#black dial

Heuer Autavia 2017

Okay, people, I meant to make this post a long time ago due to all the questions regarding Q-pop terminology and cringy situations whenever I hear all those Korean words applied to boys from 91, BD or any other Q-pop artists.

First of all, a disclaimer: I will not use the newly adopted "Latin alphabet", because it sucks. I'm going to use my own alphabet™ based on standard romanisation, Turkish version, and original Kazakh one of the early 20's century. Umlauts > apostrophes because logic.

Another disclaimer, important one: Q-POP IS QAZAQ POP, NOT KOREAN. Got it? We're our own thing, we have our own language, so there are no maknaes, oppas, hyungs or whatever you K-pop heads call them. And the thing about oppas specifically: I will provide words for brothers/sisters, but we do not, I repeat, we DO NOT call people we fancy or have a crush on as brothers or sisters. It's creepy.

Are we good so far?

Nice.

Let's get started.

Аға - Agha - older brother. Used by both males and females. Can also be used as "uncle". Can be used for male strangers older than you, whose names you don't know.

Әпке/апа - Äpke/apa - older sister. Äpke is a standard variation, apa is the one we use in the West. Can also be used as "aunt". Can also be used for female strangers who are older than you. (There's also a word "täte", but it's a confusing one: in the West where I'm from, it means "uncle", but in the East and Almaty they call that their "aunts". Weird.)

Іні - Ini - younger brother. Can be used by both males and females.

Бауыр/бауырым - Bauyr/bauyrym - another word for brother and/or siblings. Bauyrym just means "my brother". I noticed it's usually used mostly by men. Men also tend to call other men that, if they don't know their names, but try to seem friendly I suppose? Something like "bro".

Сіңлі - Siñli - younger sister. Used by females only for actually younger sisters.

Қарындас - Qaryndas - also younger sister. Used by males, sometimes to female strangers, which I don't consider very respectful, as it usually comes with a "pick up line". Adds too much familiarity to speech, which not every girl/woman would appreciate. Just use it for your real younger sisters, will you?

Terms specifically for music groups:

Топ - Top - group. Any type of group really, not only music ones.

Үлкен, топтың үлкені - Ülken or toptyñ ülkeni - literally "big", "grown-up", or group's oldest. It's not a specific term like in Korean or something, as ülken can mean virtually anything big and large.

Кенже, топтың кенжесі - Kenzhe/kenje or toptyñ kenzhesi - youngest (usually youngest son/daughter in the family), or youngest in the group. Here's your "maknae" basically, so please do use kenzhe, as it's the direct equivalent. I will be forever grateful. And you wondered why Ken-G of Black Dial was called Ken-G? For the same reason Bala of 91 is Bala, that is.

Көшбасшы, топтың көшбасшысы - Köshbasshy or toptyñ köshbasshysy - leader or group's leader. Three syllables: kösh-bas-shy. I know, that's a tricky one.

Келбет, топтың келбеті - Kelbet or toptyñ kelbeti - literally face, or face of the group, in other words, the visual. Not a strict term, I guess no one cares about visuals in Q-pop much. Why would they, most of them are good-looking anyway (yes, I know, I'm too self-indulgent). But do use it or just "visual" if you want to talk about it. Just not Korean, please, if there is even a term for that in Korean.

Әнші - Änshi - singer, vocalist.

Сазгер - Sazger - composer.

Аспапшы - Aspapshy - instrumentalist.

Ақын - Aqyn - poet, now often referred to rappers, as they're usually the ones writing the lyrics. Another word for rapper I've heard is сөзшебер - sözsheber. You can still call them rappers though.

Биші - Bïshi - dancer. Pronounced as "bee-shi".

I guess that's about it. Comment down below if you have any questions/corrections. Feel free to repost as well.

There’s a whole lot of Kazakh-language pop, both under the rubric of “Q-pop” and outside it, that I haven’t been able to cover here. Consider the below not a full list, by any means, but just a few more samplings to get you started; and if you want to branch out, the Gakku TV YouTube channel is waiting, as is this playlist.

In no particular order:

AsSun: I know absolutely nothing about him, save that he produced the gem linked above and that his stage name does not play well with English-biased search engines. He doesn’t seem to have anything else out yet, and I am impatient: anybody who weds ABC and The 1975 this successfully needs to be making more music this instant.

Zhanar Dugalova: She started with the group KeshYou, then went solo and has become very successful doing so: winning Turkvision (with a self-composed track), welcoming people to EXPO, and also coming out with the single “Aita Bersin,” which is great, and not just because she invited AZ and ZaQ to perform on it at Gakku Melodies.

KeshYou: After Zhanar Dugalova left them (I presume) they were a trio for a while; more recently they’ve added a fourth member and dedicated themselves, in singles this year “Қалай ғана“ and “Неге?”, to a polished but imaginative combination of fashion, makeup, and earworms. (By the way, if you like the female lead in the “Sendei” video, she makes a cameo appearance in the video for “Қалай ғана.”)

Ayumi: Under the same management as Renzo (Ringo World Entertainment) and similarly prone to dancing in cleared-out industrial storage buildings, as in their 2015 hit “Hey La.”

Ziruza: Is a cutie with much potential for bop production.

Black Dial: Have a new single out just this week! yay! (now if we have to wait another month for the promised fifth single off Qarangy Zharyq, I’ll be even more convinced that the brothers Bedelkhan are trying not to step on each other’s groups’ release dates.)

Moonlight: The fourth and newest entrant in this year’s Summer of Q-Pop Boy Bands. “Tokyo” runs out of ideas midway through, but is still pretty catchy; “Qasymda bol” is slower-paced but better structured.

Newton and Crystals: Two brand-new groups I haven’t been following. Newton’s debut song is “Жалықтым”; Crystals’ is “Adastyrma.”

and finally: separate from all this, but worth mentioning, is Dimash Kudaibergen (or Kudaibergenov), who has risen to fame via a Chinese singing competition show. To give you an idea of what the fuss is all about, here he is singing “S.O.S.” from the French rock opera Starmania.