K-pop 2013

The bestest Christmas song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4GerUWQT5I

I love the way their reaction to the out-of-place Santa Craus twerk freakout mirrors everyone else's to certain twerking k-pop girls.

This is wonderful:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDZOCLMk_PM

The end-of-year Gayos are *laughably* bad this year, but these two performances are everything I ever wanted from Hyorin and Co.:

One Way Love
Give It To me

Girl groups killing it at SBS Gayo in general actually:

Bar Bar Bar (greatly visible), The Red Shoes (great camera gaze), Pretty Pretty (rocked from the dinky side stage), All Right + Mr. Lee (PERFECT <3).

Out of the boygroups, only Infinite were having a good night, though Block B tried really hard, aha. B2ST and Teen Top had good mixes but just okay performances and the same was true for lots of other acts. I think the last Inkigayo was actually better. Holding out hope for MBC Gayo!

Really enjoyed Hyori and CL's stage, even though Hyori kind of got overshadowed a bit by the end. Massive performance. (SBS keeps blocking/pulling videos off youtube so this low-quality versh will have to do for now).

2NE1 made 10asia's list of worst camerawork in 2013, as well as my list of best camerawork in 2011:

http://omonatheydidnt.livejournal.com/12408177.html

These are old, but I was just thinking about who I regretted not nominating for the ILX year-end poll, and Delight popped into my head... Frank or someone, you'll get them on the ballot right?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfySIP2KuqQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akUcMOsq72g

yeah, I saw the list and was going to ask you about Delight and "Love & Hate" not being there.
How does it work, can anyone nominate stuff? I wanna include "Pink Tape" too.

The groups I looked forward to seeing mostly kind of phoned it in on SBS, but there were nice surprises. I liked Lim Kim and Lee Hi (somehow never gave them a chance before) and the "Coming Of Age Ceremony" transition to Park Jiyoon was great, just kind of wish they'd done the whole song together. And "I Got A Boy" came across really well live.

Beast's stage on KBS was livelier:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwFEv72onqQ

man I have a total male fangirl reaction to them these days.

Junhyung's smirk.

I think anyone can nominate. I just sort of threw mine together, if I could do it over again I'd nominate Delight, Lim Kim, and maybe Sistar19 or 4minute for the album (EP) category. I was also thinking about nominating Hyorin-Love&Hate, Vixx-Voodoo Doll and Nine Muses-Gun, but decided not to because truthfully I've only listened to them once or twice.

Then there's critical/popular faves Lee Hyori (Monochrome), f(x) (Pink Tape - already nominated I think), EXO (XOXO), Zion.T (Red Light) and Dynamic Duo (Luckynumbers), but those are being covered a lot on other sites, anyway. Plus again I've only listened to them once or twice, hahs.

I personally enjoyed Lee Hi's album (2nd half), Seungri's EP (first half), and AA's EP, but I doubted anyone else would agree with me on those.

Speaking of Beast, someone commented in the bad camerawork post above with this amazing performance. Yobseob is <3

I have 29 nomination slots left just let me know what you guys want to nominate

Delight!!!

Also, some singles I considered but ended up not nominating:

Busy Signal - Same Way (NOTE: NOT KPOP)
f(x) - Shadow
f(x) - Step
LC9 - Mama Beat
Kim Sori - Dual Life
Myname - Just that Little Thing
N.SONIC - Lie
OKCAT - 옥캣송 (X-Mas Ver.)
Phanton ft. Navi - New Era
Shinhwa - This Love
Super Junior M - Breakdown
Taeyang - Ringa Linga
Tiny-G - Minimainimo
VIXX - On and On

U SHD GO WITH UR <3

Maybe Lee Hi ft. Jennie Kim - Special, too. Also I think the Jun Areia remix of IGAB is greater than the original.

Since we're still in the 2013 thread, did you hear BESTie's "Love Options"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPqtL1dtrlA

the Areia remix is groovy! I'm also growing to really like the original though.

I saw the live version, but it didn't really do justice to song, that's pretty nice!

Oh man, we're gonna need a 2014 thread soon... I nominate Rain's comeback for first song of the new year, the way IGAB and I Like That kicked off 2013.

Not that it's as good as either of those songs

But it's pretty nice and I like his high heels

That BESTie song is like the unholy lovechild of 4minute's What's Your Name and Heo Young Saeng's Art Of Seduction, LOL Brave Brothers.

But it's better than Art of Seduction.

I hear some Sistar in there, too!

Youtube comments say BESTie's U-Jin and SISTAR's Hyorin had the same vocal trainer and that's why they sound similar. I predict more songs that might have gone to SISTAR going to BESTie instead if they manage to get popular and/or if Brave Brothers likes them enough.

Speaking of South Korea's most famous freelance songwriter, the description of the guy BESTie reject at the beginning of Love Options (He’s too short and his face is too big/He’s too nice, he probably has a lot of girls/He brags about himself constantly) kind of resembles him.

THE FIRST SONG I'M REALLY LOOKING FORWARD TO IN 2014:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZbMgQ0huak

And it must be said that B1A4 were MVPs at all of the Gayos, nearly single-handedly saving KBS Gayo.

Oh wait, there's also this:

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

Minah sounding really great less the aegyo.

hahaha, oh boy, I hadn't heard "The Art Of Seduction" and thought the song was a bit new. Should've known there would be another piece to the puzzle we call Brave Brothers.

The thing for January appears to be the mature, sexy and/or sad sort of concept from formerly cute girl groups. Besides Girl's Day (really like the song btw), Dal Shabet and Rainbow are in on it too. Shinsadong Tiger is producing both. I like the idea of Rainbow BLAXX; am also looking forward to Sunmi's comeback.

Then there's a new TVXQ song, in tune with the other trend of swing band arrangements:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9HBT6sRSZ8

I'm dying for Nine Muses to try this. Though not a 4real musician, I was messing around trying to compose a Nine Muses-y song with similar instrumentation before it really caught on in k-pop; still think they would be the group best suited to it. (Mine even had the same chord progression, kinda, but sadly not that bassline.)

The Seeya finally got a song; not sure what to make of it yet. Probably need to hear a version that isn't all all carved up for the MV, but it doesn't seem to be as good as "Painkiller" or a lot of the stuff on Love U.

(and did I call it when I said "hope with the winter looming it'll be time for CCM to roll out The Seeya for some heartbreak and lost-love-longing again." It's pretty funny; literally every song they've done, album tracks included, has been about a tragic love. I like how blatantly they go for it but they're bound to run out of variations eventually.)

Before we move on to 2014, here's one more from Soompi's 2013 girl group debut montage, called Pungdeng-E:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLk3AROEvUo

They're hilarious, OMG.

Oh and here are the Soompi videos:

boys
girls

And one more that sounds like it could play on a year-end countdown:

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

Rainbow teasers look good, look forward to 'em! That TVXQ song is great too.

More on Pungdeng-e

"They sing and rap in different dialects of Korean depending on where they are from. Red hails from the Gyeongsang-do province while Blue is from the Jeolla-do province and Yellow, the lead vocalist, is from Seoul. And the producers of Pung Deng-E decided to keep each member's regional dialect intact - a rather unique approach not too common among the mainstream K-pop artists who perform strictly in standard Korean."

Pungdeng is great fun.

AMRT's latest, mmmmhmmm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2MvLbt4F-s

I added a couple of the missing nominations; 2Yoon, Delight, Rania, the CCM "Painkiller" collaboration and Hyolyn.

Pungdeng-e are adorable! Someone said they will be releasing an album this month.

I hope so!

Speaking of end of year nominations, I can't find the voting thread? Anyone got a link?

~~~ ILM METAL POLL 2013 - ALBUMS & TRACKS VOTING & CAMPAIGN THREAD~~~ (VOTING ENDS FRIDAY JANUARY 10th 11.59pm UK time/6.59pm EST) )

Haha whoops that's the wrong poll

I don't think the voting thread has been made yet

I saw it, though! Or I thought I saw it...

Oh wait I think this is it ILM 2013 | End of Year Albums & Tracks Poll | VOTING THREAD (Voting closes MIDNIGHT EST on Friday, January 17th, 2014)

That's the one! Thanks!

I dig the new Dal Shabet:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGKeA3xUzxU

It's another of the K-pop puzzle songs where you can entertain yourself by picking out all the things it rips off (from 80s disco/synthpop, in this case). Really good though.

Wow that's great!

Besides the synthpop I also hear bits of T-ara Sexy Love.

I made a Youtube playlist of all the K-pop songs nominated for the EOY poll since most of them aren't on Spotify: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLP-ajiMFDEG5PV5xhpKwMTVLhGKhQ_mb1

Let me know if I missed anything.

I just realised i should have nominated Evol's "Get Up", really regretting not doing so. :/

oh no, I was going to nominate it too but I was certain someone did already.

Frank did nominate it, guess it was omitted by accident from the poll. ILM 2013 | End of Year Albums & Tracks Poll | NOMINATIONS THREAD

yeah that's what i thought too! i'll let the poll runners know.

Thanks Roz!