Kai understands what women* want
On Saturday night, November 6, Madison Square Garden had two of the hottest shows for the girls and the gays in NYC: Lady Gaga was playing the arena, and Kai was playing the theater. Both artists know how to play to the crowd, and Kai that evening put on a master class during his KAION show on how to play straight into the hearts of the largely male-loving crowd.
Before I go any further... I apologize. Please excuse the asterisk of the title, I couldn't come up with a less heteronormative framing for title purposes, having not imbibed enough coffee this morning and unfortunately having been an impressionable middle schooler through a timeline where Mel Gibson's What Women Want was a major hit. Now that that's out of the way...
Everyone man who wants to seduce an object of their affection who has gone through a Pride and Prejudice or romantasy era should be taking notes from Kai: he started the night in an impassioned red ballerino outfit, with a ruffled neckline straight off the cover of many a bodice ripper, setting the mode by sinfully performing foreplaying with the likes of "Mmmh" and "Hello Stranger".
It got worse when he brought a book and started ripping out pages seductively, which was so many levels of crime I cannot recount the intensity of the gasp of affront I, a book lover, made at him decimating both the book but also the stage during "Slidin'". ("The tearing the pages out really got to me. He’s just a theater kid who wants to do stag leaps," said one friend affectionately after the show.)
Then, as if that wasn't enough, he targeted us poor New Yorkers, coming out next in a green three-piece suit number and glasses. I'm sorry, men in suits looking ready to work is my weakness, and by the time he was commenting about sweating through the white button down post his dedication to a juicy derriere "Peaches", it was clear that much of the crowd was also suit trash.
It's not that Kai is just a sex symbol, but he leaned into it, teasing the crowd about how much they wanted him to take it off. A friend of mine later confided that she (a lesbian, not even remotely interested in him sexually) may have been responsible for the crowd chanting "Take it off!" which resulted in him taunting the crowd and telling us that we were like children Christmas Morning wanting our gifts just ahead of the appropriate time of their arrival.
It was this beratement that got some of the biggest laughs of the night; the acknowledgement that the appeal of Kai to many is physical, yes, but his physical performance is one of art. Kai, and the audience, knows his charm, his appeal, and embraces it, as he's offering it on his own terms while still respecting the audience's desires. He's here to dance, sing, and be the charming Kim Jongin who has won over everyone's hearts. The sex appeal is a key part, but also somehow a bonus. (As are the pilates moves he featured in his choreo; this man is an expert bridger. Get this man an ad deal, Club Pilates.)
So by the time he came back to stage in his third outfit change of the night, performing things like his superhit "Rover" and an EXO medley while wearing a black leather jacket without a shirt underneath it, obviously the crowd was all for it. But it was a good faith sort of sexualizing, with the undertone of it all that it feels like the crowd can do this because that's a) what many people were there for b) Kai leans into it, respecting the sexuality of this all. There is no shame here, just enjoyment. Anyone in the crowd, anyone on stage, anyone at all, can enjoy the passionate artistry of Kai's performance, whether they lust after him or not.
Early on in the night, I wrote in my notes for this review: "'Nothing On Me" is so sultry, but he's affectionately flirting with his nice boy smile". Then later, "Kai is what happens when you cater to the female gaze with affection." That, it feels, is what makes Kai such a resounding icon in K-pop: he's not only performatively sexy and seductive, he's doing it with the acknowledgement that a man can be sexy and seductive and appreciative of his audience without disrespecting it.
What I'm working on
I wrote a playlist for the Recording Academy to get people into Monsta X now that they've returned to form. I did not include the loml "Trespass" because I was trying to summarize their entire discography in five songs, and that was a mistake. "Trespass" is the best Monsta X song forever in my heart.
In the News
- Rosé and Bruno Mars' "APT." won song of the year at the VMAs, the first for K-pop. Rosé's speech was poignant and extremely meaningful.
- She was one of several artists to acknowledge their therapist in their speeches, which hopefully helps destigmatize therapy even further.
- Audrey Nuna appeared at the VMAs wearing a sleeping bag, a comedic nod to being the singing voice actor for Mira in K-pop Demon Hunters.
- A major ICE raid on Korean workers setting up a Hyundai factory in Georgia after a political candidate reported legal workers is causing huge political turmoil, and upset from many in South Korea about the treatment of the country's citizens, and reignites upset in South Korea over the US's disparate visa policy towards skilled workers from the country.
- Relatedly, I've seen multiple reports of fans reporting artists, primarily KATSEYE's Lara and TXT's Soobin, to ICE. This is so f'd up. Don't do it.
- BE:MAX, an under-the-rader K-pop group, came to national attention when visa issues led to them not being able to play a K-pop festival in Minnesota. The reason behind the visa issues are unknown, but comes at times of tension regarding foreigners working in the U.S.
- Park Jin-young has been appointed to a government position on pop culture.
- BTS's "21st Century Girl" is surging on charts.
What I'm listening to
There were a lot of great releases over the past few weeks. I'm behind on publishing this, hitting "Send" on Thursday for a Saturday show, so I won't go in-depth, but leave you with a list of things to check out that I've been enjoying listening to this week.
Dayoung of WJSN's excellent gonna love me, right is so very good, if you don't care about music or my taste you still should listen to it.
ALL(H)OURS' VCF EP is intriguing to me for many reasons, mostly because it's so listenable, but also because it's being co-released by JYP not just Eden Entertainment.
Haechan of NCT's phenomenal TASTE album, especially "Adrenaline", which is perhaps my song of September.
CORTIS's COLOR OUTSIDE debut EP is very intriguing and I'd love thoughts or many a thinkpiece on it.
Jung Dae Hyun, vocalist of B.A.P, has a really lovely single album, 행로.
