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nicksbestie · 4 days

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Nooks And Crannies - M. Sturniolo

a series

part three (read part two here)

Summary : You always seem to be somewhere in the bookstore Matt works at, never buying anything, just reading, and while Matt is technically not supposed to talk to customers for so long while he's on the clock, he can't help himself.

Warnings : none yet!

Word Count : 1129

Pairing : Matt Sturniolo/Reader (romantic)

A/N : the blossoming of actual conversation <3

The thirty minutes you spent sitting in that chair and talking to Matt was arguably the best thirty minutes of your entire day.

In a new place with a ton of new people, it was wonderful to get to spend time with someone who seemed to be open to talking to you. The conversation didn’t span for very long, but it felt like it covered a lifetime’s worth of information. You weren’t one to reveal your deepest secrets in a first interaction, and neither was Matt, but the conversation blossomed.

You learned about Matt’s family, that he was an identical triplet, the middle of all three of them, Nick being the oldest, and the youngest one being named Chris, and he also had an older brother, Justin, who was born before the triplets. He’s twenty years old, just a year older than you, and had also recently moved here from Boston. Both of his triplet brothers had their own jobs downtown, and picked up odd jobs every now and then to make a bit more cash. They were stable and comfortable with room to spare, and it was really helpful that they all had jobs that they enjoyed.

You learned that Nick worked in graphic design, and while sometimes it could be just a boring desk job, it was flexible enough for him to work on projects at home, often allowing him to finish them before the deadline arrived, well enough before that he could take days off. At the same time, he could also work virtually, which definitely helped when there were days he didn’t feel well, so he didn’t have to use any sick days. You learned that he really enjoyed his job, and he was damn good at it too, so he made a good amount of money from it.

Chris was a music producer. You learned that the youngest triplet had always had a very deep love for music, and while he enjoyed recording his own little tidbits of things that would never be released out into the world, he loved to help people on their own creation. He had always been insanely creative, and getting to help people finish their own projects that they were proud of meant a lot to him. It was an honor to get to see unfinished work, to help put the final touches on it, to help make it perfect to their standards, to be ready for everyone else to hear it. It was also amazing to work with artists that he idolized or enjoyed listening to, and it really was a childhood dream come true.

And Matt worked at The Ivy. To anyone else, Matt’s job may seem like a downgrade compared to his brothers, but the thing about all three of their jobs was that they really did love them. You listened to him talk about being able to connect with people, being able to see, read, and buy books that would become his favorites, and having a flexible schedule as well. You could see a true enjoyment in his eyes as he talked about his job and books, and there was definitely a little bit of envy in your own mind, as you liked your job alright, but not enough to pick up extra hours for any other reason than needing or wanting a little bit of extra money. You listened to Matt speak, noticing just how well he articulated, an impressive vocabulary, really showing the reader in him.

Matt learned a lot about you that day, too. He learned about your family, that you weren’t very close with your parents anymore after a large falling out, that you had a black cat named Mallie as a pet, and that you, too, adored reading. He learned that you worked from home, and that was why you were able to make such a large move. He learned that you didn’t know a lot of people here, and a part of him was honored to be one of the first people you talked to. Maybe it was because there was some sort of comfort in knowing that you were both strangers, and that you didn’t have to see each other again. You knew you would probably be back at The Ivy again, but if anything were to go wrong, you didn’t know them very well and could easily avoid him if you figured out when he worked.

Matt’s break was only half an hour long, and to the both of you, it wasn’t long enough, but you didn’t know that the other was thinking the same thing. As Matt checked his phone, he sighed when he saw that he only had five minutes left. He had really enjoyed getting to talk to someone during a time when he was normally sitting by himself. For the next five minutes, you both shared your favorite books, finding out that you had a lot of mutual reads that you enjoyed, and mutual reads that you didn’t enjoy at all. That five minutes flew by quickly, so quickly that Matt invited you to walk with him back up to the register to clock back in, because he didn’t want to cut the conversation short right then.

You continued talking until someone came up to check out their books, and you wandered away from the register with four new book recommendations. You went walking through the aisles, looking for the ones Matt had told you were a good read, and eventually found them all. You went back to the small nook you had found, sitting back down and placing them in your pile to read. You didn’t think that you would get through them all, so you took pictures of them, and read for about another hour. Matt thought that you had left the store and that he just didn’t see you walk out, either distracted by the register or he wasn’t by the front door, until he eventually did see you walking out, no books in hand. He happened to be stocking shelves at the time, so he waved at you when you glanced over at him, and you waved back with a genuine smile.

“Not taking any books home?”

You shook your head, glancing at the ones he was putting on the shelves.

“Nope. Left them in the tiny room behind the bookshelves. Hopefully they’ll be there when I come back, but if they aren’t, I took pictures of them so I can find them again.”

Matt smiled, knowing that he had used that trick multiple times before.

“I’ve done that. It works every time, at least in my experience.”

“Awesome. Then I’ll be back!”

You went to wave goodbye before he spoke, his smile matching yours.

“Looking forward to it.”

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lomlhwa · 9 months

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i'm trying to work (k.hj)

pairing: producer bf!hongjoong x non-idol s/o!reader

preview: it's late and hongjoong is still working on his new song. he said you could go home hours ago. you decide that maybe he just needs some... incentive to go home.

tags/warnings: genderless reader, big dick hongjoong, oral (m.receiving), under the desk head for the win, throat fucking, a lot of spit and some crying, cum eating

trigger warnings: n/a

wc: 715

song recs for this fic: she don't like the lights by justin bieber, look don't touch by odetari, seven by jungkook

a/n: it's been so long since i posted T-T i'm so sorry guys. i hope you enjoy this really quick fic while i try and get back on my writing feet <3

you pick up your phone and check the time. 02:00 am. hongjoong said he would take you home 4 hours ago. you knew better than to believe his timelines when he gets invested in a new song. you glance over at him hunched over his computer and soundboard.

“joong,” you say quietly. he hums at you as a response. “can we go home?” you can see him shake his head. you sigh, dropping your arms down on the couch. “you said we could go home hours ago, how are you not done yet?” he can hear the upset in your voice. he just shrugs. “i’m not done yet.”

another hour passes before you’re sick of just sitting behind hongjoong and being ignored. suddenly, you get a brilliant idea.

you inch your way over to the side of his desk. he’s so enveloped in his work that he doesn’t even notice that you’ve moved from your seat. you drop down to crawling under his desk, doing your best to not bump his legs. you don’t want to give yourself away just yet.

you settle into a comfortable position under his desk. well, as comfortable as you can get. you wait a few minutes to see if hongjoong has picked up on anything yet. he hasn’t.

you move your hands towards his pants, trying to be as discreet as possible. you tug on the waistband of his sweatpants. you manage to tug them down enough to get his cock to spring out. he knows you’re there for sure now.

he pushes his chair out a bit to see you. “what are you-” you cut his sentence off by taking his length into your mouth. he lets out a small, shaky moan when you do so. he rests his head on his hand, looking down at you sitting with his cock in your mouth. he watches as you struggle to get the whole thing down your throat.

“you’re really this desperate for my attention, are you?” he asks, cocking one of his eyebrows. you nod slightly, your mouth still full. “okay, then be good and get me off,” he says before pushing his chair back in, causing his cock to jab the back of your throat. you barely manage to fight off a gag.

once he settles into his chair again, you start bobbing your head slowly. your tongue darts out to trace the veins that line his length. he makes the occasional guttural sound. you try your best to deep throat the whole thing but you can barely breathe doing that.

you can tell he’s getting close when his legs start trembling. he finally stops paying attention to his work and leans back in his chair to look at you. hongjoong rests his hand on the back of your head, guiding your mouth up and down.

“baby…” he says. “let me fuck your throat.” you nod. you stop your motions, sinking your mouth down as far as you can without gagging. he tangles his fingers in your hair to keep your head still. you put your hands on his thighs to ground yourself.

he starts thrusting up into your mouth at a fast pace. he’s chasing his high like an animal. tears sting your eyes and saliva drips from your parted lips. your gag reflex is going crazy. your lungs are crying for air.

hongjoong’s face twists in pleasure as his high creeps up on him. his thrusts get more erratic, his balls slapping your face. his head is thrown back, sweet moans leaving his throat.

finally, his high crashes over him. he holds your head down, your nose pressed to his pelvis. he shoots 4 ropes of cum down your throat. you cough and sputter as he holds you down.

when he finally lets go, you come flying off him, coughing and gagging. you swallow all his cum, not really having a choice not to. you wipe your mascara infused tears off your face and wipe your mouth of your saliva.

hongjoong catches his breath before leaning over to save his work and close his tabs. he takes one look at you and laughs. he pulls his pants back up and stands up. he leans down to help you off the floor. “let’s go home.”

#lomlhwa #ateez #atz #hongjoong #kim hongjoong #ateez smut #hongjoong smut #kim hongjoong smut

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hit-song-showdown · 11 months

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Year-End Poll #63: 2012

[Image description: a collage of photos of the 10 musicians and musical groups featured in this poll. In order from left to right, top to bottom: Gotye, Carly Rae Jepsen, Fun, Maroon 5, Ellie Goulding, The Wanted, Kelly Clarkson, Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, One Direction. End description]

More information about this blog here

We're starting to see the sound of the 2010's differentiating itself from the 2000's. EDM and dance pop is still big, especially that "festival sound". Nicki Minaj's Starships and Rihanna's We Found Love are notable examples of the "wordless chorus" (where the song builds up to a drop or some other kind of musical phrase instead of a traditional chorus) that will continue to shape the decade's musical landscape. We'll also start to see more examples of songs being attributed to the producer in addition to, or in some cases instead of, the vocalist.

But what's especially interesting this year are the new ways artists are being able to grow an audience. Traditional methods of promotion like TV are still present, with Fun's We Are Young gaining widespread popularity from its cover on Glee and One Direction gaining their initial popularity off of The X Factor. But this is the year we're starting to see the trends shifting. While Carly Rae Jepsen was already making a name for herself in the Canadian music scene through her appearance on Canadian Idol, her debut hit Call Me Maybe, started to take off in the States after Justin Bieber tweeted about it. This wasn't the first time a song blew up online, and it wasn't even the biggest this year.

I won't bury the lead: this was the year Psy's Gangnam Style took off worldwide. However, the song is not featured on this poll, because it only made it to number 47 on the Billboard Year-End chart. This is notable for any Korean language song (especially at the time), but for a song that was so universally known and parodied, if feels odd that it wasn't bigger than it was. The reason for that is Gangnam Style became popular through its music video, and Billboard didn't factor YouTube views into their charts at the time. Billboard changed their data collection to include YouTube views later this year. Was it because of Psy? Maybe. But after this year, we'll start to see a lot more instances of songs taking off in part to the performance of their music videos -- even more than the peak of MTV in the 80's.

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linghxr · 1 year

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I watched all the Chinese idol survival shows so you don’t have to (but you should anyway)

About three years ago, I watched 创造101 Produce 101 China, and it kinda changed my life. Yes, really! This show dragged me down a rabbit hole that eventually led to me watching many more Chinese shows and listening to almost exclusively Chinese music. I’m even branching out to cdramas now. All under the guise of, um, improving my listening comprehension!

OK, so “all the Chinese idol survival shows” might be an exaggeration. I’ll be talking about these three classic idol group survival shows from the “golden age” period of 2018-2021:

>> 偶像练习生 Idol Producer/青春有你 Youth with You (iQiyi)

偶像练习生 Idol Producer

青春有你1 Youth with You 1

青春有你2 Youth with You 2

青春有你3 Youth with You 3

>> 创造101 Produce 101/创造营 Chuang (Tencent)

创造101 Produce 101 China

创造营2019 Produce Camp 2019

创造营2020 Chuang 2020

创造营2021 Chuang 2021

>> 以团之名 All For One/少年之名 We Are Young (Youku)

以团之名 All For One

少年之名 We Are Young

Here is the order I actually watched these 10 seasons in:

创造101 Produce 101 China

青春有你2 Youth with You 2

创造营2020 Chuang 2020

创造营2019 Produce Camp 2019

偶像练习生 Idol Producer

青春有你1 Youth with You 1

青春有你3 Youth with You 3

创造营2021 Chuang 2021

以团之名 All For One

少年之名 We Are Young

I started 创造101 Produce 101 China in late 2019/early 2020 and finished 少年之名 We Are Young on Christmas Day 2022. I was literally tearing up. Three franchises, ten seasons, something around 1000 contestants, and three years of my life.

In order to refresh my memory for this post, I rewatched almost all of the performance clips from these shows. I didn’t watch the initial evaluations or any practice room videos (it’s simply too much content). It was simultaneously fun and exhausting. I will go over why you should/shouldn’t watch each season and give any other notable remarks. Let’s get started!

*Please note that for any YouTube links below, there is a risk of muted sections, parts/entire episodes being unavailable, and missing/out of sync subtitles. For official links, whether or not a VIP subscription is needed may change in the future. Fansubbed content may have sections or entire episodes missing.

>> 偶像练习生 Idol Producer/青春有你 Youth with You (iQiyi)

iQiyi rebranded the series by changing its name from 偶像练习生 Idol Producer to 青春有你 Youth with You after the first season. However, they really didn’t change much about the format at all. From what I’ve heard, iQiyi doesn’t have as large a budget as Tencent, which you can see reflected in the show’s production quality. However, I’ve long felt that this franchise has a real charming quality that makes up for lack of flashy sets.

偶像练习生 Idol Producer

Watch on iQiyi (English subs, VIP needed) Watch via Idol Producer Subs (English fansubs, missing part of finale)

Why you should watch it: Though not China’s first idol survival show, this show was the first of a new era. It’s iconic! The theme song is a bop, 10/10. Also, I had heard of all of the winners before I watched this season, so there’s some real cultural relevance. I can’t believe it was nearly five years ago! The whole top 20 remains iconic to this day. In most seasons, there are at least one or two popular contestants who I don’t really like or don’t see the appeal of, but that wasn’t the case this season. This season is also a lot shorter than later seasons, so it’s easier for those who are new to survival shows.

Why you shouldn’t watch it: As I mentioned, there is a lack of flashy sets/stages here. The background of the stage often looks empty. There were some performances that were better than I remembered, but there were others that were...not. I’m pretty sure 黄明昊 Justin was 15 when the show began, which shocks me in a BAD way. And if you’re a Jackson Wang fan, I think he barely appeared in the second half of the show.

My picks: 郑锐彬 Zheng Ruibin, 周彦辰 Zhou Yanchen, 蔡徐坤 Cai Xukun, 王子异 Wang Ziyi, 朱星杰 Zhu Xingjie, 周锐 Zhou Rui

Favorite performance: PPAP A组 PPAP group A This was a powerhouse group. And it was hilarious to watch the boys’ reaction when they heard the whole song and realized the style was not at all what they had initially expected! They totally pulled it off though.

Iconic moments: 蔡徐坤 Cai Xukun’s outfit (and ego) in the initial evaluation, B-A-L-A-N-C-E, when we realized 朱星杰 Zhu Xingjie can sing too, 林彦俊 Lin Yanjun's platinum hair, one of the songs was called Mack Daddy which causes me great distress to this day, 周锐 Zhou Rui aka 周美锐 Zhou Meirui, I’m still laughing over 朱星杰 Zhu Xingjie’s resemblance to 胡巴 Huba.

Verdict: Though this was not my first idol survival show, I think it would be a great first foray for anyone. It’s iconic for a reason. You should watch it (and I might rewatch it).

青春有你1 Youth with You 1

Watch on iQiyi (English subs, VIP needed) Watch via Qing Chun You Ni Subs (English fansubs)

Why you should watch it: This season is the forgotten child of the franchise, but it still had some great performances and a lot of talented contestants. The theme song is also probably my favorite out of all ten theme songs! It was love at first listen. Personally, I enjoyed this team of mentors more than the first season’s. I also feel that the vocal-based performances were stronger this season. For instance, there were great performances of 李荣浩 Li Ronghao songs.

Why you shouldn’t watch it: I feel that some of the magic of the first season was lost, and overall the contestants were not as memorable or charismatic in my opinion. There were also several contestants I found extremely irritating and some contestants who ranked much higher and last much longer on the show than I feel they should have based on their skill level...but I won’t name names.

My picks: 夏瀚宇 Xia Hanyu, 李振宁 Li Zhenning, 周士原 Zhou Shiyuan, 连淮伟 Li Huaiwei

Favorite performance: 隔壁泰山 A组 Neighboring Tarzan group A This is a very unusal song, but it’s so catchy and memorable. 夏瀚宇 Xia Hanyu really made this performance for me. And this song still gets stuck in my head months later!

Iconic moments: 冯俊杰 Feng Junjie and 夏瀚宇 Xia Hanyu trying to outdo each other, 胡春杨 Hu Chunyang looked angry 24/7 for no reason, they literally got 蔡依林! Jolin Tsai! as a mentor, 李汶翰 Li Wenhan was everyone’s older brother, their performance made me fall in love with the song 耳朵 Erduo, they kinda did a steampunk concept which I love.

Verdict: It’s not necessarily a must-watch, but I still enjoyed it. If you’ve fallen into the black hole of survival shows and want more, I think it’s worth your time.

青春有你2 Youth with You 2

Watch on iQiyi (English subs, VIP needed) Watch on YouTube (English subs) Watch on YouTube (no English subs, missing several parts/episodes)

Why you should watch it: As iQiyi’s first time with female contestants, this season was highly anticipated. iQiyi stepped it up with subtitles, got Lisa from BLACKPINK as a mentor (I saw people say they came for Lisa and stayed for the trainees), and made a lot of content available on YouTube. As a result, some of the performances from this season have millions of views. It’s well deserved—a lot of the contestants are overflowing with talent and charisma. And honestly, you should watch this for 蔡徐坤. He’s a great MC/mentor to the girls and was truly a highlight of the season for me.

Why you shouldn’t watch it: This is the only season that I watched week by week as it was airing. It was EXHAUSTING. iQiyi started pumping out two episodes a week, doubling the overall episode count. I was literally burnt out by the finale. So if you watch this, please take it slow. Also, I forgot how much they did that thing where they cut away from the performances to show other contestant/mentor reactions and then have to go rewind on the performance...it really drives me nuts. They overdid it for sure.

My picks: 刘雨昕 Liu Yuxin, 喻言 Yu Yan, 王承渲 Wang Chengxuan, 刘令姿 Liu Lingzi, 许馨文 Xu Xinwen

Favorite performance: 不奉陪 No Company This was a tough choice! I went with this performance because I actively sought it out for relistens. That’s so rare for 主题考核 theme evaluation songs for me. All the members got to shine yet they were a very cohesive team.

Iconic moments: Bad Guy was the ultimate dark horse, how no one knew the song 想见你想见你想见你 Miss You 3000, 王承渲 Wang Chengxuan defeated the evil quads, 乃万 Nineone basically replaced Jony J as rap mentor, seeing 刘雨昕 Liu Yuxin with a wig was terrifying, they let the girls wear shorts if they didn’t like skirts #feminism, I still think about 张钰 Zhang Yu and 王清 Wang Qing’s initial performance all the time.

Verdict: I don’t think I could rewatch this season due to its length, but if you can commit the time, I think you should watch it. I’m sad I’ll never get to see a second 青春有你 Youth with You female season.

青春有你3 Youth with You 3

Watch on iQiyi (English subs, no VIP needed) Watch on iQiyi (no English subs, no VIP needed) Watch on YouTube (no English subs, missing several parts/episodes)

Why you should watch it: This season was probably the one I felt most emotionally invested in. I feel like I got to know the boys and was in it together with them (parasocial relationships, I know). And the friendships between contestants were so touching. Like 青春有你2 Youth with You 2, this season was also extra long, but I watched this season after it aired, going at my own pace. There were so many charming contestants and memorable performances. The dancing especially shone, but we got some great vocal moments too. I think iQiyi did a really good job picking songs this season.

Why you shouldn’t watch it: Sadly, the finale never aired. Due to the infamous milk-wasting scandal, the show was cancelled (but a winning group still formed and debuted). Even though I knew this before watching the show, it was still quite sad to never see a conclusion. Additionally, I believe this show started with more like 120 contestants, and I felt that increased number. Lastly, there was some painful singing and lots of very uninspired rapping. I feel like the gap in skill between the contestants was larger, and some of the teams felt very unbalanced as a result.

My picks: 姜京佐 Jiang Jingzuo, 杨昊铭 Yang Haoming, 十七 Shiqi, 徐子未 Xu Ziwei, 张思源 Zhang Siyuan, 连淮伟 Lian Huaiwei

Favorite performance: 燕尾蝶 Wings of Love This performance was everything I could ever dream of. 徐子未 won the world over instantly. He has the voice of an angel. Love the song, love the concept, love everything about it.

Iconic moments: 罗一舟 Luo Yizhou and 余景天 Tony Yu Jingtians’s friendly rivalry, 徐子未 Xu Ziwei’s back-to-back victories, Yuta’s adorable accent, 王南钧 Wang Nanjun would not shut up about 竹 Bamboo, touch 梁森 Liang Sen’s head for good luck, 刘隽 Liu Jun dances like he’s possessed (in a good way), that 雨爱 Rainie Love stage was a trainwreck tbh.

Verdict: Despite the scandals and lack of a finale, it was worth the watch for me. I feel so fond thinking of this season. Truthfully, season three has surpassed season two for me.

>> 创造101 Produce 101/创造营 Chuang (Tencent)

I read somewhere that Tencent officially licensed the Produce 101 name from Mnet, making this franchise more “official.” For season two, they ended up changing the name to 创造营 Produce Camp. The Chinese name remained the same for seasons three and four, but the in English they started promoting the show under the name Chuang. I think they wanted to beat iQiyi in the contest to see who can have the most titles for the same show.

创造101 Produce 101 China

Watch on Tencent Video (English subs, no VIP needed) Watch on 腾讯视频 (no English subs, VIP needed) Watch on YouTube (no English subs) Watch on YouTube (no English subs, episode 7 here, episode 10 here) Watch via Produce 101 China Subs (English fansubs)

Why you should watch it: This is the only season I’ve seen twice, so that says something I guess! This season holds a special place in my heart as my first survival show, so I rewatched it earlier this year with some friends who hadn’t seen it previously. One thing that stood out to me about this season was that it felt like there were several dark horses who started to shine closer to the middle/end of the show. I liked this because it’s boring when the debut lineup is completely predictable! And if you’re not already a 孟美岐 Meng Meiqi fan, you will leave as a 孟美岐 Meng Meiqi fan, guaranteed.

Why you shouldn’t watch it: Not gonna lie, I was not a huge fan of this mentor team. I am fine with these people individually, but together it was not an ideal combo in my opinion. They collectively made some very odd decisions that I strongly disagree with. After my rewatch, I’m just kinda done with 黄子韬 Huang Zitao. I also realized there were a lot more instances of...rough singing than I remembered, so be warned.

My picks: 孟美岐 Meng Meiqi, Yamy, 刘人语 Liu Renyu, 许靖韵 Angela Xu Jingyun, 吴映香 Lucia Wu Yingxiang, 李紫婷 Mimi Li Ziting

Favorite performance: 别人家的小孩 Other People’s Kids This is one of the most iconic performances (and one of my favorites) ever from all of these shows! It’s so unique and really has everything you could want. It was truly a perfect collab performance.

Iconic moments: When they had to tap 杨超越 Yang Chaoyue so she wouldn’t miss the beat, 王一博 Wang Yibo’s blue hair was gorgeous, Triple A group reunion, Look What You Made Me Do with creepy marionettes was perfect, when 陈嘉桦 Ella went barefoot on stage, 黄子韬 Huang Zitao literally screamed at them all, I’ll never forget the iconic 乐华 Yuehua performance.

Verdict: Even the second time, this was a season filled with surprises. It’s not perfect, but I think it will manage to charm you anyway. There are some real hidden gems here.

创造营2019 Produce Camp 2019

Watch on Tencent Video (English subs, VIP needed) Watch on 腾讯视频 (no English subs, VIP needed) Watch on YouTube (no English subs)

Why you should watch it: This was the first ever male season I watched, and I remember being apprehensive. I ended up having a lot of fun! This season really tugged at my heartstrings with the touching friendships between the boys and the intense 导师推荐生 mentor recommendees segments. I felt like I went through the wringer with them as they were forced to repack all their belongings, endure the brutal F班 demotions, hike across the beach, and more. There were countless hilarious moments too. If I were to rewatch, it would be for 周震南 Zhou Zhennan AKA 南南 Nannan. He just dominates the stage (despite his short stature)!

Why you shouldn’t watch it: I’ll admit, this season probably has the greatest number of contestants that annoy me. Sometimes it’s for no good reason...I just look at them and go ugh. The first round especially has some pretty painful singing, so be warned of that as well. Also, my rewatch made me realize I remembered very few performances from this season, which probably isn’t a good sign. Also, a lot of the performances were very short, sub-three minutes, which personally bothers me.

My picks: 周震南 Zhou Zhennan, 高嘉朗 Gao Jialang, 姚琛 Yao Chen, 陆思恒 Lu Siheng, 李鑫一 Li Xinyi, 贺俊雄 He Junxiong

Favorite performance: 开门见山 Kaimenjianshan I’ll admit that this performance was not as good as I remembered it being (probably because now I’ve heard the original by A-Mei many times), but I picked it anyway to acknowledge the amazing 高嘉朗 Gao Jialang.

Iconic moments: 张颜齐 Zhang Yanqi giving away jars of 老干妈 Lao Gan Ma, we never saw 王晨艺 Wang Chenyi again, 姚琛来了~ (Yao Chen is coming), when 周震南 Zhou Zhennan had his hoodie on but his ears were sticking out omg, try saying 李昀锐 Li Yunrui's name ten times fast, they had 30+ year old men here, this was the OG 乘风破浪 chengfengpolang.

Verdict: Among so many seasons, I don’t think this season stands out that much, but I still remember it fondly. If you want a good laugh and some fun, check it out.

创造营2020 Chuang 2020

Watch on Tencent Video (English subs, VIP needed) Watch on 腾讯视频 (no English subs, VIP needed) Watch on YouTube (English subs, missing episode 3) Watch on YouTube (English subs, missing episode 3) Watch on Viki (English subs, no Viki Pass needed)

Why you should watch it: They went all out on the sets, the location, the accommodations, everything. The performance setup was that the seats were in the middle and various stages were located around the perimeter. The seats would rotate to face the stages!! Some of the stages were stunning. I also want to mention that there were some great vocalists this season and I feel like they got to shine, which always makes me happy. The best round by far was the second round (专业方向). We got some beautiful vocal performances and intense dance performances.

Why you shouldn’t watch it: This season felt messy to me. I think they tried to mix things up, but not everything landed. The beautiful sets almost got distracting…they were more interesting than some of the performances. Several very talented and promising contestants never even made it past the first round. And since the final group only had seven people, the finale was just a frustrating experience. I never want to hear that 小摩托 xiao motuo song or 夏天的风 Summer Wind again. I don’t feel this season lived up to 创造101 Produce 101 China (unless you wanted MORE comments about weight/thinness).

My picks: 王柯 Wang Ke, 华承妍 Hua Chengyan, 刘些宁 Liu Xiening, 苏芮琪 Su Ruiqi, 朱主爱, Joyce Zhu Zhu’ai, 王一桥 Wang Yiqiao

Favorite performance: Manta There were a lot of performances I liked, but I really struggled to pick a favorite. I ultimately went with this because it’s one of the most memorable dance performances I’ve seen on these shows.

Iconic moments: That thin waist contest was simply the worst, they were in a literal castle, we all went crazy for the band and 王柯 Wang Ke, 朱主爱 Joyce Zhu Zhu’ai won the collab stage, wtf stop filming 姜贞羽 Jiang Zhenyu, I want to ride that cute train up the mountain, 毛不易 Mao Buyi did not want to talk, pretend that 吴亦凡 Wu Yifan wasn’t there.

Verdict: This season was competing against 青春有你2 Youth with You 2, and I chose to prioritize 青春有你2 Youth with You 2. I would make the same choice now. If you decide to watch, just be warned it may be a frustrating experience.

创造营2021 Chuang 2021

Watch on Tencent Video (English subs, VIP needed) Watch on 腾讯视频 (no English subs, VIP needed)

Why you should watch it: I wasn’t sure I was going to watch this season because of its international theme. Having foreigners is nothing new, but such a large number was certainly going to alter the show’s dynamic. Well, I watched it anyway. Overall, I’m glad I did. There were some talented and lovable contestants that made this season all worth it. The mentor squad (mostly 宁静 Ning Jing, 邓超 Deng Chao, and 周深 Zhou Shen) were so entertaining. Lastly, compared to the 2019 season, there were more popular vocalists this season, which I 100% support. I’ll be honest, I didn’t remember a lot of the performances from this season, but I ended up pleasantly surprised by how many great ones there were!

Why you shouldn’t watch it: It felt like there was so much focus on Nine and Patrick, Santa and Riki, the Intersection boys, and eventually Lelush as well. The other foreign contestants honestly had very little impact. This didn’t ruin the show or anything, but sometimes I got a little sick of the Santa and Mika show, you know? Also, none of my favorites made it into the winning group unfortunately. While I acknowledge the talent of the winning members, for whatever reason I wasn’t really that invested in most of them.

My picks: 俞更寅 Yu Gengying, 井胧 Jing Long, 林墨 Lin Mo, 奥斯卡 Oscar, 张星特 Zhang Xingte

Favorite performance: Lover Boy 88 This performance was simply infectious! I even made my friends watch to it. 林墨 Lin Mo is so charming. And 张腾 Zhang Teng and 张星特 Zhang Xingte’s vocals were perfect. Just wish it had been longer!

Iconic moments: Mika and 曾涵江 Zeng Hanjiang = my last two brain cells trying to communicate, I still can’t believe Lelush went viral worldwide, 刘宇 Liu Yu broke the Produce curse, Nine and Patrick only learned Chinese for how long???, Caelan kinda does look like Leonardo DiCaprio, Oscar AKA 熊熊 Xiongxiong, the 网红 wanghong group was so talented actually.

Verdict: I think this season got more international attention than 青春有你3 Youth with You 3, and while I prefer 青春有你3 Youth with You 3, this season is worth a watch for its uniqueness and improvements over the previous year.

>> 以团之名 All For One/少年之名 We Are Young (Youku)

I watched both seasons of Youku’s shorter-lived franchise in 2022 only after (and only because) I had finished the other two franchises. I think Youku had a smaller budget and thus tried to stand out by shaking up the traditional survival show formula. I think they made some poor choices and some good choices. I don’t know the story behind the name change between seasons, but the seasons are so different from each other that it makes sense.

以团之名 All For One

Watch on Youku (no English subs, VIP needed) Watch on YouTube (no English subs)

Why you should watch it: I’m going to say a lot of negative stuff below, but I wanted to add at least a few positive words. During the finale, the remaining contestants sang S.H.E’s 你曾是少年 Wings Of My Words, and I don’t think I’ve ever gotten so emotional over a performance ever. 任家萱 Selina was a delight throughout. I also really grew to appreciate 奶茶 Naicha and what a great and thoughtful leader he was.

Why you shouldn’t watch it: As I mentioned, this show had some unique features that made it stand out. The contestants formed ten groups of eight, and the composition of the groups remained unchanged throughout. Entire groups got eliminated together. This created a dynamic where some really talented contestants went home too soon due to their group. It also meant that some groups were popular really just due to having one popular member. In the end, one group won...but I guess they realized this was a bad idea, so they formed a second winning group of the most popular contestants from the non-winning groups. I didn’t like this format and felt is really negatively impacted my viewing. Personally, seeing new team lineups form is one of my favorite parts of survival shows. And because the leaders were constant, they had there was too much focus on them. Also, the mentors were so harsh all the time. Maybe it was deserved, but it really bummed me out to watch them constantly talk about how disappointed they were.

My picks: 奶茶 Naicha, 田书臣 Tian Shuchen, 龙泓昊 Long Honghao, 赖煜哲 AJ Lai Yuzhe, 热亚提 Reyati, 赵品霖 Zhao Pinlin

Favorite performance: 饕餮 Taotie This was not one of the performances that stood out in my memory, but it stood out to me when I did my rewatch. I feel like they really nailed every element, and I don’t think the other teams could have pulled off this song.

Iconic moments: 何展成 Jonathan Ha gave up on speaking Chinese and 袁娅维 Tia Ray had to translate for him, the 王霏霏 Wang Feifei and 孟佳 Meng Jia reunion, 龙泓昊 Long Honghao’s beautiful dance to a Shawn Mendes song, I’m not sure why 奶茶 Naicha chose milk tea as stage name, AJ vs. the hidden snacks, they made 周艺轩 Zhou Yixuan perform a UNIQ song.

Verdict: Maybe you can skip this one. I definitely didn’t devote my full attention while I was watching it. And it felt like the show and the mentors were being mean to the boys all the time.

少年之名 We Are Young

Watch on Youku (no English subs, VIP needed) Watch on YouTube (no English subs) Watch via We Are Young Subs (English fansubs)

Why you should watch it: They improved on basically all the issues I had with the first season, and I was pleasantly surprised. Also, this is basically a 青春有你1 Youth with You 1 mini reunion with a few 偶像练习生 Idol Producer alums plus some future 青春有你3 You with You 3 contestants. It was so wonderful to see how the contestants I already knew had grown, and I loved seeing them get new opportunities to shine. There was surprisingly a lot of good raps/rappers on this show! Also, there were some truly incredible performances this season that aren’t like anything I’ve seen on other idol survival shows. And I enjoyed almost every performance—there were only a few that I disliked or thought were, um, not good. The mentors did not always agree...but I don’t care!

Why you shouldn’t watch it: Because they have to be different, when doing the initial evaluations, only about 50 contestants advanced to the next round. This was nice because it meant fewer names/faces, but wow, it felt so mean. Sometimes I wished they had stuck to a more traditional format. Besides that, I don’t have much else negative to say!

My picks: 郭震 Guo Zhen, 寇聪 Kuo Cong, 胡文煊 Hu Wenxuan, 左林杰 Zuo Linjie, 李希侃 Li Xikan, 崔少鹏 Cui Shaopeng, 杨超文 Yang Chaowen

Favorite performance: Don’t Start Now I don’t think I’ve ever seen this exact concept on one of these shows before. This performance was instantly a standout for me, especially because it had some of my favorite contestants!

Iconic moments: They literally had a corgi, 林 (Lin) MUA, everyone shipping 薛恩 Xue En and 程潇 Cheng Xiao, 胡文煊 Hu Wenxuan in a CROP TOP, 胡彦斌 Hu Yanbin told 寇聪 Kou Cong to wear less to show off his body what, 崔少鹏 Cui Shaopeng’s entrance through the pink smoke, 左林杰 Zuo Linjie really bungee jumped with his eyes closed, how 郭震 Guo Zhen, 左叶 Zuo Ye, and 胡文煊 Hu Wenxuan were in the same group four times without anyone noticing.

Verdict: This season ended up being better than it had any right to be! I think it’s worth checking out, especially if you are missing the boys from the 偶像练习生 Idol Producer/青春有你 Youth with You series.

>> Conclusion

If you actually read this entire post, I’m thoroughly impressed. If you, like me, have spent way too much time watching these shows, feel free to send me a message because I need someone to commiserate with.

I honestly have this weird feeling that a chapter of my life is over. I have so many treasured memories from watching these shows—moments of laughter, tears, shock, pride, and more. They’ve provided a way to ground my language studies and engage with Chinese pop culture. They made me feel less alone during earlier COVID times.

Well, I’m off to find something to fill the survival show-size hole in my heart...maybe I’ll just rewatch 偶像练习生 Idol Producer.

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kittyball23 · 11 months

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Okay guys, listen up!

Got some insight to the Annecy Film Festival and some of the news it revealed! The info I found was from a posting on the YouTube channel "jstar" (if you're on Tumblr, I'd love to know 😀) from a screenshot presumably found from somewhere on social media ( A friend I speak to on Wattpad brought this channel and its postings to my attention). Here's what exactly was said:

"To be factual: after the furious madness of the second Trolls, whose psychedelic energy had something orgasmic about it, exit hard rock and welcome to the glorious era of boy bands. A retrospective choice (still) logical given the astounding popularity of Kpop today. He's Justin Timberlake's character, Branche, who was actually in a boy band with his brothers when he was little (watch out for the puns in the movie on Nsync, One Direction and the like) before being cowardly abandoned, becoming th grumpy, melancholy troll he is today. The goal of the film will be to reassemble the band to save one of them, captured by idols without talents who sniff him to become good singers. By breaking a crystal that imprisons him with the power of perfect harmony."

So I guess the brothers have to sing the 'Family Harmony' (which sounds like a special song of some sort) to save Floyd who is trapped in a crystal that Velvet and Veneer placed him in after they smell him to obtain his talent?

Um... what? XD

So I guess it kinda makes sense in a way - Bergens ate Trolls to obtain their happiness, so perhaps sniffling them means that they can get their singing abilities?? Perhaps that's why they have to keep him - maybe inhaling his talent is only temporary? Maybe each time they do it continues to turn his hair the white that we saw in the first poster? And what's the deal with the Family Harmony? How will that play out? Are their voices going to combine like a magical force and break the crystal Floyd’s trapped in? If this is all true, I've certainly got a lot of questions lol

Other postings that were made on social media stated that the first 20 MINUTES of the movie were shown.

Here is a posting regarding Broppy:

"Branch definitely has a bigger emotional hurdle to jump through in this movie and Poppy really helps him with that, kind of like in the first movie, but it's a much different issue, even though Poppy feels like it's the same kind of situation to solve."

I had a feeling that this movie would remind me of the first :) This next one is about my boyz:

"We explore the world of boy bands in the world of 90s music! We celebrate them, but with a certain irony, having a little fun with them. They are more expressive and maybe they also have problems on their side. It was fun exploring these different personalities, feeling a likeness and family connection to them. But also for each of the four brothers to find their own personality, their own voice and their own part of the family."

This last quoting is about the music:

"The composer remains Ted Shapiro and we are working with a great musical team at the moment. Justin is still the executive producer of the original music and was involved in its development early on. There are five original songs that he spearheads, as well as more jukebox songs, classic and familiar happy tunes and he calls on other producers he wants to work with to create the best song for this moment in the film."

Still don't have word on the original songs, but we do know from previous info that some of the involved songs are We Are Family, Staying Alive, Everybody (Backstreet's Back), The Hustle, You Got the Right Stuff, Sailing, Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This, and I Want You Back. I also have my own ideas for what songs I think could work for the movie, but I'll save it for another post :)

#trolls #trolls 3 #trolls band together #brozone #velvet and veneer #branch trolls #poppy trolls #dreamworks

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andmaybegayer · 18 days

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Last Monday of the Week 2024-04-08

It's so warm UPD8: FORGOT TO POST THIS FROM MY DRAFTS LAST NIGHT

Listening: I do, at times, like some Cliff Richard. My mother was like "Hey have you heard Wired for Sound" and I had not, so here's Wired for Sound.

youtube

I love it when musicians are autistic about music in a way that is deeply uncool.

Reading: This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. One of those great books where what is not written is as important as what is. <Guy who just read Invisible Cities voice> Getting a lot of Invisible Cities vibes from this. In practice that's the way that it keeps a very light hand on describing how and why Red and Blue end up where they are, creating the ideal spy atmosphere. More notes here.

Also continuing my Locked Tomb reread, Harrow is up. Harrow the Ninth felt like it was really digging into the world of TLT but it is so surface level compared to what happens in Nona. What it is is a really good exploration of the ways in which Harrow is insane.

Watching: Triple Movie Time.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves because it looked good and it was! I have a drafted post with some notes.

From Justin to Kelly at bad movie night, a musical that Kelly Clarkson was contractually obligated to produce because she won American Idol. A very bad movie, it manages to cram an astounding number of utterly forgettable songs into a 70 minute runtime. Follows the rock solid principle of "Tell, don't show", cutting from seemingly the middle of one scene to the start of a new scene without ever wrapping up. There are two different singing voices in the whole thing. Awful blocking on every shot. Antagonist strong contender for Ianthe Tridentarius.

Finally Starship Troopers which I had not seen before. They weren't lying they really did get impossibly attractive people for basically every main role in this thing.

ST really avoids a lot of easy pitfalls for anti-war media, I think. It's so easy to make the military look incompetent and stupid or make the enemy obviously innocent and noble, but here you have to look closer to the root. Most of the time war is stupid!

Playing: Nothing really, some more Forza weeklies. Dangerous game.

Making: The 3D printed NAS case is up and running, which involved sanding and painting over the course of last week. Assembled and running TrueNAS in the corner of the apartment. One of the drives makes a very annoying *kerchunk* during head moves but that is apparently not a fault, so I'll have to see how I deal with that.

Spent yesterday and today shunting my photo library over to it over NFS and then figuring out how to goad NextCloud into indexing those photos. I am storing the photos in an external storage instance of NextCloud so that I can just dump files in and call the indexer, but I will see if there's other options for image management.

#last monday of the week #Youtube

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chaenqen · 8 months

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your mom. cast n.rk

starring: niki and reader as high school bestfriends!2maybe!lovers?

featuring: niki and jake and y/n plus some characters i made up…

warnings: cussing, swearing, teenager humor, sexual jokes, dark humor etc.

authors note: leave requests if you’d like~ reblogs are greatly appreciated<3

the characters profiles ~

character facts~

@ rikijackson__ nishimura riki, 17 y/o, dancer and idol, michael jackson super fan, has a “slight” crush on y/n

@ smjyn__ sim jake, 19 y/o, idol, layla enthusiast, has a crush on yimeng

@ iammyown y/n y/n, 17 y/o, dancer and choreograph, plays electric guitar and has two cats, has a crush on niki

@ ko__yiii ko yimeng, 19 y/o, dancer and choreograph, also plays electric guitar, hates dogs but loves cats, has a crush on jake

@ its_me kang mei, 18 y/o, soloist, guitarist, lyricist and producer, makes her own music, has a crush on ???

@ pi__gatchu alexander phoebe, 19 y/o, kindergartener, loves books and kids, has a crush on nobody

@ iam__jj son justin jun, 17 y/o, gamer/streamer, introvert but loud and annoying, has a crush on ???

@ icanbeurcart lee michaelson carter, 18 y/o, introvert and a bitch, way too serious about almost everything, has a crush on mei

if you would like to be put on the tag list, don’t be afraid to let me know in either the comments, dms or in my ask box !! any requests or wishes?

chapter one: saturday 26th !!

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happyzyx · 7 months

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[ARTICLE] Lay Zhang Signs With Range MEdia (EXCLUSIVE)

Range Media Partners has signed Chinese actor, singer-songwriter, dancer and fashion icon Lay Zhang and will represent him globally across all areas.

The 31-year-old star, who operates under multiple pseudonyms including Lay and Little Sheep, rose to fame as a former member of K-Pop boyband EXO before launching a solo career, already is a household name in Asia, boasting more than 80 million followers across social media.

As an actor, he stars under his full name Zhang Yixing in the Chinese box office smash “No More Bets,” which has earned more than $527 million in China to date, becoming the country’s biggest hit of the summer. Zhang is now the youngest and fifth-ever Chinese actor to reach this box office milestone. “No More Bets” also received a limited release in the U.S. on Sept. 1.

Next year, he will be seen starring opposite Jackie Chan in the film “A Legend.” His other film credits include films “The Island” and “Kung Fu Yoga,” and he has also appeared on the TV series “Go Fighting!” and “Idol Producer,” serving as a judge and host on the latter.

Since his rise as a core member of EXO, he embarked on a solo career, with his debut EP “Lose Control” hitting No. 4 on Billboard’s U.S. World Albums chart. He is the first Chinese solo artist to hit the Top 25 on the Billboard 200 and the first Chinese solo artist to hit Top 5 on the Worldwide iTunes Album Chart.

In August, Zhang’s “Grand Line Tour” concerts in Shenzhen and Beijing immediately sold out, with more than 30,000 tickets purchased within seconds of going on pre-sale, leading to additional concerts being added in Shanghai, Nanjing and Chongqing.

As a global brand ambassador, Zhang is currently working with Hublot, Sprite, Fila and Bang & Olufsen. He was Calvin Klein’s first Chinese global spokesperson for their underwear and jean lines and the first Valentino, Converse, Perrier, MAC and Daniel Wellington spokesperson in China.

“Lay Zhang is exactly the type of artist Range was built for. He’s a true multihyphenate with global appeal,” said Range Music managing partner Cory Litwin and Range co-founder and CEO Peter Micelli in a joint statement. “With the recent breakthrough success of his latest film, ‘No More Bets,’ his presence onscreen shows big box office potential.”

Zhang, who is fluent in Mandarin, Korean and English, joins a Range Music roster that has made impressive strides since its inception two years ago. The division launched its own label in partnership with Capitol Music Group and Virgin Music & Artist Label Services and represents a wide range of talent including Jack Harlow, Saweetie, Justin Tranter, Cordae, Midland, Murda Beatz and Nicky Romero. The division earned seven Grammy nominations this year, with Nova Wav nabbing two awards for its production and songwriting work on Beyonce’s “Renaissance.”

#zhang yixing #yixing #lay #p: article #230919

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wenxingjun · 1 year

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happy 3 years to next's WYTB!

#nex7 #next #zhu zhengting #bi wenjun #huang xinchun #li quanzhe #justin huang #huang minghao #idol producer #*#now when will my boys get a comeback #dzr not here because . reasons

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mobiused · 2 years

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korean pop music is very uninspired. is it horny reasons that attracts the western geek to kpop or is it like hm what is it

I feel like this question has two be answered in two parts, early kpop vs present day kpop.

In my opinion it's entirely untrue to say kpop was uninspired - one of the biggest draws for older kpop stans is that Korean music didn't sound like anybody else's music. Usually, especially from SM, it consistently brought outstandingly well produced songs with innovative experimental concepts and ideas to the table. Novelty is exciting, and you don't get much more exciting than the music producer's playground. You may have noticed a lot of "serious" producers have credits on Kpop songs (Dem Joinz for example produced 'Don't U Wait No More' by RV as well as multiple songs on Kanye's DONDA, just as an example) - this is because the bar for what's allowed for release is a lot more flexible, so producers enjoy unloading their creativity. There are many seriously good songs created as a result, so it's not strange that people enjoy them.

But this only counts for actually good k-pop (which good releases seems to be dwindling in number year by year.) People who stan groups who make bad music are obviously just attracted to the members. This is why Kpop group members are called idols and not singers/performers; they have a responsibility to show an attractive persona to their audiences as much as they have a responsibility to sing and dance. I don't think it needs to be characterised as horny, sometimes lonely people just like having a person or group to spend time with. If they're constantly on TV or even better interactive mediums like VLIVE, IG live or Fab Bubble, you can feel even closer to them. Being a fan is a good way to fill the time if you're lonely, I think.

There's inevitably an element of Asian fetishism involved though. Japan and Jpop might be too "weird" for a westerner, but because of Korea's long history with America and active attempts to use soft power/hallyu to become more digestible for westerners, they seem more "normal" by comparison - we're just like any American boy band / girl group except we just speak and look Korean! If you hate American girls because they're all skanks, or you hate American guys because they're all jackasses, then look no further to Korea, where they're all polite, charming and of course attractive, without being too culturally different. (Of course, this is a racist and fetishistic attitude, and Korea has so much culture that its Hallyu wave tries to 'dilute' to be seen as more digestible for the West - this is one of many side effects of American occupation and imperialism which persists to this day).

Moving to present day, in the world of globalism and having twitter accounts aged 12, I think the "appeal" of Kpop is far more social. America has failed to meet demand for homegrown popstars for teenyboppers (Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez are all out of fashion now - is Olivia Rodrigo meant to singlehandedly replace them all?), so people are looking to Korea.

Imagine it like this, you're a tweenage girl and your friend just invited you and another friend to a sleepover. You both go up to her bedroom and your other friend goes SQUEEEE IS THAT THE LIMITED EDITION STRAY KIDZ ALBUM??? WHOS YOUR BIAS??? and the girl who invited you round also screams and they start talking about Stray Kidz for 20 minutes before even acknowledging your presence. You obviously feel left out right? Wanting to be included and fit in is motive enough for people to become kpop stans. You don't even have to like the music, you just pick a person you think is attractive and boom suddenly you fit in. Now you can collect photocards, know all the inside jokes and lingo, go to concerts together, tag your friends in memes, you're included now. Fandom is a social thing, and if the hot topic is kpop groups, then to fit in, you should also stan kpop groups. Sometimes it's really as simple as that.

Of course this isn't just a teenage girl thing and can apply to 30 year old redditors with their circle of friends just as much, though I'd imagine with significantly less pure intentions since they're probably on r/kpopf--*GUNSHOTS*

Bottom line is that there are a lot of reasons, probably including some I didn't cover, but I don't think it's any one thing. And kpop music isn't uninspired, at least certainly not worse than american pop.

#also while i think it's irresponsible to not acknowledge history/politics lmk if it's worded badly #im not a histographer so i kinda suck #long post #broadly there's 4 categories of kpop fan: teenage girl; ahjussi/redditor creepy man; kpop music connoisseur; hag who cant let go of 2nd gen

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lalilula · 4 months

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I just found out yesterday that Li Quanzhe is also a contestant in Asia Super Young?

I first knew him from Idol Producer and tbh I didn't follow Cpop after that, but I did know that he debuted with Zhu Zhengting and Justin in Huang after Nine Percent, so I was surprised.

I mean Zhu Zhengting is literally one of the mentors, so this situation would be hard for both of them. I really hope for the best for him.

youtube

#kim dongbin is also participating #i hope the best for him too #rei's random words #li quanzhe #asia super young #Youtube

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afrobeatsindacity · 2 years

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FEATURE ARTICLE: TEMS IS OWNING HER CROWN

Image: @temsbaby (instagram)

The Yoruba people of South Western Nigeria attach a culture and celebration to name-giving. A naming ceremony in Lagos, where Tems was raised, is a robust event, drinks flow, relatives flock, and it's not uncommon for one to last into the night, or perhaps trickle to the next day. To them, a name is not merely a word to which one responds, it is a mark of identity and at once a prayer, a means by which loving parents and relatives may confer good wishes to a child. Her name, Temilade, translates from Yoruba to mean "the crown is mine" and if her dizzying journey in recent past is anything to go by, then the names given to her 27 years ago - little parcels of love and prayer wrapped in words - are guiding her. She is owning her crown.

2021 was a dream year for Tems. No matter how optimistic her new year prayers were, she probably didn't envision moving from a collaboration with an Afrobeats heavyweight like Wizkid to co-starring with acts like Drake and Justin Bieber. She's seen herself make friends of those who previously were idols, receive career advise from Rihanna, and, most recently, win a historic two awards at the BET, the most ever by an African act in a single night. Her voice is her greatest asset. Massive, yet immersive it seems to fill the room in which it is played, easily transversing skin and bones to lodge in a spot she created, a place from which she emerges to rouse feelings of escape, of love, of freedom and power. Her sound is unique, and she does not blur genres as much as she simply creates her own space, into which she draws ingredients of R&B and soul, reggae and pop for a cocktail that is new, bold and exciting every time.

'Crazy Tings' are happening for her right now, but her music journey began in the most modest way. "Mr rebel", her first ever single, was a child of resolve and ingenuity. Unable to hire producers good enough to make her sound like she wanted to be heard, yet affordable enough to fit into her tiny budget as an independent act, she took to learning production herself from DIY videos on YouTube. And this, the first fruit of her determination is a breezy, mellow RnB affair In which she affirms confidence in her abilities (I’m the sound on the ground, I'm the winning sound/ I'm the crown, I'm the vibe) while searching for and desiring to take care of a mysterious "Mr Rebel". She quit a promising career in marketing to focus on music, so the wisdom of her decision hinged on the success of this first single. With it she earned a small but dedicated following. If "Mr Rebel" was the laid-back wistful longing for a special person, "Try Me", Temilade's breakout single had her sit up to take charge of her emotions as she outgrew her fears and celebrated freedom in a tune that may sound African, Western and Jamaican without firmly belonging to any category. "You wanna lock me away, I'm winning/ You wanna add to my pain, I'm shining" she asserts on the bridge, with the confidence of a voice that knows just how good it sounds.

Her ascent since this single has been a blur. Seeking to build on the attention her singles had gathered, and to provide a body of work for the satisfaction of her eager, newly-gathered fans, she released For Broken Ears in September 2020. With 7 tracks, it sits at the intersection between album and extended play, and while it's exact identity may be up in the air, there's no doubt as to the themes she intends to highlight on this debut project. "Damages", the single released first to rally support for it, sees her heal from scars and promptly end a relationship that no longer measures to her standards. It's classic Tems, her big voice towered only by her bigger attitude, and these two features remain a constant for most of the album.

On the 23rd of February, 2020, Afrobeats chieftain, Wizkid took to his Twitter account to announce "Tems and I created magic", a tweet that is now recognized in fan circles as the very first chapter in the story of essence, the smash from his Grammy nominated Made In Lagos. The track itself arrived eight months after, and it was a savory affair, Tems is transformed into the luscious sweetheart we rarely ever get to see as she trades lines of love and longing with a pleasant Wizkid, who is right at home in a song like this. Throw in delicate R&B production with traces of Caribbean and Afropop elements, and it's no wonder it was the fuel for so many evening grooves as one of the songs of the summer of 2021, proving irresistible for even Justin Bieber, who simply had to jump on it's remix. His countryman, Drake, responded to the success of this single by immediately tapping up Tems to feature on "Fountains", a track off Certified Lover Boy that was the next milestone passed in Tems' journey. It's slow-burning afropop production, breezy beachside vibes and of course, Tems powerful, sultry delivery are lines that can be drawn between the two songs.

Off the back of intercontinental success, her latest EP, If Orange Was A Place, arrived to a much larger reception than her earlier effort. And while a wider audience must be the desire of every creative, greater publicity brings with it closer scrutiny, a more critical look and mounting pressure to keep fans it took so much effort to gather. But if any of these fears plagued Tems in the production of this extended play, it definitely doesn't reflect on its quality or focus as she's been able to produce a work that is just as good as her debut. She stuck to her guns entirely, choosing to double down on all the features that brought her to limelight in the first place while her happier and more balanced mentality reflects in her songwriting.

Her most recent appearance is on Future's "I NEVER LIKED YOU". She's not given much to do here, her contribution is a sample of Higher, off her first album. But what was the most intimate spot on "For Broken Ears" is made into the foil to Future's slurry delivery and Drake's snappier lines on "Wait For You" and it's a rivetting success. The song's especially warm reception speaks to her rising star power in the stateside market, almost as much it does to the rap duo's massive pull.

The sky is the limit now for Temilade. She's established her talent and then reiterated it with successive, successful EPs, and with a feature from Wizkid and advise from Rihanna already in the bag ahead of the album that's expected to arrive this year, it is safe to assume 2022 will be an even better year for Afrobeats' new darling.

This article was written by Afrobeats City Contributor Ezema Patrick - @ezemapatrick (Twitter)

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