K-pop Tag

So, just for giggles, I thought that I would do the K-pop tag, not that I have been tagged by anyone. It would be cool to be tagged, but alas, I'm not that cool.


1. Favorite guy group 

This was actually a hard decision because I also really like VIXX, Block B, and B1A4. These four groups are my favorite collectively, but I chose these guys because they are my first love. They got me into K-pop and no matter what happens, they will always have a special place in my heart.

2. Favorite girl group 

I'm going to be honest, I don't really listen to girl groups. Right now I am really liking G.I and Heyne, but I can't really say that they are my favorite since I don't know a lot about them. The reason that I picked 2NE1 is because I have all of their music except their most recent songs because I haven't really liked them. What I do like about 2NE1 though is that they are a powerful group of women who sing powerful songs. It is different than the usually sexy, cutey look that most girls go for.

3. Ultimate guy bias 

I think that this macro speaks for itself.

I love me some Heechul.

4. Ultimate girl bias 

Can we all just agree that  Dara is perfect? Please? It makes me sad that she is overshadowed in 2NE1 because while she is talented, CL, Minzy, and Bom are more talented so Dara's position is confusing sometimes. She's the director of communications of 2NE1 though and she has talent for variety. She has talent, but it isn't something that can be conveyed in a music video.

5. Favorite K-pop performance 

Super Junior's "No Other" is probably one of my favorite live performances. Why? Because these boys are a bunch of weirdos. That, of course, could be said about many groups, but with this performance, I feel like SM just told them to have fun and do whatever they wanted to do.

1. Leeteuk is way too happy looking, flipping his hair, but he's not constantly yelling things during this particular performance, only occasionally
2. Leeteuk's insanity causes Heechul to give him stank face
3. Ryeowook also gets in quite a few hair flips as well
4. The insanity that is Eunhyuk, Shindong, Siwon, Ryeowook, and Sungmin at the start of Shindong'srap
5. Lastly, every performance is different, in this one Heechul has a balloon, Sungmin retaliates, and it is wonderful

6. K-pop dance you would want to learn 

Yeah, we're talking about Super Junior again, deal with it. Maybe because this was the first K-pop song that I really liked, but I have always enjoyed this dance. It has that one key part and it isn't incredibly difficult, not that it is easy either though.

7. First K-pop song you ever heard 

This isn't the song that grabbed me by the throat and dragged me into K-pop, but it was the first song that I ever heard. It was a complete accident as well, I think that it was a add on the side of my Facebook that I randomly clicked. I thought that the concept of the video was cool, but I didn't love the song.

I actually ended up forgetting about the song which was a problem when I wanted to look it up again so that I could learn more about it. The video that helped me find this one was actually The Fine Bros "Kids React to K-pop" video.

 8. Favorite interview 

I'm having trouble posting the video because it's on Daily Motion, but this is an interview with Block B. The reason that I like it so much is because, I like anything that has to do with Block B and they are so natural in their interviews. They don't just sit there stiffly and read things, they destroy the area that they are in. No joke, they are hitting each other, dragging one another out of the shot, and there is a little booth type of thing that looks like it went through a hurricane by the end of the video. It's great. 

9. Favorite picture of your favorite group 

Okay, so I know that I said that my two favorite groups are SuJu and 2NE1, but this is one of my favorite pictures of Block B. It's not a picture of them being derp monsters, it's their comeback picture. This was one of the greatest comebacks ever because they were able to tell the industry to suck it and came back and then won an award.

10. What do your friends and family think about you watching K-pop  

My family has come to accept it. They do think that it is really weird, but after being all about anime and manga in high school, to say the least, they're not surprised. 

11. Favorite cover by a K-pop song by a K-pop artist 

I'm going to cheat here and put one funny cover and one serious cover. I do what I want!

When it comes to K-pop groups singing other groups' songs, I normally prefer things that are done for fun rather than for seriousness. It is also amusing - and terrifying - when guy groups go full out and put on a skirt to do a girl group number. I'm looking at you VIXX.

For this category though, I have chosen a group of covers, and that word is being used loosely. BTOB have a collection of videos of them in the Cube practice room jamming on the karaoke machine to various K-pop songs and it is...... interesting.....to say the least. 

You rock that tambourine Peniel.

 
This song makes me feel a lot of feels. It would probably make me feel more if I knew who Kim Sung Jae was, but I can still appreciate the sadness that is felt when someone leaves us too soon. VIXX does a beautiful job at capturing the feel of this song while also making it their own.

My favorite part though is that note that Ken hits in the beginning. Holy crap, that was amazing.

12. Favorite cover of an American song by a K-pop artist 

Well, that just happened.

13. Favorite video of your ultimate bias 

This is more of a group thing that a solely Heechul thing, but it is still awesome. For those of you who haven't watched Super Junior's Intimate Note, you are missing out on life. In this particular cut, some of the SuJu boys decide that Heechul and Eunhyuk are particularly awkward with each other so they decide that they are going to stand on a roof and insult them. Heechul of course cows the members into saying that they love him instead.

I'm pretty sure that Heechul could ruin almost every famous person in the Korean entertainment industry if he wanted to.

14. Favorite dance battle 

There is quite a lot going on in this video, but the important part is the first half. The idol groups all send out their best dancer to show off their moves. The only two groups that I care about though are Block B and BAP who send out B-Bomb and Jongup respectively and the two of them do pretty well. Jongup also makes everyone fear for their lives as he gets his b-boy on.

But then, it gets real. The female host, whose name I can never remember calls out Shindong and everyone else in the room become dancing peasants. He kills it and it's amazing. He puts all the other dancers to shame and they are all aware of that.

Shindong has always made me really happy because he is the "chubby idol". He doesn't look like any other idol because he is heavier and I think that is great. It shows that you don't have to have abs and be conventionally good looking to be successful in the business. Get it Shindong.

15. What is your favorite album? 
 

I don't buy a lot of albums because I don't want to buy the whole thing if I don't absolutely love it. Why would I spend money on something that I don't want? After saying that though, I have to be honest, "No Joke" isn't my favorite song I have to be in a certain mood to listen to it. Linking that video was the first time I looked at the translated lyrics and Holy English Lirycs Batman, where did all that come from?

For other albums that I really like, they are Super Junior's second album, it's a shame that it is overshadowed by "Sorry Sorry", and B1A4's new album Who Am I.

So there you have it, the K-pop tag. If I had someone to tag, I would, but I don't. So who wants to do this? Anyone? Anyone?

~ Alora

2NE1 Do You Love Me?

How's the song?  


Finally 2NE1 has helped me remember why I love them so much. With CL's "The Baddest Female" and "Falling in Love" I just kept getting disappointed, but with this song there was no awkward "Touch me over here, touch me over there" and no cheezy "Not 'bad' meaning bad, but 'bad' meaning good, you know." Just a great party anthem that you want to jump around and dance to just like they do in the video.

Each of the girls had an opportunity to let their voice shine. I love how when you listen to it you can pick out who sings which part. You have CL with her awesome talk rap/singing, Sandara with her softer melodic voice, Park with her awesome wailing, and Minzy with her lower range and awesome harmonies. And even though they all do have a very different and distinct sound to their voices, the song still totally flows and all the pieces just seem to make it a whole lot of layered goodness.

How's the video? 

I love this music video. Like I was saying the song is such a good jump around and sing it with your friends song and that is exactly what's going on in this video. They're singing it in the car,

 at a party with awesome cheezy dance moves,

at a slumber party with curlers in their hair

At a pool party

 and one of my favorite parts, making their friends look awesomely silly by putting singing lips on them.

I really like how it feels like this whole video could have (and actually might have been) filmed on a cell phone camera. There are even different parts of the video where it really looks like they have an instagram filter turned on.

The process of making the video and why they make stylistic choices is always interesting to me (probably because I'm a photographer) and I thought it was really cool that this is the direction they took for a few reasons: #1 Their original concept fell through and to be able to make the deadline so they could keep rolling out a music video a month they decided to make it more homemade. #2 I guess people are really intimidated by the girls of 2NE1 and they wanted to show their personalities in more of a "look, see, I'm human. I can be silly and fun, don't you just want to be my friend" kind of light. And I for one think they did a great job in that aspect.

How's the styling? 

2NE1 is of course always known for being some of the leaders in fashion, and although they are dressed in some of the brands their known for (*cough*adidas*cough*) 

their look in this music video is a lot more casual than we usually see from these girls. 


I know I already mentioned it before, but I so love Sandara for having curlers in her hair through half of the music video.

Park Bom had awesome amazing nails.

It seems to me, like the majority of the video the theme of the styling was comfortable fashion with CL's oversized sweatshirt

and Minzy's sweater dress

Was the dance super amazing?  

There was only one small part where it looked like they were doing a dance together:


If you are like me and love super fun cheezy dancing, then yes. 

But most of the time it was just people being goofy and rocking out to the song.

 Which member owned it?  

I think Sandara Park did an amazing job showing how awesome her personality is. She was so funny and just seemed like someone I would actually want to know in real life. And no, it's not JUST so I can meet her adorable brother (although, I wouldn't say no if she offered)

No, but seriously, here are a few gifs to show you just why I thought Sandara was the best in the video.

You're just jealous of the fourth dimension CL.

She is so talented.

Okay, so Sandara isn't the only one in this gif, but I love her reaction the most :)

Did the English make you ears bleed? 

Of course not. CL's english is impecable and I'm sure she keeps the rest of the band's English in check.


What else is happening?  


MBLAQ "No Love"- MBLAQ changed it up and put out a ballad. It is good, but it didn't knock my socks off. They are adorable though.

Ze:A "The Ghost of Wind"- I almost chose to review this video. I really like the song, and thanks to Autumn pointing it out, I know that they can see unicorns.

NC.A "My Student Teacher"- I love the original version of this music video because it is so simple, but so funny. I couldn't stop laughing. I also watched the drama version of this music video and I liked it, then it made me a little uncomfortable, and then a little confused. Anyway, make sure to turn on the captions when you watch, because half the fun is in the words.

BAP "Badman"- Is following the post-apocalyptic trend that is going on now a days. For some reason I feel like a few of the lines from the chorus of the song are from other songs that I've heard, especially the "I've got a feelin'" and the "I'm a badman"... I can't put my finger on it, but I'm really not interested in researching it either.

And probably a whole bunch of other stuff too, but Alora is way better at this than I am.

~Becca