K-Pop Releases from Mid-May

2NE1, my favorite "idol" group has a new song out, "Lonely."  Honestly, I'm disappointed. The song is well sung, the video is not bad (a bit boring), so why am I disappointed? Because it's a freaking ballad! I like 2NE1 because they're ballsy and brash and loud and sing music with an awesome dance beat. This is a –good- ballad but it's still a ballad. Please let the next release be an awesome dance track!

5 Dolls have released a new song, "Like This or Like That 이러쿵 저러쿵." Thankfully this is dance track. A bit cutesy and I wish any of them evidenced some singing chops, like real lungs, you know what I mean, but it's fun. I like the shorts and leggings combination especially because the one girl has nice bright orange leggings. I'm a little disturbed by a few of the motions with the tiny high school uniforms on, as I just don't like that sexualization of youth images and think those sort of motions just shouldn't be associated with high school. But really, it's a cute song.

 

Jay Park (former 2PM front man) released "Tonight" this week. The video is a bit poppy but the dance in it is really excellent, so I forgive Jay for the total sunny smile of the entire package. I mean this video is about being sweet and young and innocent in clothes that cover your whole body with no sexual moves at all—it's so "wholesome" it could be a Christian pop song.

 

Sistar 19 (half of Sistar) released a pop song, "Ma Boy"  it's a bit syrupy for me with lyrics that are pretty darn dumb—it's clear people only watch Sistar for their look. They're not even particularly good dancers.

 

Miss A is back with a new song "Love Alone."   I like the group but the song is a bit boring and the video just shows them preparing to and going on stage (not in linear order) and the 

angle on the stage isn't even that good.

 Heo Yeongsaeng has a good song out with Hyun-A of 4 Minute featured. The song, "Let it Go" is pretty danceable, but Yeongsaeng could look better than he does and the music is a little predictable, it could be a cleaner audio track with some of the extra tracks deleted.

 

But the best new MV out there? Untouchable featuring Oh Jinseok, "You You"  is a totally fun track from the moment it starts. The wide angle videography is awesome, too. And they're so funny looking, esp. the guy with the 'stache.

K-Pop Releases in late April

Rainbow is a group I've sincerely found little redeeming qualities in from their first release. The latest is "To Me" a song that has the advantage of a good strong dance beat. Unfortunately it still has the annoying girls of the group using English really awkwardly (seems to be a trademark) and generally just being a plastic cut-out concept of a money-making ensemble, instead of actual artists. (Yes, I'm being a bit harsh but even the dance to the best part of the song (the chorus) is just completely unimaginative).

A-Team released a new song "Run It."   The group must be new, can't remember hearing of them before. They're a group of apparently 7 rappers, they seem to have some serious talent (one is even a woman!) and a social conscience. In other words they probably won't be doing that well. Too bad. Give it a listen. The video is not worth much though, it's too artsy for focus, apparently.

제 블로그를 방문해 주셔서 고맙습니다. 저는 이 블로그에 일주일에 4번 정도 한국 전통 공연 문화에 대해 쓰고 있습니다. 처음에는  K-pop에 관심이 있으셔서  방문하셨겠지만 나가시기 전에 한국 전통 문화에 관한 것도 한번 봐 주시면 좋겠습니다.


NS Yunji has released a video in clay animation called "Talk Talk Talk."  The photo should let you know what the music sounds like. If you like that kind of thing, go for it.

San E, who had a first mini-album that I was completely impressed by (I thought he was super smart and funny and very good at rap), has released a crap-ass follow up. The song, 가면 안돼 (I Cannot Let You Go) , is a total freaking ballad with easy slow non-challenging rap about love (and loss). The reason that San E was impressive the first time was because he got away from that stereotypical trap of following what sells in Korean music, and here he is, smack dab in the middle of it.

After School has two new releases off their new CD "Virgin" (which has them in –red shoes- apparently Koreans don't know that that is a traditional sign of being a prostitute). Let's Step Up  is a tap piece. I don't quite get it, as in the clip that's online (which is a minute and a half long, much too long to be a teaser) the song definitely takes second seat to the tapping, which is pretty bad (except for one member).  The other song is called "Shampoo," no I don't think it sounds like a song name, either. Unless it's for an advert, of course. They've recently expanded their group, adding a member, and this video has a theme of a new girl coming in and getting hazed a bit and then working really hard to do well. But what irritated me about it (and I don't know if the video has anything to do with their recent auditions etc) is that there is this air of the male teacher/trainer/manager person has to legitimize the girl. It's in his eyes that she is working hard and eventually able to succeed.

2PM has released a Japanese track, "Waiting for the Take-off," so far only a non-HD track is online, sorry. At any rate, I think it sounds like bubblegum pop and I expect heavy-hitting mature dance tracks from 2PM, so I'm disappointed.

Former 2PM front man Jay Park has released a mini album including "Abandoned"  This Seattlite is a lightning rod in Korea, and I'm impressed he held off this long to release the mini album, which apparently are almost all songs he wrote (the way many a CD should be and the way K-Pop almost never is). He has an amazing voice and he's one of Korean pop's best dancers… he should go far, far, far if politics of the split from 2PM aren't dogging him too badly. It sounds good, not really my style but great.

Girls Generation (SNSD) has released the full version of "Mr. Taxi."  This track is also in Japanese, but it sounds more natural than 2PM singing in Japanese. I'm not sure why they'd call the song Mr. Taxi and then dress the girls up in taxi driver uniforms (if taxi drivers wore hot pants/skorts). It's a really fun dance track, I hope they release it in Korean.   

K-Pop Releases by U-KISS, Ga-in and 2PM

There are quite a few releases as theme songs for dramas, and some ballads, but since I don’t really care about those, I’ll skip right to the three notable recent releases.

First, U-KISS, a ballsy group if their name, Ubiquitous Korean International Super Star is any indication. They are another of the very calculatedly created groups with the half Korean member (who is ¼ Chinese and ¼ Portuguese), the Korean-Americans, the guy who formerly lived in China, etc. so that they can travel around and be charming in interviews in multiple countries and languages. The new song is 시끄러. My immediate reaction was, wait a second, isn’t that non-Korean model at least five years older than the boys, but I guess it could just be that women mature faster than men… But I’m a big proponent of male nudity (upper body only) so this video won me over.

Ga-in of the Brown Eyed Girls has released her first single, Irreversible, which is unfortunately a ten minute movie (which I don’t understand or find appealing). Fortunately a few days later she released this “dance” version that skips the story and is a much more reasonable length. The song (when not distracted by the movie) is okay, but she’s not the BEG’s best singer, I’m still waiting to hear Je-a’s solo release, that’ll be worth hearing!


The cookie-cutter approach to song (and video) production in K-pop is certainly worth criticizing, and I do not hesitate to point it out. Yet the stronger groups do have their own sound, where just a couple beats of the song already let you know who the group is, even if you’ve never heard the song before. That’s certainly true of 2PM, and of this song, “I’ll Be Back.” The song should be somewhat more popular than the previous release from the hit group, as it strongly references 2PMs biggest hit “Again and Again” (2009). The video is sort of ordinary, showcasing the dancing abilities of the group as well as a very unsubtle use of make-up on the boys.

K-Pop Reviews from Mid-September

Seriously I sat down twice and started writing up a mini-review of the latest releases and got distracted twice, but since I didn’t delete the info, I get to give it all to you now, even though some is rather dated (two week old releases, gasp!). Sorry!

2PM’s Nori For You is an example of a weird phenomenon in Korean pop, which is that advertising jingles are released as full on music videos and sold as songs, even sometimes performed on the weekly music programs. What? So weird. Anyway, this song is a waste of some of the excellent 2PM talent. The video is a muddle, since it’s about the product (what else but a new cell phone model?).

Sori’s latest, 넌 내스타일 아니야 seems to have as its high point the rapping of an unnamed guy, the crooning and booty shaking of Sori is a little weak, although the one bare-leg cat suit is sort of amusing. Actually the song may not be so bad, just mixed poorly, I can’t quite decide why it’s falling so flat for me.

When 2NE1 first appeared on the scene, I found them irritating. I thought that the girls were (some of them) too young for the super hard-core look and exceptionally sexual dance moves that are part of their image. However I became rather fond of them mostly because they’re real personalities, not trying to always appear nice and likeable, but actually sort of crazy/off-the-wall/fun, you know, people I think I’d actually enjoy meeting. This is contrasting them with, for example, Girls Generation, as far as I can tell none of the nine members has enough going on in their head to have an interesting five minute conversation. Now maybe it’s just good image management for 2NE1 and very safe image management for Girls Generation (SME, the company that manages the latter doesn’t have any –outrageous- personalities in their stable, so far as I can tell, whereas YGE (2NE1’s company) seems to specialize in artists with excess personality who push boundaries – just think of G-Dragon’s simulated sex scene in his live concert (he was sued. They have just released their first full length album, including three MVs coming out all at once. The first, “Clap Your Hands” is going to be a huge hit. It’s got a dance routine just easy enough to learn but challenging enough to be fun to learn, a very easy infectious beat driven song with a lot of rap, I like everything except the bizarre set with pink sand and plastic trees. The second, “Go Away,” just turns me off. One of the 2NE1 members cannot sing –at all- so they use a lot of autotune, this song takes that way over the line, but worse, it features a story line of woman is dumped, she’s a mess, she is a car racer and so is her ex (who immediately has a new girl), she races him, goes to see him again he BEATS HER UP! She races again, they both blow up. WTF?!! The last song, “Can’t Nobody” would be much better without very very overdone English lyrics, like the sort of thing that the first time you hear it you still know what’s coming next cause you’ve heard those lyrics so many times before. Otherwise it’s pretty good, if too auto-tuned.

문지은 Mun Jieun has a new release, 히비예 히비요, it’s pretty forgettable, a massive amount of auto tune coupled with my lack of interest in her hips (the video seems to feature them) overpowers the few catchy phrases.

It is with some amusement that I read an allkpop.com story that informs us that “SBS’s “Inkigayo” set three bans on outfits: shirts that reveal too much cleavage, shirts that expose the belly button, and wearing white shorts under miniskirts. Starting from the 4th, the producers of “Inkigayo” asked singers to make the appropriate changes, keeping the three bans in mind.” SBS is one of the major TV stations and Inkigayo is a TV show for performing the latest and most popular hits, it’s quite crucial for the career of major pop stars to appear on these shows. The article accurately calls it a ten year regression, yet ten years ago (trust me) there was not this much blatant sexuality, so I guess I understand why a TV station showing a prime time show is concerned about what kids are seeing.

Gavy NJ, the oddest name for a group I’ve run across in a long time, has released the new single 그만하자. As you can tell by the photo below, it’s a ballad. You never see that look of pain except when it goes along with a sad story, do you? Actually all three members have real voices, no big auto tune sound here, but I still like “dance” more than “ballad” (esp. in the Korean sense of the terms).

Son Dambi’s latest release, dB Rider, is yet another opportunity for her to try to prove she’s the hottest woman in K-pop. She might be, you be the judge. The video is fine visually but the song doesn’t grab me and the vocals sort of blend into the rest of the music—not her best work in my opinion.