K-pop 2013

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

Nine Muses plagiarism accusation: http://onehallyu.com/index.php?/topic/1518-nine-muses-under-fire-for-plagiarism-allegations/

It's smarter as a more-work-than-you-can-handle hot Korean producer to do it the Brave Brothers way, and just borrow from yourself.

Lee Hyori on living without regrets even when you aren't happy with your plastic surgery:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLlD9HYWeRo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=gaT8j1yIbCg

Not quite sure where to put this, but on balance it's more in line with Kpop trends than Jpop trends, even though it's in Japanese.

Anyway: !!!

Aw, no preview. You should click, though! Certified jam!

i don't know if someboy has posted Crayon Pop already but they are hands down the best thing i've seen all year... and possibly ever?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0yii3pPNKw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2M5eTEmwaI

it's like they took everything unintentionally awesome about how cheesy T-ARA can be and just went with it. i've never seen a girl group so cheeky and confident.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LP4foN3Xs4

cant watch dances in high heels without thinking of beyonce. also detect a lil ciara in the part w/ the black tracksuit

i dig this tho

That CL track is great.

Crayon Pop <3 They're returning with a new song in, I think, the third week of June. Chocolat are also coming back!

As for the CL track, I like like the beat a lot, but I don't think she's a good enough rapper to really carry the slow tempo. I also think she's a better singer than rapper, so to me it seems like a case of not knowing your strengths as an artist.

Maybe this is a good place to ask, though - does CL "The Baddest Female" sound a like Exo "Wolf" to anyone else???

Crayon Pop had a reality show last year in which, according to allkpop, "Crayon Pop Reveal They Aren't Afraid To Confront Agency," making them heroes of cultural studies departments around the world.

Says my lj buddy David Frazer, "Episode 1 is where they criticise their manager and he criticises them. In episode 2, Way and Soyeul get separated from the others after a concert at a mall and sneak off to eat churros at a snack stall, so the managers punish them by making all the members go home by bus."

The wearing of ski clothing indoors was pioneered in K-pop by Seo Taiji & Boys, though note that YG abandons the heavy garb at 2:00.

My favorite track Crayon Pop track is "Saturday Night."

My favorite track Crayon Pop track is "Saturday Night."

Er, that sentence has one more "track" than it needs. "Saturday Night" is merely my favorite Crayon Pop track. My favorite track period is probably Spoonie Gee's "Spoonin' Rap." My favorite K-pop track is T-ara's "I Go Crazy Because Of You."

Where is Spoonie Gee today? Loved that track too. K-pop I don't know that well.

did anything else amazing happen in the lower rungs of k-pop i don't know about? i haven't been keeping track

As far as documentary-things go, the Nine Muses documentary that aired on the BBC last year was a pretty amazing, frank, horrifying, etc. look at company mismanagement.

BTOB routinely get up to questionable stuff on their reality show, though always(?) with their managers' permission.

There was another one, but it's slipped my mind.

LOL @ super-literal editing of VIXX "Hyde" on Show Champion: http://youtu.be/rv_V9rQqmWM

Meanwhile, B2ST at the top of the charts with a familiar-sounding, emotional ballad that is getting to me anyway, because I know exactly what they mean: http://youtu.be/TZRKg-qJpZk

MBLAQ return with a song that's super-effective at capturing that feeling of something bubbling up:

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

VIXX "Hyde" and Shinwha "This Love" have been growing on me, despite what I initially heard as cheap/cheesy beat-based production. Speaking of beats, "Mama Beat" has grown on me as well. Rainbow "Sunshine" is an acceptable type of quirky aegyo, better than the bland aegyo of "Tell Me", although so far the song seems like it's just okay. The terrifying methamphetamine weirdness of EXO "Wolf" has been toned down for the official release, leaving something that's an odd mix of aggressive and declawed, highly processed music that's cheesy, experimental and utterly joyless all at the same time. San.E "Rap Circus" is the opposite, minimal production but giddy, pressurized, shit-talking rap.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=farP2g0ZPes

^San-E

mblaq song is basically an incredible feat of production

thing is both pristine and woozy

Brad, the producers of "Smoky Girl" are Primary, Zion. T, and Simon D, all of whom are involved in urban and hip-hop. The way the song starts reminds me of The-Dream, the way the rhythm is half-suspended to create suspense.

Primary and Zion.T and Simon D, really? ...that would explain why the video was up at the amoebarecords youtube account, huh. That's pretty awesome, definitely a better demonstration of Primary's talents than Infinite H was.

I'm so excited for Chocolat, you have no idea.

One more for the "bad girl" pile, from Bumkey:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=FFDD_3IV7fU

And if I can rep one more SM summer jam, again in Japanese... na na na na na, na na na LOVE AND GIRLS.

Truth speak from Hyori http://omonatheydidnt.livejournal.com/11252565.html

Dash, so far it's been a glorious year on the lower rungs. I'll do a roundup when I get the chance. In the meantime, there's a fancam of the new Crayon Pop song, "Bar Bar Bar." CRAYON POP DOES NOT DISAPPOINT! I had to get out of my chair: I was laughing so hard I was afraid I'd hurt myself. I think those are toboggan helmets they're wearing.

H/t David Fraser on Crayon Pop, as usual.

that routine is amazing !

ChoColat perform (or perform to, at any rate) a minute of "Black Tinkerbell" on After School Club (an English-language interview show; ChoColat's Tia was guest host this week; I haven't watched the entire episode, but it features good new boyband Vixx). (H/t David Frazer again.) "Black Tinkerbell" sounds good, similar to ChoColat's previous three in that there's a touch of mid-Eastern quasi-freestyle mournfulness, and all four singers get time in the spotlight. Today is Min Soa's birthday; tomorrow is "Black Tinkerbell"'s release.

And the "Black Tinkerbell" video is out now. Sounds like the teasers, but longer.

love and girls!

Na, na na na na na, na na na love and girls :D

I really like Black Tinkerbell, it's just really pretty, and seems to drop hints of deep emotion without indulging in it too much. The writer is an indie rock dude? Does that mean it's a song about being in The Friend Zone(TM)?

Sistar celebrate their promotion to the ranks of the top-tier girl groups with a glitzy video in the Sistar tradition of working-girls-aiming-for-classy-and-endearingly-just-missing. Song is just okay, I think.

My favorite of the "One of a Kind" bandwagon songs (that includes CL, too) to date: http://youtu.be/H4F4m8nlfXw

i11evn was an original member of "rapper" idol group Bangtang - just debuted - and was previously best known for a mixtape song wherein he bragged about being bisexual (and the guest rapper chimed in, "I’m open to all men and women/But no homo").

Pop group comprised of three classical music majors, awesome video: http://youtu.be/ey3H9l-SX8M

Hmm Odd Eye video seems to have been made private, how odd. It's this: http://youtu.be/SpkHGcyy3No

And an interview with Will Simms, songwriter for "Wolf" and "I Got a Boy":

http://seoulbeats.com/2013/06/speaking-with-will-simms-composer-of-exos-wolf-and-snsds-i-got-a-boy/

SB: When you work with these companies, do you feel like there is something they’re looking for in terms of crafting a strong hook or a repetitive chorus that makes K-pop, for the lack of a better phrase, K-pop?

WS: I do. They’re quite specific when they ask for hooks. They say, "We want a hook that’s a little bit rap-y," or "We want a hook that’s chant-y," or "a hook that’s really melodic." In any kind of music that you do, you have to aim for the strongest hook that you can, but what’s good with K-pop especially is that the songs can almost only have hooks. The verse can be a hook, and then the pre-chorus can be a hook, and then you can have the chorus that’s the hook as well!

There you go, the essence of Kpop.

really loving After School's latest

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVl2h70p_BRduVm7AKgAPlODZKghgd8OF

I can't get into the After School album. It's too slow, or the beats are too generic, or something... I am however digging Jun Areia's sped-up remix of First Love, which appeared less than 24 hours after the original went up because dude is a maniac like that.

[Although, once you speed up After School (as produced by Brave Brothers), the difference between them and Sistar (as produced by Brave Brothers) disappears, pretty much.]

i like AS lately because they don't ask you for anything with their music, it's just good dance music. i can see why that's a reason to pass on them but it's a relief sometimes when the music does the talking - kind of like Perfume too.

http://youtu.be/OvIyGdIF504

still not feelin it hurricane?

This is one of the more out there debuts of the year

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpkHGcyy3No

The Tracks Of My Tiers

Dash, as promised, here's a roundup of my favorite tracks from K-pop's lower commercial tiers.

Except for the artist formerly known as E.via, I'm steering away from hip-hop as such, where moderate sales are considered pretty good (though obv. the hip-hop influence is all over this list). And I'm not counting trot, otherwise LPG would definitely be here. Or a jazz-blues singer like Woo Hye Mi ("Maria"), whom I discovered shooting flames on The Voice, or a jazzy balladeer like Barbara ("꿈..그보다 아픈 사랑"). And I don't know if we should consider middling sellers like Nine Muses ("Figaro") or Block B ("Halo") or RaNia ("Masquerade") as lower tier or not, but I left them off, and left off Jewelry ("Look At Me" [inst.]), who once had a number one hit.

Other than guest rapper Vasco, we don't get a male voice until the honorable mentions. It's not that women singers have more talent than men, but the zeitgeist and arrangements seem to be working to their advantage, while guys struggle to find a voice that fits.

In ascending order. As you can see, I like both it and that:

Leader'S "Hope" (2011). The song is called "Hope" but the sound is heartache 24/7. I left NYC several years before Hot 97 or whatever it was came in with a Latin freestyle format, but I can imagine this humid emotion emanating daily from car radios and bodegas on my block (I lived on the northern end of Mott Street, which was nominally still part of Little Italy, but the Italians had mostly moved to more well-to-do neighborhoods, being replaced by immigrants from the Dominican Republic).

D-Unit ft. Vasco "Stay Alive" (2013). Produced by Zico of Block B, this is a lot more natural than his own group ever was at creating a hip-hop idol sound, emphatic rapping with a backdrop that's half dreamy and half disorienting.

Chi Chi "Sexy Doll" (2012). A come-on that sounds at least as ominous as it is salacious.

Z.Hera "Peacock" (2013). Haven't yet discovered who wrote this, but it's someone with a far better understanding than I of Chopin or whoever, the track moving along towards inevitable bliss, while the singer uses the strain in her voice to suggest struggle and uneasiness. She just debuted, and I'm hoping for great things.

Clinah "So What If" (2011). Fractured power pop. It feels Japanese.

Tiny G "Minimanimo" (2013). I wonder if Bo Diddley had the least inkling in 1955 that he was setting the beat not just for buckets 'n' guts, but for sprites and nymphs.

Miss $ "Physical Or Emotional" (2012). Back to the dark Bodega wail. Miss $ had been a so-what r&b act for several years until they suddenly blossomed into passion.

Evol "Get Up" (2013). Get ur twisty little freak on, and take it to the disco.

GLAM "I Like That" (2013). Samples New York City sorrow, then pushes towards a joy most complicated.

Flashe "Drop It" (2012). A lot like "Bo Peep Bo Peep" in the way it teases and nags you.

New.F.O "Bounce" (2011). While the video apes 2NE1-style imperiousness, the band bubbles and bounces.

ChoColat "I Like It" (2011). Young Melanie wants it all, with a massive voice of promise and pain.

Crayon Pop "Bar Bar Bar" (2013). Perhaps they're lucky not to be stars. They get to spray everyone in their audience with water pistols.

E.via (now calling herself Tymee) "Pick Up! U!" (2010). The queen of the lower reaches, she can be anything from a severe art bitch to the cutest and quickest of the wild spirits. Here she gives us fractured power pop, fractured dance pop, fractured Poképop.

Fat Cat "My Love Bad Boy" (2011). Putatively cute and catchy, our heroine breaks her voice into scrapes, sparks, and splatters, and the sort of hooks that rip flesh.

I've made a YouTube playlist out of this, though the Fat Cat performance I wanted was deleted from YouTube (fortunately not before someone ripped it for Youku), so for that playlist I had to go with a different performance from Fat Cat, better recorded sound but not as immediately vibrant, shot several weeks after the camera people became afraid to close in on her ticking tush.

Honorable mentions: Gangkiz "Honey Honey," A-Jax "Hot Game," MYNAME "Just That Little Thing," Blady "Spark Spark," Delight "Mega Yak," X-Cross "Crazy."

Supplemental reading: In early 2012 I started a "No Tiers For The Creatures Of The Night" tag on my lj - though you can see that some of this goes back earlier. I only chose one track per group; but I urge you to listen further, especially to D-Unit, Chi Chi, Miss $, ChoColat, and of course Tymee, the artist formerly known as E.via.

An interesting story surfacing at SM Entertainment where in-house producer Kenzie is establishing herself as a lead songwriter, being responsible for the latest singles of two of their boybands. There's a lack of female producers in pop anywhere, and in Korea despite the many lyricists and songwriters, and a lead role in SM is a leading role in K-pop.

In later years she's increasingly taken on more executive roles on albums or giving purchased songs the 'SM gloss', a role SM's musical director Yoo Young-jin has held in the past, in addition to composing and producing. Of course Kenzie has a long history with SM since 2002, with older highlights like BoA's "My Name" and SNSD's "Into the New World", but two title tracks in a row and shaping the musical direction of the new boyband EXO is a new kind of responsibility.

Of course her latest two singles, Shinee's "Why So Serious" and EXO's "Wolf" are hugely divisive. I particularly like the latter, even though some western fans have been harping over how bad and weird it is since a version was leaked long time ago, but I can see how some think the 'SM style' is taken too far. She's composed both super melodic and sweet bubblegum such as the aforementioned SNSD (also "Oh!") and tough, dramatic maximalist stuff. The latter is perhaps closer to a signature sound.

The weird, ambigious and underrated / largerly ignored 'One More Chance' written for the comeback of one half of 'The Grace' is a personal favorite. Hard to pin down in many ways: http://youtu.be/q2Hmiu5m-v4

Wikip's got an (incomplete) list of songs by Kenzie. SNSD's "Oscar" jumps out at me. A lot of the others don't, though, so I I've got some exploring to do. (You mentioned her when the Dana & Sunday track first came out, but other than that, the only real attention I paid to her was when the Wikip entry on SNSD's/f(x)'s "Chocolate Love" listed her (and still lists her) as sole songwriter, which just wasn't credible. (Song is actually by Bloodshy, Avant, Jonback, and Poole, and is a reworking of Rachel Stevens' "Sweet Dreams My L.A. Ex" (by Bloodshy, Avant, Jonback, Dennis); Kenzie probably only wrote the lyrics.)

"Wolf," like a lot of EXO tracks, strikes me as interesting and audacious, but doesn't fall into the category "I'm pulled to listen to this a lot." I kinda go with forapper on the "joyless" comment.

Brilliant, thank you Frank! No EXID though?

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

also can't help but post this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T33CRYSk2SQ

i've always wondered what kind of incarnation of hip-hop the intro is meant to be evoking. to me, it looks like late 90s/early 00s rnb - like Brandy, Aaliyah or when Jennifer Lopez turned J-Lo. I wonder if it's intentional or if both styles just happen to have parallel motivations/manifestations. i've always been a fan of the early-00s rnb sound and i know i've been searching for it in k-pop. i wonder if i'm just reading into k-pop with my own Western reference point or if this stuff just still has a life over there.

The Wiki for Kenzie (and most songwriters I guess) is indeed incomplete, even on recent stuff.

Wolf is up at TSJ today, with what I guess will be my 'final' thoughts on the matter. I stole Frank's "audacious" descriptor and used it as my own, thank you very much koganbot.

'8 Hot Girls' and 'First Love' are growing on me. I know I like them better than Sistar's 'Give It to Me' has all of the flash and none of the dreaminess. After School's live performance is hypnotic in a good way.

And on a totally different note: http://youtu.be/qWxtVysaiSA

I like LEDApple to much to be objective about this song, but it's more of the somehow-very-Korean Big Band sound they've been pursuing for a while. Besides their covers, Young-hee is another LEDApple original I enjoy (their covers are where it's at, though: Go Away, Sherlock, Mr. Taxi, Gentleman. And they're Crayon Pop fans, too!).