K-pop

You hate on the two great singles of the year, but Girl's Day gets you in the mood?!

well I haven't actually listened to girl's day yet

but sorry, those two singles are sleek but lifeless!

the 'mehness' of the new 4minute made me revisit their LP though, which is really quite good

http://youtu.be/tL9OB0DxkE4

and 'ma boy' still walks all over the new sistar!

Their LP was really weak, but I like their previous EPs.

I know you don't actually believe that!

I like them american rnb-y (as their album tracks pre-LP are) over that brisk synth pop stuff. And their singles should aggressive, not sweet like the extremely disappointing "Heart to Heart". Now THAT was lifeless.

hah well I guess that's where you and I diverge. K-pop is at its best for me when it's fun and bombastic and spilling over the edges, not when it's trying to be a jet-black sports car, but that's just me!

What do you think about f(x)?

may have heard a few singles in passing but not sure any have stuck. what do you recommend?

my fave from the 4minute album would be first if it was the japanese version. it's my fave 4minute song by far, and i love 4minute, so...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1L8k4KXmbs
i really wanted to like volume up. one of gayoon's best tracks. but the saxophone just puts me off. whatever.

just to troll the f(x) talk, here's their best song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDbUqDGGtl8
the only reason i forgave sm for destroying this, is that the f(x) mv had a pink tank in it.

what do you recommend?

Just asked because they're very far away from a jet-black sports car, and their particular, f(x)-ian style of singing is all about fun and games. But I'm not sure if that's the kind of thing you refer to as your k-pop fun. Melody is ignored in favor of rhythm.

All their singles are kinda similar. "Nu ABO" probably defines them more than anything else and received a lot of analysis and confusion upon release (including the lyrics).

http://youtu.be/E8ZrPFMr_nY

I can see why some people find their style inapproachable, but imo this is a majestic tune and they're one of a select few k-pop groups who truly have their own sound they stick fairly closely to with each release. I put last year's "Danger" near the top of my year-end list, but didn't see much discussion of it among writers.*

* Said this mid-year 2011: "Youthful brattiness and staccato nonsense, one note repeated until a gorgeous bridge achieves liftoff and briefly breaks away from the madness of jump rope rhymes. "

Funny thing is even if their cover of Hot Summer does little new it still sounds like a typical f(x) single. I guess songwriter Troelsen is more or less an SM dude by now, though.

hah nu ABO is great! thanks for that

my fav k-pop group is still 2ne1, if that tells you anything

I kind of love these rhythm-based, motorik tracks like nu ABO and follow me

one note repeated

one-note repetition reminds me of the best one-note songs ever

http://youtu.be/QA1M_Wyrnco

my fav off the new girl's day (warning: very sugary)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pp4teLl8Jwk

that one-note song could be used to interrogate me. i need to put on pop pop pop by rania asap

f(x) Hot Summer and Montrose Hot Summer are the same song because this guy wrote both (also Nu ABO and Pinocchio):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Troelsen

Maybe it's just because I know the reason he gets so much work in Korea is because he wrote Mirotic for TVXQ, but I think of the Thomas Troelsen production style as being like... opening up all aural channels at once. Like just blasting a smooth sound into every single aural receptor. I don't even think Shinee's "Sherlock" is a good song but it has that hitting-every-spot-at-once appeal. I kind of think of this as being the aural equivalent of like... shooting up (heroin), again, because of Mirotic.

My favorite Kpop songwriter-for-hire (meaning not an in-house songwriter) is Brave Brothers, because he adds genre-depth to his pop songs** and they're generally a bit more relaxed than the Kpop sped-up-beat and tuned-up-synth sound.*** His new stuff for Brave Girls ("Nowadays You") is in that mode. Sometimes I wonder if that song, B1A4's "Baby I'm Sorry", f(x)'s "Pinocchio", etc, are all about the same person.

**e.g. Brave Girls reggae phase, the first Sistar LP

***My theory on which BTW is that because Korean censors ban sex and drugs references in idol music, "mania" is the only kind of euphoria left to pop music aha. Though more and more groups are trying to sneak some sex in, which, you know, if it relaxes the music a little bit, I think is a good thing?

he doesn't get much work in korea, only does singles for sm.

my fave is shinsadong tiger. i probably love him for his obsession with the northern european sound.

Nice way of putting it, forapper.

I know Troelsen is behind Hot Summer, yeah. What's interesting is how f(x) sometimes get demos from Europe and then tweak them in-house to get that f(x) touch (not so much HOt Summer, but their originals). Highlighted in this interview with SM's Yoo Youngjin http://omonatheydidnt.livejournal.com/3586995.html

10: These days, even SM takes foreign songs and changes it to Korean style of music. You have done that as well. What do you think is important when you do that?
Yoo: Songs like "Amigo," "Mirotic" and "Nu ABO" were written by foreign songwriters. When we decide we are going to write a certain kind of song, several songwriters including myself start doing the arrangement and write the lyrics. First of all, I don't take a song from a foreign songwriter and just use it. Their songs are incredibly simple in terms of melody, lyrics and arrangement so I add certain parts to the song that I think are necessary to succeed in Korea. Sometimes I take the sub-melody in the original composition and make it the main melody, or even make a new one from scratch. If a song has a great overall flow but a weak climax, I make it stronger. For example, [Korean girl band f(x) member] Luna's singing part in the latter part of "Nu ABO" -- that part changes the entire flow of the track. But the way it breaks the original flow and changes to a completely different vibe with a definite impact -- I think that is the style of Korean pop music.

I've read similar things about "Danger", where it was tweaked to sound more f(x)-y.

That's really cool! Also, <adds omonatheydidnt to feed list>

http://www.wired.com/underwire/2012/04/ff_koreanrapper/all/1

this article was super interesting, feel so bad for the dude

Following the "celebs finally free to talk back to haters on twitter" trend, Heechul of Super Junior signed off on that Wired article:

http://ygfamilyy.tumblr.com/post/21901290707/heechul-super-junor-xxyo-tajinyo-stop-it-now

Also Mithra of Epik High (Tablo's group) linked to the Korean translation on his twitter "Mithra’s first tweet in 4 months".

Meanwhile on the Taijinyo boards "it's just some American IT magazine, why are people calling it 'the American press'"?

Also, BAP's new EP is all "Fight the Power"!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vD4Nn4mDyE

(Also this, this, this. "Fight for Freedom" sounds like four different songs to me, but there's no filler on this EP, that's for sure o_O. I think "What the Hell" is my favorite so far...)

yeah listening to the new BAP now. I like this brash sci-fi dystopic sound

Right now I like how "We Got the Power" is making use of everyone's voices (probably why it was picked as the title track). I especially like Himchan's trad melody parts, that Bang Yong Guk starts it off and Zelo adds energy/danger, and that they've decided to divide up the song's most emotional lines between Youngjae (small range) and Daehyun (large range) - because I'm enough of a stan to know who they all are, lol.

Anyway the disaffected youth rap-rock chorus + trad-emotional verse formula is cool and it works. There's no filler in this song either.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOvV0M7V4bA

kinda love how unconventional JYP looks

I like that xp

love this kind of ballad. reminds me a lil of mariah? but maybe only because I've been listening to a lot of mariah lately. http://youtu.be/6JpJUlSyXNY

fun throwaway summer jam: http://youtu.be/Udb1rOT48Mo

That Infinite song is really cool. It really gets that kind of sad and lonely, driving late at night feeling? Dunno about the lyrics though - I was expecting something more introverted and nostalgic because of the like, Miami Vice/Kamen Rider sound, but instead they are going to try again to regain the fickle hearts of the public by casting a spell over themselves that they want it. :p But ah well, I can just turn off the subtitles.

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

Same message, different approach. It's about enjoying the moment and the sound/visuals are also hedonistic and indulgent (because Middle Eastern = hedonistic and indulgent??). I like Junsu's androgynous look, he's like the evil Persian dude in 300.

new big bang http://youtu.be/btDd9rOlc2k

^^^these dudes will be performing in my hometown in October. Kind of tempted to go, but not sure I'm prepared to brave the crowd of screaming fangirls.

There's been quite a few tracks I should've posted and talked about here but since it often happens at other places I guess I forget. But you gotta post a new SNSD single

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXMzPTF6HYM

I like that!

not feeling the new f(x) ep at all :(

Electric Shock is super good though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8I8QGFA1oM

f(x) always on point

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaAl6qfWsAs

XD

lol!

<3 Electric Shock. Unusual details in wikipedia articles:

f(x) (play /ˌɛf ˈɛks/; Korean: 에프엑스) is a five member South Korean girl group formed by SM Entertainment in 2009. The name is a play on the mathematical notation for function, and when input with different 'x', there can be many different outcomes. The f stands for flower and the x represents the female's double x chromosome. f(x) strives to be the kind of girl group that can change and adapt to many situations. The group members have also been nicknamed "function girls".

New Girls' Generation video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3-pUNhYORw

Posted above only with some different scenes.

They did a GREAT performance of it on Music Station today, though.. taken down on youtube but if you find it, watch it.

Up for now http://youtu.be/Guw6BiZxmpE

No wait that's sped up..