6 episódios
2nd Lead Syndrome Kay and Emily
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- Música
Inspired by the Korean drama fandom phenomenon of a side character who comes to take center stage, Second Lead Syndrome unites Kay and Emily, two doctoral students with a burning desire to discuss both k-pop and anthropology. To challenge the idea that academics should only be devoted to their research subjects, Second Lead Syndrome takes an ethically non-monogamous approach to combine smart talk with fervent fangirling. Our main squeeze is anthropology, but we believe an academic vocation is compatible with our undeniable attraction to k-pop and k-dramas. Each enhances the appreciation and understanding of the other. We ditch the notion of a guilty pleasure and turn it into true love.
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Episode 6: B-Sidepieces: Play it at Our Funerals
In this episode, we dive deeper into the proverbial crate of kpop songs to discuss one of our favorite B-sides, VIXX's Alive. Join us as we geek out over an amazing track, with diversions on drama OSTs, who goes solo when, and more.
You can listen to Alive here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlpTG4iFGz4
0:25 Introducing B-Sidepieces
1:59 Single-driven pop music vs. records
4:09 A kpop vinyl revival?
8:00 Introducing Alive
10:52 Context: Moorim School soundtrack
12:07 A sidebar on OSTs
14:49 Member solos
20:40 On musical aspects of Alive
23:42 And the lyrics!
25:03 The "will they ever top it?" question
28:25 Composition and production
31:52 It's not cheesy
33:00 Showcasing members' ranges
36:55 End credits -
Episode 5: On the Hustle 2B
We return with further analysis of American Hustle Life, Episode 2. This time, we look at mentorship styles, racial impersonation, theories of performativity, and more!
0:50 Mentorship styles - Dante, Jin, Suga
4:00 A stuffed ostrich…
5:10 Introducing footing (Goffman)
7:08 Changing footing with food
8:32 Two other seminal moments with this crew
10:27 Dante walks away
11:07 The terms of reaching across difference - power relationships
12:35 Contrast with Tony’s team: “good company”
13:38 A willingness to try things
16:00 Culture isn’t pure anyway
18:11 Nate’s a classic “best friend”
20:09 Nate’s role in the sandwich presentation
21:46 Blackface isn’t just painting your face… racial impersonation
22:20 An example from the Netherlands: Zwarte Piet
25:39 There’s a limit to calling it “cultural appropriation” - complexity to conversation
26:40 Caricature…but not for critical commentary (cf. Eric Lott, Love and Theft)
28:14 Where’s the reflexivity?
28:59 Breaking down Coolio’s response
30:44 Multiple layers to this difficult moment
32:55 If you don’t question… we don’t learn and grow
34:40 Wanting to see your faves do better
36:22 The kind of community we’re setting up for ourselves
39:48 Coolio’s philosophy about performance
41:00 Introducing Austin’s speech act theory
44:00 Butler has adopted Austin’s performativity and applied it to gender identity
46:50 There’s no essential gender identity - performance is all there is
48:00 We’re performing at every moment
48:52 A hip hop ethos that can pervade any aspect of life
49:40 For Coolio, the boundary between performance and living is blurred
51:00 A thick (thicc?) episode! -
Episode 4 On The Hustle 2A
In this installment of On the Hustle, our critical episode-by-episode take on BTS's American Hustle Life, we linger on the importance of Coolio's quiz questions to the BTS members: why these questions, and what can we learn about hiphop by looking more closely at them?
0:42 Previously, on On the Hustle…
2:59 Kay’s rundown of Coolio’s three questions
4:00 2LiveCrew, hip hop censorship and white moral panic
5:58 Parental advisory apparel and aesthetics without context
8:32 What is a natural speaking voice and rap’s earlier functions, from Rapper’s Delight to Jay-Z, hip hop vocalization
11:04 Public Enemy and black nationalism, the political dimensions of hip hop
14:53 Asking about Public Enemy was a good question, but they never went beyond a textbook answer
18:32 The fly of potential in your ointment
19:42 If you don’t know now you know
20:35 We are pushing you straight into the rabbit hole
20:54 This is your history too
21:48 What are the stakes of BTS and the viewers (not) knowing the history at hand?
22:46 Hip hop is always in conversation with itself
25:45 Shaka Zulu revisited, black nationalism, Pan-Africanism, the twilight of Apartheid and global connectivity
27:29 Talking about race in ways that are not destructive
28:14 Resurgence of conscious hip hop -
Episode 3: On the Hustle, part 1
American Hustle Life. The notorious hip hop bootcamp show before BTS hit the big time. For ARMY, it's practically required viewing. As an essential part of the BTS canon and as a rich source of intercultural triumph and tragedy, we felt it deserved some serious scrutiny. This is the first in an ongoing series of episode by episode commentaries of the show. Come along and ride on a fantastic voyage with us!
0:50 A crash course in hiphop
2:29 On intercultural contact
5:47 Why we wanted to talk about American Hustle Life
7:45 BTS in the public sphere
9:12 A study in how kpop and hiphop interface
12:46 From the anthropological toolkit...introducing indexicality
19:15 Where there's smoke there's fire?
21:25 Recapping AHL Ep 1
23:12 The van, the kidnapping, and all of the tropes
30:48 "No one did a takedown!"
33:10 Holding BTS accountable - with love
34:59 "Let's gloss toxic masculinity" + a plug for Everyday Feminism
39:10 BTS, class struggle, youth/lost innocence, intersectional analysis
44:10 A rude awakening
49:01 Coolio calls out Rapmon
49:44 Coolio's Shaka Zulu stuff and indexical chains
57:44 Next episode preview -
Episode 2: Taste and Talent
In this episode, we dissect theories that help us work through the whys and wherefores of stanning talent. We lay out how your taste isn't just personal preference but socially structured.
1:00 What do we mean by "stan talent"?
3:25 Why we like what we like; introducing Pierre Bourdieu
6:27 What's the connection between Bourdieu and kpop?
10:40 SM the Performance, marketing "talent"
15:56 How company loyalty emerges
19:25 Isn't this too deterministic?
23:04 Hennion: taste is a performance
28:22 Who finds their way to kpop? The fluorescent heterogeneity of fandom
30:18 When structure pushes back - NU'EST vs. Seventeen
35:36 "You can't just go to an Italian restaurant and say I want bibimbap"
40:22 New launch structures also structure taste
41:09 Pepperoni pizza and hiphop
45:15 How do kpop artists understand hiphop? BTS's brand -
Episode 1: Hot Debut
We set the stage with the very first episode the podcast, a mix of heavy-hitting k-pop culture analysis with an anthropological twist.
0:26 Podcast Mission Statement
2:07 Origin story
4:26 Radio Palava and the Vulcan mind meld
6:55 Kay was looking for someone who also wanted to take K-pop seriously
8:21 The K-pop journalistic analogue to Harper’s; erudition with accessibility
12:50 How Kay discovered K-pop
14:05 The intent to blog and West African music
17:04 What the hell is anthropology? Let us explain what we do at the same time we completely dodge the question
24:01 De-linking our content production from the K-pop news cycle; in-depth select coverage
26:16 A joyous engagement with theory
27:10 Stanning talent and the principles of our analysis
29:22 “Jackson Wang, he’s so hot”
32:14 Do it for the love and Emily’s secret hip hop past
34:01 Personal disclaimers and limitations
35:45 Language
40:35 Self-reflexivity and our biases
42:42 We love Kendeul