rolling kpop 2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ur4dLy0ozRQ

SF9 started off the year strong with the dubstep-inflected garage-house of "Good Guy"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPkBdEysvtI

i like the beat on BTS's "Black Swan"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEo5bmUKFvI

2018 thread MVPs LOONA are back with their best full-group single yet in "So What"

👍🏻 Had been hoping someone would start this thread already so I could rave about “Black Swan”.

it's like a trap version of a vespertine track

Nice wubwubwubstep sounds on LOONA's [#] EP

loona are so good!

not quite there but p close

ANS - Say My Name
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NGoD8l-fp4

absolutely love this. think she's american with korean ancestry, but i may be wrong. gorgeous track.

Suzanne - Can't Hang
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZIA9kVNKu4

not quite as great as his namesake

Zico - Any Song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuV2BmJ1p_I

did someone mention trap?

Itownkid - Grab.Drop.Pop
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCyzYmAVoRQ

plus

Jiyeon - Take A Hike
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJNS1W0YmdE

yeah the bts up thread is great. love the video as well.

the bts video i was referring to was this one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGbuUFRdYqU

Yeah, that Suzanne track is by far my favourite out of these.

(it doesn’t get better than the first minute tho)

that suzanne track is really cool

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWQ5zNi_9r8

BVNDIT - "Cool" is fun kitchen sink pop

Love IZ*ONE's "Fiesta":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDEFolvLn0A

I've hardly been paying attention to Kpop but:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=120It4zkIZU

So I have a playlist called Jazz Watch 2018 where I've been tracking jazz influences in Kpop singles since, basically, Lee Jin Ah hit it big with Random in 2017:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsh4Z5FNfPMC2xs8enWmT_J7pFvUIhXF1

And this one is coming a couple years later, but fits right into that trend.

Hmm this song came out in 2019, my apologies guys. You can tell I haven't really been paying attention :P

Anyway here's one from this year:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPAIlZM1VUU

OK but here's one I actually like (and the rest of the album is good too):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFOqlE0wCfs

Late aughts RnB revival can continue forever, thanks.

really like 'cool'!

gloriously cheesy but i kinda like it

cherry bullet 'Hands Up' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0It6vWbGOX0

KARD 'Red Moon' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAEqQPAEkug

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bs-tDMgXX6k

AVOKID - "Timid" is sublime

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fE2h3lGlOsk

"Wannabe" is the best Itzy single yet imo

like that AVOKID. 'dalla dalla' still my favourite itzy.

leebada - 'empty room'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXZ78sjxkPs

dongkiz - 'lupin'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZgIW9CwhZw

park woo jin - 'color eye'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFRkwkLMGHI

i haven't been keeping up with k-pop this year admittedly but grown up Apink continues to be good (though I still prefer "Eung Eung" and "I'm So Sick"):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrP_cpcuNEc

A couple of months old but this Dreamcatcher track is incredible. I love how they're continuing to grow within their little niche:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKlGHHhTOsQ

"dumhdurum" is pretty good, but i agree their last two singles were better

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bD06B-5SsSE

i like "spit it out" from mamamoo's solar a lot, a really distinctive sound. it's a little reminiscent of that wave folk-pop-edm from ~2013 (that avicii album etc.) except far more restrained in mood and actually good.

bit of an outlier wrt the thread so far but love the song and the dance moves are on point ;)

Dasutt - Pigeon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kt4oLCnJkTc

I recently discovered Dreamcatcher via the song 'Full Moon'. Maybe now is a good time to try getting into kpop more.

Oh My Girl getting their first big hit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMCKRto_IgU

Bibi - Kazino

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObzvA8tx9aA

really into Crystal Tea, big j-pop vibes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAQdesb_zCs  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0iC9vkHN-c 

"there there" is cool

there is so much good stuff all of a sudden what the heck!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I02VtSDmF18&list=RDQk0fkeMAUz0&index=6

whoops

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghpn99s8I-U&list=RDQk0fkeMAUz0

hmmmmmm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8bJfx01WyQ

weird...

i guess this song is about online trolling, but i don't really know. certainly plenty of people will tell you you're doing it wrong online, no matter which side of any issue you fall on

anyway this is jaunty, i love the piano!

@roz I love ROman Porno a lot!!!!! It sounds kinda Jpop. I love how the vocal line just kind of slides around and goes into weird modulations.

there is so much good stuff all of a sudden what the heck!!!

Making up for a lacklustre 2019? I like “Villain” too and the lyrics of “Life Sucks”... oof.

re Roman Porno: love the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it glimpse of Björk’s Debut casually hanging out on the bed behind her. Her EP is good - her whole style and sound is very jpop.

roman porno was the name for Japanese erotic movies in the 60's, quite the reference

loving Villain a lot!

@daniel and the album is called pink movie, which... same.

wikipedia says "Nikkatsu made these higher-quality pink films almost exclusively, at an average rate of three per month, for the next 17 years" so it could be a reference to quality, i suppose. i really wanna know what the lyrics are but this is too indie for translators...

i've just been listening to those crystal tea songs on repeat, i'm like obsessed lol

The new TWICE single is composed by Julia Michaels, MNEK and Zara Larsson

Huh. One step closer to my dream Western-Kpop collab, a boyband track produced by Shift K3y. (SF9 track posted at the top of this thread is real close to the sound I’m thinking of.)

Ok I posted that without realising that Shift K3y is also going to be on the TWICE record! Nice.

Still think he should be producing for a boy group though.

Slightly 'off-topic', but this popped up in my youtube. It's a recording from the concert IU had to do the same day her friend Goo Hara died. The news reached her midway through the concert, I think. This is the final song. She says, "I'll pull myself together and do this last song. You guys must be worrying [about me]. It's really.. really... be well, everyone. The more difficult this world is, the more we have to care for one another... Man, it's very.. Even if this world loses its warmth, if only people show each other love... Anyway, I'll sing this wholeheartedly." And she does fight through the song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFiSgzfXRcY

man i don't think i can watch that. I still can't watch that video of Lee Hi freezing up while singing "Breathe" in tribute to Jonghyun. </3

swervy ft. paloalto - why same beat as 'color eye' i think

red square - color full

agust d -daechwita

secret number - who dis?

plus i must be a sucker for suzanne's vibe because after loving 'can't hang' earlier in the year i'm also feeling suzanne - do not fear heartbreak

ooh that suzanne track is lovely

no mention on this thread about how kpop stans have become a considerable bloc of the revolution? clicked on a "whitelifesmatter" hashtag on twitter yesterday and it had been comprehensively hijacked by people posting kpop palmface gifs.

It’s talked about a little bit over on the Twitter thread on ILE - it’s not particularly surprising imo, kpop stans have always been both politically aware and tremendously good at organising.

More interested in Kpop artists who have spoken out in support. She hasn’t had the best history in terms of acknowledging previous controversies surrounding appropriation etc but so far the best statement I’ve seen is CL’s:

CL said what some of these kpop artists will never admit pic.twitter.com/D7ZoLN1Ypr

— ً (@LISANATlON) June 4, 2020

A roundup of everyone else’s responses here: https://omonatheydidnt.livejournal.com/25969284.html

https://www.newsweek.com/chilean-government-blames-k-pop-recent-protests-1479151

10 years after the fact here is an ode to pep era barca

momoland - tiki taka

dding was one of my absolute favourites last year and here's
jvcki doing her thing this year

jvcki wai - fadeaway

bleeps and sirens make me happy

gaeko/nitti gritti/kaku - pass out

more bleeping

sik-k,pH-1,Jay Park,HAON - gang remix

low key hazy

punchnello ft. meenoi - us

not enough jvcki wai in fadeaway imo

love the beats on this, Lovelyz member doing something that doesn't sound anything at all like what her group usually does:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Stm2HanD6-8

"tiger eyes" is good but makes me think the producer has been listening to billie eilish

lol totally

The #1 retro-obsessed producer working in Korea right now is Park Moonchi. She released a single earlier this spring under her own name (she's not the one singing here obviously) and it's a deliciously mellow serenade:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTd4gMriSr8

Last year she formed a 90s style k-pop girl group with Stella Jang, CHEEZE and Lovey, which she produced, to great results

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Liah0NIQxeU

And she's done some deliriously feel good tracks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W50T9G-O7gU

She also does some mainstream, high profile producing, including Suho's latest single. But it's when she's recognisably in her own ballpark she's at her best. Her youtube channel is recommended. She's also on the keys for the new KIRIN x Hoody single: https://youtu.be/jsUrWT36Tpg

It's hard to keep track of all channels and platforms and output, but so much good has happened to Korean media from the breaking up of the big broadcasters monopoly on stars... alternative paths are now viable. Youtubers, streamers, etc. Kim Mina was a weather presenter who lost her job, but through her online presence and instant appeal as a funnywoman she appeared all over the place and finally got big enough for it to become a full time career. The big broadcasters have been so woefully male-heavy in terms of funny hosts, so it's always nice to see the structures uprooted. She's so funny, and there's quite a bit of stuff English subbed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nk-SH6VmIU

"summer love..." is lovely

She also showcased some of her recent remixes on the Jae Suk / Hyori / Rain episodes of Jae Suk's show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mD7Br9DMYFA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7pNOSpPsuI

Three songs released today:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8YW1tlsmE8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASekpYn6V8I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brZRDjFIFJs

like the Hwasa (loved last years 'twit') and the 3YE.

love this beat

BewhY X Simba Zawadi - Hymm

this is lovely but somehow seems not of this century to me

Baek A Yeon - Looking For Love

and so does this

D1ce - Draw You

real itzy vibe

Weki Meki - Oopsy

BlackPink - How You Like That

"look at you, now look at me" is stuck in my head now, thankfully too old to be insecure about my looks, but damn.

Woodz - Love Me Harder

Golden Child - One(Lucid Dream)

This is good, and the upcoming "Naughty" sounds even better

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ujb-gvqsoi0

YYJ and Kenxie, OG SM producers, collaborating here

Kenzie*

finally catching up with thread - thanks for those Park Moonchi tracks abcfsk, they were great!

blackpink tracks still sound like 2NE1 leftovers from 2014, get one new idea, Teddy Park.

there have been two excellent blackpink singles ("whistle" and "as if it's your last") but everything else they've put out has been so boring but i guess it still sells

Chung Ha with a very Chung Ha track: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsvoDgmfUwc 

(g)i-dle doing a victory lap of sorts - breezy track that namechecks all their previous hits with a typically killer rap verse from soyeon: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlKoeJ3xlx4& 

love the beat on this (they're kinda my favourite boy group these days -God's Menu was enjoyable too, if a little generic):  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZSv3aMGg5Q  

k-pop's really been so good in 2020. 

forgot about this, my favourite thing either zico or rain has put out in years:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VG6B2ME4Mm8 

gorgeous:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQSse3b2ge4

thought the new zico was weak, much prefer 'any song' from earlier in the year.

(g)i-dle okay but 'oh my god' about 100x better

🍎🍏🍎🍏🍎🍏🍎🍏🍎🍏🍎🍏🍎🍏🍎🍏

xp

GFRIEND • Apple

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VmLuWDkHYQ

a song i like from this year! soyeon mvp as always

RAIN and LEE HYORI are the biggest stars of the summer with two tracks in the top 5... what year is it? Well Yoo Jae Suk's project of bringing back the big star summer single is successful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESKfHHtiSjs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=942NkXvAtAM

enjoying yukika's city pop revival

i like that yukika

for some reason it puts me in mind of sophie ellis-bexter

from a few months ago but i like

GWSN - Basooka!

oh and from a couple of days ago

Oneus - Come Back Home

love everything about this except the chorus

Pink Fantasy - Shadow Play

quite like this too

Eric Nam - Paradise

couple of jessi tracks, one from july and one from today

Jessi - Nuna Nana

Jessi - Numb

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTowEKjDGkU

i'm about a half step away from becoming obsessed with these guys, a month removed from road to kingdom they're coming for hamlet

Oneus - To Be Or Not To Be

song of the summer for me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIeahm_gz4M

pretty joyous

We’ve got a dedicated thread for that:

where the hell is the summer jams 2020 thread?

Jenyer - Bad

ex monsta x member channel(zero)s frank ocean

Wonho - Losing You

Yes Sir! Yes Sir! Yes Sir!

Ateez - Thanxx

new KARD which seems like it's about fan/idol culture

Kard - Gunshot

love bea miller's voice and soyeon's verse

K/DA - The Baddest ft. (g)i-dle, bea miller, wolftyla

plus

Blackpink - Ice Cream (with Selena Gomez)

blackpink's "ice cream" has nothing on hyuna's

or f(x)'s "ice cream" or even red velvet's "ice cream cake". I don't have any faith in blackpink (or any YG act) producing any good/interesting music so long as they keep working with Teddy who peaked more than half a decade ago.

it's not their best but I really like Dreamcatcher's BOCA, which again finds a new way to play with their signature metal/rock guitar sound:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfp2bGytsak

found last years 'jopping' ridiculous but fun and like the latest one quite a bit

SuperM - Tiger Inside

for the first time i'm thinking that doing 1000+ sit ups a day might
actually be worthwhile

Wonho - Open Mind

killed it in shinee, killing it in SuperM, killing it solo

Taemin - Criminal

la-la-la la-la-la-la-la

he can’t get it out of his head

<3 Taemin

stray kids continue to be overly intense + supremely enjoyable. that bassline is everything:

https://youtu.be/X-uJtV8ScYk

bass line plus door mime excellence

clicked in here to see if "Ice Cream" (a current pop fave of mine) is actually considered mediocre by the K-pop crew... not leaving disappointed ;)

:D

try some other k-pop, morrisp! there's so much more interesting stuff than the tracks that crossover to the US charts

I'm sure!! I just don't really have a "way in"

for you, i'd recommend the very ariana-influenced Hwasa (of girl group MAMAMOO). :)

Thanks! Ha, you know me ;)

i think you'd dig Hwa Sa's "Maria" a lot

oh lol, of course i just realize after posting that Hwasa is Hwa Sa; I swear i came to that independently!

<3 Taemin

stray kids continue to be overly intense + supremely enjoyable. that bassline is everything:

https://youtu.be/X-uJtV8ScYk🕸

(Taemin not relevant to that post. Sorry, Taemin!)

also digging Mamamoo’s “gogobebe”

:D

I can't remember if it was posted on last year's thread but while going through their videos yesterday I came across MAMAMOO's also excellent Hip, which I hadn't heard before.

“Hip” is also lots of fun. It’s their biggest hit apparently!

hello

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeI992mvlEY

^^ that would be EVERGLOW • LA DI DA

(please provide track info, it makes searching so much easier and also makes up for future broken YouTube links)

you’re right tho, that song is immensely hello-worthy

very sin city video there

yesss I saw the teaser for that last week and I’m glad that it’s exactly as fantastic as the snippet suggested. the rest of the EP seemed very promising too.

yeah listened to the e.p this morning, all 4 songs really strong.

back door and la di da both pretty awesome and thumping/glittering

audio only akaik

Chung Ha x Christopher - Bad Boy

am partial to the synths in this

BDC - Shoot The Moon

am so close to liking this a lot but am torn between thinking that there isn't enough there or if the beats should be even more minimal, do like some of the glitches in it

Precious - Bebe

boy groups really bringing it this year

The Boyz - The Stealer, which rather unusually for a kpop song opens with the chorus

https://youtu.be/c_e-IC0VwZM

like this but smh at the all denim outfits

XUM - DDALALA

wow i love that

know their latter day output isn't that popular itt but what the hell i still like them and love this chorus and the jisoo/rose parts

Blackpink - Lovesick Girls

it's not really exciting but it's more enjoyable than anything they've done in a fair while i guess

Four years for a debut album that runs 24 mins, god YG is such a shitshow.

but surprise! I like this more than I thought I would. Lovesick Girls once again feels about three years too late, but the other songs are good - Crazy Over You is my current fave. Also Bet You Wanna is a much better collab track than Ice Cream - can't believe they went with the latter as a single and not this.

Jisoo deserves a solo imo.

anyway full on stanning Stray Kids at this point, so here's "Any":

https://youtu.be/uaJ81czm3xA

we love a self-produced group with a penchant for off-kilter beats/melodies and puns that work in two languages ("Any"/"ani" which means "no" in Korean, also Gone Days which is a play on the Korean slang for 'boomer' lol. it helps to know that two of their members, incl their main songwriter, are Korean-Australian.)

and I wish I had discovered this song last year because holy shit o_O

I like 'any'. My favourite 2 stray kids songs are still 'God's Menu' and 'Doubleknot' however. That might be because I do the majority of my listening via YouTube and the m/v for 'God's Menu' is a masterpiece from editing to transitions to Felix's undercut.

another boy group, with their debut(i think?)

WEi - Twilight

Weki Meki - Cool

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHikmx0eVXM

really like that weki meki

vacillate between this being too cutesy for me or not

WJSN CHOCOME - Hmph!

plus I like this one too

Refund Sisters - Don't Touch Me

oh and hwasa is in refund sisters

yeah "cool" is very cool, one of my favourites this year

"hmph!" is like a cutesy version of a t-ara song? i'm similarly on the fence as to whether it's too much

"Hmph!" is very Orange Caramel and it's great! when I think of too cutesy, I'm thinking of songs like Lovelyz - Ah-Choo (which I love too btw), not this Eurodisco-adjacent stuff.

Refund Sisters is Hwa Sa, Lee Hyori, Uhm Jung Hwa and Jessi - a one-off "supergroup" created for Yoo Jaesuk's variety show, which seems to be the way to get a surefire hit in Korea these days (see also Rain and Hyori's 90s throwback act SSAK3 posted upthread).

NCT U - Make a Wish (Birthday Song) brings you whistling and harmonies and so much Chanel:

https://youtu.be/tyrVtwE8Gv0

re: “Cool”: not too crazy about being reminded of that “Like A G6” sound in a 2020 song tbh

otoh, the throwback-to-the-golden-age vibe of “Hmph!” sits very well with me, strange how that works

not familiar with the group Rania that birthed this new act but i q like it all the same

Blackswan - Tonight

lol where to start with Rania?

They're most famous for the classic bop Dr Feelgood which caused a bit of controversy back in the day - the choreography to the song (positively tame even for 2011 tbh) was deemed too scandalous by Korean censors and had to be changed for broadcast.

they never really had a follow-up hit but all you need to know about the group after that is that this isn't even their first reboot; there has been multiple lineup changes, accusations of racism and whitewashing, and their label is extremely messy (for more, just scroll through the rania tag on omona).  

'Tonight' is decent not great, and I don't trust their label enough not to fuck up the group again, but between this and 'Hmph!', it's nice that groups are suddenly bringing back sounds from 2011-2013 kpop. I hope someone resurrects peak Sweetune soon. 

Loona - Why Not?

I like that.

Lots of nice releases this week:

MAMAMOO - Dingga

SEVENTEEN - Home;Run

Loona - Why Not?🕸

And sorry for Stray Kids spam but even their Japanese releases are bangers: All In

wasn't sure whether to post this here or on the rnb thread, but seeing as i've never posted to that thread i'll stick it here

Rakiyah - Like You

In the latest edition of “Kpop producers really loved Dua Lipa’s Physical”:

TWICE - I Can’t Stop Me

weird for TWICE to be so late on the Clueless yellow plaid look - that trend is at least two years old now.

Korea's original goth queen Puer Kim is back

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vr_mDm_ucis

soyeon from (g)i-dle sparingly used on this but kills it with her opening bars anyway. really like the interplay in the hook between madison beer's and lexie liu's voices

K/DA - More

couple of new boy groups debuted today,Drippin - Nostalgia is okay but i preferred P1Harmony which has a little bit of an Ateez vibe imo

P1Harmony - Siren

and wow i missed what roz had posted, i really like that
*Puer Kim - Unpretty Tattoo

GIRLKIND - Psycho4U

their vocals still not that pleasing to me but i really like some of the background musical touches in this

Treasure - Mmm

dude obviously likes future

Shin Seunghoon - Don't Touch Me

stuff i've liked recently

Disco gloriousness (though I still slightly prefer "Apple" from earlier this year): GFRIEND - MAGO

A couple of lovely R&B singles: 
JAMIE feat Jay Park - Apollo 11
GEMINI - Going

The trop house chorus is hilariously jarring but this is still a fun track/performance: Yezi - MiMew 

Taemin continues putting out good songs (it's bugging me but what horror movie soundtrack does those strings on the drop remind me of?): IDEA

really really like that gemini track, and quite like the yezi.

G.G.B - Bling Bling

aespa - Black Mamba

Momoland - Ready Or Not

Lee Hye - Erase You