KPop - aka Only Scott Cares - aka Not as Good as Metal

Music
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And for the 1000th KPop song about ice cream we have the return of Somi.

There isn’t much to this song. I can see how the horn sample rides the line between catchy and annoying that could be very divisive. Not a lot can be said in defense of the lyrics. I saw some comments that it feels like a Target advertisement, and that’s not wrong. The KPop fans are absolutely shitting all over this.

But you know what? I think this is actually what KPop needs more of. It has a lot of what’s been missing from KPop for a few years now. I don’t see this as fundamentally much different than Hyuna’s Bubble Pop. Bring back the fun. Bring back the simple hook on repeat. Bring back the retro pop art aesthetic. Throw in a tiny bit of high school musical theater. And finish it with some chorus choero ready for social media.

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Oh My Girl has come back after quite awhile. It’s only their second release since Jiho left in 2022. Honestly, I think the group is better.

I’m not going to say Jiho sucks or anything. Clearly she could sing and dance, otherwise she wouldn’t have been there in the first place. She was just overshadowed by the other members both in terms of on-stage contribution and in terms of personality. She was the most normal person and the least noticeable. She also clearly had troubles as she had a hiatus in the past due to health issues. She left the group of her own accord, choosing not to renew her contract. It sounds like that is what was best for her, and it also seems best for the group. Now they are a very reasonable six members with very concentrated powers. Every member is contributing significantly, which is rare to see in larger groups.

I’ve talked about OMG before. I just want to reiterate that this is a group that was relatively unpopular for years. They were just barely hanging on. They had the talents, but that isn’t always enough to save a group, just look at SPICA for an example of a super talented group that absolutely flopped.

What saved OMG is that they are the KPop idol’s KPop idol. Even if they didn’t have a huge number of fans, a lot of their fellow KPop idols were huge fans. Game recognizes game, as they say. Eventually the other more popular idols openly sharing this resulted in more attention on them. IU sharing her love of their song Dolphin helped tremendously.

Anyway, here’s their new song. It’s not my favorite, but it’s good. I give it a lot of credit for being somewhat original and not following the trends. The parts of the dance we can see in the music video look terrific. Excited to see it in full later.

And they have also blessed us with an appearance on Killing Voice. Sadly, it’s a short one. They cover a lot of songs, but stay with each one only briefly.

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HWASA (of MAMAMOO) is back with another solo release. Her second mini-album with 7 new tracks. That’s a lot for a mini-album!

The title track, NA, is co-written by PSY, and that chorus has his fingerprints all over it. He does not want anyone to forget she’s signed to his company. I can’t deny, it still works for me. Playlist-worthy.

And the other tracks are great too.

https://www.reddit.com/r/kpop/comments/1fkgctv/mamamoo_hwasa_o_the_2nd_mini_album/

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Before BTS came along the number one KPop boy group was BigBang. But since 2018 BigBang basically hasn’t existed.

There were only five members to begin with.T.O.P. was always a weird dude. It really seemed like he didn’t want to be there, and that turned out to be true. Seungri always seemed sketchy, and that turned out to be true as well. Dude went to prison for his part in the Burning Sun scandal.

After several years of nothing but silence, military service, and scandal, BigBang released a farewell song in 2022. It was a digital single with no promotion. It was even obvious that the members all shot the music video separately and it was pasted together.

Today marks a momentous occasion. G-Dragon, the leader and most famous member of BigBang has returned. So not counting that one minor release this dude was on top of the world and hasn’t done anything for six years. It’s not like he disappeared entirely. There was some news about him here and there because he’s a celebrity and paparazzi are keeping an eye on his activities, but he wasn’t producing any music.

Anyway, here is the song.

Gonna be honest here. I like the music video. I also like what he’s trying to say. Even though bragging about yourself being so great is a very cliche thing to do in hip-hop, he’s also giving the finger to all the people trying to criticize him for this or that.

What I don’t like at all is this song. The chorus is annoying. This isn’t merely a case of it not being playlist-worthy. This is a case where if I hear the song I want it turned off. When I hear it I can only think of one thing.

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Her full statement:

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The training that KPop trainees endure has become normalized and accepted in Korea. When JYP tried to make a US group I thought something like this might happen. US law and US people will not tolerate that same kind of treatment, especially when it involves minors. I would like to think that this might finally force the KPop industry to change its ways. I think the more likely result is that they will just stop forming any groups in countries that will actually protect the human rights of the trainees.

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I’ve talked about GFriend here before. I saw their first music video the day hey debuted. I thought it was kinda meh. Just another girl group from a small new company following the formula with nothing special.

But then through a variety of circumstances, working extra hard at promotional activities, viral incidents falling on stage, and a few legendary songs, they went on to be very successful.

Until 2021 when their contracts were suddenly and surprisingly not renewed. The group ended without any kind of farewell, goodbye, or any other such thing.

Well, now it’s their tenth anniversary and they have reunited for a special project/cash grab. It’s not known if they are truly back together for real, or if this is just temporary.

One thing that’s really funny is that this group has their own mobile rhythm game. It’s a game with microtransactions and other BS. What is notable is the game was shut down when the group ended, but they are bringing it back for a limited time only.

Anyway, they have been promoting their new song Season of Memories all week. The music video and special album didn’t actually come out until today.

The title track is OK, and feels more like a true farewell/anniversary song. The music, choreography, and video make references to many of the title tracks throughout the course of their career.

People have rightfully pointed out the musical similarities with YOASOBI’s hit song Racing Into The Night. CW the YOASOBI song is about suicide.
Here is a mashup someone made.

Ok, that’s all well and good. But the special album has two tracks. Even though they’ve been promoting all week, we didn’t hear the second track, titled Always, until today.

This is the good shit.

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SM is one of the biggest KPop companies. Despite having shortage of dramas, scandals, and troubles, they somehow have a nearly 100% hit rate. Every single group they put together finds commercial success. Part of that is they have a winning formula. The other part is that any group with the SM label on it gets a booster rocket of free attention when they debut.

Another factor is that they are extremely careful. They don’t make a lot of groups. Instead, they wait many years to make sure they are confident in their product before they put it out there. This also makes it a bigger deal when they do have a new group.

And today, they do have a new group. Even though Aespa still feels like a brand new group to me, it’s already five years old. Usually the gap between their groups is about six years, so this is a little ahead of schedule. Anyway say hello to Hearts2Hearts.

First of all, eight members, wow. They haven’t made a big girl group since Girls’ Generation. f(x), Red Velvet, and Aespa are all four or five members. Very curious about this strategy to go big again when smaller groups have been dominant. Maybe it’s a matter of being different on purpose to stand out.

Second of all, yep, the youngest member is 14, and will be 15 in April. They haven’t change their ways in terms of child labor at all.

As for the music. I like it more than Aespa. My ear actively rejects a lot of Aespa’s music. Hearts2Hearts isn’t unpleasant to listen to, but it’s also not exciting either. Perfectly serviceable background music. Still waiting for KPop to return to the musical theater, EDM drops, and catchy hooks that made me a fan to begin with.

Also, the video is one of the worse I’ve ever seen. Just dancing around and singing in an empty computer generated near future city of some kind. There’s nothing to it.

Even so, I ab absolutely confident that this group will be a big deal. SM has never failed before, so I’m not betting against them now.

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After months of promotion G-Dragons third full album Übermencsh is out now. The previous album Coup d’Etat was released in 2013. A legendary megastar in The KPop world went away for many years, and now is truly back.

As a fan of much of his, and BIGBANG’s, earlier works I gotta say I am very disappointed. There are certain KPop artists, G-Dragon perhaps chief among them, who do this thing in their live performances that really annoys me. They don’t sing live, but they also don’t pretend to lip sync. It could be excused if they put all their effort into dancing, but they don’t do that either. They just move around the stage grooving and acting cool. It’s like they’re in the club, their own song comes on, and they are just grooving to it.

Exhibit A:

Ok fine. Their live performances aren’t really performances, but most of the fans don’t seem to care. This person still did a good job of creating this great music in the first place. Well, what if they no longer do that?

This song is listed as G-DRAGON (feat. Anderson .Paak). Uh, does G-Dragon even have lines in this song? He can perform this song live no problem, he has no parts in it! He’ll just noodle around the stage trying to look cool while Anderson’s chorus blasts on the sound system.

His other track DRAMA

This is entirely his song. He sings the whole thing. This song might have something to say for itself lyrically or artistically, but I don’t find it musically interesting in any way.

It’s telling that with the release of this album the top charting track is actually Home Sweet Home. It features the two other remaining members of BIGBANG. It’s also three months old. But it’s also the first track on the solo album, giving it renewed attention.

G-Dragon has a catchy and unique vocal sound. He is absolutely dripping with coolness and style. He is capable of singing, dancing, and rapping well if he tries. But more than ever it looks like he’s just coasting to a payday by merely existing and agreeing to appear in public.

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Seulgi (from Red Velvet) with her second solo release.

It kicks ass.

Also, there’s an EP with six tracks. Didn’t listen to the other five yet.

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This doesn’t really need any comment. Just a reminder in case anyone was disillusioned and thought some kind of progress was being made.