Halcali

Halcali are a Japanese female hip-hop duo, their naming being a combo of the members respective names Halca (Haruka) and Yucali (Yukari). They rap and sing together over ballads and dance songs, often with funny, weird and creative backing music. Their style of rapping might sound weird at first, particularly if you're used to American-style rap, but their catchiness quickly grabs you. My favourite album from them is Cyborg Oretachi (I wasn't terribly impressed with Tokyo Groove, their newest one) which I listen to every once in a while with pure joy. And obviously their videos reflect their fun style:

     And how can you not have fun with a song called "It's PARTY TIME!"? And don't tell me you've never wanted to do this in a grocery store:

Clammbon

Technically this song is a remix by Nujabes of a Clammbon song - so it's a good thing. Nujabes is amazing (R.I.P.) and check out his stuff. But this post will focus on Clammbon, another amazing alternative pop band from Japan. I think this group has a lot of character in their sound. At times it's jazzy, at others just pop, rock, techno and altogether fusion. The singer is also very unique as well (though personally I can only listen so long myself). They've got a large discography with lots of different sounds throughout, so it's worth an exploration.

Itaewon Freedom

     How 'bout something a little more light-hearted? I loved this song and video as soon as I heard it. It's fun to dance to and just plain hilarious. J.Y.P. (Park Jin-Young) is a very well-known producer and singer in South Korea. His style is hip-hop, pop mix. His company JYP Entertainment is very successful, producing such acts as Wondergirls, 2AM and 2PM and Miss A.

I love Korea, I want to and plan to live there eventually. I love the language, the food, the people, the culture in general. But what to say about its music? It's a smaller industry, so there is not nearly enough variety as there is in Japan which is only across the water. In fact, any successful Korean group transplants to Japan eventually, simply by necessity to actually profit. So the Korean music industry (thought experiencing success overall in Asia grace a the Hallyu wave) is limited. Want rock music? You'll have to dig. Even "alternative" or "indie" Korean bands are copies of copies. What really reigns on the charts is pop music. So you're probably going to have luck finding good hip-hop and rappers (there are many great Korean rap and hip-hop artists) or else resign to enjoy sugary, tooth-rotting K-pop.

As for this song, it's on the good side of K-pop. It incorporates lots of hip-hop elements, but is definitely presented as tongue-in-cheek. A kind of campy, 90s revival tune with tons of attitude. The song is talking about 이태원 (Itaewon) a district of Seoul known as the foreigner's haven. Hence all the foreigners in the video.
And yes, I DO know Namsan Tower! I loved it there, in fact!