Music and more Music.
Matthew. 21. (Aspiring?) Writer. "Music Lover". Asian Pop Fanatic. FuckYeahRihanna Admin. This is what I waste my time with.
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Thanks for all the response to Part 1 of my K-Pop countdown, guys. Here’s part 2 of my favorite Korean tunes of 2011 - #’s 40 - 31.
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40. U-KISS / Tick Tack
If at first you don’t succeed… just come back and add more electro and a bigger chorus. U-KISS finally get it all the way right.
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39. Fat Cat / My Love Bad Boy
For the plethora of boy and girl groups Korea has to offer, the country is still struggling to meet its quota of pop divas. At least in contrast to the relative boom of female popstars over the last few years in the U.S., or the longstanding popularity of neighboring Japan’s pop Queens. BoA has the talent, but I can name the songs I like by her on one hand; and meanwhile, I still find I like the idea of Lee Hyori more than I actually like Lee Hyori. Son Dambi is a bit of a mess at this point and would be better off as a member of After School anyway, and HyunA is Beyoncé’d to her fellow band mates for the time being. Basically - KOREA IS HAVING A DIVA CRISIS. They so often get the groups right, but the soloists are few and far between (in the pop realm, at least), so it’s refreshing when someone like Fat Cat comes along with a crunchy beat (and even crunchier hair), an attitude, and something to say.
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38. 2NE1 / Hate You
K-Pop *is* the Wild West of Pop music after all, and 2NE1 sound like techno cowgirls, riding the constantly shifting, stuttering beat like lawless badasses. Maybe it’s a bit too sad sounding to truly be the fuck-you anthem it sets out to be, but I think the half-heartedness of their sendoff - the teeny bit which feels like they’re holding back, that part where their emotions get the better of them - is what makes this so damning.
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37. MBLAQ / Mona Lisa
It’s what the boy bands of America and Britain would be doing if they had the balls or the common sense.
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36. Girl’s Day / Don’t Let Your Eyes Wander!
Almost reaches J-Pop levels of saccharine hype in its breathless excitement, but their pouty-girl attitude keeps this from flying too close to the sun. If it were by KARA, most people would play it once and then dismiss it. But this is Girl’s Day, which means most people will play it 0 times and dismiss it off the bat. Make no mistake about it though, that’s one of the FATTEST choruses of the year, and the final ascent during last minute is so god damn athletic it does back flips and high kicks you in the face.
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35. INFINITE / Be mine
INFINITE continue to succeed where other rookie groups fail - carving out their own niche while managing not to look like total asshats in the process*. “Be mine” is pure class, as they accomplish the extremely difficult task of sounding both big and exciting without getting sloppy. They don’t lose their finesse for a second, working their way around a brilliant pop tune with a quick two-step.
*Though let’s all be honest here, those tattoos are QUESTIONABLE.
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34. Jay Park / Tonight (feat. Kang Min Kyung)
So brilliantly comfortable in its own stupid, sesame street cheesiness that you just can’t be mad at it. ‘Hands up’ people, the DJ is playing YOUR SONG. It just goes to show that even the most tired of ideas can still be exciting when presented in the right way.
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33. Orange Caramel / Bangkok City
In March I said this sounded like ‘Arabian nights at a Korean gay club went raving across Asia’, and it still more or less sounds the same, though now that the initial frenzy has died down a bit I’ve come to notice that Rania and Lizzy are, in fact, wearing bras over their shirts in the music video.
Girls, just know, we’re all here for you. The first step is admitting you need help, and the second is getting the help.
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32. Humming Urban Stereo / xoxo (feat. As One)
3 minutes of crazy French ladies and fluttering electronics boiling under subtle hip hop beats and honey R&B vocals. The lid never pops, but sometimes it’s more fun to watch the bubbles anyway.
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31. Kim Hyun Joong / Please
WHY DON’T YOU GET IT GET IT?! - Brilliant.
The soundtrack to many a rainy car ride - “Please”, with all its campy accusations of lying (!), cheating (!!), killing (!!!), is Rihanna’s “Unfaithful” sung by Usher, but in Korean, so obviously more amazing.
Hey guys! This year I’ve compiled my favorite Korean songs - both singles and album tracks - as a list of 50. Just like last year we’ll be counting them down, 10 at a time, until we reach #1. Read below for my first picks, and stay tuned for parts 2 - 5 coming up soon!
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50. ZE:A / Here I Am
Just as trashy as it wants to be while also sounding quite gentlemanly at the same time. Maybe it’s because they’re wearing suits in the* music video. Just ask Pitbull, a suit and tie can make any sleazy club banger sound up to 12% more classy.
*AWFUL
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49. Orange Caramel / Shanghai Romance
Sha! Sha! Sha! - How can you not appreciate that bit?
“Shanghai Romance” sounds like all of Orange Caramel’s other singles put together, but when your other singles are also quite good you’re allowed to do that, so say the rules of Pop.
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48. ALi / Don’t Act Countrified (feat. JunHyung)
The funky beat from TLC’s “Waterfalls” didn’t just dissolve back into that huge puddle at the end of the video - it simply traveled across the ocean until it reached Korea about 15 years later. Soul is universal, and it’s alive and thriving in K-Pop. This one will creep up on you.
Also - “Countrified” is officially the oddest fucking word we’ve ever heard. And while the song title also translates as “Don’t Act Foolish”, Countrified is just so much more fun.
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47. AA / So Crazy
Rookie talent was in short supply in 2011, so it’s a good thing these guys came along and broke us out of that rut, ridiculous facial expressions and inanely amazing dance routine included.
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46. LeeSsang / Grand Final (feat. Jung In & MC Nal Yoo)
This party jam by LeeSsang sounds like it’s up to something naughty, but it’s actually about rowing. Yes, BOAT ROWING. Forget about all that ‘putting your hands in the air’ nonsense - 2012 is going to be all about putting your oars in the air. To a dubstep beat, of course.
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45. Girls’ Generation / TRICK
No one cares if “The Boys” makes a bigger impact; “TRICK” is the god damn single that should have been. Teddy Riley can continue tripping over his keyboard trying to think of something that goes down this smooth.
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44. Nine Muses / Figaro
Asian Disco was kind of a big ‘thing’ in 2011. No, seriously. The Japanese were at it, and so were the Koreans. They were quite good at it too, as Nine Muses showed us.
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43. KARA / Rider
Okay,
Korea,
it’s really about time you started doing the whole ‘second single’ thing.
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42. Brown Eyed Girls / Hot Shot
Sure, you could say that this is just Ga-in’s solo material + 3 backup singers.
But then we’ll say we like it that way. Korean tango was still ‘hot’ in 2011.
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41. After School / Virgin
It’s actually kind of epic when you think about it. Okay, yes, the title sounds like the name of some low-budget Asian porno, but, THE SONG!!!
A lot of songs of this sort - the ‘CLUBBING’ kind - are all about being a superstar. Or at least feeling like one. Escapism. And hey, sometimes that’s good! But this one takes a different approach. I guess when one thinks of the idea of ‘superstar’, you think of someone who’s a pro - good at what they do. So, in a club, you could say this would be someone who’s rather experienced and obviously goes there a lot. In the case of “Virgin” the lyrics actually enhance appreciation.
“From this moment on / I am a Virgin
Virgins used to know nothing / Those days are gone
Now on the stage again / it feels like the first time”
So while the beat might trick you into thinking this is just another one of those ‘going out and dancing’ sort of affairs, at the heart of matters is this idea of a ‘Virgin’. But even then, it’s not as simple as it seems. After School aren’t saying that they are virgins to this stage, they’re saying that - FOR TONIGHT - they are virgins, and are going to experience it like the first time.
You could say the characters in the story are in fact ‘superstars’, but are tired of being so and just want to get back to that feeling of ‘the first time’. The newness and the excitement. That human experience. There are loads of dance songs cluttering the charts nowadays, but few so beautifully understand the humanity like “Virgin”.
Orange Caramel — Shanghai Romance
Orange Caramel’s new single sounds like all of their past singles rolled into one, but I don’t mind, since it takes the best elements of those old songs and recycles them into one highly concentrated dose of K-Pop crack. I might even like this more than “Bangkok City”, which I raved about (and to!) when it first came out.
The video is lulzy as hell. Like I was actually laughing out loud at some of the stupid stuff they pulled in here. Adorable. These OC chicks know how to work the camera better than girls who have been in the game twice as long as they have… *side eyes the fuck out of SNSD’s latest video*. Though their shoe game is in dire straits. Whoever was on wardrobe that day should have been shot. Get these bitches some heels! Those flats looking like something a woman in her 50’s in central Florida would wear to go play Tennis.
Pledis has been on a roll with the singles this year. “Shampoo”, “Bangkok City”, “Come Back You Bad Person”, “In The Night Sky”, “Lady”; all some of my favorite 2011 K-Pop tunes. Hell, even the newly recorded Japanese version of “Diva” is pretty cracking. And now we can add “Shanghai Romance” to the list as well.
Orange Caramel - Bangkok City
Orange Caramel’s first two singles were bloody fucking terrible, but their new release ”Bangkok City” makes me wanna pack up my glow sticks and go raving all across Asia. It sounds like Arabian Nights at a Korean gay club (aka, basically fucking AMAZING). Surely one of the best K-Pop songs this year, I’m shocked. With this and Kahi’s solo single, Pledis is currently 2-0 in 2011.
Bangkok City was only supposed to be a digital single to tide fans over until After School’s comeback in April, but now it’s getting a proper music video and the girls will be promoting it on all of the usual music shows as well.
