Tuesday, August 27, 2019
[MV] SUNMI - LALALAY
Probably my least favorite of all Sunmi's recent stuff, but it's still super fun.
The costumes are so great. Lol! Love that big shadow-box butterfly thing.
[DEBUT] X1 - FLASH
I'm completely out of the loop on the latest Produce show 'PRODUCE x 101', but X1 is the final product from the season.
[MV] Sunwoo JungA - CLASSIC
She did it again. Another fuckin' awesome album.
Official Youtube album upload
Track 4 'To Zero' is heavenly.
[MV] Kim Kook Heon, Song Yu Vin - Blurry
I think these are the last two guys left after MYTEEN disbanded.
Saturday, August 24, 2019
Friday, August 23, 2019
[MV] ZEEBOMB - 5GLOVE
Yeeeeeeeeee Ha!
Why is American Country Western in Korean always my jam and Country alone never is? Lol.
[MV] Kim Wan Sun - Pierrot Smiles At Us 2019
So fun to make a throwback current again like this! Great video.
The original was released in 1990 in August.
Tuesday, August 20, 2019
Monday, August 19, 2019
[MV] EVERGLOW - Adios
Solid follow-up. I like how bass-y there stuff is.
Obviously heavily inspired by Kill This Love.
Friday, August 16, 2019
Thursday, August 15, 2019
[MV] SHAUN - 36.5 (+2 more)
He prepared this EP ahead of his military enlistment.
Two more MVs were released at the same time.
I'll add 'To Be Loved' and 'Moon' in the full post.
[MV] M.O.N.T - Daehan Minguk Mansae
Title translates to 'Long live Korea!'. Focused on the 74th anniversary of Korea's Liberation from Japan. I think this was shot on Dokdo, which is pretty wild.
[CF] Loopy & nafla - sense
Collab with a vape cigarette brand thing... never know what to call those things.
Monday, August 12, 2019
[PLAYLIST] KPOPPY's first half of 2019
Better late than never. 2019 makes me tired just thinking about it.
Much of my experience for the first half of this year was through the lens of mod responsibilities on /r/kpop dealing with one massive scandal after another. So tired.
What trends do we have going this year? Well, autotune is back. I had noticed it becoming prominent again more in the indie hip hop realm last year. It just grew and grew from there until now most mainstream Idol stuff has strong elements of it. My hate for noticeable autotune can't be overstated. I'm left desperately hoping this doesn't continue for long. Latin rhythms are still present (my playlist is still going), but it seems I was right to question if they would last. There has been a throwback fusion to the tropical house of the last couple years mixed in with the Latin pop sound this summer, but we're getting less straightforward Latin pop already. I'll generally say that Hip Hop is just fully a standard part of almost everything. That's not an especially new thing, but it has reached this point of being absolutely pervasive. I'm fine with that, just ditch the autotune, please!!!
I'm pretty well convinced BlackPink was the catalyst for most girl groups to be doing some form of Girl Crush as a concept. Almost all debuts have been in that vein this year. Boy groups still seem to be doing their general range of synth-y Hip Hop in streetwear. Strappy bondage stuff is still in play a little. Mullets are still in. Autotune and mullets, man. Send help.
Oddly enough, the trend that kept hitting me in the face was the presence of a certain color. This chartreuse, fluorescent, acidic yellow-green has been everywhere for some reason. I even checked to see what the Pantone color of the year was, but that's a coral pink. This neon highlighter green is the vivid opposite of that.
Every shot in this little collage is taken from a different MV, except for KEY who has two from his, including that last totally green square. And these were just the ones I thought of grabbing. There were tons more. I can't recall ever seeing such an obvious color trend like this before.
BTS is still driving K-Pop's global energy. From my perspective, the dialogue through news and social media outside the scene assumed this was just a flash-in-the-pan trend that would die quickly. Lately, I've picked up on some surprise and confusion that it seems to be growing in presence instead of fading as they thought it would. BTS's global success was built on a worldwide grassroots movement of hyper-engagement... I'm not sure what it will take for them to understand that's why they'll continue to burn hot and bright as long as they're active. And BTS content is always active, even when they take breaks. I can't imagine military service is going to change that much, especially if they go in staggered groups. Anyway, BTS still killin' it.
Music! Let's go! I think my personal taste might show more in this playlist than ever before. If you've followed Kpoppy at all, you'll know I like R&B, Rock, pretty melodies, epic ballads, and strong vocals in a lower range.
[Link to the full playlist on Youtube]
My 30 favorites in chronological order:
- SHAUN - Bad Habits
- CHUNG HA - Gotta Go
- VERIVERY - Ring Ring Ring
- CODE KUNST (feat. LEE HI) - XI
- Woody - Fire Up
- NeonPunch - TicToc
- JAEMAN - With You
- Jiselle (feat. Chancellor) - Missed Call
- ONF - We Must Love
- TAEMIN - WANT
- Sik-K - ADDICT
- Jus2 - FOCUS ON ME
- SUNMI - Noir
- TXT - CROWN
- The T-Bird - ROCK STAR
- Adios Audio - Make One's Way
- EDEN - Suffering for Love
- EVERGLOW - Bon Bon Chocolat
- RM (BTS) - Persona
- IZ*ONE - VIOLETA
- FLAG - GoodToSeeYou
- So!YoON! - HOLIDAY
- TWICE - FANCY
- PARK BOM (feat. Wheein) - 4:44
- Eric Nam - Runaway
- Cherry B - Lovin' U
- BVNDIT - Dramatic
- OnlyOneOf - savanna
- SWJA - SAM SAM
- SAAY - ZGZG
Featured MVs, B-sides, and more thoughts after the jump.
Sunday, August 11, 2019
Wednesday, August 7, 2019
[MV] PinkFantasy - FANTASY
Coming for Dreamcatcher's gig a little here. Heh.
I'm always happy to hear more rock influence come through in K-Pop.
Sunday, August 4, 2019
[MONTHLY] Favorites for JULY 2019
Ended up buried in work last month so I had to delay completing the 1st half of the year favorites list, but that is finally complete as well! Posting July now and then the 1st half playlist will go up on Thursday or Friday after the week's major releases.
Okay, July! Distinct male vocalists topped my picks for the month with Gaho's big percussive ballad and Woosung's funky innuendo-packed groove. I'll note that ITZY's ICY has been stuck in my head since release, but I still can't decide if I actually like it. LOL!
In the full post: GFRIEND, D.O, lofibaby, Ailee, Heize/Giriboy, SoRi, ARRAN, Paul Kim/Taeyeon, DAY6, Echae Kang, Woogotsa, NCT 127, CIX, GWSN, nafla/Loopy/Lee Young Ji/PLUMA, and ITZY.
Okay, July! Distinct male vocalists topped my picks for the month with Gaho's big percussive ballad and Woosung's funky innuendo-packed groove. I'll note that ITZY's ICY has been stuck in my head since release, but I still can't decide if I actually like it. LOL!
In the full post: GFRIEND, D.O, lofibaby, Ailee, Heize/Giriboy, SoRi, ARRAN, Paul Kim/Taeyeon, DAY6, Echae Kang, Woogotsa, NCT 127, CIX, GWSN, nafla/Loopy/Lee Young Ji/PLUMA, and ITZY.
Saturday, August 3, 2019
[OST] Yoon Mi Rae - Rose
A tribute to the plight of comfort women and Kim Bok Dong who is the feature of a movie coming out this week I believe.
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