I decided that I wanted to have a conversation and sorta see where you guys stand on this. (Huge rant incoming)
So where I currently am with kpop is
1. I'll find a song
2. I'll like it for about a month or less
3. I forget about it like it never happened and crave the next comeback for another group
Now I'm sure this is probably a marketing tactic and I'm falling right for it every single time :skull: BUT I'm just curious to know where you guys stand in of what comebacks you've been actively enjoying this year. Even though I think a lot of this year's comeback is microwavable, I still enjoy the songs as a whole...just not for long periods of time lmao.
I think the best way to describe it is that this year as a whole I feel like kpop has lost it's identity. What I mean by this is the biggest hitting groups are really nowhere to be found or they have dropped in quality compared to their previous tracks. I like to tie these sorta general kpop rants back into loona in some way, shape, or form and they aren't excused from this either. Now y'all know I love loona as a group and this isn't a knock towards any of the but you can't sit here with a straight face and tell me that flip that has its own identity and personality as a song. If it wasn't for the random Vivi adlibs I wouldn't even be able to tell it's loona unfortunately. And I'm not saying the song is bad but it's just sort of place holder comeback in my opinion.
As for some other huge releases this year I'll speak on those as well.
Probably the biggest girl group song of the year to me is tomboy by idle. :grimacing: I don't hate this song but it's definitely not for me. While yes, I have my own reasons to not be as invested in idle as I once was (COUGH soojin) I won't deny how big this song is. Another big one is smiley by yena and to this song I say...lxxk 2 u is so much better :joy: I am really not a fan of smiley and it just doesn't hit for me.
I've been trying with kpop this year I really have but with all of my favorite groups disbanding, losing , or taking longer breaks it's kinda just been me waiting around for something cool to pop up. And when I say cool I mean that I want to hear some examples of effort being shown. There's quite the handful of songs that I've enjoyed this year but I'll give some examples of what I mean by cool.
Eunbi- glitch
Will I shut up about this song? LMAOOOO no. The concept is unique, the instrumental flows great, the vocals are great, the ending of the song makes you want to return to it over and over just to go on the journey of getting to that point. I get that it is very minimalistic for the majority of the song BUT I personally think the minimalism was used effectively and wasn't done in a lazy way like some other artists do. If you know, you know.
Aespa- girls
It's songs like this that make me want to keep trying with kpop. If you've heard it before then you know how world building this is when it's paired with the music video. Not only the song but aespa as a group is what I mean by a group having identity. I don't want to jinx anything but I don't think it'll be very likely that next summer they will come out with some basic summer concept on a beach singing about love or doing some retro concept that only uses the same 5 instruments as everyone else. They have their identity as a group and they do it well.
I'm not going to hate on any groups just in case someone reading happens to be a fan but I would like to discuss one group in particular: NMIXX.
:skull: Idk about you guys but I'm extremely curious to see how this group will unfold bc how in the world do you build upwards as a group with a debut song like O.O as your foundation? The BPM changes like 5 different times, the whole song flips into something else for a second verse then goes BACK TO THE FIRST PORTION LIKE NOTHING EVER HAPPENED :sob: *sigh* that song stresses me out. Are they going to do that for every comeback? Even though they only have 2 songs would you be able to say they have some form of identity? Genuinely asking this btw.
There are plenty more cbs I'd like to talk about but this blog is long enough. Let me know what you think about this year of kpop down in the comments.
Comments (5)
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I think Aespas CB was the definition of microwaved (even worse its dolby atmos native streaming on itunes) and I've been crate digging B sides and years old songs. I think the most recent enjoyable CB was Sunmi both tracks, I hope Chungha's part 2 is more promising, although she has a fire title MV its alot of ive listening. Purple kiss had a nice playthrough but I didn't add to my ongoing year list. Stayc same. Twice Japan, not this time. Billie was cool especially with a soundtrack to their second EP combining instrumentals and a repackage but 🤷🏼♂.
The last, certified, No Skip, non Loona, album was O+T=<3 in November 21 🤷🏼♂
Blackpink better not prove me right with literally everything that's wrong with being "too big too fail".
Flip that is good, but it has a purpose and a place and November when the leaves turn or even Halloween time it's already out of place. Need U, Playback, wayyy better. Pale Blue Dot doesn't do anything for me even though it should. Pose is hype, but the live was legendary (and it's recorded quieter than everything else on the EP by at least 4dB; listening at -34 with my iems is :+1: 🏼-38? Any other track long term hearing damage).
I blame the current set of 4th gen groups for this however (the companies and creative directors... sometimes the ). We've got a race to the bottom to sell albums and you need a PhD in statistical marketing as a fandom to get wins. At the same time, certain groups could literally make baby sounds over a xylophone+cow bell and they'd win 3 times a week for a month straight and sell 1,000,000 units.
Then you have the problematic , getting canceled, cultural appropriation, using language they don't have the license to, and debuting way too young for the concepts being foisted on them. This might be a commercial rejection of cute concepts, but I believe everyone is also dead tired of girl crush (just watch new jeans in 6-8months 🤦🏼♂🤦🏼♂🤦🏼♂)
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This comment makes me want to make a part 2 of this blog because there were so many cbs I didn't get the chance to cover. But yes I agree with blaming the current set of 4th gen groups for a large majority of the issues I have with kpop rn.
This blog was so entertaining and put a smile on my face, thank you!
Amino needs more blogs like this please? :grin: :+1: :star:
That is not the kind of response I thought I'd be getting for this LMAOOO
Reply to: c.𝗝Δ𝗟𝗘Π/ HULALALA
I love a good ole rant, as an orbit it's good to vent, but in the right manner and constructively, not like the crap we get on the bird app! 🤣🤣 :+1: