Oh!GG Lil Touch isn't terrible but it's suffering pretty hard from every line being written twice so they can be divided 'fairly' between all 5 girls.
Either have a 3-girl subunit, work harder on the song structure, or forget about the distribution...
I like the new NCT Dream song though!
― hurricane weather (forapper), Wednesday, 5 September 2018 21:23 (five years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LV1Es22E0RI
Supposedly Mark will be "graduated" from NCTDream after this song which is a bit weird to think about considering he's featured so heavily on it and even the other rappers sound like him. But just like Cube think they can have Pentagon without E'Dawn...
Here's an opinion piece on the NCT franchise model and other artist-as-commodity long term planning by SM:
https://omonatheydidnt.livejournal.com/22890849.html
Popular culture critic Kim Hyun Sik said, “In a franchise, the flagship store must be successful in order for its brand power to expand to its chain stores. It would be sequentially correct to develop a team that can be the center of NCT and then expand its influence to its derived teams.”
― hurricane weather (forapper), Wednesday, 5 September 2018 21:36 (five years ago) link
Would you buy a home AI system with Wendy's voice and image?
― hurricane weather (forapper), Wednesday, 5 September 2018 21:38 (five years ago) link
Sunmi's "Siren" rules <3 She does high drama so well.
― Roz, Thursday, 6 September 2018 13:20 (five years ago) link
Performance predictably great too
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcBFktktV80
― abcfsk, Sunday, 9 September 2018 09:33 (five years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrvdjyIL0fA
iiking this track in the k-patchwork-pop tradition
― ufo, Monday, 10 September 2018 14:40 (five years ago) link
the OMG track is great, I hear a lot of other songs I like in there
― hurricane weather (forapper), Tuesday, 11 September 2018 01:13 (five years ago) link
the one that most comes to mind is GLAM's Party (XXO)
― ufo, Tuesday, 11 September 2018 01:17 (five years ago) link
also I Got A Boy
― ufo, Tuesday, 11 September 2018 02:37 (five years ago) link
Wow this is awful: https://www.soompi.com/article/1229651wpp/breaking-hyuna-edawn-removed-cube-entertainment
I could see them letting go of E'Dawn but Hyuna?! She practically carried the label.
― Roz, Thursday, 13 September 2018 02:55 (five years ago) link
wow that's awful and shocking, absurd that dating scandals are still such a thing and that companies can react like this over them
― ufo, Thursday, 13 September 2018 03:04 (five years ago) link
It just seems incredibly short-sighted. Hyuna was probably popular enough to ride out any dating scandals, while E'Dawn was a rising star. Good luck Cube imo.
― Roz, Thursday, 13 September 2018 03:14 (five years ago) link
i've seen some suggest that the issue was that Cube denied the dating rumours only for Hyuna & E'Dawn to publicly confirm they were dating afterwards and it seems Cube really didn't like that they did that
― ufo, Thursday, 13 September 2018 03:58 (five years ago) link
Yeah Cube's shares tanked after they went public (and is tanking now after this latest announcement).
I feel bad for Pentagon though - they were just starting to make waves. They don't deserve this.
― Roz, Thursday, 13 September 2018 05:09 (five years ago) link
lololol what a mess
[UPDATE] A senior official from CUBE Entertainment said the withdrawal of HyunA & E'Dawn is not final yet. The agency officials are having an urgent meeting & will gather the opinions from their artists as well https://t.co/yZlkxg3xhw pic.twitter.com/weppSv4c3U— The Seoul Story (@theseoulstory) September 13, 2018
― Roz, Thursday, 13 September 2018 08:26 (five years ago) link
If the point was to show Hyuna and E'Dawn who's boss, it backfired big time.
Pentagon are promoting right now and the song is pretty bad, but that might be because E'Dawn is not there to sell his Shine pt 2 co-write
― hurricane weather (forapper), Friday, 14 September 2018 02:37 (five years ago) link
The main thinh OMG's Remember Me reminds me of is f(x)'s Pinocchio
― hurricane weather (forapper), Saturday, 15 September 2018 19:54 (five years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RUeTYiJCyA
― ufo, Monday, 17 September 2018 11:04 (five years ago) link
I've never really been able to get into GOT7 but that's quite nice.
― Roz, Monday, 17 September 2018 15:00 (five years ago) link
I like it, it kinda sounds like Teenager (fan favorite off the last album): https://youtu.be/MPhAEcLaiNs
I think I'd like it more if it was just a touch more relaxed
― hurricane weather (forapper), Tuesday, 18 September 2018 01:45 (five years ago) link
dirrrrrrrty bass (but the chorus is poppy):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YROy48zGzW4
― hurricane weather (forapper), Tuesday, 25 September 2018 01:18 (five years ago) link
Doesn't quite stick the landing but I love the first 2 minutes of this...
― hurricane weather (forapper), Tuesday, 25 September 2018 01:20 (five years ago) link
https://soundcloud.com/bangtan/seesawxineedu
i like this way more than the components
― ufo, Saturday, 29 September 2018 18:39 (five years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ekJOWBejSU
this is a very good r&b track with a great keyboard solo that i'd completely missed until now
― ufo, Tuesday, 2 October 2018 10:07 (five years ago) link
listened to the GOT7 album and it's really great, one of the best kpop full lengths i've heard. nearly every track could have been the single
this is one of the highlights
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6rhxI80-FY
― ufo, Wednesday, 3 October 2018 01:12 (five years ago) link
Oh yeah Lee Jin Ah pitched as this piano genius could be very noodle-y but she's shown a great pop sensibility too, even in the songs where she IS doing jazz piano throughout
― abcfsk, Wednesday, 3 October 2018 05:49 (five years ago) link
Like
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnniajBkORg
― abcfsk, Wednesday, 3 October 2018 05:50 (five years ago) link
Her album this year is beautiful
― abcfsk, Wednesday, 3 October 2018 08:49 (five years ago) link
I've been listening to a lot of Lee Jin Ah on my jazz(y) Kpop odyssey this year, it's bubbling up from the Korean underground to the idol scene.
Random is my favorite Lee Jin Ah track.
― hurricane weather (forapper), Friday, 5 October 2018 04:55 (five years ago) link
yeah her album was quite enjoyable too
― ufo, Friday, 5 October 2018 04:56 (five years ago) link
Working toward a theory of how these idol groups are positioned for an audience... not just on a cute/sexy axis for girlgroups (or a puppy love/possessive love axis for boygroups), but thinking about that axis in terms of the (sexual) agency allowed to the artist (the x axis), and also adding another axis for the age/sophistication of the target audience (the y axis).
So you can have a group with a pretty sophisticated presentation, using sounds from the indie scene or otherwise outside the idol scene, with MVs that use indie film tropes (clever transitions, artsy black and white, unexpected juxtapositions, or maybe tried indie tropes like filing at the laundromat), but because the artists are young, the target audience is also young (or are people who are into "young") - so the portrayal of the relationship will lack agency on the part of the artist, and they will be in the bottom left corner of the graph. (Ex: Infinite forever complaining about how they are controlled by Bad Girls, IU adding musical complexity while still appealing to the uncle fans, Stellar going meta about how they are objectified while being poked by computer mice in the music video).
The ultimate goal of this exercise is escape to the quadrant in the bottom right, where you can have a sophisticated image (y-axis) AND sexual agency (x-axis), the only way to retain fans after aging out of your original image, whatever it was (young and sophisticated, young and cute, or sexy but in a simplistic, 1-dimensional way). Because as an older artist, you not only want to be more true to your actual lived experience, but you also can't compete with the younger artists to be MORE cute or MORE inexperienced or in a MORE kdrama-rama relationship, right?
This isn't to say that the bottom right quadrant is actually more sophisticated or sexy, more that it's a Justin Timberlake going to "Suit and Tie" type of deal, where you successfully keep your audience into adulthood.
So examples of artists who succeeded here might be G.o.D, IU, Suzy from Miss A (and actually, Miss A as a whole, although they disbanded shortly thereafter), Taeyeon from Girls Generation, EXO-CBX and the other EXO subunits, Red Velvet, VIXX, Minah from Girl's Day, Sistar both as a group and as individual artists, Big Bang (maybe, they can also be self-reflective without being emotionally mature).
Just a thought, and since the pop culture website I used to write for went under, I figured I'd put it here.
― hurricane weather (forapper), Sunday, 7 October 2018 18:11 (five years ago) link
ANyway in the young but sophisticated (but lacking agency) quadrant we have MXM, who I am enjoying quite a bit these days:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFszwM0WhNg
― hurricane weather (forapper), Sunday, 7 October 2018 18:12 (five years ago) link
Or it could be that this is the new young-and-cute puppy love quadrant, updated with what the kids are actually into these days.
― hurricane weather (forapper), Sunday, 7 October 2018 18:18 (five years ago) link
And speaking of that sexy/tasteful quadrant, here's another one for the Continued Mainstreaming of Jazz Piano Watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcwJvgs53Ng
― hurricane weather (forapper), Sunday, 7 October 2018 19:14 (five years ago) link
Interesting theory, but time to get to paint and start filling in the names so we can tell you why we disagree
― abcfsk, Sunday, 7 October 2018 19:43 (five years ago) link
Much as I dig Red Velvet not sure they've escaped to the bottom right just yet? Sophisticated presentation, but lacking agency, a bit all over the place, still very much dancing at the whims of SM. They're also just a few years old.
Lee Hyori is/was the ultimate example, I guess, going from a squarely cute 'n innocent concept group to major success in the mature phase of her career as something completely different and now in the 'do what she pleases' phase. Although she's mostly done with music by now.
― abcfsk, Sunday, 7 October 2018 19:47 (five years ago) link
Yeah, for Red Velvet actually I think you are right, they are bouncing back and forth between the top left (cute & upbeat) and top right (sexy bad girls) as a group, as planned from the start of their careers. Because when you establish from the beginning that you're going to be switching up your image, it makes the final transition easier & more credible.
Seulgi as a solo artist might be a better candidate for escaping to the bottom right, and SM Station in general seems to be an outlet for SM artists to try out some different sounds and maybe gain credibility as mature artists so they can escape whatever image they started out with.
For boy groups, I think the textbook example would be VIXX - they were video game characters at debut, then did some Jekyll/Hyde concept switch stuff, and now are playing up the 'sexy, mature, tasteful, and/or musically adventurous' image both as a group and in their solo releases.
― hurricane weather (forapper), Sunday, 7 October 2018 20:05 (five years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM0xDI5R50E
Subbed, but IU's difficult to translate, puns and poetry aplenty
The song is great. Surprisingly catchy.
― abcfsk, Thursday, 11 October 2018 05:48 (five years ago) link
^ i love this one! thanks for pointing it out.
― fragglerock, Thursday, 11 October 2018 09:22 (five years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wX-e5rvmtas
APRIL have moved away from their usual cutesy innocent sound here with great results. 80s-influenced but still pretty distinctive in sound and it flows fantastically
― ufo, Tuesday, 16 October 2018 11:39 (five years ago) link
woo
https://youtu.be/AX3Bsiq-13k
― nxd, Friday, 19 October 2018 08:32 (five years ago) link
oh it didnt embed, but ^ thats the new dua lipa x blackpink song
wow that song really sux
― hurricane weather (forapper), Saturday, 20 October 2018 01:00 (five years ago) link
duua lia x blackpink obviously, not APRIL or IU. We don't even get Lisa rapping in English! Total money grab.
― hurricane weather (forapper), Saturday, 20 October 2018 01:01 (five years ago) link
The John Legend x Wendy rnballad is superior in every way and an actual collab.
― hurricane weather (forapper), Saturday, 20 October 2018 01:08 (five years ago) link
The APRIL song is really good... the production is hypnotic and it really suits their (lighter) voices.
The song kind of sounds like something Wondergirls or TWICE would do, with a vaporwave (or the 80s Jpop sound that inspired vaporwave) sensibility and updated with modern production.
― hurricane weather (forapper), Saturday, 20 October 2018 01:35 (five years ago) link
re APRIL: love how movie trends tend to permeate throughout k-pop - a few years ago, it was all the Batman stuff, now clearly it's Clueless (see also, LOOΠΔ/yyxy's look/MVs)
― Roz, Saturday, 20 October 2018 10:44 (five years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4tBlQ5yTwY
I've actually never heard of this group - came across via Youtube autoplay. Extremely enjoyable!
― Roz, Saturday, 20 October 2018 11:11 (five years ago) link
They're from the survival show Idol School, I think. Kind of CJ E&M's answer to Mnet's Produce 101 or KBS's The Unit, but not as popular as either of those. I think this is the first fromis_9 track that's gotten any traction with the general public.
― hurricane weather (forapper), Monday, 22 October 2018 00:16 (five years ago) link
Love Bomb is quite good, much better than the previous fromis_9 singles i'd heard which i barely remember at all
the Batman trend in kpop videos was really so odd
― ufo, Monday, 22 October 2018 00:54 (five years ago) link