It’s Sunday, which means it’s time to end the week with an open discussion post!
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- Be kind and respectful to one another. Any harassing language will be deleted.
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Each week, I’ll open with a question to get the conversation going. Feel free to chat about anything, but if you’re not sure what to write you can use this question as a starting point.
This week’s question:
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
For as long as I’ve loved Girls’ Generation, I’ve never actually watched one of their group concerts from start to finish. Come to think of it, I’ve never watched an SNSD-specific variety series either.
Of course, I’ve seen the members on many variety shows and watched many individual performances on music shows and SM Family concerts. But, I usually go out of my way to seek out group-specific content for my favorite groups. For some reason, Girls’ Generation slipped through the cracks.
So… let’s say I were to watch one of their concerts. Do you have a favorite?
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as much as I love them, I’ve only seen one of their concerts on YouTube 7 years ago (THE BEST LIVE at Tokyo Dome). loved it because they performed some of their amazing Japanese songs
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My personal favorite is Love & Peace, their 3rd Japanese tour (that’s what I linked below, in case it doesn’t work right). I’m a huge sucker for their Japanese discography, and they hit quite a few of my favorite numbers in that particular concert. All of their Japanese concert tours are pretty good (special shout out to the way they open in The Best Live, that’s freaking fantastic), but Love & Peace sits at the top of the list overall for me. Probably helps that those concerts are what introduced me to large chunks of their Japanese discography.
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Thanks! I figured a Japanese concert would be the best place to start.
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There first concert in Japan 2011 is still my favorite! Also, please watch some of their variety shows. They are literally one of the funniest groups ever.
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I’d really like to go see ATEEZ or Everglow in concert. They have near no-skip discographies and either of them would make an amazing first k-pop concert experience. Especially hopeful about EG since Yiren is finally back!
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Nick, I’d say your blind spot is not recognizing how great the new Fifty Fifty EP is, especially the first 3 songs! LOL 🙂
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But I do like it! I was just listening to it yesterday and noticing how consistent it was.
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I really liked the Monsta X EP one of a kind and own it, but I haven’t methodically gone through MX’s discography. To be honest, I probably play Wonho and I.M. solo music more.which is weird cause I know and love them.
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You should definitely go through it! I took some time before I went to one of their concerts to go through their discography from debut to the time of the show (2019), and it was fun to hear how their sound evolved. In particular, I felt like they found their sweet spot with “Jealousy” and the rest of the music just got better from there.
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I haven’t gone through EXO’s discography like I feel like I’ve should. The only projects that I’ve really listened to on a consistent basis is their Japanese album Countdown, and the first EXO-SC mini album. I know their music is up my alley but I just haven’t fully immersed myself in it.
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If you are interested in taking baby steps, EXO-CBX are fantastic and have a few mini albums. They might be my favorite sub-unit in K-pop.
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And if you’re interested in taking massive, overwhelming steps (lol) I wrote about every single EXO song ever on this page: https://thebiaslist.com/features/k-pop-a-z/
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Thank you! I just clicked the link and they HAVE SO MUCH MUSIC! I knew that, but it’s crazy to see all the posts when they’re laid out like that lol.
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I know people sing the praises of the EXO-CBX unit and I think all three are amazing singers. I guess I will start my journey with them. Thanks!
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Definitely the same with me. I’ve known them and loved their Title Tracks but never got around to listening to their discography.
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I haven’t experienced any concerts yet (due to location and also my “iffiness” with crowds lol), but I have seen a lot of clips on YT and I can really see how dynamic an in-person view of there performances can be!
Recently Kingdom (my upcoming ult group lol) performed live in my country in a far away city. It was a small scale event as part of a festival- just a small room and stage with a medium crowd but oh wow!!! Even just watching it on YT made me scream in excitement! Their charm, performance, presence everything – it was amazing! So I really do wish someday I can attend a small-scale concert 😀
But on a more easily doable blind spot – I would say soloists. I have always been more enamoured by group songs than solos. Even when it comes to my favorite groups, I rarely listen to any soloist stuff from them. I believe a group chorus style is what’s more pleasing to my ears. Taeyon, Kang Daniel, Wonho, Key – these are a few soloists I listen to and while I do know I might be missing out on good soloist material it’s just a tad bit harder for me to get into soloist songs 😅
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I have a really odd blind spot of despite stanning Shinee and loving all their title tracks and that shtick, I have never actually managed to take time to listen to all their b-sides. In fact, except for DCM, I haven’t listened to 1 full album at all yet…I have no idea what’s stopping me, as I’ve managed to listen to all of Super Junior (yeah their 700+ songs) and NCT and even other groups that I don’t even stan…..
Any recommendations on which album to start from? It’s probably a long overdue task for me.
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Start with their 2013 material… the Misconceptions series and the Everybody mini album. K-pop doesn’t get much better than that!
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I adore the whole Odd album. The Married to the Music repackage is great, but Odd stands on its own in a quirky way.
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I’d probably start with Married to the Music, 1 of 1, The Story of Light series, the Misconceptions series, then Everybody. I feel like being used to the newer tracks helps me get into the older tracks as some took time to digest at first listen
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Literally any big girl group, I’ve been procrastinating listening to their discography for a while. I’ve been a bg person for a while…
(If any1 has any recommendations pls send :v)
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If you want to start slow, I think the following mini-albums are good listens:
– Blackpink’s Square Up
– Twice’s Taste of Love
– Red Velvet’s Really Bad Boy
– Aespa’s Savage
– Apink’s Look
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Everything outside of SM Entertainment, since that’s where I started my journey where I walk through everything in a group’s discography, heh. I’ve tried to keep up (a bit) with new groups outside of SM this year (hello, IVE, Le Sserafim, NewJeans, and Fifty Fifty), and there are groups I’m a bit more familiar with than others when it comes to other agencies, but I’ve otherwise been sticking to my SM deep dive regimen pretty stubbornly (in the midst of everything NCT currently) and haven’t fully explored any other established groups outside of them. I do have an ever-growing list of groups I need to check out though, and I’m looking forward to tackling them all eventually! The challenge will be deciding which one to listen through first when I lift the blinders – so much good music to discover!!!
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outing myself as a fake deobi rn…..ive never watched one of their fancons in full (they start at like 2am us time) i still havent watched a full episode of rtk or klw (the episodes are all 2 hours long and i dont have the mental energy for that also i became a deobi after klw happened sooooo) and in general i have a life outside of kpop so theres still so much tbz content i havent seen
also ive been doing a deep dive into fxs and onlyoneofs discography but as far as other groups besides tbz go i just dont have the mental energy to seek out stuff like individual member/variety content bc im just so so attached to tbz more than anyone else and im kinda scared of losing that (im autistic/have adhd and tend to shed hyperfixations when a new one comes along and i just. really dont want that to happen w tbz i just love them too much to let go and i feel so bad abt it bc that just makes it seem like im an akgae or smthn like that sheesh this was such a long ramble lmao)
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Same blind spot as a few others have noted before me.
I really need to start going through discographies.
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Boy bands. 🍌🥕🥒🍆🌭⁉️
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Weird one but Monsta X b-sides. I tend to hear about how good they are and they seem like they’d fit my tastes but I’ve yet to dive into them beyond their titles really.
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I’d say my blind spot would be late ’90s and early ’00s K-Pop solo acts. I know all the major idol acts from this era. I know, H.O.T, Shinhwa, Baby VOX, Koyote, and all the other major acts of this era, and I know A-listers like BoA, Rain, and Se7ven, but I can barely name more than five songs by their early predecessors, such as Lee Jung Hyun or Uhm Jung Hwa. Definitely, something that I need to focus more on!
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Listening to literally any bg music…. Literally, I’ve sat down with the intention to listen to some albums and then skipped through every track. I also haven’t really listened to fromis_9 or GWSN, despite hearing that they have really good music.
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I’ve been a Kpop fan for a few years now, and originally I just listened to BTS, Girl’s Generation and Day6. Now I love so many different groups and Stray Kids has taken over as my all time favorite group, because I love all the members. But even though I love lots of groups I’ve always struggled to give songs second chances. If I don’t like something the chances of me listening to it ever again are very unlikely. I don’t know if this is just me, but I wish I did a better job of giving songs and albums second chances.
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I relate to this so much with Stray Kids. Their music is just so out there and different. Usually after the first listen, I’m like “idk if I like this.. I don’t think I like this.” But I’ve learned to give the songs 2nd, even 3rd or 4th chances. Side Effects used to be my skip song cause it was just not for me but now I love that song to death lol. I’ve also learned to really appreciate The Tortoise and the Hare as well lol.
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My kpop blind spot is names. Who is who.
Older groups I have learned over many years to identify by voice and visual.
Newer groups, 4th gen, hah! As if. For visual, it doesn’t help that they all have the same damn haircut and styling, broadly speaking, which goes for both boy and girl groups. For voice, I can pick our “Ah, there is their good singer or their low singer, or their high singer”, but that singer’s name as likely as not I do not know off hand but must refer to a lyric video. I think there are perhaps a dozen 4th gen individuals I can pick out and name easily.
Then there are pictures of the group as a whole. The very top level girl groups I can usually identify by picture alone. But boy groups, hah! I just don’t watch enough videos, listen yes watch no. I am very serious here – honestly I would confuse Golcha ONF ATeez Boyz TXT Enhypen etc. I might get a few if only because of member count – I might get Treasure because I know they have more than usual.
Stray Kids is easy because Hyunjin and Felix.
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I relate to this lol. Worse still, even my ult groups I’m not sure if I can identify them with 100% accuracy! 😂 SKZ & DC are my ults but the amount of times I fail to identify Lee Know & Sua respectively are baffling! 🤣 Sometimes I can even identify them by voice – but I’m lost at faces. Ateez and Oneus I fare a bit better.
Even though some of my favorite songs are from Golcha I cannot distinguish the members by face except for Joochan and maybe Y lol.. I might remember the rest like “This guy sang that part in the other song” etc and 90% of the times I get that right… but names and faces still evade me lol.
As for Enhypen – Jay and Heesung I can recognise – every else is a mystery lol.
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I relate to this lol. Worse still, even my ult groups I’m not sure if I can identify them with 100% accuracy! 😂 SKZ & DC are my ults but the amount of times I fail to identify Lee Know & Sua respectively are baffling! 🤣 Sometimes I can even identify them by voice – but I’m lost at faces. Ateez and Oneus I fare a bit better.
Even though some of my favorite songs are from Golcha I cannot distinguish the members by face except for Joochan and maybe Y lol.. I might remember the rest like “This guy sang that part in the other song” etc and 90% of the times I get that right… but names and faces still evade me lol.
As for Enhypen – Jay and Heesung I can recognise – every else is a mystery lol.
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When I first get into a new group, I also have difficulty differentiating members. But if it’s a group that I believe I’m going to seriously follow for a while, then I search YouTube for videos with the group chatting backstage before going on a music show, or videos presenting “behind the scenes” for their MV shoot, or the album photo shoot, etc..
Usually in those vids, you get to see each member one on one and they usually have the artists name on the screen as they’re speaking. It’s a good way to get acquainted with each member. You also pick up a little bit on their personality. Watch a few of those, and it becomes much easier to pick them out in a music video. You also end up figuring out which one you want to stan; or you end up stanning them all.
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Well, it isn’t exactly a blindspot anymore but for a really long time I hadn’t listened to EXO’s debut era title tracks (MAMA and History, specifically). I’ve loved their music for a really long time now, but a song of their’s that I really can’t stand is WOLF…. their pronunciation of ‘wolf’ is horrible, but it isn’t the only reason…. listened to it a couple of times…. not listening to it again…. unfortunately that distaste for WOLF meant i didn’t listen to any other 2012-2013 EXO title track either (except Growl…. everyone’s heard Growl)
I listened to MAMA and History for the first time yesterday…. Telling you that they blew me away is an understatement. I absolutely LOVE that sort of music and to hear EXO’s voice delivering it is incredible. Some of EXO’s best title tracks, honestly. I’m so glad to be out of that blindspot and after 10 years of their release I finally have MAMA and History on repeat as they should be
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As much as I love ONF’s music and consider myself a fan of them, I don’t actually know much about them! I can name the members but that’s about it.
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This is definitely a combination of factors due to my ADD and Asperger’s but there are whole groups that I adore/d and have often followed since the beginning where I…..don’t know everyone by name? Or can even distinguish voices well. I would focus in on one or two as biases and favorites but have a hard time remembering the other members by name and face and just would roll with it lol
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Never seen anyone live! I’m marooned in New Zealand and while Mamamoo, Loona and Taeyeon plus others love to film music videos here nobody performs here. To be fair I’m not sure anyone other than BTS/Blackpink/Twice could have a concert but a festival with lots of artists would do well I’m sure. I’m planning on getting Blackpick tickets next year if they’re not too expensive though
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