K-pop 2013

New Jay Park https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVE3qq9MCyc

I like Jay Park but that song is kinda lame.

BrandNewStardom (Block B's label) have a new rapper in the pipeline.

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

There we go.

jurassic 5? ;_;

Jurassic 5? *cocks head*

Forget about Infinite H and even Primary and the Messengers, this is where it's at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=84m-0uO39SY

<33333

And! A superior Jay Park!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMtCJC39SqU

MIB have a mini-album out, also. I'm not feeling the title track but Money in the Building is pretty great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0e56l-8K3jU

Really nice song from C-Clown. I see a lot of GDragon - That XX in the video.

The C-Clown mini is great and everything I ever wanted from Infinite H - at this moment, my favorite EP of the year.

I'm actually on a self-imposed ban from ILX right now (work/life bs), but you gotta post a new GD video. OMGWAT<3, etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrwnL62HObI

btw this and Daft Punk, I'm having a pretty good Friday

Dude...

It's a pair with Zion.T's Babay the same way CraYon was a pair with Epik High's Don't Hate Me...?

https://soundcloud.com/bubblefeetgravitych3/sets/ubeat-should-have-treated-you

This is being marketed as a rap duo sub-unit ala Infinite H, but is IN FACT an album of mostly remixes of previously released U-Kiss songs with only a couple new tracks ft. the English-fluent members. Everything is addictively (over)produced, as per Brave Brothers tradition. There's lots of triumphant horns and overwhelmed-by-happiness singing. As a Brave Brothers fangirl, I am here for this 100% even knowing it's all a trick of the light.

Aaaand I'm over it. Even for a Brave Brothers album I think this is some kind of new personal record.

YooJiAe - Delight is out and has a really Jpopish vibe. Actually, between the school uniform, the outdoor setting, the hazy lighting, the lack of crazy hair colors, and... the young age of the performer, >__>, this looks more like a Japanese MV (PV?) than a Korean one.

Loving this new 4minute
http://youtu.be/H-IJWqIHioA

SHINee goes metal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgeAmF7bgoE

http://youtu.be/H-IJWqIHioA

Metal/mental.. here's a profile of the SM songwriter who made the song http://www.berklee.edu/news/4742/alumni-profile-kenzie-yeonjung-kim-99

4minute: Good beat, vocals lacking. Why? Because it apes some surface qualities of their first singles it misses the cruical points: The girls have to hit hard, not only the beat. They have to get the chance for some powerful belts, raps, shouts. Remember Huh? This should've been much better.

hahahah wait, is the chorus really from the dark knight

it's a shinee song alright, despite the metal guitars

It's sounds like a metallica song

Shinee's album is AWESOME. I have a theory Why So Serious was thrown together/thrown on the album at the last minute to cover for Jonghyun's absence after his car accident. It's a lulzy song, but what's with the (non) transition from the intro to the first chorus, huh?

The tortured RnB songs Jonghyun is on (holding down, honestly) on the other hand are just so great: Like a Fire, Medusa I, Nightmare (the dark side to Dream Girl), Evil, Danger, Orgel.

Maybe I'll change my mind later, but at the moment I'm so totally sold on this mini... it's my favorite release of the year, and my favorite SHINee album since Lucifer (which is my favorite Kpop album of all time, just so you all know).

On a final note, Jonghyun not promoting this album - which is finally dark, finally rock, and finally RnB - is like some cruel twist of fate. I really hope they do a second round promoting another track off the mini - Nightmare or Like a Fire, say - after the doctors let him out of the hospital.

Didn't mean to imply that this album is as good as Lucifer, by the way. It isn't, but then again, what is? Nothing, that's what.

That 4minute track is pretty great, though. Like an upgraded Beatles.

I do find it funny that 4minute are turning into T-ara just as T-ara are turning into 4minute.

Hmm on second listen some of these SHINee songs are bit too bland and slick. Still like SHINe, Evil, and the thematic reversal of Nightmare, though.

I promise to stop posting after this, but I must share with you Infinite's ballad stage at KBS Music Bank: it's hilarious.

Performance at 1:07.

Okay I lied, this is my last post:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLmpdPpT-cw

G'night, y'all.

Writing some words about BoA now and just want to throw this out there, another argument for her being Best Pop Star Dancer in the world: http://youtu.be/Nde67MngaZ0?t=7m32s

Ridic stuff in the middle of a concert.

hahahah wait, is the chorus really from the dark knight

"CrayOn"? K-pop in general has been obsessed with Batman for a while - GLAM and Girls' Generation have been wearing the Bat-logo in their videos, and then there was Epik High as the villains of Arkham...

forapper, those SHINee songs you posted are seriously great, I think I might be sold on it too and I've never been completely convinced by them before. Those disco guitars on "Like a Fire"! <3 <3 "Orgel" is hot too (and Jonghyun wrote the lyrics, apparently).

Warning>Warning> Long, long post about BoA's discography coming up. Not something you're likely to read through but someone asked for an album reference sheet earlier and here it is.

Ok- long-planned quick summary of BoA's Korean and Japanese studio album discography. It's been 3 solid months of very heavy listening to all these albums - the hope was with this added motivation I would get a clearer idea of her highs and low.

It hasn't been entirely successful - I'm still not capable of absolute statements, because her discograph is one of minor ups and downs, hidden treasures and small disappointment and an overall solid output, not that one masterpiece you have to check out before the rest.

Anyway..debut album ID; Peace B(2000) is a strong start, and right away we're presented with a cohesive album and an artist with a sound of her own. Boa's low, guttural delivery, the in-your-face sound (stabbing strings on the title track give way to an authoritative choir bridge and rock guitars) broken up with melodramatic ballads. It's clearly noticable that she's still developing her skills- on some tracks she just sounds very young: "No Way" is an obvious Mariah Carey-nod, but she does not at this point quite have the chops for those acrobatics. Charming, though, as is the rest of the album. Here's the eerie music video for Sara

Her first Japanese album is Listen To My Heart(2002) and commercially they got it right from the start. This album is packed with hits, including maybe the Boa song most people not into k/j-pop know about, Every Heart ending theme to popular anime Inuyasha. Here's a live clip, one of those perfect pop moments when a star at her popularity peak performs a hugely beloved hit. It also marks the start of BoA the songwriter, she composed Nothing's Gonna Change My Heart and co-wrote the lyrics. Another highlight is the perfect harpsichord pop of Don't Start Now, Kimochi wa Tsutawaru and the early Utada-ish Amazing Kiss.

Her Korean debut peaked at #10 - in Japan Listen To My Heart went on to sell over a million copies.

2nd KR album No. 1 (2002) gave BoA her Korean smash hit in form of the title track, a mandatory encore when she finally held a solo concert here. To me the album sounds more dated than any of her others. It's often BoA at her most over-dramatic - shrill 90s style pop partly shouted out and melo ballads dripping in sentimentality. There are plenty of catchy melodies here, though. My Sweetie is easy to like and sports a very goof MV. She continued composing songs: Dear My Love and and the great Realize.

Valenti (2003), her best-selling album (615k in its first week), has a huge, if somewhat dated-sounding, title track, but I don't think it's one of her stronges Japanese albums. A bit lacking to be honest. Some tunes though, Kiseki is good in its original form and as 'Destiny' in Korea, andMoon & Sunrise, for which BoA wrote the lyrics thinking of her weird, emotional life traveling to Japan as a young kid, is a live fave and one of her most famous ballads.

Love & Honesty (2004, Japan again) is stronger. The singles are here- Rock With You is powerful (hype recent SM Town performance), Shine We Are is pure feel-good, SOME DAY ONE DAY marks the entrance of regular collaborator Verbal of m-flo - they released the classic 'Love Bug' single together later that year. On Be the One she continues to develop a more sophisticated, cool sound and image. "Expect", "Kokoro no Tegami", look, the whole album is solid.

According to an interview on Win Win last year Atlantis Princess (2003) is BoA's least favorite Korean release- "She hated the music video, song, concept, everything about it because it was too cutesy. That’s why from album four she added her own opinions and went with a really strong image." She may be a bit hard on the song, but the album is probably her most patchy. An interesting deep cut is The Show Must Go On.

She did as promised, though, and the next Korean album My Name is a pretty awesome statement. The title track opens the album in Marlo Stanfield style and then on track #2 "Spark" she basically spits out her contempt. Later there's one called "Don't Give a Damn". There's room for ballads and less heavy songs too of course, but overall the album just feels meatier than any of her Korean releases before.

Another Korean album, and another statement: Girls on Top (2005). The title track is worth watching with subs, even though the subber struggles tremendously with the non-standard and vaguely coherent sentences. I've read analysis asking for a more straightforward narrative and message to call this a feminist anthem, but the point here is the song is a series of slogans, demands, shouted out with great power. "All lady-like expectations are forced on me as a girl", "I won't be confined", "Everything my way", "My appearence is at is, dignified, like I want it", "I have dreams that will change this world", I was exstatic that this song existed when I first listened and read the lyrics.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_O3N5jyIr5es/SvSl1ntEvkI/AAAAAAAADFw/pRh33NOOCiQ/s200/boa+girls+on+top+cover.jpg

Of course this isn't just a 'concept' used and discarded. BoA is a pretty solid role model and the last year, with a stronger public presence, has become a candidate among media commentators for a future higher position in the entertainment industry. The Donga Ilbo last month named her one of 100 people who will lead Korea in 10 years, and in the interview she admitted she had gotten the taste of producing and leading other artists as well. Not only that, but in the question of equality she's one of very few in the k-pop business indeed to speak up in support of the LGBT community.

The album is damn strong otherwise as well. She often performed Girls on Top together with the huge "MOTO". Here's a performance from last year with awesome power and enthusiasm http://youtu.be/esF2Y2Kgu8A

Interestingly this was her last album in Korea for five years. In Japan she moved on with Outgrow (2006). She's released a lot of albums huh? But from her last album on the Japanese output is generally good. The sexy Do The Motion was a slight style shift, very popular on the charts and one of my many favorites. BoA has writing credits on five of the album's tracks. "Everlasting" is another one of those instantly recognisable big BoA ballads.

Made in Twenty (20) (2007) is a pretty nonsensical title but marks further growth towards a cooler, crisper sound, although it's sometimes just about the catchy, breezy, fun of tracks like brand new beat. Here's Key of Heart.

http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/500/41562361/THE+FACE++PNG.png

The Face (2008) is potentially/probably/judging by my ipod rotation at the time of writing BoA's best Japanese album. Let's just open the praise low-key with the light acoustic guitar-backed rnb of My Way, Your Way, live feat. Mr Wise here. The album does perhaps lack the huge defining hits of others. On the other hand every other track is a dark horse favorite. The heartbreaking be with you.. The funk of Lose Your Mind, which was released by Amerie as "Dangerous" later on, the earworm ecstacy of "Happy Birthday", the steady, elegant synth piano groove on "Diamond Heart" (reminiscent of Japanese producer Daishi Dance's work), one of her better ballads in "Love Letter", silly fun times with "Gyappy Ni Yarareta! Hit By The Gap!"), etc. etc.

By this time albums in general didn't sell as easily in Japan as they once did, and BoA specifically was not quite as top tier commercially as she once was, but every album including The Face topped the Oricon weeky album chart. Identity (2010) was the first not to (#4) and among fans it's highly divisive. For the first time BoA produced the album herself and composed many of the songs. With that album name and the first track being called "This Is Who I Am" it's hard not to view it as a milestone even so, BoA taking the reigns fully. And even though the album is flawed it's both interesting and frequently BoA at her most enjoyable.

It had great singles: Bump Bump! feat. Verbal is colorful, cool and fun and so is its video. That costume! The moves! Possibility with Daichi Miura, maybe my favorite nice guy rnb dude in Japan, is delicious, delicious synth rnb, all sweet melodies and tender wispers.

http://www.generasia.com/w/images/thumb/e/e7/Identity_(BoA)DVD.jpg/300px-Identity_(BoA)DVD.jpg

It's worth noticing that even though it's her weakest selling album one single off Identity, "Mamoritai: White Wishes" was her most successful single release in a few years and well known also in the west as the theme to "Tales of Graces".

Okay, we're back in Korea for the final stretch. After five years she released Hurricane Venus (2010) and yes, it's one of her strongest Korean albums, but it was still initially somewhat of a disappointment, all because of the lead single title track which is good, sure, pretty darn effective live when she opened the Seoul show with it and not a skip for me now, but at the time - as a comeback, I didn't feel it was about what BoA was/is about. A lot of artists could've done it, although maybe not live with the kind of sharpness she did. But the album behind it is full of more laid-back experiments, some of her most stunning slow jams and ballads, such as Stand By and Implode, to great surprise and happy tears performed live for the first time at her concert earlier this year.

It edges out her newest album Only One (2012), I'd say, if only because the latter, at 6 new songs is more like an EP. But Only One the single is in my BoA top 3 all-time and its promotion perhaps my most joyous time as a k-pop and BoA fan. It was perfect, she did it on her own accord, she'd found her voice in many ways making it her first self-composed lead single, she released a dance-focused MV, the mainstream response in Korea was good. Her take on the "sing about fame" concept in the Janet Jackson-ish "The Shadow" is a bit different and more interesting than you'd expect from that concept, the 'shadow' being both the fans support, their pressure, something that protects and punishes, something that drives a performance.

So yes, that was a lot of studio albums. Some of her biggest hits in Japan, and some of my favorites, of course, were not released on a studio album.

If I were to summarize I'd say, in Japan, Listen to My Heart represents her early period well and The Face her later period. In Korea Girls on Top and her latest albums are thoroughly solid. But there are so many great moments and important tunes elsewhere, so if you don't check out all the albums at least have a listen to some singles and stand-outs on each.

If you're getting a live dvd The Face Tour is super fun. Hopefully her Korean concert I attended this year will also be released.

"CrayOn"? K-pop in general has been obsessed with Batman for a while - GLAM and Girls' Generation have been wearing the Bat-logo in their videos, and then there was Epik High as the villains of Arkham...

― Roz, Saturday, April 27, 2013 5:56 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

ah i totally forgot about that part of crayon, also the batman earring at the beginning

that epik high performance is amazing, high school drama club with million dollar record label production values, love it

Batman is a kind of inside joke in Kpop world. In D-Unit's Talk to My Face, the guy is reading a book called "RIP Batman", while in HyunA's Ice Cream, there's a protester holding a sign that says "Batman He is Dead". Roz also pointed out that Zion.T's Babay MV is basically a scene out of the first Batman movie.

New T-Ara - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74_3c_5SVBM&feature=youtu.be

SPEED rapper guy is not bad! I guess I agree with what Frank wrote on his blog, that T-ara N4 are vocally anonymous on this, but the song's not too bad, really.

I mean, it's kind of forgettable except for that sax part, and I kept hearing parts that reminded me of other (better) songs, but aside from that.

I like the new Secret... is Very Cheesy but is fun
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0sVjn5DGrc&feature=youtu.be

like that a lot!

Are these aegyowaifs really Secret? ;_;

lol a week after i had just claimed that k-pop wasn't really influenced by kawaii culture

LOL, really? Where was this?

i'm not telling

:p