a-Tunes

Remember Hype Nation? The film originally set to have Son Dambi star in before she dropped out due to the numerous delays and resulting schedule conflicts? Well it’s been reported that Universal Studios has reached out to BoA to offer her Dambi’s vacated role.

There has been no confirmation on whether or not BoA will take the role. I’m honestly not too sure whether being in the movie would be a good or bad thing for her. Oh well, time will tell!

Source: AllKPOP

So I decided to give vlogging a try and I realized I talk WAY too much. I apologize for being so verbose, I’ll work on it for the future =).

Anyways, the point of the video is this: Support the music you love, because we, the consumer can shape the market for Asian American musicians.

Here are the articles I referred to:

• http://youoffendmeyouoffendmyfamily.com/hollywood-and-asians-why-protests-alone-won%E2%80%99t-change-anything/
• http://www.aaartsalliance.org/news/groundbreaking-new-report-from-the-alliance

Hope I didn’t bore you to death! Thoughts? Comments?

I imagine many of you know about this already but BoA’s debut US album has been re-released as a deluxe package.

According to Bump This! …

The deluxe album is pretty much the Western version of a repackaged album and will feature the songs from her American debut  along with 3 bonus tracks. For now, BoA will be heading up promotions for the track, Energetic, and there is also a contest where you can win a free copy of her new deluxe album!

Boajiang Forums are heading this event and all you have to do is twitter your impersonation of your favorite  BoA look and add #BoADeluxe to enter! For more details, check out http://twitter.com/_boajjang_.

So if you haven’t picked up a copy and have been looking to, now may be a good time.

This marks a special edition of Weekly Thursday Freebies as  we are presenting what is hoped to be the first of many releases to come in a series uncreatively titled ‘a-Tunes Mix’. In short, the a-Tunes Mixes are going to be digital mixtapes comprised of music released by Asian/Asian-American artists here in the states. These mixes should fit on a standard 80 min CD when burned and/or play on the media player of your choice.

The main purpose of this project is to promote artists you wouldn’t normally hear in mainstream media and increase their exposure because they truly do deserve it. In no way are these mixes meant to undermine or serve as a substitution to actually supporting these artists by buying their music. In fact, it is meant to encourage all of you to find new artists you really enjoy and show your support. That being said,  if there any artist(s) or members of their staff who are reading this and object to their inclusion, then please let me know (giftedthought at gmail) and I will respectfully leave you out of future releases.

Now, with all the information and disclaimers out of the way… a-Tunes is proud to present the ‘a-Tunes Mix Vol. 1: Summer Break’. I know the summer season is rapidly winding down, and many of you will find yourselfs back at your fine educational institutions soon (if you haven’t already). However, that doesn’t mean we still can’t appreciate some fun, catchy music. All the songs included on this mix were released in roughly the past yr (given a couple exceptions), and are light and infectious enough to simpley relax and enjoy like it’s summer break all over again.

You can find the tracklist, links to the artists, and link to DL all after the jump!

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I recently read a tweet from a very talented up and coming Korean-American R&B singer that said the following:

listening to BoA’s US CD while working on my secret weapon. girl needs to learn english or just STOP. *cringe*

Now I don’t wanna blow up her spot, and I imagine if you tried hard enough you could figure out who it is but that statement did get me thinking…

You may remember last month I wrote a post about the perception of Asian accents. The statement above definitely exemplifies the point I was trying to get across, and it’s coming directly from another Korean. With that said, I must admit I do somewhat understand where she’s coming from but I really didn’t think BoA’s English was that bad. In fact it all made sense, S.M. paid the writers to make sure of that, it’s just BoA’s accent did peep through now and then, despite the heavy electronic masking of her voice. By no means did I find it all that distracting or detrimental as a listener nor did I ever feel the need to “cringe”, but that may be just me.

And as my train of thought continued, the next thing that popped into my head was that BoA is making much bigger moves than this particular outspoken artist. I don’t see this artist headlining major events, having song placements in major TV shows, putting out numerous music videos, working w/ Akon, etc. Of course it’s not fair to directly compare since this artist doesn’t have the backing of a major Korean entertainment company to see her through the market, but still… it seemed almost silly for her to make such a statement when she hasn’t achieved nearly as much tangible success. It’s kinda like when someone upstaged you in HS so you drew all over the picture in the yearbook.

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Remember about a month ago when we reported that BoA was going to feature on a remix of Akon’s ‘Beautiful’ for his Japanese release?

Well it’s out now. It’s basically BoA switched in for Colby O’Donis. It was a good song when first release and it’s pretty much the same w/ BoA.

Source: Bump This

I dunno if I could call this an interview since it’s literally 5 questions but regardless here it is:

1) What’s it like to being a pop star/famous in Korea?

“Well, I definitely feel a difference when I’m here in the States and when I’m back home. It’s a difficult lifestyle and a lot more guarded. That’s why it’s cool to be in L.A. and walk around wherever I want.”

2) How do you like the United States so far?

“Well so far I still haven’t been all over America but I’ve gone to several cities since I moved here for radio promos. I live in L.A. and I kind of enjoy it. But I have to say that I really, really love New York City. Because it feels like my home.”

3) What American artists or musician do you aspire to be like or look up to?

“There’s so many great artists out there like Kanye, T-Pain, Lady Gaga. So I used to really, really love Michael Jackson so my dance moves came from his moves. But these days I’m more focused on pop. To learn more about the American music industry.”

4) What is the best relationship advice you’ve ever gotten?

“Be honest. Honesty is the most important part in a relationship because it builds trust, which is just as essential.”

5) Who is your celebrity crush?

“The actor from The Hangover. Also in He’s Just Not That into You. Bradley Cooper! I just Googled it!”

Source: AmpedAsia

Parodies can be a very hit or miss effort but Patty Yu’s ‘Bao Eat You Up’ song straddles the line between both. There are some moments of sheer genius here. All I can say is I just may like this more than the original.

Look out BoA!

Source: ChannelAPA

Just as promised a few weeks back, BoA has released her newest MV for the single ‘Energetic’.

I thought the video was OK. Better than ‘Eat You Up‘ but not as interesting as ‘I Did It For Love‘. Though I will say BoA’s dancing is fierce. I wasn’t too crazy about this song but its definitely not the worst on her album.

Plus there is an interview w/ EW which you can find quoted after the jump!

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How’s it going a-Tunes readers? For this week’s thursday freebie I’m featuring a remix/mash-up album of BoA‘s self titled first English album that I came across on AllAznRemix.

This project is really well done and features a lot of crazy interpretations of BoA’s songs.

Here are the details:

BoA (Best of Angel)
Artist: Yigytugd (with mixes from DJ Amaya, DJ MashUP, DJ Fisun, Masa, JTLeung, Drokas, and JasonCGuitar)
Secondary Featuring Artist: Britney Spears, Haley Bennett, Sean Garrett, Rihanna, Ajoo, Younha ,C-Luv, Afterschool, Anyband, Monrose, Basshunter, Yoo Young Jin, REIGN, Katy Perry, Pussycat Dolls, Akon, A.R.Rahman, Amerie, Mariah Carey, T.I.
Langugaes: English, Chinese, Korean
Genre: Mashup, Remix, K-Pop, J-Pop
Released: July 13, 2009BoA (Beat of Angel) is finally released!! This is a remix / mashup album for BoA’s first engish album. It has remixes / mashups for every song on the album. Be sure to thank Yigytugd, JTLeung, DJ Amaya, DJ Mashup, DJ Fisun, and Masa for helping with the album. Some songs may be better than others because there are only 2 acapella’s and no official instrumentals for the album. It was very hard to complete this album but I hope all of you will like the songs. What I hope for now is to see this on somewhere like Wikipedia or something. (There is a typo for the name of the album. Change the name to BoA (Best of Angel) and not BoA (Beat of Angel). That was my fault.)

You can find the download links after the jump so check it out!

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