At the end of each month, I look back at my three favorite title tracks by K-pop artists. I take my own ratings into account, but there’s a bit of wiggle room as certain songs tend to grow or fade. August 2020 Overall Thoughts At the beginning of the year, one of my wishes for 2020 … Continue reading
Most of the time, a k-pop group’s title track is the best song on their album. But, sometimes b-sides deserve recognition too. In the singles-oriented world of K-pop, I want to spotlight some of these buried treasures and give them the props they deserve. When writing about ONEUS’s To Be Or Not To Be, I … Continue reading
ONEUS is the latest Road to Kingdom group to make a comeback, joining the summer rush that’s included Golden Child, TOO, VERIVERY and ONF. Their stint on the series was fraught with frustration, landing near the bottom of the rankings far too often. This belies their talent, as does the dark horror concept they’re currently … Continue reading
It feels like ONEUS are a little late to the game, releasing the music video to their Road to Kingdom finale track Come Back Home over a month after the series ended. I guess they’re positioning it as a prologue for their upcoming comeback rather than an epilogue to the series. Thus far, Kingdom has … Continue reading
Warning: This recap is not spoiler-free. Proceed at your own risk! Past Recaps: Episode Two / Episode Three / Episode Four / Episode Five / Episode Six / Episode Seven / Finale Songs Welcome to my last Road to Kingdom recap! Honestly, I’m kind of glad to be done with the show, but I’m also … Continue reading
I’ve spent the past few weeks poring over the performances of Road to Kingdom’s competing groups. But to be honest, I’ve always been much more infatuated with music – the actual songs – than all the trappings that go along with them. That’s why, even though ONF didn’t rank at the top for me this … Continue reading
Warning: This recap is not spoiler-free. Proceed at your own risk! Past Recaps: Episode Two / Episode Three / Episode Four / Episode Five / Episode Six This episode opened with Pentagon’s Hui recounting advice he heard from an elder — that you can tell if an idol group will be successful or not within … Continue reading
Warning: This recap is not spoiler-free. Proceed at your own risk! Past Recaps: Episode Two / Episode Three / Episode Four / Episode Five Now that my horse has left the race and is feeding peacefully in the neighboring pasture, I can watch this show without frayed nerves. Before I natter on about the pointlessness … Continue reading
Warning: This recap is not spoiler-free. Proceed at your own risk! For once, I’m actually thankful for internet rumors. Knowing two weeks ago about how tonight’s elimination would play out allowed me to watch this episode without going absolutely catatonic. Instead, I’ve been fuming for weeks. I came into tonight’s episode angry, just hoping that … Continue reading
At one point when discussing his groups’ concept during this night’s episode, VERIVERY’s Dongheon mentioned “night hags.” I thought to myself: “Why, that’s the perfect description for what I briefly became after watching episode three’s ranking!” I’ve pulled myself back from the brink of last week’s rant-a-thon. That ranking disaster, coupled with some convincing internet … Continue reading
I’ve written at length about survival series, along with my distaste for them and the culture they foster. Learning that Road to Kingdom would feature eliminations was a gut punch. That constant threat of danger is meant to make the series more thrilling, but all it does is frustrate. It’s absolutely cruel that these groups … Continue reading
After sharing my thoughts on the Queendom finale songs last year, I regretted not writing more about the show as it was going on – especially since I enjoyed it so much. That regret didn’t quite spur me to cover Road to Kingdom’s premiere episode, but now that we’re in full performance mode, I plan … Continue reading
At the end of each month, I look back at my three favorite title tracks by K-pop artists. I take my own ratings into account, but there’s a bit of wiggle room as certain songs tend to grow or fade. March 2020 Overall Thoughts I don’t know about you all, but my mind wasn’t exactly on … Continue reading
ONEUS kicked off their K-pop career in stunning fashion, wowing with the dynamic Valkyrie in early 2019. Since then, I’ve felt that their singles run has slowly declined in quality, though the strength of their album tracks remains intact. Even their latest Japanese single was paired with some stunning b-sides. New release A Song Written … Continue reading
This is always a difficult list to form. After all, there are way more b-sides than singles to choose from each year, and with K-pop’s love of promoting genre trends, the most interesting music is often hidden within albums that not every listener bothers to check out. Today and tomorrow, I’ll be counting down my … Continue reading
2019 was a huge year for rookie groups. In fact, I’d say that the year was almost driven by them. So many agencies unveiled new acts, offering a needed jolt to the industry. This makes for a highly competitive countdown, with lots of treasures to discover. Like usual, this list comes with some caveats. When … Continue reading
The end of the year countdowns are finally here! As always, things kick off with the big one… The Bias List’s top 50 songs of the year! Each day this week, I’ll be counting down ten of the year’s best, until number one is revealed on Friday. To be eligible for this top 50 list, … Continue reading
Despite the tense political climate between the countries, rookie K-pop acts are making Japanese debuts earlier and earlier these days. ONEUS haven’t even been around for a year and they’ve already released two J-pop singles. The first was a Japanese version of their Korean track Twilight. The second is 808, the group’s first original J-pop … Continue reading
It was an odd year for award shows. With MNET embroiled in its vote-rigging controversy, the MAMA awards felt like an afterthought, broadcast only one night rather than its usual multi-day spread. The Melon awards weren’t even telecast, opting for streaming instead. Even so, their staging and production felt incredibly grand. In comparison, the MAMAs … Continue reading
ONEUS made a splash when they debuted with the incredible Valkyrie this January. Their follow-up single Twilight has grown on me a lot, and the guys have proven to be reliable conduits for solid mini albums, but I fear that they offered their strongest punch right off the bat. A fantastic debut is important, but … Continue reading
