If you were to map my musical DNA, a sizable portion would be indebted to 90’s J-pop. To me, this is a truly magical time in music, but it’s rarely discussed or shared outside of Japan. Being an aficionado of certain sounds within this era, I’ve tracked down hundreds of highlights over the years. And … Continue reading
If you were to map my musical DNA, a sizable portion would be indebted to 90’s J-pop. To me, this is a truly magical time in music, but it’s rarely discussed or shared outside of Japan. Being an aficionado of certain sounds within this era, I’ve tracked down hundreds of highlights over the years. And … Continue reading
If you were to map my musical DNA, a sizable portion would be indebted to 90’s J-pop. To me, this is a truly magical time in music, but it’s rarely discussed or shared outside of Japan. Being an aficionado of certain sounds within this era, I’ve tracked down hundreds of highlights over the years. And … Continue reading
If you were to map my musical DNA, a sizable portion would be indebted to 90’s J-pop. To me, this is a truly magical time in music, but it’s rarely discussed or shared outside of Japan. Being an aficionado of certain sounds within this era, I’ve tracked down hundreds of highlights over the years. And … Continue reading
If you were to map my musical DNA, a sizable portion would be indebted to 90’s J-pop. To me, this is a truly magical time in music, but it’s rarely discussed or shared outside of Japan. Being an aficionado of certain sounds within this era, I’ve tracked down hundreds of highlights over the years. And … Continue reading
If you were to map my musical DNA, a sizable portion would be indebted to 90’s J-pop. To me, this is a truly magical time in music, but it’s rarely discussed or shared outside of Japan. Being an aficionado of certain sounds within this era, I’ve tracked down hundreds of highlights over the years. And … Continue reading
With over 3,000 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
One song. Every day. Alphabetical order. Keep up with f(x)’s A-Z reviews here! Rum Pum Pum Pum (from Pink Tape – 2013) Rum Pum Pum Pum is my favorite f(x) title track, and arguably the group’s crowning achievement. The song has everything I look for when it comes to f(x): a great melody, off kilter … Continue reading
As the K-pop market has become more flooded with acts, it’s not unusual to see days with multiple comebacks. Usually, these are a grab bag of varying quality, but every once in awhile you’ll get a day that unveils multiple classics at once. This feature is dedicated to those epic days – days in which … Continue reading
I first heard (most of) Run during a live performance back in late March, and I knew right away that this was going to be a big pop moment. It’s rare that a song ticks so many of my musical boxes at once. But due to pandemic postponements, it’s been an excruciatingly long wait to … Continue reading
Longtime readers of The Bias List will know how stingy I am when it comes to rating songs nine and above. But, there’s plenty of music that qualifies. In fact, I’ve got a playlist of over 600 of them sitting in my iTunes. The vast majority of these are singles or title tracks, but there … Continue reading
I watched J-drama Nobuta wo Produce for the first time last month and fell head over heels in love with it. Even since, I’ve been revisiting KAT-TUN’s (consistently fantastic) discography and remembering just how much I adore their music. At their best, they’ve delivered some of the most essential pop tracks of the last fourteen … Continue reading
Longtime readers of The Bias List will know how stingy I am when it comes to rating songs nine and above. But, there’s plenty of music that qualifies. In fact, I’ve got a playlist of over 600 of them sitting in my iTunes. The vast majority of these are singles or title tracks, but there … Continue reading
One song. Every day. Alphabetical order. Keep up with EXO’s A-Z reviews here! What Is Love (from Mama – 2012) I don’t often highlight vocal phrasing as a song’s greatest strength, but What Is Love is all about how EXO wraps their voices around the instrumental’s icy, alien-like beat. This is without a doubt my … Continue reading
One song. Every day. Alphabetical order. Keep up with EXO’s A-Z reviews here! Mama (from Mama – 2012) It would not be an overstatement to say that Mama was the song that cemented my love for K-pop. I’d dabbled with idol fare before, but this song’s bombastic mixture of Gregorian chants, heavy metal dance breaks … Continue reading
One song. Every day. Alphabetical order. Keep up with EXO’s A-Z reviews here! Love Me Right (from Love Me Right – 2015) Released at the height of EXO’s funk-pop era, Love Me Right is a dynamo of a comeback. Right from the start, the instrumental deposits us into the groove, like a warp portal to … Continue reading
One song. Every day. Alphabetical order. Keep up with EXO’s A-Z reviews here! History (from Mama – 2012) Though their discography boasts more ambitious material, History has always felt like a flawless distillation of EXO’s sound. Its effortlessly funky groove combines a bhangra-inspired beat with icy, stuttering electronics and a strong kick that anchors the … Continue reading
In every concert, there are those few songs that the audience waits for with bated breath. They’re showstoppers — amazing on their own but enhanced exponentially when paired with a live performance. Most of my all-time favorite K-pop tracks have this kind of larger-than-life intensity, as if the song itself isn’t enough to contain all … Continue reading
I’ve always considered Into The New World (다시 만난 세계) as the unofficial dawn of K-pop’s second generation. Yes, there were plenty of second-gen stalwarts who debuted earlier (TVXQ, Wonder Girls, Bigbang, Super Junior, etc), but World just feels like the turning of a page. Back in 2007, K-pop had a much stronger Japanese influence … 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
