Things brings to mind something though. Why do only asian countries get this "c-drama/pop/rock" "k-drama/pop/rock" "j-drama/pop/rock" thing????
Gonna start calling Breaking Bad a "us-drama".
It's immediately known as a US show because the main character has to resort to crime to pay for health care.
Except he actually doesn’t, he has rich friends who will pay for everything for him. He’s too proud to accept free help
It's immediately known as a US show because the main character
has tolives in a country where someone who didn't have a fabulously wealthy CEO as a friend as a plot point may resort to crime to pay for health care.Yeah my point is I don’t think Vince Gilligan was trying to make any kind of political statement with the healthcare costs. It was just a plot vehicle for him to examine the individual resentful and proud psyche of Walter White, beaten down by years of self-perceived humiliation. If healthcare was free in the US then he would have contrived another plot vehicle to do this
because hollywood the hegemonic default? but we don't say "j-anime" it's just japanese by default. even within english media we always specified "bbc documentary" or british comedy because there are stylistic trends common to the ones that made it across the pond before internet video and differentiated them from seppo media.
but we don't say "j-anime"
I have distinct memories of boomers calling it "japanime" lol.
it was japanimation for a little while but that died out in favor of the shorter one. nobody besides someone's out of touch mom has used that term in over 20 years
To Westerners, these actually are different genres of storytelling medium. Each country's dramas have their own similarities
Just like how Chinese food is just food to Chinese people and a normal breakfast to Brits are known as English breakfast to Chinese people
In Japan, American shows fall under 海外ドラマ (foreign drama) whereas domestic shows are just plainドラマ (drama). I'd hazard a guess that the English terms C/J/K-drama are reborrowing from the broader Japanese or Korean use of "drama" to describe shows, since I don't know about you but I would rarely say I'm "watching a drama" in English. Those terms predate the mainstream Western awareness of East Asian dramas, so it makes sense to me that enthusiast groups would draw from native terminology in the same way that we use the Japanese demographic categories shonen/shojo/seinen/josei for manga and anime.
Also, it's not limited to Asia--see Britpop, NWOBHM, Eurodance, Eurobeat. The main reason you don't hear more about, idk, F-pop/drama is that there's zero market penetration for French music and shows in English-speaking communities. On the other hand, I hear plenty about British TV shows and when I'm talking about them I usually identify them as such.
I think of junky/viral US products as 'americana' but yeah I suppose it should be formally classified as just another genre because they've claimed a default market dominance for a while now and everything else had to be labeled because it's not that default
Gonna start calling Breaking Bad a "us-drama".
i do actually do this, all american shows read the same to me, there's a very American facial expression they all make and American pacing and American humour (which makes me cringe)
Germans tried to create new type of music that wasn't the old (schlager) or the new (American rock music). When the english language press discovered it they nevertheless dubbed this new music as krautROCK. A name that became the definitive term the music is still known by
I can't take most kdramas seriously because everyone is hot and madly in love with each other no matter the context
They are all insanely hot. It’s probably all the plastic surgery in korea
I imagine even without that, the imported western social and industry standards make the competition psychotically cutthroat; and anyone not supermodel-attractive, light-skinned enough, and coming out of a corporate lifestyle-control-industry pipeline to ensure maintenance of "visible perfection" is made to leave audition in tears and blacklisted from the industry. Also when they turn 35 most of them are cut loose.
This is a totally uneducated assumption however, based on some of the detached tidbits I've heard over the years about the k-pop industry. None of it is really my bag.
I believe more than half of Korean women have some sort of cosmetic surgery before college, and they report better chances of employment when adhering to the beauty standards. In India it’s a lot worse imo because the changes from skin whitening is so extreme and noticeable
I kind of despise south korea for exporting its cookie cutter youth aesthetics onto neighboring Asian countries lol
Well it’s one Korea’s most profitable industries. But even then it’s a bit silly because a lot of the more conventional looking actors tend to be older, and they’re eventually gonna die. And soon we’ll have a grandpa character who looks like he’s a 22 year old pop star lol
Anyone have recs for the serious historical variety?
