Tag: kpop
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K-POP 2024 – 20 Best Tracks
No particular order, and not necessarily the best videos of the year, but these were earworms all year for us and it’d be impossible to imagine 2024 without any one of them. And yes, there are two NMIXX numbers in…
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K-POP 2024 – 10 best videos
This list contains what the title suggests; the ten best K-pop videos in 2024. It’s important here to distinguish between best videos and best tracks, because sometimes unusually good album tracks will not receive any video treatment, or sometimes the…
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K-POP 2024 december
Finally we may have reached a stage in the month where we can talk about December in K-pop, without being surprised by further swerveballs. So let’s get this year finished! HaSeul – Fragile Eyes. Last surprise ARTMS release of the…
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K-POP 2024 – BLACKPINK & YG
The third of our special topics in K-pop concerns the solo releases from three BLACKPINK artists this year. Having established themselves as one of the best-selling girl groups of all time during the two years of their Born Pink Tour,…
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K-POP 2024 newjeans vs hybe
The second in our series of special topics in K-pop is devoted to the biggest news story of the year. Two years ago NewJeans appeared, apparently out of nowhere, and shook up South Korean pop music. They were fresh-sounding, yet…
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K-POP 2024 the return of LOONA
We’re holding fire on the December review until at least the 25th. In the meantime there will be some special topics in K-pop studies. Way back in 2016, Blockberry Creative, a subsidiary of a large South Korean arms conglomerate, launched…
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K-POP 2024 november
BIBI – DERRE. We like BIBI. Her Lowlife Princess a few years back was one of the most fully-realised solo K-pop albums ever. Her output since has been eclectic, never making safe choices, and with DERRE we are enchanted by…
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K-POP 2024 october
Okay, things were pretty busy this year, but October was when things went crazy. Strap in! aespa – SYNK: PARALLEL LINE. As an interesting swerveball, aespa put out four solo singles. MAMAMOO might have done something similar years back, but…
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K-POP 2024 september
Loossemble – TTYL. The most successful of Loossemble’s three mini-albums in a little over a year, before they split with their label CTDENM. More on this and other post-LOONA related news this year in a separate forthcoming review. naevis –…
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K-POP 2024 august
K-POP 2024 ANNUAL REVIEW NMIXX – See That? NMIXX’s second EP of 2024 is even better than the first, and the first single See That? is as distinctive a mash up of styles and arrangement strategies as anything on this…
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K-POP 2024 july
(G)-IDLE – Klaxon. Definite candidate for K-pop banger of the summer. Absolute bubblegum hooks (“Honk honk honk honk honk honk!”) and sassy moves put this up there with f(x)’s 2011 hit Hot Summer. These girls just continued to eat up…
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K-POP 2024 june
NewJeans – Supernatural & Right Now. Last single of the year for NewJeans, and potentially forever depending on how their dispute with ADOR plays out. Being a Japanese release, the Right Now video features Takashi Murakami motifs in addition to…
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K-POP 2024 may
TripleS – Girls Never Die. Before Modhaus had reassembled the former LOONA subunit ODD EYE CIRCLE, Jaden Jeong had been busy working with a new modular girl group called TripleS, in which fans could vote for members and tracks for…
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K-POP 2024 april
Things heat up a bit in April. BABYMONSTER – SHEESH. Launched last year, YG Entertainment’s latest girl group follow on from BLACKPINK and 2NE1 before them. Sure, there’s a contemporary 4th gen streamlining to the production, but it’s recognisably a…
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K-POP 2024 march
LE SSERAFIM – Smart. Second single for the Fimmie’s EASY minialbum. Could have benefitted from shittyflutes like the first one, but that’s just expecting too much. WENDY – Wish You Hell. First Red Velvet solo of the year gives us…
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K-POP 2024 february
Moon Byul – Think About & TOUCHIN&MOVIN. MAMAMOO solo releases are always fun. Byul’s new album was no exception. Big brash pop tunes and cheesy dance moves from the tallest of the Moomoos. (By one centimetre, apparently) TEN – Nightwalker.…
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K-POP 2024 january
The year opened with no less than four comebacks from heavyweight fourth generation girl groups ITZY – Untouchable. Straight off the blocks with a confident banger. Top non-lexible vocals (“Bam-bam-bam-ba-ri!”) and the girls literally destroying a cohort of riot cops.…
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virtual angel subliminals
From ARTMS Virtual Angel video. All the things that we almost saw. Don’t do this at home, kids!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqUP26j4XWU
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K-POP 2023 – part two
One thing has been bothering me about K-pop for the last few years: why are girl groups generally superior to boy groups? This was not always the case. During the golden age of the second generation, the imperial grandeur of…
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K-POP 2023 – part one
This year has been huge in K-pop. South Korean pop culture is at a pivotal point where the new fourth generation of groups is making a definitive impact on the landscape. The most notable act to break the mould last…
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k(raut)pop?
What if K-pop but Krautrock? What if Krautrock but K-pop? Here is some bad Photoshop that shows how these extended ensembles might play out.