Current Events > K-Pop Spring Topic 2023

(+) Yeah! (+)

Ruddager posted...

The names have never actually leaked, anything you see online is pure speculation.

Yes, and those two names are my speculation.

Yeah I hope FIFTY FIFTY doesn't get MOMOLAND'd lol

Honestly if they have a small run as good as Momoland I won't even be mad, but I agree mostly.

Nancy and Yeonwoo ooooh boy. Anyone know what Yeonwoo is up to these days? I know she wanted to be an actress right?

yeah, shes an actress now

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/2/7/AAbtaqAAEW1v.jpg
Jihyo Christ. Short hair + abs = God Wendy combo

I think FiftyFifty is a bit more ensured by actually having a solid variety atm. Momoland was literally defined by 3 songs, two being redundant to each other to the point they just combined them early on for a performance.

Also, MMLD seemed to wing it with their gameplan. They had the group committed to the Philippines TV network in case spotlight didn't take-off in Korea. Here we are with Lapillus with a Filipina showcase member and a questionable discography so far.

There is no real past equivalence to what FiftyFifty is doing right now. Let's not forget a major distinguishing factor.

Small girl groups have had big hits in the past in Korea and gone viral.

FiftyFifty isn't popular in Korea at all, but they're going viral globally and actually just passed Twice for monthly listeners on Spotify.

I'm not sure how that will translate for their long-term success, but the Korean charts are starting to matter less and less, as K-Pop continues to globalize further and further.

Look at Dreamcatcher, for instance. They've never been able to chart well, but they've had a long and healthy career purely through their success in building up a fanbase and touring.

H1-KEY is actually the group going viral in Korea. For good reason too. Their hit single is a great song.

https://youtu.be/vfUAckewh_8

tbh a biiit wary of putting too much stock in spotify because between discovery and playlisting there are a lot of ways for numbers to go up without serious or active engagement. so far at least it hasn't translated to album sales but that's not the be-all-end-all and if it moves the dial it would probably be reflected for next album and not this one anyway. but yeah, wait and see i guess.

KaZooo posted...

I think FiftyFifty is a bit more ensured

lol i remember being in this exact spot arguing why momoland has a better chance of sustaining popularity than crayon pop by having 3 well-known members vs no one knowing them without the helmets.

arv approves of this topic. keep up the good work

ArvTheGreat posted...

arv approves of this topic. keep up the good work

Who is Arv's ult bias?

PumpkinCoach posted...

tbh a biiit wary of putting too much stock in spotify because between discovery and playlisting there are a lot of ways for numbers to go up without serious or active engagement.

It's the combination of Spotify, TikTok and Hot 100 that put FiftyFifty in uncharted territory, from my perspective at least.

I honestly don't know how this is going to pan out for them, because we've never seen a "nugu" group do this, so I agree on the wait and see approach.

I honestly love stumbling across a group like Fifty Fifty. I'd see them scrolling through YouTube sometimes, but then got somewhat more interested when I heard them announce their fandom name (Hunnies) which I thought was cute AND made sense. Then finally gave them a listen and fell in love with Aran's voice.

Touch posted...

Who is Arv's ult bias?

arv has no bias

Touch posted...

I honestly love stumbling across a group like Fifty Fifty. I'd see them scrolling through YouTube sometimes, but then got somewhat more interested when I heard them announce their fandom name (Hunnies) which I thought was cute AND made sense. Then finally gave them a listen and fell in love with Aran's voice.

Cupid isn't even my favorite song by them.

I absolutely love...Lovin' Me and Higher is not far behind. I stumbled across them just before Cupid started blowing up, after my curiosity led me into a reddit post that said their songs were great.

They haven't released much, but there aren't any misses for me so far.

ArvTheGreat posted...

arv has no bias

Here I was about to stan Arv smh

MiserofMisery posted...

I absolutely love...Lovin' Me and Higher is not far behind.

I'm kinda the same. Cupid isn't bad or anything. I particularly like what Lovin Me' did with breaking the chorus up into near-isolated vocals.

Charlie is a real one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjwuMvwlG6c

KaZooo posted...

Charlie is a real one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjwuMvwlG6c

Man of culture

https://youtu.be/09y2wScROiw

Just a teaser but there's a couple decent looks of Liz.

Guess we'll see what this song does for the hot/cold public opinion of her.

Almost unfair how Lesserafim seems to have these kinds of writers and production resources available to them for a trailer, while most everyone else just dumps a traditional teaser thing.

I usually don't even like drawn-out things like this, (like when BTS did it), but the visuals and sound design keep me watching the whole thing. From the get-go, the team behind this group has done an exceptional job making them attractive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxVv7BJYjlc

Floodgates probably opening for covers.

A lot of the same/similar style movements as Ditto and OMG. Repetitive but in some ways sticking true to their current style. In that sense it rubs off like it could've naturally been put together as if they had to improv on the spot. And I'm assuming this isn't going to see much (if any at all) stage time.

I'll admit the chorus took a minute to sit with me. I didn't hate it, but surely was something to get used to at first. Taking after a traditional melody made it an interesting touch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrNtuAgwWgQ

Feel like Kep1er is still stuck in that position where they're making solid stuff but it's a half generation behind or so. The transition into the 3rd verse was the highlight for me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9ueRzymcU0

Anticipating some decent diversity in this album, which probably is what I think the group needed to showcase, because all their singles have just been really just trying to work the catchy angle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doC704Oszvc

I think I'll wait a couple days for Kep1er, I have a few episodes of GP999 left and I'd recognize them at this point. Excited for them and finally more than 2 songs at a time from IVE! And don't forget about KARD tomorrow too.

https://youtu.be/fEA72lTocr4

lightsum uploads video content regularly and had their 1st fanmeeting not too long ago, but it's been 10 months since their last comeback. i'm sure they needed time to reorganize after losing 2 members, but i think we're past that point now. in fact, no cube group have had a comeback in the last 6 months which is... a bit odd. they've finally just announced btob for early may and idle will probably be mid to late may/early june.

no word on lightsum - hopefully soon. though uh, mnet just dropped a teaser for queendom puzzle, about forming a project group from individual members of existing groups, which is ominous.

i can't remember what fab's usp is and i think they just have loona right? bubbles one of 2 big player's in the fan social app space - there's bubble for sm, bubble for jyp, etc.

Cool thanks for the clarification. Weird that I've never heard of bubble, but I've only heard of fab through loona so that makes sense.

Speaking of all these audition shows, Mnet just recently got caught rehiring the Produce and Idol School PD's who went to jail over the rigging scandals lol. Now, its fairly obvious that they were just the fall men for the CJ executives who were the ones actually behind the rigging but it certainly isnt a good look publicly

Current favorite of the album for me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEozUW0fVww

Overall I'm not sure if the higher pitches used across the album are actually sustainable in a performance. It could be that there's just never been a song for them up to this point to exercise it.

Doesn't rub off like album of the year material to me, but I think it helps create a foundation for the group if this is the sound they choose to maintain.

Rei on hiatus

Dang, literally right when the album drops.

I finished Girls Planet 999 and I really enjoyed it. I didn't really have too many thoughts until the final rankings announcement. Probably not unexpected rant: I knew my personal top 9 (at least from the top 18) wouldn't make it but I was hoping for better than 5/9. My top nine kind of in order were:

Choi Yujin
Su Rui Qi
Wen Zhe
Seo Youngeun
Shen Xiao Ting
Kim Dayeon
Ezaki Hikaru
Kawaguchi Yurina
Kim Bora

Honorable mentions: Shana, Ya Ning, Chaehyun

I almost turned it off when they announced Bahiyyih and Chaehyun as the top 2. Chaehyun almost made my top 9, but I have no idea how she won. Bahiyyih totally stunned me and I pretty much lost all of my emotional investment at that point. On one hand I guess she beat mnet editing that barely showed her, but there's no chance she would have even made the final episode without her brother right? And Yurina not even top 11??? I thought her and Xiao Ting were locks for top 2 before they announced it. At least Xiao Ting making it made me feel a little better. Also this might have been just a me problem, but I don't think I noticed Mashiro the entire show. Myah at 11 from 25 the previous ranking was weird too. I had no issues with ranks 3-8, but I don't think I like how switching to 1 vote per person for only the last vote affects things. Voting 3 per country and 9 total kinda screwed Koreans early, but 1 per person seemed to heavily heavily favored Koreans at the end. Chinese girls deserved so much better.

Basically everyone was talented though, I'm just mostly upset at the huge rank shifts and people who voted for Bahiyyih (though nothing against her really). I did write down 14 girls that I liked for whatever reason from their demo stages in the first 2 eps and 9 of them made it in the top 18 (5 debuted) so that was cool I guess. I'm happy for Yujin.

oh yeah Giddy was fine, not too exciting.

KainWind posted...

Almost forgot about Chaeyeon. Between this and Hush Rush, I like her solo more than I expected tbh.

For some reason I wish some parts were paced a bit slower. Some notes/parts feel like they're just rushed. Probably would've also had her come onto the pre-chorus and chorus with more volume. Probably would've layered some parts a bit hardware with backing vocals, like the trailing end of the 2nd verse.

I actually like the song. Just feel like some small adjustments could've helped it, and bridge the gap between where it is, and what comes out of a Chungha or Eunbi song.

lol do we need to spoiler gp999 especially in a topic that also has kep1er videos?

2 thing pushed me through gp999: 1) fu yaning 2) it's stupid voting system that was kind of fascinating from a distance

first and foremost is the 50% weight for korean votes. the show's popularity waned domestically as it gained steam internationally, giving a smaller more concentrated group increasing sway over the final result. i can't remember exactly but it ended up with 1 korean vote being worth 10 international votes or some shit so it was basically impossible to debut without korean votes. you're right to be suprised by chaehyun at 1st because without the weighting fu yaning and su ruiqi have more votes than half of kep1er and chaehyun and dayeon are out of the top 9.

also i feel some of the brigading was because of all the sensationalized articles about foreigners dominating earlier in the show, which again, is down to quirks in the voting system. yurina and xiaoting's drop weren't surprising because their ranks were always inflated by there being less competition in c and j group. like half of k group had screen time so the votes were spread out vs j group where maybe 3 trainees did up to the first combined ranking and even there yurina lost some momentum over time. meanwhile xiaoting was the only acceptable c group choice for koreans which didn't mean they'd vote for her when it was no longer mandatory. i fully anticipated her finishing c3 after ruiqi and yaning because you could feel where the 1 pick enthusiasm was. a thing you probably missed watching after the fact was that midweek before the finale they held a fun variety livestream (that's worth revisiting) which ended with an interim rank reveal that showed the top 9 with 8 koreans and hilariously, su ruiqi, and this was clearly mnet hitting the panic button to push for a slight course correction. even there you could see yaning and ruiqi dropping the least because they had hardcore one pickers.

likewise, p2 was a bit higher than i anticipated for bahiyyih (more korean votes than i expected) but i did believe that if she can scrape by until 1 pick she was a lock. it was funny because i remember seeing her voters form an alliance with myah voters in round 2 which was a dangerous game because they were both near the cut off and myah had way more reason to gain independently between good screen time and the pretty u performance airing too late last round to be reflected in her then ranking. bahiyyih was vulnerable when a 3rd pick was worth as much as a 1st pick because she had none of those and no screen time to pick up any, but she had the biggest 1 pick base.

PumpkinCoach posted...

lol do we need to spoiler gp999 especially in a topic that also has kep1er videos?

Half because if it was new for me maybe someone else cares, and half probably a bunch of people don't care so I sectioned it off.

I just feel so bad for several girls. Especially Su Rui Qi and Yurina. I don't even mind the heavy weighted korean votes because they are based in Korea, but giving everyone more votes or keeping it consistent the whole show even seems like it wouldn't make the last show so devastating. And not make international fans seem irrelevant.

I saw the interim rankings after the fact, I'll check it out if I can find it.

Anyway here's CLC

https://youtu.be/SAN_mlCFNZw

Strange Way to Love was better imo

And it amazes me that Dreamnote is still a thing

https://youtu.be/211aaP1-_aw

So...Jinni has signed with a new agency UAP and talks are she'll be debuting as a soloist, which makes the mystery even deeper lol. It's looking more and more like she violated some major JYPE rule and was booted, which also makes it all the more confusing why they advertised her leaving in a sentimental fashion when NMIXX was teasing their most recent comeback.

That surely puts the Black Label rumors to rest.

Blonde Karina.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/8/9/AAHRm5AAEYXl.jpg

New full length Aespa album on 5/8

ARTMS girls are starting their video log thing, so probably stuff coming up in the near future hopefully

YamaChan posted...

New full length Aespa album on 5/8

But I won't have time to recover from Unforgiven

Hoping there's more on that album than what was showcased at Hyperline. Hate to say it but those mostly sounded like unused leftovers. They didn't sound bad, but not the quality of their previous singles.

Leeseo's nasaly voice makes her very limited imo. I do like that they aren't hiding/covering up her vocals, though. She's not bad, she's just not Rei or Liz, and she's definitely been improving. As the maknae, I guess Starship has to keep selling strong with her.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXXCqpMTBN0

Not to get too much into comparisons... my peeves with IVE and their strategy on singles just seems like a departure from Sistar, where hardcore vocal showcases got traded for quick grab catchy production. I get that it probably serves better for business, but it that takes away substance. Take their lyrics and there's a bit of incoherence with the concept they're trying to put out.

Looking forward to this. I think EXO has the stronger vocal line (quite frankly I don't think really anyone's topping DO/Baekhyun/Jongdae), but NCT's typically weird songs limit the showcase of what they got. Jaehyun is mad tight. Jungwoo and Doyoung with their contrasting sounds should make this pretty solid like the EXO CBX runs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqhzLxK4paw

Unforgiven Samplers (I hate that HYBE doesnt have 1 video with all of them):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6XHm97Bw-Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZG9tZMXl4g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MT84TuqM2pc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oVZeC0Tta0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0DoPungXfE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aV7F7u1Empg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8g5ZclGE74

YamaChan posted...

New full length Aespa album on 5/8

Only a mini

https://twitter.com/aespa_official/status/1647616100803432455

HYBE and their marketing strategies. I didn't enjoy the added involvement with just playing those, but I get that it changes up the presentation. I do like the teasers just being instrumental samplers. Guessing they expect those to get ripped and reused for fan work.

I remember reading somewhere Jaehyun wanted to be a rapper. I don't think he would've sucked, but like dang if he skipped out on being a vocalist altogether.
https://youtu.be/FqKzBBRBH6Y

They always do just the instrumental samples first then an actual standard highlight medley with vocals later

Guess IVE will be the only girl group with a proper full album until we see what NJ returns with in June/July

Turns out theres actually 13 tracks on Unforgiven. They did 5 member re-recordings of The World is my Oyster, Fearless, and Blue Flame and also included The Hydra, Antifragile, and Impurities on the album. And even with only 7 new tracks they'll have more actual songs released than IVE already (despite 1 less actual release and debuting over 6 months later) and will have released more songs in their first year than nearly every other popular girl group going back to the 2nd generation days so I aint really mad about it.

May feels stacked for comebacks. Le Sserafim, Aespa, Idle, and Dreamcatcher all announced.

Wouldn't say this was a great performance/remix/cover, but damn XG making waves. Literally the next best thing to actually getting a spot in the lineup.

https://youtu.be/OHqQGClw0HI

global girl group

XGPop

KainWind posted...

global girl group

I liked how Jackson Wang referred to them as A Pop.

In fact, even though I don't vibe with a lot of Jackson's songs, I always love his hustle and how much he wants to represent and uplift Asians with his music and performances.

Touch posted...

In fact, even though I don't vibe with a lot of Jackson's songs, I always love his hustle and how much he wants to represent and uplift Asians with his music and performances.

That's pretty much how I look at him.

I think it does go back to the whole outlook of Asians not getting as much prominence in American entertainment. The ones who try to break in are not necessarily the most talented (not that he sucks or anything), but are the ones really putting their best foot forward like Jackson.

KainWind posted...

May feels stacked for comebacks. Le Sserafim, Aespa, Idle, and Dreamcatcher all announced.

And a Twice Japan single for good measure