K-pop (2015)

which is a shame because songs like 어때? and 하라구 are kind of interesting
big fan of hara having a song named after herself though ha

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3z_ZhJAk1w

interviewed the girl Suran from Primary's awesome "Mannequin" (she co-wrote it, in addition to co-writing "Awoo" for Lim Kim). apparently she had this solo song in december, pretty unreal great

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akoSG0kRcXw

it's a way weirder song than i'd expect from a pink, a group that has little to gain from eccentricity (and that was cool by me; i grew to love "luv"). gonna give it a few days and spins to mull

meanwhile, suju's new one is super safe and easily my favorite single from them

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

dang that suran song is great. and i'm legit shocked by devil, been a while since i've liked a suju song this much.
a bit unsure about remember... definitely one of the more interesting apink songs (albeit a lot of the same tropes as before too) but the fact the chorus is dependent on the key change for momentum sort of highlights how weak it is melodically. and the way they handle it in the final minute even more so.

Hmm, I think it mostly sounds like A Pink by the numbers. But I like it. A Pink's output to me is the k-pop answer to your average AKB48 single - pushing the right buttons, even if they're the same ones each time and always labeled '1-2-3-4-..'

I mean, it's no My My My, but it's certainly pleasant enough.

Kenzie Watch: 'Devil' first S.M. lead single she's done this year, unless I've missed something. Bonamana is obv SuJu's greatest single and a k-pop GOAT candidate.

Pink Memory is pretty well-produced, the first half being particularly great. Perfume stands out: https://youtu.be/JHBhCokb86g
Definitely think A Pink peaked in their debut year but yeah like what abcfsk said, it's always been nice.

I didn't miss this earlier in the thread, did I?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1oTSAhdzNQ

Not the best example of trend-jumping out there. It's funny how it still sounds like an Infinite song though.

Jay Park and friends entering the summer fray looking like members of a boyband:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZ9poBAcJUU

Also really like Suju's Devil... it's the like S. Korean answer to "Happy"

man i'm a huge sucker for jay park's happy/summer stuff. the dispatch line is cute
and the vid is great. i think i mentioned it here once but jay park's one of the few korean rappers who actually have personality and it just really just shows here

i'm assuming soyrev was talking about jay park when he mentioned korea's own big sean ONLY because someone initially said drake (since people often complain about jay park switching between his tough and soft side). if he didn't mention the drake thing then i would've thought san.e

It's a great video, dude is looking good with that haircut and whatever dermatological laser treatment he got that makes him magically look 5 years younger

Actually now I really want a point-by-point comparison of "Devil" and "Happy" because they really are very alike

full disclosure: i am *never* talking about jay park

will say, before returning to that vow of silence, that he is super consistent as a running gag. i think he peaked in this regard (and musically) earlier this year, with this adlib from one negligible all-english track or another:

i feature on my own motherfucking songs

i mean yeah! that's totally reminiscent of "drake featuring drake" :3

true! not the "korean drake" i keep hearing about here, but definitely a more substantial claim to be made for jay (partially through his willing it, i guess)

a pink topping the ichart with the first 300+ score i've seen since the first couple days of big bang's double-drop this month. regardless of where my opinion on it winds up falling, i'll always love how a song that modulates mid-chorus (and has a bridge that leads oddly into a second bridge that leads oddly into an instrumental of the chorus) is the type of thing that can be a sensation in korea.

meanwhile, "party" way down, getting beat out by "heart attack" at this point which came out two weeks prior. i guess the real verdict, though, will be their physical sales, which has always been SNSD's strong suit.

"perfume" gets pretty interesting from the bridge on, and after a little calibration i love the genre juxtaposition and modulations in "i do." probably the most eccentric thing they've ever done, while still maintaining that saccharine a pink sheen throughout.

very odd that the instrumental of "remember" is sequenced not as a bonus but as the penultimate track, preceding "새끼손가락." reminds me a lil of the way STJ sequenced the english redo of "nan arayo" on his debut album.

http://netizenbuzz.blogspot.kr/2015/07/cl-shows-off-bold-new-look-in-latest.html?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

no matter which side you believe, it does look like she's going for a very different look...

Music show wins

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CKHUIX2UsAA6aVr.jpg

pretty nuts. good to keep in mind that YG's music show philosophy is very different, they often do just one or two appearances a week whereas SM is all go go go (though i'm not sure when YG's conservatism began)

Speaking of YG... Big Bang Sober is stupid fun:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoies3-r1HM

Reconsidering my decision to not see them live in October.

"If You" tho is the laziest most underwritten ballad ever, put it back on the shelf.

ehh so far "bae bae" is the only one of their new songs that sounds finished

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZuv_woHhb8

have watched 7 or 8 times in the past hour and am still in trembling disbelief

oh my god :o

she's so good x_x

I'm looking forward to Hello Venus, actually...

And speaking of nugu girl groups, I hadn't heard of Wanna.B before but "Attention" is surprisingly fun and the bob-haired blonde has an interesting delivery:

https://youtu.be/8fcEkxFLHmQ

that sunmi jam is gonna be on my top 20 list ;'D

hyukoh and zion.t still dominating the top three slots on ichart, while a pink, sistar, b2st, AOA, SNSD and BB falter far below. pretty interesting.

also, b2st's pre-release tracks for their past three or four records have been smashes, but this new one is barely putting a dent in. weak showing for a pink, too. meanwhile CLC had two full mini albums (and a digital single) this year, BTOB just dropped their 7th or 8th mini, and both of them remain stubbornly anonymous in korea, cube really is having a troubled 2015 (4minute in jan being the one exception), while JYP, whom cube had been said to have surpassed, has been rallying like heck since miss a's comeback became a sensation in april. guess the traditional Big Three might be secure after all.

Sungjae (out of BTOB) is trending, but that doesn't seem to have affected them as a group yet. But then their latest release is low-key rnb ballad stuff.

Not sure if this is the best place for it, but here's ex-EXO-M member Tao refusing to be silenced:

http://ztaohs.tumblr.com/post/124767755853/t-a-o-by-huang-zitao-lyrics-i-believe-in-my

yeah – that ballad stuff being cube's best guess for how to capitalize in on sungjae's variety fame.

the tao drama is incredible to watch play out. also vocally he has a long way to go, but the beat for that song is nuts – the chorus is basically rustie?? and the stuff before and after is pretty out there, too

Tao is the main reason I was even following EXO, there's never a dull moment. And now he's got the twins in Tasty following his lead (leave Korea first, settle contract disputes later, release music if that's what you wanna & contract disputes be damned). I mean you can *buy* Tao's music on Chinese portal sites right now, that's crazy. I'm glad though because I've always liked his style as a singer - he's not the best technically but he always sounds sincere. I like his (Chinese) rapping too, though not so much in these songs.

BTOB's ballad song is actually in the Gaon top 20 - it was #19 last week https://youtu.be/12HRUQPsHj4

that must be thanks to their international fanbase buying physical copies. it's nowhere on ichart, and that's a *low* bar to clear (tracks in the 30s right now have literally 1 point).

as for tao's legal situation, :X

Gfriend https://youtu.be/YYHyAIFG3iI

Kisum https://youtu.be/qhDO3CoAZks

Oh that Kisum song is good. Though the guest singer sounds like Chris Brown doing With U for a minute there.

Stellar doing their thing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOmTdFpIDX8

"Our company forced us to do this degrading sexy concept" is their concept now, huh.

there's always been sort of self-aware/meta stuff going on with their lyrics since marionette

eh still not convinced by anything gfriend has done musically. choreo is always on point though.

the kisum song is good; loved like it so i naturally dig this. just continues to confirm for me that korea has something really going for it with these feel-good poppy hip-hop singles. they're not jaw-droppingly good by any means but they really stand out when you consider what's big right now in the west (dj mustard/rnbass stuff, darker r&b crossover things, atl producers, silento and trap queen [both on the hot 100 for 20+ weeks]).

vibrato is nice, one of the better girl group singles of the summer. it being a mere 3 minutes works in its favor.

new primary song with choa and iron is fun. love the video (perhaps presented the way it is because of hyukoh's success?)

gfriend 1 >> gfriend 2

not hearing what y'all are hearing with kisum, but yeah the new primary is nice. vibrato is solid (ha), really curious if they'll be able to claw their way to legitimacy after the past couple years of desperate sleaze

desperate sleaze is their thing now - remember how the ryanair CEO used to release stories about how the airline would be getting rid of chairs and customers would pay for toilets, etc, as a publicity stunt? The article about Stellar refusing to dance in thongs reminded me of that, with maybe a side of T-ara -style upper management dysfunction.