K-pop

Better yet:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oz2P11-uU2s

And SKorea's own year-end roundups:

The Color of Kpop, Maddie's review
SBS Gayo Daejun collabs, here
SBS Gayo Daejun solos, here
MBC Gayo Daejun collabs, here
MBC Gayo Daejun solos, here and here.

Haven't watched the solos, of the collaborations nearly all the SBS Gayo one are good; at MBC Gayo Seohyun + three MCs, Shinnee and F(x), Park Myungsoo and guests incl. Crazyno who steals the show for the 10 seconds in which he appears are good. Ailee, Epik High and Koyote also bring it, but those performances are more like solos that happen to overlap with another group than true collaborations. Minzy and Park Bom of 2NE1 in good voice, also.

Just watched MBC Gayo solo stages.

Afterschool's Flashback remix (http://youtu.be/YPN6DTVd5o4) is better than the original. I also kind of like what Kara did with Pandora (http://youtu.be/k9WiJkRvaig), though the original is still better. Sistar Alone rock remix (http://youtu.be/wYjxn7HnoWU) is a miss - they don't have the pipes and the original arrangement is perfect and can't be improved.

Very good performances by BAP, Miss A, 4Minute and TVXQ, as expected. For some reason I like Secret Talk That (http://youtu.be/Bzshr9dOmyk) here where I never did before. A Pink Hush (http://youtu.be/0V8I-OKN5oA) belongs at this kind of event. The fake-out non-breakdown in BTOB Wow (http://youtu.be/8Cw4HOPHdcQ) is hilarious, as are the cameraman's shots of the non-reactive audience. A lot of good performances, all around.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dwm7IlPO1Uo

this rules a lot

yeah that's good, love that propelling guitar strum

btw the sample is the cover girls' "because of you" (identified by maura) and i think that's really awesome

I love this song, and the live "collaboration" performance at SBS Gayo, with a vocaloid. Class.

the sample doesn't do much for me tbh, other than like cool dudes in korea are listening to the cover girls

My top 100 of 2012 as of now. No JP singles.

1. BoA - Only One
2. T-ara - Lovey Dovey
3. Sunny Hill - The Grasshopper Song
4. Sistar - Alone
5. T-ara - Sexy Love
6. Big Bang - Bad Boy
7. Sunny Hill - Is The White Horse Coming?
8. Primary - ?
9. 4Minute - Volume Up
10. EXID - Every Night¨

11. Nine Muses - News
12. Wonder Girls - Like This
13. f(x) - Electric Shock
14. Satbyeol - Do Me
15. Neon Bunny - First Love
16. Chocolat - One More Day
17. Younha - Run
18. EXO - History
19. Nine Muses - Ticket
20. Lay-T - Soft Soft

21. SouLime - With U
22. Soulights - Leave Me
23. E.Via - I Know How To Play
24. Infinite - The Chaser
25. Rania - STYLE
26. Miss A - I Don't Need a Man
27. Tensi Love - Cake House
28. Crayon Pop - Dancing Queen
29. Neon Bunny - Oh My Prince
30. Gangkiz - Honey Honey

31. D-Unit - Sleeping In Part 2
32. Primary - Manna
33. After School - Flashback
34. Park JiYoon - Tree of Life
35. Seo In Young - Anymore
36. Chi Chi - Love is Energy
37. BoA - The Shadow
38. Humming Urban Stereo - Love Jam
39. TVXQ - Catch Me
40. Boyfriend - I'll Be There

41. IU - Peach
42. Davichi & T-ara "We Were In Love"
43. 4Minute - Over and Over (R.Tee Mix)
44. Areum (T-ara), Shannon, Gunji (Gavy NJ) - Day

and Night
45. The Seeya - Be With You
46. Teen Top - To You
47. IU - Bad Day
48. EXID - I Feel Good
49. Suho - You Are My Only One
50. R.Sha & Da.U - Mine

51. IU - Every End of Day
52. D-Unit - Luv Me
53. Big Bang - Fantastic Baby
54. Chocolat - I Like It
55. 2NE1 - I Love You
56. T-ara - Day By Day
57. Junsu - Tarantallegra
58. C-Real - Sorry But I
59. Nine - Songs
60. Hyuna - Ice Cream

61. Kara - Pandora
62. SIAENA - Winter Is Coming
63. Gangkiz - Mama
64. Nu'Est - Action
65. Reddy - Let's Go (feat. Satbyeol)
66. Spica - Russian Roulette
67. Nam Soo-Rim feat ParkJiYoon - Drive Me To The Moon
68. Kim Wan Sun - Can Only Feel
69. EvoL - Let Me Explode
70. Spica - Painkiller

71. Panini - Lovely Day
72. B.A.P. - No Mercy
73. Dalmatian - E.R
74. Fiestar - Vista
75. Glen Check - Disco Elevator
76. Clazzi - Love&Hate
77. Hadami - Mannequin
78. BoA - Lookin' (feat The Quiett)
79. Big Bang - Blue
80. GP Basic - Edge Ta¨

81. Primary - See Through
82. Secret - Poison
83. Miss A - Touch
84. Lumi L - Popopo
85. Beast - Beautiful Night
86. Miryo - Dirty
87. Seo In Young - Let's Dance
88. Yoseob - Caffeine
89. Lexy - Nolza
90. 15& - I Dream

91. Rude Paper - Can't Believe It (feat Sean2slow)
92. Crayon Pop - Bing Bing
93. We - Party
94. Jessica - My Lifestyle
95. WooYoung - Sexy Lady
96. Ga-In - Bloom
97. Baek Ah Yeon - Sad Song
98. Block B - Nallina
99. Girl's Day - Don't forget me
100. A-Pink - Hush Hush

Anyone know anything about this (너는 왜 - 철이와 미애)? Someone linked it on an Omonatheydidn't GLAM thread; is an earlier Korean track to use that Cover Girls sample. Not sure what it's doing; is it a Korean Stars On 45 for freestyle?

I really like your list, absfsk.

Does anyone else think f(x) - Electric Shock sounds like T-ara - One and One?

Is The White Horse Coming has my favorite video of 2012. Those couple seconds of "Prince" on the horse are priceless.

Oops, the track I linked was just "I Like That" all over again. I meant to link the very freestylish "Why You," by Chuli & Miae (1993, according to the YouTube posters) -- which possibly samples "Because Of You" and definitely copies it (my hearing isn't precise enough to figure this out), though without then following along the chord pattern that accompanies the little vocal riff in the Cover Girls' version. In any event, "I Like That" is using the part from Chuli & Miae, though again I can't tell if it's a sample or a copy, though if it's a sample, and wherever it comes from (whether it's directly from the Cover Girls or from Chuli & Miae), GLAM are augmenting it with what sounds like a deeper-timbred voice than on either of the two previous tracks, though of course that voice could well have been the same one with electronic treatment.

"I Like That" sounds better than GLAM's previous single, "Party(XXO)," though the latter is massively important for its unmistakable pro-gay lyrics. And I'd say the biz and the fans aren't holding that content and the GLAM girls possible sexual orientation against them, to say the least. Allkpop has been reporting "I Like That" doing well in the daily charts. Its lyrics, by the way, seem to be about thinking it's okay that someone just broke up with you, that not being in a relationship is fine, that not having your friends around is fine. That's what they're liking when they say "I like that." Even when they're drunk and crawling and they're unhappy, and there's no one to take care of them, they like it!

As for "Electric Shock" and "One And One," the riff isn't quite the same, "Electric Shock" going to an upper note earlier, but the rhythm is close. So I do hear the similarity, though emotionally the two songs don't feel much alike. "Electric Shock" is more brutal, "One And One" bouncier.

"Electric Shock" is one of my favorite f(x) tracks, while "One And One" is just run-of-the-mill for T-ara and Shinsadong Tiger (though run-of-the-mill for them is exceedingly good compared to most anyone else's run-of-the-mill). I don't know whether it came out first, but "One And One" sounds as if S. Tiger was working out ideas that came to fruition in 4minute's superb "Hot Issue."

I recently found out that 'hitman' bang, the producer of GLAM's two singles and seemingly the man in charge also composed one of the great early T-ara tracks "Like The First Time". One possible reason I hadn't picked up on this is the fact that their first album sounds so much like one solid whole that I assumed everyone involved was part of the T-ara 'clique' - but this is the only hitman track there.

I don't know about "Electric Shock" being more brutal, "One and One" is a relentless song about how T-ara are COMING FOR YOU and won't stop until they have MERGED WITH YOU TO FORM A SINGLE UNIT. I guess I can see what you're saying about the build of the beat, though. I like T-ara's song more, if only because it's more fun to sing, and for the part that goes "Pact, Impact... I will, I will".

That's pretty cool about GLAM! I like this song too. Also, from the description:

"SeeU (시유, シユ) is a voicebank for Vocaloid3, the first Vocaloid capable of singing in Korean and is the first Korean/Japanese bilingual Vocaloid. The voice provider is the artist Dahee Kim (17 year old member of the K-pop girl band "GLAM"). Her release was on October 21, 2011 (South Korea) and December 16, 2011 (Japan)."

Femme fatales. Just a quick mix for fun, nothing special.

Considered adding Roh Ji Hoon - Punishment but the girl in the video doesn't wear a red dress, and in the live performance where Roh Ji Hoon wears a red suit, he's off-key.

David Fraser keeps pumping me with good information over on lj. Here are GLAM with a dance instruction video for "I Like That," including Chuli & Miae's ttaemiri dance. GLAM seem unaware that the sample has a source that precedes Chuli & Miae. Maybe "hitman" Bang is equally unaware. Here are Chuli & Miae way back when doing their ttaemiri dance. YouTube directed me to Yubin and Sohee of the Wonder Girls performing Why You and its ttaemari dance in the before-GLAM era. Also pre-GLAM, are a couple of dancers dancing the ttaemiri to "Why You" at a hospital holiday party, December 2011.

To increase my confusion, I see that, according to Generasia, Bang Si Hyuk, a.k.a. "hitman" Bang, is president of Big Hit Entertainment, a JYP subsidiary — but GLAM are listed in the category "Former Artist," and if you go to the Generasia page for GLAM, their company is identified as "Source Music," the entry for Source Music consisting entirely of this useful information: "Source Music (쏘스뮤직) is a South Korean record label," followed by a short list of artists and some links. Clicking the links, I see that GLAM's vids are among the "favorite videos" on the Source Music YouTube page, and that the Source Music Website has as its front page a massive embed of the YouTube vid for GLAM's "Party(XXO)." Source Music's Twitter gives their five artists: "Source Music 공식 트위터 / Artist_GLAM / Artist_간미연 / Artist_8eight / Artist_이현 / Artist_Eden Beatz."

Visiting our untrustworthy friend Wikipedia, who is not yet on the case for GLAM, we find "Big Hit Entertainment" as a subsection under "JYP Entertainment." Both GLAM and 8Eight are listed as artists, but 8Eight, unlike GLAM, has the note "left the company (2012)." The Wikip entry for 8Eight identifies their label as Source Music, which gets no entry on its own. Wikip's list of Korean Idol Groups puts both Big Hit Entertainment and Source Music as GLAM's label. Finally, Allkpop told the world last spring, "On May 25th, Big Hit Entertainment announced that 'GLAM' will be making their debut on July 16th in collaboration with Source Music. 8Eight and Kan Mi Yeon are housed under Source Music, while 2AM is under Big Hit Entertainment. For the past three years, the two companies have been working together to produce GLAM." And "hitman" Bang offers these happy words: "I actually feel sorry calling GLAM a girl group because they have genuine musical talent and passion. As opposed to producing them, it's more accurate to say that I helped them realize their hidden musical potential and helped them foster that as a partner by their side."

So, I can't tell if Source Music is an independent entity that collaborates with Big Hit or is a subsidiary of something, ultimately under JYP. The GLAM dance instruction video was posted by LOEN, not by JYP or any of its subs. That's where I'll leave my researching, as I now kinda like need to stop gallivanting around the Web for the rest of today.

Speaking of T-ara -- and when am I not finding a way to speak of T-ara -- back when I discovered the wonderful "Like The First Time," I listened to a bunch of other "hitman" Bang tracks without liking what I heard: ballad sap seemed his taste. But I've only heard a small fraction of his oeuvre. "I Like That" hits me as better than most of it, though I'm not yet sure how much better.

To further confuse matters, GLAM's leader, Park Jiyeon, has the same name as T-ara's biggest star, Park Jiyeon.

Since this is an active thread now, songs of interest for the week:

Super Junior M - Break Down. Very appropriately, the breakdown just before Suju-M sing the hook is the best part of the song. There's a kind of doppler effect on the vocals which is picked up by the video, set in what looks like a wind tunnel. Towards the end of the video, an unfortunate birds wanders too close to the fan and the resultant feathery explosion adds visual interest to what is otherwise a standard-issue "hot guys in a box with flashing lights" SM vid.

Girls Generation - I Got a Boy. Picked apart on the singles jukebox and now I like it a lot more. My favorite thing about it is the Greek chorus of the other 8 members telling the boy-crazed narrator, "girl, you crazy".

SPEED - That's My Fault. SPEED are the male half of co-ed school and labelmates to T-ara. They seem to be the appointed torch-bearers of 20-minute epic T-ara music video tradition, though this video is more accomplished, with better acting and camerawork, and also much tighter editing (it's only 11 minutes long and not confusing at all). The video is about the Gwangju Massacre and the sad military horns in the instrumental are perfect for the topic. Unfortunately, not every member of SPEED is a decent rapper equal to the task at hand, though a couple of them manage okay.

B2ST and A Pink - 5 My Baby. Five attractive men meet five attractive women and no words are necessary because everyone is hot. The video perfectly captures this feeling by having all the members of A Pink and Beast emerge from boxes, circle each other, and then pair off. There are also lots of scenes where they check themselves out in mirrors, which is appropriate as this song is a sequel to last year's Skinny Baby and, like Skinny Baby, is a promotion for Korean fashion brand Skool Looks. By the way, although I might sound dismissive I think this is a good song. Robot imagery + minimalist lyrics seems reminiscent of early electronica and the song sounds a bit like that as well, to my untrained ear.

Boyfriend - I Yah. Another Boyfriend/Sweetune collaboration and more "Sweetune" than their previous collaboration Love Style. Boyfriend play controlling not-quite-boyfriends and sing about their sensitivity and total emotional dependence. So far, so Kpop. In the MV description box, however, they are called "homme-fatales" which does at least show awareness of both the attraction and destructiveness of this character type. It also says that "homme-fatale" will be the concept of Boyfriend's album, so perhaps there will be an attempt to build up a narrative. The MV actress, Kim So Hyun, plays a perfectly nice and normal high school student who doesn't deserve to be emotionally destroyed.

Next week I am looking forward to:
-The Infinite H album produced by Primary, which is coming out on my birthday;
-Gayoon and Jiyoon (of 4minute)'s country-pop(!) debut album Harvest Moon

I'm so super excited about the INfinite H album. Right before christmas I said I hoped he would produce more for pop stars after the K Will success and then he delivers just a few weeks later with one of the better boy bands! And the whole EP is produced by him! And Zico and others of his friends show up in front of and behind the mic!

The 2-Yoon project is the opposite of what I was hoping for (and I was pretty excited about the unit) but I'm still curious about this 'dance pop country' single.

I knooooooooow, it looks like it's gonna be so good! Maybe I should control my expectations a bit, but with the featurings list (Zion.T! Dynamic Duo! Baby Soul!) it's hard not to be excited. Hoya and Dongwoo really lucked out.

I don't see Zico though, am I missing something? Does he have like a second name he works under?

I'm not sure the 2yoon thing will be good, but I'm also curious, yeah. Country-country or Taylor-Swift-country? It's pretty easy to signal "country" on a pop song, you just need some twangy guitars. Will they sing in Korean-countryside accents? That kind of stuff... plus, they have pretty good voices. I would have thought something more divaish or soulful, but this could be good.

Doh, I meant Sion T.

If Swift then her latest singles since they mentioned dance pop as well.

Maybe they are trying to be the originators of a new (to Korea) trend.

I can't believe I forgot this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPoGVtC9msQ

Don't have much to say, except that I love everything about it.

girls gen song is amaaaaazing

Infinite H album leaked. Ehh, it's okay - a bit generic. I'm glad "Victorious Way" is the single.

Somewhat more surprisingly, 2yoon country-pop is pretty good! It turns out "country" means "ballad with emphasis on the upbeat" and some harmonica, haha.

Also: D-Unit - Sleeping In Pt. 2, Brit - Goodbye Yesterday, maybe more to come as I work my way through this person's uploads.

Well that's just one Yoon, for another project.

Put that D-Unit track on my 2012 list- don't know if it qualifies as a single but since a rejigged version got re-released as a buzz single-ish thing before their real comeback I counted it.

There's a point - should there be a K-pop 2013 post? Or do we not have critical mass?

I could go for one

So then... who's gonna start it? I feel like an interloper here.

I'm fine with anyone starting it. I can do it as well but I felt I had my shot with this thread.

SNSD interview http://omonatheydidnt.livejournal.com/10420138.html

It's kind of an unusual article for k-pop idols, at least as far as I've come across. Critics in Korea haven't been as positive towards 'I Got A Boy' as those overseas and here the group is confronted with specific criticism against the song. They seem to enjoy themselves promoting the song.

Well, if you're okay with it...

K-pop 2013

My 13 yo just ordered two tix. 220 euro. Welp. But she’s ecstatic. Going to Day6

Day6 are cool

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

I love the chorus on this one, it's so chromatic and happy

This is also cool

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gL_KC_7GDNE

Sadly I think their latest songs are a little more trendchasing. But man they know how to write a catchy hook.

Wrong year perhaps?
The current thread is here: Kpop 2019

nm, these are older tracks! sorry for confusing matters.