Distracted, scattershot listening, with some good discoveries nonetheless. Pretty much totally ignored hip-hop, but it kept pushing its way onto this list anyway, either as guest spots or per se. A couple of non-gender-reversible videos by Tahiti and A.Kor. A lot of hard-rocking aggression in my top ten (top twelve if you go down to Future), the ( Read more... )

Real good overinterpretation of the new Trouble Maker video "There Is No Tomorrow (Now)," comment posted by YouTube commenter hyunseungtwin 8 minutes ago:

The music video follows the story of the musical "Bonnie and Clyde". They're a couple, both who are criminals. Both try to forget each other but they can't because they still love each other. ( Read more... )

If you were to ask me do I think T-ara are sexy or, instead, do I think they're cute, you've asked me an insane question, since their cuteness makes them sexy and their sexiness makes them cute. Not that there's a complete overlap: cuteness is only a part of their repertoire of sexiness and sexiness is only part of their repertoire of cuteness. And ( Read more... )

I remember in the second half of 2011, while 2NE1 were being my official, conscious favorite band in the world, T-ara were subliminally becoming my actual favorite band. This didn't really pour forth in my writing, though, until the year changed. 2012 started with Jiyeon, Soyeon, and crew dancing in a circle, and shuffling backwards in unison, ( Read more... )

What's going on with Rainbow's "concept"? And how do "concepts" work in general in K-pop? Even though performers do sometimes change 'em like costumes, that doesn't necessarily mean those very performers aren't committed in some deeper way to what the concepts mean. Or at least it doesn't mean that they're not committed in the audience's eyes, or ( Read more... )

warthoginrome writes:

I don't know if you had the chance to run into this news, so I wanted to point it out, because the topic is common to the entire asian pop scene ( Read more... )

Best track on HyunA's Melting is the rough 'n' tough "Don't Fall Apart";* starts with a martial beat and a voice commanding "Attention!" Wikip credits words and music to Beatamin, who seem to be the duo Nassun and Zenda Fakteri. A flick of the wrist on YouTube, and we find them working with Kikaflo on his "Attention" (2011), which is, as they say, ( Read more... )

Here's HyunA displaying her Pikachu voice (segment begins 26 seconds in), anticipating how a year later she tells Psy he's just her style. But what's striking me now about the clip is Jihyun saying, right at the start, "We're famous for not having talents." I can't tell if this is just a quick quip, a "talent" merely meaning a special side ( Read more... )

Excellent commentary by arbitrary_greay on "Gangnam Style" and related matters over at the SNSD Free For All. Includes this mashup of "Gangnam Style," "I Am The Best," and "Fantastic Baby," which shouldn't work as well as it does, given how crowded it gets, with all three of them trying to find room on the divan:

Click to view

Writeup includes comparisons to "Sexy And I Know ( Read more... )

While searching "Oscar song meanings," I incidentally found this thread where non-Koreans talk about how they discovered K-pop and why they love it ( Read more... )