Korean Music Blog Extravaganza!!!
By RedEyesBlueBunny 25 Comments
If there's one thing I love more than video games, it's music, and Korean music is just about all I listen to these days. I've noticed a few other fans on Giant Bomb as well, so I figure this is a suitable place to write a blog about it, and this is especially for you few. First, to give you some background on myself and the subject, I am a 19-year old white boy who's been listening to Korean music for about a year and a half, so I'm sure there are many others whose knowledge far surpasses mine, but I'mma give you all I got. I got into Korean music by starting to go to a Korean church two years ago. The first song I learned was 나만 바라봐 by 태양 (Only look at me by Taeyang) and I learned every word of the song so that I could sing it when I went out with my friends to 노래방 (Korean version of karaoke, where you and a group of friends get a room to sing in, with a large selection of songs in several languages) and from there I took in as much Korean music (of all genres) as I possibly could, and continue to do so.
Now this blog is gonna be a big'un, so feel free to skip around, click on links (or not) or be a trooper read the whole thing if you so choose.
Now to get this going, I will list off my top 10 favorite Artists and Albums
Top 10 Artists
- 태양 (Taeyang aka SOL) - My "gateway drug" into the music that I now listen to. While he's only had 8 songs that he's done solo, he is also part of a very popular 5-man group called Big Bang. His voice is always a pleasure to sing along with and attracts the girls like a...like a.....extremely attractive person
- MC Mong - This rapper has a great way of making me forget all my worries in his music. Whether it's a fast upbeat song like Ice Cream or more of a ballad, as in I love you, oh thank you (done with Kim Tae Woo), his music always sounds great.
- Epik High - This three-man rap group never disappoints. With 7 full albums since 2003 as well as a several other projects, Epik High has continued to please their fans through all of their work and helped several other artists get their music career going under their own founded record label, Map The Soul.
- Drunken Tiger - What was once a rap duo is now a single rapper, Tiger JK, as one of Korea's best rappers, if not the best. He is well deserving of all the praise he gets as he stays true to himself and shows people what hip hop is, rather than just telling them. For a taste of their old school beginnings, check out Do You Know Hip Hop? And for the newer stuff which continues to get even better imo, Monster or True Romance, which was done with his wife, who also happens to be very skilled.
- Brown Eyed Girls - Girl-group of four that does both dance songs and ballads very well. While they have tended to go more in the direction of fast paced or dance songs over time (such as Abracadabra) I love whatever they do.
- 8eight - Three member group of two males and one female. They have a sound like no other and can cross several genres (typically hip hop or ballad) and do it well. Their songs are catchy and I am very much loving their latest single, 유효기간.
- MC Sniper - A versatile rapper whose usual theme is despair, until his latest (5th) album which sets a completely different tone by using an orchestra in his music, as in Magic Castle. Even if he's changed his tone, it' sounds just as beautiful as his older songs such as Gloomy Sunday.
- Big Bang - A very popular boy-band that has an ability to make instant classics such as 하루 하루 (Haru Haru - Day After Day) or Lollipop, done with the girls of 2NE1. (i seriously sing that song to myself every time York picks up a lollipop)
- Jaurim - A band led by a powerful female singer, Kim Yoon Ah. They make amazing music whatever way you look at it. Their unique style can be seen in Ha Ha Ha Song, or for something slower, 낙화.
- Kim Tae Woo - A great R&B singer with slow, but powerful songs like 하고 싶은 말 (Words I'd want to say) and catchy upbeat songs like 사랑비 (Love Rain)
Top 10 Albums
1
I love every track on this album. Even the intro of this album is great as the girl speaking reminds us that we have "nothing to worry about" and to turn up the music "as loud as possible." Every track following does its job in making you forget all of your worries and really gets you into the music no matter how crazy it is. Title Track: Circus
2
![[e] - Epik High](https://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/original/7/73693/1359886-epik_high__e_.jpg)
2-disc, 30-track album (15 on each disc) with a clear difference between the two. One, titled [e]nergy, is made up of (obviously) high energy songs such as 따라해 Wannabe. The other, titled [e]motion, is made up of the slower songs which (obviously) display a lot of emotion in how they sound and lyrically, such as in 선물 (gift).
3
With their first and (so far) only full album, T-ara is off to a great start. With high-energy and faced paced songs like Bo Peep Bo Peep and TTL (Time To Love), this album is a lot of fun to listen to.
4
With so many great albums, it's hard to decide which Drunken Tiger album was the best, but for me I'd have to go with their second, The Great Rebirth. It keeps the old school feel of their first album but is also a big improvement upon it, with songs like 위대한 탄생 (Fetticcini) and 늑대와 여우 (Happy Mexico) which are catchy and have a great beat.
5
K-pop queen Lee Hyori's fourth album sounds great on every track, with many fast songs such as Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and other great songs such as Swing.
6
MC Sniper is a very emotional rapper, and uses his emotion very well in this third album, featuring songs like Gloomy Sunday and Puregal which of course have a very gloomy tone, but sound beautiful. The album also has some more upbeat tracks such as Swing, and the variety within the album works very well when listening through the whole album.
7
Drunken Tiger's latest (8th) album with 27 tracks on 2 discs (Feel Good and Feel Hood) is a great package with a variety of Drunken Tiger's styles as in Feel Good Music, Monster, and Question.
8
8eight is very skilled in both hip-hop and ballads, and in this mostly upbeat album, they display all of their music styles very well in songs like In The Morning and Let Me Go.
9
Bobby Kim's latest album is a joy to listen to. R&B at its finest in songs such as 한 사랑 and 맴 맴 맴 which show Bobby Kim's talent in singing and songs that just about anyone can get into.
10
The only full album from the Wonder Girls so far was a hit right from the beginning, featuring very catchy songs like Tell Me and 이바보. Since then, they have released a few more singles and have done a lot of international tours and such, but this album remains to be where their best work was done.
Music Video Spotlight
Music videos are huge in the Korean music industry, but with most of them, you'll either get a group dancing on a stage set up for the music video, and that's pretty much the whole thing, or you'll get scenes from a drama that you might or might not know anything about. However, here are some music videos that really stuck out to me when I watched them.These next 2 videos are their own story which doesn't necessarily have to do with the songs they play, but are also very humorous and uh...overall awesome. If there's one thing you should look at in this blog, it's these 2 videos.
This may be the saddest music video i've ever seen, but it's very good. Watch it!
Well I hope I kept you interested with this. Feel free to discuss anything relating to Korean music (or any kind of music you love for that matter) or any of the songs I've shown in the links and videos above. If you actually listened to every song in this (or already knew them!) and read the whole thing, then you are amazing. But anyways...I think I'm done now, so uh..have a good day or something!