Kpop music thread. Stan talent, Stan-all.

gurusloth wrote:

One thing I noticed is that you haven't (up to where I'm at) discussed any of the competition shows that have aired over the years aside from a brief mention of KpopStar and it's connection to AKMU. Have you watched any of them (Sixteen, Produce 101, Mixnine, Idol School, Girls Planet 999, etc.)? If not, why not, and if so, what's your take?

I haven't seen any more than random clips from any competition show. Part of it is the limited time I have available to view things, and part of it is ease of availability. If I need to go to something other than youtube, navigate an interface in Korean and pray that they have English subtitles it's unlikely I'll ever watch. The only time I've done such a thing was for Running Girls because that was filled with all of my biases.

If I'm honest, the other reason I haven't watched is that I know the group formed will be temporary. I didn't follow Iz*One for the longest time because I knew they'd disband sooner rather than later. I now realize that's a bit silly, and currently enjoy a lot of their songs, and really like a lot of stuff the members have been doing since disbanding.

Dyni wrote:

The only Kpop competition show I have watched from start to finish is Queendom season 1. I went back to watch most of KpopStar season 2 after discovering AKMU, and I watched quite a bit of Unpretty Rapstar season 3 a couple years ago to check out more of Soyeon.

I think that's one of the things that's most fun about them, is that you get to see early versions of group members that you then recognize later when they debut.

Dyni wrote:

I haven't watched any of the ones that led to new groups, mostly because of all the vote manipulation rumors that I've seen floating around. I know Mnet got in big trouble for that a few years ago with Produce 101

I think that kind of rumor is easy to start and hard to prove, but at the same time there's not a lot of transparency going on and it can be hard to see contestants who are obviously talented end up not making the cut at the end. I know I heard complaints of shady editing moreso than vote manipulation with regards to Girls' Planet 999 but when the show relies on audience voting I guess that kind of amounts to the same thing.

I know I personally was very shocked at the end of Sixteen when all the tallying was done and then JYP just kind of came in and said "Well, I'm just gonna pick the girls I want including one who was actually eliminated in an earlier episode and completely ignore the audience voting". I still like Twice and all, but deep down I still feel like there are a couple members who were given the job when it should have gone to someone more deserving.

Tscott wrote:

I haven't seen any more than random clips from any competition show. Part of it is the limited time I have available to view things, and part of it is ease of availability. If I need to go to something other than youtube, navigate an interface in Korean and pray that they have English subtitles it's unlikely I'll ever watch. The only time I've done such a thing was for Running Girls because that was filled with all of my biases.

Running Girls was pretty great, I agree. Just super wholesome. The time investment is not as big an issue for me, but finding a good source is always tricky. I'm often resorting to just hunting down clips from various Youtube uploads and kind of piecing together a narrative based on that. Luckily some of the shows were pretty good about putting up the full episodes on Youtube (I think I had to go to iQIYI or something like that to watch full episodes of GP999).

Tscott wrote:

If I'm honest, the other reason I haven't watched is that I know the group formed will be temporary. I didn't follow Iz*One for the longest time because I knew they'd disband sooner rather than later. I now realize that's a bit silly, and currently enjoy a lot of their songs, and really like a lot of stuff the members have been doing since disbanding.

It's funny, I would have thought that after I.O.I. broke up the other shows would get the message and find a way to keep them together. I know Fromis_9 has stayed together (aside from the recent announcement of Gyuri leaving) so I was surprised when Iz*One split up, I thought they were doing so well. But then you look at the releases by the former members so far and they've really done well for themselves so maybe I don't know what I'm talking about.

Generally, I like watching the competitions but it is a double-edged sword when you see so much talent ultimately get passed by. You can hope that the exposure was good for their careers and sometimes it is, but there are plenty of those contestants who just don't make it, and that is hard to think about. Part of the reason I like Kpop is because it is, in a way, a manifestation of dreams and hard work being rewarded. But there isn't room enough for everyone and that can be a bitter pill.

Tscott wrote:

This was mentioned on the podcast?? Does this mean I made it? I was behind on my podcast listening, but just listened to the latest episode. Thanks for the shoutout, Antichulius!

Tscott wrote:
gurusloth wrote:

One thing I noticed is that you haven't (up to where I'm at) discussed any of the competition shows that have aired over the years aside from a brief mention of KpopStar and it's connection to AKMU. Have you watched any of them (Sixteen, Produce 101, Mixnine, Idol School, Girls Planet 999, etc.)? If not, why not, and if so, what's your take?

I haven't seen any more than random clips from any competition show. Part of it is the limited time I have available to view things, and part of it is ease of availability. If I need to go to something other than youtube, navigate an interface in Korean and pray that they have English subtitles it's unlikely I'll ever watch. The only time I've done such a thing was for Running Girls because that was filled with all of my biases.

If I'm honest, the other reason I haven't watched is that I know the group formed will be temporary. I didn't follow Iz*One for the longest time because I knew they'd disband sooner rather than later. I now realize that's a bit silly, and currently enjoy a lot of their songs, and really like a lot of stuff the members have been doing since disbanding.

Welcome gurusloth!

The only competition show I've watched was Finding Momoland--not that anyone is surprised by that. For a while, there was a fan community adding subs to episodes, so that made them easier both to find and to watch. And truth be told, I'll probably rewatch it again when Momoland announces their (all but inevitable now) end, but I'm not really a fan of reality competitions in general, so I don't really even keep track of the competition shows as they happen.

Content warning: blood and violence

BiBi - Animal Farm

This is a pre-release for BiBi's first full length album which should be out sometime in November. I can't wait.

EXID - FIRE

A release for their 10th anniversary. The EP is appropriately called "X" and has two other new tracks, plus FIRE (English Version). Great to see them back. I wasn't sure this day would happen.

I was thinking it might be fun to do a Throwback Thursday, starting with the debut song by a group called Favorite that came out in the summer of 2017. The group has since disbanded unfortunately, but the song is quality and their second single "Where are you from?" is also worth a listen, but this one is my *ahem* favorite of their releases.

Favorite - Party Time

I don't think I've even heard of that group before, but I liked the video. Thanks.

There are some groups that I think don't become popular, in part, because their name isn't easily searchable online. I imagine if people are searching for "Favorite kpop" many of the results will be lists of good kpop songs and not links to this group. There was a boy group that debuted a few years ago with the name "TOO" that I had similar thoughts about how they'd ever be found on Google. I think the renamed themselves TO1 later on- maybe so they'd be easier to find online.

Tscott wrote:

There are some groups that I think don't become popular, in part, because their name isn't easily searchable online. I imagine if people are searching for "Favorite kpop" many of the results will be lists of good kpop songs and not links to this group.

Yeah, it was kind of bad SEO when you think about it, but if their songs had charted better I think it wouldn't have mattered too much. They just never had a big breakout hit; I kind of include them mentally with groups like Berry Good that has been mentioned earlier in the thread. Lots of potential but for whatever reason never caught on.

This group's maknae member, Go Ahra, really did well (IMO) and garnered some decent buzz during her appearance on MixNine and also appeared on KpopStar 6 so I was watching out for her debut. MixNine had quite a few strongly-performing participants that ended up debuting later including Ryujin from Itzy, Soojin from Weeekly, and Suhyeon from Billlie (technically Heejin and Hyunjin from LOONA as well but they had already debuted before their appearance on the show) to name a few of the higher profile ones.

Tscott wrote:

BiBi - Animal Farm

Goddamn, I love BiBi. That was amazing.

gurusloth wrote:

I was thinking it might be fun to do a Throwback Thursday

Great idea! I have checked out a lot of groups that debuted before I started listening to kpop (2015), but I know there's plenty of great stuff I've never heard from 1st and 2nd gen groups.

October comebacks are already stacked with groups and soloists I love:
(G)I-dle
Stray Kids
Seulgi (Red Velvet)
Jamie

And comebacks from Dreamcatcher and Mamamoo on my birthday I can't ask for a better kpop birthday present than that!

Dyni wrote:

And comebacks from Dreamcatcher and Mamamoo on my birthday I can't ask for a better kpop birthday present than that!

Nice and happy birthday in advance. I'm very excited about that day. My birthday is the Saturday after that, so this will be an early birthday present for me.

Also on the 12th former Iz*One members, Kwon Eunbi and Lee Chaeyeon (who's also Itzy's Chaeryeong's sister) will be releasing songs. Glitch is one of my favorite tracks this year, so I'm looking forward to something more from Kwon Eunbi. This will be Lee Chaeyeon's solo debut.

SEULGI - 28 Reasons

Great stuff. I'm about to dig into the other 5 songs on her solo EP.

Also, ReacttotheK has released a couple great videos in the past 24 hours...

First a reaction to BlackPink's Shut Down

I knew the song used a violin, but I didn't realize they were sampling/referencing a specific classical piece. They also contrast it to RV's Feel My Rhythm (another great reaction on this channel, watch it if you haven't) and talk about how while they're very different approaches to using samples, they're both valid.

And second, Umu got to interview LOONA when they were in LA. This is a fun video, with some inciteful questions and one of the best interviews I've seen with LOONA in a long time.

A new track by Rolling Quartz just dropped, it's a bit of a tonal departure from their previous releases, but still pretty good stuff.

Rolling Quartz - NAZABABARA

I saw this when I woke up this morning; seems like Hani from EXID was able to secure ownership of the group's trademark. They briefly talk about it on their recent Weekly Idol appearance (at around the 5 minute mark):

In honor of this I'm going dedicate this Throwback Thursday to an EXID track that I don't think has been brought up in the thread before; it's from 2016 and personally I think it's near the top of of their releases.

EXID - L.I.E.

Oh yes, these both kick ass.

Dreamcatcher - Vision

Mamamoo - ILLELLA

Finally had a chance to give these both a few listens. Enjoying both a lot.

I love Moonbyul's part in ILLELLA.
And I was not prepared for blonde Dami in VISION.

New songs from two former Iz*One members:

LEE CHAE YEON - HUSH RUSH

KWON EUN BI - Underwater

First of all: the new Dreamcatcher song 'Vision' is fire! If you haven't experienced it scroll up and do so, you won't be disappointed. I was really impressed with it, it reminds me of something out of a cyberpunk soundtrack.

Secondly, new Kep1er just dropped:

Kep1er - We Fresh

I'm liking it so far; not their best release but a solid one.

Finally, Throwback Thursday is upon us once again! I wanted to bring up a group that I believe has only been mentioned in passing before in the thread, that being KARA. They began as a four-member girl group that debuted in 2007, but then in 2009 they had a roster change and came back with with their second (and much more popular) album Revolution; their new five-member lineup would continue throughout most of the group's promotions and is probably considered the canonical version of KARA.

The single from Revolution, Mister, has been brought up in the thread previously and is considered by many to be their most iconic song, but they have a bunch of great songs including my personal favorite and our throwback for this week, Pandora. I binged this song for about a month or so when it came out, which for me is saying something. Please enjoy.

KARA - Pandora

The Kep1er song is pretty catchy and I really enjoyed that KARA video.

I'll join in on the throwback Thursday with this video that was new to me. Someone on reddit was asking for a video they remembered with the girls in a room where one was much taller than the other and later in the video there was a giant panda in the room. The description made me curious.

Turns out the song was Momoland's debut song which I had never seen (sorry Antichulius). I had somehow thought Wonderful Love was their debut and totally missed this. Well I've seen it now and enjoy it.

MOMOLAND - JJan! Koong! Kwang!

Tscott wrote:

SEULGI - 28 Reasons

I've been enjoying this quite a bit. It's exactly the style of sound I was hoping she'd go for. I've only given the EP a quick scan, but Los Angeles is my stand out B-side on first listen. I'm really digging synth-wavy stuff lately.

She also released a video for "Bad Boy, Sad Girl (ft. BE'O)"

gurusloth wrote:

EXID - L.I.E.

I was trying to figure out why this didn't match my memory of the video. I finally realized it was because I associate this song with the dance version of the video, which I've seen quite a few times.

gurusloth wrote:

KARA - Pandora

Ooooo, I really like this. I think I've only heard a couple of KARA songs before this. That's going straight to the playlist.

I will also contribute to Throwback Thursday! I'm guessing I've at least mentioned 9Muses in this thread, but I don't think any videos have been linked. 9Muses went through quite a few iterations in terms of members and group size throughout their run. They were formed from an Mnet reality show. Many of their members were former models, so they were known for being the "giant" girl group. Their shortest member was 5'6", which is the same height as the tallest member of many other girl groups. This is pretty apparent in their videos.

Sadly, 9Muses may be most well known as a poster child for the bad side of Kpop management. They were the feature of this documentary that was on Netflix several years ago. It's not an uplifting story, but well worth a watch. Sera Ryu, the leader of the group, was kicked out in 2015 for complaining to management about excessive use of sex appeal in their outfits. She has been quite open about having severe depression and suicidal thoughts in the following years. Thankfully, she seems to be doing much better now. She even has a YouTube channel that she opened primarily to make reactions to offer support for other groups that might need encouragement.

9Muses never became very popular despite an excellent discography. In terms of 2nd gen groups, only Girls Generation rivals them in terms of hits for me. I will resist the urge to thread spam and just link a couple for now.

Hurt Locker was first video of theirs I watched. This led me down the discovery rabbit hole:

Gun is another favorite of mine:

Tscott wrote:

Turns out the song was Momoland's debut song which I had never seen (sorry Antichulius). I had somehow thought Wonderful Love was their debut and totally missed this. Well I've seen it now and enjoy it.

Looks like the KAMP LA concert has run into significant issues, with many of the artists slated for the day 1 performance unable to fly yet due to visa issues. This is really bad…

Koreaboo article

Dyni wrote:

And comebacks from Dreamcatcher and Mamamoo on my birthday I can't ask for a better kpop birthday present than that!

Tscott wrote:

My birthday is the Saturday after that, so this will be an early birthday present for me.

Happy Birthday to you both!

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Antichulius wrote:

Happy Birthday to you both!

IMAGE(https://thumbs.gfycat.com/KindImmenseDairycow-max-1mb.gif)

Happy bday, Tscott
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That Momoland track was a trip! I had totally forgotten it, but it's really quite good and catchy. I'm surprised they didn't continue to release more songs like it but maybe the cute concept was getting played out during that time period. You barely see any groups these days going in that direction.

And then Dyni beats me to the punch with 9Muses! I totally had this group on my short list for future Throwback Thursdays; you've kindly left off some choice picks from their earlier catalog so I may still drop one of those sometime later. Hurt Locker is a great choice though, one of my favorites from them. I've been following Sera Ryu for a long time (from back when she had attempted to go it solo about 7 years ago) so I'm glad to see you bring up her Youtube channel; she is not nearly as prolific with her reactions as she used to be but I do recommend going back and watching her Dreamcatcher-related content. She is a huge fan of that group so the videos are fun to watch, and she even gets a chance to interview them which is a hoot.

Lastly, the new song from Le Sserafim, Antifragile, just dropped.

I'm still warming up to it, I think. The opening kind of rubs me the wrong way but later in the song it really picks up some steam. Great message too.

Antichulius wrote:

Happy Birthday to you both!

Dyni wrote:

Happy bday, Tscott :)

Thanks. I had a pretty good day. Hope you did too, Dyni.
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On first listen, I think I like this Le Sserafim comeback better than their debut. I like the video and the song won me over by the end. From a post-Iz*One perspective, this group hasn't hit me like Ive or the Iz*One soloists yet, but they definitely have the potential to win me over over.

(G)I-DLE - NXDE

(G)I-DLE seem to have something to say. It's interesting they seem to have thrown out some pop conventions in favor of using the song to suit their message. Curious what the general consensus on this release will be.

Hi, happy Throwback Thursday! I wanted to start by recommending an episode of Lee Mujin Service, which is a Youtube show hosted by singer Lee Mujin (duh) where he invites a guest to come on and do a few cover songs and then they duet at the end. He recently had Huh Yunjin from Le Sserafim on his show (link here) and it was really great! Between this and her solo song that was released in early August I'm really becoming a big fan of hers.

Ok, on to the Throwback! You have probably heard of Psy; everyone on the planet has heard Gangnam Style by now I'm sure. You may have even seen his performance of the song on the American Music Awards in 2012 (if not I recommend it). But my favorite song of his actually pre-dates Gangnam Style by almost two years. The video is a bit less front-facing with it's humor than his more recent releases and is just a really high-energy track that will make you wanna bop and move. Get up out of your chair and dance! RIGHT NOW!

PSY - RIGHT NOW

I'm not digging too far back for this throwback... just a 2020 performance of a GWSN b-side, Wonderboy, the Aerialist (I'm sure all their previous title tracks already appear somewhere in this thread).

I'm posting this because it was announced today that their current company, Wave, dissolved and essentially no longer exists. What this means for GWSN is unclear at the moment. Some online are saying it could be the end of the group, others are saying this frees them up to sign with another company as a group and keep their name.

I certainly hope the second case is what will happen. Their first 3 title tracks and albums are simply magical. The next two releases were also good, but was missing the fantasy/dream-like element their first tracks had. I hope they have a chance to release more and maybe reinvent themselves anew. We'll just have to wait and see.