Forgettable Tubers With Memorable Soundtracks #1 - Romance Town

I made a post about a month ago that included ramblings about The Greatest American Hero and Endless Love and how everybody remembers the theme songs even if they've sort of forgotten how terrible the show/movie actually was. That got me thinking - what about TV shows that have really catchy soundtracks but are otherwise a little bit forgettable?

The first thing I thought of was Romance Town (로맨스 타운), a Korean drama from 2011.

Extremely short synopsis: This is an ensemble comedy about live-in maids at a well-to-do cul-de-sac, their obnoxious bosses, and one housemaid who wins big at the lottery and has to keep it a secret from everyone she knows. Interesting enough premise, and not really a bad show at all overall, but it lost a bit of steam as it went along. These things happen.

I think this show wasn't as successful as it could have been for two reasons:

• Number one, bad title-itis. You'd expect a show called Romance Town to be oozing with sassy love triangles or something, yeah? Well the only really strong romance at play is that between people and their money. So in other words, it's really a show about friendship, loyalty, and greed. Which is maybe more interesting than sassy love triangles and birth secrets or whatever, but a bit disconcerting when you go in expecting something else.
• Reason number two: Identity crisis. This show tried to be a lot of different things—what's that saying? "Jack of all trades, master of none?" I don't want to give major spoilers, so all I'll say is figure out what your message is and stick with it, show.

Romance Town is one of those shows that survives mainly on the merits of its cast (who are HILARIOUS, by the way.) The plot... I've forgotten many of the finer points now. But do you know what I do remember? Some of the songs that were featured repeatedly on the show. Weird how that works. Here, I've placed a few I found on YouTube after the jump for your listening enjoyment.

Tunes Tuesday: Akdong Musician - 200%

Well, I've been pretty negligent in updating this blog. That's what happens when you have 800 other projects, I guess. Anyway, who wants to hear a song?

Akdong Musician - 200%

So far as I can tell this song is a bit of a hit at the moment - this Korean brother/sister duo has fresh, youthful charm that's downright INFECTIOUS. Like sunshine herpes. This is probably me just being weird, but I also like the strange mashup of English and Korean in the chorus:

"It must be L-O-V-E,
이백 percent sure of that,
I want you, really I mean really,
[random vocal filler?]
정말이야 널
좋아하는데
빨갛게 익은 내 얼굴이 그걸 증명해."

So cute I DIED.

Tunes Tuesday: Joey Scarbury - Believe it or Not

Hey, I actually managed to post one of these on a Tuesday! Rejoice, pitiful humans! Here's the song of the day:

Joey Scarbury - Theme from The Greatest American Hero (Believe It or Not)

I was browsing around Hulu the other day when I noticed that they had added some episodes of The Greatest American Hero - not sure when that happened, but happened it did. Unfortunately the episodes in their catalog start after the pilot, will probably confuse the shit out of anyone who has never seen this cheesetastic hunk of TV cheddar before, though I guess it's a nice thing to have for all the nostalgia nuts out there. But whether or not you've seen the show, you can just listen to this song over and over again and imagine you're "walking on air". Oh yeah, baby.

Now, chances are that if you're under the age of 40, you've probably heard the theme song from this show a bunch of times—it is frequently referenced in popular culture, after all—but never actually seen the show. Do you need to see the show to enjoy the song? No. Do you need to see the show at all? Only if you like really, really ridiculous things. Which I do. But that's another story.

Here's another interesting factoid for you: According to Wikipedia, this song peaked at #2 during on the Billboard chats during August 15–22, 1981. Which song beat it out for the top spot? Endless Love, as performed by Diana Ross and Lionel Richie. Why is that significant? It was the theme song for an incredibly ridiculous movie. Another case of the song being more memorable than the film or television production it was attached to.

But anyway, yeah, I think too much about this shit. Happy Tuesday.

Tunes Tuesday (not): B1A4 - 비원에이포 (Baby Good Night)

I swear, one of these days I'll start making these posts on an actual Tuesday. Maybe I should rename it to Tunes Thursday? Except it's technically Friday now. Shit. Anyway, here's the song of the day:

B1A4 - 비원에이포 (Baby Good Night)

This may come as a surprise given the name of this blog, but I don't really know that much about K-pop. My vague awareness of K-pop comes from watching Korean TV shows, and the whole reason I started watching those in the first place was because I was trying to learn Korean (good luck with that).

Recently I've been putting old episodes of Inkigayo on in the background as I do work to sort of "catch up" on the genre, as it were. A lot of the songs I end up sort of tuning out, but occasionally one or two make my ears perk up. This is one of them! I'm sure the fanatic screams of girls in the audience also helped to get my attention. While I don't find myself wanting to throw my panties at 20-year-old boy band members, I do think this song is cute, catchy and fun. A perfect pick-me-up during an otherwise stressful day. Thanks for the ear candy, B1A4.

PS If you want to see the Inkigayo performance I was talking about, go here and fast forward to 45:25.

Tuesday Tunes (not): Love X Stereo - Fly Over

At first I had intended to do a regular "Music Mondays" thing because posting music videos on a regular basis seems like a cool thing to do. Then I decided it should be "Tuesday Tunes" just for the sake of variety. But then I got real busy and now it's Thursday. Oops? Anyway, here's a cool music video for you to enjoy:


Love X Stereo - Fly Over

Here's a little background for folks who aren't sure whether or not they want to click on this: Click on it. It's awesome. Love X Stereo is a Korean band, but this song is in English. It has a 90s-retro electropoppy-type feel to it and is catchy as hell, plus the video is equally awesome. Like a toy chest opened up and vomited colors all over your face. WATCH IT NOW. I especially enjoy the surreal bit with the brooms that starts at about 2:18. My boyfriend said it was "really, really weird". You be the judge.

Welcome to your not-quite-daily dose of brain candy

Well hello there.

This is my first-ever post in this space so perhaps I should introduce myself, eh? My real name begins with an R, but since reality can be kind of "meh" you may call me Doctor J. Some of you may know me better as a a different type blogger, some of you may know me for other stuff, and most of you probably don't know me at all (yet). But here I am! Ooh, mysterious.

Frankly speaking, I started this site because I enjoy thinking about entertaining things and don't really have an outlet to express my feelings about them. Not that my boyfriend doesn't like hearing me rant about my ideas for Snow Dogs 2: Snowmagaddon.

You can expect to see me rant about movies and television series' of all stripes, with a special emphasis on Korean dramas because they're really filling that soap opera-shaped hole in my life right now. I have a feeling I'll end up posting about music as well, and possibly other forms of media (books, theater, impromptu puppet shows etc.) because that's just how I roll. So basically, you can expect Doctor Jin, Medicine Woman to become your one-stop shopping experience for all sorts of entertainment rants. Or not.

Since this is the third blog I'm running at present I can't guarantee any specific posting schedule at this time, but there's gonna be some stuff. Ohhhh yeah. You can bet on it.

Once again welcome, and if you've got something to say feel free to leave a comment or get in touch!

XOXO
Doctor Jin, Medicine Woman