K-pop 2013

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

i was watching too many slinky, late-night danceclub lazer-filled k-pop videos for a while, that' smy excuse

Cute Secret is shit Secret! Although I've never cared much for the group they had a thing going with the hip hop pop thing and Poison was a pretty catchy song as well.

can we talk about DICKPUNKS and how they sound nothing at all like what their name implies

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FODnA8jGC0Q

I did not expect 70s pop complete with strings from a band with the name DICKPUNKS. Is it a case of weird translation?

I think they just like calling htemselves the DICKPUNKS. see the logo

What I was thinking but didn't even hint at in my comment (i blame phone typing): I was hoping that some seventies band like BREAD translated weirdly in Korean and so this was a spin on a prior translation error. The logo is pretty obvious as to their own intent.

omg @ DICKPUNKS

can't wait for their long play

I'm sure it'll be a banger

not feeling this new single but i'm sure it'll grow on me

hopefully they'll push all the right buttons

XD

Don't know wtf is this, but i love it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xF7ENo_utA

I hear "Kai Bai Bo" which is Korean for "Rock Paper Scissors"

Apart from that... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ pretty funny though

The new Younha single is great. The lyrics are great http://youtu.be/JHPBT4yYzu0

Fireworks off that EP is great http://youtu.be/eKihko_ZipY

I've been the first to label Hello Venus a useless, anonymous, rubbish group, blandly cute and daft and nothingy, but their new single forces so much play out of the euphemism "Do you want some tea?" ('Do you want to have sex?') that I find myself charmed http://youtu.be/dyH2O_te-ss

The Hello Venus song is so adorably and hilariously subversive XD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqpStn7sioY

Controversially "Gee" at #3

Haaah. Well, it's hard to argue with Abracadabra, and it was clear 10 entries in that whoever made this list a huge BoA (and Big Bang) fan, so far enough, I suppose XD. Also, everyone says this, but 2009 really was a great year for Kpop, huh.

This is kinda old but it's been confirmed that San E is, indeed, leaving JYP. Dude sounds pretty relieved to be out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfkFoXa9F-Q

Twas the Popjustice (k-pop listening) users collectively.

Ahah San E. Well, I think it shows that even if the people on top mean well it's often not a good idea to join one of the three big labels. Dude didn't release anything for ages. I have to doubt how the companies are run at times. You see it at YG - they just don't seem to have the resources to nurture all their artists careers evenly. SM as well, look at someone like J-Min or The Grace. Except for those from K-pop Star (Lee Hi, Jimin) the talent show standouts seem to go to other labels and get to release stuff immediately - look at Roy Kim, Busker Busker, the new ballad stars. Half of them would probably nervously wait in the basement of YG JYP or SM. See Lee Michelle and her group signed to YG and then released. Immediately she has music out.

Ah okay, in that case I'm surprised the list came out as evenly as it did! It is however missing one of my favorite songs from 2009, which is One Two's Starry Night.

And, agreed, the big three idol agencies often seem to have more talent than they know how to manage. SM at least sometimes allows talented members of overlooked groups to write music or produce, but YG and JYP... forget it. Half of Cube are former JYP trainees. (Though I believe there is some kind of business relationship between JYP and Cube.)

I really like Roy Kim's Spring Spring Spring, btw. He has a lot of charisma as a performer, too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3-BDy55tq4

lol 2009 was when I first moved back to Southeast Asia - K-pop was just starting to blow up here but "Gee", which was inescapable (along with Super Junior), made me actively not want to explore it further. Unpopular opinion I know, but I really don't like that song, even though I've come around to SNSD (still kinda hate SuJu though, haha).

2NE1 was my gateway to K-pop a couple of years later (a friend of mine was visiting from the Philippines and played me a bunch of their songs) but I didn't get heavily into it until early last year I guess.

I missed this as well as all-girl Korean group Miji's Saturday free performance at the Korean embassy. Just discovered this after the fact

http://usa.mofa.go.kr/english/am/usa/mission/notice/index.jsp?sp=/webmodule/htsboard/template/read/engreadboard.jsp%3FtypeID=16%26boardid=13910%26seqno=694279%26tableName=TYPE_ENGLEGATIO

What: K-Style DC
When: May 1-3, 2013
Where: Washington Dulles International Airport (2nd floor lobby)

The Korean Cultural Center Washington DC is taking the local Korean Wave to new heights with K-Style DC, a 3-day event featuring traditional-modern fusion music, Hanbok fashion shows, Taekwondo exhibitions, and interactive K-Pop dance performances at Washington Dulles International Airport, May 1-3.

Sure to delight guests are a lively rendition of Psy’s Gangnam Style on centuries-old instruments by performance group MIJI, and the designer fashions of Joo Young-sook, whose clothing has appeared in several Korean dramas. Both will be visiting from Korea for the event.

so I finally checked out SHINee's Lucifer album and... i really like it! where else can i hear this mid-2000s era high-production R&B (The-Dream, Cassie, Kelis) sound in K-pop? I haven't really checked out guy groups much at all.

A pre-2010 Kpop fan could probably answer this better, because I think this was *the* Kpop style from 2006-2009 (just when it was starting to break internationally).

Off the top of my head, though, I'd say 2PM (Still 2PM era), also other SM groups like EXO; TVXQ (one, two, three); early SNSD (one, two); and probably a bunch of BoA songs absfck could tell you about. Or if you want less processed vocals, anything by Taeyang but especially his (great) album Solar; and Chocolat; and SPICA (one, two).

Whoops, wrong link for Taeyang. Here's Solar. Big Bang - Remember is the most Taeyangish of the Big Bang albums, though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqxHy4G9FMI

This kind of pop-rock isn't my thing, but always admire B1A4 for handling their own production & songwriting and being unafraid of putting 6-7 melodies in a single song (because there's always more where they came from).

Also maddie links to these songwriter notes and omona points out the similarity of the video to this.

Nine Muses 'Wild' MV http://youtu.be/fwN_Axs7pL4

It's missing the burning anger that fueled their previous singles with Sweetune, I think. Not bad but the beat just kind of sits there.

LC9 debut with a dramatization of the selection process for idols: http://youtu.be/gaxwMw2Qctc

This must have been pretty dangerous to film, I'd surprised if there weren't some injuries. I know BAP had some when they their car-smashing MV for Warrior.

I'd BE surprised if there weren't injuries, I know BAP had some when the FILMED their car-smashing MV...

First SALTNPAPER album has some very nice Goo Goo Dolls/Third Eye Blind late-90s alt-rock vibes: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh1FnrV6pZe-tFqKZjq7Xq7qXAb9CeX_M