s possible to watch a performance and listen to it too.

The argument about how much Americans have contributed to world music is simply irrelevant – just a knee-jerk defensive reaction to criticism of America.

End rant.

As for the performance in the video in this (the original) post – I thought it was interesting, but lacked something.

I disagree that it was in any way like opera – the tonal quality of the voice was much closer to that of Western folk singing. The way she produces her notes is not as closed and forced as Korean folk singers and not as open and rounded as opera singers. Her voice lacked the rough, at times throaty and at other times nasal, quality of Korean folk singing that gives it its distinct character. Also, the vibrato was a little too restrained – a little too slow, narrow and smooth. Perhaps she was trying to spare her voice – the Korean folk style seems to be very hard on the throat.

Basically, there was nothing wrong with the performance except that she was generally too restrained and controlled compared to the authentic performances I’ve seen (and heard).

Personally, I like this music (but prefer the rougher Korean singers). I also like trot (트로트) or bbong jjak (뽕짝), because it has that same vocal quality. And I like the group folk singing… I don’t know the name. It seems to be quite rural in origin – they use various traditional household objects as percussion. Does anyone know what it’s called? I’d really like to find out.