Kpop, Kpop, and Kpop: The Discussion Thread

Again, a bit slow this week.

Here's Jay Park's newest video, So Good. I noticed this video last week but decided not to post it, mostly because I didn't care much for it. I still don't but I think it's worth seeing at least, if only for its intense attempt to mimic MJ is both sound and style.

Verbal Jint returns this week--with Eddy Kim guesting-- for I Smell Autumn. This song is a bit odd, with a sound I can only describe as lethargic, but it also packs some FANTASTIC harmonizing between the two rappers and some excellent flow during the "choruses." It's worth a listen.

Finally, I have a song from Wax called Fly High, featuring the band Bebop as well (as actors, not actual performers). This is an interesting pop-rocky sound that doesn't sound much like anything I've heard from the genre before. It has some good energy without sounding too "hard rock" at the same time, something I really like.

wasn't that slow, dal shabet's company happyface entertainment debuted a new girl group called minx with their song "why did you come to my home?", and it's a really solid debut.

there's a new song out from clazziquai project called "still i'm by your side" which comes from their new album "blink".

maybe the biggest thing this week was tts, the girl's generation subunit of taeyeon, tiffany, and seohyun, having their comeback with the song "holler". calling it a slow week when anything new snsd drops is something not even my hater ass can do, ahaha.

@onimonkii: When I say slow, I usually mean for myself personally. Also, I'm limited to what I've heard and to what I enjoy, unless I think something would appeal to the usual suspects here or it's from a big name. Also, it's nice to leave some stuff for others to post!

Ailee's back with Don't Touch Me, which I'm not a huge fan of. It's a relatively boring song with a dull beat and not a lot of great examples of her fantastic voice. Also notable is that she appears to have lost quite a bit of weight, making me beg the question if she felt the pressure of being a "fat" Korean pop star and caved on her image.

Don't Look At Me Like That is from Songjieun, an artist who apparently debuted last year but remained silent until this second release. It's not bad, particularly her voice which I quite enjoy the sound of. I think a song with a bit more energy would have better suited her, but maybe that's just me. I'm curious to see what she does next.

Finally, I have relative newcomers Troy with Why Are We? There's some pretty smooth lyrical work here along with a beat that isn't half-bad. The video's pretty plain and typical, but I do think the song is quite good. Not much more to say about them, really.

@wemibelec90: song jieun is a member of secret

Looks like Jessica got booted from Girls Generation.

She made a Weibo post about it.

All but Jessica showed up at the airport to go to China. Tiffany apparently replied to a question regarding Jessica with "No comment."

And SM made a statement that wasn't "lolno"

Reddit are still pretending it's a hack in the face of overwhelming evidence, lol.

Jessica Wae?!?!

Juniel is back with her new song, I Think I'm In Love. It's pretty good, with a nice beat that just makes it really hard to stop tapping my foot or turn the video off before it's finished. Very catchy, if not a little bland in spots. The video is typical Juniel adorableness, but I'm fine with that too.

Here's Rain on Me from Cho Hyung Woo. It takes about a minute to get started, but it's well worth the wait. This song is absolutely gorgeous, managing to balance a bit of a slower, acoustic song with a beat that still keeps things from getting too boring. Not too bad.

Finally, there's Best Friend from O Broject, a group that has performed but not yet released an actual single until now. It's a decent little song, particularly the chorus parts when the guest singer pipes in with her bits. It reminds me of another song during these parts, but I can't quite remember which song. Nothing mind-blowing, but a fun video.

This week was a bit of a bummer--not due to a lack of songs but due to a lot of sad, emotional songs. As someone who is a fan of more upbeat stuff, I didn't enjoy much, but I'll still post a few things I found.

Here's another Juniel song, Please. This is an extremely slow paced song that likes to really linger on instrumentation and lyrics. For me personally, it's just too damn slow, nearly making me fall asleep on all but the slightly upbeat sections. A severe downgrade from last week's song.

Younha has also returned with (I think?) What Do You Want to Be On My Mind? This song has a bit more of a beat, at least, but it still trades more on emotion than catchiness. I don't have anything wrong with songs that make that choice, but I think a balance can be made between an enjoyable song and a powerful one. This one doesn't quite nail that balance.

Finally, for an actually upbeat and energetic song, I have NaNa from Jay Park. Not a huge fan of the beat in this song, as it tends to get REALLY repetitive by the end of the song, but it at least has some energy and decent rhythm to the lyrics.

if only you'd waited a day you could have caught this fantastic new song jieun, twenty-five, which is different from her usual style.

as well as one of the best guy groups, vixx, coming back with error, which reminds me a bit of their last release eternity, but is still great.

sm's popular rookie group red velvet covered an old s.e.s. song, be natural, for their second release, and it's pretty much the same, minus the rapping guy.

a group i have historically not liked at all, boyfriend, released a pretty decent song in witch.

and, both iu and seo taiji came out with their own versions of a song called sogyeokdong, which no matter which you prefer, is really great.

@onimonkii: I somehow missed that IU song last week, but I'm not really too disappointed in myself for it: IU's voice doesn't really suit a song like that, in my opinion. Just heard the Vixx and Boyfriend songs this week and they are both pretty great (in fact, I was going to post both of them!).

All I have this week is the debut from the new Crayon Pop sub-group, Strawberry Milk, titled OK. It's definitely going for a very particular style: more cutesy and almost JPOP-y in its over-the-top nature. On my first listen, I wasn't too impressed with either the lyrics or the instrumentation; however, I will note that on subsequent listens (of which I expect there to be many), I find that this song is very catchy in a subversive way that needles its way into my brain.

A pretty busy week, at least in number of releases. I wasn't a huge fan of most of the things I heard, but there were a few that stood out.

First, I have Born Hater from Epik High and a BUNCH of guest rappers. It's all tied together with a pretty excellent, if not a bit repetitive by the end of the five-and-a-half minute length, beat. The quality of the rapping varies greatly from person to person, but some of them are fantastic. There's also a great attitude to much of the rapping, mixing in several English curse words--again to varying levels of success. Not usually a huge fan of rap, but this isn't too bad.

B.I.G.'s Are You Ready? doesn't make a great first impression. The beat is amateurish and plagued with awful samples that drove me nuts. Vocally, it wasn't much better. I changed my feelings a bit once I hit the chorus, however, which is nicely upbeat and rather catchy. The rest of the verses in the song fare a bit better than that first one, but none of them are fantastic. I go back and forth on this song, unsure if I like the chorus bits enough to get over my annoyance with the rest.

Finally, I have a fantastic debut video--in a year full of fantastic debuts (Kiss&Cry, Lip Service, Mamamoo, Bob Girls)--from group Purfles called 1,2,3. This song starts strong with some ear-catching, impressive vocals. I'm not sure how I feel about the instrumentation--at times it sounds fine and at others it sounds amateurish as hell. Still, even with the shaky instrumentation, the vocals show great potential. I can't rank it high on the debut charts, but I can't wait to hear more.

been a while.

I can post again! Thanks, @onimonkii! Here's what I have for this week.

First up, I have a new song from MC Mong, a somewhat controversial artist for his attempts to avoid mandatory military service, titled Miss Me or Diss Me. It features a decent, if not somewhat unimaginative beat/sound and some pretty good flow from the artist himself. The whole song just has great rhythm, bouncing from lyric to lyric with excellent style. There's a bit of female guest work that isn't bad as well.

AOA is back with Like a Cat. It starts off really strangely, even throwing in a few silly air horns for effect, and completely abrasive. When it finally gets to the chorus for the first time, it's actually surprisingly catchy, but it doesn't last long. I just can't get behind its instrumentation and sharp vocals, which all sound rough on my ears.

Finally, another release from Boys' Republic titled The Real One. Although the instrumentation is a bit rough, there's some decent flow here with the vocals. It's still not a great song, but it has its moments. The choreography isn't bad either.

Not too impressed with this week, but there is a new Mamamoo video that is pretty great - Piano Man. Very retro sound and some excellent vocal performances. Still think it's my least favorite of their releases this year, though.

I gotta say, the GD/Taeyang collab was not what I expected. And not in a good way. You never know what you get with G-Dragon but after his latest solo album I thought he was gonna go more in that direction ( Crooked etc ) and not in a boring Jason Derulo kind of way.

Just found this thread, wanted to add my 2 butt checks cents.

@pop: And some people wonder why anyone would listen to kpop?

@nilazz: yeah, on the one hand i kind of want more gd&top but on the other if this is the direction i'm not sure

I really liked it. I'm heading to a real electro based club in Seoul this weekend. Hopefully someone rips it up there too.

Also, new AOA is the best release this year

I was thinking earlier Kyary was able to do a world tour and sell out (at least he UK) her shows, what happened to Girls Generation and their plan to go international? I remember them planning some American shows but I heard nothing over here in Europe, was it a big fail?

@optix12: they put out a really bad english version of an already not great korean song and a remix with snoop dogg, did some american tv show performances and went on back to korea to release a gee-era b-side they never thought was good enough until then, and then another not great korean song before going back to japan to train in the hyperbolic time chamber.

basically they made about the same impact as anyone else who tried (none)

@onimonkii: I would LOVE another GD&TOP album, that thing was a beast! But yeah, only if they make in the spirit of the first one. Goddamn that had a great number of tracks and the solos were just as good as the collabs.

Long time lurker of this thread but its the first time I can contribute towards adding music. A "new" T-ara MV came out without me noticing titled "Little Apple".

From what I have read up its a collaboration/remake with Chopsticks Brothers of their big hit song from China. I guess they made it into a more Kpoppy type song and sung the original lyrics over the beat. Personally its alright by me but I hope this is a launching pad for them to create another (mini) album with some other great songs on.

The second video I have is from Lovelyz titled "Candy Jelly Love" which seems like a slower ballad type of track with a slightly more uptempo chorus.

@optix12: little apple is a jam and yeah, t-ara is long overdue for a second actual album, but they just had a mini (& remix album) not even 6 months ago with sugar free (and&end was the album name).

Really slow lately. It always seems like December is the month when every group releases a bunch of slow, boring, and disinteresting songs that I have a hard time liking. As such, I only really have one thing I enjoyed this week--Dia's Paradise. It's pretty slow-paced as well, but it has a nice rhythm to it and some very pretty vocals that keep it moving a bit moreso than those other songs.

@wemibelec90: i've really been liking the new wassup, even though their mv keeps going up and down for weird reasons

but yeah, hardly anyone releases anything significant so close to year end shows where they'll just be performing their songs from earlier in the year anyway.

So with a new year comes the realization that Winter is almost over and Kpop summer jams are just around the corner. With that in mind the first new Kpop song of 2015 I heard came from NC.A titled "Coming Soon".

No-one's posted this yet. I think it might be my 2nd favourite song of 2014.

Not a girl group this time but rather a young rapper named Mad Clown with a song called "Fire" (Feat. Jinsil of Mad Soul Child)

It took a couple playthroughs for me to get into this but now I am completely hooked and love this track, the vocals from both really are well done and I enjoy the MV that they made quite a bit. Im pretty sure this comes off a Mini album that Mad Clown has recently made as well so there might be more hot tunes in there.

@onimonkii: all hail nine muses! I love the two new members, Sojin and Keumjo.

So I have been meaning to do this post for a long time but have constantly held it off but I figure now is the time!
Behold the duo that is 1Punch!

Aptly title Nightmare this duo takes the Hip-Hop styling to a high level seemingly to reference as many late 80s/early 90s hip hop stereotypes as they can and mashing them over to some sweet kpop dance routines and rhyming/singing. The best visual proof of this comes from (I think) their main single "Turn Me Back".

Its pretty safe to say I chuckled at the moment where one of them decides that turning his gold cassette with a pencil is super fun or around 3:10 in they just show off an African-American dude for seemingly no apparent reason. The video also features shirts from my favourite NFL team (Steelers) and I am not sure if that's a good or a bad thing.

Wow...I finally get to contribute to this thread :)

Really enjoying the solo release from Lizzy, more people need to see this :)

Digging a 4minute ballad and looking forward to the upcoming title track

The king of speed rapping, Outsider, is back! Not his best song, but I'll always take another song from him.

@wemibelec90: yesssssssssssss. this is great and exactly what i needed after playing Loner in Pump it Up today, haha.

@angelcurry said:

still unable to stop listening to it. a+++ comeback

4Minute's back!

Kinda sounds exactly like Hyuna's last song if it was a 4minute song, which it is. I dig.

Long term listener, first time poster... or something like that. Somehow I only just found this thread. Count me in for the long haul, I like it in here.

@angelcurry I'm down with this. Good sound, love the look too.

@angelcurry: Love it

Rainbow - Black Swan MV is finally here:

I'm really liking it already, it's a little slower and darker-sounding than most of my favourite Rainbow stuff from the past but I'm a fan of the chorus and the MV.

Pretty fun.

Another great hip hop song from what seems to be a duo however this time its got a west coast 90s feel, oh and they say fucker a lot too.

Got a few new songs that haven't been posted yet.

A member of new group Delight has released her first solo video, Be Your Girl. There's a lot about it that's amateurish--the video, the camerawork, the composition--but there's some decent vocals to be had if you can deal with it.

Norazo is back with Your Fortune (?). The video is pretty fucking crazy, even for Norazo's standards, but worth watching just to see how random it gets. The song itself is pretty damn catchy, with some impressive flow from the vocals. All in all, your typical Norazo release.

Shinhwa has put out another video after their previous release, Sniper. There's some interesting composition and vocal flow, but it has a few problems as well, I think. Give it a listen.

Does T.O.P have more than just two MV's? I can't seem to find more than two.

A new update with a Lady vocalist called Gain who has recently dropped her new Mini EP Called Hawwah. There are quite a few great songs on this EP with two already receiving MVs.
The first listed is titled Apple Featuring Jay Park and is more an uptempo type song (which I always favour listening to over ballads)

The second MV is a complete opposite style to Apple titled "Paradise Lost"; with a moodier but somewhat empowering style of vocals/musical composition (its not quite a ballad but has that sort of theme).

However my favourite song from the EP is something which as of writing does not have a music video titled "Free Will" which seems to be the most uptempo song from the EP.

While her vocal ability doesnt feature as much on this song in comparison to Paradise Lost, the musical composition/horns and uptempo gets me hooked more.

@optix12: Great to see Ga-In back, I've really enjoyed her solo stuff in the past.

Shocking that no one else has managed to post this yet. Pretty dead thread overall. Let's post a scattering of songs and fix that, shall we?

Flash Life from Moss has a very interesting sound, mixing some jazz elements along with hip-hop. While I think the whole thing sounds a bit too busy overall, it's a neat sound.

It's probably just because I have an almost fetishistic love for acoustic guitar, but I really like Stella Jang's It's Raining. The chords are pretty standard, but they pair beautifully with her clear voice. Verbal Jint's guest verse is great too.

Hotshot's Midnight Sun has also gotten stuck in my head lately, a strange occurrence due to its very standard, Western sound. I just really enjoy the way it's put together in terms of composition.

Here's a weird one: Springirls from Sunwoo Jung-A. It uses some creative samples and rhythms to create something quite unique to the genre. Vocally, it's pretty interesting as well. Worth a listen.

@wemibelec90: I'd been enjoying the Choreography MV but hadn't seen the full thing. Pretty fantastic. Crayon Pop are really something special.

Continuing the thread revitalisation, Miss A are back!

I do like this. Didn't wow me instantly but it's pretty catchy. Probably not going to topple my favourite Miss A tracks, but it's definitely added to my playlist.

I have been out of it for quite a while but i can help with the revival by pushing some more korean rap.

Seems like a real cool video of MFBTY with a bunch of special guests in the scene. The beat is also pretty simple but really works for what its going for (kind of like how that Busta Rhymes - Touch It song worked)