2013 set the precedent of a double disc mix of all K-pop girl groups and . . . shamelessly not even trying to fit anything else in for 2014.
2014 certainly had its downs. The Sewol ferry tragedy in April had the Korean entertainment industry go dark for about three weeks, and K-pop fans around the world sympathized and felt the national mourning for all those young lives lost.
Then there was the car crash I blogged about at the time that killed two members of Ladies' Code in September. When compiling the second disc, it became a no-brainer that Ladies' Code's last song would open it. Turns out it's a perfect opening song.
A 2014 up was Mamamoo's debut. They actually had a pre-debut release called Peppermint Chocolate. There were a bunch of times I'd have the TV on in the background and this video would come on, and it always got my attention.
I'd be wondering who they were and why I didn't recognize them since they couldn't be rookies. Everything about them indicated they were seasoned performers. The song was funky and cool and the execution was sophisticated and confident with poise and swagger.
But rookies they were and the press started referring to them as super-rookies, whatever that means. I think they did really well at the end-of-year awards in the rookie of the year category. As did Ladies' Code the year before.
AoA is another up. Not rookies, but I started noticing them in 2013 and in 2014 they owned the sexy concept. I think Sistar is the girl group most associated with the sexy concept, and no slight to them, but AoA owned even them, with great songs to back them up.
The 2013 mix also set the precedent of three tracks by one act (Girl's Day). In 2014, both Mamamoo and AoA had at least three worthy tracks, but ultimately Mamamoo won out with a track that wasn't promoted, over an AoA track that was. I'm not sure what the logic is, but as great as AoA was in 2014, maybe I throw my hat in for Mamamoo for being more than just an agency trained girl group. Something about them was, and continues to be, actual talent, creativity and . . . soul.
That all made the second disc difficult to compile, but adding to that were three established girl groups (Kara, Secret and T-ara) releasing songs they promoted that were pretty good but didn't bowl me over, but with b-side tracks that did catch my attention and were included. Maybe the promoted tracks were getting a bit cliched. They were the kind of tracks that they'd typically promote; upbeat tracks that were easy to choreograph. Not bad at all, but other tracks I thought were better songs.
I did like ending up the whole collection with a song called "1999". Prince's "1999" ended my 1982 mix. That was 18 years before the millennium and was kind of a pre-apocalyptic, Cold War party song. Koyote's "1999" is 15 years after and is more of a nostalgia party song, recalling the fashions and music and how cold the winter was and wanting to go back. Turns out it's a perfect closing song.
2014, part one
1. Mr. Ambiguous (Mamamoo)
2. You Don't Know Women (Hyosung (Secret)) (audio only)
3. Miniskirt (AOA)
4. Monday Blues (Sunny Hill)
5. Marionette (Stellar)
6. B.B.B. (Big Baby Baby) (Dal Shabet)
7. Uh-ee! (Crayon Pop)
8. Pretty Lingerie (G.NA)
9. Ice Baby (Tiny-G)
10. My Copycat (Orange Caramel (After School))
11. Darling (Girl's Day)
12. Marionette (Jiyeon (T-ara)) (lyric video) (audio only)
13. Hello Baby (NC.A)
14. Beautiful (Park Bo Ram)
15. Goodbye My Love (feat. Tiger JK, Bizzy) (Kim Wan Sun) (unofficial upload) (music video)
16. Cha Cha (Rainbow Blaxx)
17. I Swear (SISTAR)
18. What Cha' Doin' Today (4minute)
19. So Wonderful (Ladies' Code)
20. Full Moon (Sunmi (Wonder Girls))
21. Yasisi (NS Yoon-G)
22. Inner Space (Park Ji Yoon)
23. Goodbye (SNSD)
2014, part two:
1. Kiss Kiss (Ladies' Code)
2. Pretty Age 25 (Jieun (Secret))
3. What About You? (ver. 2) (Laboum)
4. Red (Hyuna (4minute))
5. Boy Jump (feat. Hwasa (Mamamoo)) (Baechigi) (audio only)
6. Up & Down (EXID)
7. Short Hair (AOA)
8. Baton Touch (Mamamoo) (unofficial upload) (official audio)
9. Here I Am (Sunny Hill)
10. Beep (Park Ji Yoon)
11. You Don't Love Me (Spica)
12. Guilty (Stellar) (official audio)
13. I Don't Want You (T-ara)
14. Don't Fall Asleep (Pascol) (official audio)
15. Crazy You (NC.A)
16. Whisky (Hello Venus) (lyric video) (audio only)
17. Singing Got Better (Ailee)
18. I Would Do Well (Secret)
19. If I See Her (T-ara) (lyric video) (audio only)
20. The Story (Kara) (lyric video) (official audio)
21. Half the World Are Men (Sunny Days)
22. Piano Man (Mamamoo) (live version)
23. Catallena (Orange Caramel (After School))
24. 1999 (Koyote)
2013 mix CDs
2014 is the year SNSD (Girls' Generation), arguably the most popular and successful second wave Hallyu girl group, unexpectedly fired one of their members (Jessica) and I realized I was more a fan of their cult of personality than their music.
For me, SNSD is a group of nine, and the hostile firing of one of their members violated that. I still like the individual members that I liked before, but as a group, I just found I wasn't that interested in them as a group of eight, even though I'm sure the music (i.e. songwriting) is still good.
But I admit the hostile firing was a big part of it. If Jessica just left, I'd probably still be OK with the group. But apparently it was a surprise to her and didn't involve any discussions with her. I don't think the group's agency looked favorably upon it or had any control over the decision since it was bad from a business point of view.
All I can deduce from the English press is that it was probably an internal decision that they brought to the agency after it was decided (the agency's stocks did drop after the news came out). There's no indication if it was a unanimous vote or a majority vote, but there was probably a range of feelings about it.
And unlike T-ara's disastrous firing of one of their members several years ago, it isn't clear who was happy to see Jessica go.
In T-ara's case, I think it was obvious Hyomin was publicly putting the pressure on Hwayoung and was supported, also publicly, by Eunjung and Jiyeon. The older members, Soyeon, Qri and Boram, likely had nothing to do with it (publicly neutral).
That pressure finally led to Hwayoung refusing to go on stage, and if you refuse to go on stage, of course you're going to be fired. That's a top to bottom, industry-wide expectation. But that led to the perception that she had been bullied and a large part of their fan base left.
I left for a year, not because I believed the bullying accusations, but because of the arrogance of their agency in forcing the group to continue on despite the scandal, as if nothing happened. As it happened, T-ara is continually represented on these mix CDs because my boycott was from mid-year to mid-year. By the time I decided to become a fan again, the group was re-established as their original 6-member line up and since then their agency hasn't messed with it.
Unlike T-ara, SNSD's camp, including Jessica, has been tight-lipped about the details of her firing. The public doesn't know and can hardly speculate who within the group was happy to see Jessica go. But somebody must have been happy or else it wouldn't have happened. Who in SNSD was happy to see Jessica go?
Any evidence is indirect and circumstantial, such as Sooyoung possibly being in favor of her dismissal, evidenced by her later gifting the cast of a drama she was filming with sunglasses that she didn't buy from Jessica's subsequent fashion start-up.
Of course she didn't have to. But if she did, she would have clearly been indicating support for Jessica. So the argument would go that since she didn't, she was clearly indicating non-support.
On the other hand, Sooyoung is a minor vocalist within the group and has extensive non-SNSD engagements. Jessica vocally carried her weight and I opine was only superceded by the TaeTiSeo members (Taeyeon, Tiffany and Seohyun). Even to me it's curious imagining Sooyoung bringing down Jessica.
There was vague, indirect evidence that Sunny may have not been for the firing, but ultimately agreed to it in later statements about letting bygones be bygones that netizens (the internet community of commenters who think their opinion means something but are generally a bunch of idiots) attributed to her attitude about Jessica and wanting to smooth things over.
There have been plenty of apologists claiming insider knowledge of the reasons behind her dismissal, which may be valid, but in the end she was fired without consultation. They may have doubted her long-term committal to the group, but they didn't ask her directly, "are you in or are you out?"
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