K-pop (2015)

Also I don't think we've talked about T-ara's comeback ft. Brave Brothers yet, but the marine theme is really fun and so is the choreography: https://youtu.be/BmVeIjwQpr0

Not their strongest single ever but those oh oh ohs are catchy. BTW I never knew that Boram's father is a famous folk singer (https://youtu.be/Fqc56Fu0CR8, https://youtu.be/5PdXsrFSSp4), but it kinda explains how T-ara's discography is so solid overall.

I like how JJCC carries the torch for strange, ADD k-pop, but I don't think they ever do it particularly well. I like them best with their debut song, simple and understated

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ib_1ATfr8wM

spring breakers pink ski masks

That was a lot more playful than I was expecting from the teaser and first 10 seconds.

definitely not as immediate as red or crazy for me (bridge is pretty weak) but i'm kind of obsessed with this entire video. that android 18 iphone convo shirt :3

SMTM and unpretty rap star are making K-pop stupider =/ (see also terribad soshiraps on "you think," miryo's recent single)

this mini is crap

Mini is pretty good but song is def kpop SOTY contender.

SOTMonth at least

wow. we're listening to different k-pops

the single is definitely the best thing on there, but I wouldn't put it in the month's top 20

meanwhile this is the best thing I've heard out of k-rap in at least a year...gritty, dark, future, with some of that hallmark korean adventurousness to boot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJFs_e0LrXI

HyunA has always rapped though? She was rapping in 2010, before either of those shows were on the air. 'Roll Deep' seems like something she'd do too, and the video is her usual sex-kitten/goofball/trend-hopper mashup too, just lower-budget than Red.

yeah for sure, just such an SMTM/unpretty vibe in terms of the vocal tone/beat/aesthetic imo. esp w/ that btob guy's guest appearance

well there's a side-swipe at Jimin (maybe) with 'sorry I'm a God girl' and she says something about being a 'real star' in another song, so you're not wrong. the fact the songs are pitch-shifted up on ytube isn't helping matters either. but even though i personally like bitter hyunA the best, this isn't the most forced she's ever sounded either.

The lyrics are so childish though:

This is because I’m the best
This is because I’m beautiful
This is because all envy me
Baby, I’m bad all day
This is because I’m the best
This is because I’m beautiful
All envy me, so...
Sorry I’m a god girl

especially not a good look for a song that's bombing, lol. aside from that 4minute mini cube has really needed help this year -_-

also a really weird title since everyone's been accusing cube of 2e1/bb/yg biting all year...though despite it flopping i must say i loved b2st's recent mini

The B2ST mini is great and YeY is refreshingly nihilist, if you look at the lyrics.

It's not so weird if you consider that Cube must be trying to push BTOB at the moment (no knock on Ilhoon who's a honestly a versatile rapper and totally willing to play second-fiddle to HyunA on her single). Musically I think "Because I'm the Best" is better than "Red" because it suits HyunA's voice better, theme-wise I think Red was stronger because it's more explicit in acknowledging the immaturity of the HyunA persona. "The critics are just jealous of my beauty" is, like, the most boring middle school girl attitude to take ever.

I wanna see HyunA doing more collabs with women though, Yuk Ji-dam sounds great on Ice Ice and there's a nice subversive LGBTQ undercurrent to a lot of 4minute stuff.

agreed that this one > "red," no doubt

Hyuna always does well so it's kinda weird this v catchy new one doesn't. .. especially with how well 4minute did this year. Remember when it was the other way around. Not that #6 is a disaster.

IC songs hitting now, iu on top with 8 melon rooftop hits

never looked at "yey's" lyrics before, they're amazing

Not what you thought they'd be, right?

B2ST exposing the inner workings of the 'let's have a good time TONIGHT' ethos

i love them. have become easily the most consistent k-pop group of recent years

INFINITY MUSIC FESTIVAL REVIEW:

IU's song is indeed a triumph of songwriter vision with just enough concession to Myungsoo's frail ego LMAO.

GD/Taeyang/Kwanghee shafted by their spot in the lineup, although despite having a much BETTER "let the bass drum go" bit than Bangx3 I think it shifts gears too many times to really build momentum, even in a better spot

Zion.T/Haha, JYP/YooJaeSuk - zzzzzz

Jung-ha's "your dad trying to rap" bits in the variety show were so cringy I skipped all of them, but he and Yoon-sang are getting the last laugh because by IF music festival standards this song is pretty good, minus the TERRIBLE and unnecessary "dance break"

Donnie/Hyuk-Oh - Confirmation, two years later, that Hyung Don really is bluegrass fan. Hyuk-oh showing off their high-level technical skills, though anyone who checks their discography for more of this will be disappointed

Anyway my personal rank would be:

#1 IU and Myungsoo! Those piano runs are crazy LOL
#2 GD/Taeyang/Kwanghee - GD is trying WAY HARDER for this than for Big Bang honestly LOL
#3 Hyuk-Oh/HyungDon - not genre-breaking like the others but well-executed

below this line nothing is worth keeping imo, so who cares

Actually you can also keep the album version of Jun-ha and Yoon-sang (ft Hyorin), it's stupid fun and much better than the live version

Looks like this is why "showgirls" is on the SNSD album: https://youtu.be/Gt-1yFoXXZ4 Seems like the kind of frantic cheesy spectacle older Koreans like?

And you know... as much as I thought Lion Heart was a snoozefest, the chorus really stays with you.

Doing a better job this promotion cycle than they did with Party BTW, today's MuCore performances mostly solid and only a little bit silly (You Think https://youtu.be/rS64hQ9s8C4, Lion Heart https://youtu.be/APafAyReBYI).

Also <333 Ye-euns's keyboard adlib on I Feel You: https://youtu.be/NX-aADynU8Q

omg the synth solo

JYP, sort of peaking this year in terms of chart appeal, & YJS, eternal nation's #1, is the kind of royal team-up which should've delivered the chart killer to end all killers, but is only 5th among IC songs on the charts. It's not really all that memorable. Yeah the Hyukoh country thing gets me going by the end. Zion T and Haha is pleasant enough if not that adventurous. Surprise tidbit here: Co-produced by KUSH.

i think all this IC stuff is jv at best but i guess it's interesting that the pseud-big bang thing is basically as good as anything they've put out for real this year (one or two exceptions)

surprised "show girls" gets the full stage design treatment (/performance at all) but this really is the pits of those tired faux moulin rouge depths they dip into every now and again.

and i've liked that synth solo every time she's done it, but more and more i find myself hoping the post-promos WG gameplan involves hitting the practice space eight hours a day like they're black flag

Let's not forget that the first year of IC festival gave us the greatest SNSD 'solo' release of all time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCd5-m2hQ1Y

Who's doing worse than JYP/YJS? Not poor Jun-ha and Yoon-sang? The song is stupid and dated, but competently produced at the micro level.

Or maybe my expectations were just low LMAO. Though as someone said at omona, "You have the best Korean producer with you and you make him do this?"

That's the one.

Ichart now:

1 IU PMS
2 GD T KH
3 ZION HAHA
4 HD Hyukoh
5 JYP YJS
.
.
8 Yoonsang

Aw :(

Zion.T is of course cheating by giving fans a burner phone number to call, though the song would be OK if it wasn't being force-marched to that BPM and was about something else (and if Haha had been given more to do than following Zion.T's guide vocal).

JYP YJS had promise but it's brought down by the vocal melody following the track melody too exactly, and (surprisngly) by JYP being the vocal weak link... I suppose they ran out of time.

HyukOh song is growing on me, it's nothing new but it's true duet (like IU/Myungsoo... just checked the lyrics and she really went all-out with Leon/Matilda thing hahaha).

soyrev I know this is beneath you, but these songs are at about my level to analyze, being flawed in such obvious ways haha. As someone who followed the show I'm enjoying this.

There have been some great IC songs through the years

what're your top IC songs, abcfsk?

In all honesty it really is Naengmyun. PMS has been lucky. I Cheated was great. Really liked Jung Jun Ha and Kim C ('Will Be Gone').

Leon has 41 Perfect All-Kills. 2nd place in 2015 is Big Bang with 9.

That Hyorin and Palo Alto track (which is co-composed by Hoody, stepping into the mainstream) https://youtu.be/XTAZ81djBfg

haha i don't consider it 'beneath me,' i love analyzing flawed stuff – just don't think these ones' flaws are all that interesting. will say though that hearing the studio versions, the fake BB track is actually def sub-BB2k15 and the IU song would be around her median quality range if PMS' geezer tone weren't so unappealing. would work better w/ a foil like bumkey

new DSP girl group April's mini is purist k-pop a la Lovelyz and Gfriend, but a notch or two below...

mini isn't so great either :/

It's def a lower tier version of those but the cutesy girl group rookies' output of the last year has been so much better than the pre-'Expectation' years of countless cutesy, shit debuts. Back then there was a cluelessness to the cute style, just dumb signifiers stacked on top of each other without real songs.

ha I guess that's true. the first thing I thought of was when She'z came back with UU (though admittedly I've had that chorus stuck in my head before)

seems like no one mentioned it before but i might as well now... cokejazz & hoody had a song a bit ago and it was nice: https://youtu.be/5hWzjWcMqWs

I kept waiting for Hyolyn to rap on that track...

It's different for Kpop but I feel like there are a lot of much better songs in that style.

Silly stat to follow but here I am - Leon is now the song with the most Perfect All Kills in instiz history at 80.