rolling kpop 2023

Jungkook goes from Craig David to early Justin Timberlake... like "Seven", this is pretty good! The early 00s sound works for him! But vocally, just comes across as a total charisma vacuum, any trace of a personality sanded down to nothing in the quest to conquer US radio

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHNCM-YALSA

also, Jack Harlow is terrible as usual and ruins the song, but fortunately a version without him exists

maybe doesn't help that i've been re-listening to "Mirotic", which turned 15 this week... god, what a masterpiece

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtJS32n6LNQ

lol you aren't wrong about the charisma vacuum there. was wondering if this was just a limitation of him singing in english but no, he comes across much better on some of bts's english tracks. bizarre

Speaking of boy bands past and present,

So far not a single boygroup has reached #1 on MelOn Daily Chart in 2023, it’s the first year since MelOn creation that no boygroup has reached #1 on the chart. pic.twitter.com/s5ZjHAitGi

— Kpop Charts (@kchartsmaster) September 28, 2023

as is right - most of the big boy group releases this year have been meh, including comebacks by major 2nd gen groups like Infinite and SHINee :(

have been mildly fascinated by a couple of the newer bgs making GFriend/Lovelyz-style wholesome, cutesy spring music (which I've recently discovered is now being called christian horse girl kpop lol). these male versions aren't quite as enjoyable imo, but I appreciate the attempt to do something different. examples:

The Wind - Island
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHkdp0uaolE

ZEROBASEONE - In Bloom (interesting interpolation of "Take On Me")
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trzeUClQIIg

into this wavey ballad from IVE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Hu4GYtye5U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlyrt5eAtKI

new red velvet single "chill kill" is pretty good although not one of their singles i'm instantly astounded by

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHygO__-WK0

lol i like that we're getting k-afrobeats now. i don't think it quite works but it's admirably close

like it's quite pleasant but the vocal doesn't quite fit in the groove in the right way. which is interesting to be fair

ha yeah I see what you mean, I’m not entirely sure afrobeats is a natural fit for the kind of rigid melody structures that kpop favours but it’s nice

g-dragon posted a video of himself dancing to “Love Nwantiti” last year which made me think he prob would’ve gone down the afropop route if he wanted to go back to making music. but he’s caught up in yet another drug scandal now so probably not anytime soon