Dreamcatcher has a new comeback. On first listen it's pretty amazing. I've enjoyed most of their previous title tracks. They have a great hard rock/metal edge to their music that make them stand out in kpop. Plus usually a creepy horror/fantasy vibe to their videos that's also clearly on display here.
1) Itzy's Dalla, Dalla is growing on me on repeated listens.
2) Hwasa from Mamamoo has a new solo song out. It bops.
3) Loona's comeback is Tuesday and I can't be more hyped for it. I pre-ordered the album from Choice Music LA so we'll see how that goes. Also apparently the limited version A and the limited version B of the album each have a different bonus track which give "hints" to their next album(!!!). So of course, I pre-ordered both versions.
When I was first getting into Kpop last summer, I automatically assumed that G(I-dle) were seasoned veterans firmly exstablished in the Kpop world when I heard this song:
It wasn't until much later that I realized this was their debut song.
Yeah, they've only released 2 songs so far. It's a pretty amazing debut, and Jeon Soyeon is the star of that group. She is credited in the lyrics, music and arrangement for both Latata and Hann, and she had a hand in writing, producing, and arranging most of the tracks for their upcoming albulm. She also helped to write, produce and arrange CLC's recently released No (which I love). All that at 19 years old. Pretty crazy.
Maybe I'm holding newer groups to a too high standard based on this, but Itzy isn't wowing me too much with their 1st song. Not that I dislike it, and I think the video is pretty fun, but I'm not rushing to add them to my collection just yet.
Same with another group debut that came out a couple weeks ago, Cherry Bullet. Again, the song's OK, but it's missing a certain 'wow' factor for me. But like Itzy, Cherry Bullet's video is fun, and the song is pleasant enough after repeated listens.
I had the same feeling about Cherry Bullet. I still like Itzy's debut quite a bit, but I can easily see why many others are disappointed with it. It's kind of all over the place.
Momoland is apparently planning a new album for March
Link is to reddit post, but that links through to a Korean article. I sincerely hope it's legit.
Cool. I hope so too. BAAM was so structurally similar to Bboom Bboom that I couldn't help but be a little distracted by it. It was still a good song, but I'm really curious how they're going to follow it up.
Dreamcatcher has a new comeback.
Yessssssssssss. I love it. But I have loved every single Dreamcatcher title track so far, so no surprise. They are one of my favorite groups. It saddens me that they're still so underrated.
Hwasa from Mamamoo has a new solo song out. It bops.
Yes it does. Mamamoo has several good solo tracks. This one is my favorite:
While I'm only a casual Loona fan, I'm also looking forward to their coming release. It looks like they spent more on this than most Kpop groups do on an entire MV. I really like the way it sounds from the teasers. G-Idle also has comeback slated for the end of February. Between Gfriend, CLC, Itzy, Dreamcatcher, Loona, and G-Idle. The first 2 months of 2019 have been dominated by girl groups.
Despite that, my favorite Kpop song of the year so far is from Taemin.
The Michael Jackson vibes are strong with this one. I didn't know how he'd be able to successfully follow up Move, but he did.
G-Idle also has comeback slated for the end of February. Between Gfriend, CLC, Itzy, Dreamcatcher, Loona, and G-Idle. The first 2 months of 2019 have been dominated by girl groups.
Don't forget Apink. I think %% (Eung Eung) may be my early favorite song.
Momoland/Saturday mashup
Heh, I watched the Saturday video a couple days ago and didn't make the Momoland connection (but did note that they tended to borrow from a lot of common Kpop tropes). Yesterday and today Youtube has been recommending me a couple videos by kpop fans who are complaining that Saturday is stealing from Momoland (but I've ignored them as I'm not drawn to the drama these sorts of videos tend to feed on).
Dyni wrote:G-Idle also has comeback slated for the end of February. Between Gfriend, CLC, Itzy, Dreamcatcher, Loona, and G-Idle. The first 2 months of 2019 have been dominated by girl groups.
Don't forget Apink. I think %% (Eung Eung) may be my early favorite song.
Oops! Yes, definitely Apink too.
Loona The World.
1) I don't think any other kpop video has celebrated world-wide diversity like this one does.
2) I love this song. Dark and powerful, and uplifting too.
3) The release of the physical copies of this album has been pushed back a week- rumor has it because too many albums were pre-ordered and they need to print more.
4) I bought all six new songs on mp3 because I can't wait, and on first listen I'm enjoying them all.
5) Stan LOONA.
6) We are all LOONA.
That was super good. Definitely my favorite Loona song and video so far. It almost sounds more like a chill EDM song with the more sparse vocals, but it really works. I can't think of another K-pop song that sounds like that. And damn, Choerry is officially Mariah Choerry because those high notes were nuts.
Huh, this is interesting. Youtube just recommended me a new Kpop video that premiered an hour ago. Zgirls. I have heard nothing about them, but clicked anyway, and I... kind of like it.
It's their debut song, and it's different.
And there's a reason it's different.
The song is in English and none of the members are from Korea. Member profile.
But in case you thought I'd already forgotten Loona, I haven't. I'm loving seeing the full choreography of Butterfly (plus Vivi and Hyunjin get some actual screen time in this version).
3) The release of the physical copies of this album has been pushed back a week- rumor has it because too many albums were pre-ordered and they need to print more.
Now I'm reading online that the company that prints Loona CDs isn't making more limited edition CDs, so not everyone who pre-ordered will be able to get a copy. Right now I'm in limbo. I ordered from Choice Music LA, and it says the limited versions are sold out, but also in the description it says they'll start shipping them out tomorrow. So I don't know if they're getting enough cover what was pre-ordered or not. 
In better news, G(I-dle) have a comeback tomorrow,
Sunmi just announced a comeback next week.
And with Blackpink, Mamamoo and Momoland supposed to be also have comebacks in March (no official dates on them yet, though) it should be another exciting month for Kpop.
There was a kpop singer that was attacked at or near her home. She ended up apologizing for complaining about it. Kind of sad she felt a need to apologize. Those groups seem to have a lot of pressure on them. I heard of a number of ladies being kicked out of groups for having sex or not living up to some crazy standard.
Yeah there's some not so great aspects to Kpop, as with any industry. I kind of equate Kpop to American sports with many young people wanting to make it big in the NFL or NBA (etc.). Only some make it big. And unfortunately some may be exploited, or get stuck never rising with nothing to do but ride out their contract.
I think things are constantly changing for the better though. I mentioned earlier in this thread how never-ending contracts are no more. Now they can only be for a max of 7 years and then must be renegotiated. There was an idol couple fired last summer after they announced they were dating. The company seemed to get a lot of backlash for that decision. In January, a Korean tabloid revealed that Jennie from Blackpink and Kai from EXO were dating, and the response from everyone seemed to be "yeah, so? let them live their lives".
I think many fans worldwide tend to be protective of the groups they follow and tend to be more sympathetic when "flaws" are revealed of the members (i.e. they're shown to be human and capable of making mistakes) and that is having a positive effect on how idols are treated. There's a group, the Lovelyz, that had a controversy because a member swore on livestream with fans. But what she said was the Korean equivalence to saying "Why's this asshole saying this shit to us?" in response to trolls leaving hateful comments in the chat. So while there was some backlash that an idol swore, there was also a strong sentiment that it was an appropriate response to what was being sent to them in the chat and raised awareness to the criticism they face everyday. Here's a video about that incident, and a look into some of the other aspects of kpop that have been brought up here. (warning the hosts swear a lot in this vid)
Here's G(I-dle)'s latest. I like the video, I'm warming up to the song.
I actually like the non-title track they released a video for better than the main single.
Also I love Dreamcatcher's Piri so much I bought the physical CD. It's a great package and they generously include 4 random photocards, which is pretty nice.
I find this both surprising and unsurprising from other things I've read. And disappointing.
Momoland's Yeon Woo reveals that she has not made money since debut
Sunmi - Noir
Damn.
So I posted yesterday morning right after watching Sunmi's new video and as I was running out the door for work, so I didn't have time to write anything more than "Damn" at the time. That initial review still holds up, but I thought I'd elaborate on that slightly. The video is a powerful look at how some people become addicted to social media and only care about getting more likes and followers without caring about other consequences. It's also darkly humorous and all done in Sunmi's unique style. She's a master at finding multiple meanings in her work, and can often be at once deep, hilarious, weird, and brilliant. I see her previous two videos as a biting commentary of Kpop disguised as marvelous pop songs. 'Heroine' about how fame can be the Hero, but also the drug addicting you to it. And 'Siren' as both the seductive siren call of fame, and the siren serving as a warning for anyone who tries to achieve it. I see her as a true artist not just standing head and shoulders above all others in kpop, but over almost anyone currently working in music.
Here's a wonderful interview where she talks about how she currently sees herself, and gives a glimpse of how she got here.
Apparently Momoland’s comeback is March 20, but only reported so far on a Korean site. I hope there’s talk of pre-orders soon!
Here's G(I-dle)'s latest. I like the video, I'm warming up to the song.
Same here. Well, I actually really like the song except for the rap break, which pains me to say a little because I love Soyeon's stuff so much normally. I like Blow Your Mind quite a bit. I haven't had a chance to check out the full album yet, but I'm looking forward to it. Their entire first album was great.
I find this both surprising and unsurprising from other things I've read. And disappointing.
Momoland's Yeon Woo reveals that she has not made money since debut
This is an unfortunate reality of how the K-pop industry is structured, particularly for groups from smaller companies. Groups from "the big 3" companies - SM (Shinee, SNSD, Exo), JYP (Wondergirls, Twice, Miss A), and YG (2NE1, Big Bang, Blackpink) - have almost guaranteed success from the start due to the size, prestige, and marketing budgets of the respective companies. The same is not true of groups from smaller companies.
Forming, training, and marketing these groups is expensive. Training in particular puts groups in major debt from the start. Most idols go through 3-5 years of training before debuting, so all of that cost is factored into the investment in the group as a whole, and idols don't start earning until they break even. This means even groups with great success don't start earning until several years in. Gfriend has had consistent success and Red Velvet is one of the biggest groups there is, yet it took both of them over 2 years to start earning.
Many groups never reach this level of success, so all of the debt that they are unable to pay off is ultimately assumed by the company, not the idols. I'm sure there are exceptions to this, and that is terrible. On the upside, idols have pretty much everything taken care of for them while they're part of a group. So while Yeonwoo may not be filling up her savings account quite yet, she's certainly not scraping by.
Sunmi - Noir
I feel like I've seen a lot of on-the-nose commentary about social media usage lately, but I like the way Sunmi communicates it here. The video is vey well shot and has some really severe imagery to get the points across. Great video. I didn't really get the hype about Sunmi when she released Gashina, but she has been steadily growing on me. Black Pearl is my favorite of her tracks.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Big Hit (the BTS company) just debuted their new boy group, TXT, and man, they sure did dump some money into it. The video is overproduced to the extreme, but I think the style works well for the vibe of the song. Unfortunately, I don't much care for the song itself.
Gfriend also just released a new Japanese track called Flower. Japanese tracks from K-pop groups tend to be very hit-or-miss for me, as they often cater to that market in a way that I don't enjoy, but I quite like this song. The Latin fusion is becoming pretty popular in K-pop, isn't it?
Antichulius wrote:I find this both surprising and unsurprising from other things I've read. And disappointing.
Momoland's Yeon Woo reveals that she has not made money since debut
This is an unfortunate reality of how the K-pop industry is structured, particularly for groups from smaller companies. Groups from "the big 3" companies - SM (Shinee, SNSD, Exo), JYP (Wondergirls, Twice, Miss A), and YG (2NE1, Big Bang, Blackpink) - have almost guaranteed success from the start due to the size, prestige, and marketing budgets of the respective companies. The same is not true of groups from smaller companies.
Forming, training, and marketing these groups is expensive. Training in particular puts groups in major debt from the start. Most idols go through 3-5 years of training before debuting, so all of that cost is factored into the investment in the group as a whole, and idols don't start earning until they break even. This means even groups with great success don't start earning until several years in. Gfriend has had consistent success and Red Velvet is one of the biggest groups there is, yet it took both of them over 2 years to start earning.
Many groups never reach this level of success, so all of the debt that they are unable to pay off is ultimately assumed by the company, not the idols. I'm sure there are exceptions to this, and that is terrible. On the upside, idols have pretty much everything taken care of for them while they're part of a group. So while Yeonwoo may not be filling up her savings account quite yet, she's certainly not scraping by.
I wasn't aware of the debt part of the equation, though it makes a lot of sense, but I did figure that while Yeonwoo hasn't gotten a paycheck, she has earned in terms of housing, grocery allotment, etc. Just a bummer that there isn't some form of split between paying off the debt and actually making money to invest in the future. Momoland won't be around forever, and it would be sad for them to do all that work, all that promotion, and only "earn" their keep for those years.
But I guess it's not that different from so many who live paycheck to paycheck.
I wasn't aware of the debt part of the equation, though it makes a lot of sense, but I did figure that while Yeonwoo hasn't gotten a paycheck, she has earned in terms of housing, grocery allotment, etc. Just a bummer that there isn't some form of split between paying off the debt and actually making money to invest in the future. Momoland won't be around forever, and it would be sad for them to do all that work, all that promotion, and only "earn" their keep for those years.
But I guess it's not that different from so many who live paycheck to paycheck.
Yeah. I wouldn't call it a good arrangement, but it's certainly not as dire as headlines would suggest. Thankfully, Bboom Bboom and BAAM were huge hits for Momoland, so I would guess they're close to or beyond the break even point now. Hopefully they'll be able to start earning with their March comeback.
I know I’ll do my part to support their comeback. 
Choice Music LA came through with the LOONA XX limited editions! I was worried because they didn't respond for 4 days after the release date when I contacted them to see if they'd received enough copies to cover the pre-orders (there were rumors that there wouldn't be enough copies for all pre-orders). So I panicked and ordered extra copies from Amazon. I was lucky and from 2 copies of version A now have both of the possible cards. One has half the group- the other, the other half. I got Jinsoul and Go Won from the Limited version B.
Choice Music LA also sent some nice (unofficial) photo cards including huge cards of Chuu (my bias) and Vivi, and normal sized cards of Yves and Yeojin.
This upcoming Momoland comeback is my first experience with a Kpop marketing campaign. This was posted to the MLD twitter account, with a near-daily drip starting next week.
And I also learned that the audience call-outs you can hear in this video ...
... (which I thought were spontaneous and grew over time in some way) are actually planned and announced as the official audience cheer.
And now that I've seen it, of course it was done that way.
Yeah, fan chants are pretty ubiquitous in K-pop. Any live performance you watch by anyone you can hear the fans doing them. It's another way, along with the lightsticks, that Korean fans can interact with their favorite idols when they see them live.
BigHit Entertainment (BTS fame) just launched their second group, TXT. It's a far lighter sound and concept than what BTS put out:
Also was told by a friend to check out Jason Derulo collaborating with NCT 127 and LAY, quite a cool MJ tribute:
Big scandal in the Kpop sphere right now with Seungri (so?) former Big Bang idol with allegations of prostitution and illegal substance dealings. He formally announced his retirement from entertainment yesterday, was due to enter the conscripted service later this month.
Tscott wrote:Here's G(I-dle)'s latest. I like the video, I'm warming up to the song.
Same here. Well, I actually really like the song except for the rap break, which pains me to say a little because I love Soyeon's stuff so much normally.
This might help you understand what you didn't like about that section.
This is also a very interesting idea for a video series and hope they do plenty more of this in the future.
So, while waiting for Momoland's comeback next week, I've started more actively branching out. Red Velvet and Twice are the main ones I've found myself listening to and purchasing digital albums to add to my playlist. I'm steering more for the red side of Red Velvet, but I'm quite enjoying their songs. Of particular note, their Red Summer mini album is fantastic. Summer Magic has some good songs, but I feel it's more hit and miss for me.
This is also a very interesting idea for a video series and hope they do plenty more of this in the future.
Agreed. That was a good watch. Going to have to browse that channel a bit.
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