K-pop (2015)

@katherine yeah i think there's literally zero chance that ronson gives a fuck about k-pop (certainly not on his mind for "uptown funk"), i think whoever mentioned it was just thinking in terms of similarities. although i met j-pop guy sky-hi just after he sat down and traded notes with ronson so he's at least modestly dialed into asian pop

and bae bae >>>>> loser it's not even close

I'm just now learning that they're chanting about sticky rice cakes (chapsaltteok) in the last verse

yea that's why they have the two smashing into each other and then we see them eating some.

San E's been at #1 for days now (even holding off "loser" for a good 12 hours now) with a feature from one of the girls of 15&. April really has been the redemption of JYP

Oh man didn't realize Only You was still so high at #4

And just say that I'm still somewhat shocked that San E got an EarDrummers beat (albeit from J-Bo so maybe I shouldn't be that surprised)

okay game over tho, BB is now top two slots with "loser" riding the highest score i've seen to date (380)

deep into the 2 mill views on youtube after just 14 hours, too. dang...wonder how exo stacked up to that (for future reference/comparison, after 1 month "call me baby" has 21.88 mill for korean and 8.87 for chinese)

Just realized BoA will come back when Big Bang's power on music shows is at its strongest two weeks post release ;/

Grown to really hate that miss a song

i've liked it more and more. chorus so melodic~

"loser" hitting 410 on instiz.

7mil plus Youtube views in less than 48 hours (4.9 mil for Bae Bae).

You reckon that's the 19+ age rating on Bae Bae, or just Loser having more replay value?

I wonder if they're gonna hit #1 every month from now til September.

abcfsk juuuust posted this upthread but i want to reiterate its excellence: yoo young-jin interview, 2010

http://omonatheydidnt.livejournal.com/3586995.html

a lot of musical k-pop visionariness in there. gotta be the single most interesting article i've read on the music itself.

http://arcadey.net/2015/05/bigbang-made-comeback/

shaboi arcadey hears that country in "bae bae" as well ;-*

Yeess.. I had no expecations of BoA's pre-release single getting anywhere close to Big Bang on the charts, even a few days later, but it has, if only for today

Olleh 1
Soribada 1
Genie 1
Naver 1
Daum 1
Monkey3 1
MelOn 2
Mnet 3
Bugs 3

#3 on instiz, not bad

HYOSUNG: https://youtu.be/TZLdGojFbNA?list=PLDW7LHwCCGydWr4eNPDhCPuQ89XLnb976

I still replay the album tracks off her mini from last year ("Goodnight Kiss") and this is coming from the same playbook... sax-hooks, syncopated beats and chilled-out burlesque. Thumbs up.

The instrumentals are so good, all the hallmarks of "grown up" like (actual?) brass and saxophone, etc, but mixed in with the dance beat. TS Ent has some great in-house producers.

ALSO, JANG HYUNGSEUNG'S SOLO DEBUT:

https://soundcloud.com/mistress-nicey/sets/jhs-my

Off "My Mini Album", title track "Ma First" features Giriboy and is great.

Actually I'll recommend his 19+ ballad track "I Love You" instead, though the lyrics are kinda fucked up.

Not really feeling this mini apart from "Break Up With Him" (weird videogame bloops, random synths pushed up against a standard R&B arrangement) but Hyunseung looks and sounds great.

Yeah I probably just like dude's voice... He's said "Break Up with Him" was his choice for the single, but his label wanted the dance track.

BTW, new group for all your Infinite/Boyfriend/Sweetune needs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIe47jQcnhc

"Break Up With Him" was produced by Kush! def missed his work.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xtp1/v/t1.0-9/11167793_1000442269968504_2700780014587063332_n.jpg?oh=9ab36b93960b854279467834102185c3&oe=55DF392F&__gda__=1439711497_2076901cd28decf6ae8f8e69123c8e6d

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR92tv29pFU

damn boa

Really love that, restraint at the right time gets me swooning when the chorus subtly hits. A quick first listen to the album also has me digging the slow songs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVjfl9AHMzo

i've yet to really hit her whole discog but so far everything i've heard from her, incl. this album, is just not my thing. it all feels so...one-dimensional

BoA's my favorite pop star in the world not because she has the greatest discography in the world, but because of her performance skills and personality on and off stage. Having said that, Only One probably is my favorite k-pop single. And this new single is so lush.

Haven't listened to the rest of the mini yet but "Kontrol" from Infinite's Sunggyu is really good! He should sing in his lower register more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fBODWRrnWM

He killed it live on M Countdown... and the ballad song too.

Speaking of lives, very good staging on BESTie 'Excuse Me' this week: https://youtu.be/QGfYnQPuWjE

Too much sax-hook in this song but I love the switch into the second chorus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZ-ORItaQ7o

next k-pendium entry is gonna be the one that started it all. given seo taiji's reputation (especially then) for being a bit obvious with his influences ( the album also includes blatant ripoffs of mc hammer and ac/dc), i think my due dilligence involves identifying every sample/reference in this song that i possibly can. wanted to see if anyone here hears something i've missed.

+ "yeahh boyee" and "bass!" sampled from "bring the noise," of course
+ "stop!" w/ dramatic silence going into rap verse a clear "ice ice baby" thing
+ opening synth strings? to my ears a tangerine dream/vangelis type thing, but that's probably one degree of separation from whatever taiji's pulling from
+ that's totally a sample of some guy repeatedly shouting "east! coast!" isn't it? at 0:09? driving me crazy, can't place it (did a run through all pre-92 public enemy but can't find it there; weirdly early for the whole east vs. west thing...)
+ at 0:17, not even sure what that infernal thing is, but this is the one that really keeps me up at night
+ 0:27 synth sounds like early detroit house/techno to me, like an inner city song...but like tangerine dream i think that's a shade obscure for taiji to have heard in '92
+ hard rock riffin' at 1:00...reflects influence sinawe had on taiji, but could be many things
+ descending synth twinkles in chorus is a new jack swing gesture, very new edition
+ not sure what the beats and basslines are pulling from, at times sound to me like a kind of sampled break thing and others more a standard dance or new jack reference
+ on the whole, i'd say the biggest influence on taiji's additive logic (and rough tonalities) here are most indebted to the bomb squad

get the feeling the things i'm missing are very obvious. the samples and grifts i've identified so far on this record are some of the biggest hits of public enemy, mc hammer, ac/dc, and vanilla ice, plus "gonna make you sweat" and bart simpson...so yeah. also realizing i really need to revisit run-dmc for this purpose

Fun fact about 3 Ninjas Kick Back, executive producer Shin San-Ok was a famous-director-turned-refugee who'd been kidnapped 1973 by Kim Jong Il, who wanted him to help develop the N. Korean film industry.

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2003/apr/04/artsfeatures1

The song IU wrote for her new \sexy dance singer\ drama character sounds good, especially the chorus. I hope we get whatever she's writing in character released in full, not sure there'll be other chances at hearing her having a go at the genre. Also there's some solid meta potential in this series.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAPUON3eoS0

k-dramas release OSTs so aggressively i'd be shocked if they didn't for one where IU is the singer (especially if she wrote some of the stuff)

TREN-D following the trend and going new-trot, sounds good: https://youtu.be/SkfDHESqheI

push it, push it good

PREPARING FOR DEEP SHINEE IMPACT IN T-MINUS 90 MIN

deep house, that is.

xp Well it's happened before.. in any case she's releasing a digital single that's not that song in ten minutes, so the Big Bang reign of terror on the charts could end

IDK abcfsk, Loser got a *perfect* score on Inkigayo yesterday. But then it was also Taeyang's birthday.

Listening to SHINEE's album, so far it all sounds like Jonghyun.

it gets a bit weirder, and then a bit less weird.

"trigger" is by far my favorite. up there w/ "one minute back" as their most progressive, visionary music...then "alive," which is a bit more linear but still wild how i like it. "view" could've really benefited from some added odd in the bridge and/or last chorus, and has some pretty iffy editing decisions (mistakes?) if you listen carefully, but on the whole has a nice grace/balance to its general vibe, which no k-pop act has even attempted to date (let alone as a single)

xp Well music shows are a different story, and she won't be promoting it there (or anywhere) anyway. Will definitely top instiz though.

will be interesting to see how "view" does in korea. i guess SM is placing a bet on the burgeoning edm/house/ultra market in korea also having an interest in that kind of sound combined w/ idol pop, which is definitely not as sure a thing as is, say, "loser" (or a new IU ballad)

If any SM act could pull it off it'd SHINEE, they've got some credibility as musicians with the general public from what I understand