I wonder. Has anyone heard of BTS? In my isolated little world, I honestly don't know who I can suppose has heard of this K-pop boy group that seems to have been lighting the pop world on fire the past few . . . years (sorry, that's a totally gratuitous link to a group that I do like, but at least is a BTS song with an appropriate title)? And I mean globally, heading all the way east from Korea until it meets the west, and all the way west until it meets the east.
It's a given western pop is global; no matter where you go in the world, everyone seems to know iconic western pop acts, whether they suck or not (I wouldn't know about now, but in my rock-oriented youth there was a disdainful assumption of more suck than not). Pop acts around the world, including K-pop, emulate and aspire to be like western pop acts. Has BTS breached that rarefied air and become one of them? I honestly don't know. I read the K-pop newsfeed headlines about impressive milestones they've achieved in global popularity and exposure (they spoke at the U.N.?! wut?!) and records they keep breaking, but are they anywhere near being an enduring household name? Do people recognize their name in the entertainment section or can't avoid hearing about them even if they know nothing about K-pop and couldn't care less?
It's a given western pop is global; no matter where you go in the world, everyone seems to know iconic western pop acts, whether they suck or not (I wouldn't know about now, but in my rock-oriented youth there was a disdainful assumption of more suck than not). Pop acts around the world, including K-pop, emulate and aspire to be like western pop acts. Has BTS breached that rarefied air and become one of them? I honestly don't know. I read the K-pop newsfeed headlines about impressive milestones they've achieved in global popularity and exposure (they spoke at the U.N.?! wut?!) and records they keep breaking, but are they anywhere near being an enduring household name? Do people recognize their name in the entertainment section or can't avoid hearing about them even if they know nothing about K-pop and couldn't care less?
But here I am, a supposed K-pop fan and I know near nothing about them just because I'm not into the boy groups. I'm not chagrined that it's a boy group that's breaking through after multiple high-profile failures of girl groups through the years to gain attention in the U.S. mainstream. Even though I'm not into the boy groups, I have no doubt the quality of the songwriting and production is just as good as the girl groups I'm into (the above link is the first time I listened to a BTS song, and it notably didn't suck. I could listen to it multiple times and even pinpoint what I think is cool in both the audio and the choreo (I just prefer to watch LOONA doing it)). I don't doubt they're exciting and fun to watch if you're into that sort of thing boy groups. Despite what my CD mixes reflect, I'm under the impression K-pop boy groups are much bigger business economically than the girl groups.
My 2018 mix CDs (of the mix-CDs-of-every-year-of-my-life project) are par for the course since about 2012 and are all K-pop and two CDs. I thought it was bad when there was so much stuff being released that I couldn't satisfactorily contain everything killing me to leave off on a single CD. Now it's just ridiculous and I could easily fill a third CD (whoa! déjà vu), but that's somewhere I'll never go, even if these are just for me. Actually, because they're just for me. A third collection would need a specifiable justification, the likes of which I can't even imagine for K-pop.
I think this is just normal now, but I struggled for months, gnashing my teeth and pulling my hair (at least taking off my slipper and repeatedly hitting my head with it), compiling song lists and track sequences, often ending in frustration and whimpering feelings of futility and impotence, trying to carve out a flow and segues that I felt worked. Segues and sequence flow are what make a mix for me (says the person who listens to a 20,000+ collection on SHUFFLE. It isn't always pretty). But then suddenly I'll have one or two magical sessions moving songs around in iTunes playlists and suddenly all the problems go away (not really, it's more of a forced satisfaction considering there was enough good stuff to fill a third CD) and something comes together and "by George, I think I've got it!". Where I had nothing the day before, suddenly I have something. Pretty!*
My 2018 mix CDs (of the mix-CDs-of-every-year-of-my-life project) are par for the course since about 2012 and are all K-pop and two CDs. I thought it was bad when there was so much stuff being released that I couldn't satisfactorily contain everything killing me to leave off on a single CD. Now it's just ridiculous and I could easily fill a third CD (whoa! déjà vu), but that's somewhere I'll never go, even if these are just for me. Actually, because they're just for me. A third collection would need a specifiable justification, the likes of which I can't even imagine for K-pop.
I think this is just normal now, but I struggled for months, gnashing my teeth and pulling my hair (at least taking off my slipper and repeatedly hitting my head with it), compiling song lists and track sequences, often ending in frustration and whimpering feelings of futility and impotence, trying to carve out a flow and segues that I felt worked. Segues and sequence flow are what make a mix for me (says the person who listens to a 20,000+ collection on SHUFFLE. It isn't always pretty). But then suddenly I'll have one or two magical sessions moving songs around in iTunes playlists and suddenly all the problems go away (not really, it's more of a forced satisfaction considering there was enough good stuff to fill a third CD) and something comes together and "by George, I think I've got it!". Where I had nothing the day before, suddenly I have something. Pretty!*
Disc 1: (zip download)
1. favOriTe (LOOΠΔ)2. Mi-myo Mi-myo (Lovelyz) (full-stage camcorder)
3. What is Love? (Twice) (unofficial stage mix)
4. Bad Boy (Red Velvet)
5. Green Apple (Berry Good)
6. Hurry Up (Sohee (Elris))
7. WooWoo (DIA)
8. The Blue Bird (April)
9. Crush (Weki Meki)
10. DKDK (Dugeum Dugeum) (fromis_9) (music video (because cats))
11. Lady (EXID)
12. Don't Let Me Know (Ko Sungmin)
13. Burning (Rothy)
14. Punk Right Now (HYO (SNSD (Hyoyeon)))
15. Baby Boo (feat. KissN, Mint (ex-Tiny-G)) (High Soul)
16. Is Who (Minseo)
17. Dududu (AoA) (lyric video) (official audio)
18. See Sea (Hyolyn (ex-Sistar))
19. Let You Go (Yubin (ex-Wonder Girls)) (lyric video) (official audio)
20. I'm Your Girl? (Khan) (although this is how people from my generation read their name; don't know if their agency CEO is a Star Trek fan)
21. Remember Me (Oh My Girl)
22. The Same Memory (Kassy) (lyric video) (official audio)
23. I Wish (Baek Ah Yeon) (official audio)
24. Masquerade (WJSN - Cosmic Girls) (lyric video) (official audio)
Disc 2:
1. I Mean (UNI.T)
2. Oh! My Mistake (April)
3. #Cookie Jar (Red Velvet)
4. Wind Flower (Mamamoo)
5. Milkshake (Flavor (Fanatics))
6. Travel (Bolbbalgan4)
7. Rendezvous 18.6y (yyxy (LOOΠΔ)) (lyric video) (audio only)
8. Heroine (Sunmi (ex-Wonder Girls))
9. Fanci (Girlkind)
10. Love Bomb (fromis_9) (choreography video)
11. Twenty Something (Song Juhee (Hello Venus (Alice)))
12. Twilight (Oh My Girl)
13. Jealousy (Nara (Asha))
14. Dressroom (Primary x Anda)
15. Sullae (Rothy)
16. Dear (Gugudan) (lyric video) (official audio)
17. Yes or Yes (Twice)
18. Hi High (LOOΠΔ) (choreography video) (live)
19. Save Me, Save You (WJSN - Cosmic Girls)
20. Once Love Begins (Kassy)
21. LaTaTa ((g)i-dle)
22. Daydream (Lovelyz) (lyric video) (official audio)
The lyric videos are something new in the past few years, made by media-savvy international/bilingual fans, and they seem to not be getting flagged for copyright violations. Have agencies despite their corporate mindset accepted the value of international fans and their desire to know the lyrics or practice Korean (not me on either of those points)? Doubt it, but I have no idea, but as long as they're not getting taken down, I'll link them for the audio files. And I might note that one of my original criteria for K-pop fandom was that I never look up the lyrics (assuming it's a lot of stupid, banal shit about löve and broken hearts). It's actually not all bad (unlike western pop, whose lyrics which I can understand are usually what make me turn it off relatively quickly).
*Or not. It took nearly a month more to finalize the mixes because one of the songs I really, really wanted (a ballad, I'm getting old) was actually from 2015. It was included on a 2018 release of another song and that led to my mistake. I only realized it when looking for a video and found one posted in 2015 and even marked in the video as 2015. A little research revealed the song was included in the Korean 10th anniversary re-release of "Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind" (explaining why the song plays over scenes from that movie). Anyway, it took me a while to accept that wasn't tenable. The bottom line would always be it's a 2015 song that I would be faking is from 2018.
So the track list had to be changed. Unfortunately it wasn't a matter of just switching out tracks and having things still work, but was a case of a single track change causing a domino effect of a lot of segues no longer working as songs are replaced and moved around or sounding OK but no better than if they had been shuffled in that order. These are matters of great importance! It came down to identifying sequences of songs that I absolutely didn't want to change and completely starting over with the messy parts and re-envisioning them anew, not just switching songs in and out.
In the end, the change ultimately did allow for three Loona tracks on the mixes. Loona is (probably) now my hands-down favorite K-pop girl group for the ages. They are my Genesis of K-pop. I can love other groups and get all gooey over them, but Loona is now pinnacle and all other groups take one step back against them.
They completed their circle in 2018 and debuted as a 12-member group in August after 22 months of a one-by-one member roll-out, three sub-units (Loona 1/3, Odd Eye Circle and yyxy (pronounced y-y-by-y)), near daily one-minute LoonaTV episodes on their YouTube channel, a crazed and staunch (and sometimes annoying) international following, and doing stuff with hidden meaning and symbolism that had fans shook, like having the first member coming face-to-face with the 12th member at the end of the 12th member's video. Their song "Favorite" was actually a pre-debut released two weeks before their official debut with "Hi High". I heard some people were disappointed by their debut. I'm guessing they wanted something more? To me it was perfect, it's a celebration and declaration of their aspirations (despite completely unrelated lyrics (some quite funny) aside from the title), and makes me tear up knowing their whole story and what it all means. The video is loosely the coming together story of the group, searching for and finding each other through the different "worlds" in the Loonaverse, with references to past videos and locations and things fans would recognize.
One detail about Loona that I didn't get until relatively late is that during their member-by-member roll-out, all of their releases were titled "Girl of the Month" and what girl it was. Turns out the name of the group in Korean (이달의 소녀, pronounced idarui sonyeo) translates to . . . "Girl of the Month"! It wasn't the name of the project releases, but the name of the group. "Loona" is primarily for international fans; only the bravest and boldest would try pronouncing the Korean in public or to a Korean person (I wouldn't). In Korea, references to "Loona" and "Idarui Sonyeo" are interchangeable once it's clear they're referring to the group.
Mamamoo and AOA are groups I've gushed about in the past but only got one track each this time. I've been a fan of Mamamoo since their pre-debut and I'm very happy that they've become a top girl group but I feel they've kinda plateaued. They released three EPs last year, all good stuff mind you, but only one song that really stood out and sent into my stratosphere. AOA heart-breakingly lost member Choa who first quit the group with news reports citing depression, quietly left the agency after her contract ended, and has effectively withdrawn completely from the industry. She was likely in retrospect my ultimate bias of all girl group members. So much so that I only support her well-being and if I never hear her sing again but she finds a measure of peace in herself, I'm good with that. I'm glad AOA is continuing even though it's not the same. It's a K-pop microcosm version of Queen without Freddie Mercury (that's how good I think she was, but wouldn't argue against accusations of exaggeration), but with Paul Rodgers or Adam Lambert. There's still competence and excellence, but not so much soaring. The AOA track I chose wasn't the one they promoted.
worthy considerations:
No More (Uni.T)
Cloud (Rothy)
Super Duper (AoA)
To Heart (fromis_9)
Ho! (Twice) (lyric video)
Don't Forget (Kassy)
Game Over (Yubin (ex-Wonder Girls)) (lyric video)
Clover (fromis_9) (lyric video)
Dreams Come True (WJSN - Cosmic Girls)
Distance (CLC)
Banana Allergy Monkey (Banhana (Oh My Girl))
Was It You? (Baek Ah Yeon)
It's Okay (Kisum feat. Heize)
Mellow Mellow (Berry Good)
The Boots (gugudan)
Hann ((g)i-dle)
Sweet Heart (Banhana (Oh My Girl))
Not That Type (gugudan)
Coloring (fromis_9) (lyric video)
True Valentine (Weki Meki)
Those Days I Loved (High Soul x KissN)
Semina (Semina (gugudan))
So the track list had to be changed. Unfortunately it wasn't a matter of just switching out tracks and having things still work, but was a case of a single track change causing a domino effect of a lot of segues no longer working as songs are replaced and moved around or sounding OK but no better than if they had been shuffled in that order. These are matters of great importance! It came down to identifying sequences of songs that I absolutely didn't want to change and completely starting over with the messy parts and re-envisioning them anew, not just switching songs in and out.
In the end, the change ultimately did allow for three Loona tracks on the mixes. Loona is (probably) now my hands-down favorite K-pop girl group for the ages. They are my Genesis of K-pop. I can love other groups and get all gooey over them, but Loona is now pinnacle and all other groups take one step back against them.
They completed their circle in 2018 and debuted as a 12-member group in August after 22 months of a one-by-one member roll-out, three sub-units (Loona 1/3, Odd Eye Circle and yyxy (pronounced y-y-by-y)), near daily one-minute LoonaTV episodes on their YouTube channel, a crazed and staunch (and sometimes annoying) international following, and doing stuff with hidden meaning and symbolism that had fans shook, like having the first member coming face-to-face with the 12th member at the end of the 12th member's video. Their song "Favorite" was actually a pre-debut released two weeks before their official debut with "Hi High". I heard some people were disappointed by their debut. I'm guessing they wanted something more? To me it was perfect, it's a celebration and declaration of their aspirations (despite completely unrelated lyrics (some quite funny) aside from the title), and makes me tear up knowing their whole story and what it all means. The video is loosely the coming together story of the group, searching for and finding each other through the different "worlds" in the Loonaverse, with references to past videos and locations and things fans would recognize.
One detail about Loona that I didn't get until relatively late is that during their member-by-member roll-out, all of their releases were titled "Girl of the Month" and what girl it was. Turns out the name of the group in Korean (이달의 소녀, pronounced idarui sonyeo) translates to . . . "Girl of the Month"! It wasn't the name of the project releases, but the name of the group. "Loona" is primarily for international fans; only the bravest and boldest would try pronouncing the Korean in public or to a Korean person (I wouldn't). In Korea, references to "Loona" and "Idarui Sonyeo" are interchangeable once it's clear they're referring to the group.
Mamamoo and AOA are groups I've gushed about in the past but only got one track each this time. I've been a fan of Mamamoo since their pre-debut and I'm very happy that they've become a top girl group but I feel they've kinda plateaued. They released three EPs last year, all good stuff mind you, but only one song that really stood out and sent into my stratosphere. AOA heart-breakingly lost member Choa who first quit the group with news reports citing depression, quietly left the agency after her contract ended, and has effectively withdrawn completely from the industry. She was likely in retrospect my ultimate bias of all girl group members. So much so that I only support her well-being and if I never hear her sing again but she finds a measure of peace in herself, I'm good with that. I'm glad AOA is continuing even though it's not the same. It's a K-pop microcosm version of Queen without Freddie Mercury (that's how good I think she was, but wouldn't argue against accusations of exaggeration), but with Paul Rodgers or Adam Lambert. There's still competence and excellence, but not so much soaring. The AOA track I chose wasn't the one they promoted.
worthy considerations:
No More (Uni.T)
Cloud (Rothy)
Super Duper (AoA)
To Heart (fromis_9)
Ho! (Twice) (lyric video)
Don't Forget (Kassy)
Game Over (Yubin (ex-Wonder Girls)) (lyric video)
Clover (fromis_9) (lyric video)
Dreams Come True (WJSN - Cosmic Girls)
Distance (CLC)
Banana Allergy Monkey (Banhana (Oh My Girl))
Was It You? (Baek Ah Yeon)
It's Okay (Kisum feat. Heize)
Mellow Mellow (Berry Good)
The Boots (gugudan)
Hann ((g)i-dle)
Sweet Heart (Banhana (Oh My Girl))
Not That Type (gugudan)
Coloring (fromis_9) (lyric video)
True Valentine (Weki Meki)
Those Days I Loved (High Soul x KissN)
Semina (Semina (gugudan))
WordsCharactersReading time
WordsCharactersReading time
