KoreanClass101.com Blog

Wow, it’s been a long time since I last posted here. April 1st, to be exact! These past 5 months have passed by so quickly, it doesn’t even feel like it’s been 5 months. I’ve been really busy with Uni this year, even though it’s only part time. It’s quite odd, but part time study seems to take up almost as much time as full time study does!

I’ve been doing Linguistics this year, and since the weekend I’ve been putting together my final essay. At the beginning of October I’ll have my final exam … but it doesn’t stop there! I’m trying to get together some random studies so that I have a better chance of getting into the university that I want to go to in September 2009 (The School of Oriental and African Studies!). So, at the end of this month, I’m starting another part time course, this time in Romanticism.

I feel like I’m just a study machine these days ;_; I didn’t even get a summer break on this course!

With study taking up so much of my energy and focus, I’ve barely had time for anything else in my life. TV shows, games, friends … it’s been so hard to find time for these things.

But it made me realise something that I like so much about music: it’s almost impossible to not have time for music. There are some things that you just can’t do at the same time as other things. Like studying and gaming, you can’t do both of those at the same time. Or hanging out with friends and studying, that one can be a little hard to manage as well if your friends aren’t studying too.

But you can listen to music while you do everything else. Reading, studying, writing up notes, doing essays, talking to friends, eating, travelling … so while everything else, even friends, has been pushed to the side so that I can focus on my studies, music has been the one thing that I haven’t had to do that with.

It’s probably also the one thing that’s kept me sane since my studies started XD

So for my return to the blog, I’ve decided I’ll pimp out some of the music that I’ve been really, really enjoying over the past few months. Maybe you’ll find something you like in this, too!

First and foremost, my favourite boyband 신화 released their 9th album. This was a bittersweet moment for a lot of us 신화 fans, as it marks the last time we’ll hear them together until they’ve all finished their military service. Since they’re all going at different times, it could be 4 or 5 years until they’re together again as 신화. Run was their main song from that album, though I was really disappointed that due to solo schedules, they never did have a comeback stage or do a proper promotional run for the album. But despite the lack of performances, this album sold really, really well.

My favourite hiphop group Epik High also released an album, their fifth one. Pieces, Part One was not as awesome as my two favourite albums of theirs, Swan Songs and Remapping the Human Soul, but it was still pretty damn awesome. One is such a catchy song, even my friends who didn’t like Epik High loved this song. Catchy as One was, though, it was Breakdown that I loved even more. This song finally converted one of my friends who insisted Epik High weren’t made of awesome. 우산 was also quite nice, though I like the MV’s concept more than I like the song itself.

The man I fangirl more about than anything else in my life, 김동완, a member of 신화, finally released his second solo album the secret between us; part II. Sadly my two favourite songs didn’t get MVs, but 남자의 사랑 was also really good.

신혜성, also from 신화, also relased another solo album recently. Side 1 - Live and Let Live saw him stepping away from his signature ballads and experimenting with a few different styles instead. He recieved some criticism for the change, but I personally really enjoyed it. It was refreshing and different, and showed that he can do more than just sing ballads. I’ll link you to a live this time, because my favourite song, Awaken, doesn’t have an MV for it D: so, you can watch 신혜성’s comeback performance of 그대라서 and Awaken, backed by rock group N.E.X.T.

Big Bang released another mini album, Stand Up. I’ve been paying increasingly more attention to these guys since last year. I really, really, REALLY loved 하루 하루. Oh My Friend was a really fun song XD it features No Brain, a pretty big name in the punk scene.

FTIsland also released their second album, Colorful Sensibility. I’ve been following these guys since just before their debut, and I think they have a lot of talent and potential! 사랑후애 was really good. I am hoping that in the near future, one of these boys is going to start dabbling in composing, because then I’ll have no complaints at all :3

Simon Dominic released his first album, which made me a very happy person, and then a very sad person because I haven’t been able to buy it anywhere D:

Then there was a bunch of other stuff like 배치기 and MC 몽 and 윤하, and the discovery of older groups and older releases like Rocket Diary (which I also can’t find anywhere to buy, so I wanted to steal my friend’s CD XD;; ), and I can’t even think what else, there’s been so much good stuff this year and I’ve really appreciated it, because it’s been one of the few things I’ve been able to hang onto even while studying so much.

And this isn’t related to Korean music at all, but in May I got to spend a weekend in Paris with a French friend of mine, and I finally got to see L’Arc~en~Ciel, a Japanese rock band that I’ve loved for several years now! I honestly never thought I’d get to see them, and I knew better than to hold my breath hoping that they would come to Europe, but finally they did! Ahhh! I was so happy XD

I’m really glad that I enjoy music as much as I do, cos I kinda wonder sometimes … what would I do if I didn’t like music so much? I mean, I have lots of other interests too, but I haven’t had any time for them, no matter how much I like them - so imagine how boring my life might have been these past months if I didn’t take such insane amounts of happiness from music, the one interest that demands so little time to itself!