Boybands & girlbands & rockstars & … reggae!?
Wednesday, September 24th, 2008안녕하세요!
Ah~ I feel like my recent wait for the things that were going to be released ended in a bit of an anticlimax.
Boyband 東方神起 made their comeback with their 주문 -MIROTIC- MV, which you can watch here. I like the MV itself, but the song … well, I don’t hate it, but it’s really not what I was expecting from them. It does have a slightly more mature and sexy edge to it but it could have been so much more impressive.
R&B artist M also made a comeback with the release of his album, M RIZING, yesterday and the MV for 남자를 믿지마, featuring Big Tone. You can see the MV here! M RIZING was a bit of a disappointment for me. M composed a lot of the songs for his previous album, which I was really excited about, but sadly for this album he only composed two of them. He said in an interview that this album was made to “appeal to the masses” - it really does sound like that, and I really wish it didn’t! It isn’t a bad album, it just wasn’t the huge amounts of awesome that I’d been hoping so much for these past months! I’m also not really digging the Brave Brothers right now, who have been composing quite a few popular songs - problem is that all these songs they’ve written all kind of sound the same. Each new song they write sounds almost like a remix or a compliation of their older ones! The songs are definitely catchy, and a few of them I really love, but I think if I hear another Brave Brothers‘ song in the next couple of months, I might just pray for temporary deafness.
I’m not a fan of them, but girlgroup Wonder Girls released their latest song Nobody, which you can watch here. Not as catchy as Tell Me or So Hot!, but it was kinda cute. JYP makes an appearance in this too.
Rockstar 서태지 released the MV T’IKT’AK! I really like some of 서태지’s stuff, so I was really excited over his comeback in July with his 8th ATOMOS PART MOAI single. T’IKT’AK is a really cool song, and so is the MV, which you can see here.
A couple of days ago female R&B artist 손담비 released her latest mini album, and the MV for the title song, 미쳤어, which you can watch here. I really love this song, it’s catchy and 손담비 is super sexy. The rest of the mini album was a bit of a disappointment for me though, I wasn’t too into the rest of the songs.
Now I’m just hoping that the next thing I’m holding my breath for, which is hiphop group Epik High’s mini album LOVESCREAM will meet my expectations! It should be out in a couple of days, I’m excited! Epik High are one of my favourite artists.
And for anyone who’s tired of the standard pop/R&B/hiphop, then how about this: about a week ago, KoME posted an interview we had with the dub band I&I DJANGDAN, and since I’d never heard of them before I decided to check them out. Reggae is totally not my thing at all XD;; never has been, probably never will be! But if you do like reggae, or just want to try out something different, you might want to give I&I DJANGDAN a go. You can find some of their videos here, I think these are live performances of the songs from their first EP, Culture Tree.
Posted by Taliana in Korean Music |
September 24th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
I can understand what you think about reggae, so thank you for sharing the link : it’s interesting…
I really like reggae but I’ve had some difficulties with these songs of I&I DJANGDAN
elles ont musicalement les particularités qui font le reggae mais ……………
September 24th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
I’m not sure I understand your last sentence, I don’t exactly speak French XD I think you were saying that they are kind of reggae, but there are things about their music which aren’t quite reggae? If I’ve got you right on that, then yes, I&I DJANGDAN aren’t 100% reggae. They are specifically “reggae and dub”, and they also mix in Korean influences, such as traditional Korean music. As much as I don’t like their music, I find still find it quite interesting. I like it when artists take a style, especially one that is predominantly from another culture, and sort of blend their own culture with it to create something totally different.
September 25th, 2008 at 10:21 am
wow, 서태지 made another comeback? I remember listening to him in elementary school. And at that time he was more hiphoppy/pop, but he got really into hard rock. So it’s really interesting to see his evolution.
Good for him!
September 25th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Yeah I was disappointed with Wondergirls’ new MV. I know I might get pelted with rotten veggies to say it, but yeah, I like them alright. They aren’t my favorite in the world, but they have some catchy tunes, sure. But “Nobody’ is sub-par at best.
However, I’ve really been digging on 윤하’s new album (2집 - Someday).
September 26th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Someday is a really good album! 윤하 is kind of a poppish rockish artist in my opinion =]
I thought 주문 was great song but then again I’m a die-hard 동방신기 팬 ㅎㅎ I’m excited to see that they’re back in Korea although I get the sickening feeling that they may branch out to do independent activities instead of sticking together….
There’s a new boy band group called 디엔티 DNT (Dragon N Tiger) and it’s quite interesting becauause their concept is the combination of ballad and dance together, and their debut song 두사람 그리고 그 is decent enough although the mv could do with a fix up.
October 2nd, 2008 at 12:00 am
Keith:
He’s different gone through a huge evolution of sound since he started out, but I like how throughout it all, there has been this “서태지” element to it, something that still makes it “his” style, no matter how different it gets.
Yeah, 서태지 made a comeback recently
Matthew:
I’m not hugely into the Wonder Girls, but I can’t deny that Tell Me and So Hot! were super catchy XD And yeah, 윤하 is awesome! I really loved Someday as well.
Rooraa:
Someday is great, isn’t it? I adore 윤하, she’s really great.
I’d love to see 東方神起 branching out and doing solo stuff (though JaeJoong is probably the only one I’d follow, to be honest, although I love all of their voices as a group, JaeJoong is the only one who’s voice I feel I could truly enjoy an entire solo album of. I’d love if he did something rock-ish, like his solo song MAZE). But I kind of doubt that they will have the chance to seriously pursue solo activities anytime soon, though no doubt they’ll probably do it in the near future. I think that they are capable of doing it though, while still continuing on as 東方神起, balancing the group and solo stuff. Just like 신화 has done!
I tried DNT when they first came out, can’t stand them. Really not my style!