Showing 1 - 10 of 11
Same strokes, just a little older
B Magazine, Chanun Poomsawai, Published on 19/04/2020
» "Up on a hill, here's where we begin/ This little story, a long time ago," Julian Casablancas sings on The Modern Age, one of the three tracks on The Strokes' 2001 eponymous debut EP, a precursor to the group's seminal full-length, Is This It.
Pegged For Greatness
B Magazine, Chanun Poomsawai, Published on 11/08/2019
» Not too long ago, a conversation we had surrounding rising South Korean DJ Peggy Gou led to the general consensus that she was "a fashion DJ". While necessarily not an overt affront, "fashion DJ" seems to connote inferiority -- a lesser kind of DJ who banks on his/her looks rather than musical skills. Given Gou's meteoric rise and her inevitable involvement in the fashion world (she went to fashion school, after all), it's easy to dismiss her musicianship altogether and forget that she's accomplished so much more than just landing luxury ad campaigns.
Setting it off
B Magazine, Chanun Poomsawai, Published on 14/07/2019
» From its humble start lurking in the shadows of J-pop to partially dominating the globe, the unstoppable power of K-pop has been fascinating to witness. Today, in the hazy wake of the Gangnam Style craze, the genre has grown to have its own annual convention, KCON, which is aimed to celebrate South Korean culture at various locations around the world. In North America, K-pop boy bands and girl bands are being received with open arms. Groups like seven-member boyband BTS have even gone so far as to win 2017's Billboard Music Award for Top Social Artist, beating pop royalty like Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez and Ariana Grande.
In for the kill
B Magazine, Chanun Poomsawai, Published on 28/04/2019
» From debuting on CBS's The Late Show With Stephen Colbert to being the first K-pop group to perform at this year's Coachella, BLACKPINK are unstoppable in their quest for global pop domination, which is the ultimate goal that lies at the heart of South Korea's ongoing cultural export scheme. Like their label mates Big Bang and 2NE1, the Seoul-based quartet is meticulously designed by industry behemoth YG Entertainment. But what really sets BLACKPINK apart from their peers is their collective cosmopolitan edge -- Jisoo representing Korea, Lisa bringing the spicy Thai flavours and New Zealand-born, Australia-raised Rosé and New Zealand-raised Jennie completing the picture with their multicultural upbringing. Singing and rapping in Korean, Japanese and English, they're probably the first all-female idol group to have amassed an army of fans, endearingly known as "blinks", not only from Asia, but also North America and elsewhere, in just a few years.
J-pop gone rogue
B Magazine, Chanun Poomsawai, Published on 07/04/2019
» Anyone who's been to Japan (or spent a decent amount of time on the internet) would have probably come across T-shirts with puzzling or badly translated English. Perusing CHAI's pastel-hued website gives you a similar experience except that everything actually makes sense -- "We Are New Exciting Onna (female) Band From Japan! NEO KAWAII ! COMPLEX IS ART!," its meta description announces. A click and a quick scroll down also give you an overview on the group's "NEO KAWAII" ethos, which essentially goes against any notions of the classic kawaii ("You don't need to have big eyes or have skinny legs to be KAWAII! There should be many more types of KAWAII, and everyone is KAWAII in her own way … Our insecurities make us who we are. The insecurities become art. KAWAII is a never-ending journey!").
Top 20 singles of 2018 (Part 1)
B Magazine, Chanun Poomsawai, Published on 23/12/2018
» As is tradition, we're wrapping up the year with a special two-part series featuring some of the best music to have come out locally and globally over the past 12 months. Culled from our 40-plus playlists stretching back to January, these tracks represent trends, cultural highlights and states of mind that reflect the times we're all living in (and trying to make some sense of). We present to you this week the bottom half of our annual round-up, a vibrant batch consisting of pop mainstays like Mariah Carey and exciting newcomers like Hana Vu and Now, Now. And with that said, here's to a new year of fewer whales choking on plastic bags, of nobody getting trapped in a cave, and maybe -- just maybe -- of an election.
The art of being
B Magazine, Chanun Poomsawai, Published on 14/10/2018
» Having ditched her successful career as a young start-up CEO to pursue music independently, Peeralada Sukawat, mononymously known as Pyra, has a lot to prove both to herself and to her family, who'd rather she took up a 9-to-5 job. "It's more about self-actualisation. I want to see something I expect of myself happen. The more people tell me I can't, the more I want to do it," she asserted in her 2016 interview with the Bangkok Post's now-defunct Saturday supplement Muse, wherein she talked candidly about depression and her frayed relationship with her mother. The piece further illuminates her self-produced debut EP Stray, a stunning release that, while deservedly vouched for by Apple Music Thailand, somehow failed to woo a local radio station because "they couldn't figure out what category I fell into".
Only half-woke
Brunch, Chanun Poomsawai, Published on 21/01/2018
» 'The truth will set you free/But first, it'll piss you off," prefaces Pharrell Williams on Lemon, the opening number of N.E.R.D.'s comeback LP, No One Ever Really Dies. Pharrell, a super producer, fashion designer and all-around dilettante, along with Chad Hugo and Shae Haley, are having a major woke moment and they've brought a whole lot of "wokeness" to their first full-length album in seven years since 2010's Nothing.