I Just Saw Haley's Comet!

:0
NO REALLY.
And it inspired me to do something here. It seems every plan I make to reinvigorate this joint fails. Therefore, I shall make no more plans. It'll just happen. I'm not very good at following through with goals. Looks like Personal Progress didn't work for me after all...

Well right now I'm just kinda bored so I'm listening to K-pop. THERE. That's what this post will be about! K-pop. Whatever does the K stand for, you wonder? That's right: Kazakhstan.
...
Naaah. KOREA! xD Korean pop! Well, it's more than just pop music but I just say K-pop to refer to Korean music in general. Now don't jump to conclusions now. I bet when you hear Korean music, you think the typical twangy Asian sound and all that ethnic stuffs. Wrong, my friend. K-pop is far more advanced than that. It really is quality stuff, which is why I've been addicted to it for the past two months or so. It really has been just about all I've listened to. Let's start from the veeeery beginning of how I got into the Asian music scene in the first place.

Y'see, back in the 90s there was this show called Sailor Moon. I fell in love (I was a kid, 'kay?) and I gained an appreciation for anime (which really is quality animation as well; I should elaborate more on anime later). Anime originates from Japan. A common trait in anime is having opening and ending themes, mostly J-pop. After a time, I gained an appreciation for J-pop because the tunes were just catchy to me, although sometimes they can be cheesy and dinky but it's still kinda fun, tee hee! For a while the only Asian music I listened to was J-pop. I knew K-pop existed but I never bothered to check it out because I thought it would be inferior (don't know where I got that idea!). The years went by and in Spring 2009, Courtney happened upon a Korean girl group known as the Wonder Girls on a video game website ('cause they had a PS3 in their music video, haha). They were cute and their songs were catchy so we decided we liked them. We decided to check out a few more groups we had simply heard of, like Boa, DBSK, and Super Junior (my dear friend Emily Nguyen had told me a bit about them in a class we had together Fall '08). We watched their music videos and thought, "Hey, they're not half bad at all. Actually, we're really like this. Really." I also later discovered SNSD (Girls' Generation) through someone else.

Well in July 2009, Emily Nguyen popped up to me in Facebook chat just 'cause I think she wanted to say hi although we didn't talk all that much at school. I'm not exactly sure how it started...hm...well anyway, I think I maybe mentioned Wonder Girls to her and the ball got rolling! She started linking me to other K-pop artists and divulging all her knowledge about K-pop. Yes, Emily was my mentor for a while but now Courtney and I are catching up to her! Now we conduct research on our own and continue to build our own K-pop library.

Korea's music has evolved very well, I must say. Now it's kinda hard for me to go back to J-pop, although I can still enjoy it because it's what I started with. I guess you could say K-pop has more of an international sound whereas J-pop still maintains that bubblegum-y Asian pop feel. I'll have to illustrate that later too. K-pop was influenced by American pop, sure, but I think now it's starting to gain it's own identity. I find it much more exciting than most of the American pop coming out these days. I've also found that Korean is a very good music language. It has long and short words for variety and flows together nicely. I'm sure you'll come to notice that too. c: Oh, and another thing you'll notice is that it's very popular to have rap segments in a song, no matter the genre of the song, really. 8D

You gotta believe me. K-pop is great. Don't be a doubter! Shun the nonbeliever! Shuuuuuuuunnnnnnnn~

So, to get you started, I'll include a few videos. PLEASE give it a chance! You won't regret it! Enjoy!

This here is 2NE1 (pronounced 21). They just debuted this year and are already at the top. What made them popular and stand out was their unique, funky style and hiphop-ish feel to their music. They are definitely a favorite. ♥


Another song by 2NE1 with a more R&B feel to it. This song was their second big hit.


Here is Big Bang. Yes, they are indeed a boyband, but don't scoff just yet. Boybands didn't quite die out in Asia like they did here. Big Bang especially made an impact when they debuted in 2006/2007 because they broke away from the typical boyband stereotype and adopted a more hiphop-ish style. Big Bang belongs to the same company as 2NE1. Actually, before 2NE1 debuted they were rumored to be the "female Big Bang," which created quite a buzz. Big Bang is one of the most popular groups in Korea right now although they are currently on hiatus as the 5 members pursue solo activities. Anywho, this song is one of my favorites of theirs and I especially dig their shoes!


BoA is next up. She's probably the biggest pop star in Asia, having conquered both Korean and Japanese music markets and selling around 20 million records. I really love her. She's got a great voice and she's one amazing dancer! She made her American debut this year and the album is great. Stupid YouTube wouldn't let me embed this video, so here's a link to one of her title songs, "Eat You Up."

Alright, I'll finish off the post with the Wonder Girls and their most recent hit "Nobody." The Wonder Girls are actually debuting in the States right now and have are finishing up their English album. They also have an English version of "Nobody" but I kinda like the Korean better and the MV doesn't have the stupid English dub with the guy that sounds like Cheech Marin, LOL. I'll go more in depth about the Wonder Girls later because I have a special story about them. Anyway, they're going for a retro/motown feel. They're just too cute. Enjoy this catchy tune!


So that's it for now. I think maybe later I'll just post playlists with some of my K-pop faves but I just felt like sharing these music videos with you. These are only scraping the surface, too! Ahhh, so many great things for you to discover! 'Til next time, then!