This is one of my favorite videos from 2NE1. It’s a dance practice, so it’s not especially polished or produced. But the melody from “Come Back Home” is so haunting and the choreo flows so well with the song structure that I can’t help but to love it.
Looking back at 2NE1’s debut song, “Fire,” they debuted right out of the gate as a non-sexy girl group with attitude. It isn’t like they want to snuff out their femininity–because they don’t–but I appreciate how these girls don’t play the “cute” or “coy” or “sexy” roles that have built-in body language. They are not pre-packaged like Girls Generation or many of the girl groups in the current year.
If Twice is the girl group that I go back to for a “cheerleader in my pocket,” 2NE1 is the girl group I tap into when I need to skip past cheerleader to unleashing my inner badass. (Naturally 2NE1 gave us the girl anthem of the century.) Check out CL’s swagger in the dance practice above–she’s legit.
2NE1’s distinctive swagger always makes me wonder if they contributed to the rise of toxic feminism, when women try to imitate men to their own detriment. Masculine influence is definitely an issue–many of my influences are men–especially with ambitious or low-agreeability women because those traits are so rare in the female community.
But if you look at 2NE1’s members, the masculine swagger is balanced out by distinctively feminine traits. CL is elegant. Minzy has a maternal vibe. Bom is basically an anime girl. Dara is too delicate for the blunt edges of pop music. Bom and Dara would be completely out of place in a masculine song, except as the feminine foil, and they hold their own in “I am the Best.”
It’s definitely “too far” in terms of the overt message, but sometimes you need to go “too far” internally so that you get to “far enough” externally. Like negotiating with yourself–you set the anchor so far out that even if you get halfway, you’ve accomplished much more than you would have anyway.
2NE1 is no longer with us, but I’m glad that we had them for a little while.
Sometimes I get so frustrated with the laissez faire attitude of YG Entertainment, for not providing the structure and discipline of SM Ent to capitalize on the talent of their artists. You sign good people–let them sing!
It’s rough, but I love this track of Mark and Taeyong from the NCT crew.
I have a fondness for the young, rough, unrefined bits in an artist’s career–when you can just see the first tendrils of talent unfolding but still being explored.
SM Entertainment has made a concerted effort to develop their rap talent, and has taken that seriously in pushing Mark and Taeyong (and I guess now Lucas) to develop and grow.
You can tell that this is a “challenge” song–somebody tasked them to write a song about what makes them angry. Young Nickel Creek used to record a lot of songs from these types of challenges, and I love how transparent they are.
For all its rough edges, I love this verse from Mark:
When I’m in the house, guess what happens at the end it
always turns out to be empty and demolished (I killed it)
I eventually always end up standing at the center of it
Always energetic still clenching a damn mic in my fist now (how)
Could this be possible? Am I that powerful?
Guess that’s why rumors around the world are saying that
“Mark is absolutely fully capable”
No more rules, just dial my number
If you’re ready to have your house blown
It me. I don’t rap, but I know this feeling. I know this capability. I know this bewilderment.
If I worked as hard as Mark Lee, I could make some things happen too.
The song was stuck in my head all day after I listened to Twice’s new single once the morning of its release. Only once.
That is what I call a catchy song.
As usual, Twice puts out music that’s a lot of fun. Twice isn’t the group that I’ll listen to for b-sides, but their title tracks are always A++ in terms of personality and danceability.
My willingness to suspend disbelief is stretched to the absolute max in the video, which is the story of what happens when party girls are stranded on a desert island, but it’s cute and fits the theme. I appreciate how the concept is stretched to its limits, with the girls wearing outfits that were cobbled together with shipwreck leftovers.
JYP is a personality-driven agency, and it shows in the way that they allow ‘impure’ aesthetics to exist when the motivation is right. (Not that the girls’ nighttime party scene costumes weren’t perfectly calculated.)
Jiyho and Jungyeon stole this video. Jihyo looks stunning, especially in that asymmetrical white party dress, and I’m so glad that Jungyeon is finally center for a chorus. Jungyeon stans, unite.
Anyway, this is a fun song that is Twice-level sticky that’ll be good to have around for summer. Sometimes that’s all you need–one little pick-me-up in your back pocket.
I took a minute to listen to the rest of this album at work today, and honestly it just made me want to listen to ‘Dumb Dumb’ by Red Velvet.
Red Velvet is the rare girl group that I enjoy beyond title tracks. (I’m not that into female vocals; it is what it is.) I think it’s because there’s usually a dark edge to offset the optimism that usually accompanies pop music.
That dark theme carries over to the concept of their newest Japan single, ‘#Cookie Jar.’
I’m a sucker for people who say “hashtag” out loud because I do it to.
Red Velvet always has such a good aesthetic vision in their videos. They’re the only girl group that I want to steal clothes from (especially ‘Ice Cream Cake’ and ‘Peek a Boo‘ eras).
#CookieJar is fun, with a nice funk groove. Nothing too groundbreaking but I wouldn’t turn it off. The reverb on the spoken ‘hashtag cookiejar’ is before the chorus is probably the catchiest part of the song, which isn’t saying much for it.
Japan comebacks are always a little beyond me, tbh. I never quite understand what’s going on. Part of it, I think, is that the market is quite a bit younger in Japan. For instance, Twice does cartoon anime versions of themselves, while Red Velvet is doing this. It’s more simplistic across the board.
Anyhow, ‘#Cookie Jar’ is nice, but forgettable.
It’s not really a battle, but Twice wins it anyway.
The way things look matters, especially the way that the spaces around you inspire you and urge you on (or don’t) to living your best life. Go into a gothic cathedral and tell me that it doesn’t make you feel different from going into a cinderblock church.
I used to think that “good design” was mostly the bones of the design, the way that a system or document hierarchy functioned. But I’m coming around to the idea that the actual aesthetics of the things, the “finishing touches,” matter a great deal too.
Design resonates differently with different people, and I’ve been thinking lately about what types of design stick with different type of people.
I, for one, wouldn’t mind if my living room looked something like this:
Red Velvet / SM Entertainment
Surrealist neo-victorian with a liberal dose of naturalism. I can get behind that.
The question is: how can I get the moon to park so close to my window, and what’s the best cleaning method for tree-rugs?
And even though I’m stuck in an office most of the day, summer is still a time for brighter and lighter things. Breezy, even.
That is why I finally purchased EXO’s The War last week. This is an album that came out last August, but that so perfectly encapsulates a summer vibe that it’s still worth it.
Despite the fact that most of my favorite EXO songs are from other albums, The War is by far my favorite EXO album.
Why is this?
Because this is the first EXO album that actually sounds like an album.
One of my biggest issues with k-pop, and most current artists, is how single-oriented everything is. Maybe it’s because I came of age when artists still put out full albums, albums that took you on a journey and told a story, but I really like the exploration of themes that you can pull out of a collection of songs.
For example, G-Dragon is phenomenal at packing an entire relationship’s worth of feeling into a 4-minute song, but even the MADE album is a disconnected collection of emotions. Each song is nearly perfect, but the whole is pretty discombobulated.
So when I listened to The War, and heard that all the songs share a semi-cohesive sound, I was over the moon. Some songs are sexy, some are hype, and others are melancholy, but they all work together to create an atmosphere that really works.
This is especially different from EXO’s past albums, which were the musical equivalent of “throw the spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks.”
I, for one, am glad that they stuck it out and combined a reggae-inspired feel (tested in “24”) with a dangerous feel (confirmed with “Monster”). Because as we know, SM Ent is always A/B testing.
And that’s fine with me, because the end result is something that I love to listen to.
Okay, let’s talk favorites
My absolutely most best favorite song on this album is “Forever.”
It’s a lot of people’s faces, and for good reason. The declarative horn samples and those inside out harmonies get to me every single time.
My other favorite is “Going Crazy,” and not only because it features a REVERB FLUTE ARPEGGIO, but because it combines so many different styles in a very rhythmically satisfying way.
I also enjoy “The Eve” and “What U Do,” and regard “Kokobop” with great fondness.
There are 3 tiny changes I would make on this album:
Move the cool bass run in “What U Do” from beat 1 to beat 2 for some premium counterpoint action
Change the intro to “Kokobop” so it’s a little more assertive and sounds less like a metronome
Continue the REVERB FLUTE ARPEGGIO in “Going Crazy” – or rather have it morph into a descant – until the end of the section. It disappears too quickly in its current form.
Overall, though, it’s a great listen. Good variety within a cohesive sound, and all the songs are quality even when they’re not my favorites.
There’s a reason it’s been on repeat in my car this week.
Plus, this is the comeback that blessed us with Mullet Baekhyun, so really. No downside.
For those of you who find my blog through other means than K-pop, sometimes groups that have many members will release an album (or video or mini-album) with a smaller subset of members. This is called a subunit. Because these subunits are typically members who work well together both musically and in personality, these subunits are often more defined and pronounced in mood and concept.
EXO-CBX is one of these subunits. EXO as a whole is currently 9 members, with 8 actively promoting in Korea. (One member, Lay, is promoting in China.) As one of the biggest k-pop groups promoting today, EXO’s music (moreso their title tracks – the ones with music videos) tends to be very “classic.” [Edit: Lies! I just remembered that Wolf exists.] Even when the concept pushes boundaries – like Kokobop’s reggae-influenced drug fantasy – the concept has to be big enough to fit every member’s style and personality, from Suho the Rich Dad to Chanyeol the Creative Dork.
But herein lies the brilliance of CBX. As the three-letter acronym might suggest, CBX consists of 3 members:
Chen, a superb vocalist and lyricist
Baekhyun, another fantastic vocalist
Xiumin, arguably one of the better dancers in the group and, as we discovered on EXO-CBX’s first mini-album, a pretty good rapper with a unique voice
All three are positive, goofy people who can handle a “cute” image well. Chen and Xiumin border on cartoon-character levels of caricaturability, and Baekhyun is a complete chameleon when it comes to looks. They make a very good team that, while vocal-centric (not that anyone is disappointed with that), is quite balanced in terms of talent.
And – this is the part I like – their releases tend to mirror their personalities in being upbeat and a little bit funky.
I will not lie, I had their first mini-album, “Hey Mama!“, permanently on repeat in my car for entire month of November and again in February. You can’t not be in a better mood after listening to them sing at you, especially with SM’s fantastic musical arrangements in the background. SM is really great at funk-type music and sometimes they get a bass line going real good. I like that.
Anyway, EXO-CBX is in the teaser stage for their next comeback. If the music sounds anything like how the teasers look, this will be the perfect spring album.
A flurry of work that ends up being wrong wrong wrong.
And in the same way that I have to add a section to the agenda I make for my weekly meetings with my boss so that my boss doesn’t forget a plan she has for me, I’m going to inflict upon you a picture that doesn’t make any sense because I had an upside-down day.
Projection is fun like that. 🙂
Anyway, here’s Chanyeol from EXO shilling for Major League Baseball in Korea by wearing an insane amount of legwear.
I know the dude is tall and all, but c’mon, there’s a limit to how many times you can visually chop his body horizontally.
Also, as a diehard West Coaster, it bothers me that both the EXO and TWICE photosets for MLB have featured pretty much nothing but the New York Yankees.
I have so many thoughts about NCT 2018 Empathy. So many. Most of them are not positive, but I remain hopeful.
If you’re just joining this comeback cycle, I was not a huge fan of NCT U’s “Boss” but liked NCT Dream’s “Go” despite my dreamies being all grown up. The more I listen to “Go,” the more of a Haechan appreciator I’m become. His voice is gorgeous and he uses it impeccably. (“Boss” is growing on me, ngl. Listening to it on headphones is like suddenly going underwater and seeing all the coral reefs and fishes when previously you were just been dog paddling above the surface.)
However, that brings us to NCT 127 and “Touch.” Writing about it means that I should post the music video on my channel and for that I hate myself a little bit.
This video makes me cringe.
It’s clear that Dream and 127 swapped concepts for this comeback, with Dream taking the hard-edged grotty urban-inflected hip-hop sound, and 127 covering the squeaky-clean brightly lit bubblegum pop arena. However, unlike Dream’s previous singles (even “Chewing Gum”), “Touch” doesn’t have a twist, or a nudge-and-wink, or a naughty streak. It’s just plain, simple bright smiles and boyfriend material.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that–there certainly isn’t. But it isn’t why I started listening to NCT and certainly isn’t what attracts me to k-pop.
I recognize that I’m not the typical fan (I’m older than most of their target market), because I see the younger fans clearly enjoying the visuals of all the members in this comeback. And yes, they are all very good looking. But I miss the gonzo NCT styling which even applied to Dream when they were promoting. There are no fur hats or eyeball rings and shark jackets or fantasy military jackets. Or Gucci on a hoverboard.
It’s not just the visuals that bother me, though. The actual song “Touch” is really corporate sounding, like you’d stick it into a commercial for an off-brand soda. Frankly, it sounds like a reject from EXO’s winter album that some underling producer got stuck with trying to “funk it up” for NCT.
Which brings us to the Empathy album as a whole, which someone remarked should be called NCT 2016-2018 since it contains all the assorted non-album releases since NCT debuted. “Black on Black,” all of the NCT U songs. NCT U’s “The Seventh Sense” was the first song that drew me to NCT, and if I had discovered it on an album like Empathy, I don’t know if I would have explored more. (Of course it was Dream’s “My First and My Last” that really got me. NCT Dream is secretly everybody’s favorite.)
Specifically, I dislike albums that are all single and no b-side. Even with the intro and outro, there’s no reason for me to listen to Empathy on its own. NCT has always been weak in their discography–partly because they’re still experimenting with their sound but also because they only have mini albums and don’t have a body of work built up like a band like EXO or Big Bang did. Granted, the inherent structure of NCT’s design would make it more difficult to build up a body of coherent work, because they’re built up of subunits with different themes and sounds.
Even more specifically, I’m really disappointed by the song “Yest0day.” Interesting title, not a bad hook, fantastic rap from Mark (who is really starting to hone his chops), all ruined by an idiotic rap from Lucas. One of the main reasons I like k-pop is that even when the rap is simplistic or lacking finesse it’s not dumb. I hate dumb rap where they take a word and then rhyme it five times in a row without any rhythmic variation or wordplay or anything. Mark delivers the opposite of that. So does Taeyong. But Lucas the Usurper? No more dumb rap, please.
Now. Granted. Part of this sounds like the knee-jerk reaction of someone who is protective of a fledgling k-pop group. And that is true, I like NCT and being a person high in openness, I like the idea of an ever-expanding group that can shift to accommodate different musical styles and moods.
But it’s hard to watch SM deliberately crash the original NCT concept. One of the benefits of doing it now is that I know that I won’t have to watch it happen in slow motion, when producers run out of ideas and the concepts all start to morph slowly into each other and enough members leave that all the subunits are consolidated to keep the group alive. At least we don’t have that future.
Maybe (hah) this means that we can get more clarity out of future NCT subunits, who will emerge to deposit a well-conceived package of music into our earballs before evaporating back into the nebulous NCT mothership. (Isn’t that what the concept was supposed to be anyway?)
I suspect that the deliberate switching of Dream and 127’s concepts, plus the cataloging of U’s random singles into one album, serves as a zeroing-out for the group. I think this is supposed to be a new start, a time for all the subunits to develop empathy for each other’s concepts and learn how to work together or whatever. However they promote from this point forward, it won’t be the NCT that we started with.
On the plus side, SM is always A/B testing, so I’m hoping we’ll get something stronger out of this. The concepts for both Super Junior and EXO crashed too, and both groups did alright for themselves.
PS: SM Entertainment, this is my request for an official Mark/Haechan subunit.
I don’t think I’ve talked about Red Velvet on this particular blog. Red Velvet has a special place in my heart.
One of the fun side-along problems with my autoimmune problems has been a propensity to depression and melancholy. I don’t think I’ll ever shake my love of melancholy, but after cleaning up my diet, I no longer get depressed or on a melancholy streak or “coffee depression” like I once did.
I know this, because I’ve started listening to much happier music. Namely, k-pop. Red Velvet was one of the groups that clued me into this, because in the past I never would have been able to listen to “pop” music for a long period of time without it grating on my nerves for going against whatever (bad) mood I was in.
Now, Red Velvet is a very R&B-inflected pop group who doesn’t shy away from dark themes and minor keys, so it’s pop that is very much in line with my melancholy tendencies. It’s just way happier overall.
So when I realized that I was listening to almost nothing but k-pop, I realized that on the whole I was in a much better mood, and had been for a few months. I realized this while listening to Red Velvet’s “Ice Cream Cake,” which is still one of my favorites.
Specifically about Body Talk, tho
“Body Talk” is one of my favorite b-sides from Red Velvet. (For those of you new to k-pop, a b-side is basically any song published by a group that’s not a title track–the ones with the music videos that are used for promotion.) It’s a fantastic example of the RV girls doing their best R&B-inflected singing, and I am particularly fond of atmospheric, orchestral pop arrangements. The harmonies are lush and the chord progression is really interesting. As with most k-pop I listen to, it’s better with headphones.
I also really like how it reminds me of those late-80s fantasy movies with the synth-heavy theme songs.
I want to escape into a misty forest at dawn and run toward the light that spills through the trees. I want to cloak myself in velvet and swim into a glittering nebula. I want to discover the truth of God and the universe.
Recent Comments