Friday, August 20, 2010

SNSD Criticized Over 33-Second Teaser



Korean girl group SNSD have released their MV teaser on the 20th for their Japanese debut, and they surely did not fail to garner interest from netizens.
The group is being accused of ‘Kenkaryu’, which means hating the Korean wave, because of the lyrics in the chorus that appeared in their teaser video.
SNSD’s Japanese version of ‘Tell Me Your Wish’ has been made a bit different from the Korean version of the song. The title of the song is changed to ‘Genie’ and the chorus line, which was the only part of the song released in the teaser, was changed to “kuse ni naru wa” which means “it’s becoming a habit.”
The change made in the lyrics of the song is causing a stir among the fans and netizens alike, for it can be misheard and make the group sound like they are bad mouthing Hallyu as a popular phrase.
Japanese netizens have been saying that the word ‘kuse’ (habit) can be misheard as ‘kuso’ which means feces in Japanese.  The lyrics can appear to be a bit snooty.
On a large online community, 2Channel, the group is continually receiving negative comments like, “Feces… That’s funny,” “I thought it was a Korean term they were using. How could they use a term like that; I think they made a mistake,” and, “Those are lyrics that are saving a spot as this year’s “in”-word.”
Of course, Korean netizens would not miss the opportunity to join the fuss.  They agree that SNSD’s Japanese is problematic. One fan of Taeyeon even wrote on his blog, “If this term wasn’t chosen to grab people’s attention, then it has to be a mistake. For now, it seems to be because of the lyrics, they have succeeded in garnering interest online.”
Another Korean blogger wrote, “Japanese netizens are criticizing this because they feel threatened by Korean girl groups. As SNSD has skills, good enough to shake Japan, I hope they will pass this criticism off and work hard on their activities.”
September 8th will be the start of the group’s official promotions in Japan and they will release both a Japanese and Korean version of ‘Genie’.
Note: This is a translation from a Korean news site and in no way reflects the opinions of the Kpoplive staff.

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