K-pop 2013

BAP One Shot is nothing special to listeners already familiar with gangsta rap, but truly epic - and bloody! - music video, TS Entertainment continuing to splash out on these guys.

I am really looking forward to Rainbow next week: album teaser & recent trot performance.

omg that BAP video is glorious - irl lol when the blood spattered on the camera towards the end.

looking forward to possible Azealia Banks vs K-pop beef also.

'ring ma bell' heralds the arrival of the clapper trend to k-pop (though I feel like there must be earlier examples of clappers in k-pop right?)

2NE1 "Clap Your Hands"? lol jk I can't think of any, actually...

Does anyone remember Going Crazy (Song JiEun ft. Bang YongGuk)? Because BYG sure does.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zy_sgB4EJB8

Those of us who were fans of Rainbow and especially the two Daishi Dance produced singles last time they promoted waited two years for this - arguably one of the least memorable / worst singles from any major k-pop act in the past 12 months.

I feel pretty much the opposite of you about this

i like the athletic strings on it but yeah it's pretty nothing otherwise

y'all are crazy

compared to "to me" it's like they were drained of all personality

god there was a bobbins track from last year that i think samples the "just wanna be with you!" from "to me" and i can't at all remember what it is

to me it's like yeah, production is a little dAted or at least not what's fashion rn but the melody is really strong and it's still a tune

re-listening to 'to me' yeah I can see how you might be disappointed by this - none of the swagger

maybe they should have given this song as a debut for some other group, or given it to orange caramel or something? idk

still find it enjoyable tho

I'm with abcfsk and Brad but am holding out hope for the second half of the EP which is supposed to be "different in style" from the first half.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzNaAY2yn6g

I assume everybody else loves this?

First time hearing this.

Oh Yes!!

yes indeed.

Absolutely. Video proper is great too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vhxjEXDAy6s

haha I didn't know they released two vers. thought they were dangerously close to dancing with broomsticks

they could prob get away with dancing with broomsticks though

shinee song is a certified jam

disco guitar forever

yeah and it sounds very distinctively 'shineee'

haha speaking of throwbacks check out this straight rip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lieFdkYA-Q

What's it a straight rip of?

Dream Girl is awesome.

weirdly enough what comes to mind is 'ghostbusters,' haha

feel like I like this new speed single but maybe i just like the synth warble idk

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

Actually releasing a Sistar single is a decent strategy to getting your first hit, I guess, but I don't think there's any place in the music industry for SPEEd or the other Co-Ed leftovers. Just realized today that one of their members is Zico's brother, though.

I like the warble. The rest of it doesn't do much for me.

^ yeah I think that's how I'm gonna come out on this one

It's too bad, there's one pretty good rapper in SPEED and those LED glove things they used in "It's All Over" were cool. I still really like their remake of Lovey-Dovey.

乒乓 and EZ, if you like the synth warble in "Pain the Love of Heart" and haven't listened to Myname - Just the Little Thing yet, you should.

Verbal Jint ft. Ailee - If It Ain't Love

I think this is the first Ailee song I really like. The key point here is the lyrics.

Soompi has a compilation of all the debut songs of all of 2012's debut groups: boys and girls. The song that stood out the most to me (because I'd never heard of the group and the label couldn't even afford a video or a grammar-checker for the title) was Jackpot - Catch It Me. Also Kboys - Kboys was surprisingly catchy in parts, for such a terribly named group.

Honestly there a lot of strong songs on here, though, and not all from the groups you'd expect either...

This is both strangely impressive and absolutely bananas.

http://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/75764816.html

Speaking of impressive and bananas:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaGCTbqJKO0

<33333333

Oh but on the spoon thing you gotta check the top-rated "netizen" (Korean anonymous forum posters exercising their right to free speech in a democratic country) comments (because hilarious) + additional evidence (because impressive and scary).

loool I've said this elsewhere but I honestly thought I had seen all the ~crazy~ in the heady days of Harry Potter and Twilight fandom. And then I came across K-pop fans.

somewhat related: this is impressive both on the part of the fans AND the group, because I swear I watched this performance the other day and didn't notice ANY of this happening: http://byuntaenoona.tumblr.com/post/43701700946/shinee-youre-so-professional

What's funny about that performance is that the TV studio seems to have filmed the performance twice (mic stand is apart then together then apart again) but decided to go with the shots where Shinee deals with the broken mic over shots where the performance goes smoothly. Either because they couldn't be bothered to film a third time or because they were also impressed, lol.

This track from Sistar19's album is good too!

Pretty sure this does not count as K-pop but check out these hilarious stoners XD.

New Lee Hi single http://youtu.be/UJKOFMUGq2E

PR pitch: it's got a big bear

I prefer this album track though, featuring a future YG girl group star http://youtu.be/KwY2NgW56Og

The intro is great too, <3 Kush and his 1.5 minute teaser tracks.

The "It's Over" video is something, though.

Crush is really good too! Title track is like the weakest on the album, odd.

Speculation on omona that It's Over is not the "real" title track and that's she'll probably promote Rose, a 100% Teddy track on the second half of the album to be released later this month, instead.

Debut song from Ladies Code. It sounds like a medley of Miss A songs, especially "Goodbye Baby" and "Bad Girl, Good Girl" - which, you know, steal from the best? Those are better songs but LC appear to be stronger singers.

Are we sure that's not deej in the bear suit with the complex product placement?

Forapper's description of Ladies' Code is accurate: "Bad Girl" has too much jammed into it so the arrangement trips over itself but the singing is fierce and precise. "SuperGirl" on the EP works better, gives the singers more space, yet is deliberately grating in its use of AutoTune. More fierceness. "Stronger singers" is right though strong is not always better: one of the touching things about Miss A is the struggle that Min et al. put into their singing. Not to say that Miss A wouldn't be just as good if we didn't feel them struggle. But they avoid sounding slick. Style with sweat. Whereas Ladies' Code may have trouble creating their own identity. We'll see.

Thanks Frank! I really like SuperGirl, it's like... at the crossroads of Beyonce, Rihanna and 2NE1.

One nice thing about the stronger vocals is that they can be less processed. This is making me realize that the processing on the vocals is what was dragging "Goodbye Baby" down for me, although listening to it now I can hear the touching vulnerability, too.