Kpop, Kpop, and Kpop: The Discussion Thread

@onimonkii: Out of all of these I think the CCM project has the best song. Whoever they have that writes their ballads is really good. T-ara has most of the ballads that I really like. Jiyeon's acting is great and I think she could just become an actress one day.

And I can't wait for the pole dancing live stage from After School.

according to the youtube description, "The song is composed, wrote, and arranged by the best composer Jo Youngsoo and Doublekick.

This medium-tempo song has Jo Youngsoo style unique melody line and very addictive chorus part. The trendy composer Doublekick added some good beat melody and lyrics to make it a top notch song."

so double sidekick delivers yet again? their "medium-tempo ballads" are so good, i'm especially a fan of the seeya's stuff. and yeah, jiyeon is a great actress, i loved her in god of study. haven't watched dream high 2 though.

it sucks lizzy is going to be out for AS promotions because of her broken foot ;_;

@onimonkii: Yes, I'll miss Lizzy. :(

And I was hoping she might turn up on Running Man again for this promotion.

jesus christ e-young is too talented.

edit: also, the new dal shabet teaser is out for their new song, be ambitious.

new dal shabet is out & cute as heck

as is the new sunny hill

crayon pop's actual bar bar bar mv should be out soon as well

Dal Shabet and SunnyHill's comebacks were exactly what I wanted <3

pew pew even dressed as a dude hyori is smoking hot

lee hyori - going crazy

some non-pop

smells - up and down (feat. son seung yeon)

leo kekoa - so good (feat. beenzino & yeeun from wonder girls)

crayon pop's mv for bar bar bar is finally out

and the new girl's day mv for FEMALE PRESIDENT

fuck now i can't post in this thread again until someone else does

I will post so you can post again but you don't need to post because I'll just say the only thing that needs to be said, which is:

That Bar Bar Bar MV is awkwardly perfect and I want to do nothing but sit in bed and watch it all night until I fall asleep dreaming of terrible tracksuits.

Hmm, not sure how I feel about this new Girl's Day song yet. I think I like it, but I don't know how much yet. Definitely not grabbing me as quickly as Expectation did before it. I'm also really not liking this sexier MV trend with them between this and Expectation. It just feels like pandering, an attempt to grab new viewers or something. Where are the crazy but not too cute video ideas like Oh My God?

Maybe I should post something...? The only thing that comes to mind from recent memory is this, even though it's probably a bit more rock than pop?

I think it's a pretty interesting song. Varied in a way I really like. Hope at least someone enjoys it!

another pretty weak 4minute release

new BAP, not their usual style...

finally, the full version of JUCY FRESH

sweet sorrow - just get away

j-min - stand up

evo, huck p, okasian, paloalto, reddy, b-free, & soul one - what do we do ii

i think that's everything recent

@onimonkii: @librorumprohibitorum:

Hey, this thread.

Sunny Hill has the best music in Kpop, both in terms of the writing of the music and lyrics: Midnight Circus, The Grasshoppers, Pray, Princess and Prince Charming.

But going back to the sweet and laid back music more similar to their soundtrack songs and their first album (pre-Kota and Misung) is a mistake. It is great music, top notch and more well written than other music of that type out there, but it's still that type of music and there is a lot of it already. But there is nothing, not in Kpop or in the world, for that matter, like the darker, weirder, and more fierce Sunny Hill. They also have the best MVs in all of Kpop.

My Kpop dream would be for a full length, dark masterpiece of an album written by Lee Min Soo, with the participation of Janghyun when he gets out of the military.

So damn good.

Did I mention that I'm totally obsessed with Kota?

Best thing about this new song is seeing Kota perform in a cute dress.

I don't know if I've ever heard fanchants like this. Like their fanbase is made up of the Korean army. I like it. You can see the excitement from it on the girl's smile on the right at the beginning of the song.

Even for someone who is fairly new to the whole K-POP thing (about six months or so), it's pretty apparent that these songs are quite different from the usual fare. I'm nowhere near a musical expert, going with what sounds good even if it is something I have heard before (and I have no clue about musical composition whatsoever), but I really enjoyed the uniqueness in each video. Those four videos each sound entirely different from both one another and any other song I've really heard thus far in Korean. It's quite impressive. The videos often caught me off guard with their cleverness or imagery as well. They definitely weren't the cutesy or alluring videos I'm used to seeing. Sunny Hill seems like a group that likes to try new things musically, and I can appreciate that, even if I don't quite catch everything they are doing.

The one problem I could see with this group for me is that the lyrics seem super important to the songs themselves, cleverly written and deeply meaningful. Unfortunately, I really like listening to foreign music because I don't understand what they're saying. Some of the magic breaks down for me if I do look up the lyrics (although, this is usually because they are so silly in your average K-POP video). Even if this weren't the case, I don't usually pay all that much attention to lyrics in songs, instead favoring the sounds themselves. Still, I may have to peruse their previous songs and see if anything jumps out at me. Chalk me up as intrigued.

@wemibelec90: Glad you like Sunny Hill. Basically, their uniqueness comes from their label, LOEN. LOEN has some of the best song writers and producers in Kpop and some of the best artists like Sunny Hill, Gain, and IU. For me, IU has the best voice in Kpop. Gain is up there as well, being a part of Brown Eyed Girls. They are definitely part of a company that goes for quality over quantity.

@mcghee: I'll make sure to check some others on that label out too. I already know IU is excellent, thanks to this thread, so I'm certainly intrigued by the rest.

I've recently been enjoying a few videos from a rather new (at least, I believe so) singer named Lim Kim. She has a couple videos of her own and one with another person as part of a duo called Two Months. Each of them are pretty interesting, I think, so I figured I'd post them here.

All Right

Colorring (Does anyone else think the synth line sounds oddly similar to Spice Girls' "Say You'll Be There" at 2:07? Am I just crazy?)

Number 1 - Two Months

I definitely think All Right is the most interesting song of the bunch, but I do enjoy the other two quite a bit as well. Catchy and fun to listen to!

i don't mean to alarm you guys but GI is putting out a mini album on the 3rd, Davichi has a new single on the 4th, Jewelry has a new single on the 5th, which is the same day as the new Apink, and then 2NE1 is putting out a single on the 8th

july is here.

here's a teaser for the new Apink

@onimonkii: I have two general questions (for you or anyone else in the thread) about things I've wondered about KPOP since I started listening to it (this seemed like as good a time as ever). One, why do all these music videos have trailers? The videos themselves are already only three-five minutes long; what is the point of a minute long teaser of that video? Is the fan fervor over in Korea that intense that they eat up all this dripped out content? Two, why are these always called "comebacks?" Occasionally, it has been a decent amount of time since that artist released a track, and I can understand the usage of the word. Many times, it has only been a couple months, though. Using the term "comeback" just seems kinda weird, as it implies (to me, at least) that the group did other things before coming back together for another track. These are probably just nitpicky things, but they've stood out to me.

basically yes? in fact here is a THIRD teaser for the new apink

if something comes out without a teaser it's almost like "oh wow they just snuck this out". some groups have more than others, exo for example is known for their like, 25 teasers leading up to their debut. here is a TWENTY SIX MINUTE cut of all of them together

and just because we're on the subject, a teaser for the new jewelry. haha

but yeah i dunno, they seem to just be to build hype for release, and it usually works from what i've seen.

as for the "comeback" thing, that's just the terminology used. it's a bit different because everything seems related to music show promotions rather than the album/song release.

if it's a new group's first promotions, it's called a debut or debut stage, for obvious reasons. it's like once per show so like if a group doesn't perform on a certain show for the first month of promotions after the song is out, that's still a debut stage.

if it's an established group coming back with a new song, this is called a comeback or comeback stage. a comeback can be a new album, mini album (ep), or digital single, it's rarely ever that OST tracks get promoted, let alone counted as a comeback.

the last week of promotions per song are called the goodbye or goodbye stage. it's basically just signifying that after that performance they won't be promoting on that show anymore. they can still appear at special events and other shows that aren't normal music performance shows.

if a group comes back shortly after a goodbye stage with a new song, and it's just a single or another existing song off the same album as their last promotions, it will occasionally be called a follow up. a recent follow up is 4minute's new songs, 'what's your name?' was the comeback, and 'is it poppin?' was the follow up because it's just a quick single right after. where girl's day left some time between 'expectation' and 'female president' and released a repackaged version of their album, so it was considered a comeback.

@onimonkii: Hmm, it all seems a little strange, but I guess I understand. Very nice and detailed explantation. Thanks for clearing it up!

Onimonkii knows his Kpop minutia for sure. Teaser photos and videos are pretty big in Kpop. They usually don't mean much to me.

Unless it's Kara or IU. Then I lose my shit.

IU comeback coming soon. Unlimited spazzing incoming.

@mcghee said:

Oh, I can certainly understand getting excited for a new release. I just have never seen the point in getting a tease of something when I can just wait and hear/see/play the whole thing at once with a little patience.

it's weird too because in some cases the song sounds drastically different in the teaser than what gets released.

one example is t-ara's sexy love, here's the original teaser which was at the end of the day by day music video

and compare to the final version

some people liked the sound so much better they made "teaser remixes". another one was sistar19's gone not around any longer, the original teaser sounded way more dubsteppy/glitchy.

but then it came out and those parts were nowhere to be seen really

there's probably more, but these are just off the top of my head.

@mcghee new davichi

@onimonkii: They're good, but I always find their ballads to be boring (like most ballads). I think I might like this song a bit more than others I've heard from them. But my favorite thing they've done was with T-ara.

Such a powerful song.

Miss Hwayoung's rapping too. Became a fan of her's when Day by Day came out and then she was kicked out of the group. T_T

new apink

new jewelry

new rania

not sure what happened to the new GI but it's late. new 2ne1 & ailee soon, also new brown eyed girls.

@onimonkii: Love the Rania MV. You never see Korean idols in bikinis.

Really excited for Brown Eyed Girls. I just hope it's a full comeback and more upbeat like Abracadabra or Sixth Sense.

But I've seen the 2NE1 teasers and couldn't help but think, "Really? Even 2NE1 is jumping on the seasonal band wagon?" I'm no Blackjack but I've always thought that at least 2NE1 forged its own path. "I Love You" was a great, unique song. But I'm pretty sick of every girl group doing a "lets go to the beach" song every summer. It seems that Kara was one of the first in recent years to really push the seasonal songs and they were huge in Japan, like Go Go Summer and Winter Magic. Out of all of these seasonal songs Go Go Summer is my favorite. But enough already.

Epic Go Go Summer live performance:

Watch this whole concert. The performances are so perfect. When Kara is spot-on, I don't think anyone rivals their charisma in live performance (except for perhaps SNSD, but they get a lot of help from having 9 members).

i like some seasonal songs, like f(x)'s hot summer, sistar's loving u, after school's love love love. the worst example of a seasonal song is secret's christmas magic, which is just starlight moonlight with added bells for a more christmas-y feel.

for 2ne1 though, according to yg they're going to promote 4 singles, so at least one or two is going to be back to the typical 2ne1 flavor i would hope.

guy group & indie corner

MR.MR - waiting for you

MYNAME - baby i'm sorry

john park - baby

standing EGG - miss flower

colla voice - the song

scary'p - memories

dynamic duo - BAAAM ft. muzie of UV

icon - rockstar

@onimonkii: You, sir, are an endless repository of Korean music videos. Can't wait to listen!

i try, thanks.

on a related note, here's that summery new 2ne1

@mcghee: Finally got around to that Gain video and...wow. One of the best put together videos I've seen, a fantastic song that is varied in a very interesting and unique way, and a great voice. I was not at all expecting it to turn the way it did, but I even found that super interesting. Haven't seen a video go that far down that path. Very glad you recommended it; it has easily become one of my favorites!

@onimonkii said:

I keep going back and forth between finding this song annoying and terrible and being intrigued by it. I think it has something to do with the way it seems like she's almost singing offbeat at times; it's almost hard to listen to at times. It's really odd.

Oh hey, I've been meaning to update this for a while now but I've been super lazy, so here's a ton of new stuff.

beast - shadow

odd eye - follow me

cmyk - a girl like you, a man like me

kim hyun joong - unbreakable (ft. jay park)

winterplay - yoboseyo baby

BAP - hurricane

tansi love - love beat

BTS - we are bulletproof pt. 2

infinite - destiny

xia junsu - incredible

stellar - study

bikiny - take on me

ailee - u&i

i figure that's a good one to end on, i probably missed a bunch but this is a pretty good selection of stuff.

BTS, while not the strongest debut of all time, has continued to impress me with We Are Bulletproof pt.2. No More Dream wasn't the best song in the world for me but I really like We Are Bulletproof pt.2.

Also the name Rap Monster.

Is that Ailee the chick from Dream High 2? I didn't realise she sang legit.

Both Brown Eyed Girls and F(x) comeback at the end of the month.

This song is great.

Like kpop itself, I dont understand what any of this means but this thread is beautiful

@gunslingerpanda said:

yeah, she's legit

@onimonkii: Dear God, man. Do you do nothing but look for KPOP videos on Youtube!? Bravo for again giving me enough videos to kill an afternoon wherein I should otherwise be doing something productive.

@wemibelec90 said:

i will never reveal the wu tang secret

also i totally did forget one, ex-exid members + a new girl = BESTie

I don't wanna scroll back through this cause all the videos make chrome die a little, but is that CL song for real? I can't tell if it's so ridiculous that I like it, or if it's too ridiculous that I just hate it.

It's for real. One of the worst songs I have ever heard. 2NE1's new song is also kind of bad.

And this thread now crashes Flash every time I enter now. :/

@mcghee said:

i was thinking on page 7 we should start fresh & just link everything instead of posting the videos direct. seems a bit gnarly every time i load it.

@onimonkii said:

Yeah, it crashes for me every time too. Links instead of videos may be less interesting, but it would probably make the thread stop crashing or running like absolute garbage from trying to embed 50+ vids on a page.

You know there's actually a pretty awesome website dedicated to Kpop for the English speaking folk and the best part is that they make crazy videos similar to those produced on Giant Bomb.

eatyourkimchi.com

Check it.