Bite-Sized Album Review: History – Desire
Feature

Bite-Sized Album Review: History – Desire

K-pop history is stuffed with great albums, and there’s only so many Buried Treasures and Battle of the B-sides features available to cover all these noteworthy tracks. The album format has always been special to me. Whether it’s a full-length or mini, albums have the opportunity to tell stories and develop an act’s personal style. … Continue reading

The Top 50 K-Pop Songs of 2013 (Day One: 50-41)
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The Top 50 K-Pop Songs of 2013 (Day One: 50-41)

2013 was a high-concept, musically diverse year in K-pop. Hip-hop hadn’t yet taken over, and melody was still king. Instrumentals aimed for the rafters of stadiums, bringing in explosive guitar, sledgehammer beats and bombastic electro riffs. Songs played around with structure in artful, unexpected ways, often polarizing opinion before unveiling themselves as future classics. Here … Continue reading

K-Pop Producer Spotlight: OnePiece
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K-Pop Producer Spotlight: OnePiece

If there’s anything I’ve learned from covering pop music for over a decade, it’s that songwriters and collaborators are just as important as the artists themselves. Though they often work behind the scenes, this feature is a chance to shine the light on some of k-pop’s most innovative and accomplished producers and composers. ONEPIECE Years … Continue reading

Song Review: History – Queen
Review

Song Review: History – Queen

As soon as History’s Queen music video began, with its jackhammer racket of electronic noise and played out saxophone sample, my eyes glazed over and I nearly turned it off. I railed about this exact production trend a few weeks ago with Beast’s new Japanese single. It’s very hard to remain objective about a song that chains itself … Continue reading