K-pop (2015)

Previous threads: 2010-2012, 2013, 2014

apparently SM dropping their first release date of the year tomoz. hoping for jonghyun

looks like you're in luck:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6AVBzIK6hs

Putting the S&M in SM Entertainment.

Younha and Weesung confirmed as feat.s! Anticipating.

have we seriously gone four whole days of 2015 without a new k-pop song? is this possible?

Nah, there's been stuff like Sonamoo's (lackluster) debut and the unexpected return of koganbot-championed girlgroup Flashe... and Hello Venus trying to capitalize on their Wiggle Wiggle fame with a Brave Brothers track of the same name... just nothing that seemed worth getting excited about. It's really gonna be up to Jonghyun to get the year off to a good start.

HIGH4 did cry during their comeback stage, though.

wiggle wiggle is rough. enjoyable chorus, but seolhyun's part...

Tell me about it. I think Brave Brothers is great (when he's trying to be) - and even sometimes on songs that were clearly thrown together in two days MAXIMUM like this one - but the emptiness in the verses is the sound of the bar being lowered below sea-level.

I am kind of enjoying that HIGH4 song though... it's trite but trying just hard enough. And one of them sounds almost exactly like Tablo.

Ok just catching up on things... Jakob, pretty intense project you have going there with K-Pendium. I have no idea how you're going to cover most things pre-90s because I find most of it pretty tedious to listen through. It'd be nice to see it become the musical equivalent to the Korean Film Archive's 100 Films thing. Also, still weirded out that that guy on onehallyu took screenshots from my last.fm shoutbox. Ask A Korean's blog is great and it's how I found out about Kim Wan-sun a couple years ago, hopefully more of her stuff pops up online.

Also, yeah... feel like there's always some big stuff happening the first week of each year (last year was Girl's Day, Rain, and TVXQ, 2013 had I Got a Boy) in K-Pop but there doesn't seem to be much happening this year. That San E x Hyorin song is pretty enjoyable though.

past couple years some of the best songs of the year were released by month's end (IGAB, "FxxK U") so going to be watching these next few weeks carefully! jonghyun's mini has such high potential but that makes me scared X|

Wiggle Wiggle is one of the more interesting sounding Brave Bro tunes of recent times, not a rehash, got some new ideas. The whole release on the back of that dance clip feels desperate though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3E24FwG2ws

so far taemin's mini remains more interesting, but we shall see

Here's Wiggle Wiggle with some booty popping (and their whole bodies in the shot!):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLFJqua1H4k

I gotta say this is a lot better as a recording than it was live.

LE's song for The Seeya exactly splits the difference between (a wimpier) sad T-ara and EXID's Every Night, by the way: http://youtu.be/0u9yssH8EOM

For a rookie songwriter it's pretty strong IMO, though it could use more bite.

it's a co-write though, with zion.t and a pro songwriter

Wait what are we talking about?

WE'RE TALKIN JJONG

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9V1jk836pL8

zzzz

I was talking about EXID's LE, not JJONG :p

Gotta support the female rapper/producer idols

But on the subject of Jjong, disagree about Love Belt, it's really niiiiiiiice.

Weirdly enough YongHwa (of CNBLUE) might end up releasing the Jjong song you're looking for: http://youtu.be/eo3ctVOivRA

I was expecting a boring/rockist/singer-songwriter direction from him so it's nice surprise to see an RnB track with a hip hop guy. I hope it's wacky!

what i want from jjong is more in the direction of "orgel" or "symptoms" or even taemin's "danger" and "ace"...but hey! there are some pretty weird sounding chords sifting in and out of that yonghwa tune. curious to hear where it goes, especially since cnblue never caught my ear.

Only CNBlue song I like is "Can't Stop (Me Now)" but that was their most recent one and Yonghwa does have a pop song voice.

The falsetto on "Nightmare" is what I want from Jjong, so yeah...

Or "Evil" or "Obsession" (which I believe Jjong wrote way back when, the lyrics at least).

daaaamn i would've loved this Jung Yong Hwa song if it weren't for the rap. really kills the vibe. still decent on the whole but it's too much of a push and pull.

at least it's more interesting than jonghyun's title track... man what a let down :/

Yong Hwa's sounds like two different songs that were both pretty good separately and didn't really gain anything from being put together... and I kinda like the rapper more than Younghwa on this track, whoops. But not bad. Funny to think of his end-of-year collaboration with Zico being a precursor.

taemin's (very solid) mini was a gammon, made me think (esp. after Everybody) that jonghyun's mini would go in a comparably adventurous direction. turns out he made an adult contempo record, top to bottom. can't imagine the impetus behind that, other than the likelihood that this is just what he really likes. judging by the collaborations SM really gave it room to be his pet project.

When I think about it, his track for IU and some of the tracks he'd play on his radio show were like this too (but more bedroom lo-fi which was charming).

Ii girl Hani (of EXID) lipsyncing Jinsil (of Mad Soul Child)'s parts on a Mad Clown song. I don't usually like Mad Clown's rap style but he fits here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzNqcc__uRs

IT girl Hani, I meant

Wiggle Wiggle grew on me and I think Mileage will as well... especially when spring rolls around cos it's such a spring track.

for the folks reading along at home (and this'll be my video allotment for the week):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDfixuXfMT4

i'm not used to being two weeks deep into a year and having zero quality k-pop yet.

Everyone is clearing way for BoA's 15th anniversary release.

The fact BoA is only 28 still seems so crazy to me; she's one of those artists I've known about since I was really little because of my older sister + my cousin. Same goes for Beyonce from when she was in Destiny's Child.

Wiggle Wiggle's grown on me as well. Mileage is a cozy track.

apparently BoA is barely a factor even in the japanese market nowadays. but maybe the 15th anniversary marketing push will do some good in drumming up nostalgia sales.

okay, "neon" by jonghyun is really nice. great '90s RnB throughout, and then the bridge goes J Dilla mental. wish all the songs had curveballs this wild.

best of the lot, though, is "Fortune Cookie," a bonus track limited to the physical edition - and i have no fucking clue why. it's basically Voodoo status. super sophisticated...modulates awesomely too, some of the weirdest RnB i've ever heard out of korea. here's a slightly botched bootleg for the time being:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52rX07pSMzw

Neon is def my favorite on the mini, really incredible production on that. Definitely feel the D'Angelo vibes on Fortune Cookie. Also digging Beautiful Tonight.

apparently BoA is barely a factor even in the japanese market nowadays. but maybe the 15th anniversary marketing push will do some good in drumming up nostalgia sales.

― soyrev

She goes top 10 with her singles and albums on the Oricon and held a tour there last fall, she has a steady core fanbase that's obviously smaller than her peak powers when she was pushing a million copies per album. You don't stay on top for 15 years. But even Ayumi struggles topping charts these days - compared to most newer solo female stars in Japan BoA's still in an enviable position (RIP Jasmine's career).

In Korea last real promotional activity was with Only One which was one of the 30 best-selling songs of that year. (full disclosure: I went to her first solo concert on Korean soil ever in 2013).

SXSW lineup:

http://sxsw.com/music/news/2015/k-pop-night-out-showcase-returns-third-year-sxsw

Hitchhiker, Crayon Pop and Epik High are the headliners.

Tahiti coming on strong in another Brave Brothers track: http://youtu.be/M9medBE7GD4

There's no WAY they can use that choreography on broadcast

Thanks for digging up those Jonghyun tracks <3

I feel like ever since Lee Hi's "It's Over", there's been this trend of Kpop companies picking the safest boringest track on the album for the single (which they didn't used to do).

well i appreciate that Brave realizes he/they can't keep cranking out the same template anymore. good to finally hear a little variety from him again

"Brave Brothers recycles the same songs over and over" is a misconception - the producer Kang Dong-chul (AKA Brave Brothers - a single person) has always tried out new styles. It's just a question of whether you'll be one of the lucky groups getting a meticulously constructed exploration of whatever new style or trend dude is currently pursuing, or whether you'll get a cast-off recycled throwaway song dude spent two days on.

Since the year-end best lists are coming out (nice one in Vice, jakob!), I feel like I should be campaigning harder on here for the b-sides that have been growing on me lately... like f(x) - Rude Love, Seventeen - Rock, Oh My Girl - Say No More and Red Velvet - Oh Boy, for instance

OKAY, I made a playlist, you can listen in order if you like:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsh4Z5FNfPMD7jlMAPmsoks7_kWYWtxA_

THUMBS UP on the EXO winter album by the way... single is boring but the rest is A+ holiday rnb singalong material

I need another sad song for my playlist... anyone want to recommend something?

How sad?

I've been thinking a bit about my year end kpop list lately. Think I've got the top 3 down.

Just downtempo, calm, not upbeat... tho rly sad is good too

a merry f(x)mas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9-JlBRfpUA

This is cool - Fiestar's Jei is doing a webdrama about lesbian couples or something like that

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghbP2K-2w4M

Trying to work out what to nominate for the end-of-year thread...

At the moment I'm thinking:

winterish:
Kim Sunggyu - The Answer
Kim Sunggyu - Kontrol
f(x) - Traveler (ft. Zico)
f(x) - Rude Love
Suran - Calling in Love
Laboum - Aalow Aalow
Topp Dogg - The Beat
The Legend - Nail

summerish:
Teen Top - Ah Ah
AOA - Heart Attack
High4 - Baby Boy
Got7 - Just Right
MBLAQ - I Know U Want Me
Stellar - Vibrato
Hyuna - Roll Deep (ft. Ilhoon)
Z.Hera - XOX
4Minute - Cold Rain

Springish:
Big Bang - Bae Bae
Big Bang - Loser
GD&TOP - Zutter
Oh My Girl - Cupid
Sunwoo Junga - Spring Girls
Dalshabet - Obsessed
Hotshot - Watch Out
Hotshot - Rain on Me
Zion.T - Zero Gravity
Red Velvet - Automatic
Red Velvet - Ice Cream Cake
Rap Monster - Do You

???

Albums...

f(x) - 4Walls
Red Velvet - The Red
HOTSHOT - I'm a Hotshot
Dalshabet - Joker is Alive
Miss A - Colours
Kim Sunggyu - 27
Seventeen - Boys Be
Oh My Girl - Closer

???

Plus of course the non-kpop... there will probably be a few...

Come to think of it Oh My Girl's Oh My Girl mini was really good as well, maybe I'll just nominate that and let it stand in for all All My Girls-related nomination.

Shannon Williams - Why Why !

Well I love the BoA album so I'll nominated that.

Lily Fever is hysterical. Drama of the year. Go watch it on youtube, subbed officially and all. Watching all five ep's released so far will take you about 30 minutes.

So...many... girls... https://youtu.be/M3rg-rh6MPo

Just make a korean akb48.

Is AKB a survival show?

I wasn't expecting an actual single out of this, at least TWICE only had 16 contestants and Her Secret Weapon used (more or less) established acts... but I guess it is possible to keep track of so many different faces and names, if AKB48 does it.

http://i.imgur.com/jKhc1JE.png

P much

AKB is the ultimate survival show - a whole collective of idols at the mercy of yearly fan votes, etc. etc... but it's not an actual show, no.

Source: sexhaver

:)

What's with everyone at YG copying BEP recently, by the way? But this is just on the right side of stupid fun:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjZkpm7_kRk

This album track is rly good too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hlhSif-CRw

Hmm looks like GD has a composing credit on that one, maybe that's why I like it *shrug emoji*

Really nice remix of Hot Pink (except for the end) at the SBS end of year show, by the way. I enjoyed the remix of 'Hero' (Monta X) too, even SBS's techical issues couldn't duck with it. Remixes were enjoyable in greneral, I hope some of 'em show up somewhere else in a higher quality format.

https://youtu.be/rLauBWbtOtw
https://youtu.be/MZStnVrYqqQ

SBS gayo managed to fuck up the audio in whole new ways. Also the year end shows should just have collab stages or something. More killer less filler. Enjoyed IU finally performing Twenty-three on TV, though.

I'm nominating the WG album for the ILM EOY poll now.. seems to me like the most obvious shot at a k-pop album charting (showed up on some publication lists) but since I'm the one nominating it on the last day, maybe not?

f(x) has a slightly higher chance I think - seemed to notice quite a few non-kpop thread ilxors raving about 4 Walls on Twitter. Plus they've placed before.

Was January 2 the last day??? Damn

Will stand behind Reboot tho, good album

Since it's the new year though... is it time to start a new thread? Because 2016 is off to a more kickin start than 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR6ge_NYXNE

Also since I came around on Hot Pink... have an acoustic version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zG9aJPIcX3Q

As good as that 2NE1 IDC acoustic from back in the day!

(Or better, honestly)

oooooooookay, i'm redoing a spotify list for this thread, top down. Gonna take me a day or two.
I am listening to SO MUCH kpop via this right now.

:D

Local college radio station is doing top 10 of 2015 lists... tuned in to the Kpop list tonight, from #6 the order went

#6 Four Walls - f(x)
#5 I Feel You - Wonder Girls
#4 Catch Me if You Can - Girls Generation
#3 I - Taeyeon
#2 Don't Be Shy - Primary ft. Choa, Iron
#1 Bang Bang Bang - Big Bang

And I gotta say, CMIYC and Bangx3 improve a LOT when they're blasted over car speakers

wow, that was a real experience getting a year's worth of k-pop over several (and i do mean several) hours.

I'm wrapping this playlist for the year. It has been updated with most every track mentioned on thread that is available via Spotify's US catalogue as of EOY 2015. If I missed something or if a track comes available sometime in the future, bump here to let me know and I'll add.

K-pop's eccentricities make it VERY difficult for a non-speaker to search for songs, especially amongst an artist base that appears to have been named on twitter and is more or less ungoogleable. That said, 130+ tracks, most all from this year! Enjoy!

Rolling K-Pop Thread Spotify Playlist

forks, you are a hero and a saint, fyi

Thanks for that list. That will be a great step towards giving due to all the great songs I didn't listen to or only barely

Speaking of which

My k-pop songs of the year.. mostly from the top of my head, subject to change

1. IU - Twenty-three
2. IU - Heart
3. Suran - Calling in Love
4. Hyuna - Roll Deep
5. Nieah - No Rush
6. 4Minute - Crazy
7. BoA - Kiss My Lips
8. EXID - Ah Yeah
9. Primary - Don't Be Shy
10. Neon Bunny - Romance in Seoul
11. Red Velvet - Dumb Dumb Dumb
12. Kim Sawol - Bedside
13. D.Holic - Chewy
14. G.Soul - Crazy For You
15. Wonder Girls - I Feel You

Albums:
1. BoA - Kiss My Lips
2. Kim Sa Wol - Suzanne
3. Wonder Girls - Reboot
4. Red Velvet - The Red
5. Primary - Vol 2
6. IU - Chat-Shire

Hyukoh didn't quite fit on the lists but I have to say I've quite enjoyed them, for a regular ol indie band

I'd thought about nominating D.Holic - Chewy for the ILM tracks but didn't get around to it.

New thread, since we're wrapping up the year: K-pop (2016)

I'd have to think about my top 20... probably the Jun Areia remix of 9 Muses' Sleepless Night would be on it: https://youtu.be/Bzhc1UggIO8

Maybe also Lim Kim Stay Ever... I can't remember if we talked about it in this thread or not. https://youtu.be/fjXeup1ZbX0

Or maybe they're just on my mind since they're recent

Albums:
1. Wonder Girls - Reboot
2. f(x)- Four Walls
3. Red Velvet - the Red
4. iKon - Welcome Back, but only if they repackage it with the three new singles
5. Girls Generation - Lion Heart

Mini-albums:
1. Miss A - Colors
2. Hotshot - I'm a Hotshot
3. Seventeen - Boys Be
4. Oh My Girl - Oh My Girl (First mini album)

Oh yeah I forgot Awoo

voted awoo on my ilx singles ballot

mostly due to this thread!

This one snuck up on me after they added a video, great RnB jam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWTsl8sAJFY

not sure whether to file until 2015 or 2016...

GAON's end of year chart is out, by the way:

http://omonatheydidnt.livejournal.com/17330907.html

Didn't realize miss A and Baek A Yeon had done so well, good on them though.

There's something a little off about this

http://0.soompi.io/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/29230246/lovelyz1-800x450.jpg
http://0.soompi.io/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/29230407/lovelyz-21.jpg

Not that there's any immediate danger of students getting hold of guns in Korea.

Mostly just funny.