Open the Kpop - K-Pop

Gfriend - Sunrise: music video review

1/19/2019

Since Gfriend, a six member girl group from Source Music, has debuted, they’ve spread their innocence and youthfulness internationally. Sowon, SinB, Yuju, Eunha, Umji, and Yerin have challenged what cutesy Girl Pop can be with their high intensity dances, power vocals, and ripping electric guitar solos intermixed in the songs. While maintaining all these attributes, they still manage to create a soft atmosphere within their niche of the genre.

Their latest release came out a little bit ago and is called “Sunrise” which can be analyzed to mean many things such as a change of pace, a new time, the rising of a generation, and many other ideas. I’m not going to make any assumptions on my concept of what the title means, but I just thought I’d give a couple examples. It most likely has something to do with “making new”.

The yellow-tinted sepia video seemed to be pulled straight from the past. I’m not entirely sure, but it appeared as if the video was supposed to take place in the 1980s because of the rotary phone, the phone booth, record players, and other trinkets from that era. If this still connects to some of their older videos, it means this is a jump backwards into a different era; somewhere between their innocent childhood and the elegant nature of this video. Maybe it is still connected to “Fingertip” and time jumping.

I wasn’t able to really follow a solid story in this one except the completion of the puzzle, and celebrating what appeared to be a birthday, but there was also a solemn tone throughout and candles spread throughout the video to give me the vibe of a funeral or a death. Whatever it is, there was retrograding, celebrating of some sort, and putting together a puzzle; most likely literal and figurative.

Gfriend always is able to remain true to their sound without straying too far, but also without being repetitive. Their Symphonic, Pop driven, almost Rock style that gives them their uniqueness has always been their selling point, along with visuals and being some of the best dancers in Kpop. While this song lacked a guitar solo, as their more recent songs have been excluding, it still is a hard hitting song with much emotion and depth to it. The Pop beats intermixed with the Symphonic and Orchestral sound is always incredible to listen to.

Gfriend is one of those groups that I love and will continue to support them as long as they keep delivering new music. If you are a Buddy, please give this review a like or comment who your bias is. Let’s see if you can guess my bias in Gfriend. I’ll give you a hint, her name means “wish”. Anyway, thank you for the support. Keep on listening to Kpop. I appreciate the love and I’ll see you in the next review.

WJSN - La La Love: music video review

1/8/2019

Cosmic Girls, better known as WJSN just made their comeback. They are a girl group with 13 members similar in concept to Seventeen, having subunits which specialize in different areas of the fuller concept. Although we haven’t really seen much of that yet, I hope we do soon. WJSN typically features a Dance track intermixed with a variety of sounds and styles. Sometimes it’s Pop, sometimes it’s Trap or Hip Hop. It just depends with them.

“La La Love” is the title track for their newest mini album WJ Stay. Everytime I hear the phrase “la la love” I automatically think of fromis_9, thanks to their most recent comeback song “Love Bomb”. It’s time to see if I can get that song out of my head and put a different one in. WJSN is one of those groups I’ve loved since day one, but I honestly don’t know any of the members’ names except Exy. As you can guess, Exy is my bias.

Carnival is definitely the theme of this video, but I don’t think it’s the message of the song. But I’ll get into that in a minute. The very first scene is one of the members typing at a typewriter (for those of you who don’t know what a typewriter is, it’s basically an old computer, used strictly for typing documents.) A circus tent is revealed and a bunch of other things including an actual sign that reads “carnival”, a masquerade, and others things. The video was supposed to be more on the sexy side from some of their previous releases such as “Dreams Come True” and “Mo Mo Mo”.

As I was saying earlier, the video is sort of masquerading behind its true intentions. Not really, but I wanted to use that metaphor. The song is about asking someone to stay and not leave, I believe. The album is called WJ Stay. “WJ” meaning “would you”. They’ve been using the WJ in their music since their first comeback. So, “would you stay” being the message behind this song. The video may be some sort of performance to try to convince the person leaving to maybe not leave.

What did you think? What is your favorite WJSN comeback? Who is your bias and why? Thank you for your support. I appreciate it and I’ll see you in the next review.

Apink - Eung Eung: music video review

1/8/2019

“Eung Eung” or as it is also written “%%” is a new song from the girl group Apink. Apink, over the years, has remained cutesy and innocent Girl Pop music. However, with their most last comeback, they made an attempt at being sexy and mature. In my personal opinion, “I’m So Sick”, the song that brought them from one realm into another, was one of their best songs (not discounting songs like “NoNoNo” or “LUV”).

The six girls are back and from the looks of it, they aren’t straying too far from the style in “I’m So Sick”. I appreciate this type of crossover. It’s subtle enough to not shake the die-hard fans, but risky enough to bring in new listeners. I could, but won’t mention some of the too risky changes that took some recovery for listeners of other artists. Apink has class and style with their risks. I truly appreciate that.

Are they sorceresses? I’m thinking yes because the music video took over my brain. But also because the crazy stuff that happened in the video. By crazy I mean the last 10 seconds. They brought a suit to life by putting a pinkified heart on said suit. It’s confusing if you haven’t seen the video. Actually it’s still pretty confusing if you’ve seen the video.

Basically throughout the video, Apink is seen in a pink building with all sorts of pink things. They are dipping random items in a vat of pink liquid. I’m sure if I were to go back and watch it again, I’d know something more about the person they are trying to revive. At the end of the video, the six girls are gathered around a green suit lying on a table. One of the girls pulls a heart from the vat and places it on the suit, about where the heart of a person would be. The heart then vanishes and the suit comes to life. Weird huh?

In the video, there were 3 girls who stuck out to me. Chorong was the first because she’s wrecking my list. She’s such a cute girl, no matter what she does. Eunji had her hair cut short, into a sort of Bob (I don’t know if that’s what you call that hairstyle) and it was black. Eunji is my actual bias. And lastly, Hayoung because, like Chorong, no matter what she does, she super cute and honestly (I know I’ve said this before) she looks like the hot mom of a friend. She’s youthful but mature and it drives me nuts.

The song felt a bit all over the place, but still grounded. Like a hint of organized chaos. It felt good and right. Especially for Apink, who have been taking risks and hinting at it with a song called “%%”. It’s probably not, but I think it’s talking about taking risks. Making something of what you have. Not sitting idly by and waiting for things to happen, but rather making things happen. Just my guess.

It wasn’t quite as catchy as “I’m So Sick” but it was still a bop. I still need to listen to it a few more times to get into the groove of it, but I loved it. Apink never fails. There’s a reason they are so popular. They know how to meet the audiences wants and needs and when to change it up.

What are your thoughts on “Eung Eung” by Apink? Who was your favorite member in this video? Are you a Pink Panda (Apink’s fandom)? Thank you for your support. I appreciate it. I’ll see you in the next review.

Luna - Even So: music video review

1/3/2019

Welcome back to another music video review. Luna needs no introduction but just in case you don’t know who she is, I’ll still tell you. f(x) is a girl group put out by SM Entertainment that includes member Luna. She is known as the voice of the group with an almost Broadway vocal style. She’s done plenty of solo work including a mini album put out a couple years ago. She also covered “This is Me” from The Greatest Showman last year.

If you don’t know who she is, you should do some more research because she is talented. Speaking of her talent, I’m here to review her latest solo song “Even So” which based on her more recent material, will be a Ballad. I’m not even upset because Luna’s vocals can hit almost any range from Dance track to Ballad to Jazz fusion. She is extremely talented.

Throughout the music video, I found myself confused and yet intrigued at the same time. The whole of the video seemed to be surrounding Luna and her possible stage fright. The reason I say stage fright is that at the end, she takes a deep breath after everyone is gone and she’s alone with the microphone. She’s also drinking and bathing in milky water in her dress which could mean plenty of things but I’m sticking with this fear of performing which is a sort of irony for Luna. However, just because someone does something a lot, doesn’t mean they are not afraid of it or get nervous.

As for the aesthetic of the video, it was very Luna. It was colorful but more of a dimly lit colorfulness. Her recent videos have been more focused on shadows than they are on color. It’s an SM video though so there’s going to be color like crazy. It also had a sort of retro Swing era vibe to it.

I think the reason it had a retro vibe to it is because Luna was experimenting in the realm of Jazz music. Like I said before, she’s done Jazz and kills at it, but this song was more experimental than her previous work. I thought for sure it was a Pop Ballad up until about the first chorus. After the first chorus came in, it was definitely a Jazz influenced piece intermixed with some Funk and Indie.

f(x), as many of you may know, is a very experimental group. The Red Velvet of the late 2000s. They are SHINee’s sister group, another SM group that delved into the unique and quirky sounding music. With all this said, it makes sense that Luna’s track would be a bit weird. But it’s good weird. SM never messes around with their music, especially with their more talented vocalists.

Are you a fan of Luna and f(x)? What did you think of “Even So” by Luna? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. If you’re reading this, type the word “TURNIP” in the comments. Thank you so much for all those who support me. I appreciate it. Thank you and I’ll see you in the next review.

Chung Ha - Gotta Go: music video review

1/2/2019

“Gotta Go” is what Chung Ha is shouting to 2018, as she burns her place in one of the first artists to release a track in 2019. I’m not at all sure if that’s what she’s saying, but I hope she’s not saying it to her career or me as a fan. Chung Ha is a very talented solo artist, first seen on Produce 101 in the first season. She has had a very successful career thus far, but let’s see if 2019 can be the year she explodes from her current position into the ears of many more listeners.

“Gotta Go” is the title of her latest release which I believe is just a single album as opposed to a mini album or a full length album. I hope there’s more music to the single album than just the one song because everytime Chung Ha sings, it melts my heart a little, only in the good way. I apologize again for my lack of reviews being posted. It’s difficult with my traveling and busy lifestyle, but I hope to be able to bring you more content more often.

Chung Ha brings her seductive moves to the table with this one and I don’t see anyone complaining. From body rolls to hip trusts, this music video showcases Chung Ha’s body movement style more than trying to delve into a story for the video. The video is essentially Chung Ha with a few back up dancers, dancing in various outfits with different lighting, although they seem to favor red light and monochromatic post-production editing.

I thought for sure the video would have a story, what with Chung Ha opening that massive book at the beginning of the video. The one with the big XII on the front. However, the book had seemingly nothing to do with the video. It was really just trying to show that Chung Ha can dance, which we all already know, but don’t mind watching again and again.

First of all, I’m definitely getting some Harley Quinn vibes from the above picture, but on to the song. The tone of the song was very mystical, almost tribal sounding at some parts. Her Trap influence sound mixed with her unique vocals sends this one far beyond its potential as a song. This tune is great. It’s addictive, seductive, and charming all at once in some of the best ways.

I’d like to talk about the song format, not because it was necessarily weird, but it still kind of was. The song followed a typical format up until the pre-chorus/chorus area. That’s where I got lost. I got lost because I initially thought the pre-chorus was, in fact, the chorus. As it turned out, it was just the pre-chorus. So I was prepared for the chorus, but little did I know that the chorus would be split up into two sections that were both very much the chorus, but distinctly different. Then after the bridge, typically that’s the moment for ad libs. But there were none. The space was used for a dance break, which took up the first section of the chorus and the section section rejoined with Chung Ha’s amazing vocals. It’s not much but I thought I’d mention the format.

What did you think of Chung Ha’s comeback song? I’m excited to see what other material comes out of her especially if she continues down this Trap influence path she’s on. Be sure to let me know what your thoughts are on the song. If you’re reading this, comment below the word “PASTA”. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you in the next one.

Twice - The Best Thing I Ever Did: music video review

12/12/2018

Before I even begin to type out the beginning of my review, I just want to take a moment to apologize to anyone waiting and hoping for new music video reviews, or even a word of notice from me. My schedule has picked up a whole bunch in the last couple of months and I literally have no time to do anything, let alone take 45 minutes out of my time to write these reviews; sometimes up to 2 hours. I’m working 2 jobs between the hours of 6 am and about 7 pm with about an hour break for lunch. So, from the bottom of my heart, I’m sorry.

But I wanted to take time out to review Twice’s latest comeback “The Best Thing I Ever Did” because, first of all, it’s Twice. Secondly, because I’ve been M.I.A for so long. If you’re waiting for some older reviews, don’t hold your breath because when I have time, I listen to new music so I’m up-to-date on Kpop, I just never have time for reviews.

This is Twice’s comeback for their repackaged album Yes or Yes. My 5 word review on “Yes or Yes”: It was not my favorite. Not to say it was terrible or awful or something I’d never listen to, it’s just barely about “Signal” in my opinion, and I was not a fan of “Signal”. I’ve actually listened to “Yes or Yes” several times since its release. But again, not my favorite. I actually loved “Sunset” but a song like that usually doesn’t get a music video made.

This video was an interesting mix of things. There were 3 distinct separations of segments in the video. First, there were various scenes of snowy mountains and Twice walking towards and petting reindeer. These were beautifully shot from drones and what looked like a professional handheld.

Another segment included the girls at a theater, watching a film of themselves. The shot in the theater was a mix of close up and panning shots that captured Twice in their true beauty. Twice being Twice and interacting with each other, even if staged, is still a beautiful thing to behold.

Lastly, are the scenes the girls were watching in the theater. I believe every one of these were rough shots done with a camera phone or a cheap handheld. The nice thing about shots like these, especially when done in montage, is that they create a feeling of nostalgia or reminiscence. The filming might not have been professional but it adds personality to the mix as well as authenticity.

Before I discuss the finer details of this song, I would like to pull out some of my personal gripes about the song. In my own opinion, I think the song could have done without raps. It’s not that I dislike Chaeyoung and Dahyun’s rapping. On the contrary, I love their rapping. In fact, Chaeyoung is my bias in Twice. It doesn’t change the fact that the rapping took away from this beautifully powerful track by slowing down the progress or almost altogether halting it. They both have plenty of rap time in other songs. I just felt like this one should have been strictly vocals.

This tune is a bright, solemn, epic, Christmas piece that matches perfectly with the accompanying music video. It mixes quite perfectly piano, soft electric guitar, bells - on top of many other layered instruments - as well as their beautiful vocals. This is the reason the rapping should have been cut from the track. Rapping is a form of edginess that, in my opinion, adds grime or dirt to a track (I don’t mean those words offensively. I personally like the grime and dirt that rapping adds to most songs). To cut from beautiful vocals into almost monotone speak singing doesn’t add to the beauty, it takes away.

In comparison (and I know you all hate comparisons, but I’m doing it anyway) to “Yes or Yes”, I love this song far more than that one. “The Best Thing I Ever Did” may be the best thing Twice has ever done. That’s beating out songs like “Goodnight”, “Like a Fool”, and “BDZ” in my book. Twice doesn’t make “bad” songs, but they can make songs that are not so epic and then songs that blow the listeners’ mind.

I know it’s been a while, so I gave you all a larger review in hopes that you’ll forgive me. Thank you so much for your support. But even more important than supporting me, support Twice and all the Kpop artists we love. They deserve it so much. I hope I will be able to make time for more reviews coming up. I’m in the works of a couple new videos that I will upload on my channel, so look forward to those. In the meantime, I’ll see you all later and hope to stay active rather than stagnant.

Red Velvet - Really Bad Boy: music video review

12/1/2018

Red Velvet is here to take the crown again because they just released another song for their comeback “Really Bad Boy”. A lot of people were frustrated with the song title because it would just be a “Bad Boy” part two, but I guess I’ll find that out soon enough. Honestly, “Bad Boy” is one of my favorite songs of the year, so I don’t mind a part two, if it lives up to the first one.

Red Velvet went head first back into the horror concept. This time they did it with some obvious props. Music videos like “Peek-a-Boo” were props too but it was more the idea behind the video where as this one was straightforward. It reminded me a little of “Married to the Music” by SHINee because the props were obviously for horror fun.

Overall, it felt like the really bad boy was the werewolf. They were focusing a lot on that character. I think there were some others but I believe the wolf was the main character of this music video.

Of course, I expected the beat to come down hard. It had a bit of a flair to it as well though. The music was very much Red Velvet as they’ve established themselves. For me personally, this song was not my all-time favorite Red Velvet song, but it’s still a bop and a half. Red Velvet can honestly do no wrong. I was a little surprised by the whistle screams that I believe Wendy was doing throughout the song. They were unexpected, but I guess it’s a nice touch since it’s a horror themed song. Lastly, my favorite part was the bridge because most of the song is repetitive. The bridge is repetitive in its own realm, but it’s a different repetitive and it doesn’t last long. It changes things up a bit.

Well, there’s my review of “Really Bad Boy” by Red Velvet. I cannot wait to check out the rest of the album. What did you think of the song? Did it live up to the hype that “Bad Boy” put in front of it? Let me know in the comment section. Thank you so much for your support and I’ll see you in the next review.

gugudan - Not That Type: music video review

11/13/2018

My girls are back with another comeback and a new concept, I think. Gugudan, the strange girl group that releases a new style with each comeback, has made their 5th comeback. The song is “Not That Type” and I’m not sure at all what it’s going to sound like. But if it sounds anything like any of Gugudan’s prior comebacks, it will be fire.

Since this was more of a dance track, the video followed suit and kept the sets minimal and just changed sets once in a while, but didn’t follow a story. They danced in various places such as in a parking garage, out on asphalt, next to a Hummer, and in front of what appeared to be a jewelry store. Nothing huge happened in the video, but their wardrobe was on point. They all looked fantastic.

“Not That Type” definitely had a different vibe and sound to it. Honestly, it felt like a updated and Korean version of the Macarena from the 90s. If you don’t know what that is, look it up. It had a steady beat that drove the song forward and didn’t change much from that point. There was a moment in the song when the track dropped out to focus on the vocals, but then immediately returned to the same repetitive beat with some adlibs behind the same chorus line.

I’m not saying I don’t like the song, but I could see myself getting really annoyed with this song really quickly. Probably because my first impression of it was the Macarena. What did you think of “Not That Type”? Do you agree with me? Let me know in the comment section. Thanks for supporting me and I’ll see you in the next review.

Jennie - Solo: music video review

11/12/2018

Jennie Kim of Blackpink has officially made her solo debut with “Solo”. Unfortunately, the song time is rather short, so I’m hoping they just pumped out a freakin’ bop in under 3 minutes.

Also, this review will be in collaboration with a good friend of mine, Seaun Atchison. He is from Arizona and helps with a bunch of the events happening around Arizona for the Kpop scene. I know that he was stoked for this comeback, as am I. So let’s quit wasting time.

Before I even begin to say anything about the video, I’m going to start off by saying Jennie is killing the game. She looked amazing and especially caught my attention in the rainbow dress. Jennie is a Queen! “I have to say this is absolutely my favorite song Jennie has ever sung. You actually get to hear her vocal range.” Seaun added to the ever present praising of Queen Jennie.

Now onto the actual video. I watched this video a couple of times, but still don’t remember anything from it. I remember her with a car, she was at the laundromat, and then she was dancing in the street. That’s pretty much all I remember. Now I know some of you are going to say that’s all that happened, but there had to be more than that in the video. Either way, that’s all I got. I even write this shit down while I’m watching the video, but I don’t remember anything that happened.

Seaun had this to say about the video: Also I love how in the beginning her outfits all coincided with the scenery. And on the topic of outfits, when she was in the laundromat she took off her white dress. Which was used to represent her "innocence" mentioned at the beginning of the song. And the progression shows how she's becoming her own badass female. When she opens the washer and it's a black jacket and she's in fishnets and all black. And to show she's over the breakup she tags her car with sayings like "Better off without you" and "Not even a distant memory."

The interesting thing about this song was the change of pace. First off, it started like it was going to be a love song (or at least what I would assume would be a love song sound). Then very quickly it changed from that soft, classical sound to a dirty dropped break-up song. In fact, in the song, Jennie says something along the lines of “This is a love story that doesn’t touch me at all”. I believe this line means that this bit of love won’t touch her, meaning that she is left alone.

When I mentioned the “love song sound”, what I was referring to was the plucked strings much like a Classical composition. It had a very elegant sound to it, but was severely interrupted when the beat change up came in. The beat became dirty really quick and stayed dirty for most of the song proving that this song was about heartbreak and not love.

Her rap completely took me by surprise for the fact that it's all in English. And the fact that the beat drops out almost completely to let the rap shine was such a good decision.

I also have to give props for the fact that this is a break up song, but a female positive break up. She's done with whomever it is and she's going solo. If you're looking for an empowerment song, this is it.

All in all it's a good short song, and honestly I can get with it. Can't wait to hear what the other girls drop. And I agree with everything that Seaun has said in this collaborative review. He obviously focused more on the video while I took on the musical aspect which worked out great. Thank you Seaun for your help with this review. I appreciate everyone who follows me. I’ll try to keep content up-to-date. I’ll see you in the next review.

Twice - Yes or Yes: music video review

11/11/2018

I know that our girls came back a little while ago, and I apologize for taking so long in reviewing this release, but I’ve been really busy because I’m moving in less than a week, so things have been hectic. Either way, I’m here to review Twice’s latest music video comeback, “Yes or Yes”. I’m super stoked for this release because, I mean come on, it’s Twice.

I think the point of that video was to create the effect of decision making, but it felt like a carnival to me. I’m sorry if that offends anyone. I know they were supposed to be using magic to convince a boy to choose yes, but it had a lot of the things a carnival would have.

Each member, of course, had their own thing. I don’t remember every person’s thing, but I remember there was tarot card reading, magic crystal ball, fire spinning, and coin flipping included in some of those abilities. Also Jeongyeon’s hair is getting long. I had to mention that. I wish Chae and Dahyun’s raps were longer, as always. Speaking of Dahyun, her pink/purple hair was incredible.

The music was really catchy for the majority of the song, but I feel even though this song is super catchy, it is nowhere near the catchiness of “Likey” or “Heart Shaker”. Maybe I need to listen to it a bit more to get the sugary goodness. It’s definitely not a bad song, but not Twice’s strongest. I really liked the stripped down chorus near the end of the song. It felt really unique, but not too out of place.

What did you think of Twice’s latest comeback “Yes or Yes”? Was it a bop or a flop? Let me know your thoughts in the comment section. Thank you so much for supporting me. I really do appreciate each and every one of you. Tune in for some collaborations coming up soon. Thanks and I’ll see you in the next review.