K-pop (2015)

Previous threads: 2010-2012, 2013, 2014

apparently SM dropping their first release date of the year tomoz. hoping for jonghyun

looks like you're in luck:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6AVBzIK6hs

Putting the S&M in SM Entertainment.

Younha and Weesung confirmed as feat.s! Anticipating.

have we seriously gone four whole days of 2015 without a new k-pop song? is this possible?

Nah, there's been stuff like Sonamoo's (lackluster) debut and the unexpected return of koganbot-championed girlgroup Flashe... and Hello Venus trying to capitalize on their Wiggle Wiggle fame with a Brave Brothers track of the same name... just nothing that seemed worth getting excited about. It's really gonna be up to Jonghyun to get the year off to a good start.

HIGH4 did cry during their comeback stage, though.

wiggle wiggle is rough. enjoyable chorus, but seolhyun's part...

Tell me about it. I think Brave Brothers is great (when he's trying to be) - and even sometimes on songs that were clearly thrown together in two days MAXIMUM like this one - but the emptiness in the verses is the sound of the bar being lowered below sea-level.

I am kind of enjoying that HIGH4 song though... it's trite but trying just hard enough. And one of them sounds almost exactly like Tablo.

Ok just catching up on things... Jakob, pretty intense project you have going there with K-Pendium. I have no idea how you're going to cover most things pre-90s because I find most of it pretty tedious to listen through. It'd be nice to see it become the musical equivalent to the Korean Film Archive's 100 Films thing. Also, still weirded out that that guy on onehallyu took screenshots from my last.fm shoutbox. Ask A Korean's blog is great and it's how I found out about Kim Wan-sun a couple years ago, hopefully more of her stuff pops up online.

Also, yeah... feel like there's always some big stuff happening the first week of each year (last year was Girl's Day, Rain, and TVXQ, 2013 had I Got a Boy) in K-Pop but there doesn't seem to be much happening this year. That San E x Hyorin song is pretty enjoyable though.

past couple years some of the best songs of the year were released by month's end (IGAB, "FxxK U") so going to be watching these next few weeks carefully! jonghyun's mini has such high potential but that makes me scared X|

Wiggle Wiggle is one of the more interesting sounding Brave Bro tunes of recent times, not a rehash, got some new ideas. The whole release on the back of that dance clip feels desperate though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3E24FwG2ws

so far taemin's mini remains more interesting, but we shall see

Here's Wiggle Wiggle with some booty popping (and their whole bodies in the shot!):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLFJqua1H4k

I gotta say this is a lot better as a recording than it was live.

LE's song for The Seeya exactly splits the difference between (a wimpier) sad T-ara and EXID's Every Night, by the way: http://youtu.be/0u9yssH8EOM

For a rookie songwriter it's pretty strong IMO, though it could use more bite.

it's a co-write though, with zion.t and a pro songwriter

Wait what are we talking about?

WE'RE TALKIN JJONG

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9V1jk836pL8

zzzz

I was talking about EXID's LE, not JJONG :p

Gotta support the female rapper/producer idols

But on the subject of Jjong, disagree about Love Belt, it's really niiiiiiiice.

Weirdly enough YongHwa (of CNBLUE) might end up releasing the Jjong song you're looking for: http://youtu.be/eo3ctVOivRA

I was expecting a boring/rockist/singer-songwriter direction from him so it's nice surprise to see an RnB track with a hip hop guy. I hope it's wacky!

what i want from jjong is more in the direction of "orgel" or "symptoms" or even taemin's "danger" and "ace"...but hey! there are some pretty weird sounding chords sifting in and out of that yonghwa tune. curious to hear where it goes, especially since cnblue never caught my ear.

Only CNBlue song I like is "Can't Stop (Me Now)" but that was their most recent one and Yonghwa does have a pop song voice.

The falsetto on "Nightmare" is what I want from Jjong, so yeah...

Or "Evil" or "Obsession" (which I believe Jjong wrote way back when, the lyrics at least).

daaaamn i would've loved this Jung Yong Hwa song if it weren't for the rap. really kills the vibe. still decent on the whole but it's too much of a push and pull.

at least it's more interesting than jonghyun's title track... man what a let down :/

Yong Hwa's sounds like two different songs that were both pretty good separately and didn't really gain anything from being put together... and I kinda like the rapper more than Younghwa on this track, whoops. But not bad. Funny to think of his end-of-year collaboration with Zico being a precursor.

taemin's (very solid) mini was a gammon, made me think (esp. after Everybody) that jonghyun's mini would go in a comparably adventurous direction. turns out he made an adult contempo record, top to bottom. can't imagine the impetus behind that, other than the likelihood that this is just what he really likes. judging by the collaborations SM really gave it room to be his pet project.

When I think about it, his track for IU and some of the tracks he'd play on his radio show were like this too (but more bedroom lo-fi which was charming).

Ii girl Hani (of EXID) lipsyncing Jinsil (of Mad Soul Child)'s parts on a Mad Clown song. I don't usually like Mad Clown's rap style but he fits here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzNqcc__uRs

IT girl Hani, I meant

Wiggle Wiggle grew on me and I think Mileage will as well... especially when spring rolls around cos it's such a spring track.

for the folks reading along at home (and this'll be my video allotment for the week):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDfixuXfMT4

i'm not used to being two weeks deep into a year and having zero quality k-pop yet.

Everyone is clearing way for BoA's 15th anniversary release.

The fact BoA is only 28 still seems so crazy to me; she's one of those artists I've known about since I was really little because of my older sister + my cousin. Same goes for Beyonce from when she was in Destiny's Child.

Wiggle Wiggle's grown on me as well. Mileage is a cozy track.

apparently BoA is barely a factor even in the japanese market nowadays. but maybe the 15th anniversary marketing push will do some good in drumming up nostalgia sales.

okay, "neon" by jonghyun is really nice. great '90s RnB throughout, and then the bridge goes J Dilla mental. wish all the songs had curveballs this wild.

best of the lot, though, is "Fortune Cookie," a bonus track limited to the physical edition - and i have no fucking clue why. it's basically Voodoo status. super sophisticated...modulates awesomely too, some of the weirdest RnB i've ever heard out of korea. here's a slightly botched bootleg for the time being:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52rX07pSMzw

Neon is def my favorite on the mini, really incredible production on that. Definitely feel the D'Angelo vibes on Fortune Cookie. Also digging Beautiful Tonight.

apparently BoA is barely a factor even in the japanese market nowadays. but maybe the 15th anniversary marketing push will do some good in drumming up nostalgia sales.

― soyrev

She goes top 10 with her singles and albums on the Oricon and held a tour there last fall, she has a steady core fanbase that's obviously smaller than her peak powers when she was pushing a million copies per album. You don't stay on top for 15 years. But even Ayumi struggles topping charts these days - compared to most newer solo female stars in Japan BoA's still in an enviable position (RIP Jasmine's career).

In Korea last real promotional activity was with Only One which was one of the 30 best-selling songs of that year. (full disclosure: I went to her first solo concert on Korean soil ever in 2013).

SXSW lineup:

http://sxsw.com/music/news/2015/k-pop-night-out-showcase-returns-third-year-sxsw

Hitchhiker, Crayon Pop and Epik High are the headliners.

Tahiti coming on strong in another Brave Brothers track: http://youtu.be/M9medBE7GD4

There's no WAY they can use that choreography on broadcast

Thanks for digging up those Jonghyun tracks <3

I feel like ever since Lee Hi's "It's Over", there's been this trend of Kpop companies picking the safest boringest track on the album for the single (which they didn't used to do).

well i appreciate that Brave realizes he/they can't keep cranking out the same template anymore. good to finally hear a little variety from him again

"Brave Brothers recycles the same songs over and over" is a misconception - the producer Kang Dong-chul (AKA Brave Brothers - a single person) has always tried out new styles. It's just a question of whether you'll be one of the lucky groups getting a meticulously constructed exploration of whatever new style or trend dude is currently pursuing, or whether you'll get a cast-off recycled throwaway song dude spent two days on.

Speaking as this board's resident Brave Brothers fan :p

when Brave is on he/they are on, but no denying that 4minute "only gained weight" is a rewrite of 4minute "like water?," AOA "short hair" a rewrite of AOA "miniskirt," etc

(which, i might add, are my four favorite brave songs in a long time)

LE's been my fave girl group member since her debut basically and now she seems to be everywhere. This is pretty good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Tj5EDxXmZQ

not sure i like it yet but JJCC (jackie chan's group) just came back with a song that's 2012-grade k-pop ADD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRHcId9ENk0

I wanna like that but the stadium-chant parts are pretty low-level... A+ thievery though, there's snatches of a bunch of different recent songs in there

Mr. Kim is nice!

And "Fortune Cookie" got a quickie MV: http://youtu.be/G7PeqM_HnAQ

If we keep talking about it maybe we'll get one for "Neon" next.

I'm kind of looking forward to UKISS, actually. Maybe I'm just used to their voices but there's something about "Smart Love" (the pre-release track) that elevates it above garden-variety schmaltz (maybe it's the brisk tempo): http://youtu.be/M9If2kigxr0

New group gunning for current-SNSD's spot with vintage-SNSD's sound:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKMeRMAVaDw

I thought Lovelyz were wimpy but I like this!

verse vocals feel so stilted and tuned...chorus is aight. choreo is cool! might click for me in time, lovelyz took a while

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yotstIG8_3k

From last year, but I played Jun Hyoseong's "Goodnight Kiss" a lot

You liked that one, ∞? I thought it was a case where the "experimental structure" (all chorus all the time) didn't really work.

Sailor Moon!

forapper, yeah, I thought it was decent track? What have you been listening to lately?

Wiggle Wiggle... and Kpop from 2012, English pop songs, and Angel.

I actually like that Wiggle Wiggle track

"wiggle wiggle" is a solid comfort zone k-pop track with an awful awful pre-chorus. brave was right that the song needs a dramatic break to keep it from getting too circular, but it sounds like he had one idea, tried it, realized it's pointlessly atonal, then said fuck it when hellovenus' people seemed to like it anyway.

went to an old bookstore in shinchon and made off with my first handful of 2000-won used CDs. some absolute lost gold here that's just not on the internet. going to consider ways i can get these online in nicely blended, moody soundclouded mixes that have the right kind of visual aesthetic to appeal to and beyond the extant koreaphile contingent...

no one posted the video to fortune cookie yet?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9CjXKisv-s

What albums did you get soyrev? It shouldn't be too hard I think but it you ever find some Kim Wan Sun albums (that aren't 삐에로는 우릴 보고 웃지 or 평화의 날개) or stuff from Kim Choo Ja please give me a holler. There's actually a ton of things I'd be scoping out if I was in Korea but those two are relevant to the thread at least :3

Also, I was never bothered by the prechorus to Wiggle Wiggle for some reason. If there's something that bothers me it's the dialing that opens up 4Minute's Is It Poppin? or the singing in the bridge of Sistar's Touch My Body.

i love the weird atonal dialing in is it poppin!

also, fuck that "fortune cookie" video for cutting out at the best part of the song. shameful.

Yea I guess it's not the lead single so they're taking free reign on cutting it down a la the video to Taemin's Ace

so stupid. i can't write about it now =\

same with "symptoms" off everybody in 2013. for such cheapo videos, just film enough roll for the extra minute, guys

You know, if HIGH4 cut the first 1:30 off "Day by Day" and didn't spend so much time intoning over a super basic plucked guitar riff, they could have a slightly-above-average boyband song carried by ~emotional boyband falsetto~ like Dalmation's ER or BAP's Rain Sound.

Just sayin'

fuuuuck GFriend's new mini intro is awesome

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dbl5AUx1BWc

what are these vibes, before the beat drop? i get something very distinct and sountracky, like John Carpenter maybe, or some kind of particularly poppy Vangelis soundtrack...can't quite place it though, might have something else in mind entirely, but it's pretty OTM of whatever it's referencing. '80s, though, pretty sure of that (on account of them analog-aping synths)...

also, i think you're right hurricane, but i like that minute and a half. slow builds are always a nice change of pace in k-pop. that was the first song i liked this year – i feel like HIGH4 are a little bit underrated.

It's at least different, I guess. But I like the in res starts.

GFRIEND's White is good too!! It's a solid Jpop mini:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKtfosL8Xh4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt3D4H93hNs

^^JYP's 15-year trainnee

That's his Eyes Nose Lips single... JYP talking about putting G.Soul on a sub-label "not concerned with mainstream sounds" but it's not like the mainstream hates this sound, ya know?

Track #2 on the mini, Superstar, is excellent though: http://youtu.be/AA-bvV184sw

do not need this song personally, but i hope he kills it. would make a potentially sad story a happy one.

waiting for k2n to upload his whole mini, i imagine there's something there i'll dig...

ahhhh you weren't kidding about "superstar," especially those fkn verses. choruses somewhat a letdown but if guy can actually sing this way live he should have a nice career ahead of him in korea.

"excuses" is best imo, took a dang while for a legit weeknd impression to wind up on a proper k-pop release, but it works much better than it should. great details in the bg vocals, guitar, bass fills – sophisticated and natural. could sit very easily on either the first or third weeknd mixtapes (i.e. the only worthwhile weeknd, really).

I guessed you'd like excuses... it's the fortune cookie of this mini lol

Very confused about the GFriend love but I need to spend more time with it. I definitely had a stronger affinity for Lovelyz' album and music video.

The G.Love mini is pretty great overall. A bit innocuous but he has a great voice and the mixing's actually /really/ on point on here. Dig the single a lot, actually. And First Love is really cozy. I'm naturally gonna dig Excuses too and was definitely thinking The Weeknd as well (i mean, that electric guitar). Was never into The Weeknd's stuff after HoB, and even then the best four tracks on it were released prior to the mixtape dropping.

hahahah "the G.Love mini!!"

GFriend is nothing crazy, but it's nice. Lovelyz definitely better.

Infinite H sound like they might live up to their material this time around: http://youtu.be/SWM7S_pjI8s

Their first album was too good for them - features stole the show - hopefully they grew into this one??? I think it's sounding promising so far...

Yeah I'm looking forward to that, the previews sound great.

that H spoiler sounds way more promising than i'd expect.

lmao didn't even realize that I wrote G.Love

Infinite H's last mini was so good and Special Girl was one of my favorite songs of that year so I'm very excited for this one. I'm a huge sucker for those really cheesy feel-good hip hop songs in K-Pop.

couldn't sing you a bar of previous Infinite H to save my life but this new stuff really has me curious. anyone know the release date offhand? super weird that it's not anywhere in the teaser upload on youtube...

showcase and album release this Monday the 26th

Nine Muses - Drama http://youtu.be/b4HIIbKZZm8
Lizzy goes trot* http://youtu.be/zjHnzv917iQ

* a very natural move and one I was looking forward to, but I wish they had cranked up the trot cheeriness to 11. This song is good but I wanted balls out. Visuals are on point, though.

Lizzy's a credible trot singer and yeah A+ on visuals
Drama is a big step down from Gun and Glue

thanks shirt! excited for monday.

the lizzy tune is very enjoyable, but yeah, it could've gone harder as either total cheese or some kind of modern subversion of the trot form (like trot a la "catallena"). still very into it, though.

never been a crazy 9m fan but yeah pretty dull, and the fact that they're an eight-piece now is raking me over OCD coals.

http://open.spotify.com/user/forksclovetofu/playlist/0XRCyNxG4rB2Tox9ZILPhl

i could use some help maintaining this as i cannot read the language

wow not feeling the new infinite h mini at the moment :/ the music video is cool though

i am loooving this infinite h mini. super rap-heavy, which is usually not my thing in k-pop, but the beats are all so detailed and well considered. definitely my favorite mini of the year so far. tons of variety and all virtuosic from a production standpoint//the raps are focused and charismatic.

oh, and 4minute's new ballad is awesome, strange passing tones make it feel nicely uncentered

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZT9zbZGB2gE

yea i'd say it's the best k-pop ballad i've heard in a long while. and yep, it's definitely the passing tones in the verse that provide propulsion in both rhythm and tone. and then it being resolved via a continuous straight rhythm scale exercise is the right move. all the members look killer too, everything they're wearing is so on point.

It's interesting and reminds me of BAP's Rain Sound (which I like a lot more now than I did at the time).

Though it's prettier and more sophisticated in instrumentation than Rain Sound, of course.

Also Gayoon has a ballad voice and HyunA's good at this kind of sad rapping - "A Bitter Day" is still one of my favorite performances from her.

The hook's a little weak and annoyingly over-processed in Infinite H "Pretty" but the rapping and instrumental are spot-on I think. I haven't listened to the other tracks on the album yet.

Me not enjoying the Infinite H release is almost surely a matter of preference with hip hop. hip hop is the most exciting, forward-thinking, and subversive thing happening in western pop right now and it's so crazy to me that certain songs get so popular (Like, Sh!t is undeniably experimental). So with K-rappers I tend to be very focused on how the rapping helps the song rhythmically and serves a pop-related function. Like, this recent song just seemed like a less interesting take on OG Maco and other stuff going on in Atlanta right now. I still liked Loco's Thinking About You but it's ultimately just a lesser Loyal. And that's why I loved Infinite H's Special Girl so much since that stuff doesn't really exist in the west (though, Chicago's Bop scene has almost completely replaced it for me at this point). Zhoumi's Rewind was interesting though since it used RnBass sounds in its own K-pop context.

So re: the new Infinite H release, Pretty just seems like a lesser Special Girl mainly because the hook isn't as strong (largely due in part to there not being enough of a tonal/dynamic shift). Track 5 is exactly what i don't want from K-pop (but idk, there were people who got excited about Korean rappers spitting over the Control beat so it definitely has an audience). Track 6 feels like people rapping over a beat instead of with it. I've grown to like tracks 3, 4, and 7 though but I don't think any of them have particularly strong choruses. Moods are sustained throughout each of em, thankfully.

"pretty" is my least favorite thing on it for what it's worth

Ha sorry if that came off really dickish, wasn't really responding to you as much as I was just trying to assess what I think about rapping in Korean music in general. It sounds like I'm just hating in Korean rappers but I still like a lot it, I swear :3 I think I see rapping primarily as a rhythmic tool, and it's up to the artist to know how to use it for what they're trying to accomplish. Which I guess is why I think something like Eminem's Rap God is a snore while something like Nicki Minaj's The Boys, everything Young Thug does, or stuff from Chicago's drill scene is incredible. So like when idol groups have rap verses, I generally don't mind since it usually helps with the pacing. And as I said in my previous post, I'm a huge sucker for really happy k-rap stuff like that UglyPumpkin song I believe forapper posted in the 2014 thread.

anyways back to k-pop, an acoustic version of G.Soul's You popped up: http://youtu.be/Lkedk7fedpw

kind of just further proves that he's such a great singer

oh and since it hasn't been mentioned yet I might as well do it now -- Gaeko had a new track a few days ago with Yankie, Beenzino, and Babylon: http://youtu.be/VUqE9Nv4WZk

i dig it but man the beginning of that chorus kills my vibe. the Hey Ma and Tuesday interpolations are awesome and make the song's feel-good atmosphere all the more transferable. same thing happened with the I Don't Like interpolation on Troy's Green Light. i've realized that i also really like how Beenzino's voice sounds. And especially in contrast with the other rappers on the track.

nah not dickish at all, just wanted to clarify.

if that g.soul vocal is untreated, he really is the best singer in k-pop. he should be hitting the music shows w/ this shit because you really do need that platform in korea...

Seems to me the regular weekly kpop shows (Music Bank, Music Core, Inkigayo) have limited use as promotional platform, owing to their low ratings and niche audience, recently shown so clearly by the example of EXID, who had been through a full regular k-pop promotional period and shelved 'Up & Down' before a viral fancam turned people's head and suddenly they realized that hey, here's a catchy song I should download. The message that this song exists and is an earworm had clearly not got through to the mainstream through k-pop shows, which I think more of as fan service to the existing fanbase.

Other music shows have been known to make hits ofc, like vocal performance ones (Immortal Song etc) and K-pop Star.

hahahah, welllllll the EXID thing is a bit more complicated than that. it cut out the BS of "safe-for-broadcast" choreo revisions and PG-minded camera focus to laser in on the sexiest member doing the unaltered dance, which had a level of mainstream appeal that no TV show does. it spread like wildfire to millions (many of whom watched it ad nauseum), and repeated exposure w/ the right context is usually enough to make a conversion in pop. plus korea is a market where people might buy a song to support an artist because their most beloved celebrity is in it, moreso/more consciously than in america for example. so we're comparing apples and oranges at best here.

music shows' ratings are nothing special, but the youtube viewership can be pretty significant in and of itself. and in any event, the audience watching it is highly engaged like you say, and they're where the buzz typically begins. celebs on the order of DBSK and G-Dragon wouldn't still bother doing it if it didn't matter.

and yes, music survival shows make hits, but only of songs that get performed (by contestants, typically not debuted artists). but yeah, if g.soul could make it onto one of those shows as a 'vocal master' who gets his own backstory segment/performance, that'd do the trick.

i should also say that i think EXID always had a great song, it just didn't win the music show lotto and was hampered a bit online by its ratchet video. it just needed a new context to shine. (still one of my absolute favorite k-pop songs of late, so dang good)

I got really interested in EXID when I Feel Good came out, thought that song was so dang catchy + the vid was really amusing (LE at the car is legit funny). And then when they redid Telephone (best song on their mini, and one LE helped write both the music and lyrics for) as Every Night I was sold. A shame they didn't do anything in 2013 aside from that forgettable Dasoni subgroup but they got huge with UP&DOWN so I guess it was worth it. Have really high hopes for them this year.

fortunately the song that blew them up is awesome, so hopefully their team tries to explore that direction a bit more.

G-Dragon/other YG artists typically only do <i>one</i> of those shows (Inkigayo), sometimes two (Music Core), not the whole gamut. But EXID's music video for Up&Down *was* ratchet, and moreover they'd (imo) lost too much weight ahead of their comeback and lacked energy. In later, less hungry performances their skills were more obvious.

But I think abcfsk is right about the music shows. Veteran non-idol singers like PSY, Choi Pil Kang, and Seo Taiji don't bother showing up even when they're nominated for a win; Crayon Pop got their break with a viral video and street performances after getting locked out of the shows. Groups like GOT7, TOPP DOGG, Fiestar and SPEED have international fans but aren't popular domestically. And so on.

YG limits that shit b/c of affiliations they have w/ certain programs and supposed bad blood they have with others. i.e., they don't perform at things where they know they'll have a disadvantage anyway (same with the year-end shows).

and nah, PSY and choi are just old, and Seo Taiji is an actual musician with a real band, for which these shows are completely ill-equipped (busker busker also didn't bother w/ that shit). crayon pop def promotes on the shows now that they have a way in, and although all those groups don't have domestic fanbases they still perform on the shows. in korea, it's a platform you should absolutely use if you fit the mold, at the very least strategically in the way YG does.

but yeah maybe g.soul refuses to learn choreography and knows he'd be at a disadvantage without one. still think it could only help him though, and i want to see him do well...15 years...;_;

also groups like GOT7 would kill for more domestic exposure and the CF money that entails...even groups made for the chinese market like UNIQ release korean versions first and hit the shows, korea's all about exposure and TV is the only reliable medium. (no one listens to radio)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lse2Lix6j3k

he's back

I wouldn't say no one. For one I listened to a lot of radio in Korea and radio appearances are also a mandatory part of idol promotion rounds (and something the good talkers hot from time to time).

Could be the sleep deprivation but I'm really feeling A.KOR:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K56AL8xnOqI

It's mixed like one of those sad 90s alternative anthems, but with a ghostly 80s synths countermelody thrown in to keep it interesting, and a key change at the end just because.

Or something...

There's also Yongwha's multilingual (Korean-Chinese) duet with JJLin, which I'm liking for similar nostalgic reasons:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUyq02k6-sE

Hitchhiker: the return everyone (no-one) was waiting for. But that video is pretty great.

In more indie news, trad hip hop: http://youtu.be/n-vteByk3jo

Looks like Shinsadong Tiger wrote the A.KOR track... which explains why it's so much better than their last one

I really like 4Minute. Most of their songs have something. Is It Poppin? was underrated. Hyuna sounds nice there. It's different http://youtu.be/DRSRpXPZVdM

Jiyoon has produced (and composed) a song on their upcoming mini. We saw her in her own little studio playing with sounds years ago - I really hope this marks the arrival of an interesting new creative force in the group.

yeah i love "is it poppin." it was on my top 20 k-pop list of 2013 for vice.

"cold rain" is excellent too

The closest song in Kpop to Is it Poppin is After School RED - Night Sky I think http://youtu.be/63WubbkFIxo

And the closest to hitchhiker's 11 (remix) is UKISS - Top That http://youtu.be/SemnBw9T940

Nice Christmassy RnB song from Zion T (ft Crush) that probably should've come out a little earlier, but better late than never:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FHOigzF1Uw

Crush isn't much of a rapper, Zion T sounds great as always though

Song's perfect with the Chicago weather right now. And Zion.T always looks so good.

Solo album from Amber coming out next week. Super interested to see how that goes.

Speaking of pop trot w Lizzy, the reigning queen Hong Jin Young releases a shameless sequel to 'Love Battery' that's still pretty great http://youtu.be/so9-z28EX88

been a slow start to the year, hasn't it? by this time last we had "fxxk u," girl's day "something," "miniskirt," some good stuff on the TVXQ album, etc...

i went insane on this one. K-Pendium entry 2, 2NE1 "I Am The Best" http://www.k-pendium.com/002/

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B9CdlrJCYAEv40Z.jpg:large

i went insane on this one. K-Pendium entry 2, 2NE1 "I Am The Best" http://www.k-pendium.com/002/

― soyrev, Wednesday, February 4, 2015 8:31 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that modal analysis timeline is outstanding, thank you! it's the first thing you notice about the song, it should just not work at all, but instead it is total ear-blinking fusion

If you go back to 2013 it was the same thing though, ballads & comfort tracks in January, cutesy pastel-colored tracks in March, a couple people trying to corner the market on 'song of the summer' in May... the machine doesn't really get going until mid-late summer and the hits tend to come out in the second half of the year.

Cheers for the article... I thought I was done with IATB after 8,999 replays but I just added one more. It's freaky how well that song gels (and you can remix it with other songs and it will still mostly gel). Maybe it's because there's so much empty space in each layer. I remember when I first got REALLY into 2NE1 and shared their album with a drummer friend his main comment was that it was more precise/less busy than Western pop (though not as precise as Jpop).

Did you have anything to do with the Tzechar piece of investigative journalism on Vice, soyrev?

Found out in roundabout way that N.SONIC (remember them?) have been touring and building a fanbase in India... *ahead* of the major Kpop players. Usually the little groups play the same game as everyone else (at worse odds), so I was surprised, and kinda happy to see them being so scrappy.

Not of interest to this board I'm sure, but I have a soft spot for N.SONIC.

(I dunno about their chances though because there's such a strong local pop scene in (parts of) India already... Every now and then I think about submitting something from the local 'desi' station to thesinglesjukebox, but when I track the songs down they're inevitably not current. Some day!)

thanks for the props, y'all. please do pass it around if you don't mind, more on the way soon...

hurricane, this one?

http://thump.vice.com/words/i-tracked-down-the-elusive-k-pop-remixer-tzechar

nope! predated me being aware of tzechar at all, i think. but tzechar did just float me one of the best mixes i've ever heard, and i'm hoping to do something via vice or elsewhere about it...seriously so fucking good...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nCLBTmjJBY

a lot better than similar sounding songs; the energy's really sustained throughout (sohyun omg). and bless the costume designer who wanted to incorporate health goth elements <3 <3

really happy they didn't have brave brothers produce their lead single

yeah they killed this one. "cold rain" is even better but this is an awesome banger. four-on-the-floor EDM build prechorus + glassbreak/reverse snare transition into that really swung beat chorus is super gratifying

whole 4minute mini is really strong actually, best of year so far

that was great! has Red's chant-choruses and 'castle in the sky' synth melody but it's more fun with five (and gayoon and sohyun BOTH killed their parts).

accidentally xposted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyZJIJqx3ww

Yerin <333

It's good but so far nothing has matched the covers she uploads on youtube or instagram.

I dunno, I think there's something to be said for originals.

And speaking of originals, here's one for EVOL watch 2015:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwZ66TiZB-E

misterjoshua, I'm reading that Gayoon was the style director on CRAZY <3

Dalmation/DMTN lives too! http://youtu.be/AJ29X5Dwang

I'm into this trend of talented people from failed idol groups going solo

Will also agree with the "there's something to be said for originals" sentiment. Song's nice, not sure if I vibe with Kanto's part thoguh. But maybe that's just because he has such a recognizable voice. Digging that EvoL song as well despite how straightforward it is. And pretty awesome to hear Gayoon played a part in the costuming ahh

And yeah whoa definitely feeling that KIXS song. fun video too. I also absolutely love San E so much. He's proving to be the only Korean rapper that has a sort of personality that I care about. You look at him and you can just tell he's a goofy guy, and dude really sells it on every song he's on. love the outtakes in the video for A Midsummer Night's Sweetness (acoustic).

There's something to be said for originals but none of the originals have been good enough.. she's got the greatest voice in k-pop and the composers should work to bring it out.

Another good low-key JP AS release

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWScSWtG6IU

Seems too simple, but charming.

Michin geotcheoreom, geurae michin geotcheoreom

VS

Nan nappeun gijibae, na- nan nappeun gijibae

?

4minute's opener "Call Me" is even more indebted to Baddest Female... that song was really ahead of its time, huh.

^^Cut it Out, not Call Me

it was, but i prefer "cut it out." better ideas, more fluid execution

amber - shake that brass: https://soundcloud.com/jet95/amber-shake-that-brass-full-audio

I'm gonna need the celeb-cameo filled MV to appreciate this.

Amber is really under-utilized, though. She can sing too.

Sohyun's on point with the silly and sassy in her Tickle Tickle lyrics. The Jiyoon song is promising until meh chorus.

For fans of Neon Bunny, electro singer songwriter Azin released her first EP and single

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kr43obFCeFg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYGeGI1Ihlc

not gonna lie, the video made the song way more enjoyable for me

That song is so not representative of her minias a whole, which is surprisingly ballad-y! She has a pretty voice, quite distinctive too.

I really like Love Run:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nWrKay0qg4#t=42

Shake That Brass still isn't good but Amber is a cutie.

This mini >>> Zhou Mi's.

This is genius though:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMuscKEmV3I

It's Lizzy - Goodbye PMS ft. P(ark) M(yung) S(oo)!

Though it sucks to have one more thing about those CRAZY WOMENZ ON THE RAG oh noes better stay away from them, I still love that this is a song.

Standard ballad, but I like the schoolbell background bit in Don't Forget Me http://youtu.be/gXBoRuEL9HM by CCM project group TS (T-ara, The Seeya, SPEED).

That first guy has a really nice voice

And the #2 most-played Korean* vid in America in January is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPC9erC5WqU

*Japanese too

I really like the last Japanese guy

He's good right???

I keep replaying this, it's sticky as hell.

KeithApe and that guy are getting the most flack for sounding like OG Maco though.

On OG Maco's twitter they're getting flack, that is... The comments on worldstarhiphop are 99% positive.

Okay 10 replays in a row is enough. No more tonight. Really...

There's something kinda funny about trap-hop being the trend du jour and getting the full-on Kpop idol popification treatment i.e. MYNAME's latest (which even has the industry-standard woah-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh adlib).

yea i mentioned the keith ape song a few weeks ago, it's nice seeing something like it in asia. trap rap is the best

whoops i guess i missed it. and agreed.

DIY rnb'er Nieah (associated acts: Hoody, KittiB) releases like one song every 1,5 years and she's just put out a new one. It might be my favorite single of the year, k-pop or otherwise!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2ymnNSqRKI

wow, totally sold on that after about 10secs

Unpretty Rapstar has mostly been met with mockery among interntional k-pop fans but the new track from the show is doing really well on the Korean charts at #2 http://youtu.be/l7Oc2-bOE2c

Lee Jin-Ah also got another chart hit from a K-pop Star performance of her song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSi0GYWzFP4

also pretty fun watching them record My Type too: http://youtu.be/ov2iTGKUghg

냠냠냠 is cute but not something i'll be revisiting often i think

It's a sign MIB needs to return, Jessi and Cheetah are getting a big boost from current interest in Kangnam (and are also holding down the track of course). MIB's Young Cream/Blue Cream is in the dog house with Knetizens for comments about the Korean flag and other bizarre antics on twitter though. Here's hoping dude can keep it together... here's a recent solo from him.

About the girls, Jessi and Cheetah are probably the best rappers on the show and I like seeing these reversals of the 2-guys-1-girl type of hip hop.

production on the Rainbow mini is surprising, makes me feel hopeful about this year for k-pop. the single is probably my least favorite song tbh and Pierrot is probably my favorite. when that synth pad comes in oof

damn i cannot fuckin wait to hear this thing i've heard so much strong hype

um. one of the best minis ever?

several are (unbelievably) close, but yeah, "pierrot" just fucking slays everything. this is one of my all-time favorite k-pop songs, no question...it is so fucking virtuoso man i wanna scream and punch a wall

the manic weirdo verse into the perfect tension-building prechorus, pop valhalla chorus, filter fill back into the weirdo verse...the pacing is golden ratio double rainbows. idol raps are usually the weak point but the rap couplet here is *perfect* and just enough, i just can't believe how on point this thing is

Snippet of Zion.T and Crush's 2013 duet "Two Melodies" on Sketchbook (showcases their chemistry much MUCH more - and you should rewind for the beginning of the interview too, it's interesting):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGpWUQPQ6m4#t=2184

"I was hailing a cab in Hongdae when he came up to me, said he was a musician and asked me to listen to his song."

Oops no timestamp. It's at #t=2184. The whole set is great though.

If all slightly generic cute k-pop sounded as good as this it could (almost) be a source of catnip tuneage on the same level as AKB style j-pop formula

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H85SIUCY_I

better yet is their shockingly sweet, cheery rendition of a few choice megan trainer lines ("naked in your bed," "kiss my ass goodbye") in this new promo vid. it's hysterical. (at 1:30)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_uYPY2B93w&feature=youtu.be

also, hey, K-Pendium entry 3 - Wonder Girls' "Nobody."

http://www.k-pendium.com/003

if you're beautiful you can even vote for what group/artist i analyze next by doing this thing: http://www.k-pendium.com/vote/

That Lovelyz song is great!

LE is a co-writer on quite a few Shinsadong tracks now.. I listened to the new Fiestar single, heard 'leggo' and immediately went to check and yep, there she is.

new fiestar isn't A-level, but the first two lines of each pre-chorus are…the production on that is one of my favorite-sounding things right now

new 4minute interview! https://twitter.com/soyrev/status/573188575472168960

haha abcfsk very astute of you. the song's pretty good imo and it helps that the vocalists are relatively distinguishable. vid is gorgeous too but could definitely do without the way too obvious butt shots

good interview jakob. love how jihyun says '"Cold Rain” may be the only song that does justice to Gayoon’s beautiful voice.' :3

nice interview! did you do it in person or over email, soyrev?

Surprisingly great track from rookie group B.I.G.:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYKwqDLc9vo

check the bigroom EDM breakdown at 2:35

Close To Me from BoA's 2014 Japan tour http://www.oeker.net/bbs/board.php?bo_table=japan&wr_id=2163758

holy moly that BIG song is great. also a huge fan of that sweater that has polka dots on the bottom half, would totally wear that

It's surprisngly great!

All's I know about B.I.G. is one of them was admitted to Julliard but is doing this instead, and their first single was landfill fun-boyband electro. If they keep it up they could turn into Z:EA (hopefully with a better career trajectory).

EXO new single is out in LQ. It's called "Call Me Daddy". They're no longer just following Super Junior in their marketing, they're now getting Suju's castoff title tracks as well.

Album tracks are more tortured and promising:

https://soundcloud.com/namja124/150307-exoluxion-exo-new-track-3-shes-so-dangerous

https://soundcloud.com/namja124/150307-exoluxion-exo-new-track-4

Honestly they should just go theatrical-dark. Half of them are in the hospital half the time anyway.

Yeon-Du goes solo! Woo! (Been waiting for that.)

'EXO new single is out in LQ. It's called "Call Me Daddy". They're no longer just following Super Junior in their marketing, they're now getting Suju's castoff title tracks as well.'

lol, brilliant. not interested in "call me daddy" at all musically, sounds like that one jonas brothers hit. "overdose" era was way moodier, weirder, more interesting

To be clearer, it's not their martketing that's Suju-like, it's their SM-projected career arc. But that's a self-fulfilling prophecy, ain't it...

Speaking of Super Junior though:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bq_6kPqtA1k&t=94

Plot twist!

There's also the this one: http://youtu.be/aqHXrhkS3F0

Like that westernish whistling hook

Though it gets old by the end of the song

I don't know why I posted those... (ilxor's regret)

yeah D&E is continuing the trend of SM solos i don't care about 2015. taemin held a much higher standard last year.

part 2 if anyone's interested (scroll down to 'the story'). includes such fun details as wonder girls' awful nickelodeon movie, and what the city of new york had to say about JYP's business methods: http://www.k-pendium.com/003/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ap7AlBxeaFg

honestly don't know what to make of it just yet. if that's the chorus, i don't think i'm going to love it. but ga-in hasn't let me down yet and this is her most ambitious project yet, so i'm still very hopeful

yea i'm in the same boat, we'll see though. still have high hopes for the mini and march in general. anyone see the new stellar trailer? http://youtu.be/qZ_oF4ReBhk the fact the video starts with them looking at negative comments about themselves is kind of awesome

Ga In sounds great

stellar trailer sounds like it could be some SES vibes. into it

ga-in soon, miss a later this month, red velvet (with new member), EXID's do or die moment next month, big bang and ikon and winner sometime this year, CL's american debut, EXO and SNSD's attempts to rejustify their existences...and 4minute and rainbow have already put out the best minis of their careers. definitely shaping up to be the most exciting year for k-pop since at least 2012.

And BoA..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4i32ANEa5mk

video and choreography are great. song has a lot of interesting elements but it's not really clicking with me at the moment. but i'd say it's the best on the mini (which is kind of lackluster after one listen)

Looking at the product itself, Hwang Soo-Ah's note and Loen Tree PD Jo Yeong-cheol's comments: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=460914014065906&id=100004419340159&substory_index=0

-it seems their goal was to re-write Eve's narrative and confront Milton's.. which reminded me strongly of some passages from "Shirley", and any chance at quoting Charlotte Brontë I'll take:

"Milton's Eve! Milton's Eve! I repeat. No, by the pure Mother of God, she is not! Cary, we are alone; we may speak what we think. Milton was great; but was he good? His brain was right; how was his heart? He saw heaven; he looked down on hell. He saw Satan, and Sin his daughter, and Death their horrible offspring. Angels serried before him their battalions; the long lines of adamantine shields flashed back on his blind eyeballs the unutterable splendour of heaven. Devils gathered their legions in his sight; their dim, discrowned, and tarnished armies passed rank and file before him. Milton tried to see the first woman; but, Cary, he saw her not."

"You are bold to say so, Shirley."

"Not more bold than faithful. It was his cook that he saw; or it was Mrs. Gill, as I have seen her, making custards, in the heat of summer, in the cool dairy, with rose-trees and nasturtiums about the latticed window, preparing a cold collation for the rectors—preserves and 'dulcet creams;' puzzled 'what choice to choose for delicacy best; what order so contrived as not to mix tastes, not well-joined, inelegant, but bring taste after taste, upheld with kindliest change.'"

"All very well too, Shirley."

"I would beg to remind him that the first men of the earth were Titans, and that Eve was their mother; from her sprang Saturn, Hyperion, Oceanus; she bore Prometheus——"

"Pagan that you are! what does that signify?"

"I saw — I now see — a woman-Titan. Her robe of blue air spreads to the outskirts of the heath, where yonder flock is grazing; a veil white as an avalanche sweeps from her head to her feet, and arabesques of lightning flame on its borders. Under her breast I see her zone, purple like that horizon; through its blush shines the star of evening. Her steady eyes I cannot picture. They are clear, they are deep as lakes, they are lifted and full of worship, they tremble with the softness of love and the lustre of prayer. Her forehead has the expanse of a cloud, and is paler than the early moon, risen long before dark gathers. She reclines her bosom on the ridge of Stilbro' Moor; her mighty hands are joined beneath it. So kneeling, face to face she speaks with God. That Eve is Jehovah's daughter, as Adam was His son."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSEtAC8wkhw

cuts out jay park's part so is consequently one minute shorter from the full version. i think it actually might be my favorite on the mini at this point. i think jay park's voice is well-suited for the tone of the song. vid is wonderful. she also performed both songs live: https://youtu.be/cpwnSy2XyLY she isn't really singing for paradise lost but man she kills it with the choreo (and surprised that she actually did it live/it wasn't at least partially banned)

NEW CHOI SAM MIXTAPE

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B_9TKXhUcAEj7qZ.jpg

https://soundcloud.com/choisam/sets/vol-7-mixtape

i like "paradise lost" -- better concept than song, but still good. rest of mini was more obviously a letdown for me. wasn't really expecting a song on the level of a "fxxk u" or "tinkerbell" (maybe a "bloom"), but still. an entire concept-themed mini was a great idea, the promo images were perfect, and if anyone can pull this kind of thing off in k-pop it's ga-in...just bummed it didn't work out that way

Song is so much better than Bloom, as much as I loved everything else about Bloom.

holy shit dude

I loved Step 2/4 as an EP, otherwise I've been mostly interested in her as performer of big, k-pop shattering singles, and I think this song fully delivers as that. The bridge is amazing and the rest of the song can't quite live up to that, but the industrial sort of weight of the chorus and that dance routine is more than enough.

just very surprised to find an ilxor k-pop fan who would put this song over something as tight and relentless as "bloom"..."paradise lost" is def strong though, and the video's most inspired moments do help

I thought it was generally agreed Bloom is an IU b side.

Red Velvet working with f(x)'s art director for their comeback

http://i.imgur.com/FTs6ZPB.jpg

Speaking of concepts

Make that SM's art director, since she's not exclusive to f(x)

http://omonatheydidnt.livejournal.com/11846990.html <-- interview re Growl and Pink Tape

Madtown bringing the Kpop ADD in the best way:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8BVlWl2VeI

This is what I wanted from Boys Republic and Myname's trap-lite pop songs (that were too Lite and not enough Trap). I hope they murder it live.

It's especially great from 2:30 forward

"bloom" is a great prince or madonna b-side, my man. objectively cuts anything in the IU discog (much as i dig her), except when we get into the gray area of comparing Ga-In's best straight-up pop tune to the perfect weirdo gems IU has ("4AM," "a lost puppy"; shiina ringo at her straightforward best, basically). but weirdo for weirdo, Ga-In wins too, and would over just about anyone in korean music history. fucking nothing touches "tinkerbell." one of the best productions/arrangements i've ever heard.

jay park is such a blemish on "apple." enough to make me prefer the truncated video edit.

pretty sure at 0:30 (in the video) that madtown track uses the same sample (pack?) as f(x)'s "boom bang boom."

speaking of red velvet and f(x), anyone hear their two new (deleted) track preview leaks? totally pink tape-type shit, and the thing for which i'm most excited rn for sure. one is like glitchy pitchshifted 8-bit dubstep pop (kind of like tinie tempah "earthquake" meets first album sleigh bells), and the other is "all night" meets "ballad of dorothy parker." scary to hear SM making f(x) material not for f(x)...but for now, i'll take it.

here's the more conservative of the two

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=px2Q47O0_eE

i'm in a cafe in gangnam and not gonna be that white dude blatantly scoping the new k-pop vid on his laptop, so just audio for now...really wish the vocals were mixed a bit lower to give that gorgeous beat some room to shine. musically so much better than "be natural," but drowned out like this the overall effect is basically identical.

dig it though. like someone said on the youtube, really a smooth janet jackson vibe...would not be surprised if (like "all night") teddy riley's behind this one. judging by "growl," this could be a shin hyuk tune too. those are my two best bets.

scary to hear SM making f(x) material not for f(x)

Yeah.. sure hope we'll be seeing f(x) again this year. Automatic is good though.

It's got a smooth vibe for sure. Music video is rumored to be inspired by 1971 b-movie The Velvet Vampire... a bit sleezy but in an artsy way. I think you're right about the pitch of the vocals though, soyrev.

i'm in a cafe in gangnam and not gonna be that white dude blatantly scoping the new k-pop vid on his laptop
lmao. personally, enjoying the song quite a bit. Be Natural definitely seemed like practice for this or something, or to show the two different (musical) sides of Red Velvet that the company seems comfortable working with at the moment + how well these girls can dance. Even in the context of what was happening in 2000, Be Natural sounds a tiny bit bland so it consequently sounds like that now though to be fair, A Letter from Greenland is the only early kpop girl group album that i care about from front to back. Automatic definitely relies less on the production to drive the song forward (Be Natural sounds so monolithic to me; everything about it blends together and the vocalizing is more used as an accessory tool) so that consequently gives weight to some of the intonations. Video is generally pretty great. Would like to see a dance version/practice vid.

also, gonna chime in say that i'm probably more interested in ga-in as a performer as well. i personally don't like most of her (or BEG's) music. I absolutely love Bloom though; Tinkerbell has amazing production and all but Bloom's chorus is one of my favorite k-pop choruses ever. And I'd rather have straightforward production with a catchy hook over forward-thinking production and a mediocre hook (see: 90% of the american r&b underground). yes the dude who writes IU's stuff wrote it but 1) its video definitely still feels fresh with its portrayal of sexuality in retrospect (since you know, this was 2012 and the surge of overtly sexual mvs has a totally different approach to the topic) and 2) it's one of very very few palpably sensual songs i know that treats sexual discovery as something so precious (off the top of my head another would be bjork's cocoon).

Apple is really great though imo. now that i've watched the video multiple times and the weather's getting nicer it just continues to grow on me. cutting out Jay Park's verse is maybe for the better (I wish pop artists/producers would embrace songs around the 2 min range) but his voice works regardless. Can't think of a Korean rapper who could provide a better fit for such a feel-good song. San-E is a touch too goofy and a lot of other people coming to my mind have voices that are too harsh, serious/formal (think: wheesung), or simply couldn't rap while changing rhythm and tone in such an effortlessly cool manner. Would definitely want to dance to this at a wedding. or anywhere.

The last lines of Jay Park's two verses are both delivered really well and it especially makes the second one believable. Such a flirty song. Gonna go hug someone now.

Forgot to xpost this, but Nu'est have a really nice "for the fans" ballad out at the moment:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFGmvS8SejY

With main vocal Baekho out for vocal surgery, the other four get a chance to show what they can do, which turns out to be a lot.

nice to see some old school k-pop talk on here, but Letter from Greenland is pretty spotty imo. Love is SES' masterpiece -- much bigger hooks, bolder experimentation, smarter arrangements...all broken up by a series of charming spoken word skits over lounge and field recording ambient. i'd say it's one of the best '90s RnB albums period.

"Be Natural sounds so monolithic to me" -- i like that. same is true of the original. too bad the gratuitous manrap breaks the spell in both takes.

re: "apple," i mean sure, jay park's voice fits the beat and is a functional foil for ga-in's. but it pushes the song's feel in the wrong direction and more than anything completely ruins kim eana's smart fall-from-innocence allegory with references to The Hulk and other stupidity. such is what you risk when you invite a rapper to your finished song to add his own words. (granted, it's not jay's fault; just a bad idea to have a rap on this track at all.)

the more i think about it the more this ga-in mini bums me out. back at the drawing board it really had potential to be the greatest k-pop statement to date.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glXgSSOKlls

as a song, on first two listens: so many great ideas, but a bit of a mess as they're arranged here. a decent editor could've made a big difference. i'm also not so sure about the toplines in this one and "automatic." the beats are incredible and the vocal parts do have their moments, but i'm left feeling there could have been better ideas.

then again, "red light" felt like a mess at first, too, and now it's one of my favorite k-pop songs. so i'll give it a couple days. no chance this wasn't originally written for f(x), by the by -- you can hear whose voice was supposed to be doing what. (red velvet have potential, but at this point i don't see them as f(x)'s equal in any way. vocal differentiation, visual profile, and final product standard for f(x) was always a notch above.)

very secondary concern to me but the video seems kinda unfocused too

Love is my second favorite but oh god i can't think highly of those skits (first off there are way too many on an album i find a bit too long) and idk dude i feel like "field recording ambient" is speaking highly of something that i find is akin to like, really cheesy korean commercials that air all the time (and even more so back then). there's a pleasant gentleness to it that is very much korean but it's neither unique, holds up, or warrants such a large chunk of the album imo. it's an experience i find similar to hearing yiruma for more than like 15 minutes. i think i'd put it and Greenland among my favorite r&b albums of the 90s but I don't think there were a ton of strong ones in the first place (though, it's not like that's a necessarily bad thing; evaluating pop [or hip hop, or all dance music, or all music in 2015 tbh] by the strength of full-length releases is the wrong way to measure how great a certain scene/genre/artist is).

I personally don't think Jay Park ruins the feel of the song and the only line that I think the lyrical incongruity could be applicable to is the hulk line, which is only a fault in my mind because it's a total missed opportunity of mentioning a snake :3 like, that "there won't be any reason to hide" line is clearly a reference to the original story. but whatever, all a matter of personal preference in the end.

oh, was referring to the original song being monolithic when i mentioned it but yeah of course both are. i like it but i think the rap is really what seems off and makes that sort of approach feel wasted. still a great song though of course.

Ok, my first listen of Ice Cream Cake I definitely thought that it was a bunch of great ideas that came together poorly but I'm on my third listen now and I'm already digging it a lot more. Song is actually pretty well mixed imo, really dig what the drums are doing on the song. Pacing is definitely a bit stunted at points but I'm feeling the song overall. Best part of the video is 100% the costuming for me.

yeah didn't mean to make it sound like the skits are high art or anything. and while there are quite a lot of them, and a bit oddly positioned, they're super charming and the abundance of great pop between them is staggering. idk any k-pop album as weird, personable, and consistently great.

also jay park reference to "door" is anachronistic since there was no such thing in the garden. in general ga-in's lyrics walk a nice line where it could either be about tasting the apple or sexin' in public, whereas jay park's are super blunt and off the mark. his voice just makes it sound cheap to boot imo

LOVE ice cream cake on first listen. love love love. Though f(x) would kill it even better.

Though it does have Amber-Shake That Brass's problem where the chorus seems a bit stale the third time it comes around. Used to Kpop mixing it up a bit more.

Top 5 of the moment Ice Cream Cake, Wiggle Wiggle, New World, C.R.A.Z.Y., I'm Bad, though that could be the sleep deprivation talking. I guess I like those cheap-sounding, cut-above-average dance single songs.

yep. 'ice cream cake' was clearly made for f(x), and it begs for some of amber and krystal's idiosyncrasies. vocals feel monotonous here. they also haven't really found compelling personas for themselves yet so watching them is a bore too. love how the rap sounds, though, cute but tough as hell somehow :D

and yeah, for this kind of berserker track, you really need fireworks in the final stretch. also, it's partially a problem of vocal differentiation (/lack thereof) and partially mastering, but the beat here is INCREDIBLE and it's such a damn shame that its beautiful details get drowned out 90% of the time. same with "automatic." f(x) always had a way of delivering huge hooks while still giving the track plenty of space to shine.

also that "3, 2, 1," transition into the chorus is great but you can really only use that kinda thing once. second time around it feels like the canned sample it is.

i think the transition into the chorus here is my biggest gripe, "red light" felt deliberate in its discontinuity but this one feels like a weirdo move they're not quite pulling off.

Do you still like the RAINBOW mini, soyrev? Because I kinda dragged it tomorrow's singles jukebox.

The most easily distinguished member of Red Velvet is Joy. I think they're gonna get pulled in her direction (aegyo-ish) if only because she's the most recognizeable one.

Cube's new girlgroup has a debut single out. It sounds like "Hoi Hoi".

Unsure where to put this but B2ST have an *awesome* Japanese song out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzV329JZy1s&t=65

hurricane weather we can't be boys

Kim Eana put out a book about how she writes. I might get it.

http://img.mbn.co.kr/filewww/news/other/2015/03/19/100191111955.JPG

oh damn. are you fluent? i would kill for fluency rn...at least 20% just to read that book.

do you know if she's only a lyric writer, or is she involved in the music as well? most of the ways i've seen it documented online seem to imply the former, but there's not a lot of thought/attention given to these matters in english...

???

You gotta use small words, I haven't slept more than 4 hours a night all week

You mean we can't be friends? 'Cause I was never gonna be a boy to begin with

yeah not literal boys

Crayon Pop did their new song called "FM" at their SXSW appearance tonight. It's insanely catchy.

xp I studied Korean at Yonsei Uni for a year+. Reading that book should be fine, one about politics / the economy, probably not so much.

I've called Kim Eana the creative director at Loen Tree before, and I think that's pretty much true. She doesn't compose music, no, but her powers seem significant. I've been thinking about asking her or her husband on social media for actual position, but I guess they'd try to downplay it. Every time BEG, Ga-In, IU or one of those people are getting ready for a comeback you'll see her discussing the thought process behind their concept, style, music, and we've seen bts photos of her working closely with the artists leading up comebacks. I think there's a core team at Loen Tree and for example she and MV director / photographer Hwang Soo Ah seem to decide on art direction. She's referred to as 작사 / 'writer' in Korean media too, though.

Check out this radio appeareance together with the Brown Eyed Girls a few years ago where they say 'you can almost say that she's our CEO' https://youtu.be/2mHjwpDfX7U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mu-IXWPPgJI

@abc that's great. i've always wanted to interview her but now i need to. if she's the brains behind ga-in and BEG she's responsible for much of the all-time best pop out of korea. you did the intensive yonsei program for over a year? do you live here or what? that's a big commitment! (how was it?)

so new crayon pop wildcard is basically a robyn song w/ an idol rap bridge. i doubt it'll be the second wind they've been chasing, but i've been surprised before. in a way i hear echoes of korean pop's unfunky disco past in there, which could help it...

their choreography is gonna help them again, that mecha move is great

I lowered my expectations for idol rappers after Zico but Rapmon knows where it's at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XAxf8aFtL4

AND ALSO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgXnz56LwXg

Weirdly reminds me of Amber's song in parts but this is obviously the original

wowwww that rap monster track. i've never heard a beat/song that sounds quite like this before -- am i missing something obvious? something tenably original out of an idol rapper (korean rap in general, really) would really be something!

oh lol, it's off a mixtape and rapmon just used a major lazer instrumental (really weird that they'd make a video for that?). kind of more interesting that way, though, given it's such a substantive meditation on authenticity in korea(n rap). giving them each a couple listens, i honestly think he uses the beat so much better than pharrell/ML do -- that hook is just perfect, and the lyrics are far more interesting than the original's drug wordplay (great as that is here). had this beat come out of korea this song would be a full-blown revolution but even as a mixtape jack it's gonna change things.

It's great right? His agency originally picked the much less interesting Awakening as the single so my expectations weren't high. "Do You" made me check out the mixtape (it's track 2). Sadly most of the tracks have more traditional/dated instrumentals and flows, though... Though I kinda like Drop which sounds like one of Bangtan's Cypher tracks.

He's also a feature on MFBTY's album... and has a track with Warren G out.

soy, I don't live there anymore. This was fall 2012 to xmas 2013. I did it while doing some freelance work for publications here. It was the kind of 'free' year others spend travelling before settling down, and I wanted to spend learning a different language in Asia. The intensive program is very good - to pat myself on my back I did quite well, while some other western students found it too grammar intensive and hard. Anyway the Yonsei style worked for me but some of the other unis offer courses perhaps with a slightly different focus. There should be plenty of non-full time alternatives, also at the unis, if you want to have a go.

Though on the topic of Rapmon's mixtape, there's also "Joke", the track after "Do You", which has that hitchhiker sound:

https://youtu.be/UWI9aTAZen8?t=15m27s

At 15:27 in case the timestamp doesn't work

I'm glad I can watch these routines without having to sit through the plot again

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlnQvUEGzwg

lmao

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXtIEzgcFwo

Preferred to title track... also Zion.T has a similar sad/lurching song out outta nowhere "Zero Gravity" https://youtu.be/P6smRvfNDL4

updating my sad-christmas playlist as I type this

Laboum's mini is quite good!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=771a_-0NlUY&list=PL6zGSUU4Cv9cmFq4no9TOi_Zlj83OmckG&index=3

Saving a space for when the Sugar Sugar video comes out... but all three tracks are pleasant

Whoops didn't think that would post as a video. You'll want to go to the first track in the playlist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tna90t2je-4

Woah they have a budget! The teasers for the MV made it seem like they were gonna go the charmingly low-budget route.

EXO's album is out. Liking the third track ("What if...") and the last track ("Beautiful") so far. "Hurt" and "El Dorado" are pretty strong too.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLS2NlIc8M7S0aAFm76Ub_nB89luQ0C3hs

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLS2NlIc8M7S1A4BqZ925Fsf4cWOM5gvRB

Title track "Call Me Baby" sounds better in Chinese

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3q2KXABpq0&index=10&list=PLS2NlIc8M7S1A4BqZ925Fsf4cWOM5gvRB

halfway through it right now. definitely the retrenchment that "call me baby" suggested -- these songs are way more conservative than any of their previous material -- but it has its moments. i'll agree that "what if" is a highlight, and for some reason i find myself liking "call me" way more than i first thought i would. still hoping there's something as weird as "love love love" or "wolf" on here, but guessing that won't be the case.

"playboy" pretty sick, as well -- the persistent falsetto backing lines are a really nice touch.

*yes* to the breakdown in "hurt"

breakdown in "lady luck," as well

man, why do i keep coming back to "call me baby?" :B

haven't been here for a bit but yeah so this new EXO album is sooo good. and the new Miss A mini is sooo disappointing.

It's not very adventurous but it is a solid recap of their vocalists' strengths.

EXO-M (sans Luhan) sound better than expected though the Mandarin lyrics are reportedly as terrible as always.

"Playboy" was written by Jonghyun!

I keep wondering why "EXODUS" isn't the title track.

I mean, Call Me Baby is a stronger song, but EXODUS is the title of their album and has a hella sticky chorus.

The tracklisting is really good on this album.

"El Dorado" and "Playboy" moving up the ranks.

the new Miss A single has nothing to do with why i'm here for k-pop -- it's super conservative, almost stale-sounding as a production -- but the melodies are just so strong that it keeps reeling me back. very 2007/2008 chorus with a 2009 verse, but the topline seals it.

N.Sonic's "Black Out" is decent for a hook song... I know I mentioned it before but here it is again with an MV:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MO2yiJzSqYU

And here's the MV for Zion.T's "Zero Gravity" which is his strongest song in a while:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6smRvfNDL4

LE doing eeerrything on the new Exid album

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CBrGuKeW8AAiwFK.jpg

http://cache.clien.net/cs2/data/file/park/20150403232614_6BpTHwxr_exid6.jpg

Indeed, indeed

Okay, so I've made a sort of effort to try to keep up here but Spotify is terrible for hunting this stuff unless you're familiar with the crews / labels / bands / language.

I'm going to pass off K-Pop but the list is live and collaborative if anyone is willing to pick up the mantle? Here's where she be:

Rolling K-Pop 2015 Thread Spotify Playlist

Lee Moonsae gently nudging you to get off your computer/phone and clean your room:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?t=210&v=smVvQVCtka4

The first track on his new album ("New Direction") is excellent as well.

EXID's mini album preview is out, sounds amazing so far:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bznhU0vPVk

Ten tracks - including Up&Down and Every Night! - makes it p. much a regular album, am excite.

There's also Bastarz (Block B's P.O. with B-Bomb and U-Kwon thrown in for "service")'s mini album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjWURdzzqs0

Doesn't compare with EXID, but might (surprisingly) be the strongest of all the Block B solo things so far. (but #justiceforparkkyung)

new snsd :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b09U0KLv6I4

Sounds like a BoA B-side... which is another way of saying it sounds like something could have come out in 2011.

I always get the feeling when I watch SNSD's Japanese PVs that the videos were edited frame by frame to make their arms thinner.

I actually like the b-side "Girls" tho https://youtu.be/58PhZhzX55I

i really liked the sound of "ah yeah" from the teaser video. the original album preview that had a female voice (LE's?) doing the whisper part was more to my liking, i hope that's in the final version...but either way, it seems like they're going to hit it out of the park on the charts. looking forward to them cementing their status, since between their two power vocalists, hani's...presence, and LE's composition skills (plus the best rap voice in k-pop) they're definitely a stronger team than any household girl group in a long time.

not able to watch/hear the new SNSD but from what i've read i'm pretty sure i won't care for it. a jaoanese comeback is a japanese comeback, though -- never counts in my book, and if one winds up being good it's just a nice bonus.

SNSD are being outclassed by groups you've never heard of:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?t=17&v=LsnlHYn12K4

(Not in dance skills, obviously.)

"Pocket Girls" are so obviously trying to be the next Badkidz it's not even funny, but this song is genuinely pretty catchy. Apparently it was written by the "Gwiyomi Player" guy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUGQ7Tz4os0

If only he was less detailed and obsessive... as-is I think JYP could have passed on the booty craze and no one would've cried over it

Anyway I think this is a nominee for Rolling Worst of 2015

haven't heard yet, but that's a shame. with the momentum Miss A has right now, it would've been nice to have a mini-JYPE renaissance this year. it'd be sad to see the label go after all this time.

speaking of Miss A, though, "Only You" is doing unreal numbers here. most #1 hits on Instiz seldom have more than points in the high 100s at any given moment. 200s, sometimes. Miss A has been well over 300 with this track ever since it came out. (in comparison, "Call Me Baby" by the mighty EXO -- despite all its success on youtube and the music shows -- has been hovering in the 130s pretty much since release, on the same day as Miss A.)

now that i mention its youtube numbers, though, this reminds me that their video is pretty pervy (Miss A looking hot in their apartment and around town is fine, but to do it all through the perspective of a peeping tom/stalker is pretty dicey) and from what i understand this JYP music video is just JYP ogling asses in the gym. i know JYPE's songs and videos are all really c. 2007, but...

but damn, EXO. nearly 20 million official youtube views in a week. (and millions more across different live uploads, CD rips, etc) i wonder how this compares to the typical youtube arc of a 1D or primetime Bieber video.

The song itself isn't bad, it's the lyrics the awkwardness of JYP's detailed personality combined with his topic (in otherwords the lyrics) that makes the song bad. Plus JYP's in a mentor role to teenagers so you don't want to see him acting like a teenage horndog.

I've been enjoying Miss A's Only You a lot, it's well-done in an understated way.

To be fair he's always acted the same way. You've got to laugh a little at JYP, he's fundamentally a well-meaning dude I think, but he's not totally in control of himself and ends up stumbling not infrequently.

I've been monitoring Miss A's chart success. I knew they're a very popular group but I'm a bit confused - the song is very anonymous to me.

TBF, I'm a little more harsh on JYP than I might have been in the past because I mentor high school kids also... there's a certain responsibility to not be ridiculous when you do that.

Looking back, JYP was a little premature with the old-person makeup in "Had Enough Parties" (he's not *that* old)... the song about butts was still a bad idea though. It's like watching your favorite uncle buy a new, red sports car so he can show off his new yoga instructor GF.

YG has the best "pretending to enjoy the song" expression on Kpop Star during JYP's performance though.

@abcfsk i thought i mentioned this here, but i guess it was on reddit..."only you" is like the single most korea-sounding pop song of the past long while. the melodies are the exact kind of winding-yet-simple lines always present in the sellingest songs here (see also: "gee," "cherry blossom ending"), it's dramatic and urgent in a musical way (suzy's chorus, before the title bridge hook) that is nevertheless carefully sanitized in the production, the lyrics are endearingly desperate ("no other guy, only you") and entirely unchallenging (socially speaking), and it came to light just before release that suzy banged some rich dude she only knew for a month in a hotel in europe (which, as a super salacious revelation in korea, was the scandal wildcard: could have totally sunk the comeback if the song had a different vibe, but it now seems like the verdict on that was essentially a positive one and has led to further sales).

they're definitely a recognizable name, but aside from suzy they'd largely fallen out of the public imagination, and reading netizen comments prior to release it seems most people had written them off/were expecting it to flop. its level of success is a complete surprise to just about everyone, but makes a lot of sense now after hearing the song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egqDPipqIAg&feature=youtu.be

pretty sick. things i like: three or four totally distinct genres/grooves/emotional centers; an extremely self-reflexive and clever video, at times ("good enough" towards the end!!!!); lots and lots of hooks, even if they don't connect nearly as well as those in "up and down" did. things i don't: things not connecting nearly as well as those in "up and down" did; occasionally unintentional silliness in the video (the verse scenes of LE being really aggro and bratty were hilarious, mostly because of the hapless dude's reaction shots). and for a song with so much going on, section-to-section, it does feel strangely repetitive.

Oh yeah it's really obviously made up of separate parts... it took a while for the discrete parts of Up & Down to gel, so maybe this will be the same.

The video makes the song seem even more modular by including so few group shots. I wonder if that was on purpose and why they went in that direction if it was. Some kind of commentary modern technological alienation or just wanting to make sure every member of EXID gets her chance at the spotlight?

^commentary ON modern technological alienation...

Soljin has such a good voice.

finally watched the JYP. i guess after korea's had its musical successor to "blurred lines" (ga-in's "truth or dare," which fucking rules), it's getting its spiritual successor too. i actually kind of worry what this is going to do to women's already laden-to-high-heaven body image issues over here...

anyway not my thing, but speaking of Miss A's remarkable 300+ instiz run, their drop down to the 200s today has given JYP the chance to take it to the top. regardless of content i'm surprised to find myself grinning at this development -- when was the last time JYPE had the top two songs in all of korea? maybe there's gas in the tank yet.

Wow, the way LE's rap verses punctuate each verse! Such a great idea, gives the song buoyancy. But it took a few listens to get how it works and I wonder if it will be too clever for Up&Down-y chart success. If I ran the label I'd release the brilliant, funky 토닥토닥 as a buzz single and get people to know different sides of EXID before hitting back strong with a banger like this. Great mini-album.

Ah Yea is basically an answer song to JYP's intrusive questions about waist and hip sizes, etc, so it'd be hilarious if they made it to the top of the charts together.

http://i.imgur.com/vhcEjO5.png

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F32G-iOirbg

Listening to EXID's album now and it's totally the best

your wish has come true, hurricane. JYP and EXID are #1 and #2 on Instiz right now, respectively.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_I1HXMcOoM

I figured Jinusean's return after 14 years was a stall tactic for BigBang - because YG fans all know that YG can only focus on one group at a time, and seniority is the only acceptable excuse for not putting BigBang first - but this is a jam in its own right. High production values and lots of familiar bits and pieces... I hear Cry Cry (T-ara) and Come Back (AA), among others.

:D re: JYP and EXID

okay, "ah yeah" is at the point where i kinda love it. "up & down" is the better song, i think, but it's honestly pretty close.

lol okay, "up & down" just came on and this is clearly so much better. but props to "ah yeah" for being good enough to fool me a sec. ("up" really shines in how it's at least as multi-genre as "ah yeah" is, but every transition goes down so smooth you hardly even notice the shifts.)

pretty good mini, though, for sure. groups need to evolve past the requisite ballad stage to reach that next level (like f(x) did), but this is not a bad place to start at all.

In spite of the requisite ballad I thought Pink Tape was a better album than Red Light.

New Dal Shabet is very bad!

@abcfsk ah, i don't even really consider "goodbye summer" a "ballad" in the korean sense. it feels like a functional song, for one. though i guess that's a fair point.

and yes, pink tape > red light, though red light would still be worse off with a ballad a la "1M" or what have you.

new dal shabet single is crap, i'll still listen to the mini but hopes low

I can't believe Dal*Shabet went with the Joker as the theme on their mini, that's so 2013.

http://www.thefader.com/2015/04/15/interview-cl-from-2ne1-the-k-pop-star-whos-actually-about-to-cross-over

Most recent CL articles have been terrible press junket stuff but this one's actually good

"good" in the sense that it's honest? i think as press CL's team must be pretty upset about it. it's a cool portrait of someone trying to figure out two cultures at once, and the challenges facing k-pop stars in making the transition...but ultimately, it's like a sustained critique of how she needs to actually start being the "boss ass bitch" scooter told her to be.

that's exactly what I meant! very different from the picture of CL we usually get in the press.

it also seems to imply that the change CL needs to make it in the States will close her off from success (as an idol) in Korea.

"it also seems to imply that the change CL needs to make it in the States will close her off from success (as an idol) in Korea."

that's exactly the conundrum that's faced every k-pop star who's ever tried to make it in america. there are two very different (seemingly contradictory) sets of expectations for pop stars in these markets, if there's a way to truly reconcile them, nobody's found it yet.

"joker" might suck but this dal shabet track from their mini is classy perfection

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6QCjk8nW6Q

figured JYP's comeback song would be number one for a day then drop, but it's holding strong af. hitting the same numbers as miss A's recent high score. old dog must be over the moon

That song has grown on me a lot... JYP was pretty endearing in his hashtag interview about it https://youtu.be/VmjA6BoB1ng

In other news, Diplo reports that he has a track coming out with CL, Riff Raff and OG Maco on it o___O

I guess Maco was getting a lot of comments from Kpop/It G Ma fans and decided to hop on that train.

and never underestimate the power of diplo to get a bunch of different weirdos in a room together. personally, i'm most surprised to hear CL's second real track in america (after skrill) is going to have her next to fuckin' riff raff, of all people. YG probably didn't see that one coming, when they signed her with SB...

hopefully will be awesome. unclear as of yet whether this is a CL track or a diplo track.

I'm hoping Diplo... though considering how corny her English lyrics tend to be I don't have a lot of confidence in her English debut if she's writing.

Speaking of YG acts, I don't think the MV did justice to that Jinusean song. It sounds great at higher audio quality https://youtu.be/CWw9g_TMR-s

Yea I was legitimately surprised about that combination of artists (particulary OG Maco) and I'm genuinely interested in how it'll sound. It makes sense imo given the It G Ma success but even more, Maco /hates/ U Guessed It and is trying really hard to break free from the association he has with that single (which is understandable; he and the rest of Awful Records make a lot of great music and the majority of people are only interested in that song). He called the song garbage recently and even released a mixtape called "I Made This Shit Before U Guessed It" lmao. I mean, there is no way this is going to sound anything like what he's done on his previous mixtapes given the fact that he's collaborating with these people (both the rappers and Diplo) so this will be the nail in the coffin that solidifies his stance to his fans.

I'm generally a bigger fan of Diplo-produced tracks that have singing (be it with a rapper or not) but hopefully this turns out well. I'm assuming it'll sound like what we got on the Jack U album, which I found to be surprisingly decent, so I'm hoping for the best with this.

People get mad when k-pop fans bash CL's english lyrics but I honestly think her saying "i'm your girlfriend's lesbian crush" on Dirty Vibe sounds far more stilted and awkward than anything she's ever said in Korean (yes, even that 'bad meaning good' monologue). I'm all for CL trying to make it in the States but I'm a bit nervous :/

i'll prob never reach for it again, but Jack U record is awesome. it's like a Michael Bay production applied to generally weird, fun, interesting pop songs.

i do think CL's attempts to self-redefine for the US could be embarrassing (and so far she's yet to get her media game right), and i'm not a fan of the "dr. pepper" clip we've heard, but...i love every single thing about "dirty vibe." the tempo, production, harmonic emptiness, p much every last one of CL and g-dragon's lines (all the more impressive since apparently GD's english is not so good but his inflection is totally on point here), etc. CL is not yet the character she's chasing on "vibe" but it's proof that she can become her if she wants to.

'in Korean' --> 'in a Korean song' just to clarify.

And ugh I really hope CL really /proves/ that with this new song. I kind of also hope she doesn't abandon singing while in the US. "i've got 21 big brothers blehhh", for example, is one of those moments from CL where I think she nails her persona.

the short sample sort of dr pepper found her doing something halfway (which makes sense with the beat) and I think that might work better for her.

"I'm your girlfriend's lesbian crush" is awesome, I'm talking about stuff like "bad meaning good not bad meaning bad" and yeah, those horrendous Dr. Pepper lyrics

I personally find the "bad meaning good" bit to be endearingly bad but the "girlfriend's lesbian crush" bit sort of just makes me think of how far she is from sounding like Nicki or Beyonce on her last album or even Rihanna on BBHMM (though having Pour it Up come out 2 years prior helped). Just a personal/preference thing though I think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCrCUv6rQ7I

definitely one of my favorite debuts of the year. trying to recall what else i've liked this year and while a good chunk of them were good to great (g.soul, gfriend, clc, 1punch, shin zisu), this Oh My Girl song probably has the most replay value for me at the moment along with the KIXS (at least when speaking strictly of the song itself).

also lmao at how they're called Oh My Girl so their name can be shortened to OMG

ok scratch that I like this way more than the kixs song too

the tuplet snare action is great, and the orchestration in the bridge is nice (though a bit buried). def the most musically compelling of the recent 'oppa pop' songs, though most of those have been good in their own predictable way (g-friend, "luv," lovelyz).

EXID still #2, they're officially established now and can to some extent coast on popularity and expect a decent level of success with each release.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXPADwU05OQ

Surprised that Primary produced this. Digging it a good bit, though maybe not as much as the HIGH4 collab atm (loved the lyrics in that). Immediately thought of Purity Ring though I think I'm slightly misremembering what they actually sound like. But whatever, this has far better vocal melodies than anything I remember from their two albums.

after your description i was hoping that'd be the seo taiji/IU to purity ring's chvrches, but it's not that much better. the progression/bass does something a little unexpected at one turn, but as much as i don't care for purity ring i've definitely heard a song or two from them that's stronger.

not bad, though. interesting that lim kim is going more hip-hop/blog pop/blah blah after all that time being faux hongdae (heck, this is too come to think of it, but a very diff subscene of hongdae), although in this space i prefer her feature on "winter in haeundae"

don't mean faux hongdae as a diss btw, just re: overall sound/vibe/black skirts song credit

tao plz T_T

god being a father sounds scary

legitimately surprised that the new San E/Baek Yerin song was filmed in a 1:1 aspect ratio. definitely has to be the first kpop video to be filmed that way. presumably a result of Xavier Dolan's Mommy.

Considering all the rumors and whatnot, this note from tao's father seems like a pretty strong indication that tao is definitely going to leave.

Not sure how it works in the legal system there because tao isn't a minor but does it mean anything if tao's father signed a contract when he was a trainee (and minor)?

saw that giant post on omona on all of Tao's injuries... jesus. I mean I knew it was bad but I didn't realise how bad. those poor kids... EXO are seriously the saddest story in K-pop.

Some of those injuries seemed a bit played up for the media but the torn ligament looked way serious. And of course it's pure negligence when the concert stages aren't set up correctly and the artists aren't given time off to nurse old injuries.

While the world didn't need another asylum-themed MV, the chorus to this Cross Gene song is pretty fun https://youtu.be/XP7dMPSqtO0

Also, here's the Kpop innovation we were all waiting for... sax-hook trap https://youtu.be/96THVBRqJvY

"hopeless love" by jimin park kinda has that weeknd thing going on too. guess ariana put him on jyp's radar or sth

@forapper that UNIQ song is like p convincing b.i./bobby karaoke

wow expected nothing from Hotshot but "Rain On Me" is probably the best straightup r&b song out of korea so far

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94fx_DLsQWA

also warming up more to that Lim Kim single, it's persistent

****best straightup r&b out of korea _this far_ so far, lol

this /year/. gonna take the rest of the weekend off, i think...

jk. big bang "loser" sounds like a winner song (so does "bae bae," kinda)

I really like Loser! Daesung nails the feeling, TOP's part is a highlight as always, overall the instrumental isn't as complex as Blue's but I'm more convinced that they really feel sad. It has a sing-song children's song part toward's the end that makes it sound like a Big Bang song.

GD's rap part is like "Black" 2.0.

Bae Bae I dunno, the melody is interesting but the instrumental seems a bit bare.

Hotshot are really consistent with their sound.

the angst in "blue" feels much realer to me. in any event, very curious that YG decided to break the 3-year silence with a two-sided ballad single

It worked in 2012 (with Blue)... maybe he's following the blueprint (excuse my pun)

Hotshot are such good vocalists. I really liked their recent single "Watch Out" too https://youtu.be/UeFq-g0uTEo

soyrev, what about Nu'est's "I'm Bad" (aka a top-10 single of 2015 according to Soompi)? https://youtu.be/fYyV6Gi4sJw

There's also Mr Mr's "Out" which just came out yesterday https://youtu.be/vGwZxPNb5uM

So many chill rnb boyband songs to choose from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGwZxPNb5uM

@forapper yes, though that wait had been less than a third the wait. didn't really feel that nu'est single when it came out

"Loser" does sound like a Winner song, haha. structure-wise, it's pretty much Blue 2.0 - Seungri leading the chorus, everyone else with their own verse, Taeyang on the bridge. it's kinda boring imo but Korea will prob love it.

The Hotshot track is much better.

Mr.Mr., as usual, elevating a so-so song with great vocals and terrible dancing. I think I root for them so much cause they try so hard even though they're a mess... those patterned suits are at least two seasons behind in K-pop trends.

#teamroz

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAdDsmJZsno

GD bringing those "I do a lot of pills" vocals, and all five of them sounding a lot more alike than they do on record (which was true when I saw them live as well)

Maybe if we root for Bae Bae hard enough they'll make it the single and "Loser" the B-side

by the way, I have a theory that GD has style icon for each comeback that he models his looks and performance after... Michigo's was Zion T, Fantastic Baby's was Skrillex, High High's was Pete Wentz, Bae Bae's is Rihanna?

*waits for Roz to skillfully weigh in*

Woke up with this stuck in my head after only listening it to a couple times a few days ago, so here it is embedding for stickiness:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96THVBRqJvY

Let the record state that the black-suit-jacket-over-patterned shirt is a look EXO recently rocked on Call Me Baby (in what was probably a deliberate nod to the Suju-ness of that song), while the red suits are a look VIXX recently rocked on Love Equation. The patterned suits, no comment, except that MRMR are tall so they look good in suits.

PROOF SHOT. My personal fav of all the looks VIXX tried out this comeback, increases the bonkers quotient of the song by at least 50%

imo "call me baby" wrecks like 99% of suju's discog, though true it's the most suju-sounding thing they've ever done.

@forapper GD definitely has clear and simple style references for his image(s), like all k-pop stars, for sure. musically, too – you can hear him swiping chance the rapper's adlib squawks on the stages that he did with taeyang on that Rise album duet of theirs

Oh yeah the magpie instinct is strong with that one.

By the by, since I'm just made of time these days (aha...), and since forksclovetofu said he was giving up on the spotify playlist for this thread, here's YT playlist of most all of what's been embedding so far, roughly from newest to oldest. (I swapped out some of my own - also took some liberties with the song order to put similar tracks next to each other.) If I missed anything crucial let me know!

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsh4Z5FNfPMBl9mgoSZewSdBiG3ZRS_d4

lol forapper. GD's current style inspiration is Beck, and not just because I keep singing "I'm a loser, bae bae" to myself (I can't be the only one right?). All those YSL suits with 70s silhouettes = Beck.

@roz tzechar was telling me the same thing, but i just now realized that this is way more plausibly deliberate post-beck AOTY grammy. hilarious

Glad to be wrong just so I could learn that

soyrev, exactly what I was thinking esp with the Kanye connection. haha.

Liking this new Lim Kim track, even though I think Awoo is just a bit better. Great beat:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKlJXpjeYC8

definitely prefer "awoo" but this isn't bad, and wow, feels weird to finally think that a blond-dyed/blue-contacts look actually really works. props (y)

Listening to the new BTS mini and track 2 has a Massive Chorus in English(tm)

couple mehs (incl. "love game" for me), but Lim Kim's new mini kills. "No More" and "먼저 말해" are great album cuts, and in general there is way more taste and restraint here than some entire years of k-pop output. between stuff like "Awoo" and "Upgrader" it sure took k-pop a while to get around to that bloghouse pop/Purity Ring/Lorde kinda sound but it works really well on her.

must also be said she has a pretty great back catalog of music that is nothing like her new stuff, too. and she's only 21. if mystic89 keeps it up i can see her having one of the best discogs in k-pop by the time she's ga-in's age.

The interesting thing about Love Game is that it made me realize how it's pretty rare to hear a K-pop song comfortably utilize a singer's vocals for the purpose of a cut-up melody.
I've only heard the mini in full once but I didn't care for it aside from the singles and No More. Pleasant enough and good production but not really my thing.

And K-pop is always behind on trends anyway so that's expected I guess.

behind on trends, and yet visionary in how to synthesize and redirect them (consciously or not). that's the main appeal – for me, anyway.

I like K-pop for that too but I've never been under the impression that it's something that happens frequently. Like, outside of SM artists and a few other artists it's definitely not the norm?

Like, that's the same reasoning the late 70s/80s for Japan is so interesting to me and that whole era seemed far more forward-thinking than what I would consider to be happening in K-pop.
K-pop for me, I think, has always been how it appropriates pop tropes into something suitable for its own culture or simply has expert songwriting.

I don't think it's limited to SM.. but also it can take different forms. Like CCM / (earlier) T-Ara building on retro Korean pop sounds that at the time built on a Japanese mutation of western sounds.

Also I think it's established and agreed on that a certain kpop 'sound' exists, forward-thinking or not, that goes beyond a song's quality. In k-pop circles and in pop talk circles in general - you'll hear people talk about western pop songs sounding like a k-pop song, perhaps songs with a certain hyperactive, layered energy to them, not to mention in this thread.

EXID's "Ah Yeah", for example, borrows dance saxophones, but is otherwise a wholly native k-pop song that you don't hear anywhere else.

"Uptown Funk" is a Kpop song

That's why it's selling so well in Korea

Oh I don't disagree that there's a "kpop sound"; I was mainly talking about the "visionary" aspect of his comment, which I've always been unsure about when it's mentioned in K-pop circles.
And yeah I was thinking of early T-ara as one of those artists but, again, they were pretty distinct. Maybe I'm just not easily impressed/am being a debbie downer, just ignore me!!

What makes Uptown Funk a K-pop song for you forapper? Pretty interesting statement.
I hear it mainly in the build up to the chorus and the chorus itself (or at least mainly when there isn't any singing and it lets the groove work on its own).

Are there any other songs on the radio currently that sound like K-pop?

It's the high-gloss retro production style. Nothing else on the radio has that much brass and shine but it fits in with current Kpop trends. Also the build to the chorus and chorus break, yeah. It also has a nonsensical hook (uptown funky what?) and choreographed dance MV.

Ariana Grande sounds Kpop to me. More high-gloss retro production and nonsense hooks. She's even got a "good girl" idol image.

iirc it's uptown funk you up

"I like K-pop for that too but I've never been under the impression that it's something that happens frequently. Like, outside of SM artists and a few other artists it's definitely not the norm?"

it's all over the damn place. will prove this over time (http://k-pendium.com -- current posts have nothing to do with this strain of k-pop however, though "i am the best" comes close)

"Like, that's the same reasoning the late 70s/80s for Japan is so interesting to me and that whole era seemed far more forward-thinking"

interesting. i put that at '80s/early '90s japan myself, but agree one hundred.

"...than what I would consider to be happening in K-pop."

imo the three great flowerings of pop music as an exquisite and leagues-deep musical expression would be '60s US/UK, '80s-ish japan, and korea since 2009. i think '80s japan fucking wrecks k-pop in terms of albums but if you went for individual songs korea may well win out (need to do about 2000 hours of further listening to say w/ real conviction).

"EXID's "Ah Yeah", for example, borrows dance saxophones, but is otherwise a wholly native k-pop song that you don't hear anywhere else."

yep. great example of what i'm talking about (an A- version, anyway, not A triple+). and good luck finding any other pop industry that churns out even one song like that, let alone a canon

"uptown funk" is not reaaaaally k-popesque and it's only selling *relatively* well here (if you're not in the instiz top 20 you're not really a mainstream factor, and i seldom see "uptown" or anything non-korean on there. and rare, fleeting exceptions like "problem" can usually credit their popularity to being covered by a korean singer on one of the competition shows; i would say that song is slightly k-poppy in its pointed mood shift from verse to chorus but that's really it, and nothing else by her sounds distinctly k-pop in any way imo). one western example of recent years that sounds like a k-pop song imo is "trouble" by taylor – the pop rock verses with the sudden drop into a EDMstep chorus is a very k-pop composition move that you seldom hear elsewhere

Yeah gonna have to say Problem is the only remotely K-pop sounding song from Ariana. Aside from, you know, the demo that became the f(x) song but even then there's a difference between the demo and the final result. Her good girl image is a result of her Nickelodeon beginnings and is something her sophomore album was trying to crush, which is why it came out so fast and featured songs with The Weeknd and ASAP Ferg. Does she have nonsense hooks? Can't recall anything off the top of my head. All that comes to mind is her Mariah Carey-isms and/or inability to enunciate lol

Taylor Swift's "Trouble" as a K-popesque composition is something I never would've thought about but I can see that. Definitely only saw that as a continuation of her more overt radio-friendly sound with Max Martin without getting too deep into the sound (compare that with idk Nicki Minaj's Starships).

Good thing you brought up the 60s US/UK, 80s Japan, contemporary K-pop eras bit (which I agree with for sure) because I think one of the reasons that it's been hard for me to see K-pop as "visionary" is because the forward-thinking stuff we see from a single can't often be said for the mini/album it appears on. Which is especially dumb when I think about, especially in this day and age, and hypocritical given I say the same stuff about rappers all the time lol

I definitely feel that K-pop sounds different and is its own thing, which is why I was wondering what US pop sounded like it. I mean, you compare most demos to the final K-pop product and that's a really obvious way to see that. At the same time, different =/= visionary and I'd love to hear as to why K-pop right now is that. Always looking forward to the kpendium posts of course, been a while though ;)

Also, pretty sure it's because I'm *living* through this era that it seems hard to see. Like, obviously no one is going to care about all the run of the mill stuff that gets released frequently.

Hate to write even more (sorry) but forgot to mention that when I Got A Boy came out and everyone kept talking about songs with distinct stylistic shifts, I was always reminded of Nicki Minaj's The Boys (though now it's flipped and I say The Boys reminds me of K-pop)

An aside: I wish more cutesy k-pop groups used the j-pop chord progression and I don't understand why that sound stays so firmly within the borders of Japan. The big bastion of classical j-idol sound, AKB, actually has used at least one Korean composer (recently for a SKE48 single).

More importantly.. BAM

http://i.imgur.com/utYLj17.jpg

Album May 12.. all done by her, her big statement. Refer to an earlier post of mine for the complete BoA discography rundown which I probably would disagree with now.

I was thinking of Problem yeah, and also Bang Bang. Not her recent stuff.

hmm – how is "bang bang" k-poppy? can't think of any k-pop song that sounds particularly close.

if we're talking about US songs that emulate K-pop we should probably talk about will.i.am

Hate to write even more (sorry) but forgot to mention that when I Got A Boy came out and everyone kept talking about songs with distinct stylistic shifts, I was always reminded of Nicki Minaj's The Boys (though now it's flipped and I say The Boys reminds me of K-pop

ha "The Boys" def reminded me of k-pop the first time I heard it - I don't know if I've mentioned my G-Dragon being the male Nicki Minaj theory here yet, but that video was where it came round full circle and reminded me that Nicki also reminds me of GD sometimes.

will.i.am's songs are like k-pop with all the joy and (melo)drama sucked out of it.

"if we're talking about US songs that emulate K-pop we should probably talk about will.i.am"

way true. that dumbass "switch up! switch up!" song especially

It's interesting that Mr SM Sound Yoo Young Jin, back in 2010, looked at will.i.am with envy:

"I felt that Black Eyed Pea's "Boom Boom Pow" is simple to the extent that it could be considered close to minimalism but Americans let it become a huge hit. I'm envious of how they make such music and the way it can be accepted."

In this interview, which I've gone back to many times http://omonatheydidnt.livejournal.com/3586995.html

Also speaking of SuJu's disco xxxxp, those singles everyone complained about sounding samey at the time sure are bona fide classics.

lol @ yoo youngjin thinking that. totally insane parallax: he must have been growing tired of the asian market's expectations for rich melodies, dense arrangement, meaningful development, etc.

also re: question of k-pop being visionary, i'd say it's not just the music (which itself can be visionary, on occasion), it's more about the overall conception of pop as a multi-sensory experience that involves also conceptual and perfectly executed choreography, the insane music videos/packaging/"visuals"/presentation aspect, the all-important overarching concept, and even the business practices and corporate rhetoric that goes into the art itself (sooman's innovations especially). k-pop is both anthropologically and musically the most interesting, meaningful thing happening in music this past decade (/up there with many of the most significant across history), and i will enjoy having that full appreciation of it to my(almost)self while it lasts.

Speaking of concepts... the Bae Bae video is hilarious. Big Bang's dealer deserves a bonus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKD03uPVD-Q&feature=youtu.be

it's more about the overall conception of pop as a multi-sensory experience that involves also conceptual and perfectly executed choreography, the insane music videos/packaging/"visuals"/presentation aspect, the all-important overarching concept, and even the business practices and corporate rhetoric that goes into the art itself

Oh I mean, this is certain and something that I think is very very clear, was never doubting how visionary K-pop is as a whole.

total Bound 2 vibes with the Taeyang portion of that video

"bae bae" sounds more interesting in good quality. what even is it? i hear strains of trap, country, and jamaica...

actually also quite beck in a way

Also I guess they're not quite done with the Batman jokes yet. TOP's outfit:

http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/batman/images/3/3e/Jack_Nicholson_As_The_Joker.jpg

just gonna refer to bae bae as a trap ballad

assuming the country you're hearing is mainly from that short ascending guitar line and the drum fill that accompanies it?
and the "jamaican" bits from the rhythm of the trap beat? not sure what else could be interpreted as country or jamaiacan

digging both songs, i think i prefer bae bae though. the video definitely helps solidify that opinion.

re: will.i.am, I meant it more in the sense that instead of stretching from here to the moon to try to argue that mark ronson is taking cues from k-pop, why not start with the people who are on record with it

country: yes, the guitar/drum fill; acoustic guitar progression combined w/ snare production for that passage is very contemporary country (and taeyang's vocal line above it, even a bit of the inflection, lends itself to that as well; the wig, cowboy hat, and horseback saunter all clearly underscore the reference). two-note clean-tone electric guitar motif ditto
jamaica: weirdly get this vibe from that same guitar/drum fill, which also calls to mind early (pre-black ark weirdness) upsetters, and pre-dub reggae/rocksteady; top's flow and harmonically flat verse also calls to mind dancehall/more rap-centric jamaican music of the past two decades

not saying these were *all* deliberate, or that what i'm hearing was precisely what they were channeling – but definitely pulling from things in the country/reggae/jamrock continuum

@katherine yeah i think there's literally zero chance that ronson gives a fuck about k-pop (certainly not on his mind for "uptown funk"), i think whoever mentioned it was just thinking in terms of similarities. although i met j-pop guy sky-hi just after he sat down and traded notes with ronson so he's at least modestly dialed into asian pop

and bae bae >>>>> loser it's not even close

I'm just now learning that they're chanting about sticky rice cakes (chapsaltteok) in the last verse

yea that's why they have the two smashing into each other and then we see them eating some.

San E's been at #1 for days now (even holding off "loser" for a good 12 hours now) with a feature from one of the girls of 15&. April really has been the redemption of JYP

Oh man didn't realize Only You was still so high at #4

And just say that I'm still somewhat shocked that San E got an EarDrummers beat (albeit from J-Bo so maybe I shouldn't be that surprised)

okay game over tho, BB is now top two slots with "loser" riding the highest score i've seen to date (380)

deep into the 2 mill views on youtube after just 14 hours, too. dang...wonder how exo stacked up to that (for future reference/comparison, after 1 month "call me baby" has 21.88 mill for korean and 8.87 for chinese)

Just realized BoA will come back when Big Bang's power on music shows is at its strongest two weeks post release ;/

Grown to really hate that miss a song

i've liked it more and more. chorus so melodic~

"loser" hitting 410 on instiz.

7mil plus Youtube views in less than 48 hours (4.9 mil for Bae Bae).

You reckon that's the 19+ age rating on Bae Bae, or just Loser having more replay value?

I wonder if they're gonna hit #1 every month from now til September.

abcfsk juuuust posted this upthread but i want to reiterate its excellence: yoo young-jin interview, 2010

http://omonatheydidnt.livejournal.com/3586995.html

a lot of musical k-pop visionariness in there. gotta be the single most interesting article i've read on the music itself.

http://arcadey.net/2015/05/bigbang-made-comeback/

shaboi arcadey hears that country in "bae bae" as well ;-*

Yeess.. I had no expecations of BoA's pre-release single getting anywhere close to Big Bang on the charts, even a few days later, but it has, if only for today

Olleh 1
Soribada 1
Genie 1
Naver 1
Daum 1
Monkey3 1
MelOn 2
Mnet 3
Bugs 3

#3 on instiz, not bad

HYOSUNG: https://youtu.be/TZLdGojFbNA?list=PLDW7LHwCCGydWr4eNPDhCPuQ89XLnb976

I still replay the album tracks off her mini from last year ("Goodnight Kiss") and this is coming from the same playbook... sax-hooks, syncopated beats and chilled-out burlesque. Thumbs up.

The instrumentals are so good, all the hallmarks of "grown up" like (actual?) brass and saxophone, etc, but mixed in with the dance beat. TS Ent has some great in-house producers.

ALSO, JANG HYUNGSEUNG'S SOLO DEBUT:

https://soundcloud.com/mistress-nicey/sets/jhs-my

Off "My Mini Album", title track "Ma First" features Giriboy and is great.

Actually I'll recommend his 19+ ballad track "I Love You" instead, though the lyrics are kinda fucked up.

Not really feeling this mini apart from "Break Up With Him" (weird videogame bloops, random synths pushed up against a standard R&B arrangement) but Hyunseung looks and sounds great.

Yeah I probably just like dude's voice... He's said "Break Up with Him" was his choice for the single, but his label wanted the dance track.

BTW, new group for all your Infinite/Boyfriend/Sweetune needs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIe47jQcnhc

"Break Up With Him" was produced by Kush! def missed his work.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xtp1/v/t1.0-9/11167793_1000442269968504_2700780014587063332_n.jpg?oh=9ab36b93960b854279467834102185c3&oe=55DF392F&__gda__=1439711497_2076901cd28decf6ae8f8e69123c8e6d

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR92tv29pFU

damn boa

Really love that, restraint at the right time gets me swooning when the chorus subtly hits. A quick first listen to the album also has me digging the slow songs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVjfl9AHMzo

i've yet to really hit her whole discog but so far everything i've heard from her, incl. this album, is just not my thing. it all feels so...one-dimensional

BoA's my favorite pop star in the world not because she has the greatest discography in the world, but because of her performance skills and personality on and off stage. Having said that, Only One probably is my favorite k-pop single. And this new single is so lush.

Haven't listened to the rest of the mini yet but "Kontrol" from Infinite's Sunggyu is really good! He should sing in his lower register more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fBODWRrnWM

He killed it live on M Countdown... and the ballad song too.

Speaking of lives, very good staging on BESTie 'Excuse Me' this week: https://youtu.be/QGfYnQPuWjE

Too much sax-hook in this song but I love the switch into the second chorus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZ-ORItaQ7o

next k-pendium entry is gonna be the one that started it all. given seo taiji's reputation (especially then) for being a bit obvious with his influences ( the album also includes blatant ripoffs of mc hammer and ac/dc), i think my due dilligence involves identifying every sample/reference in this song that i possibly can. wanted to see if anyone here hears something i've missed.

+ "yeahh boyee" and "bass!" sampled from "bring the noise," of course
+ "stop!" w/ dramatic silence going into rap verse a clear "ice ice baby" thing
+ opening synth strings? to my ears a tangerine dream/vangelis type thing, but that's probably one degree of separation from whatever taiji's pulling from
+ that's totally a sample of some guy repeatedly shouting "east! coast!" isn't it? at 0:09? driving me crazy, can't place it (did a run through all pre-92 public enemy but can't find it there; weirdly early for the whole east vs. west thing...)
+ at 0:17, not even sure what that infernal thing is, but this is the one that really keeps me up at night
+ 0:27 synth sounds like early detroit house/techno to me, like an inner city song...but like tangerine dream i think that's a shade obscure for taiji to have heard in '92
+ hard rock riffin' at 1:00...reflects influence sinawe had on taiji, but could be many things
+ descending synth twinkles in chorus is a new jack swing gesture, very new edition
+ not sure what the beats and basslines are pulling from, at times sound to me like a kind of sampled break thing and others more a standard dance or new jack reference
+ on the whole, i'd say the biggest influence on taiji's additive logic (and rough tonalities) here are most indebted to the bomb squad

get the feeling the things i'm missing are very obvious. the samples and grifts i've identified so far on this record are some of the biggest hits of public enemy, mc hammer, ac/dc, and vanilla ice, plus "gonna make you sweat" and bart simpson...so yeah. also realizing i really need to revisit run-dmc for this purpose

Fun fact about 3 Ninjas Kick Back, executive producer Shin San-Ok was a famous-director-turned-refugee who'd been kidnapped 1973 by Kim Jong Il, who wanted him to help develop the N. Korean film industry.

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2003/apr/04/artsfeatures1

The song IU wrote for her new \sexy dance singer\ drama character sounds good, especially the chorus. I hope we get whatever she's writing in character released in full, not sure there'll be other chances at hearing her having a go at the genre. Also there's some solid meta potential in this series.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAPUON3eoS0

k-dramas release OSTs so aggressively i'd be shocked if they didn't for one where IU is the singer (especially if she wrote some of the stuff)

TREN-D following the trend and going new-trot, sounds good: https://youtu.be/SkfDHESqheI

push it, push it good