[Bonus] Best Of Pioneers

I wanted to show appreciation for a select set of songs which helped bring me into the Kpop fold. There’s a mixture of nostalgia, first impressions, relevance in time, catchiness, etc. On Thanksgiving weekend, I’m thankful for these Kpop songs, as they’re responsible for attracting and keeping me in the Kpop world.

12. Wheesung - Insomnia

- Arguably one of the first of the Kpop videos I’ve ever watched, and despite it technically being a cover, Wheesung does a delightful job with the vocals and impressed. The flashes between scenes coupled with the dance would almost make it seem as if the vocals weren’t the main sellling point. The MV was pretty boring, but being one of the first videos, I had no idea what a stereotypical MV it was just yet.

11. Wonder Girls - Nobody

- It’s hard to argue the explosiveness that Nobody had during the 2009 year. The pretty dresses, catchy dance, and equally as catchy lyrics make for one hell of a song, along with a fierce rap segment. Speaking of, Yubin made a strong debut showing for rappers of any group.

10. KARA - Lupin

- Lupin was my second exposure to KARA after Mister, and what a follow-up punch. Lupin delivers in the powerful introduction and instrumentals, with Nicole’s rapping being very strong. When I first listened to this song though, the latter half of the song wasn’t as appealing to me, for whatever reasons it may have had that effect.

9. Younha - Ima Ga Daisuki

- Okay so this song is technically a Japanese song, but hear me out. This was my first Younha song ever, and therefore also my first Younha video ever, so it as to hold a special place in my heart. It’s a addictive pop rock style that instantly drew me to her and her works.

8. Wonder Girls - So Hot

- Even though Wonder Girls’ Nobody was extremely addicting, I was drawn more to So Hot because of the standard pop sound, and the chorus was equally as catchy as Nobody’s was. Serving this song as a follow-up to Nobody, Yubin continued to deliver on the rapping.

7. Super Junior-M - Blue Tomorrow

- So just two more songs later, we’ve got a Chinese song. During early drafts of this list, Super Girl was on the list but Blue Tomorrow wasn’t, until I realized that the very foundations of what I enjoyed and was attracted to in Kpop are the vocals, and the vocals in Blue Tomorrow are arguably one of the best on the entire set. Throw in a very serious MV, and you’ve got one incredible ballad.

6. Big Bang - Koe Wo Kikasete

- I promise that this will be the last “foreign” song on the list, heh. Big Bang’s debut for me wasn’t the stellar Haru Haru or Lies, but Koe Wo Kikasete. The rapping of G-Dragon and T.O.P were easily the highlight, since not many of the groups had standout rappers, but the vocal work between Taeyang and Daesung was even better.

5. Girls’ Generation - Genie

- Yeah, Gee isn’t on this list. Believe it or not, I was turned off by Gee at the beginning, since there was way too much “cutesy sound” (ahh, how weird the term aegyo would’ve seemed if I had heard it then). Genie, on the other hand, delivered a strong chorus, and absolutely amazing vocals from Taeyeon, Sunny, and Tiffany (Taeyeon’s adlibs at the end are what essentially earned her the #1 bias spot).

4. f(x) - La Cha Ta

- My first f(x) song was f(x)’s first (title) song. Luna and Krystal were outstanding in both looks and vocals, while the dance was impressing, while Sulli and Amber would go on to be undiscovered players. Even after four years, this is still my favourite f(x) song. The raw dance pop sound hasn’t been topped by the girls since.

3. 4minute - I My Me Mine

- Can you believe it? I can’t either, but certainly 4minute places in the top 3. If I thought La Cha Ta was the epitome of dance pop, then I My Me Mine certainly was the epitome of the more electronic pop songs. There weren’t many other electronic songs on the list or drafts, but the dance and vocals complimented each other very nicely. And may I mention that (a) the video effects on the “Click click” part of the dance was awesome, and (b) Gayoon’s belt still sends chills down my spine.

2. Younha - Hero

- I’ve mentioned Hero so many times on this blog now that I reallywanted to omit this song from the list, but it simply has to be here. Badass instrumentals, beast piano solo bridge, 110% high level vocals coupled with belts and the like. I’m still amazed this was never a title track. But all this talk aside, it’s still not #1 (I even surprised myself).

1. Super Junior - It’s You

- You’ve probably noticed that there have been a lack of comments regarding music videos, and a majority of remarks for vocals, because that’s what really drew me to Kpop and absolutely It’s You. Between the overcrowded choreography, steady background music, calming choruses, and superstar belting from Yesung (won’t sell out the other members’ vocal performance either though). This song was and still is dangerously addicting and once you get this in your head, you’ll have a tough time getting It’s You out.

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“Honorable Mentions”

Younha - Telepathy

Brown Eyed Girls - Abracadabra

Younha - Houki Boshi

Super Junior - Sorry Sorry

Girls’ Generation - Girls’ Generation

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What about you guys? What were some of the songs that brought you into the Kpop world?

[Review] Miss A - Hush

Vocals: 7 / 10

Miss A sounds great in “Hush”. The voices blend together extremely well and the unique attributes of each member are brought out nicely. But, there’s nothing interesting in this song. I guess you could characterize the chorus as the hook, but the first and second verses’ only difference is who is singing them. There’s no lyric change between Min and Suzy’s verse and Fei and Jia’s verse. While I may not have noticed this if the song was faster, the nature of the song caused me to be curious so I looked up the Hangul and that’s when I noticed the identical verses. The bridge (and also the extremely awkward “Ah ha” before it) also seemed out of place, not fitting with either the verses or the chorus, despite the rather better ending with the belts. The good thing about Miss A is that just about any of them could be belting, which I say is something to boast even in a small group like theirs. Emphasis on the sound of the vocals, not so much the quality of the vocals.

Appearance: 10 / 10

Miss A continuing to be perfect in the visual / eye candy department. I actually thought Jia was in the spotlight for this one, despite the uh…Min groping at the beginning. Her fair looked fabulous in all shots / scenes, and she was the only one with lighter contacts which looked nice. Suzy, Min, and Fei are just about the same. Since “I Don’t Need A Man”, “Hush” is more dark, which is what the extensive use of black clothing and makeup and bright red lipstick compliment. My only complaint is Fei’s tied back straight hair, since I find her so much more flattering with anything but. The chorus choreography does have hair flipping, so maybe this was mainly for that.

Dance: 7 / 10

Is that groping in the beginning…? I thought the whole tearing sheets right in beat for the chorus was neat, but uh, the rest of the choreography is pretty average. The whole dance during the chorus (first chorus anyway) with the pole dancing is not only random, but “inappropriate”. What I mean by that is, it’s out of character, since the pole dancing part never appears again for the remainder of the song. Lives of this must be hella awkward with a random pole there for only 25 seconds never to be used again. There were also sequences where the positioning seemed sort of messy or almost freestyle. While it can work for larger groups, I prefer more unison or synchronization in smaller groups.

Music Video: 2 / 10

Ugh. The only decent thing (which is actually more than decent, it’s really cool) about this MV is the ending. The faces transitioning into each other was breathtaking? Elegant? I can’t find the right word. Well done, is what it was. I feel like a concept like that must be out somewhere in other videos, but “Hush” is the first that I’ve seen. The rest of the music video is…bad. The solo shots and lipsyncs of the already-mentioned boring verses were equally as boring with nothing but stares and the lips moving. Outside of that is the standard dances and boxes video.

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Overall: 66 / 100

This is a really catchy chorus, but not a really catchy song. The instrumentals for the regular and party version are also pleasant and complimentary, but the video is absolutely horrendous despite the bright ending and the dance is decent at best, so the score really takes a hit in that regard. Thankfully, I appreciate music to the vocals, and so I’ll continue to enjoy the song for what it’s worth.

[Review] G-Dragon - Who You

Vocals: 7 / 10

Something tells me the ranges in this song stretched above G-Dragon’s comfort range. I already don’t really like when Taeyang goes outside of his range (read: too high), and G-Dragon has a less impressive voice. Nonetheless, some of the hooks were nice and the overall flow of the song was nice on the ears. It feel really weird to even talk about G-Dragon’s vocals in something related to Big Bang (even when I reviewed “One Of A Kind” and “Crayon” in September) but he did average work in the song, and so an average score he’ll receive.

Rap: 7 / 10

There wasn’t too much rapping in this track, but I share most of the same sentiments regarding the rap as I did with the vocals. I caught a “shotuout” or whatever to CL’s “Baddest Female” at the end of one of the lines. G-Dragon’s usual rapping performance is weakened by the higher pitched usage of his voice. But I will acknowlege that he went through the entire song within this range, similar to how he did in “That XX” (except for the rap break).

Music Video: 9 / 10

I appreciated the idea that this was a community-created music video, with the help of all the fans volunteering, It’s awesome to see artists working with and reaching out to the fans that they care about and are cared about in return. That said, this wasn’t that interactive of a video from a artist-to-fan perspective. The glass walls were pretty expansive, and just seemed like a cage of G-Dragon to be watched and observed by, all the while essentially providing four minutes (or however long) of fangirl-fainting stares and fanservice. But, I won’t take away from the fact that this was an awesome community-created video, and so kudos to you, G-Dragon. Also, nice car.

Overall: 78 / 100

In terms of score, G-Dragon comes out (barely) on top over Taeyang and T.O.P, but within the three I felt all of them lacked something (or in some cases many things) to really cement themselves as staple singles / releases of the Big Bang group. With military enlistment looming over the group, I was hoping they’d make a final “wave” (or “bang”, heh), and I’ll try to hide my disappointment, but in the end, they had some decent tracks during November. I’m moving on though, Miss A and M&N are next,

[Review] T.O.P - Doom Dada

Rap: 25 / 25

T.O.P is one of the industry’s premiere rappers, and even outside that, “Turn It Up” had some nice lines across the board so this serves as a pretty solid follow up, but only with the second half of the song when the tempo starts to really pick up The prechorus and chorus was probably my least favourite part of the song, with all the extended singing notes and all that (the part right before “Doom da da divi da”). I felt none of those parts really blended with the rest of the song. The high usage of English also attributed to the overall awkward feeling on the first listen. But whle we’re here. let’s add to the list of ridiculous English words that you’d never think would show up in Kpop. Please welcome “Shower”, “Sommelier”, “ and last but certainly not least, “Hakuna matata”. I think I should just stop talking about the rap with that. When I listened to the released audio I nearly fell over.

Music Video: 13 / 25

Seems like we say this about nearly every Big Bang video but what is this video even. The monochrome colour scheme definitely reminded me of “Turn It Up”, which was a good track, but the music video was way more tame than this one. There’s like crazy lightning schemes along with the monochrome video, prehistoric apes running around with mics, and zebras and wine. Okay… While “Turn It Up” had a more fun music video, this one for “Doom Dada” wasn’t as easy to follow.

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Overall: 76 / 100

“We’ll see if Taeyang’s teammates in T.O.P and G-Dragon can impress further with their latest releases”. In score and in full, T.O.P certainly does, but “Doom Dada” and “Ringa Linga” are about as far apart as the moon and the sun. Taeyang’s song relied on choreography while “Doom Dada” is very obviously a rap track. The rapping during the latter half of the song was very impressive, and for sure saves the score since the music video was rather…interesting. Anyway, T.O.P definitely kept the rapping standards to par, but dropped the ball on the music video production.

[Review] Taeyang - Ringa Linga

Vocals: 4 / 10

This…is something different. I would like to say that for this instance “different” is a good “different”, but…it’s not. I tried my hardest to like this new Taeyang, but either I’m too nostalgic for my own good, Taeyang was too strong with his old solo stuff, I don’t like the autotune and dubstep nature of the song, or any combination of the above, and for that I had a really tough time with this song. The introduction had me feeling pretty good, but between the heavy autotune, bizarre-sounding high-pitched background voices, awkward and quick shifts from the lower range verses / rap to the higher prechorus, nothing really came together. Which is a shame, because like I mentioned earlier, Taeyang’s previous solo work didn’t disappoint. Even “I’ll Be There”, which has the most similarity to “Ringa Linga” was way more enjoyable than this. The saving grace is absolutely the bridge, which trails back to more of Taeyang’s roots as a solo singer (and really nicely, too), which keep this score from getting a measly 2.

Appearance: 6 / 10

I remember when Taeyang had such short hair that he couldn’t even do anything extra with it. Hell, even in “I Need a Girl” or “I’ll Be There” there wasn’t much variation. But there was more changes in this music video than all of the previous releases combined. Anyway, it’s the “standard” faux hawk but in blonde, which doesn’t look bad, but with some shots where he has really long hair (or extended) Taeyang looks pretty silly (like a lion with a mane or something). At the same time, Taeyang’s a member of Big Bang, whose style and such shouldn’t bring much of a surprise anymore with how wacky and weird some of their stuff has been.

Dance: 10 / 10

Just about the only thing going for “Ringa Linga” (more on that later) is the beast choreography. Taeyang has always impressed with his dances and this song is no exception. There’s a mixture of high energy moves and more simple or “medium level” stuff. I don’t even know enough to feel right commenting about this. Really awesome work Taeyang.

Music Video: 5 / 10

Most of this MV was choreography-centered, so I cannot fault the score too much. But between the weird outfits and costumes and colours, bright lights and the glow-in-the-dark shenanigans, it’s just about a mediocre MV at best. Anyone else not surprised that G-Dragon found his way into the MV? I’m sure I wasn’t the only one. Taeyang is also of course, shirtless at one point in the video, which is eye candy for fangirls everywhere. All in all it’s just about the standard Big Bang-esque video, but not to the same quality as something like “Fantastic Baby” was.

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Overall: 50 / 100

I hate to say that “Not impressed” is how I feel about “Ringa Linga”, but “not impressed” is exactly how I feel about “Ringa Linga”.The vocals are subpar, the chorus is subpar, the autotune is too strong, the rap talking is mediocre at best, and the transitions were lacking. The dance is definitely amazing, but you don’t hear the dance when you’re only listening to the music. We’ll see if Taeyang’s teammates in T.O.P and G-Dragon can impress further with their latest releases.

[Review] T-ARA - Number Nine

Vocals: 9 / 10

Has T-Ara always been this synchronized in sound? Perhaps it was the melody of the verses and such, but every member’s voice flows pretty well into the next, making it really enjoyable to listen to. Jiyeon’s high notes during the bridge were also not strained. It was interesting that Soyeon didn’t take some of those high notes but I guess having Soyeon sing the chorus makes more sense. Speaking of, all the high notes and belts were well executed overall. Maybe it’s just me but it has been quite some time since I’ve heard a good belt that not only sounded good but meshed with the chorus, and the work at the end of this song is excellent. The bridge also adds a nice crescendo and Soyeon doesn’t disappoint. What does, however, is the unnecessary use of the prechorus’ half-muffled half-robotic “Number nine”, which should’ve been omitted completely.

Appearance: 8 / 10

Hyomin and Eunjung continue to be flawless. Boram and Soyeon look good, but I don’t think the hairstyles they had did enough for them. As far as Qri goes, that shade of red doesn’t work well for her, and makes her look weird and stand out amongst the other members who have darker colours. Speaking of colours, the outfits during the red box were probably the best. Eunjung and Jiyeon look amazing, but in their solo shots with the zebra stripes? Questionable. Outside of the red box clothes and zebra clothes though they looked great all around.

Dance: 8 / 10

The dance also was equally as appealing as the girls’ looks for the most part. The mixture between individual moves and synchronized choreography was of a good balance, and while they were no dance breaks or such, Jiyeon’s parts during the prechorus almost gave the feeling of a dance solo anyway. While having said all that about the dance being good, I felt there could have been some more energy and or power, given the heavy instrumentals of the song.

Rap: 3 / 10

No, no, no, no. There is anything and everything wrong with this rap. What is Hyomin saying? “I’m addict”? “I’m adding”? “I’m headache”? Even ignoring the terrible English, the rap was mediocre at best, with the weird muffled background voices backing Hyomin up. As far as songs like this go, I feel this could’ve been fine without a rap segment (similar to f(x)’s “Electric Shock”) but they just had to add this one in, and definitely a regrettable decision. Considering just how good the vocals were in this song, the rap is a serious letdown and disappointment.

Music Video: 6 / 10

From now on, any stereotypical boring box MV will get a score of 4, and then I’ll add or subtract additional points from there based on various things like eye candy, additional versions, etc. So with that said, this score gets a 6 because of the extra eye candy in both the regular music video and then the second music video, which was shot in Mongolia. Since there was no sort of drama version, and of course being the stereotypical MV that it is, there’s no plot or interaction at all. I did find the intro / first fifteen seconds a little strange, since it’s only Eunjung singing notes with no real substance and is more structured towards a ballad (or at least a softer song) but then cuts (despite the instrumental buildup) right to the “wub wub wub” intro of the song.

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Overall: 68 / 100

While the song is very good, the score doesn’t quite reflect that. Primarily because the unneeded rap was so bad, and because the music video didn’t provide much either. If you only looked at vocals, dance, and appearance, the score would be 25 / 30. Which is a shame, since these aspects were executed so well, but the remaining two weren’t. We’ll be hard pressed to find more solid releases with quality scores in all fields. T-Ara put out a good effort but couldn’t quite make things happen.

[Review] Block B - Very Good

Vocals: 5 / 10

U-Kwon and Taeil are talented vocalists (Jaehyo too for the most part) but this song is very much a Block B song, and so they don’t have many opportunities to showcase themselves. For the portions they sang (excluding the chorus), they did well but I can’t really say much else since they didn’t sing much. How about that falsetto at the end, if you could call that falsetto. Impressive, to say the least, even for a line like that.

Appearance: 5 / 10

Big Bang called, and they want some of their stuff back. Block B has always been very non-mainstream, but this was just way too much like Big Bang for me to think otherwise. The Mickey Mouse hair for Zico, blue hair for Zico, U-Kwon’s mask, Kyung’s popping out from the plate, Taeil’s near-identical appearance to G-Dragon with that hairstyle and glasses. They’ve been “wacky” since the debut with “Freeze” but this was disappointing since it really just looked like a mimic of Big Bang. U-Kwon looked the most “normal”, and the best.

Dance: ? / 10

Similar to Lee Hi and “It’s Over”, I don’t think I’ll be giving a score here for the same reasons. There’s not enough screen time to the dance, and that’s not even considering that a majority of the dance that is shown, is simply freestyle or much flailing of the arms and legs. Which is perfectly okay, given the nature of the song, but as such giving this a score would be unfair to Block B.

Rap: 9 / 10

Block B has a wealth of rappers with vast experience, and because their music is centered on rapping they should have a good score. Kyung and Zico (and P.O, for his little bit) perform up to their standards and the English usage was good. Hell, all of the English throughout the song was pretty well executed and well pronounced. Special note would be the chorus, because while to fluent English speakers “I’m very very good” sounds like common sense, there have a few too many instances of awful English and this could’ve turned out very poorly.

Music Video: 8 / 10

Like the appearances, the music video also reminded me of Big Bang a lot, and since Block B has (in my opinion) put themselves in their own unique category, this isn’t a good thing. The boxes are pretty standard, but the rooms with decorated thrones, the silly colours, the vans containing people with masks, etc. etc. The video was fun and all, but I drew plenty of similarities to other Big Bang videos, and like I mentioned with appearances, just seemed like a letdown, or they weren’t really trying.

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Overall: 70 / 100

As far as Block B’s comeback is concerned, it was good to see them return despite the shenanigans with their previous label, but honestly comparing this song as Block B’s standard to “Be The Light” which was easily out of their comfort zone, I enjoyed the latter much more. Using “good” to describe “Very Good” is applicable, but not so much “very good”.