Saturday, July 30, 2016

[MV] Taewan - Problem



This is pretty tight.
Sounds kinda like The Weeknd.
Would be cool to have a Korean version instead of all English.

[MV] Beenzino (feat. YDG) - January



Visually beautiful.
I really appreciate that Beenzino's videos generally veer sharply away from the usual western rap/hip-hop cliches.

[MV] ELECTROBOYZ (feat. Seo In Young) - Sunglasses

NSFW WARNING: Naked cartoon ladies.



Official channel link
12 02

[MV] Luizy, Flowsik - RECIPE



Official channel link

[MV] D.HOLIC - Color Me Rad

Warning for strobing images/light.



Supposedly this group is on the verge of disbanding, especially if this doesn't do well. I don't think it's doing them any favors.
I kept wanting them to break into some jumpstyle or shuffling during the chorus. Lol.
Needed higher energy choreo in the very least.

[MV] MAAN (feat. Jung Iru) - Night

Friday, July 29, 2016

[DEBUT] DaHee - Mistaken



New soloist under NH Media.

[MV] AOORA (feat. Hi Yeon) - Juicy

[DEBUT] GUN (feat. Crucial Star) - BEEP



Official channel link

GUN was a trainee featured in Starship's NO.MERCY.
He's also the cousin of Mino (WINNER).

[MV] Yoon Jong Shin (With Gaeko) - Empty City



I swear I've seen this longboarding woman on the frontpage of reddit a bunch of times.
And I believe it's called longboard dancing.
I like the track a lot. Laid-back. Summery. Chill.

[PROMO/CF] NCT 127 - Taste the Feeling



Station #25

Hey, kids! Drink Coca Cola!

PSA from AlleyBetwixt: Hey, kids! Don't drink Coca Cola!
Drinking sugary garbage is bad for your health!
Lol.

[MV] IN&CHOO - Vacation

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

[MV] CODE KUNST (feat. BewhY, YDG, SURAN) - Beside Me



Suran's voice!

[MV] BRAND NEW MUSIC - Respect the Name



Official channel link

KANTO, MC GREE, KittiB, Hanhae, Minos, P-Type, San E, DJ Juice, and Kebee.

[MV] Sangchu (feat. Don Mills, eSNa) - Hot

[MV] Choi Ye Geun - Gloomy Story



Really liked her 'Super Moon' debut last year.
A bit of the melody reminds me of Sun Hee's 'Fox Rain'. Pretty.

[MV] Song So Hee - Love, Season



Check out Sohee's rendition of 'Tomorrow' on Immortal Songs from a couple years ago.
One of my favorite traditional performances ever.

[MV] THE SOLUTIONS - Ticket to the Moon

[MV] Seoul Siblings - Seoul Real Estate/Morning Holiday

Seoul Real Estate/Property:



Holiday Morning:

Friday, July 22, 2016

[MV] f(x) - All Mine



Station #24

Refreshing video! Uplifting. Apparently Amber put it all together.
And I'm pleased to see the overwhelming likes so far. Victoria also supported China's position in this ongoing conflict/scandal. Seems like the positive sound/video and the work and presence of the other members is countering any potential backlash thus far..

[MV] Dynamic Duo, Primary, Boi B, Crush - highfiVe



Official channel link

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

[MV] Fei - Fantasy



The literal male gaze. Lol.
Kind of a cool idea. I think it needed some subversive element. Like the viewer being a woman or anonymous or the VR taking an unexpected turn.

And the dislikes again... Fei is Chinese, so the current conflict will affect her promotions the same as Zhoumi. Tough sell for her solo debut.

08 02

[MV] Huh Gak, Jeong EunJi - Bada 'Ocean.wav'



Official channel link

[MV] 24 Hours - Get It On



Hah! Pretty cute. Like an even lower-budget Ok Go. Sounds good though!

[MV] Summer 11 - Our Nights are More Beautiful than Your Day



(aka. the most amount of tags on one post ever lol)
OTL

Artists: Bomi & Namjoo (Apink), LE (EXID), Chaeyeon (DIA), Seo Inyoung, Lee Seok Hoon (SG Wannabe), Taewoon (₩uNo), Yang Da Il, Brother Su, Chancellor, Kang Minhee (Miss $)

[MV] Gavy NJ - SHUBIRUBIRUB

[MV] Boni - It Was You

[MV] Solbi - Get Back

[DEBUT] Eyedi (feat. Loopy) - Sign



A little tricky to find info on Eyedi. This seems to be her debut.
It's produced by Jeff Bernat who has produced a lot of other recent R&B-ish tracks I like.
Like this one too! Pleasant.

[MV] Sik-K - Rendezvous

[MV] LAYSHA (feat. NASSUN ) - Chocolate Cream



One of those girl groups that focuses on erotic live performances... like Bambino.
Again, it's not the sexual concept that bothers me. Not really. It's the choices the director/editor makes for the MV that bothers me.

Can you imagine a boy group with an MV like this shot-for-shot?
The closest equivalent would be N.O.M., which was way outside the mainstream, controversial, heavily stigmatized, and literally the only group of it's kind that I'm aware of.

But this kind of directing for girl groups is excessively common.
This is the problem as I see it.
23 00

Monday, July 18, 2016

[MV] ZHOUMI - What's Your Number?



The dislikes. Ouch.
Unfortunate timing as there's a major political conflict happening between China and several other maritime countries about who claims territory of the South China Sea, specifically with the Philippines right now. Some Chinese Kpop artists, including Zhoumi, have publicly stated their support of China, which has inflamed a ton of backlash from... almost everyone who isn't Chinese.

[MV] nuMori - GunaGuna



So obscure. So entertaining.

[MV] Stellar - Crying



Brave Sound not quite hitting it for me on this one.
Upbeat and fun, but a bit too generic to stand out.
28 00

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

[MV] Jay Park & Ugly Duck - Ain't no party like an AOMG party



Supposedly Jay Park makes the English subtitles for his videos.
Make sure you turn them on for Ugly Duck's part at least. XD
04 03

Saturday, July 9, 2016

[MV] Unnies - Shut Up


KBS's Official link to The Unnies - Shut Up

I'll copy this from Wikipedia:
The show features an all-female cast consisting of Ra Mi-ran, Kim Sook, Hong Jin-kyung, Min Hyo-rin, Jessi and Tiffany, and follows their attempt at fulfilling each cast member's dream using a budget of 2,196,000 won or approximately $2000. The cast members formed a special girl group named "Unnies" and released a Park Jin-young-produced single titled "Shut Up", featuring Yoo Hee-yeol.
It was Min Hyo-rin's dream to debut as a girl group member, hence this MV.

It's definitely becoming the year of TV show groups, if only for temporary fun.

[MV] Pentagon - Young



Official channel link

Pentagon is a boy band being formed on yet another Mnet survival show.
This is not their debut. Just some kind of reward for these contenders.

Wednesday, July 6, 2016

[MV] TEEN TOP - Love Comes



This is a special release for Teen Top's 6th anniversary.
Supposedly this was going to be their debut originally instead of Clap.

[MV] NCT 127 - Fire Truck




So, I'm trying to keep up with how NCT functions, but failing...
Here's SM's blurb from the description:
NCT 127 will be debuting with their first mini album “NCT #127’” on July 10th at noon (KST). This Seoul-based team consists of seven members named WIN WIN, YUTA, MARK, HAECHAN, TAEYONG, TAEIL and JAEHYUN. The number 127 refers to the longitude of Seoul, and the team will be aiming for world stage. Their title track “소방차 (Fire Truck)” is a beat-heavy track fusing hip hop and trap with lyrics about their hopes to free people from stress with music. Enjoy the music video of their title song “소방차 (Fire Truck)” and stay tuned for the updates!

[MV] SE7EN - I'm Good



Official channel link

SE7EN's back!

[MV] MOONSHINE - Cuz I

[MV] 2BIC - The Day of Us

[MV] JUNIEL - Pisces

[MV] B-Free - NEW WAVE



Looks like Double K and Paloalto only contributed to the lyrics.

Friday, July 1, 2016

[PLAYLIST] KPOPPY's first half of 2016



The most obvious trend this year is simply escalating the amount of girl groups promoting with the cute/aegyo/schoolgirl concept from last year. While it's an interesting trend, only GFRIEND/BerryGood are in here. Last year it looked like companies were heading towards being more experimental and 'International' with their sound. In my opinion, that rings true so far. Projects like SM's Station seem to be doing fairly well. Navercast and V app live streams have become quickly significant. Lots of industry activity online should be interesting to watch expand.

Link to the full playlist on Youtube

In chronological order:

Highlighted videos and my thoughts on them below.
Some bonus non-single tracks I loved at the end!

[MV] ASTRO - Breathless



Cute!

[MV] MelodyDay - Color



Cool effects with the color.

[MV] Leeteuk X Suho X Kassy X Cho Young Soo - My Hero



Station # 21

Note #20 was an English track:
Lee Dong Woo X Orphee Noah - Definition of Love
Which was kinda cool, but... all English.

[MV] Sugardonut - With You

[MV] VAV - No Doubt



A bit of an improvement from the previous releases sound-wise. But there's still like no low end, an odd mix, and rather raw vocals. Pretty location/drone shots

And my pet peeve about untrained dancers being in pointe shoes.