Waiting for HyunA (singles as of December 6)
Saw Ash-B's first appearance on Unpretty Rapstar and went, "Oh, no, they're making her/she's making herself sound tough and real and it won't work and she'll lose," so I averted my ears and avoided the show.
To my barely informed mind HyunA is now the dominant rapper in K-pop in that whenever anyone in Exid or 4minute who is not HyunA starts to rap or sing, I go, "This sort of sounds like HyunA but now I'm waiting for HyunA herself to show up." "Red" last year established this for me. (The wait is longer in Exid than in 4minute, obviously.)
Crayon Pop continue to score by ignoring past achievements; SHINee and Wonder Girls explicitly wallow in a past that's of course been implicit all along throughout the genre; most interesting freestylish moment, though, is "Delete," which casually pairs old NY-Philly-Miami riffs with cool autonomous vocals that you'd never ever have heard on an actual vintage freestyle track.
Since spring I've barely listened to anything that isn't medium-old jazz (Lee Konitz, Miles Davis).* So this list suffers, esp. in its dearth of No Tiers discoveries.** I've basically been relying on YouTube-generated playlists for K-pop and on random looks at the Singles Jukebox for everything else. I found Lila Downs via her "Cuando Me Tocas Tú" linked on Jonathan Bogart's Tumblr. (That track and Wonder Girls' "One Black Night" are candidates for my Freaky Trigger ballot, which allows album tracks.)
So, what have you been listening to?
1. Ash-B "매일"
2. The Seeya "The Song Of Love"
3. Azin "Delete"
4. Rihanna "Bitch Better Have My Money"
5. HyunA ft. Jung Ilhoon "Roll Deep (Because I'm The Best)"
6. Crayon Pop "FM"
7. ZZBEst "랄랄라"
8. Titica "Você Manda Fogo"
9. Momoiro Clover Z vs KISS "Yumeno Ukiyoni Saitemina"
10. Red Velvet "Ice Cream Cake"
11. Daphne And Celeste "You And I Alone"
12. Lil Mama "Sausage"
13. Romeo Santos "Hilito"
14. 4minute "Crazy"
15. Jason Aldean "Just Gettin' Started"
16. Christine and the Queens "Christine"
17. Feder "Goodbye"
18. Caro Emerald "Quicksand"
19. Exid "Ah Yeah"
20. T-ara "So Crazy"
21. SHINee "View"
22. Lizzy "Not An Easy Girl"
23. Uhuru ft. Wizkid "Duze"
24. All Time Low "Something's Gotta Give"
25. The Weeknd "Can't Feel My Face"
26. A$AP Rocky ft. Miguel, Rod Stewart & Mark Ronson "Everyday"
27. Kelela "A Message"
28. Brigitte "J'sais pas"
29. Lila Downs ft. Juanes "La Patria Madrina"
30. Maitre Gims "Est-ce Que Tu m'Aimes"
31. Wonder Girls "I Feel You"
32. BTS "Dope"
33. GFriend "Glass Bead"
*In jazz, I didn't like what I heard this year from previous fave Matana Roberts. Sounded like a parody of a 1950s bohemian séance.
**But let me reiterate my liking for the missed-by-me-last-year "Babomba" from the impressively overlooked (and now personnel-shifted) Badkiz.
To my barely informed mind HyunA is now the dominant rapper in K-pop in that whenever anyone in Exid or 4minute who is not HyunA starts to rap or sing, I go, "This sort of sounds like HyunA but now I'm waiting for HyunA herself to show up." "Red" last year established this for me. (The wait is longer in Exid than in 4minute, obviously.)
Crayon Pop continue to score by ignoring past achievements; SHINee and Wonder Girls explicitly wallow in a past that's of course been implicit all along throughout the genre; most interesting freestylish moment, though, is "Delete," which casually pairs old NY-Philly-Miami riffs with cool autonomous vocals that you'd never ever have heard on an actual vintage freestyle track.
Since spring I've barely listened to anything that isn't medium-old jazz (Lee Konitz, Miles Davis).* So this list suffers, esp. in its dearth of No Tiers discoveries.** I've basically been relying on YouTube-generated playlists for K-pop and on random looks at the Singles Jukebox for everything else. I found Lila Downs via her "Cuando Me Tocas Tú" linked on Jonathan Bogart's Tumblr. (That track and Wonder Girls' "One Black Night" are candidates for my Freaky Trigger ballot, which allows album tracks.)
So, what have you been listening to?
1. Ash-B "매일"
2. The Seeya "The Song Of Love"
3. Azin "Delete"
4. Rihanna "Bitch Better Have My Money"
5. HyunA ft. Jung Ilhoon "Roll Deep (Because I'm The Best)"
Click to view6. Crayon Pop "FM"
7. ZZBEst "랄랄라"
8. Titica "Você Manda Fogo"
9. Momoiro Clover Z vs KISS "Yumeno Ukiyoni Saitemina"
10. Red Velvet "Ice Cream Cake"
11. Daphne And Celeste "You And I Alone"
12. Lil Mama "Sausage"
13. Romeo Santos "Hilito"
14. 4minute "Crazy"
15. Jason Aldean "Just Gettin' Started"
16. Christine and the Queens "Christine"
17. Feder "Goodbye"
18. Caro Emerald "Quicksand"
19. Exid "Ah Yeah"
20. T-ara "So Crazy"
21. SHINee "View"
22. Lizzy "Not An Easy Girl"
23. Uhuru ft. Wizkid "Duze"
24. All Time Low "Something's Gotta Give"
25. The Weeknd "Can't Feel My Face"
26. A$AP Rocky ft. Miguel, Rod Stewart & Mark Ronson "Everyday"
27. Kelela "A Message"
28. Brigitte "J'sais pas"
29. Lila Downs ft. Juanes "La Patria Madrina"
30. Maitre Gims "Est-ce Que Tu m'Aimes"
31. Wonder Girls "I Feel You"
32. BTS "Dope"
33. GFriend "Glass Bead"
*In jazz, I didn't like what I heard this year from previous fave Matana Roberts. Sounded like a parody of a 1950s bohemian séance.
**But let me reiterate my liking for the missed-by-me-last-year "Babomba" from the impressively overlooked (and now personnel-shifted) Badkiz.