It’s time for Kpopalypse roundup! Let’s take a look at some new releases!
IVE – Accendio
I don’t know what you all are talking about. It’s fucking good, veering into almost-industrial territory in places. No wonder k-pop fans don’t know how to deal with it.
ITZY – Algorhythm
Cool quirky visual style but sadly the same coolness and quirkiness wasn’t applied to the music.
Seventeen – Spell
More great visuals paired with average songs, the tarot card concept is really well done but the song is just super bland.
Sorn feat. Hongseok – Crazy Stupid Lovers
Someone summed it up on my livestream as “a Pink b-side from 20 years ago” and that’s pretty accurate. Mind you I’m Australian and Pink is HUGE down here, so I’m required by Australian law to like this.
Stray Kids – Lose My Breath
They are sitting down in chairs. That’s all you need to know. Next.
IS:SUE – Connect
Apparently a “J-pop group formed through the Japanese version of Produce series. Their agency manages the groups ME:I, INI, JO1, and DXTEEN”. So in other words it probably shouldn’t be in roundup at all because I’m not Jpopalypse. Just as well anyway as it’s not very good, just a mashup collection of all the crap trends from the past half a decade mushed together into one song like we care.
B.I – Tasty
It was only a matter of time before “clean the plate” got into the lyrics of a k-pop song. Clearly as good a signpost for the end of intellectual thought worldwide as any other. It looks like Gen Alpha is going to have to be the ones to repair the damage caused by Gen Z, believe in yourselves Gen Alpha kids, we’re counting on you.
Mark – 200
I’m not sure what he’s running from but whatever it is I wish it would catch him and stop him from making music.
DXMON – Girls, love boys, love girls
Obviously I was instantly reminded of Blur’s awful “Girls And Boys” here, but DXMON’s song both relieved and surprised me but being a fair bit better than that, plus not obviously related.
WHIB – Kick It
The Paradise Diner is so ubiquitous that I can now recognise when they’re using that damn building instead of any other diner just from the inside.
The Wind – Sirius Part. 2
The song is okay but whoever made this video thinks we’re supposed to feel warm fuzzy feelings watching these kids grow up in a cage, I don’t think so.
DRIPPIN – Get Loud
Not as loud as one would hope a song called “Get Loud” might be.
BOYNEXTDOOR – So let’s go see the stars
Ehhhh nice try I guess. “Oh look they’re so talented they can sing while goofing off” I guess is the vibe they’re shooting for, but it’s not live and nobody cares anyway.
ONEWE – Pleasant
A lot better than an “anniversary song” called “Pleasant” has any right to be, this is actually decent. I know, I’m shocked too!
Catch The Young – 1101
Awful christian rock vibes here. What’s 1101, the emergency hotline to dial a satanic priest? I think we need one.
We;Na – Baby Step
They had to throw the diner in there again didn’t they. You know it’s a no-innovation zone when that place crops up. Bring back Yongma Land!
257 – Black Out
This group is apparently three streamer BJ types, but don’t think that it’s actually going to mean fun music like Pocket Girls or Girl Crush or anything like that. It’s just that typical k-pop in 2024 sound.
NEXTU – Oopsy Daisy
Shit trap breakdown for fuckheads who should be killed aside, this song is a pretty nice budget Fifty Fifty/IVE hybrid.
Dream Catchers Studio – Friend Zone
I know this is cringe and horrible but just remember that your bias in your favourite group was probably in training at this age, doing this exact same shit, except instead of the world watching it, it was some creepy CEO behind closed doors watching it instead. Feel better? I didn’t think so.
Yook Sungjae – The Ghost
Get your fringe out of your face, fuck.
Chaewon – Americano on rainy day
This is actually a pretty nice song and definitely worth watching Cla%s#$;s:y’s Chaewon stand under a sprinkler with an umbrella for.
Eunice – A song that i used to sing often
Ex-DIA members seem to either go to streaming purgatory or ballad purgatory. It’s tough being “not-T-ara”.
Shin Euijin – Miracle
This girl has been consistently great. Why aren’t you stanning? What the fuck’s wrong with you? Nobody gives a shit about your lame bias, stan Shin Euijin.
U Sung Eun – On The Street
When this girl gets replaced by a digital rabbit thing because someone thought it looked better, you know we live in opposite-land.
Vanillare – Hollow
Vanillare’s ballad actually isn’t that bad, it works due to good instrumentation.
Moon Sujin feat. Gemini – Gotta Say
This cat seems fake and AI generated and we don’t stan AI in this house. You know when AI is replacing the cats in music videos, that it has to be stopped.
Kik5o – Pretty Revenge
I didn’t really care about this song so let’s have our weekly non-Korean non-pop non-world-music selection instead! Did you know that the Van Halen brothers are half-Indonesian? Now you do! They actually moved to America from the Netherlands because their family was sick of the racism in Europe at that time, and then they solved racism in Van Halen. Of course it didn’t last and now racism is unfortunately cool and trendy all over the world especially among k-pop fans but the utopia was good while it lasted. That’s what dreams are made of.
Ted Park. Parlay Pass, Dbo, Okasian – Chop Like Karate
Hot tip: if your lyrics suck, don’t have hard-coded subtitles in your music videos. This song is a sign that I need to stop roundup here.
RANDOM BONUS VIDEOS OF THE WEEK
BBC World Service – Burning Sun: Exposing the secret k-pop chat groups
If you struggled to follow all the Burning Sun stuff when it was happening, or you just missed the boat completely, then this video is an excellent recap of what happened and covers off a lot of the basics, plus adds a few things that weren’t widely known at the time (Goo Hara’s involvement in legal proceedings, for instance). However they also miss a few details, like just how many big celebrities and other powerful people got away with not even a slap on the wrist – there’s quite a few names that I expected to come up in this documentary that didn’t. I suppose there’s only so much they can cram into an hour, and it’s still a must-watch for anyone with even a passing interest in k-pop, true crime or Korean culture in general.
Anna Lee – The truth about the 4B movement and feminism in South Korea + Tiktok calls me a misogynist?
Speaking of important gender issues in the world today, 4B is a niche movement and not the main cause for declining birthrates in South Korea. This is an excellent follow-up video to the one about birthrates that I featured here a few weeks back. It’s a good example of how extremists tend to easily hijack an argument or a movement and spread inaccurate information, just because extreme ideas and extreme situations generate more clicks so they’re more likely to go viral, whilie true information tends to be less clickbaity and gets buried more often. You can see this on all sides of all types of issues, which is why you shouldn’t get your politics from social networking, because if something goes viral on social networking in the first place it’s almost always because it’s not accurate.
Hyosung – Good Night Kiss
Speaking of important gender issues in the world today, noted feminist Hyosung didn’t have a very good song with “Good Night Kiss”. The repetitive chorus and plodding tempo is what lets it down, it’s just a bit too puerile and beneath someone of Hyosung’s iconic stature. Fortunately both feminists and music lovers cheered when she completely redeemed herself with the fantastic “Find Me” a couple of years later. There’s hope for gender relations in the world yet.
That’s all for this week! Kpopalypse roundup returns next week!
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