It’s time for Kpopalypse roundup! Let’s take a look at some new releases!
A slamming beat but the song itself, while pretty good, is only about average for IVE. (Not counting the “bee” interlude as stuff like that is only inserted into music videos to stop people pirating the music straight from the video’s audio track and doesn’t reflect on the song itself.) Mind you at least it breaks the mold for them, it doesn’t fall into any of the usual categories of IVE song that we’ve come to expect.
It might be accurate to think of NMIXX as trying to be the k-pop version of Queen or something, with their oddball segues and sonic choices that are never quite consistent but still have the unifying thread of featuring at least one person who can actually sing (which is one more than most k-pop groups have). This song isn’t quite doing it for me as much as their better songs do, and has some very strange chorus ambience that probably would have been better left out, but I appreciate the ambition.
Ex-SM Entertainment CEO Lee Soo Man’s new boy group have a debut song and it’s actually really good. Over four minutes long, mainly Korean lyrics, tons of melody, no rap breaks or drops… this is what people have been asking for. Okay so he’s debuting tadpoles again, but people have tried “mature age group” debuts before and they’ve always flopped, so he’s obviously not going to risk that. He’s been in the game long enough to know what sells. Bitch about it all you want, but your money and attention says that you want this.
Putting aside all the various “concerns” for a moment, his new girl group’s song is… also great. Shades of SHINee’s “Lucifer” with the electronically harmonised chorus, and great backings elsewhere (apart from one shitty drop that’s easy to ignore). Most interestingly, the visual style is cool and a rare example of a k-pop agency using modern tech for good instead of just creating something that looks like the usual weightless, unsatisfying lazy crud.
A20 May have been around for a couple years already but I guess now’s as good a time as any for them to trot out something new and ride the wave given that the other groups are debuting. This is the weakest song out of the three, with a lame pentatonic chorus letting down the otherwise very good backing track.
Full of overloaded sonics but underfed on melody, this seems to be for some computer game or something, I’m not too sure but whatever it is I hope it’s less confusing than this video.
True fucking garbage that will please the three Katseye fans who have been on their soapbox ever since forever about the girls not singing enough, meanwhile everyone else will just be bored. As it happens, not singing enough is better than singing too much.
Agreeably punchy and cool, pity about the second verse breakdown that kills all the momentum but it’s not enough to wreck the song completely.
A pretty standard mid-paced “male rap verses, female sung choruses” song that isn’t worth getting excited about, regardless of who’s involved.
Ailee’s natural place seems to be fronting a band, as she’s a rarity in k-pop, a singer who can actually sing and could reasonably cut it with actual live performance. Her above-average delivery here elevates an otherwise unexciting song. I wish they’d turn the smoke machine off though, I can barely see her.
Yes, Yuju can play the guitar. No, the song isn’t any good. There, that should answer all the questions people asked me about this one.
Not a bad rap track at first but it falls off when the beat changes. Nobody is interesting in your stupid AI-generated neon sign, stick to having Lee Hi in your videos, everyone likes that a lot more.
Hey, remember Victoria from f(x)? It seems nobody else does either, given that this has enough views to still qualify for Kpopalypse Nugu Alert at the time of writing.
Teen Top have no right having such a banger this far into their careers. Didn’t they get the memo? There’s a white room with chairs in it by a window with greenery outside that the lease is expiring on soon.
Any k-pop song with a whistle in it is always a mistake.
I don’t trust k-pop “rock groups” with poor cable discipline.
A slightly faster beat once it gets going but other than that it’s still exactly the same as any other K/DA or League Of Legends song released in the last decade.
In a week where a lot of songs have been decent or at least listenable, it’s good to know that shitty ass music still exists.
Although FNC still refuse to get the memo that we want girl rock bands, this song that nobody asked for is pretty good anyway.
Today’s daily direction is “bottom of the barrel”.
This video looks so drab and dark, like it was directed by that Twice video director that everyone got mad at that one time. If you’re going to debut a group it helps the marketing along a little if your audience can see them.
Not copying NewJeans musically but certainly aiming for a lot of the same visual ideas, and failing miserably. Just turn the brightness back up and make a normal video, and stop with this nonsense.
I miss Asian Junkie blowing his load over Plave existing every three posts on his site. I guess he’s getting old now, it might be time for him to put his hobby site to bed so he can focus on his paid sportball writing gig. Anyway I thought the visuals here were really entertaining, AI slop has really made me appreciate standard CGI avatar groups a bit more than before.
That said, I’d still prefer groups with actual people I can look at.
On the other hand, fuck this shit. Remember that time when M.I.A. did a video shoot where she sung on top of a fucking car balancing on two wheels, while filing her nails? And it was all real, no CGI in sight? We’re never going to get something like that ever again, are we.
And here’s the really shit version.
This is your friendly reminder that TVXQ were once a five member group.
They say the devil has the best tunes, but I guess there are exceptions to everything.
Lots of OST vibes, very little song.
All the Keyveatz solo stuff has been a bit of a letdown, with drab beats and the girls taking themselves way too seriously. This is the worst offender, truly boring.
I would have told the stupid bitch in the intro to go fuck herself personally, but I guess that’s just me. Anyway, this is a slightly above average song and a fun video and I hope he didn’t get back together with her after this just to prove a point.
Loco what are you doing. Just go back to rapping about Hyomin’s measurements.
Jane was from Momoland and she’s now in the early Gfriend stage of her career which is obviously good and that’s why this ex-group solo song made the cut whereas so many others I just deleted out of roundup this week for being boring. Bonus points for the shredding guitar solo, Christians who ride horses usually have guitars after all.
Breaking into Yongma Land at night looks like fun. Do it, Korean caonimas!
Not bad but the chorus is relatively weak. This has been done better before. Dare I say it, a BTS member actually paved the way for once.
My god even some of the rap music doesn’t suck this week. We’re on a roll, folks! Enjoy it while it lasts because it won’t.
Not a bad song, with some excellent keyboard parts that I wish the song stayed with just a little more.
This one’s just a little too mid melodically and washed-out with the guitars to work despite sounding promising initially.
Had potential but Autotune was the wrong choice.
It’s probably the shit colour scheme but these two look like they have some sort of skin disease and I totally wouldn’t go there if I were you.
Boring ass song but the video has some cute livestock. Always looking at the positive that’s me, positive vibes only at kpopalypse.com yessir
This one’s kind of like 90’s trip-hop but the more boring songs from back then that you’d skip to get to the songs on the album you paid for.
Klein’s concept of “phantasy” describes the unconscious psychic life that precedes and structures the infant’s relation to reality. For Klein, the infant’s world is populated by “phantasied” objects (good/bad breast) that shape how external reality is perceived and internalised. This resonates with Lacan’s claim that reality is always already structured by fantasy, but Klein locates the structuring function in innate unconscious phantasy rather than in language and the Symbolic order.
Julia Kristeva extends this line with the concept of the semiotic chora: a pre-symbolic, bodily, maternal dimension of meaning that precedes the symbolic order and continually disrupts it. Kristeva’s chora is not the Lacanian Real per se, but it functions as a pre-symbolic “outside” that the symbolic cannot fully capture, and which surfaces in experiences like the abject. This is a more embodied, affect-laden analogue to the Real’s resistance to symbolisation.
Here’s this week’s non-Korean music pick. Definitely taking punk to the next level. Imagine being the drummer in this group and taking your life in your hands every time you hit the snare a little hard. Anyway, enjoy!
It’s easier to deal with your own shitty life when you’ve got an outlet to vent. In a society where revved-up hypercapitalism breeds misery, celebrities become the punching bag and the target of extreme jealousy. Here’s a video about that. Takes about ten minutes to really get going so skip forward if needed.
Hyoyeon seems to have a good arrangement with SM: suck up to them a lot, do everything they say, always re-sign the contract, and in return get a nine-person dormitory all to herself. Real estate prices are no joke, so this is pretty smart. I wonder if she ever stares at the space in the dorms where Jessica stored her handbags and sighs.
A pretty mid song boosted heavily by a great video that is definitely very watchable. If you like the group you can enjoy your faves staring moodily and if you hate them you can enjoy watching them being tortured. Something for everyone.
That’s all for this week! Kpopalypse roundup returns next week!
