#my absolute favorite kpop artist ever

[stephanleyhes]

🌸 Yunho 🌸 | studio choom : artist of the month (january 2021)

#tvxq #dbsk #tohoshinki #oma* #i have no idea if there are other fans here so this one was made for me hahaha #also i know this is like 2 years old soon but i saw it just now (haven't really followed these things after he came back from army) #my absolute favorite kpop artist ever #comment tho youtube being sus recommending me this after i had spent the day listening to jaejoongs new album asdkfg #jung yunho

[goldenhallyu]

Why Sulli is one of my biggest inspirations

Hello i'd like to share some of the reasons why Sulli (aka Jinri) is one of my favorite people in the korean entertainment industry and why she is such an inspiring woman. I also provided links to several articles so you can read more in depth about certain amazing things she's done.

!Note that south korea is a highly conservative and misogynistic country. Especially in the idol industry, women are judged for every single little thing they do. Sulli however decided to lean against the standards set for female idols and always did as she pleased and what she thought was right. It's sad that only now after she passed netizens are being nice and supportive towards her. I'd like to share some of the reasons why she was such an inspirational woman and why she should never be forgotten!

1.Going Braless . Sulli didn't like wearing bras

and would often post pictures of herself while not wearing one. Of course this shouldn't be considered an issue at all but even western countries often still take offense to it fsm so obviously highly conservative korea was very unhappy about her decision and would send her lots of hate and call her vulgar names for it. She never stopped doing it though.

2. Abortion Rights

Sulli is pro choice! She celebrated South Korea changing their anti abortion laws which ofc was yet another reason for people to hate her.

3. Raised awareness on her public instagram about comofort women and showed her sympathy despite knowing she'll make her japanese fans upset by shedding light on it .

Japanese people often don't like to acknowlage their war crimes and felt very offended by Sulli for talking about it on her social media. Being the woman supporting feminist she is, she thought it was an important topic to discuss and posted about it regardless.

4. Openly shared her relationship

Dating is often completly banned for kpop idols altogether and only few dare to make their relationship public. Only in recent years have idols slowly starting sharing their relationship status. But back then idols tried their absolute hardest to hide that they're dating in fear of facing MASSIVE backlash, sometimes even receiving death threats. Yet Sulli openly posted photos of her and her now ex boyfriend on her instagram like any other normal person would.

5. Openly expressed her sexuality

making her own choices on when or how she decides to be sexy, taking all power from netizens sexualizing her against her will. This is a big issue in the idol industry, especially due to conservative views, a woman openly showing herself to be a self empowered sexual individual is looked down upon and seen as offensive. Netizens often called her mentally unstable, dirty, nasty and a wh*re for simply not wearing a bra or showing cleavage (which is quite scandalous in korea) or taking sexy photos as an adult woman! She talked about this and the double standards in depth in Persona:Sulli!

6. Defended herself

It's very rare for idols to stand up for themselves especially in such a blunt, forward way. Usually when idols have to apologize for the most mundane stuff, an official apology is issued through the agency but Sulli always took matters into her own hands.

7. Endured a massive amount of hate and ultimately left f(x) for the sake of protecting herself from hate and persuing her true artistic visions

She was constantly harrassed from her "attitude" to her looks, her views, her behavior and her talents.

8. Publicly discussed mental health, inlcuding her own struggles,

and based her solo debut around DiD. Mental Health was and still is very stigmatised in South Korea. While it's slowly changing, talking about such things back then was seen as highly controversial and people wouldn't be very understanding at all. Moreover netizens would think of idols to be ungrateful if they'd ever talked about their struggles.

9. Just overall always supported women and their rights. (girls supporting girls shirt, talked about being a feminist and wanting women to be equal on tv and defending fellow female idols).

Again, with Korea being a very conservative and sexist country, people sent her a massive amount of hate (mostly men) for speaking up about womens rights. This still happens to other female idols today when they declare themselves to be feminists.

10. Was unapoligeticly herself no matter what.

Always showing her personality and interests and voicing her opinions. She loved showing everyone how fun loving and free spirited she is . All she ever wanted was to be loved by others but she still didn't want to change her identity for others to do so.

11. Loved herself and her beauty

and would also voice it yet she was never arrogant or felt like she was better than anyone because she's pretty (Persona:Sulli)

12. She critizised the idol industry and the publics treatment towards idols (see Persona:Sulli)

13. Sent a low income student a feminine hygiene package for free

and planned to regulary send out packages to girls who couldn't afford to buy these products themselves. Unfortunatly she passed away before she had the chance to do so.

Theres so much more to Sulli. But these are some of the main points as to why I love her so much.

She endured the tremendous amount of hate for such a long time and despite feeling hurt she always remained true to herself. She struggled a lot but always continued doing what she thought was right and didn't apologize for simply living her life and being a feminist.

#f(x) #kpop #choi jinri #jinri #jinri choi #kpop idols #femadols #female idols #kpop industry #feminism #south korea #feminist #sexism #second generation #2nd gen kpop #2nd gen #goo hara #sulli #fx sulli #f(x) sulli #ssssssulli choi

[silverraes]

My Top 9 albums of 2023

tagged by @mysterygrl20 tysm <3

my taste in music is kind of all over the place so prepare yourself for a wild ride, although I also listen to a lot of kpop (I've kinda been slacking on keeping up with releases over the past year tho oops) and we definitely have some overlap in favorite albums

I apologize in advance for how long this post is going to become but you're really opening the floodgates by letting me talk about music lol

(it's been a very dry year for my favorite metal bands or this list would've been even more chaotic lmao)

1) Dear Insanity... by DPR Ian

while I struggled to rank most of these, there was absolutely no question about my #1 album of the year. I only just discovered DPR Ian in 2023 and he very quickly became my favorite artist ever. you might have even seen me talk about this album an unhealthy amount of times already lol. he's just such an insanely good artist and every single song on this album is just soooo damn good.

part of why I love him so much is also the story he tells throughout his music videos and just how insanely good all of his MVs look and how well the visuals fit the music so I feel obligated to link the MV to my favorite song off this album:

(some flashing lights in this one, folks, be warned)

2) The World Ep.2: Outlaw by Ateez

everything Ateez releases is immediately getting added to my favorites, what can I say. I didn't have the money to go to their 2023 tour but I did see them live in 2022... absolutely worth the one and only time I ever caught corona. not a single bad song on this album, they're all absolute bangers.

3) Take Me Back To Eden by Sleep Token

I only just discovered Sleep Token in 2023 but I absolutely fell in love with this entire album and their style in general. almost got to see them live but then I ended up getting surgery on the exact day of their concert... :')

4) OO-LI by Woodz

I am a Woodz stan first and a human second. I'm convinced this man is incapable of releasing bad music, everything he does is just so damn good and I love how he explores a bunch of different genres while still making all of his music just sound like him y'know

also honorable mention to Amnesia which is only a single album so it didn't make the list but if you like more eerie stuff and the general vibe of his music, definitely check it out, I love it so much

5) On My Youth by WayV

WayV will forever have me in a chokehold. they've been my favorite NCT unit since their debut and honestly also the only unit I managed to properly keep up with over the last year ashgasj. I just really love their style of music and how they've actually been sticking to it

6) The Name Chapter: Temptation by TXT

It's truly been a TXT kinda year for me, I've been listening to them a lot. there aren't many songs on this album but I still love it so so much, all of the songs are great and Sugar Rush Ride is such a unique title track

7) Dark Blood by Enhypen

honestly Enhypen are part of the reason why I might have to update my top 3 kpop groups to a top 5 lol. all of their albums so far have been great and this one was no different, I still listen to a lot of the songs on it on repeat

8) RUSH! (Are U Coming?) by Måneskin

well what can I say, Måneskin have had me in a chokehold ever since they won the Eurovision and I actually got to see them live in 2023! drove all the way over to Berlin for them and everything, great album with great songs. I love both their more rock-ish songs and their slower songs and this album has a great mix of both (although I wish there would've been some more Italian songs on here)

9) MONO by K.Flay

K.Flay has been one of my more underrated faves for a couple years by now and I'll take any chance to gush about her music. there's just something very unique about K.Flay's music and this album certainly didn't disappoint. honestly, the only reason why I ended up putting this one on the "last" place is that I haven't listened to it as much as the other albums on this list

Honorable mentions!

bc once I start talking about music, I just simply can not stop at only 9 albums and this list isn't quite chaotic enough yet to properly describe my taste in music lmao

ODD-VENTURE by MCND

this is a rather recent one so I haven't listened to it enough for it to make the list, but I love everything MCND put out and this is definitely also a great album! (plus the title track is yeehaw kpop which is incredibly creative of them and I didn't know I needed that in my life)

HAPPYPILLS by Utsu-P

and this is where I expose the true chaotic nature of my taste in music lmao. Utsu-P's music is the perfect clash of world's between teen-me's obession with vocaloid and current-me's love for metal. I didn't include this album bc I still haven't gotten around to listening to all of it, but the songs that I did listen to, I absolutely loved

Phantomime by Ghost

oh you thought you made it through an entire post of me talking about music without mentioning Ghost? Hah, fool. jokes aside, this is an album full of cover songs so I didn't include it but it's still full of bangers. I reached audio cap now but I'll include their Jesus He Knows Me cover bc this was an absolute treat to witness live:

if you've made it this far without getting whiplash: congrats!

tagging (as always, no pressure, feel free to ignore this): @negrowhat @fallsouthwinter @spicypussywave @thisisworsethanitlookslike @supanuts @buddhamethods @alienwlw and anyone else who wants to do it!

#the lack of skz is only bc i still have not managed to listen to the full albums i'm- #i've been slacking on kpop releases so bad this past year it's ridiculous lol #tag game #tagged #music #rae's music rambles #Youtube #Spotify

[kokobopam]

SS9 in Chile - an essay by kokobopam

It’s been two weeks since I saw Super Junior and I want to talk about it!

The thing is, initially I was going to write a little twitter thread about it, but then I had too much to say and too many things I didn’t want to forget so I decided to write a journal entry. This is something I’ve gotten used to doing after coming back from a concert I loved but they always end up on a notebook that no one else is going to see. So I thought maybe I could share a bit here. 

It’s still a very long post lmao but if you read it, I hope you can enjoy some of my thoughts, feelings and impressions of SS9 in Chile.

Super Show 9 : The Road - Santiago

For those of you who don’t know, I got into kpop very recently, like, starting the pandemic. So this was a very big deal because I’ve never been to a kpop concert (I’m not counting the failed MuBank, it was a festival anyway) or seen any of my favorite groups before. In fact, aside from Super Junior, who’s been to my country twice, neither EXO nor TVXQ have been close to me ever.

Up till December, we were convinced we would get a SS9 in Argentina, but things happened —the economy, stupid production companies, just one month's notice before the show— and we weren’t as lucky this time. It had to be Chile, then.

I won’t get into details but organizing this trip in such short notice was hard as fuck, but I was feeling so depressed at the prospect of missing them and they never coming back again that I simply had to go. It worked out in the end. Even when I had to put everything together in less than two weeks and I’m gonna be paying this for the next three months, it was worth every cent.

I’ve been to many, many (non-kpop) concerts and you can tell when the artist is there to share their music, to put on a show or just to get paid. Super Junior…they’re not just idols, they’re entertainers and they’re SO GOOD at it. But you can also tell how much they love doing what they do and that love and energy is definitely contagious.

The phenomenon of Super Junior becoming one of the biggest kpop groups in Latin America —more than a decade ago, before kpop went “mainstream” — is something to talk about on another post but I do believe we have a special relationship with them, otherwise this wouldn’t be their third time visiting in a decade and filling 15k - 20k venues, even on weekdays in some cases.

And I know, I know, speeches get repeated and the same words translated into different languages but you can tell when someone’s being honest about their feelings. They didn’t shy out about the fact that the flight had left them exhausted, that their bodies ached or that the jet lag was taking a toll on them but they still left everything on stage and made sure to tell us again and again how much energy they gained from us. 

So in return we sang and cheered for them as loud as we could and gave them all the love we have. I came back home feeling incredibly in love with Latam ELFs, I swear. 

Let’s get to the concert then.

I already knew most of the setlist but I still was blown away when the show began with Burn the Floor. This was probably one of the performances I was anticipating the most —ever since I watched the beginning of their tour in Seoul online— and finally experiencing it in person was absolutely incredible. This song and the stage production, with all the outfits and lights and red ropes (puppet strings!), was definitely one of the reasons I became an ELF so I was so glad they didn’t take it from the setlist.

They did change the setlist, though, and removed the Ticky Tocky-Paradox-Mystery section which I really wanted to see live. BUT I’m not complaining. In exchange they added One More Time and Lo Siento which everyone sang really loud, specially the choruses and parts in spanish. It was so much fun! And they also did Devil, Mango and Mamacita (the full regular ver! instead of the opera one) in those sexy black outfits, so yeah that was neat. 

The third part of the show was soft boys time <3 Yesung sang Small Things and he was the only member to do a solo. It was very sweet that he got the chance to do so, given that he didn’t have a lot of time to promote the album before coming to latam. I hope he enjoyed the spotlight even if we weren’t the best at the fan chant lol.

I don’t know how to explain this, but up to this point I had been very focused on the performances. Maybe it’s because it had been over a decade since the last time I saw any kind of pop group with men dancing on stage, or maybe because for all the previous acts they had been wearing color coordinated outfits so it was a bit hard to tell them apart from afar (I wasn’t close to the stage); but the thing is, listening to K.R.Y. live absolutely broke me.

It’s like my brain finally caught up with the fact that I was actually listening to them singing live in front of me and, god, I was positively overwhelmed. Kyuhyun’s and Ryeowook’s voices are some of my favorites in kpop and being able to hear them in person..I cried for real. I’m a sucker for singers and I still get goosebumps thinking about it. They’re out of this world, the three of them.

And another thing a friend pointed out was that it was their first time performing as a subunit in latam —Yesung wasn’t present the first time in 2013 and KyuWook were missing in 2018—so yeah, very surreal. I feel so lucky.

Part four of the show was what I’d been really really anticipating the whole time. Because when would I ever have the chance to see D&E or experience Bonamana rock ver. again? 

It was HOT. 

D&E are insane live. They have this crazily explosive stage presence that forces you to keep your eyes fixed on them because you don’t want to miss anything. They performed B.A.D and Danger and seeing them dance and flirt with the audience…I just couldn’t believe it. I hope they consider coming back in the future with their own tour because I wouldn’t miss the chance to see them.

After that, the rest of the members joined them for Black Suit and Bonamana. 

Ngl, I’ve been saving Bonamana Leeteuk fancams (you know which ones) since the beginning of their tour, but seeing the real thing live, I’m pretty sure I got a nose bleed. I also had Leeteuk, Kyuhyun and Hyukjae on my side of the stage so I was screaming my lungs out the entire time. They’re so sexy, all of them, and they went full rockstars with this performance which wasn’t good for my health. I’m still recovering.

Finally, they started the last bit of the show with the Analog Radio self recorded video which made me cry again (don’t judge me, I was really emotional). 

This last encore is where they show up with their hand drawn t-shirts (cute!!), sing some meaningful but fun songs and do their final ments. It was really sweet that they took their time to walk the entire stage sending hearts and kisses, waving at fans and interacting with them. Ryeowook even forgot to sing his part in a song because he was sitting down, signing albums haha my boy. 

Their ments were also cute and fun and heartfelt. And they made a real effort to communicate in our language and let us know how much they’d missed us and that, despite being tired, they were happy to be there. 

Special mention to Kyuhyun, my spanish speaking king, giving his entire speech like a local and going crazy for an inflatable whiskey bottle (x) after we sang him happy birthday lmao.

They closed the show with Ahora te puedes marchar, a total party with every single person singing along, said goodbye again, and that was it. The best two hours and a half of my life.

I came back home with many great memories and new elf friends which feels so good because there aren’t many kpop stans my age with the same music tastes where I live. So it was really lovely being able to share this with other people, specially since many of us had to travel very far away to see them. It was the best kind of bonding experience and I do love meeting people at concerts.

I’m still very emotional about everything. Following the rest of the tour stops in latam kept me on a SS9 high for a week and now I’m slowly coming back to reality, feeling like it was all a dream.

At least I know I didn’t imagine it, because just yesterday EunHae were posting a bunch of videos and pics about the tour with cute messages, so, we’re all going through it haha.

Thank you for reading this far. I know it’s probably too long but I love Super Junior with all my heart and I couldn’t fit that in a 280 character tweet.

I’m already making plans with my new elf friends to see them again so I hope they come back soon. And I hope next time it’s in my country.

#seriously thank you for reading #any elf friends around? #if you want to comment anything about it send me a message! #super junior #ss9 #latam #kyuhyun #leeteuk #ryeowook #donghae #hyukjae #yesung #shindong #siwon

[hanarchy]

ooooh i promised @wantbytaemin a post about hanji covers (not that you asked, i just want to talk about it more) and i just came back from listening to your suggestions several times and i have sooooooo much to say ok, so little numbered list again for ease bc i cant shut up to save my LIFE.

Here’s some wishes I would have for jisung if he listened to me

1. Straightforward/Live/Acoustic Instrumental music with some VOCALS!!

This is why i have my country girl agenda, like why i picked kacey musgraves. I love the tinyy snippets we have gotten of him just singing over guitar. The softness, and yes as you mentioned!! The emotionality he can put in his voice!! I would love to hear more of that. Just quiet, no electronic beats, not the usual slightly overproduced instrumentals he gravitates to, I want to HEAR his voice even when its quiet. acoustic, stripped. like fast car, absolutely.

I would just love more rock, more guitars, more real drums (FREE ME FROM THE KPOP DRUM MACHINE). This is why like. arctic monkeys are appealing to me. they have three instruments and alex turner pretending to be cool and the tension in a song like ‘do me favour’ is so thick. Would do Jisung amazing BUT. you’re SO right that he could also build that emotional tension that carrie underwood does on this with his voice (btw hearing this again after years made me listen to shania again, which, fun fact: first album i ever bought with my own money was shania twain ‘up!’) if he just WANTED. I hope he practices more, i hope he collabs with day6 or xdinary heroes. he has the bands IN HOUSE!!

2. More production experiments but specifically more stripped back beats and funkier basslines (and real drums but whatever).

Now this one he is on the way to himself I think.

His production sensibilities are just very pop-focused and i respect it and understand why and I also don’t have the terminology or knowledge to explain what makes both the brent faiyaz song you suggested and the internet different but like. He demonstrated on 1,2,3,4,5 and on Run what that could sound like for him. Those are maybe my favorite hanpop songs so far and i desperately want him to explore this direction more. The vocals on run are so good, relaxed, laid back, the change between lower register and high parts. Now the next thing he should do is make a song with a rap part that offers a nice contrast. Rhythmic, strong, kinda takes you out of it and then plunges ur head back under water. Or if it’s something more melodic, make it airier, more ethereal, more surreal. Like fka twigs yess exactly. nebula by cifika is different vibe but also so atmospheric and a bit otherworldly.

I also think this niche of rnb has become the sound of situationships and messy breakups and i loooove that for him because he occupies that in-between of love and hate so well. resentment, anxiety, uncertainty and yes. pettiness. Which brings me to my next and biggest point.

3. Explore more uncomfortable and ugly feelings.

Listen. This may be the parasocial relationship speaking but I know that kid has some powerful perfectionism and jealousy going on. There’s a self-hatred and a desperation there that, if he were to explore it, would make him unstoppable imo. Now I absolutely understand why his position and his genre make this impossible and I am absolutely open to having a discussion about whether artists are really obliged to share everything or not.

Like this is gonna sound negative to the average kpop stan but i KNOW he is a judgmental little dick. I know he has an ego that is barelyyyy being kept in check (by his own limitations and working in a group) but is also just kind of explosive and i KNOW he knows exactly how good he is but being anything other than humble and only boasting in the context of largely meaningless skz title tracks (im sorry but they havent made a title with an emotion other than ‘look at us being so great at doing our own thing’ since like… idk. levanter. many of them are bangers regardless but explorations of real emotions they are not.) is just not acceptable. This is why i bring up that pettiness so much (lol) bc its the hint of like. an unpleasant emotion that (record execs think) doesn’t sell to teenage girls.

Don’t get me wrong, the anxiety and the romanticism and the fear and the love are all real emotions too - many of them uncomfortable - and he has built and recorded great songs around them. I’m not calling him emotionally dishonest. But they’re emotions that are acceptable for a boygroup member to have publicly. Stuff like Paramore (i dont actually know their discography very well so your input was MUCH appreciated and i agree wholeheartedly) or the way alex turner or julian casablancas write unfavorably about women while it’s extremely clear that the only reason it’s unfavorable is because of their own shortcomings and smallmindedness and self-obsession is something that would simply not be allowed of a man that is being marketed by a kpop company. And yes i do believe it’s uncomfortable for him to explore publicly and there may very well be many other reaons and cultural barriers that i do not understand but this is my wishlist so it has to work with my limitations.

And well anyway I know I’ll never get it but i would just enjoy him leaning into that. Doing some introspection and some scary shit. I think it would be transcendent.

little tangent: (I love bands like hole and sleater kinney and bikini kill because theyre unapolgetic angry women but ironically i used to love kanye west for the same (not exactly but very similar because he was extremely unapologetic in his own confidence and ability and his personality in an industry that didnt want it at first) reason kfkfkdk. hes not ok to listen to anymore and frankly i dont like talking about him and the women in these bands would crucify me for putting him in the same sentence probably. But what they have in common is that they publicly explored and explore emotions that society thinks unacceptable. (If you ever want to hear an EXTREMELY intelligent analysis of kanye and his career, FD Signifier has two incredible videos on youtube that go so deep into like… pop culture, hip hop culture, black masculinity, mental health… just music history. cant recommend them enough))

4. storytelling

listen. what i look for in a songwriter i become obsessed with is so simple: emotionally honest to the point of personal detriment, tells a good story, self-obsessed in a self-hating way, driven by love and the belief in beauty and magic underneath it all and a good hook every now and again. jisung checks most of these boxes and i think tbh he could just learn a lot from country musicians or people like tracy chapman or bruce springsteen or leonard cohen etc etc etc

like do NOT get me wrong i dont think hes bad at it and i also think its likely there are many korean songwriters better suited but due to my personal mental illness this is just sth i think about a lot. what jisungs version of like… Johnny 99 would sound like…

#long post #listen ana i am SO sorry #but there u go #and everyone else has to read it too now 🤷🏻‍♀️ #bro and i gotta reblog this in a sec to tag it properly #and when we both roll up with our soyeon comeback powerpoint for jisungs solo debut

[a9saga]

I started typing this whole thing on mobile and couldn't figure out how to put a break in and I refuse to update the app. Fuck it. You are scrolling past this whole damn thing. Unfollow me. This is all I'm gonna be talking about for the next two weeks.

Exo needs to break up. They have needed to break up. That was my hot take I had been saying I'd eventually share but I never got around to it, and now it's a lot more apparent. Not that I thought this was going to happen. I thought that when I finally posted this, someone might be mad about it, but in wake of CBX's lawsuit I don't think anyone's going to be surprised to hear it.

I was sure exo members were done suing SM entertainment a long time ago. It's been 9 years since Kris and Luhan filed their lawsuits, both of whom won. It's been 8 years since Tao's hiatus, and almost 8 since he filed his lawsuit months later, which he ended up losing despite never rejoining exo. I became a fan of exo during Call Me Baby promotions when Tao was still dancing with a broken leg. I was 15 at the time, about to turn 16. EXO scandals were extremely fresh and ongoing. But those three are so far in the past now. Lay quietly decided not to renew recently, but he hadn't been able to appear with the group for 5 years so, yeah. No surprise. But I really thought it was all done when EXO-M was done for.

Well, I can tell you why I'd been thinking for a while EXO should break up. It's because they're really a thing of the past, and essentially after Love Shot, it felt like there was nowhere to go from there.

That felt like the last breath of their 5 year long prime. Don't get me wrong, it was awesome. EXO have hit after hit after hit, think of the absolute best most addictive song by your favorite pop artist, and EXO have a discography of mostly those. But they haven't grown and changed artistically or commercially as a group. They've been around 11 years, they're in their 30s now, and I don't even think most of them have the heart to revitalize their prime like Super Junior did after their military hiatus was over. Maybe a couple of them have it in them to do the pop star thing for their entire careers, but I didn't think that like, Sehun or Chanyeol were necessarily passionate about creating new music for the rest of their career. Chen has a family now and that's also something I'd like the rest of exo to afford without their huge commercial group getting in the way of that. The only one I felt for sure would not be done anytime soon was Baekhyun. I thought he'd be the new Kangta of the group, sticking around when EXO were dormant and fizzled out. I never thought SM would actually let them break up, like H.O.T did when I was a baby. But yeah, Baekhyun leaving shocks me the most. Not that I blame him. I do fully believe the allegations made in the lawsuit as SM have had such a shady reputation.

Looking at SM's pre-EXO boy groups, one might say EXO were the main successor to Super Junior, because, obviously, both groups debuted with 12 people. Large groups like that weren't really a thing in kpop before Super Junior debuted. Additionally, Han Geng of Suju was one of the first Chinese kpop idols. In 2008, two more Chinese members were added to the sub unit Super Junior-M, which released Mandarin versions of pre-existing and original Korean Super Junior songs. Hm, this sounds familiar. I only just built up a better case for the EXO/SJ argument. Diana and I talk about this sometimes though; I once made an argument that I think EXO was more a successor to TVXQ/DBSK (Tong Vfang Xien Qi/Dong Bang Shin Ki), which I would have forgotten saying if she never brought up that one time i said it ever again.

In July of 2009, JYJ threw the first brick at SM Entertainment I mean TVXQ's members Kim "Hero" Jaejoong, Park "Micky" Yoochun and Kim "Xiah" Junsu filed a lawsuit against SM for contract termination, claiming they had been coerced into slave contracts as minors. They were 22-23 at the time, TVXQ having debuted on December 26th, 2003. The three of them won the lawsuit, signed to C-Jes Entertainment and formed the new group, JYJ, of just the three of them. It was assumed the original five piece was dead by that point, but surprisingly, in 2010, Jung "U-Know" Yunho and Shim "Max" Changmin chose to stay at SM and continue TVXQ as a duo.

This whole thing is arguably the most significant scandal in the 30-year history of SM. TVXQ had been SM's biggest success to date and some argue they and Boa still are. Your faves wouldn't have cracked Japan without the efforts of those two, and if kpop didn't reach Japan in the early 2000s, the entertainment industry in a small East Asian country wouldn't have become huge across the entire planet---and frankly, if TVXQ hadn't been big internationally, they'd have been done for because SM had them blacklisted from Korean television for a decade.

Han Geng of Super Junior actually did file for contract termination shortly after JYJ did, also for mistreatment. As did Luhan, Tao and Kris as we've already acknowledged. But all four of them could move to the entertainment industry in China. Sure, you're always going to lose something by leaving as big a group as EXO, Super Junior or TVXQ, but SM hasn't been sued by its Korean idols since JYJ. Baekhyun, Xiumin and Chen know that they're putting at least as much on the line. And now, like TVXQ, more than half of EXO are no longer in the group, and the majority of the run for the both of them has had this cloud of mistreatment over their reputations. They were also both so unstoppably huge and popular.

I was in elementary school for DB5K's prime, and there were fans of kpop in the west but I can't tell you what their success across Asia looked like as someone who wasn't there. But I can tell you, between 2015-2016 when kpop gradually started to become very big, EXO for a time were bringing in more people to kpop than A Particularly Famous Group in the West I Have No Interest in Naming Because I Don't Want Their Fucking Fans Derailing My Post With Unrelated Discourse While I'm Not Even Talking About Them. Just believe me there was a time when EXO were way more popular in the west than Said Band I Decline to Specify, the eclipse that happened was gradual, and to my understanding EXO continued to be the biggest thing in Asia despite that another one eventually cracked America more and I'm not denying that they did. Point is, EXO coming first was important to all of that, because I and several others wouldnt have heard of the one kpop group if EXO didnt get us all into kpop first from 2013-15/16.

That all said now, this was all very much not how I'd wanted EXO to actually end. This is crashing and burning. Much like TVXQ, EXO is not going to be able to have a reunion after this, because they'll never receive SM's blessing to work together. I mean, EXO-M never would. 12 member EXO hardly lasted for two years though and their prime was very new when people started leaving, so to be honest, I don't know if the kids getting into EXO in the 2020s would really care to see Luhan, Tao, and Someone Sitting In Prison Whose Name I've Uttered More Than I'd Like To.

But in a similar vain, while DB5K originally split into two, JYJ are all off in different directions now. Yoochun was fired. Junsu left C-Jes and made his own label. Jaejoong did the same recently. Could you tell I listen TVXQ? But yeah, now that there are more than 3-4 people departed from EXO, they've got former members going in a lot of different directions. Someone already said it but I hope Xiumin follows Luhan back now. Back in my day Xiuhan were so cute.

Also, since I managed not to slip this into the post anywhere.... these guys have been showing up to work. Every damn day they've been showing up to work, that's another reason why it's so shocking. Chen dropped a song days ago and Baekhyun has been doing shows, posting dance practices, EXO have been appearing together for their 11th anniversary and supposed upcoming comeback. Whaaat a slap in the face. I support CBX 100% though and you should too.

#in this essay i will reveal i know too much about the history of sm ent #also i didnt state this but i think nct were more sj's successor than exo was #the premise of nct was a group w 40 members which as a concept breaks industry norms like sj did #but similarly while suju was meant to be a rotation group of members coming and going that failed #and so did nct's 40 members bc its own fans eventually boycotted the adding of more members which sj did too #thats my last hot take of the post i promise #sorry for the lack of a read more break but i didnt study kpop boy bands as a teen for my work to be overlooked at a time like this #exo #sm #chen #baekhyun #xiumin #kim jongdae #byun baekhyun #kim minseok #exo cbx #shut up kaily #ps i dont want exo to promote as 5 it would suck

[someone-who-loves-kpop-saranghae]

💌 ⋆⭒˚｡⋆ Hi! Your sleepy mutual here! Its question time!

💟 What's your dream destination?

💟 If you could make the whole world listen to one song what song would it be?

💟 What's your favorite snack ever?

💟 Do you have any comfort movies/shows or music artists?

💟 Imagine: you have a full free week and nothing matters (not money, not laws,...) what do you do?

💟 What would you name yourself if you could rename yourself?

⋆⭒˚｡⋆ That's it! I hope I didn't annoy you with these questions and obv no pressure to answer! I hope you have a great day, love you! 🩷🌅

~XOXO Ana <3

HII omggg <3

first of all: THANK YOU SM FOT THE INTEREST OMG ❤️ And you don't annoy me, I was Happy to read this!!! 😭

okay 1 question: I don't really know yet, but I'd really love to go and live for a longer time in South Korea actually.. I want to visit a univerity there, but my parents recently told me that this would hardly be possible.. honestly i just want to get my graduation and study in a university, visit Korea (I'M GOING THERE WITH MY FAMILY NEXT SUMMER AHH), I wanna earn enough Money and live a happy life where i also can afford concerts of my fav artists <3

question 2: if it would be a song with a message, it would definitely be "youtiful" by straykids, because the message is just so pretty! I cried the First time i heard it, and it helped me through hard times! But if it would be a personal song, it would be "Impossible" by James Arthur. But I'd also like to show them "iconic" by skxdaddy, bcz this is also so meaningful. I love all of those songs <3

question 3: okay this is actually kinda hard, bcz it really depends on my mood.. Sometimes it's chocolate, sometimes ice cream, sometimes it's crisps.. Bit right now I'd actually choose Ice Cream with fresh fruits and chocolate bcz i'm hyped for Summer since the weather was soo great today!!

question 4: my comfort show is kinda Game of Thrones but also Imitation, my comfort movie are both frozen movies (!!!!!!!) and my comfort artists are actually P1Harmony, BTS, StrayKids, Ateez and Boynextdoor, and also Alexander Stewart and Skxdaddy, but especially it's Yoon Keeho and Bangchan <3 (as u see i'm kpop addicted..)

question 5: Okay that's hard too.. I think I'd go to a concert of one of my fav artists and just chill a lot.. I think I'd get a lot of stuff I've always wanted to have but just never got and also make my room new! And I'd buy all the food I've ever wanted to try <3

question 6: okay now i have absolutely no plan... I mean I do not love my name but I still can't imagine having an other name than this..

Thank you for all those questions!!!!! <3

Do u mind if i ask u some stuff too? ^^ <3

Hope you'll have a good evening, night and Weekend! <3

❤️

[geekgroovepod]

Via Lollapalooza! Chicago's 20 year Tradition returns this summer with spectacular lineup.

I am a huge believer in music unites people. It doesn't matter what walks of life you come from, what job you have, what education you gotten, so on and so forth. One thing is for certain, music heals.

Which is why I am over the moon about this years Lollapalooza lineup, which is also the 20 year anniversary of being here in Chicago, IL. Moving back in time for Lolla is perfect timing, as I missed the summertime Chi while I was living in California.

With the announcement of the line up dropping at 10am today, lets take a look at a few of my favorite artist and artists that I am looking forward to see.

SZA: I am SUPPPPPER excited to see her again! (I say again, because I'm going to Gazebo Fest in Louisville. Shoutout to Jack Harlow 100000%)

Tyler, the Creator: I LOVEEEE Tyler, I seen him at Lolla in 2021 and I had a blast. The section of the crowd that I was in wasn't really lively but, still it was really fun! I cannot wait to see him again!

The Killers: I love their music and I have never seen them live so this is a great opportunity to see them. I cannot wait to sing Mr. Brightside with my whole chest.

Future x Metro Boomin: First of all, I'm not the biggest fan of Future's personality but he does make really fire music. Metro Boomin is an amazing producer who is iconic on the beats so this is going to be a fire set.

Hozier: I geeked about this and I just gotten into his music recently, so I am super prepared to cry my eyes out.

Stray Kids: I not the hugest fan of Kpop, but I'm absolutely excited to see them live for the first time. Kpop has started to be add to Lollas line up as, J-Hope from BTS was the first Korean artist to headline lolla, while Tomorrow x Tomorrow became the first Kpop group to headline Lolla. History is being made and I am excited to witness this!

Victoria Monet: It Girl, That girl, she gonna kill it. Nuff said.

Zedd: I was suposed to see him this year! I am so happy to get the chance to see him again!

Dominic Fike: Awesome artist, great voice, and is a fire preformer!

Sexyy Red: "It's Sexyy!" I'm so excited to see her

Benson Boone: Met him when I saw Alex Warren sweetest guy ever.

Vince Staples: Fire, and his show on Netflix is amazing. *Watch it*

Kesha: Comeback Queen. I am so excited to see her preform.

There is alot more great artist I'm excited to see, like Flo, Raye, Tate Mcrae, Conan Gray, Huddy and more.

Lollapalooza 2024 is August 1-4 in Grant Park in Chicago, IL. Tickets go live on Presale March 21st from 10am- 12pm CT and 12pm CT with a price increase.

I hope to see you all in Grant Park this August, and keep it locked on Geek Groove Pod for all the music festival news and updates!

#music #music festival #lollapalooza #chicago #blog #music blog #sza #tyler the creator #kesha

[bitchlessdino]

hi hi darling!! it's me, popping by to say, first of all, CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR MARRIAGE NANA BELOVED!!! 🎉💐💖 i hope your wedding ceremony was wonderful and everything you'd ever dreamed it would be. please remember to get plenty of rest and take care of yourself 💕

a question for the fic i'm cooking up for your V-day gift, what is your favorite love song (it can be kpop or not)?

~ yours truly, cupid 💌

Awww Cupid hii 💗💗💗 thank you 🫶🏻

I made sure to take plenty of time off like when I was on my honeymoon. All me and the Misters did was sleep. we slept so much especially since neither one of us could sleep a couple days before the wedding like he was running on like 48 hours of no sleep somehow and we did it . We got all the rest we deserve I think. 💗

That’s a good question what is my favorite love song? I thought about it for a while and I absolutely love best part by Daniel Caesar one of my favorite non-K-pop artists. It’s just like the message is beautiful and the grand scheme of things with everything going on, you’re the best part of my life, best part of my movie, of anything it’s so cute. 🥹

#nan talks #asks #anon asks #anon #Cupid 💘

[jmdbjk]

ICYMI streaming battle...

Twitter Army will be having a streaming battle tomorrow and the teams are #TeamHYYH, #TeamLY and #TeamMOTS.

[Boy With Luv, Map of the Soul: 7]

I claim to be #TeamMOTS Army but honestly, I was not ready to let BTS into my soul when that album was released. Actually, I can’t even remember which BTS song was the first one I ever played. I’ve recounted my BTS story before but here it is again. According to my vague memories it went something like this:

End of 2019...trying Kpop...listen to other groups that are not BTS...they’re ok, one or two songs make it into my playlists... I knew of BTS because they were everywhere but I guess I was not listening to the right songs that would ultimately touch my soul. Here comes 2020...I was aware of the MOTS7 album dropping because it was at the top of the chart. I knew it was a big deal. I tried watching the Boy With Luv MV but my soul was not ready for all that pink on that first try. I saw them perform Black Swan on Corden’s show. I WAS STILL NOT FALLING FOR IT. I did not understand it. My soul just WASN’T READY.  

[Black Swan live performance, The Late Late Show with James Corden, Jan. 2020]

And then came Carpool Karaoke Jimin. That blonde hottie in the red jacket just grabbed me by the throat and has never let me go. He was so different from what I was expecting. 

When I finally took Boy With Luv MV out for another spin, that was all she wrote. The pink finally felt good and right. It was fresh and gave me joy.

Ironically, this performance made me start paying attention to their choreography:

[Boy With Luv, March 30, 2020, James Corden’s Homefest]

And then 2020 progressed into the shitshow it turned out to be on a global scale. Along comes Dynamite etc, and the rest is history for me. 

By the time THIS Black Swan aired on Jimmy Fallon, I was well on my way:

[Black Swan, Sept. 2020, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon]  [It took me too long to catch on to the insanity of that back hug]

But here is my honest confession: I wish I was a #TeamLY Army. I absolutely adore Kitty Gang Jimin. I feel like I cheated myself because I didn’t come around sooner to finding BTS so I could have experienced that black leather fit  with the sparkly shoulder jacket in real time. I WAS SOOO CLOSE! I missed it by mere months. My first BTS phone wallpaper was Kitty Gang Jimin in mid body roll.

And many of my favorite songs are from the Love Yourself era: Mic Drop, Airplane Pt. 2, Magic Shop, Serendipity, Euphoria, Love Maze.

I can confidently say, if it wasn’t for MOTS, I would have never known Kitty Gang Jimin. Heh heh. 

Back to #TeamMOTS7... the fact I realized how important and big that album was when it dropped, even though I had not bought into the entire BTS thing yet, speaks volumes about the impact BTS was making then and continues to make. I was paying attention. I knew this was something even before I knew the impact it would make on my life. 

Now it’s easy to go back and see things for what they were. It was me having such a skewed perspective because I’d never exposed myself to much (if any) other music/artists outside the U.S./western music market. I had never seen such pristinely performed (DIFFICULT) choreography. I unlearned a lot of deeply ingrained perceptions...about language barriers, lyrics and music; about what I thought masculinity meant. I learned to understand more overall about sexual identity and gender identity. And personally, I came to realize what a big impact to my self-esteem they had on me, them being so successful, and also of Asian heritage just like myself. I could finally relate to a globally successful music artist. It has been a revelation for sure. 

I am a MOTS Army. And Filter is my flag/anthem.  

So while we wait patiently and gird our loins for Jimin to drop his photo folio concept... if you are on Twitter, join the team of your choice, stream your teams songs on YouTube tomorrow, and help us add more views to BTS music videos.

If Jimin’s photo folio drops, I will report back after the flames die down. Or maybe in the midst of mid-burn...I know, TMI, sorry...peace out.

#just killing time until jimin photo folio drops and kills us all #but i am still salty #because we did not get live-in-person-FILTER-in-front-of-60000-Army #grr #teamMOTS #blonde jimin will forever be my favorite #but i love every single jimin that jimin wants to show us #kitty gang jimin was excellent #black swan jikook #serendipity jimin

[papirouge]

akari takeuchi is so beautiful, like she has this round face and sometimes has the appearance of being a lil chubby yet she's really popular among her groupmates. I love how she looks with very short hair too.

japanese people in general seem to be pretty fixated on thinness. in remember when morning mmusume got popular and people talked about kago ai and tsuji nozomi and they refered to tsuji as "the chubby one", even though she was only slightly bigger than kago.

i dont know if you ever keep up with momusu or if you ever cared about it, but once they had this member who was actually overweight (susuki kanon), and she was constantly mocked by fans, the public, and apparently teased by management and team members. obviously she did not pass the audition when she was overweight; she mentioned later that she went through an extreme diet to appear skinny at the audtions, but that she'd been chubby all her life.

but i think koreans are even more extreme with their beauty standards. like, you can see korean idols tend to be skinnier than jpop ones, i think the girls even lose their periods or have very irregular ones. i remember when kpop started gettinf global recognition, sometimes kpoppers would post on certain j-artists youtube videos just to compare them to korean ones, and I remember checking the comments in this perfume video and kpoppers were literally saying they had fat legs. like the girls from perfume (and not, it was not when achan was a lil chubby in their early years)

Anon I do "care" about those things bc I've been a jpop head for a longer time that I will ever admit 😭

Akari has always been a favorite of my mine 🩵 And yeah her face is sooo cute!! She definitely stood out because she was chubbier but imo that's a good thing bc idol are sooo interchangeable. Unless your very pretty or very talented (dance, singing) being a bit different can be an asset if well played.

Imo I think thame difference with Kanon is that Akari seemed confident and it gave her the charisma and appeal that fan like. Kanon was maybe too young and insecure and fans caught it and it made them uninterested and disrespectful for her performance...

And yeah, Japan is obsessed with skinniness, water is wet lol

I've always be intrigued by the fetishistic way of considering beauty. For example they will hyperfixate on features that a supposed "attractive" such as a small face, high nose brige, big eyes, etc and literally dismiss every thing else to the point it's getting ridiculous at times. Someone would be pretty but because they have a very small face they'll be elevated as an absolute staple of beauty.

I lurk a lot on girlchannel and every 2-3 days there are threads dedicated to rave on beautiful people... I remember one thread dedicated to rave on Erika Toda arms skinniness when she played Misa Amane in the Death Note movie 😭

This fetishization of beauty that's also why they will get plastic surgery to get features they consider objectively pretty without considering the harmony with the rest of the face, such as a high nose brige but since the rest of their face will remain unchanged the balance of their full face is so weird. East Asian tend to have a large face so I think them ps'ing their nose to be as small as possible makes them look so weird and uncanny 🥴

Kpoppers are mentally ill so I'm not surprised they don't have any idea what a normal human being looks like.

Perfume gals have perfect legs - they literally made the whole 'VOICE' single cover out of it 💀

It's not really that Achan is "chubby" it's that she has wide hips which is considered unattractive in Japan. That's why in their outfits coding, she's the one to wear clothing who are ample/lose in that area, while Nocchi is the 'boyish' one (short hair + pants/shorts) and Kashiyuka is the one wearing the shorter & more skimpy outfit version. Here's another example for their JPN album visuals

Arguing that these women would be in any way fat is insane. That's how I know kpop fans have brainrot.

Whenever I stumble on kpop MV gif my eyes itch at the amount of filters used... Kpop idols are routinely abused and mistreated but these idiots will keep stanning. I've always found ironic how people have no problem acknowledging that what we consume has political consequences and won't shut up about H&M and Shein mistreatment of their employees + their business model damaging effects on their environment but will keep lining the pockets of Kpop artists agencies doing the same 💀

Both Japan and Korean are fucked up with their Beauty standards but Japan still has the kawaii card that allows someone to still be considered appealing despite not being conventionally attractive. I think Ai Kago and Tsuji Nozomi totally belong in that category. That being said, kawaiiness can also be artificial considering that Nozomi did plastic surgery on her eyes to make them look twice bigger + obsessive use of light color lenses (look at the pics of her marriage before she got the procedure💀). Kyaru is also infamous for revamping her face (namidabukuro + eyelid lift)

And let's no forget Tsubasa Masuwaka who's jumped on the kawaii bandwagon after the end of the heisei/gyaru era and has been doctoring like mad her pics ever since...

#answered

[wongyuuu]

🎶✨️when u get this u have to put 5 songs u actually listen to, publish. Then, send this ask to 10 of your favorite followers (non-negotiable, positivity is cool)🎶✨️

Hi!!

This is actually really easy, because i listen to total of 3 artists

i've had this song on replay for weeks now, even before she announced tv and it has to be this version

there's no bad mood in the world that these songs can cure for me, however I will cry while to you is playing if I'm depressed

will scream this song whenever i listen to it. have I ever felt like that in my life? absolutely not

wishing the exos remembers this masterpiece exists and they grow the balls to add it to the setlist of the tour, if such thing is even possible. i also hate how sm always releases live albums for exo but not for exoluxion (but I took matters into my own hands, so it's fine)

i know this is supposed to be only 5 songs, but I just love she's dreaming and everytime I listen to it I go back to when I first got into exo and kpop as a whole, as lotto was the first album I ever heard

i really don't know who to tag, because i don't really talk to anyone, so i'll tag mutuals but feel comfortable to not do this

@lovejoshua @lveclouds @seuiqi @wqnwoos @kpopmakesmequestionmylifechoices @redvelvetmilkshake

#asks

[enluv]

hii coco!!! i offer you a fic name - used to you

and i want to kno 🎤 what timezone r u in, ur fav kpop mv ever!! and hm. what artist u'd kill (not literally.. unless..) to see live

used to you

PAIRING! - idol!soobin x non!idol reader

SYNOPSIS! - the pressures of idol life are catching up to soobin as he prepares for a new comeback, but he knows he’ll always have you to fall back on.

hehehehe i need to write a soob fic asap! as for you questions here are my answers <3

(1) timezone?

my timezone currently while I’m home is central (cdt) !!

(2) fav kpop mv?

my favorite kpop mv ever is probably “call me baby” by exo 😭 because it was the first kpop song I ever listened to and i was OBSESSED with the mv for absolutely no reason !! or maybe like given-taken because the lore behind it is so cool!!

(3) an artist I’d kill to see live?

definitely seventeen or stray kids! unfortunately i wasn’t able to attend my skz concert because of college and when svt came they came the day after i left for college so I missed that as well :( but i really want to see them in concert like so badly I know both of them put on such good concerts!!

#thank you for the questions!! #i love answering them hehe #coco’s mini games!

[lordmayokcorner]

tripleS +(KR)ystal Eyes <AESTHETIC> - Album Review

-- image: Let's GO News --

tripleS, MODHAUS Entertainment’s first kpop group. The label, founded and operated by LOONA’s former creative director and music producer Jaden Jeong, aims to “launch the world’s first kpop artist made and operated by its fans.” A whopping 24 members make up four subunits of tripleS: Acid Angel from Asia, EVOLution, LOVElution, and +(KR)ystal Eyes. As of May 2023, only AAA and +(KR)ystal Eyes have debuted yet, with the latter’s debut mini-album <AESTHETIC> having been released on May 4th. Admittedly, I know very little about tripleS but as an Orbit I’m hoping that Jaden will put some LOONA in them, but I’ll have to see.

I’ll listen to each song 3 times and rate them afterward. Each song will be rated on a scale of 1-10 with 5 being completely neutral, 1 being my least favorite song, and 10 being the best songs ever. Please take my rating with a grain of salt, my goal is to be honest, no hate :)

Cherry 100% - 7

Incredible sound design. The attention to detail in the contrast in frequencies between the chimes, synths, and electric bass is applause-worthy. This reminds me a lot of Odd Eye Circle and [X X], both of which were Jaden’s work. Certainly a great intro track.

Cherry Talk - 8

None of the magical production from Cherry 100% was lost in this song. Absolutely beautiful instrumentation. When the vocals come in, the energy of the song switches to be a little more fun and upbeat, think WOW (LOONA) and verse 1 from Attention (NewJeans). The sounds and textures continue to build into the chorus, but melodically it feels like the song could use a bit more direction. It feels like more of a gem b-side than the title track it’s labeled, but I’m generally known to be a sucker for a great b-side. I haven’t said anything about vocals yet, but they’re all light and smooth. The songwriting isn’t keeping me on my toes necessarily but the production is just so incredible it doesn’t matter.

Touch - 4

A smooth sparkly pop-R&B track, with a bit of a retro feel. It feels like this song is trying to accomplish the sort of sound of Everyday I Love You, LOONA ViVi’s solo title track. What a coincidence that everything sounds like early LOONA… Unfortunately the vocals in Touch aren’t hitting the same mark. You’ll find this is a typical criticism from me, but there is excessive and audible use of autotune throughout much of the song. Despite the vocals being a bit lacking, this song has a fun dreamy sound that I enjoy.

Hide & Seek - 5

More power, less pretty! Well, it’s still pretty, but the drums and bass push this song along in a more upbeat groove. Like Touch, this song also has somewhat noticeable vocal issues, but unlike Touch, they don’t distract from the hype vibe of this song. It’s one of those songs that you just have to bop to, even the first time hearing it. It lacks some direction, giving it a sort of “aimless” feeling though. No strong feelings either way from me here.

Deja-Vu - 7.5

Muted guitars and smooth percussion make for a very unique and smooth backing to this track. It’s just as mellow as the rest, but it’s tight in a way that makes it feel clean and powerful. Very pleasant and satisfying to listen to. The production and songwriting work together here much better than the other songs. There are more vocal problems, but generally they blend into the song just fine. 

Dimension (KRE Ver.) - 7.5

The radio distortion at the beginning helps cement that sort of retro sound to this EP. The percussion on this song is quite varied and unique. This song certainly feels very production forward, but I don’t mind at all. I generally like a more even blend of vocals and music anyways. After listening to the AAA version of this song, I actually think that KRE does it better. The KRE version is more stripped down and subdued, but packs a considerable punch. This song utilizes all of the uniqueness of the production on this album, but doesn’t overuse it. It feels effortless. Love it!

Final Thoughts

This was a really interesting experience for me. I was correct in my prediction that there would be similarities to Jaden-era LOONA. I really loved the complex synth driven production combined with soft aesthetic vocals, just like the title of the mini-album. I still know very little about tripleS, but now I know a little more. I would have to say my overall favorite song on this album is the title track, Cherry Talk. I believe it best demonstrates the strengths of this group. I give this album an overall score of 6.5. Unique, immersive, and dynamic. I’m excited to see what’s next for tripleS! Thank you for reading! Let me know what you think about tripleS and this album!

- Maya

#+(kr)ystal eyes #kpop gg #album review #krystal eyes #triples #music review #modhaus

[windermeare]

Nathan Kim Answers The Web's Most Searched Questions | WIRED

The text in bold indicates the question. [the text in brackets indicates gesture.]

"Hello everyone, I'm Nathan and today I'm going to answer the web's most searched questions about… me, absolutely. Let's go!"

what is nathan kim do

"Like, right now?" [looks at the crews behind the cameras, grinning] "Doing Wired autocomplete interview."

what languages does nathan kim speak

"I speak English and Korean, these are my natives. I recently tried to learn French and Italian but yeah… I gave up." [laughs]

what is nathan kim job

[snorts] "Oh my gosh, who would Google that?! My job, my job… well, I recently tried acting—that is the latest one in my portofolio and you may have noticed that."

who is nathan kim best friend

"Look, I don't want getting any texts or calls tonight from the people in my contact just because I didn't mention their names in this interview. So, next question please!"

who is nathan kim's brother

"Wow, people are really so curious about this. I have many brothers—four, to be exact," [halts, stays still for a moment before continues] "sorry, I was counting my siblings." [laughs] "Yeah… four brothers and nine sisters. But if you're asking me about my brother, maybe you mean Gavin? I post a lot of pictures with him. The others are Sean and Ollie, the older one is Davi."

who is nathan kim crush

"My girlfriend."

who is nathan kim married to

"Who would Google that!?"

can nathan kim cook

"Yes, I can. As I have said in previous I come from a very, veeery big family. I am the third oldest and in the younger days, I had to help taking care of my sibs. Saoirse, Davien, and I would divide our tasks. I'm terrible at cleaning, I won't even do the dishes," [chuckles] "but I have always been proud of my cooking skill."

can nathan kim drive

"Again, the third oldest." [points at himself] "Of course I can drive."

can nathan kim play piano

"Yes! It's my favorite instrument to play. My mother taught me a lot."

why can nathan kim speak english

"I went to an American international school in Korea and my family travels a lot so I have been familiar with English since I was at a very young age. Maybe it also has something to do with my foreigner ancestors."

why is nathan kim called nathan kyle

"It's my name. Nathaniel Kyle-Kim, Wettstein. I changed my Instagram username to nathankyle once but after two weeks, I wasn't feeling it." [snickers] "I went back to nathankim until now. Whether you call me with Kim, Kyle, or Wettstein, it's all the same."

how tall is nathan kim feet

"Like, how tall is my feet or how tall I am in feet?"

how did nathan kim learn english

"I explained it before. Go and rewind this video, people!"

how did nathan kim lose weight

"Diet, definitely diet. I have noticed that I gain weight easily. Before and during filming for Dear.M, I went through a strict diet. Exercise is also important in a weight losing journey. It doesn't have to be pushed, y'know? At least 30 minutes a day would be enough, just be consistent at it."

does nathan kim act

"Yes and please wait for Shadow and Bone season 2, everyone."

does nathan kim go to college

"I did. You're looking at Leeds alumnus over here."

does nathan kim have tattoos

"I do have one, here on my finger." [shows his tattoo to the camera] "I match it with my girlfriend."

does nathan kim have a dog

"I don't, but I do have cats—two cats and I love them so much, they are like my own children. I don't think I'll ever get any dogs, my siblings already have them. Our house is basically a mini zoo."

does nathan kim reply to fans on instagram

"I don't know. Why don't you find out by leaving a comment on my post?" [grins and chuckles] "But speaking honestly, I find it easier to interact with fans on Twitter."

is nathan kim in a relationship

"I am," [a smile reaches his eyes] "A very happy and a very healthy one."

is nathan kim a solo artist

"What is the parameter for that? Do you think I am, or I am not?"

is nathan kim a kpop idol

"God, I'm not. I had a thought of that when I was younger but then again, I didn't think I would be able to follow through with my trainee days. I'll leave that one to my brothers. Stay strong, Ollie!"

is nathan kim left handed

"Again, who would Google that!? No I am not left handed."

is nathan kim allergic to spicy food

"Yes—maybe? I don't know, I haven't got anything checked but most of the times when I eat spicy food, my face would get swollen and my eyes would be itchy and sweaty."

is nathan kim allergic to cats

"Definitely and absolutely not. MK and Elsa are my children, how could you Google that!?"

nathan kim age

"Twenty-four. February 14."

nathan kim aesthetic

"I have no idea what does that mean." [laughs]

nathan kim motivational quotes

[throws a fist in the air] "My latest famous one: 'Bigmac Double cheeseburger', thanks to Twitter and those vodka shots."

nathan kim favorite color

"I don't think I have any. I like anything."

nathan kim new movie

"Oh, I have multiple projects I am working on. Please be patient and while we're waiting for it, go check out Shadow and Bones later. Thank you!"

— ENDS.

#nk #wired

[hanarchy]

1,3,5,9,10,11,17,23,27 😸💕

hi ale!!! sorry for being so late with this but i loooove to ramble and wanted to take some time with this 💕💕

1. favorite artist(s) outside of kpop?

aahh ok. my favorite band since i was like 14 is arctic monkeys, though i hate saying it these days bc people only know post-2014 arctic monkeys and my favorite band is pre-2012 arctic monkeys… post-2014 AM is like… ok but not great :/

i love kehlani, the killers, florence and the machine, rina sawayama, sufjan stevens, mitski, bruce springsteen, i still listen to 1D sometimes and to niall horans solo albums, the internet and syds solo stuff and i do tend to check out a lot of popular artists and sometimes those stick like i love some megan thee stallion songs and older doja cat stuff

3. who got you into kpop?

answered here 🥰

5. what are your favorite and least favorite concepts?

answered here 💕

9. do you see yourself enjoying kpop for a long time?

i really do actually! i expect for it to die down a bit over time and it of course depends on what my faves put out and how the music, the industry and the ‘genre’ evolves but i really just enjoy it a whoooole lot and i’ve found and continue to find so many groups and niches i enjoy. though i really don’t anticipate anything capturing me as much as skz has ever again, they really have my heart and no matter how much i explore other groups, none of them have even come remotely close…

10. if you got to work with any idol (producing, performing, choreographing, etc) one time, who would you pick?

oooooooooo thats such a good question and IMPOSSIBLE to answer. but i think one of the mamamoo members would be really cool. they just all seem like real pros and very diligent and humble but also confident in their work and abilities and that’s such a good combination for creative work. i’d love to try my hand at directing an mv like moonbyul and seori’s shutdown or maybe help hwasa develop her solo lore and concepts. i’m also pretty close in age to all of them so i think we’d probably gel just about as well as i could with any k-pop idol…

11. zodiac sign?

aries sun, aries moon, aries rising, aries mercury… it’s really so tragic. i’m like hoshi

17. favorite eye color on someone else?

dark brown or just dark eyes. i just don’t love light eyes, idk why but they kinda freak me out sometimes. a few people (like logan lerman��) get a pass tho…

23. what is your love language?

answered here 💗

27. do you believe in second chances?

yes absolutely. i also believe in third and fourth and fifth chances tbh… i could never be so categorical as to say ‘you only get one chance’ or sth. it heavily depends on circumstances and on how i feel. it depends on if i feel i can ever trust the person again or if i genuinely believe they’ve changed or are willing to. it’s been a good policy for me so far. i have a lot of long term friends that i feel very loved by because of it. i’ve also cut some people off and didn’t give them another chance.

it’s really not that black and white for me, i don’t think i have the willpower for that but also i don’t want to have the willpower. i won’t deny myself people i want to be around bc of rules like this. i also won’t be around people i don’t want to be around bc i feel i have to give second chances, if that makes sense? i just go with how i feel in the moment. and that’s usually to give them another chance and maybe try to understand them better in the process…

k-pop asks 🤷🏻‍♀️

#ale #really honestly thank u so much for sending these #ask me