K-Pop Appeciation Thread

[Cheap21]

I also prefer Junho with dark hair although I was finally getting used to him as a blonde...just like Junhyung!

I heard of the style clashes in BB, and I think from that same Taeyang interview

Wow, Ive heard of Taemin (in relation to Kai) but was not expecting that voice. He sounds really good.

I just saw the pic, she does look awesome

[Cat]

Taemin is good, surprisingly so. I'm actually hoping to order the mini album on iTunes because I love Ace of Ace and Pretty Boy, but it doesn't appear to be out on iT yet.

Here is the official MV of Danger (again v Michael Jackson. I'm guessing Lee Taemin idolized him as a kid). The MV is underwhelming tbh. It's filmed in the same dusty warehouse that SM film all their MVs, and I can't with Taemin's nosering thing.

In other news... it is Big Bang's 8th anniversary!!

http://omonatheydidnt.livejournal.com/13985876.html#comments#comments

STILL no [!@#$%^&*] word on the next album (surely they are contractually obligated by YG to produce one by a certain date?!), but they did publish some baby pictures of the group. Awwww.

Seungri

Taeyang and his amazing dancing feet

TOP (lol). Why am I not surprised by this?

Daesung (you know his mom made him wear that hat for the picture).

G Dragon!

And here's TOP *werking it* for Arena and Max Movie magazine (just how many fashion mags does SK have?):

[Cheap21]

Im not really a fan of this song. I prefer that Ace of Ace song insteadNearly 10 years! I almost feel there wont be an album till next year

He photographs so well

[Cheap21]

Awww Cat, you got me hooked on Taemin's stuff. I still don't care for Danger, but I really love Ace, Pretty Boy and Experience. I have those three on heavy rotation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJmTchPia0I

I hope Kai gets to perform it with him again

I hate to admit it but that Happiness song is starting to grow on me

Jay Park

Oh [!@#$%^&*], another full album from Jay and its a big one! Sucks that its a lot of his singles from the last year but theres enough new material, like that title track which features Gray. I heard that So Good will be the main single and its inspired by Michael Jackson. Them Koreans sure love their Michael. Its out next week, Sept 1

Edited August 25, 2014 by Cheap21

[Cat]

LOL, I'm sorry? I didn't mean to hook you, but I heard Ace and Pretty Boy and kept listening to them over and over. Not sure if this will prompt me to get into SHINee in the future, but like you I am listening to Taemin's album a lot. Ace is almost like my lullaby at this point.

And Kai is good in Pretty Boy. People diss his rapping but he's not that bad and it works in that (a) he is pretty too and ( b ) this is his BFF's song, of course he is going to be on it. Also his dancing in the latest live performances of the single are pretty good.

Happiness is a great summer single, and we can just leave it at that. Again... sorry.

In other news, EXO will apparently have another comeback + album later this year?! Um, yay? They are my favourite group, but I just hope they don't overstay their welcome. I think they would have dropped an album in early 2015 under normal circumstances, but SM want them to promote in Japan next year so they've pushed the album date up.

Elsewhere, apparently Beyonce in some concert sang "Love me like EXO" and K Pop fans are breathless with excitement about it. I myself am thinking "Girl, step off the K Pop train. We found them first!"

Wow, that really is a full album! LOL, gotta love SK's love for the Prince of Pop. They all want to dance like him, sing like him and half of all song titles (Danger, Bad, History) are taken from his albums. Given that Ace is very MJ inspired though, I'd be interested to hear Jay Park's So Good.

I can't believe there is a swear word in that track list. Usually SK are strict about that, but JP has a "bad boy" rapper rep so it must be expected of him.

[Cheap21]

Im thinking of checking Shinee out now bc of Taemin (and SM/EXO) even though I dont want to bc Im worried I might like what I hear...lol

To be honest, I never found Kai all that talented vocally. He just didnt stand out in EXO bc they arent really hip hop based so any rapping down in there has always felt weak compared to some other groups. Good thing he's a great dancer and cant stand out as the face of the group, but in their songs, he's never a breakout. With that said, he really shone here without EXO and I think having just 2 people on the track helped boost him up. Id be interested in seeing him do some solo work or another duo

I like how the girls are original. Thats not a concept Ive seen before

Wow, I really thought they'd take a break to sort the whole Kris thing out. I thought they'd might bring in a trainee into the fold as the replacement member. Maybe that could still happen. So going to Japan next? I wonder how many of the guys actually speak Japanese.

LOL...it would be funny if Beyonce's line had absolutely nothing to do with the Kpop group

Jay does his own thing. Sometimes Im shocked he was ever in 2PM bc his solo material is sooooo different from his early days in that group

[Cat]

I'm worried too, lol. It's like there are not enough hours of the day available for K Pop as it is! I hear their sound is very eclectic from album to album, but their fans are very loyal and are nuts about them.

Yeah, Kai wasn't picked for his singing. He is the face and lead dancer. With the Overdose comeback he barely remembered to lipsync, and if I wasn't such a fan of him and his dancing, I'd be pissed. I do think it just being him and Taemin on a smaller mini album helps take him more seriously as a singer. Actually, what I love most of all is his speaking voice which is second to Chanyeol's in being the best and the deepest (third if you count Kris).

I'd be interested to hear their follow-up single or possible mini album to see what the whole concept is and if their other sings match up to Happiness.

I hope they don't bring on a replacement. That trainee would get so much [!@#$%^&*] from fans. It would be too contentious imo. I would prefer that they just work on EXO as one group and not two subunits and leave at 11 members.

I don't think any of them speak much Japanese tbh. If I were to hazard a guess -- Suho? Possibly. Still that didn't stop SM from putting Chen and Xiumin into EXO-M so...

lol, Jay Park is such a rebel.

[Cat]

OK, here it is! The 30-second teaser to Jay Park's So Good:

Hard to decipher what the actual song will be like over 3-4 minutes, but the 1970s Michael Jackson vibe is definitely there. As is the afro.

Not to give you more stuff to consider K Pop-wise (honestly!) but Super Juniors released their latest single, Mamacita, and the video is [!@#$%^&*] nuts:

I kind of love it when groups don't take themselves too seriously. As you probably know, without Super Juniors, EXO would never exist. They are the template -- one huge group backed by SM, a few of them Chinese so they promoted in China for a while,and in 2009 one of them quit and sued SM Entertainment a la Kris! Basically, they are EXO without the stunning plastic surgery and dieting. I guess they are older so can call the shots now. Anyhoo, I have no desire to delve into SuJu's back catalogue of hits (they've been around for +10 years! Girl, there isn't enough time in the world for me to research all that), but they looked so fun and (how can I put it) refreshingly dorky, I had to post it.

So you know how you are not feeling Taemin's Danger? Well, a rival group called BTS released at exactly the same time their own single called Danger. Here's the video. Not sure if I prefer it to Taemin's one, but the choreography by BTS is pretty fly:

Basically, I am ready for BtoB, EXO and Big Bang to start releasing new stuff because I don't want to troll any more new groups and get caught up in that mess.

[Cat]

And before we shut this down on "new groups," BTS have come out with We Are BUlletproof pt 2 -- the Growl of 2014:

This is playing on a loop with Taemin's Pretty Boy and Ace, and with EXO's Love Love Love and Heart Attack for me.

[Cheap21]

Speaking of EXO, I hope Sehun gets more lines in the next album. He was sorely underused in the last, well all of them

Hmmm, makes me wonder if they will re-record their songs in Japanese or just released what they have for a Japanese audience

Thanks for that. I hadnt seen it. Heres the album cover

Yes I heard about them and thought it was crazy to have a group that large as I didnt see how that could possibly work. Then I heard EXO, fell in love and it became clear....lol

How rude! Ive noticed that alot of KPop groups use the same titles to their sons

Dangerous - 2pm, Junho, Gray

Breathe - Beast, ZE:A

Missing You - 2PM, 2NE1

Hands Up - 2PM, BIGBANG

Beautiful - 2PM, Beast

Falling in Love - 2PM, 2NE1

Hate You - 2PM, 2NE1

Hello - BTOB, Daesung

History - EXO, Beast

Hot - Jay Park, 2PM

I Love You - 2NE1, Junho

Love Song - BIGBANG, 2PM

Pretty Boy - 2NE1, Taemin

Star - Jay Park, BTOB

Tonight - BIGBANG, Jay Park

Agreed!

[Bright Eyes]

I`m not into K-Pop at all, and this is probably old as sh*t to you guys, but I have to admit, Girls Generation`s The Boys is one of the catchiest tracks I`ve ever heard. Love it.

[Cat]

Bright Eyes! So nice to see you on this thread.

I like that GG song, too, but haven't really checked out much of their stuff. I know they are huge in Korea. And in the US -- two members,Tiffany and Jessica, grew up in LA.

I hope Sehun gets more lines, too. Somebody did I compilation of all of Sehun's lines in the albums thus far, and it came to under a minute.

Autotune is his friend, let's be real, but he has a "flat" sounding voice that is a good counterpart to all the high notes that D.O., Baekhyun, Chen and Luhan give out so it would be nice if they utilized him more. Still, he seems to be pretty content dancing, posing and modelling tbh.

That is a cool Jay Park cover and I really want to hear the whole album now.

K Pop seems to steal the same old titles which usually have a Michael Jackson starting point. Sometimes the English lyrics slay me -- they have a fixed number of them and reuse them a lot. BTW, I don't know if you have ever caught Luham's (typo, and it stays) instagram account, but he posts either "Hey man" or "yo yo yo yo." I feel like I need to fly over there and give him a basic lesson in "boo" and "dawg" just so he can change it up a bit.

It's getting at critical point for me, what with the Taemin album. And now I'm listening to BTS's We Are Bulletproof over and over. I need some kind of intervention before I start collecting more groups here (SHINee, I'm looking at you).

[Cheap21]

Yay, more faces are always welcome in here. I never heard that song. The only one from that groip, I really listened to was Gee and that was only after first seeing the creepy old pervert version

I guess if it makes him happy then thats good for him.

Just a few more hours

Yes

Speaking of which, two other groups recently had debut/comeback. First there is Winner, a new boy group from YG. I feel as if I should check them out as YG produces two of my favorites, BIGBANG and 2NE1. Then there's EXID, a girl group, whom made a comeback after 2 years! The only reason why I even know them is via their main rapper, LE who has collaborated with some of the people I like, like Junhyung nad most recently HyunA

2PM

Comeback is eminent! JYP has started releasing teaser images for "Go Crazy". It looks super fun and well crazy. A stark difference from their last Korean album, Grown. Looks like they dialed back and stopped being grown and more playful with this

【Tracklist】

1. Midaretemina (Go Crazy)

2. Fight

3. Midaretemina (Instrumental)

4. Fight (Instrumental)

Sucks that its really only 2 songs, but I hope they are great ones

B2ST

Looks like Kikwang is back to being blonde and he wasnt the only one

LMAO at his shady look

[Bright Eyes]

Thanks for the pleasantries. I'm skimmed through a lot of this friend. I don't listen to her stuff, but that Hyuna chick is just divine. Since you guys seem a little new to Girls Generation, are you aware that when they were promoting their all English EP, they appeared on shows like Letterman and Live! with Kelly Ripa.

It's the same song I posted above for both performances. Their Letterman appearance was FLAWLESS!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tK43babMJL0

And on their Kelly Ripa appearance, during the mini interview afterwards, Howie Mandel compliments one of them for speaking perfectly English, which she retorts is because she's actually American. LoL.

[Cat]

They are so much more comfortable and confident on the Kelly Ripa show. They seem to really love her. Whereas I felt their performance on Letterman was nervy and because of that, they snapped into Perfunctory Robot mode. And I've seen them on clips from the SMTown and they can really bring it when they are at ease, so...

OTOH, Regis watching them in his umpire outfit is

I have heard of Winner! I thought it was interesting that instead of a mni Big Bang, YG and went the opposite direction and put them in suits and tuxedos. Haven't heard their songs (not enough hours in the day!) but I hear their first single scored high on the Melon charts in Korea, and their debut got a lot of buzz, including teasers like EXO's debut where they lounged around a house together.

EXID I have only heard mentioned but know absolutely zero about them. A girl rapper, huh? That's interesting because most Korean girl groups seem to be in the Girl's Generation mode and sort of samey. I will check them out.

I love the 2pm promo pics. I love it when groups look like they aren't forcing things and are having a lot of fun. Only two songs though -- ouch.

Kikwang looks HOT with his blonde. Not sure how I feel about Dongwoo's blonde, though. I sort of prefer the pink tbh. Wouldn't mind seeing him with natural brown hair.

Junho is throwing shade! But I love the dark hair and glasses. He really is so cute.

Can't wait to see Yoseob's look.He is such a ball of energy, that boy.

Edited September 1, 2014 by Cat