The last post of 2019

As I sit typing this (10:30 PM EST), the decade is coming to a close and I am feeling…a way. I started this blog as a way to sort of write my feelings about K pop songs and be a reviewer. I liked hearing my own thoughts so why not. Before that I had started transitioning into a media reviewer blog via tumblr. People at one point had started sending me artist to look into and I loved it. With K pop, I wasn’t fully invested just yet. I essentially followed groups my sister liked: The Wonder Girls and SHINee. Hello and Ring Ding Dong were two songs I grew overly attached to. Eventually I learned about SNSD and was aware of their music and popularity. Ultimately I had a very limited scope of K pop for the years of 2010-2012. It had actually been my fave that really forced me to dive deeper. It was not until a performance of Hyolyn singing Spend My Life With You dressed as Fiona from Shrek that I fully started exploring more K Pop. 2013 was really the year. This was also when K Pop’s most DIVISIVE song debuted with I Got A Boy…I wore that shit out y’all. I dived into K Pop, learned as many groups as I could and developed a strong taste for girl groups (as I should). However with time…I kind of just…meh. 

Over the last year or so K pop had started getting…well I felt like I out grew it. For transparency: I am a 28 year old Gay Black man from the US.I got into K Pop when I was about 19/20 however my sister was a fan of the Wonder Girls and I was aware of them early 2008. I technically got into K Pop in 2010 thanks to the WG. I started getting into more K Pop when I was becoming slowly dissatisfied with what was happening in the West (no new girl groups and R&B was slowly evolving into what it became today). Now…K Pop has always been a young man’s game and I think I am just too old for the new kids.

Itzy released Dalla Dalla and Icy. I found the songs to be fine. Not bad. Likable and have memorable moments. But…the songs are so childish. Like not even in a bad way. These songs are like Weki Meki…made for younger demos. I actually am a proponent of these companies making accessible content for kids with Kids at the helm (WITH MAJOR RESTRICTIONS AND LAWS TO PROTECT THESE KIDS AND NOT SEXUALIZE THEM). But I realize that K pop is not just targeting kids and so it feels like Itzy, a group that clearly is age appropriate in their content (sans styling but like…lol)… 

Even as an adult I love cartoons. Not just adult cartoons (Bob’s Burgers, Bojack Horseman and the Tulca and Birdie were some of my favorite pieces of television this decade), but content aimed at kids have been some of the most fascinating pieces of media I have seen over the decade. Still I am aware that this content is aimed at children and don’t feel like I am intruding when watching. With music…it’s something different. Especially K Pop which is known to sexualize in both overt and confoundingly round about ways. 

The idols are getting younger, and I am getting older. While I still listen to it I just don’t carry the same interest that I had when I got into it. I am not excited about many artist and really only listen to the acts that I have grown attached to, mostly girl groups. Does this mean that I am shutting this blog down?

No.

I still want to analyze K pop, but I have grown bored of listening to K pop songs as often as I do, and I have many other responsibilities. Plus…I want to get back into talking about movies and tv shows like I used to. So I am opening a separate blog for all media content discussions while keeping this K Pop blog open. I want to find a love for K pop again. Not force one, but really nurture the fascination and willingness to look at K Pop deeply again and get back into the review game. 2020 is a fresh start, a new era in life. I have so much I want to do, and I will accomplish it. Eventually K pop will become nothing more than some side interest as it started, but I want to make sure that the acts that I love get as much of my attention and critical eye as I am going to afford my Western faves. 

Here is to a new year. See you in 2020.

Aespa debut with the simmering Black Mamba

Look it’s been a minute…and with the year we have had…lol.

Anyway let’s talk about Aespa.

Aespa is SM’s new girlgroup, coming six years after Red Velvet. Not to stir the pot, but there are an unfortunate amount of similarities in both group’s debuts. Ultimately my biggest focus is that a lot of…energy is being put into Aespa and not in the best way. Similarly Red Velvet dealt with the same kind of backlash for things out of their control and criticism was swift and plenty. I say all this because I think a lot of the drama around this group right now is heightening a very…eh debut.

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Queendom Performances (first round)

So…I am going to pretend I have been here all year. Yeah.

MNet loves mess, so they have decided to produce (lol) a show where they have female idol acts compete. It is a mix of older acts (Bom, AoA, and Mamamoo) and relatively younger acts (Lovelyz, Oh My Girl and G-Idle). The show allows for the groups to sort of showcase themselves while competing.

Round 1: Intro performances

I’m calling this intro performances as a sort of…well an introduction. I am going in order of debut to make this easier for me.

Apink strike with tempered %%

The theme for 2018 was transformation and growth. Some groups did it. And some did not. One group that took to the challenge was Apink, a veteran group who may be one of the last of their era soon. Apink have always been known for their cute concept even well into their adult years (though I argue that they have tangled with maturer concepts before, but still within the realm of their brand). Now that the market is a little saturated, the six member act have decided that switching it up was 2018 gave us I’m So Sick, which has been considered by many one of their best in years. They have since comeback in 2019 with %% (Eung Eung)

WJSN teeter a line between complex and overdone with La La Love

A lot of groups have went through some changes in 2019, for better or worse. One group who has made a leap into a new outlook is Starship’s Cosmic Girls (also known as WJSN). After the whirlwind that was Dreams Come True, the group lost three members (temporarily) and revamped their look and sound for a darker moodier effort in Save Me Save You. Now they have returned in early 2019 to show that the new look is not going anywhere.

Oneus start strong with Valkyrie

RBW Entertainment have debuted a new boygroup called ONEUS. There isn’t much to say at this point, so let’s get into it.

Gotta Go is a slow build for Chung Ha

Chung Ha rose to prominence in the survival group ioi, and struck solo immediately after the temporary group dissolved. Since then she has pretty much become the most successful in terms of music, with most of her songs becoming some form of a hit. With each release she stuck with the same bright fun made for summer lightness which she was able to dance over. After three variations of that, Chung Ha has returned with a darker look in Gotta Go.

Luna’s Even So is a quiet but likable effort+ Review of single album

Happy new year! Welcome to 2019, where I will attempt…once again…to write as much as possible and never do. But like always a strong start is necessary for a dissapointing fall. So let us get to reviewing!

Luna is quite possibly one of SM’s STRONGEST talents. A beautiful voice with the skills to engage on stage. Luna has all of what it takes to stand on stage. However in the game of the music industry it is not about how talented you are but essentially everything else. Musically Luna has been a hit and a miss as a soloist. While Free Somebody was a bombastic beginning which gave her a space as an exciting dance performer, it unfortunately did not succeed on the charts, and when she came back she was given a spiceless ballad.

Thankfully SM is feeling generous to continue with Luna as she is back ringing in the new year with Even So.

My Favorite songs of 2018: 1-5

And here we are with the top five songs that I have loved through 2018! This year has been really nice. I did think it was slow at first, but after doing this list, and having to debate songs, I found that there were far more songs that I anticipated!

Before we begin!

• Unfortunately I did not hold up my end on listening to more boy groups for 2019. I kind of just forgot…my bad.
• I did not listen to many albums this year…I got bored with many groups, so the variety is really lacking beyond title songs.
• This entire list is a mess…we gonna pray that I can make some sense of it by the time we hit the top five.
• This is all opinions, and we don’t need to argue subjective
• I will be using live performances for my top 5 because I can and y’all can’t do anything about it.

And with that, last end 2018 with my top 5 songs!

My Top 20 Songs of 2018: 10-6

We are back for the next five songs! This year has been an absolute blast for me musically, and I think it is always good to just…review it.

Remember!

• Unfortunately I did not hold up my end on listening to more boy groups for 2019. I kind of just forgot…my bad.
• I did not listen to many albums this year…I got bored with many groups, so the variety is really lacking beyond title songs.
• This entire list is a mess…we gonna pray that I can make some sense of it by the time we hit the top five.
• This is all opinions, and we don’t need to argue subjectives

With that being said let’s get this post going!