Discovering KPop

I've been listening to JPop for more than seven years already. At first JPop was EXACTLY what I've been looking for, however, recently Japanese music goes into direction I don't enjoy this much.

I guess the only artist that did not disappoint me during last 12 months was Gackt with his project Yellow Fried Chickenz and maybe Koda Kumi who's getting better and better, however, Kuu-chan is pregnant at the moment♥♥♥ so we'll have to wait a bit for her (she seems to be in studio though and she promised to come back shortly after giving birth). The other artist I like, Otsuka Ai is also on maturnity leave for quite a bit right now and doesn't seem like coming back soon. I must say I start to enjoy Namie Amuro's music, I'm looking forward to her 20th anniversary in September this year, she plans an anniversary show, judging by her recent singles, it's definitely going to be awesome♥ There are two more artists I always look forward to, that disappointed me this year. KinKi Kids released an album, K, which has one absolutely amazing song (TIME) while I didn't like ANY other song on it, never ever something like this has happened till now. The last artist I'm disappointed with, as can be easily guessed, is Ayumi Hamasaki. Her newest album, Party Queen, may not be bad but I don't enjoy her style anymore, just as I don't really enjoy her shows. She keeps repeating the same songs all the time, she hardly ever introduces anything special to her shows. She's also the only artist that being naturally, amazingly beautiful makes herself look plastic and wears clothes that unflatter her. I know some people love her recent style but I prefer more natural Ayu from up to 2006 era.

I'm still hoping and still keep tracks on JPop industry, however, I'm glad I discoved the quite fresh KPop.

The wery first KPop video I ever saw was Lee Jung Hyun's Suspicious Man. I don't recommend it as a typical KPop song, it's truly peculiar techno-robotic sound but it's addictive in it's weird way. I've tried other AVA songs but didn't like any. After that I didn't try anything new for quite a long time.

However, after a while I've decided to search for KPop on Youtube again, and so I found Secret's song Madonna. My friends find it revolting and gross, lol, but I got fascinated by the unique dance and band's sexapil. It's been very long time since I saw girl's dance being sexy and energetic but not kinky and rude at the same time. Again I've tried other songs of this band but I only like two more: a beautiful ballad My boy and mid-tempo ballad called LaLaLa (랄랄라). Girls from this band are adorable and have great voices, I wish they had more songs like those mentioned above.

Right after Secret, in Youtube's recommendations I've found a song called Gee. I didn't like the PV at first but I got engrossed by its catchy tune, girls' smiles and their dance routine. I've immediately found the dance version video. I didn't listen to it much at first but whenever I started to listen to something else I got bothered and wanted to watch the dance routine again and again, it's really engrossing. I've shown it to my pupils and they got the tune right away as well. After that I've searched for other videos and got into most of them right away. The band is already known world wide and it's either love or hate for most of people. The band's called Girls' Generation (GG) in English, 소녀시대 / So Nyeo Shi Dae (SoShi or SNSD) in Korean and 少女時代 / Shōjo Jidai in Japanese and consists of nine girls which most people have hard time to distinguish. I already can name seven of them, the last two (Yuri and Seohyun) just kill me. As soon as I think I know who is who in another video I'm confused again ヽ(；▽；)ノ

As it goes for their other songs, I love most of them. I may not like some of the too-cute-to-handle songs and some of them I liked only after watching live or listening to them few times, but most of the songs are love from first hearing and immediate addiction to such extend that I don't think I can name one favourite.

There's one more female band (sub band to be exact, because they are part of another group) called SISTAR19. So far I only love one song of them (Ma Boy) but those two girls (Hyorin and Bora) are so gorgeous, sexy and energetic that I, being a hetero woman, cannot take my eyes off them（≧∀≦）o.｡;*☆

Talking about Hyorin, she made one collaboration song (Magic Drag) with a singer called Jang Geun Suk, who has one of the best male voices in the world, unfortunately, I don't really like his songs. I saw him starring in Korean drama You're beautiful (미남이시네요) and loved his voice there.

I've tried few other artists and so far I enjoyed (but not got crazy about): Hyuna's Bubble Pop and KARA's Wanna.

Below I leave links to youtube videos mentioned above, just click on the picture. Any recommendations are welcome.