[For some reason, when I was adding tags, livejournal deleted this entire entry, along with its comments [EDIT: Likely I hit a wrong button]. So I'm reposting this list. It originally went up January 1st, 2012, 23:54.]

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1. T-ara "Lovey-Dovey"
2. Orange Caramel "Lipstick"
3. Trouble Maker "Trouble Maker"


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Solbi's "Ottogi," yet another "Lipstick"-like half-trot bridging the silly rhythms of Americano speaklessness and Romanian saxobeats. I missed this when it surfaced last August during the T-ara hysteria. Most notable for 4minute's Jiyoon on the rap:

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And a witty Latin house version:

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Okay, three data points constituting a trend, Miss A, putting "Time's Up" on their new Independent Women Pt. III EP, become the latest K-pop group to mix trot beats and Austral-Romanian int'l rhythm moves.*

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(Also, unrelated to trot or to Romance Australianisms, the lead track and single is "I Don't Need A Man," and the second or third track ( ( Read more... )

Something amazing has happened this year with Orange Caramel's singing, though I can't put my finger specifically on what. All I've got is adjectives. Last year Orange Caramel had two terrific songs ("Bangkok City" and "Shanghai Romance"), each dragged down a little by vocals that I'd describe as "adequate": going for cuteness but sounding blah, ( Read more... )

T-ara's "Sexy Love" holds its chart place with its points falling in its second week from 25,414,429 to 23,801,053. That's not a severe drop, given the Gaon List's habit of going from blockbuster to bust rather quickly. E.g., G-Dragon's "그XX," on its week three, falls a whole hunk, from 42,048,638 to 24,038,977. (Above them both we've got ( Read more... )

Never got around to answering arbitrary_greay's comment over on the snsd_ffa Gangkiz thread regarding the T-ara concept and high production values. "T-ara concept" is the subject of one of my 500 future T-ara posts that are in the planning stage. But in brief, the T-ara concept can be summarized, "Words that rhyme, words that repeat, raps that fit sing-song, any rapper ( Read more... )

Haven't had a chance to post much. So as a stopgap, just wanted to say that After School is rising higher on my list of "Subjects For Further Research." So far I couldn't tell you anyone's name other than Raina and the departed Bekah and the departed Kahi. Oh yeah, and I know the name Uee. And couldn't say much about any of them except that Kahi is ( Read more... )

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Mentioned in my last post that Korean freestyle rapper SOOLj has a leaning towards riffs out of the other freestyle as well, the great '80s postdisco dance music from Miami and NY and Jersey and Philly. Wouldn't be surprised if those riffs were all over Korea these days, though owing to the paucity of my knowledge, I've only found a few others, one ( Read more... )

Orange Caramel's "A~ing♡" is our problematic video of the week, which I posted over at poptimists, but since almost no one there writes comments anymore, I'm putting it up here as well. As Mat says, "It's odd, because they almost have a supermodel look to them with their long legs, and it just seems grotesque to put them in cheap girly Halloween costumes." I ( Read more... )