SPICA - new stars?

Painkiller


I think it's safe to say everyone was a little skeptical of this music video as soon as they got a glimpse of the opening scenes. Especially if you're familiar with 2NE1's Ugly M/V. However, SPICA's Painkiller did not disappoint, or even make it comparable to 2NE1's video.

kpop 30 day challenge [Day 1 Big Bang]

While I share my love for Korean music through this blog, I'm also going to try to improve my blogging skills. So, I've decided to take up the 30 Day Kpop Challenge. I've also decided to change the list a little (full list after the jump break) to cover all of Korean music, not just Kpop (I know it makes me sound a little anal about wording but a lot of the good music is not in the pop genre!). My modifications also include the Canadian spelling of 'favourite'...

Day 1 // Your favourite kpop guy group

My all time favourite guy group is Big Bang. They debuted back in 2006, right before I started my ventures into the world of Korean music. I've witnessed all of their evolving in fashion, hairstyles and maturity in front of the camera. They're a group that I feel like I've grown up with, through my crazy high school years and their scandals concerning plagiarizing, car accidents and pot.



The 5 member group is YG Entertainment's prize boy band, having extremely successful rounds of promotions in Korea and Japan. They are also planning their world tour this year, which I am extremely excited about (they're coming to Toronto!!). Their music is rooted in the hip hop style, but they've infused a lot of genres like rock, electropop, and R&B into their style. All of the members have done multiple solo tracks, which further displays their experimenting with the different genres.

Members (names in brackets are their secondary stage names, used during their Japanese promotions) :

Wuddup world it's a kpop blog

Kpop is my guilty pleasure.

Considering that I am Korean, I was a bit late on catching on to the kpop scene. To be fair though, I didn't grow up with a lot of Korean kids around me. I never went to a big Korean church, which any Korean immigrant knows is the number one way to make Korean friends. All of my schools had next to nothing of a Korean (or East-Asian in general) population, so I didn't meet many fobs until I got to high school.

[clicking on the captions will take you to a music video from the album. They get better, I promise.]

SeeYa - Scent of a Woman (2006)

Epik High - Swan Songs (2005)

SG Wannabe - The 3rd Masterpiece (2006)

That being said, I did watch a couple of Korean dramas with my mom during middle school, but I didn't like them very much because they were like super dramatic soaps infused with a bit of comedy. What I did like were the ballads that they used in their soundtrack, which was basically where I started my interest in Korean music. I managed to get a hold of some drama OSTs (official sound track), and from there I was introduced to Clazziquai Project, Epik High, SeeYa, SG Wannabe, and Brown Eyed Girls. In high school, there was a sudden increase in the East-Asian population around me and my new Chinese friends were asking me if I liked Big Bang and Epik High. That basically sparked the explosion of kpop domination in my world. Because of my advantage of being able to understand Korean, I understood songs, dramas and variety shows without having to wait for subtitles (a service that took a  lot more time to provide back then). I was slowly able to reconnect with my Korean side through the Korean entertainment industry.

Big Bang's spread in their Hot Issue EP booklet (2007)

From about Grade 12 until now I've grown just a tiny bit weary of the whole thing. I stopped jumping on all of the new groups pretty much after 2PM because I couldn't deal with all of these 5+ member groups that all sang and danced in perfect synch. I stuck with my bias groups and gave a chance to the groups that were recommend to me by multiple people. I've definitely slowed down my drama consumption since high school (which was more out of responsibility than anything), but I still like to pop by Dramabeans to keep myself updated.

Alex - Just Like Me (2011)

Big Bang's Alive (2012)

Clazzi - Infant album (2012)

Tablo - Fevers End (2011)

2NE1 - 2nd Mini Album (2011)

Winterplay - Touché Mon Amour (2010)

That being said, I still can't let go of Korean music, which is why I've started this blog. I want to share thoughts and favourites from the Korean entertainment industry in general. I like to laugh at Engrish and I love following a lot of the fashion that explodes out of that scene (Eiffel in Seoul is a pretty good blog for that). 

So tell me, how did you start listening to Korean music?

[all images from Bugs, a Korean music site]