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
After taking a look at SM Entertainment over the long weekend, it’s time to move onto an agency with very different activity in 2019. Prepare yourselves, friends. It’s YG Entertainment. As usual, the thoughts are my own and aren’t privy to any insider information. I’m not taking into account things like profits and stock value. … Continue reading
With over 2,600 songs on my iPhone’s “K-Pop Singles” playlist, I thought it would be fun to add a bit of unpredictability to my song review posts. So as a result, we have the “Random Shuffle Review” feature. The rules are simple. I fire up my playlist, press “shuffle,” and whatever song plays first gets … Continue reading
It’s been over three years since Lee Hi’s last comeback, so the fact that I’m writing about her at all feels like a minor miracle. But, this long hiatus carries with it a very real danger. The longer fans wait, the higher expectations rise. After three years, the desire for a momentous, iconic song only … Continue reading
In k-pop, music videos are nearly as important as the songs themselves. It’s become such a visual genre, regularly churning out glossy videos that look much more expensive than they are. Without focusing too much on the actual song (though it’s impossible to fully separate the two), here were the top ten visual moments of … Continue reading
As the weather gets chillier and December approaches, it’s the time of year to dust off the old K-pop Christmas playlist. Korean acts have been giving us special holiday songs for years, but I narrowed my ten picks to tracks released over the past five years. Some have official music videos, and some do not. … Continue reading
At the end of each month, I’ll look back at my three favorite title tracks by k-pop artists. Unlike my end-of-year countdowns, jpop and Japanese releases by kpop artists are ineligible, though I will give the great ones a spotlight. For my top three tracks, I’ll take my own ratings into account, but there is a … Continue reading
Six weeks after coming back with double title tracks, Lee Hi is wrapping up her Seoulite promos with the release of a final single, My Star. The song sees a return to the retro soul-pop she’s known so well for, but how does it match up with her material from March? Pretty well, actually. My … Continue reading
At the end of each month, I’ll look back at my three favorite title tracks by k-pop artists. Unlike my end-of-year countdowns, jpop and Japanese releases by kpop artists are ineligible, though I will give the great ones a spotlight. For my top three tracks, I’ll take my own ratings into account, but there is a … Continue reading
Lee Hi has always seemed to be stuck in a time loop. I mean this in the best way, as her style (both vocally and production-wise) looks back at the soul and jazz of the past rather than towards the trends of the day. And though this approach will never appeal to me as much … Continue reading
Of all of YG Entertainment’s active artists, Lee Hi has been denied a comeback the longest. Though she’s collaborated with others more recently, it’s been since 2013 that we’ve heard solo material. A wait like this does nothing but build expectations sky high. With Seoulite, she’s returned with two title tracks. Do either of them … Continue reading
