2nd Lead Syndrome

2nd Lead Syndrome

By Kay and EmilyMusic
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2nd Lead Syndrome episodes

  • 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
    38 min
  • 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!
    53 min
  • 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
    31 min
  • 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
    59 min
  • 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
    51 min
  • 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
    46 min

About 2nd Lead Syndrome

From the publisher's feed

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…