Wednesday, July 1, 2015

[PLAYLIST] KPOPPY's first half of 2015



Figured I'd make a playlist of the MVs that caught my eye for the first half of the year. Many of which will be contenders for my end of the year 'eclectic mix'. It was very slow-going for the first few months and the most interesting stuff, for me, has been of the non-idol variety. Still waiting for a mainstream group to do something that completely knocks my socks off. We'll see!

Link to the full playlist on Youtube

Purely chronological, as usual.
  1. Mad Clown (feat. Jinsil) - Fire
  2. hyukoh - Comes and Goes *
  3. MOSS - FLASH LIFE
  4. Dana Hong (feat. Swings) - Tat Tat Tat
  5. Zion.T & Crush - Just
  6. 4Minute - Crazy
  7. Mayson The Soul (feat. Paloalto, Ugly Duck) - Somebody
  8. SHINHWA - Sniper
  9. XIA - Flower
  10. GaIn - Paradise Lost
  11. Giriboy - Take Care of You
  12. Red Velvet - Ice Cream Cake
  13. Rap Monster - Do You
  14. Crayon Pop - FM
  15. EXO - Call Me Baby
  16. MAMAMOO, eSNa - Ahh Oop!
  17. Jimin Park - Hopeless Love
  18. Lee Moonsae (feat. Naul) - Spring Breeze
  19. OH MY GIRL - CUPID
  20. THE ARK - The Light
  21. Lim Kim - Awoo
  22. VINYLHOUSE - Negative Love
  23. Lim Kim - Love Game
  24. BIG BANG - BAE BAE
  25. BESTie - Excuse Me
  26. Kim Sung Kyu - Kontrol
  27. Yankie (feat. Tablo, Zion.T, Loco) - SOLD OUT
  28. GOGOSTAR - Jumping
  29. ANDA - Touch
  30. BTS - DOPE
* previously had hyukoh's 'Panda Bear', but it has since been taken down.

Elaboration, highlights, and personal notes below!




First observation, SO MUCH BLACK AND WHITE. I noticed this from week to week also, but there were a ton of black and white videos... or with added pops of color. And every time a new black and white video would show up in my feed I'd end up loving the song. Interesting trend. I considered making an entirely black and white playlist for the hell of it. Maybe later. Lol. Anyway, a few of those made the cut.

Some stand-out observations of my favey faves.



Totally stunning black and white on this one. Zion.T and Crush both make music that vibes well with my personal taste. This is suuuuuper mellow, but the audio and visual forms here are perfectly complementary.

I always enjoy seeing really ambitious over-the-top videos as on display in both Shinhwa's 'Sniper' and Junsu's MV for 'Flower' here:



Shouldn't be any surprise that Flower will be making it to the end of the year list, too. Junsu is my ultimate bias and this video is a wild spectacle. He may be illegally banned from TV, but he sure knows how to make up for it in MVs and concerts! Bonus: Watch him perform it live.

Similar shout-out to GaIn for 'Paradise Lost'. Fantastic concept with great execution. At this point the censorship board must have a special ban-button just for her. Any announcement of a comeback and they preemptively hammer that thing. XD

I'm determined to learn the choreography to Crayon Pop's 'FM', because it's glorious.

Lee Moonsae's 'Spring Breeze' isn't a hugely special song, but the video is hilarious and has quite a sweet message about the ways we connect socially with all of our new tech.

From funny, we flip to The Ark's emotionally devastating debut video. Bring your tissues to that one.



OH MY GIRL's 'Cupid' is my favorite of the traditional girl-group debuts so far. The video is the epitome of the hyper girly aegyo stuff I can barely stand. BUT THE SONG IS SUCH A JAM. I adore the drum-line percussion and they also totally owned the live performances. So props for that.

I could have made a fully black and white playlist. I also could have made a playlist of entirely Lim Kim's 'Awoo'. 1 through 30. All Lim Kim. Rofl. This song and video combination is one of the most exciting and satisfying I've seen in a long time. This is like top 20 Kpop of ALL TIME for me.



Aaaaaaaand I already want to listen to it again. It made a bit of an impact in the music subreddit as well, so it seems to have some universal/cross-over appeal. Which is cool.

VINYLHOUSE? I'm a sucker for papercraft.

Aaaaaaaaand more Lim Kim. Both 'Awoo' and 'Love Game' are amazeballs. Not everyone liked Love Game as much, but I dig it. Always gets me dancing.

Sooooo... BIG BANG. They've released a million things (and there may be more?), so I wasn't sure what to include. Considering the cut-off for this first half playlist was June 1st I decided on 'Bae Bae'... for purely visual reasons. It's utterly ridiculous and TOP's flowery hallway scene induced a giggle-fit beyond measure. Let it be known I feel deeply uncomfortable watching it. *hul*

Also tough to choose between Sungkyu's MVs. Both lovely. Went with 'Kontrol'.

Bringing home the black and white trend with GOGOSTAR's trippy symmetry in 'Jumping'.

ANDA's 'Touch' is a visual hybrid of Fiona Apple's 'Criminal' and Dizzee Rascal's 'I Don't Need a Reason', which I think is pretty interesting, despite the song not really being my thing.

Finally, BTS's 'Dope'. This came the closest to knocking my socks off in terms of the big mainstream groups. There's something in the water with these guys. I wouldn't qualify their style as something I'd be into, yet every major release has been an absurdly infectious earworm for me. This MV is the perfect case for less is more. I'm sure it was tricky to shoot, but it's only a basic performance of their choreography. No elaborate sets or filters or narrative scenes. But it works. And I love it.



That's a rap!
Gonna go put 'Awoo' on repeat a few hundred times. ^^

3 comments:

  1. Great list! I would say that my list of favs of the year so far line up with yours in several places. Here's my top ten in alphabetical order:

    1) 9Muses - Hurt Locker (Can't deny this may be the best of the summer girl group comebacks so far. Excellent song and video to match.)

    2) Anda - Touch (The more I listen to this track the more it sticks in my head. The video is unique and fits the song well. Clever editing, and there's just something bizarre about the whole thing that keeps bringing me back.)

    3) BTS - Dope (Knock my socks off, indeed. This song is just constant building energy and the mv is executed with perfection. I usually gravitate towards girl groups, but now I don't know what to think since I love every second of this.)

    4) Hyukoh - Hooka (Such a groovy track, my god. This gives me a classic rock, Doors kinda vibe and I say give me more.)

    5) Lim Kim - Awoo (I agree with everything you had to say about this song. I bought the album on the spot after listening to this. Glorious. )

    6) Mamamoo - Um Oh Ah Yeh (Okay, I'm still not loving the video, but the song has grown on me a ton and the charismatic live performances continue to win me over. I hope they can get in one more single before the end of the year. )

    7) Oh My Girl - Cupid (This song. This goddamned catchy, awesome song. It's so aegyo I want to puke, but it's so perfectly done I can't stay mad. I'm ashamed and I'm listening to it again.)

    8) Red Velvet - Ice Cream Cake (We'll see what the rest of 2015 has in store, but this might be my song of the year. Once I got over the shock of adding a fifth member, this song just gets better and better the more I listen. It's a cacophony that shouldn't work, but there's a sick beat driving this whole song. And the stylized and funky mv is perfect on top of that.)

    9) Rex D - Shawty Don't Stop (This had been on my playlist since early in the year and it's one of the catchiest songs I've come across in recent memory. Can't get enough.)

    10) Zion T - Zero Gravity (Buttery smooth goodness as usual. There's something very 80's about parts of this song that pull me into some kind of hypnotic time tunnel where David Bowie takes me by the hand and leads me into a labyrinth. And....I've said too much. lol)

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    Replies
    1. I cut my list off at the end of June, but if I hadn't, Hurt Locker probably would have been in there instead of Excuse Me. Not like I really needed to stick to my own rule (lol), but that's why I chose BESTie. 9MUSES missed the cut by a day. Those two are the only girl group summer tracks I've really liked so far. Right with you on that one.

      Glad to see Hyukoh there, too. Really looking forward to future stuff. There were like 3 or 4 vids to choose from with Oh Hyuk involved and I loved them all.

      AWOOOOOO. :D

      Um Oh Ah Yeh is fantastic, but the video kills me. I think we already commiserated about this. Lol. But yeah, the live performances are sooooo awesome. I'm getting desparate for them to not have something cringey in an MV. I love them so much!

      Rex.D! Another one of the great black and white MVs with a great song. Good pick!

      Zion.T was a similar situation to Hyukoh. A lot to choose from. All good. Zero Gravity is amazing.

      We have such similar taste. Great minds... and all that jazz. Ha!

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    2. Good lord, you're right! I totally overlooked that Hurt Locker was in July. I'd better swap it out for BoA's "Kiss My Lips". You can pretty much never go wrong with BoA.

      Also, I really love all the songs with Primary collaborating with Oh Hyuk. "Bawling" is another excellent chill song.

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